Chapter 72 : Black Wednesday (1)

The sudden voluntary abduction of the Saint caused confusion and shock among various forces.

Not only the church and our organization, but especially the Kingdom of Allein , where a prominent international figure went missing in their home country.

It hadn’t been more than a few hours since we brought her to our hideout when the gendarmerie were dispatched to the capital, and checkpoints were set up on major streets.

“What a foolish move.”

There’s no point in keeping her locked up and not letting her out.

They won’t search every single building in the capital, after all.

All that effort would be a waste of time and money.

The soldiers following orders will just be the ones who suffer.

“Kalia, could you make me a cup of coffee?”

“Should I put milk in it?”

“Yeah. Please.”

Anyway, aside from that, things were progressing smoothly without my intervention.

[The Ministry of Finance’s new plan, orchestrated by the Marquis of Orgasm, for resource expansion through cooperation with the Demon Prison.]

The headline of the weekly paper released this morning.

At first glance, there’s nothing particularly special about the sentence.

The article itself is written somewhat blandly.

It’s a bit irritating to read with all the run-on sentences, but roughly translated.

Our gracious King has come up with a way to help the poor demons survive.

They will now be provided with appropriate jobs, including factory work, to serve the kingdom.

There’s even a welfare and support plan to ensure their prosperous life.

Something like that.

“This is utter nonsense.”

Of course, anyone who believes this is an idiot.

How can not a single word be true?

A simple investigation reveals that the information is false.

Our agents in the branch have been checking it out, seeing how the prison camps are actually operating.

It’s not just poor—it’s on the verge of turning into something like Auschwitz.

No, it might actually be more fitting to call it a North Korean-style labor camp.

Food supply is insufficient.

The daily labor is excessive.

The living conditions are appalling.

It’s a perfect trifecta of misery.

At this rate, half the residents will be gone in less than three years.

“Here’s the coffee you asked for. What are you reading?”

“The newspaper. The same one you read earlier.”

Demons are stronger than humans, but as a trade-off, they burn more energy.

Thanks to the superior muscle density and quality of their muscle fibers.

So much so that Kalia, who is much shorter and smaller than me, can eat more than I do.

If a woman can eat that much, a man would require even more.

Their daily calorie needs are much higher… but the food supply is based on human standards.

Even that is being cut down due to corruption and inefficiency.

This is like giving a malnourished person the diet of an athlete.

The body can’t take it.

“Ah… is it this bad?”

“…Are you okay? If it’s too shocking, go take a rest. I’ll handle the work for you.”

And the labor isn’t just ordinary labor either.

Fourteen-hour workdays in factories, mining coal in unsafe conditions, clearing primeval forests—they’re literally worked to death like dogs.

People collapse constantly, cough up blood,and eventually just stop breathing.

That’s the end.

Tsk.

Is there any hell worse than this?

No—this is hell.

Born of humanity’s pure, concentrated malice,in some ways, it might be even worse than the original.

“I’m fine. It’s not the first time some bastard humans have pulled shit like this.”

Still, the news left a mark on Kalia’s heart.

Even while speaking as if nothing was wrong, her energy sank completely.

The bright smile she always wore around me was now stiff and frozen.

“If it gets too hard, tell me. Don’t bottle it all up.”

“…Thanks, Ishmael.”

Instead of prying for details, I quietly offered her my shoulder.

My lover is the type to gather her strength and heal on her own if you leave her be.

Rather than give her some patronizing advice,it’s better to just be her support.

At times like this, it’s best to change the subject.

To something a little more hopeful.

“This system will disappear soon enough.”

“…Really?”

“In my opinion, it won’t last more than three years.It might even collapse sooner than that.”

The exploitation of the demons exists to satisfy the nationalistic sentiments spreading among the people.

But it also heavily serves the purpose of meeting wartime material demands.

There’s a limit to how much you can squeeze from your citizens, who are valuable labor and military resources.

So they push all the dangerous, degrading tasks onto the demons—those they consider disposable.

In short, they’re assigning the most hazardous, exhausting work to the demons to maximize labor efficiency.

A special system for wartime.

It’s useless once the peacetime market economy returns.

But once the war ends, there’s no need for this system anymore.

The industrial structure will return to how it was.

The camps may remain,but the intensity of the exploitation will likely decrease.

Of course, there’s a greater chance that everyone—camps and all—will be obliterated to the point where no one can exploit anyone anymore.

