Read Novel Full Vol 2 Chapter 2 Part 2
Enjoy the new chapter~
Editor: Onihikage
Chapter 2 Part 2
As soon as I went back to my room, I asked Hannah, “Are you okay with working for me?” I wanted to talk to her about this before it was too late.
“Yes, ’til the end of my life!”
She knelt down and swore her allegiance to me. She tried to poison me not because she wanted to, but for the sake of her sister who was taken hostage. I wouldn’t trust her so easily, but I still had a responsibility as her master since I accepted her with me.
“Alright, I’m going to save your younger sister now!”
“Huh?”
“That’s my master! So merciful! Like a God!” Canaan was a little over the top. I’m neither merciful nor a God, I just don’t like the fact that Hannah’s weakness is still in the hands of a bastard named Hussel. I couldn’t allow anyone to control my slave’s weakness!
It’s Hussel’s fault that Hannah tried to poison me in the first place. Count Abbas was free to begin working with the royal family to go after Hussel for his crimes, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t target Hussel for my own reasons. However, I had to be sure that the difference between what Abbas did and what I did was clear.
That was why I came to the town of Sardais, which was located within Hussel’s territory. By the way, I was running while carrying two people! I think my speed was more than 300 kilometers per hour. Thanks to that, it took me less than an hour to traverse what would have been a two-day journey by horse-drawn carriage!
Hussel’s mansion was luxurious. Count Abbas’ mansion had a formal, elegant style to it, but Hussel’s had the gaudy, over-the-top kind of luxury that one would expect from new money.
“He sure has bad taste, huh?”
“Right? Why is everything so shiny!?”
So Canaan also thinks his decorations are stupid? Good, that means my perception of style is normal.
“The head of the Hussel family has even worse taste in clothes; everything he wears is covered in ornaments…”
Since his mansion was like this, it wasn’t hard to imagine his clothes would also be tacky and showy. I could have walked into his silly-looking mansion fair and square, but that was no fun, so I sneaked in.
Hannah and I both knew how to conceal our presence, but since Canaan still couldn’t do that on her own, she used the Hermit’s Coat. Its effect would make everyone here (except me) unable to sense her presence.
“Eh? Where is Canaan-san…”
Hannah was surprised, but it was also because she had a lower level than Canaan. The Hermit’s Coat had finally made its appearance after such a long time, and one of its effects was that those with lower levels than the user couldn’t detect the user’s presence.
“She used an item that can conceal her presence.”
“You really have some wonderful items, don’t you Master?”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
“Of course!”
Guided by Beeze, we went down to the mansion’s basement. There, we found a prison. A skinny and dirty girl lay in the cell Beeze led us to.
“This is Hannah-dono’s little sister.”
“Sanya!”
“It looks like she’s sleeping right now. I’ll carry her out of the bed so that she won’t make any noise,” I said.
Hannah tried to insist, “It’s okay, I’ll carry her.”
“I have more power than you. Just leave her to me.”
“B-but…”
The iron bars bent easily under the force of my [STR], leaving a big enough gap for me to enter the cell.
Sanya was sleeping face down. It could have been a problem if she woke up and made noise when I picked her up, so I put her to sleep with [Dark Magic]. There was no chance of resisting it because our levels were so overwhelmingly different.
“Master, I will use [Clean] on Sanya. Please wait for a bit!”
Right, this is a prison, and there’s no toilet or bathroom here, and she’s a girl after all… yup, this is the first thing to do. Canaan’s [Clean] spell worked its wonders on Sanya, and she even healed her.
I picked up Sanya, now recovered from Canaan’s magic, but I was shocked when I saw her face, frozen in place with her in my hands. Why is she here…? The girl in my arms had a familiar face that I could never forget.
“Ayumi…”
A voice came out as if overflowing from the bottom of my heart. The girl’s face resembled my only little sister, Ayumi. Wolf ears like Hannah’s grew on her head, but her face was unmistakably the same as Ayumi’s.
My heart practically leaped into my throat as it beat like a drum.
“Master?”
“What’s wrong?”
Canaan and Hannah both asked with concern.
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Ayumi died in a traffic accident, there’s no way she could be here.
However, is it possible that she died in our world and reincarnated into this one? It can’t be…
I managed to move on somehow, suppressing the urge to make sure, and my desire to talk with Ayumi again.
“…She’s so light.”
I was told Sanya was fifteen years old, but she wasn’t the weight of a healthy teenage human. She was as light as a baby. She must have been getting the bare minimum of food, how pitiful. I kept staring at Ayumi’s face — no, Sanya’s. Hmm, Canaan and Hannah’s eyes… w-was that only my imagination?
Sigh, I breathe out and compose myself.
