Looking at that guy who introduced himself as Argent, commander of the Seven Stars’ Assault Squad, Loyar sighed slightly.
“The Seven Stars Gang based in the Al Ligar district? Yeah, I’ve heard of them.”
The Rotary Gang was an information-gathering group. Therefore, it seemed that they already knew about that organization called the Seven Stars.
So, I beat up a member of the Chilsungpa, who are active in the Yongsan District, on the train.
“Then you should know what would happen to someone who assaulted a member of the Seven Stars, right?”
“Well, it sure is a shame though. This all happened because the Seven Stars’ members are just too weak that they even get beat up by a kid.”
Having no intentions to apologize to them, Loyar spoke quite sarcastically. Hearing her words, Argent’s as well as his other members’ expressions distorted into an ugly grimace.
“Ah, he was so weak that he tumbled right out of the train.”
Of course, I couldn’t stand that guy either, so I butted in a bit. He’ll regret it if he was going for a deal here.
“Hah…. I guess you don’t quite understand the situation here. Don’t you take the Seven Stars’ members too lightly? I came here to talk it out to give you some face, but I guess….”
“It’s you who doesn’t quite get the situation, you bitch.”
When I suddenly swore at that guy without hesitation, not only the gangsters’ across from me, but Loyar’s pupils slightly shook.
“Wha, what?”
“Did you come here knowing that I was a student of Temple’s Royal Class fully supported by the Empire?”
As I kept on rambling, my thoughts jumped into a completely different direction.
“Temple?”
He might not know about the Royal Class, but there was no one in the Imperial Capital that didn’t know what the word “Temple” meant.
“Oh, yeah. You might not believe it. but yeah, I’m a student with supernatural abilities, so I entered the Royal Class.”
I smiled looking at them with my arms crossed.
“Did you know that you’d get locked up for touching even ordinary Temple students for no reason? But I’m actually part of an Elite Class.”
Temple students were basically from very wealthy families or families of high status. Therefore, Temple students weren’t only guaranteed certain special treatment inside of Temple but even outside of it, and their absolute safety inside of the Capital was taken very seriously.
The Empire was most careful about the students’ safety, as them coming to harm or being murdered would put major scratches on Temple’s reputation and reliability.
So what would they do if a student of Royal Class, who they nurtured with all their might, came to harm?
I walked towards them and held out my cheek.
“Hey, hit me.”
“Wha, what?”
“If you’re curious about what the guards would do with that organization called Seven Stars or whatever, after you dared to slap a Royal Class student, go ahead, hit me, bitch.”
I had no intention of fighting.
Rather, I asked him to hit me. I even had the intention of holding out my right cheek after he slapped my left. More than ten of them faltered as I stepped closer and approached them.
“The, these bastards don’t have the means to send a child to Temple….”
Argent muttered in disbelief as I pulled out a metal card from my pocket.
“This is a Temple Student ID card. Would you like to take a closer look?”
Of course, I had my Student ID with me. When they saw it, they seemed to be certain that I was a Temple Student even though they didn’t know what the Royal Class was.
Those guys would know well enough that they’d shoot themselves in the foot if they harmed a Temple student.
“What sort of bastard are you?”
Thinking he was angry, I saw him lifting up his hand to perhaps slap me.
His judgement was flawed.
The bastards who would never make it in life were the ones who threw their fists using their instinct rather than their heads. If one were level-headed, one wouldn’t live like that.
-Whoosh!
I quickly lowered myself to avoid the incoming hand while quickly jumping up to hit his crotch with my knee.
I used my trademark technique, Nut Cracker.
“Kuh …. Kuaaaark!”
“You’d seriously hit me just because I told you to?”
He grabbed his crotch and collapsed to the ground.
Was it because I got used to Ellen’s attacks? His attack was very slow, so I didn’t have to use my supernatural power to avoid it. Everyone was so dumbfounded they froze up for a while.
“Let’s beat up that bastard!”
The guys behind him ran up to me.
-Pang!
Suddenly, Loyar blocked their way and punched those guys running towards me square in the face.
* * *
There was no need for the other gang members to interfere.
Loyar literally beat up ten sturdy men with her short figure. It took less than ten seconds for the situation to be sorted out.
-Uh, uurg….
“Uwah….”
Not only me, but the other gang members who were watching the situation were staring at Loyar, who was wiping her palms with a blank look on her face, as if they rarely got to witness something like that.
She was so cool! Brilliant! Before I knew it, all the gangsters were already defeated.
“If you think I can’t take care of you guys, then you’re mistaken. It’s not that I can’t, I just didn’t want to.”
Loyar trampled on that babbling bastard’s, Argent’s head and spoke cooly. Her saying that after having proven herself in this one-vs-many fight was hella thrilling.
