Chapter 29
At dawn, while Rex was fast asleep.
It was a time some might have called early morning.
The undercover knights who had met the vigilante at the employment office obtained information from her.
And together with her, they immediately stormed the mayor’s mansion.
Of course, since they were acting on the testimony of only one person, they did not immediately resort to force.
“I am a tax official from the capital. I would like to inspect the ledgers.”
At first, they tried to engage in the most peaceful conversation possible, posing as tax officials rather than undercover knights.
But the mayor flatly refused to cooperate, and…
“Yes. We have confirmed your refusal to cooperate, so we will proceed with compulsory enforcement.”
As though he had expected it, the tax official—the dark elf company commander—began a search and seizure.
“I’ll handle this alone.”
“Be careful, Master.”
Since there was a vigilante woman among their party, the two began cleaning out the mansion while maintaining the personas of a narrow-eyed tax official and an old butler.
However, the tax official alone was more than sufficient for the cleaning.
The mayor and his knights were not at a level that required the old butler Dominic to step in.
“People are sleeping, so let’s keep quiet.”
Whenever he snapped one finger, silence swept over the mansion, and
when he clapped, the lesser members collapsed one after another as though falling asleep,
and when he drew a horizontal line with his finger, the heads of those who had barely held out rolled across the floor.
‘The undercover knight has arrived!’
Thus, while the tax official single-handedly rampaged through the mansion, Dominic watched his battle, shouting that iconic line in his mind.
And the vigilante who had accompanied them…
‘So this is a tax official dispatched from the capital…’
She could not help but understand why only these two people had been dispatched from the capital.
At the same time, she understood why such a powerful old butler served beneath that tax official.
When the cleaning was over, the company commander took out a monocle in a room drenched in bloodstains.
Watching him, Dominic was satisfied.
‘A suspicious tax official by anyone’s standards.’
The dark elf company commander had whitened his skin and shortened his ears while disguising himself as a tax official, but he could do nothing about the whites showing around his distinctive narrow eyes.
Thanks to that, judging solely by his appearance, he was unmistakably ‘the mastermind who had cut the mayor loose.’
It seemed Dominic was not the only one who felt that way, as the vigilante woman’s eyebrows twitched from time to time as well.
Of course, Dominic knew that this First Company Commander was the most diligent and normal of the three company commanders, so he felt deeply sorry for him.
While Dominic was daydreaming instead of focusing on the mission, the company commander finished his analysis and summed up the situation.
“This mayor has pocketed quite a lot.”
Hailudin cast a disgusted look at the ledgers.
The city they had thought clean had merely been dumping its filth onto the neighboring domain.
They had maintained slave labor by changing the slaves’ affiliation to the neighboring domain and renting them, rather than owning slaves in this domain.
“And despite that, he was even pocketing the lord’s slave-emancipation subsidies. What shamelessness.”
Ordinarily, the sensible course would have been to replace the mayor, request that the capital dispatch a new one, and wait.
The tax official thought so as well and brought up the next course of action.
“Until the capital dispatches a local governor…”
“Have you forgotten our promise, Master?”
At the old butler’s interruption, the tax official Hailudin flinched and glanced at the vigilante woman.
Hailudin recalled his promise to this woman.
In exchange for her sharing information, he would help her take revenge.
But his thoughts as a tax official seemed somewhat different.
“We certainly made a promise. But before we made it, we didn’t know this was the neighboring domain. We need to approach this cautiously.”
“We cannot break our promise, Master.”
The loyal old butler continued persuading the tax official, invoking the dictates of honor.
Dominic was doing this not for her, but for Duke, his true self.
The two of them could use force to pretend that their promise to her had never existed.
But Duke, Dominic’s true self, was an honorable knight and could not do that.
That was why the old butler continued persuading Hailudin.
At the sight of his superior offering earnest advice while pretending to be a butler, Hailudin wiped away a cold sweat and made excuses.
“Mr. Dominic. It’s not that I don’t intend to keep it. I’m angry too. I have not the slightest intention of forgiving those scoundrels who kidnapped our domain residents. But we should give it some time… Yes. There would be no problem starting a year from now.”
The tax official advocated caution.
Perhaps because his true form was a dark elf, his sense of time was strange as well.
His argument was reasonable.
Matters between domains required caution.
Moreover, the domain was as large as a country in Duke’s previous life, so moving on that scale would take time.
But Duke, who had finally unlocked the final-boss content, had no intention of spending such a boring waiting period.
So he immediately changed his strategy for persuasion.
‘If logic doesn’t work…’
He would resort to incitement and appeals.
The old butler slipped partway back into Duke’s state and offered the tax official earnest advice.
