Chapter 413 - Episode 396: An Example
"Now then... I suppose it's time for you to die."
Orso's eyes widened upon hearing Pence's words.
"Huh!? Wh-Why... you said you weren't going to kill me!"
"I said, 'I'm not going to kill you during this interrogation.' I never said I'd let you escape alive in the end... besides, we went out of our way to reveal our names and statuses to you, so why on earth did you think we'd let you go alive?"
Facing Pence, who spoke with a voice full of mocking exasperation, Orso's expression collapsed into despair.
"N-No... I won't tell anyone about you. I'll never involve myself with the Archduchy of Arqvist again. Th-That's right, you can take as many valuables from my house as you like and bring them to His Excellency the Archduke of Arqvist as an apology. So—"
"Orso Helder, it seems you've misunderstood something."
Pence spoke, cutting Orso off.
"We are here to realize His Excellency Arqvist's intentions. We do not have the authority to decide how to handle your life. It has already been decided that you will die. His Excellency Arqvist decided it so."
"Wh-Why... True, I had my people commit a few minor crimes in the capital city under His Excellency's jurisdiction, but even so, there's no need to kill me!"
"If you had merely disturbed the public order, you might not have had your life taken. However, because of the sabotage activities you ordered your subordinates to carry out, one citizen of the Archduchy of Arqvist died. Therefore, His Excellency decided to kill you, the mastermind behind the series of incidents."
"What!? Th-The one who died was just a beastman, wasn't he!? To say the price for one beastman's life is my own life... it's far too unbalanced! This is too much! It's unreasonable!"
There was no way the value of a beastman was equal to that of a common human, let alone his own life as a wealthy merchant renowned throughout this entire region. For once, Orso screamed, filled with rage.
"How could such an unreasonable story even—Guh!"
Pence struck Orso across the cheek, silencing him by force.
"Do you still not understand? I am speaking now as a subordinate of His Excellency Arqvist, under His Excellency Arqvist's values. It doesn't matter if they are a common human, a beastman, or a demi-human. All citizens of the Archduchy are His Excellency's property. His Excellency treasures the citizens under his protection very dearly. Between one of those precious citizens and someone like you, who threatened the peace of his capital and caused a citizen's death, it doesn't even require thought to determine whose life is heavier in His Excellency's eyes."
As Pence spoke, he grabbed Orso's thinning hair to force his face up and glared at him.
"His Excellency Arqvist is furious. His Excellency will not forgive you. In order to atone for your crimes, and as an example so that no one else attempts the same thing, you will die here and now. To ensure you become a tale told by the public, we will make your corpse as gruesome as possible. It won't change whether you cry or struggle. Give it up."
"...Ugh, uuuuugh..."
Understanding his fate, Orso let out a sobbing groan.
After crying like that for a while, Orso opened his mouth and spoke in a trembling voice.
"M-My family... please let my wife and daughter go. I-I don't care what happens to me, but just my wife and daughter..."
Hearing Orso's words, which seemed to be spat out by squeezing every last drop of his meager courage, Pence paused for a moment and nodded.
"His Excellency ordered us to kill only those involved in the series of incidents in the capital city of Noeina. As long as you are the sole mastermind, you are the only one we will kill. We haven't revealed our identities to your wife and daughter, nor will we lay a hand on them... though, I cannot take responsibility for what becomes of your wife and daughter after they lose the head of the household."
In a situation where they were burdened with massive debts, the fate of the wife and daughter who lost Orso, the head of the house, was almost certainly a fall into slavery. However, options remained, such as trying to break the situation through their own strength or fleeing in the night before being sold as slaves.
The probability of those attempts succeeding was infinitely close to zero, but they still existed as options, and even if they failed, they wouldn't die.
Knowing this, Orso felt relief.
"...In consideration of your attitude in worrying for your family rather than yourself, I'll use a method of killing that lets you die quickly. I won't make you suffer through a gruesome death; I'll make your corpse gruesome after you're dead. Now then, prepare yourself."
The sight of Pence bringing the tip of his sword straight toward Orso's heart, below his line of sight, was the last thing Orso saw in his life.
.....
Early morning. A servant from the estate of Orso Helder, the former appointed merchant of the Baron Solonheit family, rushed into the baronial army's garrison.
Upon hearing the servant's story that the master had been brutally murdered, the Baron Solonheit's territorial army deployed immediately. Baron Solonheit, having received the report from the army soldiers, visited the scene of the incident—Orso's estate—himself.
"Ugh... Th-This is... how awful."
Then, facing Orso's corpse in the estate's basement and inhaling the scent of blood filling the room, his face turned pale.
The chief retainer of the Solonheit family and the guards accompanying the Baron also wore pale expressions, and the younger soldiers, appearing panicked, ran to the corners of the room and vomited on the floor.
"...Any other victims? Any clues regarding the culprit?"
"Yes. The only one dead is Mr. Orso Helder; there are no victims among the other people in the estate, including his family. There are almost no injured, save for one mercenary who was awake as a night watchman, who sustained a light injury when a paralytic drug was shot into him via a Crossbow."