“Beeze, collect any gold and silver treasure, armor, food, or anything else that’s valuable stored in this mansion.”
I was getting compensation on my own for when Ayumi, as Hannah’s little sister, was used to blackmail Hannah into poisoning me.
“Oh yeah, you said that Hussel has a mansion in the royal capital too, right? Take everything from that mansion as well. Take his entire fortune!”
“As you wish.”
After Beeze disappeared, we withdrew from the mansion.
Since Hussel’s subordinates seemed to be getting noisy in Sardais, we went to the nearby port town called Port. As one would expect, I couldn’t carry three people with me, so Hannah and Canaan ran under their own power.
Canaan was panting hard. “W-water…” She said between gasps.
Meanwhile, Hannah was perfectly calm. Strange, Canaan should be a much higher level, right? Is this something that doesn’t correspond to that?
“Here, water.”
I poured some [Spring Water] directly into Canaan’s mouth as she asked, and she gulped it down greedily. In spite of my efforts to avoid it, she practically spilled as much of it as she could. She was certainly enjoying the luxury.
▼▼▼
“Are you kidding me?”
“I-I’m very sorry!”
Vassals obviously noticed that the gold and silver treasures, reserved foodstocks, and other valuables stockpiled in the mansion had all disappeared, and reported it to Count Hussel. He was furious.
It was impossible to imagine that everything obtained in the past by staining his hands with evil had disappeared. The vassals didn’t even know what the count had done to obtain all this wealth, let alone that it was dangerous.
Ever since the loss of confidential documents, security inside the mansion had been reviewed and even expensive magic items were introduced. The daughter of a wolf-beastman named Sanya had also escaped from the prison by destroying the cell, so her sister Hannah was believed to be involved, but Hannah had been sold as a criminal slave and her whereabouts were unknown.
How did she escape when she was under the strictest security that was even complemented with magic tools? They had no idea.
“I was summoned by His Majesty, what happened to all our groundwork? There’s no money at all? On top of the treasure vault, even the food warehouses are empty? What were you all doing?!”
Hussel’s rage was boiling over, to the point it was the only thing showing on his face.
The confidential documents describing the weaknesses of the nobles were gone, along with all of the books loaned with cash. If this came to light, it would be clear as day that no one would defend him; even his own allies would turn around and blame him.
He massaged his forehead which had a headache caused by this incident.
In response to losing everything, Hussel increased taxes. The entry town tax was raised by five times, the merchants had to pay three times more customs duties than before, and even though farmers had been taxed 70% until now, he levied an additional 20%.
These efforts would of course raise prices in the territory overnight, and travelers and merchants would avoid the region. Farmers were originally charged a high tax, but if they were burdened any more, they would have no food to eat and be unable to survive.
There was no end to people abandoning their properties to escape. The security deteriorated at an accelerating rate, with soldiers cracking down on townspeople and farmers all trying to leave the region.
▼▼▼
The brown rice was polished into white rice, then cooked with plenty of water. The ratio of white rice to water was one to twenty. With the water content being so high, the result was a thin porridge. Sanya had been starved in that prison, so it was better to slowly reintroduce her to food.
“Thank you very much, Master.”
Hannah thanking me respectfully.
“Don’t mind that, here, feed her, this is easily digestible food from my hometown. It will be good for Sanya in her current condition.”
“T-thank you so much.”
Sanya also thanked me. The more I looked at her, the more she looked like Ayumi. Ayumi was a dear family member that I couldn’t help wanting to see. Now Sanya showed up right in front of me, with the same face as Ayumi. Is this divine enlightenment? Is God giving me a mission to protect Sanya? (T/N: Said a guy who wanted to beat this world’s gods, lol.)
“Hey, Sanya, do you know of a country called Japan?”
Sanya was blowing her porridge to cool it down.
“Japan… I’ve never heard of it. I’m sorry.”
As I thought, I guess it was just an accidental resemblance.
“No, it’s ok. You don’t need to apologize. I’m sorry to interrupt, please eat while the porridge is still warm.”
It may have just been an accidental resemblance, but I couldn’t just leave someone behind who had the same face as Ayumi. I was told that Sanya had been held captive by Hussel for around five years.
One wouldn’t be wrong to think Sanya’s muscles had weakened considerably since she was first confined to that dark, damp and humid prison. Beastmen, especially wolf-types, are resistant to hunger, and they seem to be able to survive even with only a little food and water.
Furthermore, Sanya was doing muscle training in her spare time when she was imprisoned, so her condition wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
“There don’t seem to be any problems with your stamina or mentality, even though you’ve been cut off from the outside world…”
The wolf beastman is absolutely a resilient existence. Come to think of it, Ayumi also had a positive outlook. In the end, I still saw her as my sister.