The reason centralized authority is difficult in our feudal society.
That was because provincial territories far from the royal capital could easily rebel depending on the circumstances—though one couldn’t say the same for regions nearby.
Well, it might be laughable if some baronial family of dubious origins tried such a thing.
But it was a different story for a family of countly rank.
Why?
Because they possessed power.
Their influence, rooted in places beyond the central government’s reach, made them virtually petty kings within their local domains.
The reason they bowed their heads to some king.
Was not to uphold honor, loyalty, nobility,
Or the so-called virtues of the aristocracy.
Rather, it was simply
That they were catching their breath to avoid being swept away like fallen leaves before the autumn wind called a “full-scale clash.”
Groups fundamentally move according to interest.
When forced by their master to stray from core interests, make no mistake—every last one of them was ready to bare their fangs and bite the hand that fed them.
Naturally, the central government knew this as well.
So for families of suitable influence, it tried to prevent betrayal by binding blood through marriage and sharing interests.
However.
In this world, there were almost no men.
That catastrophic situation had persisted for a full three hundred years,
And notions, society, and mindsets had all changed.
Thus, with not even a ghost of intermarriage between them, unable to forge any connections,
Instead of the king, they sent an envoy to interrogate and hound a count’s house that managed local loyalty?
And tried to snatch me away, saying the nation wished to employ me, when I could scarcely scrape together enough profits here?
To put it in exactly two words.
That was insolent beyond measure for a bunch of central-government hicks.
And they looked practically desperate to have their bellies slit open.
Well, I had no particular knack for political scheming.
But in my previous life, I had seen many local lords act stubbornly in just this manner.
So.
When Naria, intoxicated by her position, pompously spouted unreasonable demands.
I made up my mind to handle it.
This girl, I’ll just kill her and cover it up.
A demand for clarification on the Jade.
A demand for war conscription.
Our territory has never received a royal courier bearing such news.
Naria had ridden her horse quite hard to reach this place, but.
Whether it was monsters, demonkin, or wild beasts along the way….
She ran into some rough beast and died.
That would make everything easy.
For me, and for my territory.
No.
Not for Naria, I suppose.
‘R-run—.’
‘Now, now.’
The moment I told her to get off the horse,
She tried to spur the horse and flee.
Swoosh—!
However.
You have to shake off the right person.
I’d practiced using a snare plenty as a child in my previous life, so I just threw it roughly to catch her leg, and the horse tripped on its own.
So I hoisted the groaning Naria over my shoulder
And dragged her deep into a remote woodland where no one would come.
“L-let go…!”
“……….”
But it seemed her strength had returned midway,
For she kept struggling on my shoulder.
At this point, no one would come anyway.
Finding it stifling, I set her down,
Covering her mouth,
And pressed a dagger decisively against her neck as I spoke.
“Have you seen many people die?”
“───.”
“I’ve seen plenty. More precisely, I killed them—it was my trade.”
At that, her already pale skin turned even whiter, and she looked up at me trembling in terror.
“I don’t like killing women. But when I must, I do. And you’ve overstepped your bounds, so you die. Remember only that.”
And so I,
Hid my displeasure in my heart, and tried to thrust the dagger precisely to end her in a single breath, yet.
She seemed to keenly feel that she was truly about to die.
“U-urk, k—. Ghaaak—!”
After forcefully wrenching free from my grip—which shouldn’t have loosened—
She flung herself to the ground.
Crack—!!
Her head struck a rock,
And an unbelievable sound echoed.
“H-ic, hiiic…. Hiiiic….”
“…What is this?”
Really, what was this?
If she broke free, she should have run for it.
Instead of that, she was pressing her forehead to the ground as if offering a prayer to the gods.
“P-please spare me. I have to live? B-because I’ll become Lord Balter’s dog….”
“……….”
But I felt nothing in particular.
I grabbed the hair of the kneeling girl and tried to kill her again.
The moment she caught sight of the blade at her neck from the corner of her eye,
Naria desperately cried out.
“Bark!! Bark bark, bark bark bark bark!! Bark!!! Bark!!”
“…Bark?”
“Naria is a puppy!! No, I’m worse than a dog. I-I didn’t know my place. I acted arrogantly to Lord Balter without knowing my place!! Do you know why?! Please, won’t you listen just once!!”
“Why would I care?”
“—I-it was because this was the first territory I had visited since receiving the envoy’s mission!! So, I was excited. I got carried away because it felt good wearing the official’s cap, bark!!!”
In the end, no matter what she said, I was going to kill her anyway.
So I should have just snapped her neck quickly.
But she spoke with such desperation that I was swept along by her momentum and ended up listening to the end.
“Hah.”
Honestly, it was so absurd that a hollow laugh nearly escaped me.
This girl.
