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Chapter 18
Chapter 18
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Lucky]
Chapter 18
As Kane emerged from the building, the murmuring crowd quickly scattered. The territory’s residents trembled with fear.
Ignoring them, Kane headed towards the Baor Farm.
[Baor Farm has been activated.]
It was the largest farm in Rehinar.
“This place is rotten to the core. Even in the Hatzfeld Kingdom, people weren’t treated this harshly.”
‘Ugh, forget it.’
The farmers looked as if they hadn’t eaten in days.
Ding!
Upon activating the farm, another quest popped up.
Main Story – [Punish the Corrupt Manager]
– Grade: D
– Description: The ones managing Baor Farm are part of Rivan’s gang. They are thugs who have been exploiting the lawless state of Rehinar to commit atrocious acts. Punish them to stop their misdeeds.
– Reward for Success: Access to Baor Farm, Baor Farm will to Rehinar
– Penalty for Failure: -1,500,000G, Overall decline in residents’ favorability
‘Rehinar is a territory where commerce and agriculture coexist. As it’s on the front lines, self-sufficiency is crucial.’
Just as he was reviewing the quest, Kane heard a voice berating a farmer.
“Hey! Can’t you work any faster? Do you want to go unpaid for today?”
Smack!
“S-sorry, sir.”
A man with a goatee lashed a whip, urging the farmers to work harder. Kane, seeing this, muttered quietly.
“How could they talk about righteousness while doing such things?”
What good is protecting the territory from enemies if Rich thugs keep tormenting the powerless residents?
Kane clicked his tongue and grabbed the goateed man by the shoulder.
“Who the hell are you?”
The goateed man spun around, shouting.
“It’s me.”
“Kane, the Young Master?”
“Is this Baor Farm?”
“Y-yes, sir. What brings you here?”
“Your master transferred this land to me.”
Kane showed him the documents.
“This is!?”
“Can’t you read? It says, ‘Baor Farm is now a property of Rehinar Family.'”
“Why would my boss…?”
“Why, you ask? Baor Farm has always belonged to Rehinar.”
“I need to verify this. There’s no way my boss would give up such a golden land…”
The man stopped mid-sentence, realizing he had said too much. He glanced at Kane nervously.
“So you know this is a golden land.”
“W-wait a moment. I’ll confirm with my boss. Boys, find the boss.”
“Yes, sir!”
The gang members from Baor Farm, along with the goateed man, quickly disappeared in search of their deceased farm owner.
“There’s no point in searching.”
“Shouldn’t we follow them, Young Master?” Daniel asked Kane.
“Yes, It would be dangerous if we just left them be.” Kane smirked
“Then why did you let them go?”
“When they see their boss is dead, they’ll go berserk and come at me.”
“Are you just creating an excuse to kill them?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Just because. It seemed like it would be fun.”
Kane smiled brightly.
He simply let them go.
Just because it seemed like it would be fun.
It would have been preferable if he said that he was creating an excuse to kill them.
Then, Kane wouldn’t have seemed as frightening.
—
The news that the owner of Baor Farm had died spread quickly.
“The owner of Baor Farm is dead!”
“I was skeptical all the way here…”
“I feel uneasy.”
In the impoverished territory of Rehinar, there were people adorned with a gold trim.
They were nobles.
Their bodies were covered in expensive luxuries.
“Boss!?”
The goateed man was shocked to see the corpse hanging in front of the building.
“You idiots, don’t just stand there! Get our boss down!”
“Yes, sir!”
Following the goateed man’s orders, the gang members lowered the body of the Baor Farm owner from the pole.
“Who the hell did this to our boss? I won’t let that bastard get away with this!”
The goateed man shouted furiously.
As his eyes grew bloodshot.
Daniel emerged from a shabby building.
“Daniel, you old bastard, it was you, wasn’t it!”
The goateed man grabbed Daniel by the collar.
Daniel spoke in a weak voice.
