The night wore on, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
✶✶✶
It was the middle of night, and all the villagers had gone to sleep. Carlos, the Dark Knights, and I arrived at Clinton’s manor, located in the port city. We came here for one reason, and one reason only: to get rid of all of my anxiety about my future. Fol—Faltiana Roguebert—might go against House Lightless in the future, and it was my duty to crush any factor that might cause her to hate us, no matter how small.
Roguebert was no longer shackled with unreasonably heavy taxes, and I’d defeated the monster as well. The last concern that remained was her childhood friend, Norn, who’d been sold off to slavery. When I rode on my carriage to Roguebert, I had a nightmare of getting killed by Faltiana; every time she attacked me, she screamed her childhood friend’s name. Norn had actually made an appearance in the tale of my dreams, in the third arc, known as the Alchemy Empire chapter.
After she was kidnapped and sold off to the neighboring empire as a slave, she underwent numerous experiments and had undergone a shocking transformation before she reunited with Faltiana. For some reason, this reunion ended with Faltiana unleashing her wrath against House Lightless. Frankly, the blame should’ve gone to the heinous individuals who experimented on Norn; even if we went all the way back, surely Clinton was the one at fault.
Why did she blame my house? And me? It makes no sense, I thought. Since this occurred within the Lightless fief, House Lightless could be considered guilty of poor supervision, but even then, blame should fall to my father rather than myself.
I just couldn’t see why she was so irate with me specifically, but the fact remained that she was in my dream. What an absurd tale. Is everything wrong with the world all my fault, somehow? It honestly felt like she was just picking a fight with me, but still, I wanted to crush every little thing that might earn her fury and hatred. If saving Norn from human trafficking would ultimately save my life too, I’d happily do just that.
✶✶✶
The trip from Roguebert to the port city would normally be half a day, but if I kept my legs powered by mana, it wouldn’t even take an hour. Carlos and Alba were able to keep up without issue, but some of the Dark Knights that followed were a bit out of breath by the time we arrived.
You’re supposed to be the pride and joy of House Lightless. How pathetic, I thought.
Though I hadn’t said anything out loud, Alba must have noticed the way I was looking at the knights, as he promised to give them further training later. Astute as usual. I’d prohibited Alba from speaking without my consent, but he prostrated and promised to never say anything unnecessary again, so I decided to benevolently allow him to speak as he wished.
As we showed up at Clinton’s manor in the middle of the night, a servant was the first to greet us. We shoved them aside and stormed in; the Dark Knights managed to seize control of the manor within moments.
A majority of the soldiers had gone off to fight against the monsters, and most of them died during the battle, so it was easy to take over. Along with the servants, Clinton’s wife and his three children were present—there were also separate rooms for each of his many mistresses, according to the knights’ report.
I had them all restrained and tossed into the manor’s basement, deciding to let my father handle their punishment. Whether they be returned to their house of the Serpente fief or be thrown out on the streets, my father would surely do what was necessary.
I roughly explained to Alba everything that I’d discovered, including Clinton’s misdeeds, his kidnapping of residents, and why I set off to subjugate monsters. Due to the contents of my report, it was quite amusing to see Alba’s eyes dart around nervously. The monster subjugation aside, he likely wished to report about an official’s misdeeds and kidnapping to my father at once, but I wouldn’t let him do anything so troublesome.
We gathered at the conference room of Clinton’s manor, where a mountain of papers was stacked upon the round table, listing all of Clinton’s illicit activities. I grabbed a record of human trafficking and tossed it over to the captain.
“We must find and shelter the kidnapped residents at once,” I said. “You lot will assist me.”
Alba read through the records with tremendous speed before looking back up. “Judging from these records, around forty or so residents have been sold off to slave merchants within only the past six months. Sheltering them all shall require quite some time, beyond my own means.”
As he tried to turn to my father for permission, I laughed through my nose.
“Don’t misunderstand,” I said. “I never said anything about saving everyone.”
Just as Alba claimed, it would certainly be time-consuming to account for every single citizen who had been kidnapped. But my goal was to find Fol’s childhood friend, Norn. That said, saving only one person would surely raise suspicion, so I would also help any others from Roguebert. The human trafficking records listed the victims’ names and ages, where they’d come from, and which merchant they’d been sold to. With all this information, I could easily narrow down whom I wished to save.
“We’ll only save the citizens of Roguebert,” I said. “I’m specifically looking for anyone kidnapped within the past six months—nine people in total.”
“Nine...” Alba replied. “I suppose we can manage that.”
He glanced at the Dark Knight behind him. A man as competent as himself was already plotting the perfect squad and plan of attack.
“No need to think too hard,” I said. “This will be simple. We’ll attack the slave merchants and give shelter to any victims found with them. If they’ve already been sold off, we’ll interrogate the merchant and have them tell us where they went. We’ll have them cough up a ledger or something and confirm who bought them. From there, we’ll attack the buyer and shelter the victims. That’s all we need to do.”
It’d been a while since the kingdom abolished slavery. The kingdoms dictated that human trafficking was blatantly illegal, and of course, slave merchants weren’t permitted either. However, it seemed quite a few of these pests had built a nest in the Lightless fief.
“Needless to say, eradicate the slavers and destroy their shops,” I said. “Get rid of anyone who dares to buy slaves as well—don’t forget to collect the ledger that records these sales.”
“Yes, my lord,” Alba replied.
The people of Roguebert were my immediate concern, but there were surely many others who were in the same situation. Buyers were generally those who were well-off—in other words, nobles or wealthy merchants. If I could grab ahold of these records, it’d be perfect blackmail material and very beneficial for House Lightless. According to these records, it looks like Roguebert’s citizens were sold off to two places...
“Carlos and I’ll head here,” I said, pointing to the one Norn had been sent to. “I’ll borrow a few knights too. Alba, you handle the other one.”
“Will you be joining the attack yourself, my lord?” Alba asked with a touch of confusion. It seemed he didn’t expect me to stand on the front lines.
“Do you have a problem with that?” I demanded.
“None at all,” Alba replied.
He bowed respectfully and stood at attention before I walked past him. I sized up the Dark Knights that stood perfectly behind the captain, then stopped in front of a certain one.
“Hm...” I muttered. Yes, I believe she was around this height. “You.”
“Huh?! Y-Yes, my lord!” a woman stammered.
It was clear that she was surprised, but she immediately tried to stand at attention once more. Must be Yusurika.
“You and the three knights to your right will follow me,” I ordered.
Carlos, Yusurika, and the three randomly selected knights bowed and stepped behind me. That’s when I noticed Alba’s gaze.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing at all,” Alba replied.