No—that’s what will definitely happen.

Because I’m going to make it happen.

‘If I want to gather citizens to form a nation for the demons…isn’t it easiest to take what others have already collected?’

The blueprint of the grand strategy is nearly complete.

It might need some tweaks depending on what events arise,but everything else is already decided.

So for now, we wait.

Until the day we overturn these damn tyrants.

*****

Meanwhile, the Great Prairie was noisy in its own way.

To be precise—it had been noisy, and was now quieting down.

“Your father-in-law’s amazing too. I can’t believe he already succeeded in seizing power.”

Our financial backer and boss, Mahdi, seemed to be smoothly consolidating control over the nomads.

He had already received pledges of loyalty from about 90% of the tribes.

The rest, apparently, were insignificant.

Even taking into account the collapse of his rivals and his near-monopoly status, the speed was impressive.

“My father may be rough and indifferent on the surface, but he’s competent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to govern a tribe.”

“Ruling a single tribe and commanding multiple tribes are entirely different challenges.”

And it wasn’t like he was just demanding obedience—he was getting them to serve him as the Great Khan.

Changing a seven-hundred-year-old system like that takes not only ability but also political and diplomatic finesse.

He was dismantling the hereditary succession principle of the Jaghatai bloodline based on his own expertise and power base.

In its place, he was establishing a new ruling lineage from Mahdi’s line.

He abolished a law that had been upheld since the founding of the first nomadic empire, creating a new bloodline of rulers.

Ordinarily, that should’ve sparked massive backlash.

It wouldn’t be surprising if a rebellion had erupted within the tribes.

‘Did Juche ideology work that well?’

To think he could control all that.

He truly lived up to being someone who runs a continent-wide terror organization and a large nomadic federation.

He didn’t aim for the title of Great Khan for nothing.

Though I had a hand in it too.

“Speaking of which, my father sent a thank-you letter. He said he appreciated the fun book you made.”

“You read it first?”

“Yes. And he sent tons of gifts too. He said to use them well—as both thanks and dowry. Hehe.”

“…I should thank him then.”

Juche ideology is specialized in personal worship, denial of error, and deification.

It’s especially effective at undermining everything except the object of veneration.

Originally, it was full of absurdities and lies to justify a theocratic system in a republic.

But we cut down those parts to fit nomadic culture, so applying it wouldn’t have been too difficult.

‘In a world where monarchy is the norm, it even works as a plausible variation of social contract theory.’

But for a formal enthronement, he still lacks just a bit of authority and renown.

That’ll be resolved soon.

To execute our grand strategy, we’ll need at least one large-scale military campaign.

‘To benefit from war, the best tactic is to strike with the right amount of force at the right time.’

We can’t just let a cavalry army of over 100,000—40,000 of them under direct command—go to waste.

Soon enough, the opportunity to shine will come.

Perhaps in a way the nomads have never experienced before.

“There were even outfits worn by Eastern dancers at banquets. I’ll show you tonight—on the bed.”

“C-Can you go easy on me? My back’s been sore lately.”

“Don’t worry. We got plenty of herbal plasters that are great for back pain.”

“That’s not what I meant…”

Feeling the weight of a lust-filled sack pressing down on my head, I had a premonition.

There’s no way I’ll be getting out of bed tomorrow morning.

As I quietly tried to escape the pressure, Kalia handed me my coat and gave me a warning.

“Oh, and make sure to wear a mask when you go out from now on. Something like the flu’s been going around lately.”

“The flu?”

“People get a bad cough and suffer from a high fever for days. So be careful. I don’t want to see you sick.”

An epidemic, in times like these?

That didn’t sound good.

“Where did it start spreading from?”

“I don’t know. But it seems more widespread near the ports.”

Let’s just hope it stays under control.

One pandemic wrecking everyday life—what happened with the Wuhan virus was more than enough.

*****

Around the same time, in the capital of the Hispania Empire—Nueva Granada.

“C-Crash! Everything’s crashing! All the stocks are plummeting!”

“Sell! I don’t care if it’s only 30% of the original price—just sell all my shares!!”

“Thirty percent?! I’ll settle for twenty—just sell mine first! Prioritize my 300 shares in Enrica Merchant Guild!!”

It crashed.

Every index.

At a rate no one had ever seen before.

“If this keeps up, the whole market’s going to vanish!!”

Humanity was now witnessing the first-ever stock market crash in history.