“Saying you’d snap someone’s head around if they picked a fight with you — you’ve got quite a fiery side to you, don’t you. Shame Heres never got to pay his tuition.”
Peter’s tone was utterly casual, as if he were talking about buying turnips at yesterday’s market.
Sirin narrowed her eyes at his attitude.
“…Old man. Someone died. Why are you acting like it’s nothing? Are you actually a priest?”
“That Heres was trash. Even if it hadn’t been you, he’d have gotten beaten to death by someone else before long, or gotten himself killed by his own stupidity. And my faith is more devout than it looks.”
Peter answered with a sly smile.
Sirin was dumbfounded.
“What kind of faith is it that says someone dying was a job well done?”
“Ha, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying he died well — I’m saying he’d been accumulating the karma for it. Anyway, that’s not what matters right now.”
Peter’s expression grew slightly more serious.
“What matters is you. And what’s going to happen next.”
He glanced out the window as he continued.
“I’ve heard the rough outline of things.”
Peter’s gaze returned to Sirin.
“There was only one body — Heres. And I heard the mercenaries who were with him all ran away. Bolted like their tails were on fire, apparently. They won’t let this go. They’ll be screaming for your head.”
“What a load of crap. He’s the one who pulled a knife first.”
“Of course he attacked first. But…”
Peter paused briefly, then tossed the words out with deliberate nonchalance.
“Isn’t some of this your own fault?”
“My fault?!”
“Calm down.”
Sirin’s blood boiled, but Peter showed no sign of flustering.
If anything, his voice turned gentle, almost soothing, as he pressed on.
“I saw Heres’s body. Not a mark on him, but his neck was twisted completely around. Clean. A single strike, instant death. You could say it was a beggar hiding her strength.”
A beggar hiding her strength.
The old man had a trendy side to him.
“It seems to me that you could have eliminated every witness right then and there. You look more than capable of it. So why didn’t you?”
“Old man. Are you actually a priest? Because it sounds like you’re encouraging murder right now…. Do you think I’m some kind of killing machine?”
Peter didn’t answer.
He simply watched Sirin in silence, as if he fully intended to hear a response.
Sirin took a moment to collect herself.
Peter’s question had caught her off guard, but it was something she’d vaguely turned over in her own mind the night before.
Why had she let them live?
“Hmm… I’m not really sure.”
Sirin muttered, scratching her head.
“Yeah, those guys were trash for running around with Heres. Kicking over the old street vendor’s stall, scaring kids in front of the bakery… sure, all of that. But… still, I mean… they didn’t actually come at me with a blade. They didn’t do anything to me personally that was worth dying for.”
“So you didn’t kill them because they hadn’t wronged you personally?”
Peter asked.
“Well, that’s part of it…”
Sirin thought back to the mercenaries’ faces.
Stupid, cowardly, pathetic, terror-stricken, pasty faces.
“….I’m not a killing machine. You didn’t see their faces, old man. They’re morons without a lick of sense, but… that’s exactly why they might still be able to change their minds someday, right?”
Sirin added, looking slightly embarrassed.
It felt like something she wouldn’t normally say.
“…”
Peter watched Sirin for a long moment without a word.
His expression was hard to read.
He looked surprised, or perhaps like he’d found something interesting.
At last, a slow smile spread across Peter’s lips.
“I see. They might still change their minds.”
Peter murmured in a low voice.
There was a strange, lingering weight to the words.
“…Old man. That sounds ominously like you’re setting something up, and I don’t like it.”
Sirin felt a bad premonition in Peter’s expression and tone.
“Listening to you, it sounds like those guys are definitely going to come after me for revenge. I can’t have that. Let me go out right now and wring all their—”
“Ha, didn’t you just say with your own mouth that you’re not a killing machine? And now you’re taking it back already?”
Peter cut her off with a cheerful laugh.
Just then, Sirin noticed the noise outside growing louder.
Peter said, as if it were the most unremarkable thing in the world.
“Looks like they’ve arrived.”
#
His expectations proved correct.
The heavy thud of boots on stone set the security officers murmuring.
A moment later, the office door was thrown open.
The man who stepped through was imposing in his armor, radiating sheer physical menace.
Deep lines carved into his face spoke of a life weathered by countless hardships.
