[SIDE: AOI]
After I ask my questions to the man called Garonne of the White Ash, he opens his mouth with a confused expression.
“…Even if you were the captain of the knights or something, I don’t think we can answer such questions.”
Sighing as he says this, Garonne looks at Kalila.
“…Have you lost your mind? What’s the deal with this woman?”
Garonne cuts off the conversation with me and turns to Kalila. How incredibly rude.
As I watch with half-closed eyes, Kalila’s face contorts as she shakes her head.
“Garonne. I can’t stand watching anymore, can I wait outside? I probably won’t die.”
“Kalila… there’s a limit to provocation. There’s no way we’d let you go for such a ridiculous reason. And after being so blatantly disrespected, we can’t let you leave for the sake of our reputation.”
Muttering in a low, menacing voice despite its lack of volume, Garonne raises one hand. At this, the men lined up in the room each grab their weapons and step forward.
“…If you resort to violence, then the conversation is over.”
I murmur quietly. Immediately, Garonne’s eyes emit a cold light.
“…Teach that woman reality.”
At Garonne’s words, the surrounding men spring into action simultaneously.
The magicians begin their incantations, while those with blades swiftly close the distance. It’s impressive how they all start positioning themselves to swing their swords easily.
Especially the large swordsman by the door made a good move. He closed the distance in one leap, swinging down his slightly thick straight sword in a diagonal slash.
Looking at the tip of that sword, I nod slightly.
“Impressive. You seem to have skills on par with Kalila.”
Adding this one comment, I thrust out my fist. As the next opponent was also approaching, I step forward half a step to avoid losing my balance and extend my hand straight out towards the opponent.
With a sound like a heavy object hitting thick fabric at high speed, the swordsman is knocked back, rolling away.
Seeing this, I could see the eyes of those approaching me widening.
“Since there are many of you, I’ll keep this brief.”
As I say this preface, I change the direction of my toes and turn around in one motion.
It seems the magician is still in the middle of his incantation.
“…Sand Blast.”
I utter the name of the magic spell in my mouth while infusing it with magical power.
Immediately, sand and small stones appear in the air as if painting over the scenery, and are fired out. It’s like a powerful sandstorm about one meter in diameter, but thanks to its radial release, all the weaker individuals collapse on the spot.
“Gyaa!”
Screams that aren’t particularly pleasant to hear echo from all around.
Even those who were about to attack with weapons stop in their tracks and start to writhe in agony, so I decide to settle this quickly as it’s a good time-saver.
“Excuse me.”
After saying just this, I run around striking the stomachs of the men still standing.
“…Poor things.”
I hear Kalila’s sympathetic voice from behind, but when I glance back, she hurriedly closes her mouth.
Finally, Garonne, left alone, looks around at his subordinates groaning in pain with a dazed expression, and then looks at me.
“…Wh-what happened? In that instant, what…”
For a while, Garonne mutters with a face as if trapped in a nightmare, but after a few seconds, he regains his composure. Looking back at Garonne’s frustrated face, I open my mouth.
“Do you still want to fight? Of course, if you’re not satisfied, I’ll be your opponent as many times as you like.”
I conveyed this honestly, from the bottom of my heart, but Garonne gritted his back teeth and lowered his chin. Then, he dropped his shoulders and hung his head.
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Thus, after visiting four large organizations over several days and negotiating directly, all organizations promised to cooperate with me.
I feel they were surprisingly reasonable people once we talked. In the end, everyone said they would earn money without causing trouble for ordinary citizens.
Since it’s impossible to suddenly become honest merchants for those who have only engaged in unfair practices until now. So, I’ve allowed the five organizations that promised cooperation and the small outlaw groups that followed them on their own to run casinos.
However, operating under strict rules was a prerequisite. Multiple conditions were set, such as customers must be over twenty years old and not allowing them to incur debts they couldn’t repay.
As a fundamental principle, I strictly ordered that drugs were not to be handled, human trafficking was not to be conducted, and ordinary citizens were not to be harmed or killed. Getting them to accept this was somewhat difficult.
“What kind of wholesome casino is that?! We won’t make any profit at all!”
“Are we not even allowed to collect money as bodyguards!?”
