episode_0057

“Comprachicos.”

Scarlet said.

“That’s the name of the organization he belongs to.”

She pointed to the suspicious man the Smiling Man had brought, who called himself a mere traveler.

In the short time since I’d seen him, the man’s appearance had become so terrible that it was a miracle he was alive. The voice that barely escaped him spoke only one thing: a mere plea for death.

In endless agony, he had lost his attachment to life, viewing only death as liberation.

It was truly a pain worse than death.

“I finally understand why that innocent fellow did what he did.”

“……”

An innocent fellow, she’s probably talking about Gwyn. He’s not the kind of person who would just abduct someone and bring them here out of nowhere.

Assuming that, I didn’t answer. This was because I didn’t have a clear basis for judging whether Rain Grey knew the series of facts or not.

“Comprachicos?”

Fortunately, it was Aria who questioned the name. At least it seemed she wasn’t familiar with it.

“That’s a new name to me.”

“I suppose so. They’re a criminal organization operating mainly around the Holy Kingdom.”

“─A criminal organization, you say.”

“If you were to call ‘Black Serpent’ that, then they’re certainly a small and humble force, incomparable to us.”

Scarlet shrugged, chuckling.

“It’s the kind of group that would never cross paths with big shots like our leader or us, that kind of feeling, you know.”

Hearing that, it somehow doesn’t feel like someone else’s problem.

The world is rife with secretly operating criminal organizations. But the name ‘Serpent’ wasn’t something that could be grouped and compared with such common criminal organizations.

“They mostly kidnap children and hand them over to unscrupulous nobles, making them a human trafficking group.”

“……A common criminal organization, then, one found everywhere.”

“Well, you could call it ordinary. In that sense, it’s an extremely common evil.”

Such a common evil that it’s too ordinary to even be worth noting.

Nevertheless, seeing her speak with such implied meaning, I questioned her again.

“Is there something more to add?”

“The problem is that the children who were kidnapped and brainwashed in that manner are now apparently claiming to be the ‘Revolutionary Army’.”

At her unexpected words, I blinked.

“……Are you saying kidnapped children can act as an army?”

“Well, child abduction is quite common in the Holy Kingdom, you see. If they fill their numbers with such kidnapped children, raising an army wouldn’t be difficult at all.”

“Were they connected to those planning the revolution from the start?”

“It seems so. To the extent that they can fight against the weakened Holy Knight Order of today.”

Hearing that, I asked again.

“Are they capable of training kidnapped children to that extent? That wouldn’t be a normal feat.”

“Well, they must have used some extreme methods.”

Scarlet said, shrugging.

“A criminal organization that traffics children, what else wouldn’t they be capable of trying?”

It was then.

The laughter ceased.

His laughter, which had been snickering and contorting his body, stopped.

“C-c-children…”

At the same time, a voice emerged, making my arbitrary assumption that he was mute pointless.

“Children, they’re p-precious… must protect them….”

His voice, squeezing out each word, seemed incredibly strained.

“I-I… will protect… the children… their… laughter too… the children’s laughter…”

After barely finishing his sentence, he bent his body again and began to laugh spasmodically. Heh, heh-heh, like an unknown comedian uncle from a horror movie.

“Of course, Gwyn. Don’t worry.”

At her words, Scarlet smiled softly.

“As for the bad adults who torment children, this big sister will deal with them.”

“Heh-heh, heh.”

Hearing that, the Smiling Man laughed again, with a comparatively softened laughter, different from before.

“My interest is piqued.”

“Oh my, even the leader?”

“Regarding the revolution currently unfolding, we are not entirely unrelated to it.”

Upon hearing that, what needed to be done was decided.

“If their human trafficking organization is involved in the revolution in any way, then they are no exception either.”

Human trafficking, kidnapping — such criminal organizations were trivial matters, not even worth Black Serpent’s attention. For us, there was no sense of justice to eradicate the world’s evils, nor anything of the sort.

We ourselves were evil, to begin with.