A soldier who had arrived at the scene first reported the situation to Baron Solonheit while saluting. That soldier's complexion was also not great.
"According to that mercenary, a merchant named Viets Alyoshan, who had been staying at Mr. Helder's estate as a guest last night, had invited someone in from outside the estate. It is believed there were slightly fewer than ten perpetrators, including Viets and his guards. They have already fled, and there is nothing to identify them... According to the mercenary, Viets was a handsome man with dark skin. Those are the only clues for now."
"...I see. Good work."
Saying so, Baron Solonheit looked at Orso's corpse. He approached, taking care not to step on the viscera scattered on the floor, and looked down at the face that could barely be identified as Orso's.
"He was a despicable and vulgar man, but I never imagined he would die in such a manner."
Toward Orso Helder, who had been nothing but a source of trouble for him and had continued to decline in recent years due to his own faults, the Baron now felt a genuine sense of sympathy. He hoped, at the very least, that Orso had been made into this state after he had died. If this had happened while he was alive, the culprit was a demon.
"Your Excellency. If you give the order, I will immediately begin checkpoints at the territorial borders of the highway, solicit eyewitness information on the fleeing culprits from the people, and create a sketch of the man named Viets Alyoshan based on survivor testimony to put up a bounty."
"...Yes. Let's discuss that matter outside for a moment."
To the chief retainer's suggestion from his side, the Baron answered thus and stepped out into the hallway with him.
Then, after confirming there were no others around, he began to speak in a low voice.
"Regarding this matter, checkpoints and the distribution of sketches are unnecessary. We will conduct an investigation within this territorial capital, but a perfunctory, formal one will suffice. As long as we make the citizens believe a proper investigation was carried out, that is enough. Limit those in charge of the investigation to only Guard soldiers. The Guard won't leak unnecessary information."
"...Is that an instruction related to the letter that arrived previously from His Majesty the King?"
Baron Solonheit nodded to the chief retainer.
The other day, a private letter had arrived for Baron Solonheit from King Oscar Roadberg III.
What was written there was a cryptic message meaning: "A conspicuous event will occur within your territory within the next few weeks, but it is a diplomatic matter involving the Royal Family, and nothing beyond that event will happen, so there is no need to investigate deeply."
"Yes. His Majesty's words undoubtedly referred to this incident. I didn't think it would be such a bloody 'event'... but His Majesty went that far in saying so. We will conduct only a formal investigation and observe the situation; if no unrest arises among the people, we will let it fade away as an unsolved case."
In the letter from Oscar, it was even written that if necessary, he would send a suitable criminal to serve as a scapegoat for this incident.
If it came to that, he could rely on those words and hold a public execution of a fabricated culprit, and if the incident faded away without even needing to do that, he could just leave it to that. That was how Baron Solonheit thought.
"...Understood. I shall do so."
"I'm counting on you."
Saying so, Baron Solonheit left the subsequent response entirely to the chief retainer.
.....
"Hmm, it's still not all gone, is it?"
Sitting on the back of a horse-drawn carriage traveling north along the highway in the western part of the Kingdom of Roadberg, the one muttering while holding a mirror and fiddling with his hair was Bart.
Next to him sat Pence, and furthermore, a total of five subordinates of Bart and Pence who had participated in this mission to kill Orso Helder were sitting on the carriage bed and the driver's seat.
"It's a dye that should completely fade out in two weeks. Stop saying the same thing over and over and just endure it. How many times a day do you have to look in the mirror to be satisfied?"
"That's exactly why I hate it. If it were right after I dyed it beautifully, that would be one thing, but this middle stage where the color is fading halfway is when it looks the filthiest. On top of that, my hair is a bit damaged because of the dye... I simply cannot accept that my current hair is in such a terrible state."
When Pence replied with an exasperated face, Bart continued to grumble and complain.
Because there was a possibility he would be recognized as Knight Bart Heidemann if he remained with his fair skin and bright blond hair, Bart had used a disguise to make contact with Orso this time.
While the glasses for the disguise could be removed and the skin made to look dark could be fixed by removing the makeup, the dye used to turn his hair brown was not something that could be removed quickly.
Bart continued to voice his dissatisfaction that his proud blond hair was now a different color, and moreover, a strange earthy tone where blond and brown were mixed.
"Good grief... The first thing you care about after the mission is over is your hair color. You're a thorough narcissist, aren't you?"
"For someone in charge of foreign affairs, appearance is also a work tool. How much effort do you think I've put into hair care to ensure I give a good impression to those I meet and don't get looked down upon?"
The subordinates gave wry smiles at the conversation between the two.
"Sigh, I'll have to have Michelle help me take care of it when I get back... I wonder if it'll fade completely by the time we arrive. I'd hate to return to my wife and daughter with hair like this."
With Bart pouring out endless complaints, Pence who had already given up on correcting him, and their five subordinates, the carriage proceeded in the northern direction—toward the Archduchy of Arqvist.
It was a peaceful and pastoral scene of a return journey, one that did not suit the bloodiness of the mission they had accomplished.