“Let’s go inside first.”
“You bastard! Do you want to die? Speak up now!”
Just as the goateed man was about to hit Daniel.
Crack!
“Aagh!”
Kane, who had followed them, shattered the goateed man’s wrist.
“This is a mess.”
Kane’s expression was cold.
“Urgh…”
“You don’t deserve to be here.”
Kane, who had crushed the bones in the goateed man’s wrist to powder, spoke to Camilla.
“Clean this up.”
“Yes!”
Camilla was highly disciplined. She had seen firsthand how terrifying Kane could be once he started taking action. Kane was an incredibly frightening person when he decided to act. With a signal from Kane, she swung her sheathed sword towards the thugs.
Thud!
“Ack!”
“How dare you swing your sword at us? Guys, get her!”
The thugs, oblivious to their own inadequacy, charged at Camilla. However, they were no match for her. She struck down all the thugs with her sheathed sword.
“Ugh!”
“I-I can’t breathe.”
“Ugh!”
They all collapsed, coughing up blood. Even at this sight, Kane was not satisfied.
“You’re too soft, Camilla.”
Kane shook his head and pressed his foot down on a thug’s thigh.
Crunch!
The sound of bones shattering was heard.
“Aaagh!”
“Stop. fucking. whining.”
Kane went around and broke a part of each thug’s body.
Saying “broke” was putting it mildly; they would be crippled for life.
[You have completed the quest ‘Punish the Corrupt Manager.’]
[You can now use Baor Farm.]
[Baor Farm is now a property belonging to the Rehinar Family.]
“Next time, make sure they can’t even crawl.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Camilla nodded. Kane turned around and glanced at the crowd that had gathered.
“The criminals are standing quite boldly.”
At that moment, a rough-looking man pushed through the crowd, shouting.
“Who dares to call us criminals!”
As soon as Kane saw the man’s face, his eyebrow twitched. The man was the leader of the Blue Wolf Mercenary Corps, the first to betray Rehinar.
“Did you just say you’re not guilty?”
“That’s right.”
“If you’re not, I’ll make up a crime just for you. Disrespecting the Young Master of Rehinar by speaking informally.”
“Hahaha. You must be too young to understand, but this isn’t your home anymore. You could die without anyone noticing if you’re not careful.”
“A poorly trained dog.”
“What!? Did you just call me a dog!”
The leader of the Blue Wolf Mercenary Corps shouted furiously. A fierce energy emanated from his body.
‘He’s withstanding my killing intent?’
The leader of the Blue Wolf Mercenary Corps felt something was off while pressuring Kane. In a normal situation, Kane should have been coughing up blood and collapsing. Instead, he was standing there, completely composed.
As time passed, the mercenary leader’s face hardened. Then, he noticed the woman standing behind Kane.
‘It’s because of her!’
The mercenary leader thought Camilla was blocking his killing intent.
“You must be relying on your guard, but you’ve got the wrong idea.”
“Camilla, look at what he’s saying~”
“I haven’t done anything.”
“Do you want to fight him?”
“Me?”
“Then should I fight him?”
“No! If you do that, this place will be drenched in blood.”
Camilla drew her sword. Given Kane’s temperament, he wouldn’t simply kill the mercenary leader. He would make it a gruesome, terrifying spectacle for everyone watching.
“Cut off one of his arms.”
“Really?”
“He insulted me, the Young Master and the acting head of the Rehinar family.”
“I’ll cut off an arm.”
The mercenary leader scoffed at Camilla’s attitude.
“Hahaha. You think you can cut off my arm?”
He drew a massive double-headed axe.
“Come and try it!”
Boom.
Before he finished speaking, he charged at Camilla. The heavy double-headed axe cut through the air.
Clang!
Camilla’s sword blocked the axe. The force of the blow pushed her back.
“Hahaha. You think you can take my arm with such weak skills?”
The mercenary leader kept pushing Camilla, not giving her a chance to counterattack.