When she entered a provincial lord’s castle and acted like a king despite being a mere envoy, thrusting her chin out, I had thought she was quite gutsy.
I had completely misjudged her….
For an envoy to behave like such a complete buffoon.
But then.
Thinking about it, there might have been harbingers.
To quietly lure her out,
She had completely fallen for my words and smile when I said I would escort her.
What to call it—I smiled like a virgin talking to a woman for the first time.
And she had readily spilled her own story.
In a way, that was evidence that Naria wasn’t such a calculating person.
“So please… I-I… Please don’t kill me, bark. I had my coming-of-age ceremony last year. Like most people, I haven’t even spoken to a decent man, let alone found one…. Above all, above all….”
“Sigh. Naria, stop making this uncomfortable. Take responsibility for your actions. You have to die.”
“A-above all, I have to return to my hometown, Habaldeim….”
As she said this, perhaps convinced that there was truly no escape,
She sat on the ground and sobbed her heart out as if the world were ending,
Yet repeatedly glanced at me with eyes trembling in terror, not knowing when I would thrust the blade.
However.
At that moment, I was struck by the name of the hometown Naria mentioned.
Habaldeim?
Habaldeim….
“Habaldeim? Isn’t that currently occupied by the demon realm?”
“W-were you from the same town?! Ah, n-no, that can’t be. Lord Balter is the young master of House Takuga. But how do you….”
“Don’t answer a question with a question.”
“E-eeeek—! O-of course. It is occupied by the demon realm!! But even so, people who couldn’t escape the occupied territory continue living as slaves…. I was only born there!!”
“Huh, slaves? Demonkin who don’t tolerate the existence of anyone but themselves keeping slaves? That’s laughable. Did you escape from there?”
At that,
Naria nodded desperately.
“I-I was fast on my feet since childhood…. I promised to rescue the villagers and blindly fled to the human realm. And I made use of that aptitude to become an envoy?”
“You’re not adding ‘bark’ anymore.”
“I-I became an envoy, bark!!”
Well, none of that mattered.
The reason I was fixated on that village’s name
Was none other than this.
“There is surely a massive gorge near Habaldeim. The current is shallow, but it’s deep and dark, making it suitable as a secret military route….”
“How do you know that?! Of course there is. W-well. It wasn’t somewhere I could go as a slave, but….”
“……….”
“The demonkin called that place the ‘Forbidden Zone,’ bark. They say it’s a place one must not and cannot approach, so I don’t know it well, bark!!”
“Good. That’s enough.”
It was the first time I had heard it being called a forbidden zone now.
Conversely, if the demon army thought so and blocked it off, then naturally the human realm wouldn’t know of it.
Unless one was a native.
It was certain.
That place was where I had died.
And likely, where that evil spirit bastard was still alive.
“Do you know the way to Habaldeim?”
“It’s still vivid in my eyes, bark…?”
“Sounds like a lie. I should kill you after all.”
“I know!! I do!! Because I always dreamed of leading an army there!!! I reviewed the route every night before bed, bark!!!”
In the end, after she said that much,
I slowly lowered the blade and spoke.
“Then I shall revise my plans.”
“Huh…?”
“I’ll let you live for now. You have utility value to me.”
The reason I hadn’t been able to go there until now
Was that throwing myself into an unknown route without knowing the way would have been suicide.
But if someone who escaped safely from there ran ahead as a scout,
It was worth attempting.
‘So she gets out of it like this. Well, if that is her fate, then so be it.’
Then,
On the face of the one whose life had been spared,
A sudden brilliant color bloomed.
Blood returned to her pale face,
Tears that had been spilling now welled up again,
And she breathed roughly as if she might faint at any moment.
“I-I lived. I lived….”
“In exchange, you cannot go anywhere now. You cannot speak with anyone. You are no longer the king’s envoy, but my personal property.”
“Thank you, thank you, Lord Balteeeer!!”
“But I remember the insolence you committed. Therefore, I do not trust you.”
“Since you spared my life once, must I not do anything? Just say the word!! I will show you the meaning of my loyalty, bark!!”
“Hah, now of all times. Then why don’t you lick my shoes.”
However, when I said that sarcastically,
Naria seemed not to understand at all.
She tilted her head and looked at me.
Well, to me, it was even more incomprehensible that she couldn’t understand such a simple sarcastic remark.
I stared at her just as she stared at me.
As they say, a bad move after long deliberation.
What Naria said was quite transparent.
“U-um… Young master…?”
“What.”
“If I do it… is it okay…?”
I wondered what kind of idiot would actually do it just because they were told to.
But thinking about it, I understood.
From my perspective, this was like proving some utility value to a female officer of the enemy who was trying to kill you.
And then being told to lick her shoes.
‘…So those perverts really would try to do it, huh.’