“If idiots come to borrow money on their own, we should be able to collect from such trash as much as we want!”
Such complaints kept coming one after another. Each time, I gathered all members of the organization where the complainant belonged and educated them.
Facing the fierce-looking men glaring at me with stern faces while sitting formally, I calmly explained morality and the law.
“Listen carefully. As a basic principle, you must not do to others what you find unpleasant yourself. Would you like to be subjected to debt collection? Would you want to be sold as slaves? Laws exist to prevent such things from happening to us or others.”
As I explained, there were still those who objected.
“Even the kingdom recognizes slavery, doesn’t it?”
“Criminal slavery is recognized, but that’s only for those who have committed serious crimes. Under no circumstances should anyone be enslaved due to false accusations.”
“It’s their own fault for being deceived.”
Most of those who complained didn’t even try to listen. So, I decided to make them experience the unreasonableness of violence firsthand. Basically, I gradually froze their feet with ice magic while preaching about peace, and most of them reformed with that.
Having gained cooperators this way, I swiftly recovered the academy students. I gave them a brief warning not to get hooked on gambling again. The students, trembling terribly, probably had quite a frightening experience due to their debts. I handed them over to Rocks and asked him to take care of them.
“…Could it be that you intend to control this country from the shadows… No, never mind.”
Rocks said something with a pale face, but he nodded about the students for now. The problem was the outlaws, but when I persuaded them, they reluctantly agreed.
“…I see. Having a large, organized group that can be reasoned with and controlled is less likely to cause problems, huh. Indeed… even if we crush all organizations, new ones will just emerge. But if it’s discovered that we’re intentionally overlooking them, we’ll certainly be condemned. Especially if royalty is involved, it would be disastrous. If word gets out, we’ll face international criticism as well…”
“…Is it difficult?”
“…I’ll manage somehow.”
When I double-checked because he seemed troubled, Rocks agreed while holding his head as if in distress. Well, if it was difficult, I was thinking of going around crushing organizations each time, though troublesome, but if Rocks would make the effort, that’s fine.
“Thank you. I misunderstood you, Rocks. To work this hard for the sake of fellow academy students… I think it’s a wonderful act.”
When I expressed my gratitude to Rocks, he stepped back with a groan. His face was flushed.
“What’s wrong?”
“N-nothing!”
Rocks cleared his throat, averted his gaze, and left while confirming the details of my request.
[SIDE: Glen]
“…Uniting the outlaws, you say?”
Unable to keep up with Aoi’s statement, I found myself asking for clarification.
And for good reason. After all, it was just the other day that I heard about investigating the city’s underbelly. I gave permission thinking it would be terrible if students got involved, but for some reason, I’m receiving a report about uniting underground organizations rather than rescuing students.
“Um, what happened to the students?”
When I asked hesitantly, Aoi nodded deeply.
“Rest assured. We’ve already raided the slave market and completed the rescue. However, as they were apparently going to the casino every night, influenced by bad friends, I gave them all a bit of stern lecturing. There were even students who used their parents’ private funds to frequent the casino, so I also told the parents to be more careful.”
“Oh… What a swift response. By the way, I feel like the slave market itself was operating according to the law, is that alright?”
I broke out in a slight cold sweat at Aoi’s explanation, but I was relieved to hear that the students were safe. The part about Aoi giving them a stern lecture and the word to the parents concerned me, but the students will surely never go to a casino again.
“It’s fine. Upon investigation, we found that more than half of the merchants selling slaves at the slave market were engaging in illegal business, so we suppressed them after obtaining permission from the Knight Order. There were suspicious individuals among the remaining ones as well, but in the spirit of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ we let them off. Of course, we informed them that if illegal activities are discovered, they will be properly punished.”
For some reason, I felt sorry for the slave merchants who were threatened by Aoi’s additional explanation.
“I-I see. Well, as long as the students are alright, that’s good. Still, about young Rocks. I heard that Queen Lea gave him quite a stern talking-to, I wonder if he’s had a change of heart?”
As I muttered this, Aoi nodded deeply.
“I would very much like to report this incident to his parents. I’ll send a letter later.”
“Hmm, I see… May I read the contents of the letter beforehand, just in case?”
I murmured, suddenly feeling uneasy.
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