However, apart from that, the situation had changed now. Because this chaos had to unfold strictly under my control.

As for anything that would introduce unexpected variables I hadn’t foreseen, I could not easily tolerate any of it.

“Ah, in that case, it’s still too early to show them mercy.”

Hearing that, Scarlet smiled meaningfully.

The man, whose survival was almost a miracle, bloody in the most gruesome way a human could be, stopped his difficult, mumbled pleas.

Because he had realized that no hope or wish was useful in their presence.

Just as the good suffered the misfortune of encountering Black Serpent without reason.

Even for the wicked, it was no exception.

*

The first subjects of the experiment were those burning with vengeance. Having lost everything, they were willing to join hands with devils for revenge, and willingly submitted to their experiment.

Vampire Hunters were born that way.

Of course, most died. But the few who survived succeeded in hunting the vampires, their sworn enemies.

At the same time, such ‘Vampire Hunters’ were not those who obeyed rules and commands. They were merely closer to madmen, blinded by revenge and stopping at nothing.

That was enough. They served as sufficient experimental guinea pigs, and as a result, the technology to turn humans into ‘Hunters’ advanced by leaps and bounds.

A technology that enhanced the bodies of ordinary people, who had received no training, into monsters capable of hunting even vampires.

For the organization, it was an unparalleled achievement.

As reinforcement for their one and only goal from the beginning: to complete the revolution.

Under the name of the old regime, to overthrow everything in this nation, rotten from its roots.

Now that the experiments were over, the vengeful were no longer of interest to the organization.

They needed children. Children who knew nothing, were innocent, who could be instilled with ideology and taught as a blank slate, and who would willingly become loyal standard-bearers of the revolution.

“Revolution or death!”

Forgetting even who he was, and burning the estates of nobles who wouldn’t conform to the revolution, there was a child soldier murmuring the same words.

He was a monster created with the same technology that had previously turned ordinary humans into ‘Vampire Hunters’.

The Revolutionary Army, known as the ‘Iron Cavalry’, was there.

*

The people’s uprising was sparked by the shocking truth that the Holy Kingdom’s royal family itself had sold the Holy Maiden Jeanne to the Empire.

The Holy Kingdom being engulfed in uncontrollable chaos far exceeded the speed I had initially imagined.

This country, already not centralized, with nobles from various regions joining in, approached a radical civil war, with each faction clashing over their own ideologies.

The Royalists and the Revolutionaries.

As if it didn’t matter how their internal conflict would appear to the Duchy currently stationing troops at the border, I too began to move amidst the escalating conflict.

The Holy Kingdom’s capital, where every street resembled a wartime situation.

The royal capital of Lutecia, also known as the ‘City of Stars’.

But just outside of it, the suburban slums, making a mockery of the ‘City of Stars’ name, greeted us.

Moreover, amidst the chaos sweeping the entire country, there was no need to say which side the people living there were on.

Everyone on the streets was shouting slogans praising the revolution.

I crossed through the citizens, not caring.

As usual, with Aria and Alice, and additionally Scarlet and the Smiling Man joining us.

“It’s here.”

Aria murmured in a cold voice. That was the human trafficking organization’s hideout we were looking for.

However, incongruously for a criminal organization engaged in human trafficking, what was there was a church.

.

A fairly large-scale facility, with several orphanages and similar establishments attached to it.

“Is this it?”

“It bears a malicious name, doesn’t it?”

“The more people praise God, the more they tend to commit acts furthest from God.”

Scarlet chuckled in a cold voice.

The Smiling Man was simply laughing, as if the joke was funny, even louder.

“Oh, Gwyn. It seems you liked my joke.”

He let out a series of choked laughs.

“……”

Leaving their back-and-forth conversation behind, I moved forward.

This world was no longer the game world I knew. All the knowledge I gained through the game was by no means omniscient in this world, but merely a handful of fragments.

Therefore, it was now time to see with my own eyes.

The nauseatingly ugly and vivid reality of this world that I didn’t know.