Fury smoldered in the depths of his eyes.
Bjorn, captain of the mercenary company.
Bjorn strode up to Roderick’s desk in a few long steps.
“Captain Roderick. My vice-captain was murdered in your jurisdiction.”
Roderick rose from his seat to face Bjorn.
They were roughly the same height, but the force radiating off Bjorn was overwhelming.
“Captain Bjorn. My condolences. However, an investigation is currently underway. We must conclude it first, then proceed according to Imperial law. And there is also the possibility of self-defense—”
“Imperial law? Self-defense?”
Bjorn sneered.
“The bounty payments have been overdue for ages, and now you want to talk about Imperial law? The Empire ignored us when we were risking our lives hunting monsters, and the moment one of my men turns up dead, suddenly you’re waving the law around.”
Bjorn slammed his fist on the desk.
“Whatever wrong my man may have done, the fact that he was murdered is beyond dispute! And by all accounts, it was done in a particularly brutal fashion! Are you trying to shield a murderer right now? Does the security force think so little of us?!”
Roderick forced himself to stay calm.
Provoking this furious bear of a man would not be wise.
“Captain Bjorn. I’ve heard you served in the Imperial Army yourself once. You know that procedure is necessary.”
“…Do not mention that name to me, Captain.”
Bjorn’s face twisted into something ugly.
“I abandoned that banner long ago. Under that banner I learned not glory, but shame. Don’t you dare lump me in with those hypocrites.”
Roderick was momentarily struck speechless by the vehemence of the reaction.
It was common knowledge that Bjorn had served in the Imperial Army, but he hadn’t expected this degree of open contempt.
Bjorn made no effort to hide his fury as he snarled.
“Enough of your nonsense. Hand over that beggar woman right now. We’ll handle it our way.”
Roderick swallowed the retort rising to his throat.
Invoking principles was impossible against Bjorn’s rage, but he couldn’t simply hand over a witness either.
“God, you’re loud.”
An unexpected voice answered Bjorn’s demand.
“Does raising your voice in someone else’s office actually solve anything? Come talk to me for a minute.”
Sirin had somehow slipped out of the holding cell and was standing there with her arms crossed at a defiant angle, watching them.
The security officer who’d been guarding her hovered beside her, completely at a loss.
Bjorn stared at Sirin, then spoke first.
“So it was you. How dare you—”
“Shh.”
Sirin raised one finger to her lips and cut him off.
Bjorn was annoyed, but the words that followed froze him in place.
“Captain Bjorn. I’m sorry about Heres. But honestly — doesn’t part of you feel relieved?”
“….What did you say?”
Bjorn went rigid, as if he’d been caught off guard.
Sirin pressed the opening.
“I did think it was strange. That Heres could beat up Merye and just walk around like nothing happened. There must be plenty of men in the company who owe Merye a debt.”
“….”
Bjorn hesitated, but raised his voice again.
“What are you babbling about? What does it matter that he hit some whore?”
Sirin gave a thin smile.
‘These hopeless savages.
Talking like that is exactly why your heads get twisted around.’
Sirin sized up whether she could actually twist this bear’s neck.
But Bjorn’s neck was packed with what might have been muscle or might have been fat, and it didn’t look like it would snap as cleanly as Heres’s had.
‘This one’s definitely been on steroids.
Or maybe he’s part bear hybrid.’
Sirin nodded to herself.
‘It’s a savage fantasy world, so bear-human crossbreeding isn’t that weird, I guess.’
— …
She’d turned the idea over hoping she might squeeze out a Mind Enlightenment, but no system notification chimed.
‘Neck’s uselessly thick, and no Mind Enlightenment either.
Completely worthless specimen.’
Sirin was mildly irritated, but decided to hold herself back for now.
What would be the difference between her and Heres if she just threw a punch the moment she got annoyed? This chapter is updated first at g.com.
A civilized person ought to have patience.
Sirin took a slow breath and spoke calmly.
“…Right. If this were a city where hitting women was a perfectly normal, civilized occurrence, there’d be no problem. But this is a backwater town with barely any women to begin with.”
“What does it being a backwater have to do with anything?”
“Because of that one man, Heres, the entire company might have lost access to Merye’s services. So how was he able to run around causing that much trouble without any consequences?”
