Chapter 20

The Carrot and the Stick

“Is this a monster?”

Zed looked down at something with a disgusted expression.

It was the monster brought in by Count Consilus’s soldiers.

The bear monster had been placed inside a thick, sturdy stone container. It was bound tightly with chains, and its joints had been bent and sealed so that even if it recovered, it would remain completely incapable of using its strength.

“Yes.”

“This is the first time I have ever seen a monster. I have never had any reason to encounter one, so I did not know they were this revolting.”

“You sound like a sheltered noble lady.”

“I may not look it, but I was raised rather preciously. Among the Red-Eyed Tribe…”

Zed’s expression turned bitter as he uttered the words Red-Eyed Tribe.

His gaze shifted toward Ferda.

“So why did you call me here?”

“To have you work as my attendant.”

“Does it have something to do with this bear?”

Ferda tilted his chin toward the monster.

“…What are you planning to do with this thing?”

“Even while restrained like this, it continues to grow in size. I have suppressed it, so it appears harmless for now, but its heart will begin beating again in about an hour.”

“Huh…”

“And because it currently feels that its life is threatened, it will grow several times faster than usual.”

“So?”

Ferda sharply sliced through the air with his index finger.

“Every three hours, its flesh must be cut away. Its tendons and nerves as well.”

Ferda patted Zed on the shoulder.

“You will be doing that.”

“…I have to keep cutting it every three hours? When am I supposed to sleep?”

Ferda answered his question.

“I hear the faithful in the southern regions pray every three hours without missing a single day.”

“But I am not even from there! How is any human supposed to do something every three hours?”

“If they can pray every three hours, then you can do this as well.”

“Could I not take turns with that little maid?”

“As I said, she is not my loyal attendant. I will not stop you if you can persuade her.”

Zed firmly closed his mouth.

Even Zed, who believed women could be won over as easily as eating cake, found a dragon spawn difficult to approach.

“There is no need to worry. I am not asking you to do it for the rest of your life. Only until Burnell produces research results.”

“Until he produces results… How many days will that take?”

“It may take several months.”

“Several months…”

A hollow laugh escaped him automatically.

He had to keep slicing apart a monster every three hours for several months?

—Grrk. Grrk.

The bear monster expelled foul, labored breaths.

Zed had not even cut into it yet, but he already felt as though the stench was rising around him.

“…Did you recruit me just to make me do this?”

“When else would I have any use for you?”

“Haa… Understood. I only need to keep doing this until the research is complete, correct?”

He asked in a meaningful tone.

“Of course.”

“Ha ha. Thank you very much.”

He said he was grateful, but rage burned in his eyes.

His irises turned red, emitting a fierce glow.

Even Ferda could not predict what sort of future awaited Burnell.

Nor did he care.

He would manage somehow.

***

Two days later, a horse returned to Valdrova Castle carrying a rider.

It was Burnell, who had been recuperating under Count Consilus.

Having nearly died from mana burnout, he had now returned.

‘The person I am today is different from the person I was yesterday.’

Burnell was filled with elation.

He believed that his new experience had elevated him to a higher level.

‘From now on, I will conduct my research while risking my life.’

If he desired power capable of changing the world, then he had to work hard enough to deserve it.

He would abandon his complacent former self and prepare to burn away his own body.

That was how he would reach for greater heights.

After leaving his horse at the stable, Burnell noticed someone standing before the castle gate.

Aside from Luri and Ferda, this was the first stranger he had seen at Valdrova Castle.

‘He is handsome…’

The man was tall and wore his brown hair in a ponytail.

He was so striking that even another man could not help admiring him.

Realizing that the man was smiling at him, Burnell approached.

Only then did he notice something that had been difficult to see from afar.

‘He looks somewhat exhausted…’

Faint dark circles lay beneath the man’s eyes.

There was no doubt that something had been tormenting him until recently.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Zed.”

The man introduced himself with a refreshing smile.

“H-Hello. My name is Burnell.”

“Yes, I have heard about you. May I ask how old you are?”

“Uh, I am t-twenty-seven…”

“Ah, then you are older than me. I shall call you big brother.”

“O-Okay.”

“Let us go to the laboratory, Big Brother.”

Zed guided him onward.

‘Someone that impressive is calling me big brother!’

Perhaps it was true that happiness came after hardship.

After being tormented by the bear monster and nearly dying, Burnell was now being respectfully addressed as an older brother.

Any resentment he had felt upon returning to this place seemed to disappear.

“This is the bear monster we captured alive.”

“Ah, yes. It is still alive, and it has been maintained well…”

“Of course. Who do you think has been maintaining it?”

“You were the one caring for it, Mr. Zed? Thank you.”

“Ha ha. There is no need to thank me.”

Still smiling, Zed dragged over a nearby chair.

Scrrrape.

For some reason, the sound was as chilling as an executioner rising from the depths of hell.

Burnell wondered where he intended to take it, but Zed placed it directly in front of the entrance.

