At that moment, in the study of the lord’s residence in Baron Gilbert’s domain.
“This is troublesome.”
Blake Gilbert, the middle-aged lord who ruled Baron Gilbert’s domain, let out a deep sigh as he looked over the documents spread across his desk.
“Troublesome in every way.”
Baron Gilbert was genuinely troubled.
Ever since the incident—or rather, the incident that had not quite been an incident—two months ago, he had never experienced a moment more troublesome than this.
“Too many are dying.”
The number of missing persons had reached seventy.
More precisely, that was the number of people who had entered the dungeon, been sucked beyond the fog, and never returned.
It was not as though seventy people had vanished all at once.
At first, there had been roughly fifteen.
The problem was that among those first missing persons was Eris, the woman who had been the foremost adventurer in the domain.
And another problem was that Eris’s true identity was Eris Albathea—the only daughter of Count Albathea’s family.
The fact that he had a half-sibling was merely a minor issue.
In truth, it was not minor at all.
The mere fact that an illegitimate child was alive was always a matter of concern when it came to the distribution of inheritance.
If he were to suddenly die one day, who would inherit the barony?
His young child, who was not yet even ten years old?
No matter that he was the son of the previous baron by a prostitute, the fact that he was the former baron’s son was a matter that required more consideration than one might expect.
What was more, perhaps because he had taken that possibility into account, the man had maintained reasonably good relations with the knights of the family for a long time. It was only natural that he should be watched even more closely.
If he returned alive—
“Tsk…”
It would be better if he simply died, but if he assumed that the man had died, then he would also have to assume that Eris Albathea had died.
What would be best for Blake Gilbert personally?
Was it for the Guild Master of the Adventurers’ Guild to come whining every day, demanding that he dispatch the knights because seventy adventurers had gone missing one after another and never returned?
Was it for him to realize, based on the wounds suffered by those who returned alive from the sudden gray fog within the dungeon, only that it “probably isn’t an ordinary dungeon”?
Was it for most of the last words left by the few survivors to state that they had all been slaughtered by an “old demon,” and that defeating that old demon might require not a high-ranking knight, but a Master-class swordsman or mage?
“Haah. If only I knew for certain whether they were alive or dead.”
Let some be alive.
Let some be dead.
And if possible, let the one who was alive be Eris Albathea, not the illegitimate child named Jake Gilbert.
“…”
Baron Gilbert opened a drawer.
After unlocking it with a key, he took out a letter written in blood.
“‘Save me,’ huh.”
It was not written in the man’s own handwriting.
But the blood letter contained a message that made it clear why it could not have been otherwise.
“I received this two weeks ago already. But could he possibly still be alive?”
Only a very small number of people knew that this blood letter existed.
If his survival were confirmed, even more “rescue parties” would have to be sent in.
And dispatching knights rather than adventurers would inevitably lead to a decline in the strength of House Gilbert.
“Damn it…”
Baron Gilbert could not help but think that way.
He did not know where the dungeon mentioned in the report led, but one thing was certain: House Gilbert had no means of conquering the demons that emerged from it.
The best they could do was defeat the monsters whenever they crossed over from the dungeon into this side, relying on the power of the goddess.
As long as there was no need to venture beyond the dungeon, he could sleep soundly simply by warning adventurers not to be carelessly sucked into the gray fog and maintaining the status quo.
In fact, it would be much easier.
He would no longer have to concern himself with that parasite who had clung to Gilbert under the pretense of being an adventurer, even after he had been granted the barony.
Nor would he have to worry about somehow becoming involved with the Albathea family, only to have the barony seized from him by force—
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock sounded.
Since it was late at night, Baron Gilbert pushed the blood letter back into the drawer with an irritated expression and cleared his throat.
“Come in.”
“Excuse me, my lord.”
His secretary entered.
Baron Gilbert, who had been about to express his irritation at the man’s pale face, swallowed hard instead.
“What is it?”
“The Armot party has been annihilated.”
“……That makes seventy-five, then?”
“Yes. But one person returned alive.”
“He’ll die again soon enough.”
“Well…”
The secretary held out a mana stone with trembling hands.
“This was written on it.”
“Written on it?”
Baron Gilbert let his mana flow into the stone the secretary offered.
Soon, fog spread out above the mana stone in the shape of a rectangle, and an image—as though a scene had been recorded—unfolded before Baron Gilbert through magic.
“…Urgh.”
The baron nearly vomited the instant he saw the image.
It was a shocking sight, one he had never seen before in his life, and for a moment, he nearly lost his mind trying to think of what to say.
“Don’t tell me the demons… used an adventurer as a letter?”
“That appears to be the case.”
Words had been written on a human’s back.
They were not ordinary words. It looked as though the letters had been carved into the body with a sharp knife.
“What about the adventurer?”