“Where’s your confidence now?”
Their weapons clashed repeatedly, driving Camilla into a corner. Yet, her expression remained unchanged, even confident.
‘This is too easy.’
It was due to her trait was “Iron Wall”.
She specialized in defense rather than offense. No matter how hard the mercenary leader attacked, it was ineffective against her. The reason she hadn’t attacked yet was simple: she wanted to confirm her own growth.
‘It’s a waste of time to continue.’
She swung her sword with all her might, infused with her energy.
Slash!
“Ugh!”
The mercenary leader’s right arm, along with his double-headed axe, was cleanly cut off. Camilla’s sword was now at his throat.
“Looks like I took your arm.”
“Urgh…”
The mercenary leader groaned and fell to his knees. Those watching were left with their mouths agape.
“The mercenary leader… lost?”
“He’s a 3rd class knight!”
“Something must be wrong!”
No one could have imagined that the renowned mercenary leader would lose.
“Young Master, I cut off one arm,” Camilla said, looking at Kane with bright, eager eyes, clearly yearning for something. Kane chuckled.
“Well done.”
“Hehe, I’m good at fighting now.”
Her shoulders lifted with pride. Defeating the leader of the Blue Wolf Mercenary Corps gave her confidence in her abilities. Kane patted her on the head.
[Camilla’s favorability has increased by +1.]
‘Thirsty for praise,’ Kane thought. It was a deliberate action. In this game, favorability was crucial. Higher favorability could boost abilities or provide bonding effects. If she was to be a party member, increasing her favorability was beneficial.
“Now we can get to the main point,” Kane said, stepping in front of the mercenary leader.
“What is your crime?” he asked, looking down at him. The mercenary leader gritted his teeth.
“I… don’t know.”
“Don’t know, huh…”
Kane knelt, lowering himself to meet the mercenary leader’s eyes, and extended his arm.
Kane’s hand grasped the mercenary leader’s severed shoulder.
“You’ll remember soon enough.”
His fingers dug slowly into the mercenary leader’s shoulder.
“Aaaargh!”
The mercenary leader’s scream echoed across the territory. Heat and a burning smell rose from his shoulder as Kane both inflicted pain and cauterized the wound to stop the bleeding.
“St-stop it!”
The mercenary leader screamed, tears and snot streaming down his face. But Kane was unmoved. Instead, he intensified the pain.
“Ugh! I’ll talk, just stop!”
“No need.”
Kane’s cold voice froze the surroundings.
Moneylenders, tenant farmers, and guild managers—each of their faces turned pale. To them, it appeared Kane was savoring the torture of the mercenary leader.
“Uh… I was wrong… please… forgive me, just this once…”
Unable to withstand the pain, the mercenary leader fainted.
“No balls. Can’t even endure this much pain, tsk.”
Kane dusted off his hands and stood up. As he turned his head towards the corrupt territory residents, they gasped in terror and hastily bowed their heads, desperately avoiding eye contact with Kane.
Kane addressed them with a voice that cut through their fear.
“I’ll tell you the mercenary leader’s crimes. He maintained his force in Rehinar without paying any upkeep fees.”
The corrupt residents were speechless. Kane words was far more terrifying than Camilla with her sword.
“Additionally, he used the western wooden forest, a demon forest belonging to Rehinar, as the mercenary corps’ base without paying the hunting ground usage fees. And that’s not all. His greatest crime was smuggling all the profits from the frontier hunting grounds out of the territory. Ah… there were more offenses, but listing them all is tiring.”
All these crimes warranted execution by beheading. Knowing this, the corrupt residents trembled like aspen leaves.
As Kane paused, silence enveloped the area. A tense stillness lingered. No one dared to even swallow loudly.
Only one person could break this silence.
Kane.
“Now, I will ask you all, What crimes have you committed?”
Kane asked, staring directly at the corrupt residents.
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Lucky]