Chapter 422

Perhaps sensing the murderous intent in my expression, Hersh bowed her head and cried pitifully.

“Please, please spare me, Master…! Sniff…! I don’t want to dieee…!”

The stark contrast between her earlier confident demeanor on the rooftop and her current groveling state was almost dizzying.

Really, what should I do with this woman? A sigh escaped me.

I lit a cigarette, drew a dagger from my waist, and approached her.

“Eeeek-!”

Hersh screamed like a girl with a cockroach crawling into her underwear and fell backward. Her teeth chattered noisily, clattering like crazy.

…I haven’t even done anything yet, and she’s already like this.

“Hey, hey. Calm down. I haven’t said I’m going to kill you yet, have I?”

I grabbed Hersh’s shoulder as she tried to inch away and gently placed the blade of the dagger on her exposed collarbone. She shivered at the cold touch of the metal.

“Our half-elf friend had it rough, but… I have this one condition, you see? When I face evil people, I can’t resist the urge to tear them into seven pieces.”

It’s an incurable disease with no cure.

“Eeeek…!”

“And over there, that white-haired lady is a devout priestess who thinks non-humans are only good for livestock and fertilizer. The green-haired girl next to her probably sees you as a kobold.”

Now that I think about it, this is a full-on psychopath party. The fact that it’s all true without any exaggeration is horrifying.

“You get what I mean, right? You’re about to become kobold fertilizer in seven pieces.”

“Eeeek! No, nooo…! Radeli-! Save me, Radeliiii-!”

Hersh, panicking, shook her head and screamed her comrade’s name. Seems like the bond between villains runs deep.

“Shut up.”

I blew cigarette smoke in her face to calm her down.

“Cough! Cough…!”

“Your friend seems to have joined the families of the poor. I hung the body up nicely, but… when I went back, it was gone. So, unless you want to meet them again, shut up and listen.”

Hersh coughed and wheezed.

I grabbed her hair and pulled her face close to mine. My reflection in her purple pupils was crystal clear.

…Even I look pretty scary. Like a legendary serial killer who bathes in blood and casually slaughters hundreds.

Anyway.

“I’m going to ask you a few questions now. If you want to live even a little longer, it’s better to answer honestly. Got it? If you lie, you’ll end up like ‘Heinz’ or ‘Radeli.’ Behave.”

“Yes, yes! I’ll answer anything! Ask me anything!”

Hersh nodded desperately, trembling. Aside from the faint smell of urine, her attitude was quite commendable.

—

Hersh was originally an orphan abandoned in the slums at birth. She had parents, but she’d never even seen their faces.

She was destined to die within a night, but a man who recognized her ears picked her up and raised her.

Of course, it wasn’t out of kindness. If he were truly a good person, he would’ve sent her to an orphanage in the Holy Kingdom.

The man was a slave trader.

Realizing the value of a half-elf slave, he spent twelve years ‘educating’ her to sell her at a high price… and in the process, he developed a strange affection for her.

Did he think it was love? No way. If he were sensitive enough to feel love for a product he raised, he wouldn’t have been a slave trader in the first place.

What he felt wasn’t love—it was lust.

One day, drunk, he tried to assault Hersh. Terrified by his unusually rough behavior, Hersh stabbed his eyes and throat and fled. That was her first murder.

Well… he deserved it. Trying to touch a thirteen-year-old girl like that.

Of course, her life after that was incomparably miserable.

A thirteen-year-old orphan girl, not even fully human, with only one skill to her name.

The world is cruel to the weak.

Hersh, who ended up in the back alleys, lived a life closer to a tool than a living being for the next three years. Despite that, she stubbornly grew stronger and caught Heinz’s eye, becoming a member of the Five Swords Society.

Her life story was more tragic and desperate than I expected.

—

“Enough about your life story. So, what can you do?”

It’s tragic, but it’s not my concern. A miserable past doesn’t excuse evil deeds.

Even if joining the organization that spread drugs to the poor was her revenge against the slum men who abused her, what does that have to do with me? Besides, it’s a pretty twisted revenge.

Hersh’s fate depended on her usefulness, not her past. If she’s useless, well, she’ll become a torch to light up the Holy Kingdom.

“Um, well… I’m really good at it! My former masters praised me!”

Her future as a torch just got one step closer.

