I’ve lost track of how many recorders I bought at this point… A few dozen? It still cost me less than three thousand dollars altogether, including the external microphones.
Aren’t prices a little too low in Japan? I wonder that every time I step into a one-hundred-yen store…
I don’t intend to buy any more, though. I’d be really creeped out if I met someone who owns over forty spy recorders…
Mitsuha went to the third floor of her general store and hit play on multiple voice recorders at once. There was no need to listen attentively to each one. She could also skip and fast forward through irrelevant conversations. Going through each recording with a fine-tooth comb would’ve taken forever.
Well, this was a success!
The recording devices picked up a lot of damning conversations among the employees: mocking Larusia Trading, discussing how to get their hands on Yamano County goods, and arranging payments to nobles. Criminals sure love to hear themselves talk, it turns out.
But who could blame them for being loose-lipped? This wasn’t modern-day Earth; bugging and recording technology didn’t exist. There wasn’t much you could do to spy on a conversation in this world other than hide under the floor, in the ceiling, or inside a cabinet. The next best option was to bribe someone. Being in the comfort of their own office rooms with colleagues they had absolute trust in sure made them lower their guards. The thick walls and lack of hiding places gave them a sense of security too.
On Earth, bugs and recording devices were far from the only concern. Laser eavesdropping─a surveillance technology in which a laser beam pointed at a window picks up the sound waves produced by speech. The vibrations against the glass are then converted back to audio waves─was one of them.
Secrets were not to be spoken, written, or digitized. That was common sense on modern-day Earth.
In this world, too, there weren’t many people dumb enough to leave paper trails of their illicit schemes. Besides, having the need to prepare one was a clear sign of distrust in your accomplice, and plans with someone like that were doomed to fail.
While stealing the contents of a safe might’ve been useful for unveiling a different kind of criminal activity, the only hard proof for this case was the voice recordings.
Submitting the voice recordings as evidence to the authorities wasn’t an option, however. They’d be dismissed as fabrications or inventions of the devil. It was also inevitable the city guards would “accidentally” lose or break them.
Larusia Trading didn’t have any connections with the city guards or the nobility. No one was seriously investigating the case. As such, there was no way of catching the criminals who attacked the store through legal means. Even if Mitsuha did manage to corner them, the owner of Enoba Company likely never met with the hired guards directly, so he could simply claim that he was being framed. Then the perpetrators would inexplicably escape from prison or kill themselves.
That was why Mitsuha didn’t expect any help from the country’s law enforcement. She could only trust herself, Larusia, and her partners in the Entrepreneur Girl International Network.
Senseless violence shall be met with senseless violence. Those who harm innocent, hard-working people deserve no less.
I’m thoroughly investigating the enemy’s network to find out everyone who was involved. I’ll research every last detail before I act. Then, I’ll teach those scumbags who they made an enemy of. I’ll make them regret it…
I don’t need them to learn any lesson or reflect on their actions. I don’t need them to apologize or promise to do better. There won’t be any second chances. Just regret.
“Say your prayers…” Mitsuha whispered to herself.
There was a famous phrase from Shinran, a Japanese Buddhist monk: “Even a virtuous man can attain Rebirth in the Pure Land, how much more easily a wicked man!”
Those words were often mistaken to mean, “Even bad people are reborn in the Pure Land, so good people have nothing to worry about.” Mitsuha knew the true meaning: “Even good people are reborn in the Pure Land, so it goes without saying that bad people who have no option but to rely on Amitābha’s grace for salvation are as well.”
Whatever gods the people of this country prayed to, they’d better pray hard. Because otherwise, there would be no Pure Land or paradise or any pleasant afterlife for them. Mitsuha was sending them straight to hell.
“I’m done, Mitsuha. Here are the ree-cor-ders and my notes,” announced Sabine. She’d just arrived at the general store on a mountain bike─the prize she snagged from last time.
“Ah, thank you.”
Mitsuha had already collected Colette’s recording devices and notes at the county residence. The three of them were cooped up in separate locations because the work required listening to audio, which took concentration─especially when listening to multiple devices at once. Mitsuha did her share at her general store, Colette in Mitsuha’s office at the county residence, and Sabine in her room at the royal palace.
The girls warned everyone at home that they were tackling a special task from the Lightning Archpriestess, not a personal favor for their friend Mitsuha. Thanks to that, they were able to work undisrupted.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what my reward will be,” said the princess.
“I know, I know. Think of some ideas, okay?”
“With pleasure!” Sabine grinned mischievously.
I have a bad feeling about this…
Mitsuha pushed the ominous thought out of her head. Checking the clips that Sabine and Colette picked out took priority.
Sabine seemed to understand that too; she saw how emotionally invested Mitsuha was and refrained from pestering her to play or watch DVDs and Blu-rays together. She also deduced that Mitsuha was going to get right to work since the general store remained closed for business.
“Well, I’m going back to the palace. Don’t stay up all night,” Sabine said.
…Yep. Colette will always be my closest friend because she was the first person I met in this world and because we saved each other’s lives, but Sabine is the one who understands me best.
Anyway, time to start checking the recordings.
Two days later, Mitsuha had created a relationship chart using the data she and the girls obtained from the spy recorders. Enoba Company was at the center, and from it were lines that branched upward, downward, and to the sides.
Above Enoba were nobles and the chiefs of the city guards. Below them were smaller companies, subcontractors, cargo handlers, gangs, and hoodlums. On the left and right sides were companies of equal size that they had contracts with.
In Mitsuha’s hands were a stash of voice recorders she’d just retrieved from the city guards’ headquarters. She was about to listen to them and put the finishing touches on the chart. She’d already color-coded each party by their “levels” and detailed their exact contribution to the incident.
What “levels,” you ask? The level of the crime and the level of punishment they’ll receive, of course.
Who decides the weight of their crimes? That would be none other than me.
I,the Jury!