“He isn’t dead, but he’s suffered severe shock. According to the priest, even with treatment, the scars will remain for the rest of his life.”
“Haah…”
Baron Gilbert closed his eyes completely.
“This is driving me insane.”
Because of the message carved into the adventurer’s body—a message that could be called a letter.
“My lord. For the time being—”
“Steward. Call a meeting.”
Baron Gilbert let out a deep sigh.
“Since Jake Gilbert is alive, we have no choice but to form a rescue party.”
The message written on the adventurer’s body was not much different from the contents of the letter inside the drawer.
“Not a rescue party…”
But to put it more precisely—
“We need to form a delegation for negotiations.”
Regarding the release of the human prisoner, Jake Gilbert.
Regarding the compensation for his release—the enormous number written on the adventurer’s body.
* * *
The assistant instructors’ room, morning.
“One million gold?”
“That’s right.”
Eris opened her eyes wide in surprise.
As expected, Eris also seemed stunned by the enormous figure of one million.
“…”
She blinked.
Apparently, she could not quite grasp the scale of one million gold.
‘Honestly, I can’t really grasp it either. It would be strange if I could.’
To define the value of one million gold, one would first have to calculate exactly how much value a single gold coin possessed.
“Uh, so…”
“According to Chief Arahamond’s aide, it’s approximately equivalent to one year’s tax revenue for a barony.”
“…One year’s tax revenue for a barony?”
Calculating the precise value was not my responsibility.
“R-really?”
“More specifically, he said something like one million and forty-something thousand, but apparently he rounded it down neatly to one million gold.”
Arahamond, the chief aide, had already determined an appropriate sum “in accordance with the market rate.”
“The compensation for Jake Gilbert’s release as a hostage is one million gold.”
“……We have to give up an entire year’s tax revenue from the domain for one person’s life?”
“That’s right.”
The important thing was not the figure of one million gold.
What mattered was the symbolic meaning carried by that amount.
“Are they trying to ruin the barony…?”
Eris lowered her head, fidgeting with her fork.
“They’re trying to sell a dead person as though he were alive, using him to extort money.”
“It is excessive. Economically, morally, and humanely.”
“But I’m an instructor in the Demon King’s Army. Is that what this is about?”
“That’s part of it, but…”
I tapped my finger against the table, drawing Eris’s attention.
“Do you really think Baron Gilbert is going to negotiate with one year’s tax revenue?”
“What?”
“He absolutely won’t.”
Every person had a price on their life.
“If I were in his position, I wouldn’t commit the idiotic act of throwing away an entire year’s tax revenue just to save an illegitimate child I already regarded as an eyesore.”
“B-but…”
“It might be different if he were burning a million gold to save Eris Albathea.”
“……No way.”
Eris’s pupils trembled violently.
“To release me…?”
“Hm? No, not that.”
“What?”
“Do you think your ransom would be only one million gold?”
“……”
“One million for someone like Jake? Eris Albathea couldn’t even be compared to him.”
I had asked just in case, and I was told that it would have to be about twenty times that amount to be worth it.
“I never paid much attention to it before, but now that I’m in a position to deal with ransom payments, I can see things that weren’t visible before. Eris, do you know why hostage ransoms are ‘reasonably enormous’?”
“……Reasonably enormous?”
“That’s right.”
“……Are they saying we have to decide whether to save one person even if it means going bankrupt, or simply let them die?”
“Exactly.”
The Demon King’s Army had brought numerous groups to ruin using the value of a single person’s life.
“It isn’t your turn to step forward yet, Eris. Though someday, you’ll have to.”
“Someday…?”
“That’s right. This.”
I picked up an object from the storage room of the assistant instructors’ office.
“W-wait!”
Eris shot to her feet and pointed at the object.
“A-are you going to… tie me to that table and rape me?!”
“…Ah, I suppose it does look that way.”
It was a round table.
On top of it were devices meant to lay a person down and bind their limbs.
“It is a negotiation table, but if that’s what you want, then I suppose I’ll have to accommodate you.”
“A negotiation… table?”
“That’s right. Our main negotiating target will be the Albathea family, but before that, I was planning to ‘negotiate’ with Blake Gilbert.”
I raised a finger.
“A very good deal that will allow us to save Jake Gilbert without paying one million gold.”
“……”
“Curious?”
“Th-that…”
“But before that.”
I swiftly lifted Eris by the waist.
“W-what are you going to do…?!”
“What you want.”
“What do I—”
“Tie you to the table and rape you like a dog.”
“……!!”
Eris bit her lower lip, but—
“You’re not going to tie me up in some strange position, are you…?”
She neither denied nor resisted the idea of being raped.
Naturally, she was simply accepting that she would be raped.
“Hey.”
I pointed to the top of the table.
“Get on all fours.”
To be raped “like a dog.”