He dropped into the chair, folded his arms, and crossed his legs.

It looked as though he were blocking the doorway.

“Now, begin.”

No, he truly was blocking it.

“Pardon?”

“Your research. Time is precious, so begin immediately.”

The candlelight faintly illuminated him.

Burnell had not noticed it beneath the sunlight, but the dark circles beneath Zed’s eyes stretched far downward.

“Thanks to your research, this younger brother of yours has had to wake up every three hours and use this dagger to—”

Bang!

“Eek!”

“—slice apart that damned monster!”

“Uh, I… I am sorry…!”

“Oh, there is no need to apologize. Should this younger brother be able to provide anything you require, simply tell me. I will bring you ‘anything’ you need. So do not worry about anything else, Big Brother. Devote yourself entirely to your research.”

The Inferno of Scorching Heat burned within Zed’s eyes, while the dagger embedded in the table seemed to radiate the frost of the Frozen Hell.

“And you can sleep after you are dead, understood?”

One phrase echoed through Burnell’s mind.

There were no takebacks!

***

An army marched along the main road.

Two knights rode at the front, while directly behind them, a standard-bearer carried a fluttering flag marked with the family crest.

At the center of the surrounding troops, an ornate carriage moved slowly forward.

Baron Guillot was traveling on official business.

His destination was Valdrova Castle.

The lonely castle standing midway up a mountain in the east was visible even from afar.

“Ugh…”

Baron Guillot felt his stomach twisting.

The closer they came to the castle, the worse it became.

“Damn it. My father said I would never have any reason to visit that place. All he ever told me were lies…”

“My lord, please take deep breaths.”

“Yes, deep breaths. Hoo… I am the third son of House Guillot. I cannot allow something like this to frighten me.”

“Exactly, my lord! That is absolutely correct!”

Baron Guillot took a deep breath.

Although he had now grown so fat that he was almost painfully sluggish, he had once been a knight.

Granted, he had been a knight in name only, having never once set foot on a battlefield.

He had no heroic tales to his name and had received no medals, so it was only natural that he had been pushed into the position of a baron in the borderlands.

“Do not be too afraid simply because he is the betrothed of that red lizard bastard. House Guillot has powerful connections, does it not? Blood is thicker than water!”

“B-But I heard that bastard even killed someone from House Walcher.”

“House Walcher had no one left to retaliate, did it? It would not have been surprising if the entire family had been wiped out in the first place. He would not dare touch House Guillot so carelessly.”

“Right? Yes, of course.”

Baron Guillot desperately tried to hypnotize himself with his servant’s words.

In the meantime, the carriage entered the castle grounds.

The carriage door opened, and a red carpet stretched out before Baron Guillot.

Standing in the middle of it was a small silver-haired maid.

She was Valdrova’s dragon spawn.

“You have arrived?”

“Y-Yes.”

“This way.”

Luri took the lead.

Baron Guillot followed her along the red carpet with his closest knights in tow.

The castle was well maintained, so it did not give off an eerie atmosphere.

However, the emptiness of a castle that should have been bustling with administrators and soldiers made Baron Guillot feel even more distressed.

It felt as though he were crawling into the belly of a leviathan.

‘Do not think about it. Do not think about it…’

Soon, a door blocked his path.

It was a massive gate engraved with tales of a dragon’s valor.

At human eye level, a single inscription had been carved clearly into its surface.

—Revere the primordial flame and master of power.

The doors opened.

Inside, a man rose from his seat to welcome Baron Guillot.

The baron flinched despite himself.

“You must have had a difficult journey.”

Gray hair and blue eyes.

Those eyes were so deep that looking into them felt like gazing into the depths of an unfathomable lake, making it difficult to breathe.

It was Ferda Valdrova.

“You are sweating quite heavily. Was the journey exhausting?”

“N-No. Ha ha…”

“I see. Then you must be lacking exercise. You should lose some weight. Obesity tends to shorten one’s life.”

“Thank you for showing concern for my health.”

“Come this way.”

Ferda gestured toward the opposite side of the table and had Baron Guillot sit.

The sweat pouring from the baron’s body showed no sign of stopping.

“You have suffered greatly while serving in the Far East.”

“It is hardly worthy of being called suffering! Compared to the burden shouldered by His Highness the Dread Queen, it is as insignificant as a drop in the ocean.”

“Indeed. What you people do is insignificant.”

For the first time, the smooth flow of Ferda’s words faltered.

The atmosphere changed.

Baron Guillot noticed it immediately.

He had fallen into Ferda’s trap.

“I had little desire to confirm it before, but after becoming Regent, I found myself growing rather interested. So I examined a small portion of your documents.”

Tap!

Ferda placed the supposedly small portion of documents before him.

“There were a great many signs of forgery.”

Baron Guillot’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

Ordinarily, he would have demanded to know why Ferda was bringing this up now.

But he could not.

He simply allowed Ferda to continue.

