Chapter 43
#43화 Servant Cedric (9) - Public Safety Belongs to the Hounds
The lord's manor in Eched Territory.
The space that should have been filled with sternness and gravity was, at this very moment, overflowing with an adorable, fluffy atmosphere.
-Woof!
-Yip.
Blood beasts.
Special magical creatures born from the Redbell family's secret art, creatures so formidable that even seasoned warriors would never dare challenge them.
That was because, instead of spreading fear and majesty as they normally should have, they had shrunk to the size of medium-sized dogs, multiplied into the hundreds, and packed the mansion's courtyard wall to wall.
“I did as you advised, but is this really going to help?”
Cedric answered with a bright smile toward Claudia, who wore a doubtful expression.
“Of course, young lady! These beasts will become the finest workers for reforming Eched!”
“Hmm.”
Originally, the blood beasts Claudia could control were only five Grade 3 specimens.
But Cedric had asked her to increase the number of beasts as much as possible, ignoring how strong each one was.
Thanks to that, their numbers had increased dramatically, but their strength had really dropped to match their appearance—just the level of ordinary medium-sized dogs.
“Didn't you say you were going to use them to strengthen the territory's public order? In this state, they couldn't even beat a pickpocket unless the opponent was a kid. And if the culprit can use even a little mana, they could handle a whole swarm with ease.”
“It doesn't matter. The ones who usually undermine the territory's public order are petty criminals anyway, and from the start, combat is only a very small part of what these blood beasts need to do.”
Cedric saw the true value of the Redbell family's secret art as something other than regeneration or combat power.
Each blood beast had a certain degree of free will, and intelligence enough to understand the commands of its master, Claudia.
They also had dog-like abilities, just like their appearance, and if fed, they could operate on their own even without mana supplied by their master.
If you could deploy hundreds of medium-sized dogs that could communicate with people wherever you wanted, what couldn't you do?
“From now on, these blood beasts will roam freely throughout the city and operate wherever they please. And if they spot someone committing a crime—whether a back-alley thug or a pickpocket—they'll be able to growl at the culprit and issue a warning.”
“What if the culprit just thinks it's a dog and ignores it, or attacks it instead?”
“It doesn't matter. In that case, they can just run away first, gather the other blood beasts, and swarm the culprit together. If even that's difficult, they can simply notify the guard directly. The guards wouldn't need to do routine patrols anymore; they'd become a rapid-response unit that rushes out wherever the blood beasts report danger.”
Numbers themselves are power.
If a guard force with enough weapons and manpower decided to fight as a group and swarmed in with that resolve, there would be almost no criminal who could stand against them head-on.
“Even if they weren't seen committing the crime by a blood beast, or tried to kill it before it could escape to silence it, it wouldn't matter. The scent left at the scene will let them track the culprit all the way down.”
A dog's tracking ability, when it deliberately makes use of its sense of smell, is beyond comparison with a human's.
The main reason criminals can run wild is not that they are stronger than the entire guard force, but that they can hide or flee—and blood beasts can find such culprits to the very end.
“Still, there must be some capable of erasing their appearance or scent entirely, right?”
“That's true. But what really makes a public-safety organization struggle isn't the violent crimes committed by that handful of talented individuals; it's the countless petty offenses committed by ordinary criminals. If you can set things up so that 99 out of 100 incidents can be suppressed or handled immediately, then you can devote plenty of organizational resources to dealing with the remaining one.”
More than one gruesome murder, hundreds or thousands of petty crimes have a greater impact on a city's public order.
And in this fantasy age, where human lives vanish like they're nothing, a territory with an extremely low crime rate is a major advantage in itself.
“This isn't something that can be applied only to cities or villages where people live. If blood beasts are stationed at regular intervals along the main routes leading into Eched Territory and made to patrol, then, just as I said, bandits or monsters ambushing travelers there can be dealt with by concentrating all available force on them. You can instill in travelers and merchants the idea that 'the road to Eched Territory is safe.'”
Eched Territory's potential had never been bad to begin with.
Once it's established as a safe city and people start flocking in, a virtuous cycle is bound to follow from there.
“But isn't this something anyone from the Redbell family could do? If others do the same thing, won't my value drop again?”
“To make sure that doesn't happen, you'll need to keep growing your ability to handle blood beasts. In the end, the core of this system is how many blood beasts you can manage at once.”
More importantly, Cedric added.
“In my opinion, your siblings probably won't try to use this.”
“Why?”
“Because, setting efficiency aside, those blood beasts—creatures like doubles born from one's own blood—would be wandering around the territory literally like dogs, just doing guard duty.”
At Cedric's words, Claudia went, 'Ah,' and nodded in understanding.
As for her, she'd already given up enough that she didn't care, but she couldn't imagine those high-and-mighty types easily following suit.
She snickered.
“Then those guys will start jumping around and making a fuss before long, saying it's a disgrace to the family and that it sullies the noble vision and all that.”
Except for one.
The marquis's reaction was the one she couldn't easily predict.
How would that sinister, cold-blooded politician take it?
***
The Redbell Marquis's residence was famous for being among the grandest and most splendid in the Kingdom of Birka.
An inner courtyard so vast you could race horses in it.
A lake large enough not only for fishing, but even for launching boats and taking leisurely cruises.
And even the mansion's main house, set a little lower than the royal palace as a token of respect toward the royal family, was actually larger in area than the palace itself.
In the guest annexes built around the main house, more than a hundred people stayed overnight, and the guests waited more than a month in eager anticipation just for less than thirty minutes of conversation with the marquis.
The time the marquis spent receiving guests was only a tiny part of his schedule, and plenty of people had even witnessed him leisurely taking a walk, but no guest dared voice any complaint about it.
