“What the… Who is this?”
As Alice entered the room, both of us fell into silence, and Mia Crowfield asked with a somewhat anxious voice. It seemed like she couldn’t grasp the current situation accurately.
But I didn’t answer. Alice didn’t either.
I simply took a slow step forward and looked down at the man’s face.
The man was staring blankly at the floor.
What should I do?
To be honest, it was a rather ambiguous situation.
It was true that this man had beaten me. He probably didn’t intend to kill me. While I did lose consciousness, I woke up shortly after.
Since Claire managed to survive and escape in the original story, what made me so battered was probably just ‘processing’ in the literal sense. If he intended to sell me to a necrophiliac, he would have likely killed me right there instead of taking me away and then delivering me fresh.
Should I grab him by the hair and make him look up?
After seriously contemplating, I decided against that. If I did such a thing while crouching like this, this man’s eyes would be able to see right up my skirt. And Alice and Mia Crowfield, who were standing nearby… No, they probably wouldn’t care since those two weren’t in school uniforms.
Sigh.
Was my return so shallow that I was thinking such things in front of a person I had tried so hard to find?
“……”
Well, one thing is certain. If it weren’t for me that night, another girl would have been in that situation. There were orphanages in other places besides where we were.
“About ten years ago.”
As I sorted through my thoughts, I finally opened my mouth.
“There was a burned-down orphanage. Do you perhaps remember?”
“……”
The man was silent for a while.
Just as I thought he had no intention of responding, he answered in a rough voice.
“I remember.”
He used formal speech.
He might not know who we are or why we are in this situation. But he couldn’t possibly miss the royal emblem depicting a gryphon clearly emblazoned on the armor of the knights barging into this building. It’s a symbol that even commoners from nearby countries would recognize, let alone spies.
It’s a rare occurrence to see such a symbol up close like this.
“Were you nearby?”
“Yes.”
Does he know why I’m asking this? Perhaps he just thinks it would be far more disadvantageous not to answer directly in this situation.
“At that time… there was a woman beside you. Do you know where she went?”
She seemed like a noblewoman at a glance, but upon closer inspection, she looked a bit too extravagantly dressed. It was the man’s job to select and process the children, but since the woman played an important role too, she was probably nearby.
“…The last time I saw her, she was in the Imperial Capital.”
“……”
I fell silent, quietly staring at the back of the man’s head.
He had a thick head of hair. It looked like someone who had never truly experienced hardship. Well, given his role, it’s not that he didn’t experience any real hardship, but at least, he must have lived confidently while spending ill-gotten gains.
I slowly stood up and looked around.
Upon entering the room, my gaze had been locked onto the man, so I hadn’t noticed the surroundings until now.
It’s a place I don’t remember at all. The atmosphere was quite different from the last time I visited. Well, that makes sense. To furnish it so lavishly, they would have had to at least repaint the walls. It’s been ten years, and back then, the walls of that house would have been stained with opium smoke and bodily fluids.
“Is this house yours?”
I slowly walked around the room while asking. Everyone in the room was holding their breath. Naturally, Mia Crowfield, but even Alice, who had shown a confident attitude up until she brought me here, and even the knight pressing down on the man.
“……Yes.”
“You must have worked hard.”
Even purchasing a room like this would be difficult on a regular wage. It’s not just a matter of land prices or house prices; the wage paid to laborers is ridiculously low.
Ah, those were the good old days, weren’t they?
The age of capitalism at its peak. Anyone could earn money by working, and those who earn honestly could live with dignity.
And even the people paying the wages can adjust that amount however they see fit.
There are no laws protecting tenants. To pay rent one had to work fourteen hours a day, and working late nights inevitably leads to tiredness.
If you doze off while working, you could lose your hand to a press. If your hand is gone, your job is also gone. Then the laborer drains the rest of their money to enter an opium den or drowns their reality in alcohol. They would go begging in alleyways, smoking opium and drinking until their stomach and liver can no longer take it, and when finally, even the long-lasting life gets cut short, that would be within the embrace of the great nation, the Empire of Aetherna.
On the streets of the Empire.
And this man had worked hard at cutting down those lives while using children—who are far too young even by this world’s standards—as his materials.
“……”
The man couldn’t speak.
“You sold illusions so that laborers, worn down by life, could find comfort.”
Through opium.
“……”
“If left alone, those children would have died frozen in the streets without any value, yet you gave them value and the opportunity to contract with suitable employers.”
The opportunity to sell their bodies.
Whether they wanted to or not.
To children who are too young to even comprehend such things.
“……”
The man was completely silent.
Or perhaps he couldn’t speak? Did he understand the meaning of my words?
“Isn’t it something to be proud of? The one brightening the dark side of the great Empire is people like you, isn’t it?”
Before I knew it, I had walked all the way around the room and stood in front of him.
The man still only showed the back of his head.
The wallpaper in the room was certainly not cheap. The solid wood used for the bookshelves and the desk. And the mana stone lighting on the desk.
Curtains, mattresses, leather-bound books filled with raw leather, silk curtains, and even expensive shirts hanging on the coat rack, and the wristwatch and pocket watch neatly placed on the desk.
Not a single thing was cheap.
In this cramped room, those expensive things made it seem modest and cozy at first glance, but upon closer inspection, one could see just how extravagantly this person lived.
Thinking back, it was the same then.
The fur attached to the coat he wore. The cane he held.
None of it looked cheap.
What he sold to make that much money, I could easily guess.
“How did you live in this mansion?”
“……”
“Who introduced it to you?”
I could hear Mia Crowfield taking a deep breath, but I didn’t turn around.
My gaze was still aimed at the back of the man’s head.
“Did you have any acquaintances on this land?”
“Your—”
As I spoke, Mia Crowfield took a step forward, raising her voice, but it seemed like Alice stopped her. The emerging words were abruptly cut off. It was as if my wandering thoughts came rushing back the moment Alice grabbed my shoulder.
“……”
The man was silent.
Bam!
A loud noise erupted. A small scream could be heard from the back. In that instant, the knight who was firmly pressing down on the man looked up at me. His round eyes seemed startled, peering through the helmet slit.
The man’s head slammed loudly against the floor and then bounced back up.
The well-arranged hair at the back of his head became disheveled. It was fortunate that it didn’t break.
Fortunate? Well, if it breaks, I can just fix it.
I wonder how the man’s face was doing? Did it get smashed against the floor and break at the nose?
A small groan was heard. Since his head wasn’t drooping downward, it didn’t seem like he fainted.
I slowly lowered my foot back to the ground and asked softly.
“Answer me.”
“……”
I counted silently to five.
5, 4, 3—
“That’s too much.”
With two seconds left, the man spoke.
His voice, which had been normal until just now, was now rough, as if it were being ground against the earth. Moreover, it sounded like he was gritting his teeth.
“Too much?”
As I asked back, the man continued.
“…The Imperial family knew about this already, did they not?”
“……”
The room grew exceedingly quiet.
I shifted my gaze back to the knight’s face.
Just like when I swung my foot earlier, his wide-open eyes were visible.
“Could you please restrain this man and step out for a moment?”
As I spoke calmly, the knight nodded.
“We can continue our conversation after this person leaves.”
“……”
The man stayed silent.
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