“There were far too many inconsistencies to count. Do you know how much money vanished through them?”

Ferda pointed to the figure he had calculated.

“Three thousand golden.”

Golden was the unit used to count gold coins.

“It says here that you swallowed three thousand gold coins, when the people of your territory would struggle to touch even one in their entire lives.”

“W-Wait, I was not the one who wrote that…”

“Of course you were not. How could a man like you possibly produce handwriting this elegant?”

The graceful script practically announced that someone else had written it on his behalf.

Ferda already knew that much.

“You must have taken your share, then given some to the people beneath you so they would become accomplices. Those men likely distributed portions to their own subordinates as well, which means the amount you actually pocketed was probably less than three thousand golden. But what is a noble? The more luxury he indulges in, the heavier the responsibility around his neck must become.”

Ferda immediately moved on to the next document and began listing the charges one by one.

“Embezzlement, forgery of official documents, conduct unbecoming of one’s station…”

With each term Ferda recited, Baron Guillot seemed to age another year.

“According to the Imperial Criminal Code, depending on the severity of the offenses, you may be fined no less than ten thousand golden…”

Ferda’s blue eyes fixed upon him.

“At worst, you may be beheaded and have your head displayed above the castle gate.”

The fate of Thessalos Walcher suddenly flashed through Baron Guillot’s mind.

His face turned deathly pale, and he dropped to his knees.

“Please, spare me just this once! Never again! I swear it will never happen again, Regent!”

“Money.”

Ferda rose from his seat and patted him on the shoulder.

“Listen carefully. I am not telling you to stop doing such things.”

“P-Pardon?”

“I said that I do not care if you fill your own belly. In truth, I have no interest in how much you have pocketed.”

“Th-Then why did you bring all this up?”

“What matters to me is competence.”

“C-Competence?”

“I would rather have someone slightly corrupt but capable than someone clean and useless. A minor deviation for the sake of the whole is none of my concern. I do not care in the slightest whether you eat lavish meals or roll around with a prostitute named Rosemary.”

Ferda leaned close and whispered into his ear.

“Prove your competence. Resolve the food shortage and the monster problem as quickly as possible, and contribute to stabilizing the lives of your people. Otherwise…”

Ferda lightly waved the papers.

“These official documents may accidentally find their way to the imperial capital. The Emperor, as well as your parents and siblings, would then learn of your corruption. If that happens, the Imperial executioner and your family’s knights will begin a fierce race to see who reaches your neck first. Do you understand?”

“Y-Yes, I understand! I will prove myself without fail!”

“Good. Our conversation ends here. You may leave.”

Baron Guillot hurried away as though he had just pulled his head out from beneath a guillotine blade.

With a satisfied expression, Ferda checked Baron Guillot’s name off the interview list.

‘It certainly is convenient to have someone think on my behalf.’

Even though Ferda had risen to the rank of Archmage, he was by no means an expert in tedious paperwork such as this.

Identifying where and how funds had been misused required relevant knowledge and experience.

Ferda possessed neither.

The one who had served as Ferda’s mind was none other than Mori.

She looked like a vacant girl, but the Library of All Things existed within her head.

Ferda had given Mori the following instruction.

—From now on, review everything written in the ledgers and reports. Summarize every inconsistency you find. Then determine the likely sentence under the Imperial Criminal Code.

Mori nodded and rapidly scanned the contents of the ledgers.

Flutter—!

Her reading speed was so absurd that it looked as though she were merely pretending to read.

She swiftly completed work that would have taken several people an entire week.

In this way, she documented the corruption of fourteen lords one by one, and Ferda met with each of them using those records.

‘Their corruption itself does not matter.’

Just as there was no fish without a fishy smell, there was no noble without corruption.

If they proved incompetent, Ferda simply intended to remove them.

They merely had to demonstrate that they had retained their positions because of ability rather than because their backsides had grown too heavy to move.

“With this, even Baron Guillot left sobbing like a child.”

Luri, who had quietly watched everything, spoke.

“There are still around five left.”

“You have only been frightening them. Do you intend to become a tyrant?”

“Only frightening them? This was merely the first time I used the whip.”

“The whip…?”

“The carrot and the stick. Alternating between the two is the key to the strategy.”

Luri recalled the series of events she had witnessed with Ferda and tilted her head.

“You have done nothing but whip them mercilessly so far.”

“Have I?”

“Yes. It looks as though you intend to crush them completely beneath fear. Or perhaps you have become so accustomed to pain that your threshold has grown abnormally high.”

“Hmm…”

Ferda had not realized at all that he had only been using the whip.

“Well, it does not matter.”

Even if Luri was correct and he had done nothing but wield the whip, he had no intention of presenting the carrot just yet.

“They have done nothing but empty the carrot storehouse until now. Should they not be made to work?”

“That is also true.”

Luri acknowledged his point and nodded.

Ferda Valdrova.

For the development of the Dread Queen’s domain, he diligently wielded the whip once again today.