Anyone stupid enough to stand before the kingdom's most powerful figure—a man even the king had to negotiate and beg rather than command—and say, 'Why are you resting while making me wait?' would never have been allowed to step into this mansion as a guest in the first place.
The Redbell retainers were no different.
In other words, even if they were all lumped together under the label of 'retainers,' there were countless ranks and classes within them, and only a handful of the highest-ranking retainers were allowed to face the marquis directly and speak with him.
In a way, it was only natural.
A conglomerate chairman doesn't receive reports directly from a mere entry-level employee or middle manager, after all.
However, just as a conglomerate chairman might summon a single employee out of whim or personal interest and have a chat, the marquis could do the same.
“So... my daughter has declared war on me. Is that roughly what this means?”
At the marquis's words, the acting lord, who had been bowing before him, answered in a hurry.
“To be precise, she said she would try to change Eched with her own strength and asked him to watch over it, and that deciding what to do with the young lady should come after that.”
“That's a declaration of war. In the end, she's saying she'll try to overturn my will, isn't she?”
Hearing the marquis's flat tone, the acting lord swallowed hard.
Claudia had threatened him not to twist her words for no reason, but strictly speaking, he hadn't twisted or omitted anything.
It wasn't his fault that the marquis interpreted it this way when he'd relayed the contents exactly as they were, was it?
So the acting lord quickly agreed with the marquis.
“It seems the young lady, being naive about the ways of the world, is running wild.”
“Hmm, running wild, is it? That's what you think?”
“Yes, Marquis. She is, after all, rather emotional, isn't she?”
“True, that child does have a bit of that side to her.”
When the marquis showed signs of agreeing, some of the tension also left the acting lord's body, which had been stiff as a board.
The marquis then asked the acting lord in a friendly tone.
“Then what should I do?”
“The young lady is currently using the power of the blood beasts to forcibly seize the lordship. If someone who doesn't even properly understand practical affairs tries to rule by brute force, discord will certainly arise, so it would be right to urgently dispatch outstanding knights and subdue her.”
“Hmm, is that all? No other measures needed?”
“I believe it would be best to handle it quietly so the matter doesn't grow too large.”
“I see.”
The Redbell Marquis nodded, then said to the acting lord.
“Understood. You may go now.”
“Yes.”
The acting lord bowed again, then hurried away with small, quick steps.
After he had completely left.
The Redbell Marquis spoke.
“You there.”
The guard knight who had been waiting at his side with an emotionless, doll-like expression took a step forward and bowed his head.
“Yes, my lord.”
“I'm starting to think I've been too lenient with my retainers. That acting lord had his own land stolen right out from under him, and yet he had nothing to say about how he'll take responsibility or how he should be punished.”
“I will handle him appropriately.”
“Yes, make him a good example. That way, the others will learn as well.”
The acting lord.
No, it was the moment the fate of the 'former' acting lord was decided.
He would never see the morning sun again.
“Hmm.”
The Redbell Marquis stroked his beard and fell into thought for a moment.
He was pondering how he should take Claudia's bold behavior.
“Right. Was that idiot's report everything we know about Eched Territory?”
At the marquis's question, another retainer nearby stepped forward and spoke.
“The young lady has currently dismissed about thirty percent of the officials who had been under the former acting lord and filled those positions with new talent.”
The marquis nodded.
“Yes, a position doesn't become yours just because you sit in it. If you actually want to wield power, you need to fill it with people of your own. But that's the question—did that child even have anyone she could call her own?”
“It seems she brought in the servants who had been attending the young lady at the manor.”
“Huh.”
A small laugh escaped the marquis.
“Yes, I can understand that. A child with no support from her maternal family and no personal base of her own would only have that much talent available to her. But if that's the case, the territory must be in a sorry state, mustn't it?”
Servants who support a noble's daily life are different from retainers who support a noble's work.
In some families the two areas do overlap, but as far as the marquis knew, the only one among Claudia's servants capable of administrative work was the head butler, Bestian.
“That... it seems there are no administrative problems. On top of that, the new system implemented in Eched Territory seems to be drawing more and more people there.”
“A new system?”
“Here it is.”
The retainer handed the report to the marquis, and the marquis checked its contents.
And then muttered.
“She's gone mad.”
The expression of the retainer, who had been as emotionless as ice, trembled ever so slightly.
There was nothing strange about the marquis reacting that way.
He himself had already reviewed the field investigator's report several times to make sure it wasn't a mistake.
“I will take immediate action.”
“No, leave this alone.”
“...Will that be all right?”
The corners of the marquis's mouth curled upward.
“Have you ever grown flowers?”
“No.”
“I have.”
The marquis plucked a single flower from a nearby flower bed.
“It's not like you can eat it, and it's not like it has any special medicinal effect. In truth, it has little use beyond being looked at. And yet there are people who gladly pay dozens or even hundreds of gold coins for a single flower like that. I never understood such people, but I still grew flowers. I knew someone would buy them at a high price. The trend has passed now, but once, I made quite a bit of money from it.”
…….
“If I interfere now, the flower will end as just a flower. It has little value to me, but to someone else it is something worth paying a lot of money for. But if things go well, it might become something valuable to me as well as to others. In that case, wouldn't it be more profitable to leave it alone for now?”
The retainer spoke.
“However, if things go wrong, we may not even be able to secure the value we first expected.”
“It doesn't matter. If that happens, we'll just squeeze out that much more.”
The marquis's voice was flat, but the meaning behind it was beyond chilling.
At that moment, a bee flew in from somewhere and darted toward the flower in the marquis's hand.
Before the guard knights could move, a beast's muzzle shot out from the marquis's sleeve, swallowed the bee whole, and then vanished again as if it had been a mirage.
The marquis let out a snort of laughter and said,
“...though I have no intention of stopping bugs from swarming around it like this.”