Ch.126126. Infection

How many more people do I have to kill for this madness to end?

It was an idle thought that crossed my mind as I stared blankly at the purple communication crystal emitting an unnecessarily dazzling light.

The reason such a brutal thought occurred to me while peacefully governing my territory was simple: after a period of silence, the Imperial Capital was looking for me again.

“Hero, shall we stop?”

The marquis family’s mage sitting in front of the communication crystal nervously licked his lips while gauging my reaction. He seemed frightened by what must have been my sour expression.

“No. Receive it.”

Soon after, Professor Weaver’s voice came through.

At least I could hear about the current situation at the Academy.

“The students’ condition is serious.”

“On the surface, it’s true that the Academy has regained peace. Unlike last year, we no longer need to count how many students have dropped out from each department or how many have made extreme choices in the dormitories.”

“The problem is that the kids have no interest in training.”

“Their growth rate is blatantly poor, but their expectations are impossibly high. They can’t accept the fact that even a magician who graduated from an elite course and accumulated years of experience can barely touch 100 million, and even that’s just barely possible.”

It was news that the Empire’s future was being shattered in real time.

He said the situation was worse among the lower grades.

At least the students close to graduation had skills accumulated before Cordana. They had experienced times when they dedicated their lives to rankings and admired the Royal Order or the Magic Tower.

But the lower grades were said to have more severe symptoms because they were infected right after entering the Academy, or while preparing for the entrance exam.

“The majority of them feel no shame even after making a mess of practical evaluations in front of high-ranking officials. Despite those officials being the ones holding the purse strings.”

“There’s a student who just reached the 2nd circle but goes around expressing ambitions to become a multi-billionaire by inventing a single magical tool. When he brought me a piece of paper claiming it was a magical tool design… it was similar to items sold in workshops under the Magic Tower.”

“When I politely pointed this out, he glared at me for a long time. Since then, he doesn’t even greet me when we meet. I’m leaving him be for now. Sigh.”

Listening to these complaints, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘…This will produce a mass of useless people.’

This wasn’t something that could be dismissed with “They’ll come to their senses in a few years.”

There was no guarantee they would come to their senses just by aging, and even if they belatedly realized reality, they couldn’t catch up on skills once they fell behind.

For knights and magicians, the mid-to-late teens and early twenties were incredibly important periods.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely the students’ fault.

It was just last year that professors and students were conspiring to discuss Cordana prices. And after Cordana collapsed, quite a few professors had abandoned their teaching duties.

But even if they weren’t at fault, the country couldn’t take responsibility for their ruined lives. Nor could it create dream jobs to match their expectations.

‘Professor Weaver must know that much. Is he just venting his frustrations?’

How nice it would be if that were the case. But unfortunately, Professor Weaver hadn’t contacted me just to complain.

The real serious problem was something else.

He said an extremely serious incident had occurred, though it was difficult to define exactly what it was.

“Blasphemy, or perhaps imperial insult? I’m not sure what to call it. Anyway, there was an incident detected by the Intelligence Department yesterday.”

The parties involved in the incident detected by the Intelligence Department were merchants from the Imperial Capital.

About a hundred of them, with the ringleaders being merchants who had lost money after jumping into the Cordana market at the end.

They were the ones who had foolishly entered the market when Cordana was trading at 20 million and shed tears of blood after losing anywhere from millions to tens of millions.

The damage wasn’t too severe since some had been rescued by Iclit. They hadn’t taken collective action, so I thought they had moved on…

But it seemed they had done something absurd this time.

“It seems they gathered people to launch a clemency movement for former Second Prince Matthias. They were planning to advocate for at least allowing him to live as a nobleman, if not restoring him to royal status.”

“…Did you just say Matthias?”

A clemency movement.

I wondered why ordinary merchants would bring up the name of Matthias, who was happily living in the Papal State. After all, Matthias’s presence had long disappeared from the Imperial Capital. Socially, he was already a dead man.

Of course, they didn’t do this out of sympathy for Matthias.

“Apparently, a merchant who went on a pilgrimage to the Papal State happened to see Matthias. He saw Matthias taking disabled people for walks.”

“And why would that matter?”

“They seemed to think Matthias might be worth money somehow.”

“…Ah.”

Just hearing this much, I could roughly grasp what had happened.

The merchants who were caught this time apparently believed that the Emperor desperately wanted Matthias’s reinstatement.

A life of tending to disabled people all day with a shaved head. According to what Elder Edin had told me, Matthias had reached the point where he could feed porridge to two people simultaneously. He also never got angry even when hit on the back of the head by a mentally disabled person.

