Ch. 7: Chapter 7 - The Price of Fear
“Let’s continue.”
He picked up one of the noble profiles.
“… Earl?”
“Look into Earl’s younger brother.”
Flint frowned.
“His brother… You mean that troublemaker? Rainer?”
“Hm.”
Yuma turned another page.
“He’s not as stupid as he looks. He goes out at night, gets into fights with people, and even attends sex parties.”
“Pu—”
Flint nearly spat out the tea he had just taken a sip of.
How could his still-so-young nephew talk about something like that with such a calm expression?
“W-What kind of party?”
“A sex party.”
Yuma answered without changing his expression.
“The people he fights with are his informants. The people he sleeps with are drug dealers. He also goes out at night because that’s when the transactions take place.”
The tea in Flint’s hand nearly spilled.
“Damn bastard…”
Flint’s gaze was no longer fixed on Rainer’s name on the paper.
Instead, he was thinking about the underworld that Yuma apparently already knew so well.
“Uncle?”
“…”
“It’s not Earl’s fault, Uncle.”
“…?”
Flint blinked.
Yuma continued calmly.
“He was deceived as well. His wife and child didn’t die from illness. They died because of those drugs. You could say he’s a victim too.”
“Victim or not, it’s strange that he didn’t know anything.”
“It isn’t strange.”
Yuma lowered his gaze again.
“If we look at their family history, Earl and his younger brother only had each other. Unlike Earl, who recovered quickly from the grief of losing his family, Rainer was still underage at the time and fell into depression. Because of that, Earl spoiled him.”
“Don’t sympathize with him, Yuma.”
“I’m not sympathizing with him.”
A faint smile appeared on Yuma’s face.
“I’m only stating the facts. We shouldn’t end up punishing someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
Flint fell silent.
Yuma looked at the document again.
“His noble status made it easier for him to move around.”
He paused for a moment.
“That’s what allowed him to do all of this.”
“Yes…”
Flint let out a sigh.
“If only soul power could purify evil as well.”
Yuma smiled faintly.
“At least we should be grateful that these people don’t possess soul power. If they did, who knows how much contamination might have already occurred.”
“True.”
People who possessed soul power rarely did anything truly evil.
Not because they were incapable of it.
But because they understood the price of excessive emotions.
Contamination occurred when negative emotions accumulated and damaged the soul.
A sickness of the soul.
When affection became possessiveness.
When a sense of belonging turned into obsession.
Even hatred could turn into vengeance.
Excessive emotions could damage the soul and cause it to become contaminated.
Even in battle, the thirst for blood could sometimes take control of a person.
That was why purification and keeping contamination levels under control were so important.
Even pride could turn into arrogance.
Behind every power was responsibility.
And a burden.
Because of that, many people with soul power chose to become soldiers who saved countless lives.
However, there was one kind of soul sickness that was far more dangerous.… The fear of death.
Those who rejected death and betrayed life itself.
Even without the usual buildup of contamination, people like that could become Shadows, consumed by their fear of dying.
And what was even worse…
They could become Death Gods.
Those who desired power sometimes even swallowed contamination willingly, without knowing whether they would live or die.
Without knowing whether their bodies could withstand it.
Yuma closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he looked back at his uncle, who was sorting through the investigation documents.
“Good.”
Flint set aside the document he had finished examining.
His hand then tapped the document belonging to Gavra.
“What about her?”
“She’s fine. However, the one who contributed more during the pandemic was her cousin.”
Flint frowned.
“Wait. Her cousin? But that girl—”
“Crazy?”
Flint immediately fell silent.
“It’s only natural for a child to become like that after seeing her father bring his mistress home.”
Yuma paused for a moment.
“Then her mother was raped by her uncle and one of her male cousins in front of her father.”
Flint froze.
“What?”
He stared at Yuma in disbelief.
“Wait. Who? How? What did you just say?”
“The incident happened a long time ago, so it’s impossible to investigate now.”
“How do you know that, Yuma?”
Yuma only gave him a small smile.
The girl herself had told him.
He remembered the time when he and Kazuki were traveling through a village near the border. That was when they caught the smell of blood.
Inside a house, they found the girl sitting in the middle of her father’s and uncle’s corpses, covered in blood.
Her condition alone was enough to tell them what had happened.
Especially after seeing that she was barely clothed.
But what was even more astonishing was that the girl’s soul was almost completely pure.
There was no hatred in her eyes.
No desire for revenge.
She had killed them not out of revenge, but in self-defense.
“The girl isn’t crazy, Uncle.”
“But according to the investigation—”
“She simply wasn’t believed.”
Yuma looked at the document.
“Those two men were influential people in the village. At the time, she was just a child known as a troublemaker and a liar.”
He fell silent for a moment.
“She was so tired that all she could do was cry alone. Then she would laugh to comfort herself while remembering her mother.”
Yuma raised his gaze.
“It was the villagers who misunderstood her and thought she was crazy.”
“… And then?”
“The one who saved the people from the pandemic was the girl’s soul power.”
Yuma smiled faintly.
“At night, she went around healing people and left alderia flowers behind.”
“I see. Those flowers were what cured the people.”
Yuma shook his head.
“They were enough if the illness wasn’t severe. But for those who were seriously ill, they needed soul power to ease their condition before using alderia.”
Flint fell silent.
“And those flowers were in Gavra’s greenhouse.”
“The greenhouse belonged to the girl’s late mother,” Yuma corrected lightly.
Flint rubbed his face.
“Hah… This is insane.”
He stared at the document.
“A father…”
“There are many unfortunate lives we don’t know about.”
Yuma lowered his gaze.
“Things that should never have happened… Humans can be cruel sometimes.”
That was what Kazuki had said when he heard Aine’s story.
The incident itself could not be undone.
But at the very least, Gavra’s elevation to the nobility could still be prevented.
It felt too wrong to make someone like that a noble, someone entrusted with such responsibility.
“So please investigate it again, Uncle.”
“Understood. I’ll replace the investigator with someone more thorough.”
“Don’t alert the snake.”
“Don’t worry. I also need to punish those who provided false information.”
Yuma gave a small nod.
“I suppose it’s difficult to uncover something that happened so long ago. Especially when the entire village believed the girl was crazy.”
“I know.”
Flint picked up his pen.
“But I still have to punish them, so the others won’t become careless as well.”
“Hm.”
Dipping his quill into the ink, Flint began writing the order.
Every now and then, his eyes glanced at the last three sheets in Yuma’s hands.
Flint glanced at the three remaining sheets in Yuma’s hands.
“All three?”
“These two Barons.”
Yuma pointed to one of the sheets in his hand.
“They fund an orphanage in the eastern region.”
“For refugee children?”
“Yes. Children abandoned by their families from outside the Empire. And those who lost their parents in wars beyond our borders.”
Flint frowned.
“You said they fund it… But I haven’t received any reports about the expenses from either Baron.”
“Because they use their own personal funds.”
Flint fell silent.
His hand was about to move toward the paper when Yuma stopped him.
“Don’t do anything about their titles.”
Flint looked at him.
“They didn’t do it because they wanted recognition.”
A faint smile appeared on Yuma’s face as he remembered the two kind people.
“If possible… Just tell them that the Empire wants to help as well. So don’t place too much of a burden on them.”
Flint smiled as well.
“That’s a good idea, Yu.”