Sirin hadn’t simply been sitting quietly in the holding cell.
She’d been using the Mind Enlightenment system to test various things.
She continued.
“You all looked like one mercenary company on the surface, but there was a clear difference in how you acted. Some of you would have a drink, have your fun, and leave it at that. Others were the kind of filth who’d wreck the place like Heres. You always stuck to your own groups — there were factions inside the company, weren’t there.”
Sirin nodded as if organizing her own thoughts.
“When Heres and his crew were chasing me, it wasn’t every mercenary in town who followed. Some of them slipped away toward your camp. Why would they do that?”
“….”
“Well, it wasn’t because they were scared of one beggar woman and went to call for backup. So there was another reason — and it’s obvious, isn’t it. They were going to prepare for the cleanup after Heres.”
Bjorn was boring a hole through Sirin with his stare, but she paid it no mind.
“So you deliberately let Heres loose in town. To cause trouble, stir up problems. Either get arrested by the security force, or… I don’t know. Maybe you were hoping he’d eat something rotten and get a stomachache. Running into me was just bad luck.”
“….”
“I understand. A captain of your standing needs to manage the organization efficiently. With a problem subordinate like that, it’s easier to just get rid of him than try to rehabilitate him. Isn’t that right, Captain Bjorn?”
Sirin drove the point home like a nail.
“Especially with the bounty distribution coming up.”
— Ding!
[ Your understanding of others has increased! ]
[ Deepen your understanding to gain Mind Enlightenment! ]
Sirin glanced at the system window and gave a satisfied nod, just as Bjorn opened his mouth.
“…For a beggar woman, you’ve got sharp eyes.”
Sirin shrugged.
The fact that a beggar existed in a quantum-observer state and could be used as an intelligence source was already widely understood back in the Central Plains.
But these people didn’t even know that basic common sense.
Well, the civilization here hadn’t quite reached the level of the Middle Kingdom yet, so Sirin supposed she’d have to be understanding about it.
Come to think of it, even back in Sirin’s home world, it hadn’t been that long — a few hundred years — since Fantasy Land’s technology had surpassed the Middle Kingdom, so this could actually be considered historically accurate.
“Even if what you say is true, nothing changes.”
Bjorn’s expression shifted.
The face of an enraged warrior was gone, replaced by the cold face of a businessman.
That change caught Sirin’s interest.
‘Well, look at that.
Just because they’re a bunch of idiots doesn’t mean the man in charge has to be one too.’
He turned his head toward Roderick.
“Don’t you see, Captain?”
Bjorn’s eyes were no longer those of a raging beast.
They were closer to those of a merchant calculating losses, or a manager dealing with an inconvenient situation.
“Heres should have been punished by the security force, or he should have died by my hand.”
Bjorn said, his tone weary.
“Heres was a member of the Blade of the Herald Mercenary Company. A company member cannot be allowed to die at the hands of some rootless beggar woman. Even if these men are trash, that’s exactly why I have to give them their honor. Honor and pride are the leash that barely keeps this trash in line.”
— Thwack!
Bjorn tapped the desk lightly.
It was nothing like the threatening blow from before.
It was more like a teacher trying to get through to an inattentive student.
“Don’t forget the practical realities, Captain Roderick.”
The practical realities.
The reason the mercenary company couldn’t leave.
“The Empire still hasn’t paid the bounties. If we release that woman without any punishment in this situation, I can’t guarantee how long I can keep these angry men in check. Heres is dead, but his crew is still very much alive.”
“That’s—”
“I don’t know why you keep leaving out the person directly involved. I have opinions too, you know?”
Just as Roderick was about to respond, Sirin stepped in.
Bjorn shot her a sharp look, but Sirin only yawned with theatrical boredom.
“Haaah. I’m not interested in any talk about self-defense or Imperial law or whatever. Captain Bjorn. I’ll take care of the whole problem with Heres’s lackeys.”
“….How?”
Sirin smiled.
Through the mask, Bjorn caught a glimpse of Sirin’s clear eyes, and for a moment felt his heart lurch.
“Let’s have a trial by combat. Send every man who wants revenge straight to me. That suits your tastes, doesn’t it.”
Sirin’s smiling eyes were impossible to refuse.
“It suits mine too.”