episode_0009

To be honest, I didn’t plan on executing this mission with utmost seriousness.

An assassination of a viscount, huh?

Well, it’s not that I can’t do it. I’ve already checked whether I can carry out this mission or not.

Riding the carriage lent by the Emperor to the Viscount’s estate was entirely possible for me to infiltrate the Viscount’s mansion.

Of course, success wasn’t guaranteed in one go. The Viscount’s mansion was heavily guarded with countless security guards, and the Viscount himself had a meticulous personality, so there were numerous servants and guards bustling inside the mansion.

But no matter how thorough the security was, there were always vulnerabilities.

Especially in this world, there were no CCTV cameras yet. There were steam-powered analytical engines and difference engines used as computer-like devices, mechanical calculators, cameras, and printers, but all these technologies were based on analog principles.

The difference engine could store numbers and alphabets, not in semiconductor-based storage devices, but in complex devices composed of numerous large and small gears where information was physically stored as shapes. Think of an expensive analog wristwatch. It stored information in the form of ‘shapes’ within the intricate gears constantly turning with steam power, and when called upon, it ‘output’ onto ‘paper’ through other gears within it.

Naturally, constantly feeding coal or magic stones into it, meticulously maintaining each component, and the sheer size of it compared to modern computers I knew made it incomparable. The difference engine, which could barely store a few images, was about the size of stacking three grand pianos.

Storing images was inefficient, so it was mainly used for complex calculations. If it stored numbers instead of images, it could store much more information and significantly reduce the output time.

The advantage of the difference engine over human calculation was only ‘slightly faster and slightly more accurate,’ so unless it was absolutely necessary to calculate urgently or provide results down to decimal points, it was better to hire a professional ‘calculator.’

Even the analytical engine, which was said to rival the performance of a 386 or 486 computer, was not just a grand piano but an entire building, requiring hundreds of maintenance technicians to prepare for the possibility of a gear malfunction. Even though it was smaller than a library, from a cost perspective, it might have been more efficient to just build a library.

In the sky above the Isildrium, there was a reduced version of the latest analytical engine inside the aerial battleship ‘Dreadnote,’ but due to its reduced size, it sacrificed functionality, so dozens of calculators were always on standby to assist in the engine’s calculations.

There were cameras, but video recording had not been invented yet. What we call ‘analog cameras’ here hadn’t developed film yet. The ‘film’ in this world was not a flimsy strip but a thick glass plate, and naturally, the higher the resolution of the camera, the larger the glass plate needed. The risk of breakage also increased.

At the start of the main story, we had film sizes equivalent to what we know as 35mm film, but since the main story hadn’t started yet, I hadn’t seen it until now.

…Well, the details of the setting are oddly specific from that side.

Anyway, it means that this world is a mix of overtechnology and the atmosphere of the actual 19th century.

From what I observed dozens of times, the Viscount Crowfield was relying solely on manpower for security without any security devices.

As long as there are people standing guard, there will always be an escape route.

Turning back the clock forty-six times, I successfully arrived by the Duke’s side twice.

Trying thirty-four times to create a situation where I could shoot the Duke’s head while on the road, I succeeded three times.

Out of thirty-seven attempts to install a bomb on the carriage the Duke was riding in, I succeeded twice.

Finally, disguising myself as a new maid and poisoning the food the Duke would eat, I succeeded once out of five attempts. Realizing the extreme inefficiency of this method, I decided to discard it. It took at least a week to two weeks to infiltrate, and the success rate had decreased significantly. Success was only achieved once, and even that success was the result of repeatedly turning back time at various points during the attempts. Although the total time rewound was only five times, the actual number of times the ability was used was the highest.

When considering the time to escape and the possibility of someone remembering my face later, the second method seemed most appropriate. Just shoot from a distance and run.

Of course, I didn’t actually kill him. I just considered the possibility of success, and the Duke was still alive.

“Hmm.”

I sat on a tree branch, watching through binoculars as the Duke’s carriage procession passed by, lost in thought.

I knew the name “Crowfield.” Even though it sounded ominous, the Duke exuded a very ominous atmosphere. He had a Kaiser mustache that curled up at the ends, and his skin was as pale as snow.

Well, to be honest, this was the first time I had seen his appearance. I only remembered the name from the game.

Mia Crowfield.

One of the heroines. She had a somewhat gloomy atmosphere, with her hair unkempt, but when she swept aside the bangs covering her face, she was a stunning beauty.

In the main story, it was revealed at the beginning of the game that she lost her father due to the Emperor’s prank three years ago… but in reality, Crowfield Duke was involved in all sorts of dirty deeds behind the scenes.

Among the important characters in the noble faction where the protagonist belongs, each had a sad backstory, and Mia Crowfield was one of them.

At home, she had a stern but kind father. But behind the scenes, she was deeply involved in human trafficking, prostitution, and opium business targeting commoners.

Mia Crowfield’s story was about discovering the truth of her father’s sacrifice in the power struggle, apologizing to the commoner faction heroine, accepting the past, and overcoming it.

“…But I didn’t expect to be the one to eliminate Crowfield.”

I sighed lightly.

The character of the Emperor fundamentally believed that everything he did was for the empire. He loved the empire so much that he sacrificed everything outside the empire as “his own” and used the results of those sacrifices for the empire. In a way, he was a typical imperialist who was willing to sacrifice everything for the empire.