“Even if we execute the mayor of this city, it will be meaningless if the neighboring domain continues supplying slaves. Besides, the domain residents are still being kidnapped and turned into slaves even as we speak.”
To cure a disease, one had to deal with its source.
“And wouldn’t it be our mission to bring this to the poor citizens of that domain who still do not know Lord Rex’s benevolence?”
At Dominic’s utterly simple and straightforward appeal, Hailudin forgot even to maintain his act and marveled.
“As expected…!”
Dominic’s words reminded Hailudin of the secret meeting held on the evening the Jormungand Knights were founded.
‘The commander never intended to be satisfied with this domain from that moment onward!’
The company commander reinterpreted the old butler’s words with a face filled with elation.
“Those trapped in a cave see nothing but shadows cast by a fire! Yes! To let them see true happiness, people like us must not hesitate to labor! It is our duty as well!”
Dominic felt that something had been miscommunicated, but he did not bother correcting the misunderstanding.
In any case, the burden of dealing with his subordinate’s rampage belonged entirely to Rex.
While the old butler maintained his silence, the First Company Commander organized his thoughts and nodded.
“Yes. We shall help her, so that Lord Rex’s will can reach even the ends of the earth.”
Only then did Dominic nod as well.
“Everything is for the lord.”
‘Well, he’ll handle it himself.’
***
Thus, the two decided that their next destination would be the neighboring domain, the Dracon Marquisate.
By the time Rex awoke in the morning, the two had already crossed the marquisate’s border before he had even had a chance to stop them.
Guided by the vigilante woman, the group proceeded deeper into the marquisate.
“Let me make this clear: I don’t trust people like you.”
“What have we done to deserve that?”
“Narrow-eyes. You tried to break your promise to me yesterday.”
Hailudin rolled his eyes and looked away from her.
Thanks to that, an awkward atmosphere descended over the group.
The old butler Dominic tried to break the awkward atmosphere by blatantly changing the subject.
“Come to think of it, we haven’t introduced ourselves. Since we’re all in the same boat now, shouldn’t we at least know each other’s names?”
Dominic also did not want to spend the journey being called Narrow-Eyes and Old Man.
She glanced sidelong at the two of them from horseback, then…
“Jane.”
“I am Hailudin. I am a tax official dispatched from the capital, but while we are working together, please treat me as a fallen noble.”
“I am Dominic. I am both a butler and a bodyguard.”
She readily accepted Hailudin’s introduction, but tilted her head at Dominic’s.
“A butler and a bodyguard?”
“Yes.”
“Does that make sense?”
At her objection, the two exchanged glances.
And simultaneously, the two recalled Rex’s combat maid, Ari.
“Yes.”
“In our domain, it is perfectly normal for butlers and maids to double as combatants, miss.”
“???”
Although she came from the neighboring domain, she had frequently traveled back and forth to the Karognar Domain, so this was the first she had heard of it.
Unable to accept it easily, she asked another question.
“Has that been common knowledge for several years?”
“It became common knowledge after the lord took office, miss.”
“Is that the Providence lord’s preference?”
At that question, the two again recalled the relationship between Rex and Ari.
And then,
“Yes. You could say that?”
“It is the lord’s preference.”
Tax official Hailudin did not deny it, while old butler Dominic enthusiastically affirmed it.
Only then did Jane, the elven vigilante, accept the explanation.
“Well, there are plenty of strange people among superhumans.”
She herself was also a superhuman who had reached the Third Tier.
Thus, at Rex’s sacrifice(?), the group finished breaking the ice.
Their journey remained peaceful for about three days.
“The marquisate’s public security is better than I expected.”
At the narrow-eyed tax official Hailudin’s mutter, Jane snorted.
“Then would I be playing vigilante?”
“Then are you saying you accomplished this?”
“Of course not. Justice doesn’t interest me. It’s just…”
She closed her mouth, then changed what she was going to say.
“In any case, it has nothing to do with me. Judging by the way you speak, you don’t know anything about the situation in the marquisate.”
The two honestly nodded.
Providence Domain was currently suffering from a chronic labor shortage.
If all Rex did was collect taxes half-heartedly and focus only on his tug-of-war with neighboring domains and raising his level, that would be one thing, but he was now actively intervening in administration.
Besides, manpower was not something that could suddenly be created, and he had ruthlessly purged the people who had already been there…
‘Rex would have collapsed if Hana hadn’t sent people over.’
In that situation, they had no manpower to spare for dispatching informants to the neighboring domain.
Dominic gave a sheepish smile, suddenly conscious of his wrinkles.
“It is entirely due to our own failings, but we have only heard rumors.”
Those rumors amounted to little more than the fact that the marquisate’s tax rates were high compared to other domains and that there were few bandits.