“Sigh… not that. Think, think. I’m not some horny guy. Why would I need a slave who’s good at that?”

“The mistresses praised me too!”

…Two steps closer.

“No, besides selling your body, do you have any other skills? I’m not interested in that kind of thing.”

“Um, well… I can pick locks, steal things from houses, sneak up and ambush people…”

Sounds like a thief’s skills.

“…Let’s skip that for now. Do you know anything about Kiest and the cult leader? Like their destination or purpose?”

“Uh, well… the cult leader is a woman!”

…I already knew that.

“She has long lavender hair… her name is… um… Eljur! Her name was Eljur!”

“Heretic Eljur?!”

Lacey, who was listening, exclaimed in surprise. I already knew, but the fact that the current leader of the Dream Paradise Society was Eljur was a top secret even Heinz didn’t know.

“Why would Eljur, a heretic from the Imela Church Order, be with the Dream Paradise Society…?”

“Who’s that?”

I feigned ignorance and asked Lacey about Eljur. Honestly, I didn’t know she was from the Imela Church Order. In the original, she was just the leader of the Dream Paradise Society.

She was a mid-boss who hated the 11 Holy Gods and gathered all sorts of heretics to fight, only to get beaten like a dog on a hot day.

“About ten years ago, she was branded a heretic by the Imela Church Order. She preached that free love, unbound by tradition, was Imela’s will and spread a depraved culture of orgies and communal child-rearing, completely corrupting a village.”

She took devotion to the extreme in a sexual way.

“The Imela Church Order believed she was a follower of the dark goddess Lilith and sent paladins to burn the entire village. For such a woman to become the leader of the Dream Paradise Society… what could have happened?”

Who knows? Maybe the Dream Paradise Society was the largest surviving heretic group. Though it’s gone now.

“That’s definitely interesting information. If it’s true. Heinz, the leader of the Five Swords Society, didn’t even know the cult leader’s name… how did you know?”

“…I eavesdropped. I was curious why the cult leader didn’t reveal her identity to us…”

…I see. You’re good at hiding. If you’d been caught, your brain would’ve been fried.

—

In the end, I accepted Hersh as a slave instead of a torch. She wasn’t particularly useful, but she wasn’t completely useless either.

Originally, you shouldn’t judge someone’s life or death based on usefulness alone… but, well, evil people are an exception. They should be grateful just to be spared.

“Thank you, thank you, Master…!”

Hersh cried tears of joy, looking like an independence fighter who’d reclaimed her homeland. Though what she reclaimed wasn’t her country but her life.

No, not even that. Being a slave means her life is in someone else’s hands, so it’s more like her execution was temporarily postponed.

Well, even that was enough to make her happy. She even kissed my shoes while crying.

“Just in case, let me make this clear… if you try to run away or betray me to avenge the Five Swords Society, you’ll experience something beyond your imagination. Don’t think I won’t find you. I’ve already memorized your scent.”

“Eeek! Never! I wasn’t even close to those Five Swords Society people! Radeli was just a physical relationship!”

…A thief’s skill at cutting off former comrades is truly masterful.

—

And so, I gained a half-elf slave. Lacey was a bit dissatisfied, but she nodded, saying she’d respect my decision.

Afterward, we headed to the Holy Kingdom’s capital, Alhebron, with Hersh, now marked as a slave, riding in the coachman’s seat. I lay with my head on Leonor’s lap, soothing the fatigue of staying up all night, and fell into a deep sleep.

The journey was boringly peaceful. Not the usual pastoral slaughterfest, but literally nothing happened.

The city might be a mess, but the public order is much better than the Empire’s. Monsters and bandits seem to have been completely eradicated.

We traveled for six days.

I found out that Hersh is more competent than I thought. She’s great at handling horses, as if she communicates with them, and when we needed to camp, she set up the campsite in no time.

She’s even a decent cook.

If she’d poisoned the food, I would’ve pulled out all her teeth, but she managed to make meals better than most restaurants with just preserved rations. Housework was part of basic slave training, apparently.

Her attitude screamed, “I’m this capable, so please spare me!”

When we occasionally bathed, she offered to wash and massage me, and her skills were so good my whole body relaxed. I’ve always refused such services, but her hands were truly those of a master.

—

Six and a half days after leaving Holon, we finally arrived at the Holy Kingdom’s capital, Alhebron.