However, his love for the empire was sincere, so he also sincerely wanted to uproot the opium business and human trafficking within the empire. He was willing to sacrifice everything for the empire, regardless of what happened in other countries.

Of course, there were many logical flaws in his beliefs. Well, but which villain doesn’t have them? If there were no logical flaws from the start, then they wouldn’t be villains but heroes.

So, in fact, until I knew the name Crowfield, I didn’t think, “I must eliminate him.”

The problem was—

“…”

I looked through the binoculars again at the Duke’s carriage.

Through the lens meticulously crafted by the empire’s top artisans, the black carriage of the marquis was clearly visible.

Made of quite expensive wood, the luxurious carriage was indeed fitting, but it was different from the carriage the marquis usually rode in.

The marquis’s usual extravagant carriage was parked in front of another inn. The marquis had to switch carriages twice before heading to his destination.

And that destination was the orphanage located in a remote and desolate area.

By the way, the term “orphanage” was just a name I arbitrarily assigned. The actual sign in front of the building read ‘Gowon.’

During the sixteen attempts I made to evade or neutralize the marquis’s guards and get close to him, two of them took place at this orphanage.

And one of them even succeeded in getting right next to the marquis and holding a knife to his throat.

Thanks to that, I knew exactly what was happening inside that building.

The building was more fittingly called a “factory” than an orphanage.

The pungent smell that pierced the nose.

The opium haze that clouded the mind.

The screams and cries. The voices of children begging for mercy.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, during the twelve hours I spent infiltrating that orphanage, I thoroughly searched every corner of the building.

And I was able to obtain the guest list, the list of children used, the price of their lives, and the names of the organization members.

When the marquis’s leg was pierced by a 45-caliber bullet, he blurted out what he knew as if he were wailing.

The orphanage was importing children from the “Institute for Orphans” and, as needed, “processing” those “raw materials.”

“Do you think you can uproot this situation by making this one orphanage disappear? This organization is just one of many small criminal gatherings! If you want to make those who nibble at the empire disappear, you have to join forces with the giants! Save me. I will do anything for the Emperor. I will burn all the information I know…”

“…Then, let me ask one thing. The carriage you came in. How are the coachmen of that carriage? Are they members of this organization?”

“Y-yes. That’s right. To prevent the leakage of guest information, we need to use loyal members in every process…”

This was the story I heard directly from the marquis last time.

Of course, the current marquis would never even dream of telling such a story.

There was no innocent person in the carriage the marquis was riding in. It was all entangled not only with money but also with drugs and prostitution. It wasn’t just about money; it was involved in drugs and covering up children. At the moment of exposure, the evidence prepared in advance would be revealed to the world.

Of course, it wasn’t gathered by threatening the organization members. If a person couldn’t overcome guilt to that extent, it would be impossible to tie them up in that way from the beginning.

Most of the organization members supporting the organization had already been in and out of prison several times.

And even in a country where awareness of human rights was scarce, touching children was considered extremely sinful.

…Actually, thinking about it, it was quite strange. Not caring about a ten-year-old child’s hand getting crushed in a factory, but being so concerned about locking up those children and committing crimes. No matter how many times I looked at the “good” in this world, I still couldn’t understand it.

Well, let’s set that aside for now.

In any case, to summarize,

Whether it was the marquis or the organization members driving the carriage,

They were all people who wouldn’t matter if they died.

As the orphanage drew closer in the distance, the carriage gradually slowed down.

I took out a pocket watch from my pocket and checked the time.

The leaf clock had its limits in accuracy, but it could roughly guess when a bomb would explode—

Boom!

—I could hear the explosion.

I peered through my binoculars towards the direction of the sound to assess the situation.

About half of the carriage had disappeared without a trace.

The person sitting on the coach seat was rolling on the ground with their legs missing, and the bodyguard who had boarded the carriage to escort the viscount had one arm missing and collapsed as he tried to get off on the opposite side.

The other members of the organization riding in the carriage behind hastily got off—

And were all swept away by the successive explosions.

The procession following the carriage the viscount was riding in was also blown far away by the chain of explosions. While the carriage the viscount was in had the bombs carefully placed to target him, the carriages behind didn’t pay attention to such details, so the explosion locations were all different. Some were blown away from the center of the carriage seat, some flew in the opposite direction from the viscount’s carriage, and some looked relatively intact at first glance.

Of course, even the seemingly intact carriages had windows bursting outward, indicating that there were no survivors inside.

There were also a few bodies that were blown in different directions from their limbs.

… Not only people, but also some horses were blown away. The surviving horses were startled by the loud noise and thrashed around, causing trouble for the other organization members who were rushing in. There was nothing but a sense of apology towards the innocent horses.

The viscount probably wouldn’t even find a single corpse.

On the eighth attempt, the third success was achieved.

“….”

This wasn’t the first time I had killed someone.

Although it wasn’t, honestly, I didn’t feel good about it.

“Ugh.”

Suppressing the queasy feeling in my stomach as much as possible, I descended under the tree.

After changing into clean clothes and hastily packing my travel bag, I closed it shut.

I needed to escape before the chaos in the estate settled down.