While this was an incredibly lenient treatment compared to his crimes, it was true that Matthias was living miserably.

‘They must think the Emperor lies awake every night worrying about Matthias. Like any parent would… though that’s not actually the case.’

But the ringleaders of this incident seemed to think differently. They clearly misunderstood that if they launched a big clemency movement for Matthias, the Imperial family would find it admirable. After all, no matter what crimes he committed, he was still the Emperor’s son.

“They were planning to lead the clemency movement and then use it as leverage to demand money from the Imperial family, right?”

“Yes. According to the Intelligence Department, that’s correct. They believed that once they took collective action, someone would be secretly sent from the palace to offer a reward. They thought they might be given a grant in recognition of their loyalty to the Emperor…”

“Huh.”

“Because of this, the high-ranking officials in the Imperial Capital are all in an uproar. The merchants who plotted this conspiracy are currently in custody… but it’s unclear how far the punishment should go. There are so many people who added their names without knowing what was happening.”

Just planning a clemency movement for Matthias couldn’t be overlooked. After all, Matthias was the only person that Gwon Heejin, who treated the Empire as a toy, had considered a worthy collaborator.

At the very least, all the ringleaders should be executed. Or sent to labor camps.

But the real problem wasn’t the severity of the punishment.

The truly serious issue was the mindset that made such dangerous ideas possible.

Academy students at the 2nd circle level trying to hit it big with plagiarized magical tools.

Merchants trying to get a few coins from the Emperor by exploiting an accomplice of Gwon Heejin.

Though they seemed like separate groups, they were essentially the same kind. The only motivation driving them was the desire to strike it rich and join the ranks of the wealthy with one big hit.

Not realizing that such a “big hit” doesn’t actually exist in this world.

“…Hero. What on earth should we do about this?”

While Professor Weaver probably asked out of frustration, I didn’t have a clear answer either.

“Well. I can only think that we’re doomed.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Hero. If I’ve upset you…”

“No, it’s fine. The Court would have sought me out even if you hadn’t, so I appreciate you letting me know early.”

“I’m ashamed.”

I told Professor Weaver I’d see him soon and ended the communication.

Then I let out a low sigh.

I sensed that my brief respite was coming to an end.

***

How to save the thoroughly broken Empire?

No, how can we at least keep it running somehow?

A hammer? Always an excellent answer, but if strong punishment and making examples of people could solve this, we would have seen results already.

The number of people I’ve directly or indirectly killed is already in the triple digits, and I’ve demoted even more to commoners, sending them to penal units or putting them into personal rehabilitation programs. In the case of other countries, I’ve completely annihilated their ruling classes.

No one should be unaware that I’m a person far from merciful.

Yet the reason mentally unhinged people keep appearing was simple.

The entire Empire was contaminated.

It was just a matter of degree, but it would be fair to assume that anyone who could read, write, and was familiar with using currency was infected with get-rich-quick mentality. They wouldn’t even be aware they were infected, so they would just see my examples as someone else’s problem.

Even if I punished everyone involved in this clemency movement nonsense, the same thing would happen again. They would just think, “I’m different from those fools.”

This meant the Empire could never return to its original state.

‘In this situation…’

Perhaps it was time to research methods to control and manage this desire. Killing alone was insufficient.

Even I thought it was a miserable idea, but I couldn’t think of any other way at the moment. Even I couldn’t remove the fantasy of instant wealth from people’s minds. Perhaps “training” them to an appropriate level was the best option.

Because that was better than killing them.

…

The next day, I left the main castle of my territory, sent off by numerous territory residents.

“May the Goddess’s blessing be with you, Hero…!”

I noticed people saying such things while dropping to their knees, but I didn’t scold them. They were probably mentioning the Goddess because they genuinely wanted to bless me.

At the front of the crowd were the Hyde father and daughter. The contrast was stark between Lord Hyde with his tired eyes from fatigue and Ember with her improved complexion.

‘Once I leave, she’ll be swamped with work again.’

Ember’s workload had increased again because of the forcibly revived coal mine.

Of course, she would likely earn a lot of money. I was looking forward to seeing how much the territory would develop by the time I returned.

I didn’t want to burden Ember, but I needed something to look forward to. There needed to be at least one territory developing normally.

“I’ll be back. Next time I come, I won’t leave after just a week. …I might even come after the expedition to the Demonic Land.”

That was all I could say.

Immediately after, I rode toward the Imperial Capital to somehow manage those who had been unknowingly conditioned by the poison Gwon Heejin had spread.