At that, the elven vigilante Jane let out a derisive laugh.
“Bandits? Of course there aren’t any. Those bandits control the guards.”
“Pardon?”
“The marquisate is already ruled by mafias. So why would they hide in some mountain valley and rob people? They can join the mafia and do it in the city.”
The two men tilted their heads, unable to understand immediately.
Then how were they any different from the knights?
As though she had read their thoughts, she compared the difference between the marquisate and Providence Domain.
“You have knights, and those knights openly steal under the authority of the state, right? Here, the knights take bribes or are threatened, while the mafias operate behind the scenes.”
According to her, the marquisate had currently been taken over by a mafia alliance.
Each city had a mafia controlling it, and those mafias had formed an alliance to run the marquisate.
Because they did not tolerate bandits operating in their own territories, public safety during travel was not a problem, but entering the cities was another matter.
“Public authority? That isn’t even something people joke about here.”
“What is the lord doing?”
The tax official expressed his puzzlement.
A marquis should be an extremely powerful individual, so he could not understand how the marquisate had been swallowed up by a mere criminal organization.
The mafia alliance might be stronger in some cases, but then they could simply depose the marquis and turn their criminal rule into legitimate authority.
That was why the tax official could understand neither the mafias operating from the shadows while paying bribes nor the marquis who left them alone.
Jane, the vigilante, also recognized that there was something strange about the situation.
“I don’t know. Some say the lord is from the alliance, some say he’s a puppet, and some say he’s the Godfather’s twin brother. I don’t know why, but all I know is that the marquis is simply turning a blind eye. Well, there’s no point explaining it at length. You’ll understand when you see it yourself.”
Dominic nodded beside her.
‘Hmm. I don’t know.’
Of course, even Dominic, who hated using his brain, could understand this much if he tried.
But he had no intention of trying.
Brains were for people whose bodies didn’t work, after all.
There was only one fact he had understood.
‘In other words, we just cut down the bad guys in the marquisate and leave the executives for Jane, right?’
The chaos in public security and the administrative burden that followed would not be Duke/Dominic’s problem anyway.
As Duke was organizing his thoughts that way as well, Jane seemed to recall something and spoke to Dominic.
“Since we’re on the subject, don’t treat me as a vigilante.”
“Hmm? When did we ever say that?”
“Your attitude.”
“If we did, I apologize. But may I ask why, miss?”
“Those mafias started out as vigilantes too. Something about protecting the marquisate’s traditions from outsiders.”
“Ah-ha.”
Dominic accepted that.
“Then I shall think of you as a wandering knight.”
“I don’t have such noble ideals either.”
“Perhaps. We shall see.”
It was a cliché for a protagonist who began with revenge to eventually embrace a greater cause.
Having already chosen her as the protagonist of this story, Dominic had no intention of listening to anything she said.
“Justice that keeps itself in check will bloom someday.”
“Hmph. There is no such thing as absolute justice. Those mafias are the same; in the end, evil is merely another form of justice.”
“Even so, we must not give up guarding against evil and pursuing good. To establish a relative standard, there must be an absolute one. It is one of the few truths this old man has learned in his life.”
Jane’s shoulders flinched and trembled.
For some reason, even the tax official cast a look of enlightenment at Dominic’s words.
‘What the hell? Why are you…?’
Meanwhile, the group arrived at a city.
Before entering the city, Jane gave the two of them a warning.
“Don’t forget our agreement.”
“The alliance executives are yours.”
A mafia family was established behind each city’s mayor.
But not all the family bosses were executives of the alliance.
That was why she had asked only for those at the level of alliance executives, not every mafia boss.
Remembering her request, Dominic nodded.
“In other words, there’s no need to leave the others alive for your sake.”
“Right. You just need to clear a path to the boss. So, to explain the structure of the family ruling this city first…”
She opened her mouth while looking at the checkpoint in the surrounding city wall.
“The alliance executive rules this place, so there are soldati (low-ranking members) starting at the checkpoint. So first, we’ll infiltrate…”
But before she could finish, an ominous sound came from behind her.
Shing.
The old butler had already removed his coat and drawn his sword with a benevolent smile.
He had strapped a spare hand axe to his back and held a reasonably sturdy-looking standard-issue iron sword in each hand.
“???”
While her mind filled with confusion, the tax official carefully laid the old butler’s coat over the saddle.
“What are you doing?”
The old butler gave the bewildered Jane a warm smile.
“Cities belong to their citizens. We must return them to their rightful owners.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“When a house has been occupied by a scoundrel who is not its owner, why should we bow our heads to enter it?”
“Wait!”
Before she could stop him, the old butler charged toward the checkpoint.