“Drag them all inside. People are watching.”
Loyar thought those dazed bastards were a bad sight for those passersby, so she headed towards the sewers, telling us to bring them with us.
The gang members picked them up from the ground and took them in one by one. Those that struggled got beat and tied up by the members. Daibun aside, the other gang members seemed like they couldn’t believe that I overpowered the assault squad leader with a single hit, even if I hit a vital spot.
“What are you going to do?”
Loyar seemed to ask me for my opinion. Though what she meant was: “If you start something, take responsibility for it”.
Yeah, no problem.
I’ll take responsibility, alright.
“Hey.”
I looked at Argent, who was still writhing in pain even while tied up.
“Urg…. How dare you, you brat…. Do you think you’ll get away with this…?”
It seemed like he still didn’t understand the situation. They were probably planning to take further revenge.
“Just take it easy, okay? You’re pretty ignorant, aren’t you? You were trying to beat up a noble just now.”
He didn’t seem to know what it meant to touch a Temple student, so I tried to explain it in a way even idiots would understand. Even if our status was a little different from actual nobles, Temple guaranteed their students the same level of safety a nobleman of the Empire would enjoy.
So he basically tried to hit a noble. Hearing those words, his expression turned weird. He didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to tell him.
“How about I just go up to the guards patrolling around the streets and testify that some group called Seven Stars from the Al Ligar District tried to attack me? I have no idea what you guys have been up to up until now, but I doubt you did anything you could be proud of. So, do you have any idea what would happen next?”
I wasn’t completely sure where that organization Seven Stars was located in the Yongsan District, but Loyar or Daibun should know. This was an information collection group after all.
Then the dude seemed to realize that trying to beat up this naughty bastard, which was me, was meaningless, even if he tore apart this whole organization.
Presumably, there was the possibility that the guards would launch an investigation into Seven Stars just by my request. I wasn’t just a regular student, I was part of the Royal Class. The mere fact that I encountered danger in the Capital would have the guards on high alert.
If I died, that would literally be a disaster.
And they were an illegal gang to begin with, right? So the guards would try their hardest to catch these guys no matter what. Partly to improve their performance evaluation.
That guy just wore a bitter smile, not knowing what to say. I didn’t know if this was a matter of pride or something.
I just put my hand on the tied up man’s shoulder.
“Still, bro, it’s a society we live in after all. Right?”
Not only that guy, but Loyar as well, seemed sullen after hearing me say that it was a society we had to live in together. It seemed like they wanted me to quit spouting bullshit and get to the point.
“What benefit would it have for me to ruin your organization using such extreme measures other than being able to do our business in peace, bro? I get it. I really get it. It’s only natural that you’d get angry if some young guy comes out of nowhere and swears at you while you’re only trying to make a living. Now, I don’t know how many people I can mobilize with my words alone, but if I told you it would be enough for dozens of people to mysteriously die, wouldn’t that be rather scary?”
Suddenly, his expression started to twist strangely, while I was acting like an adult. No wasn’t that even more annoying? Some high schooler patting his shoulder after kicking him in the balls and saying that he understands everything?
However, the important thing was the part where I could send everyone to jail or get them killed with just a single word.
“If you agree to this simple thing, I could just let this go. Let’s just forget about each other, huh? Let’s just live in peace, in peace. We just want to do business without anyone’s interference. Look over there.”
I pointed to the water flowing down the drain. The water running in this water way flowed back into the Irine river.
“Honestly, if we just hang a big rock on your legs and throw you in there, no one would ever find you until the end of time.”
When I told him that it was an easy thing to just kill him with a smile, his expression became quite a sight.
“But I’m not going to do that. It’s rather inhumane, isn’t it?”
Then I softly whispered, my hand not leaving his shoulder.
“So. If you put your hands on our business again, it’ll be the guards that will come visit you, not the Rotary Gang. Even if the guards didn’t make a move, that wouldn’t change anything. It’ll be enough if our big sis came over, right? You saw it earlier, didn’t you? I’m 100% sure that she’ll be able to beat you all to a pulp, whether it’s 10 or 100 people coming at her. But don’t feel too disappointed. If we have the chance later, we might be able to talk about something more constructive. We started on a bad foot, but why can’t we use this opportunity to turn this into a beneficial relationship? Huh?”
He ignored me at first because I was a young boy, but now he seemed to pay attention to what I had to say.
After I threatened him with murder and the destruction of his organization, he instantly nodded at my words with a bizarre expression decorating his face.
He might have thought that I bluffed about the guards, but he just witnessed Loyar’s overwhelming fighting skills.
“O….Okay….”
I got up from my crouching position and patted him on the shoulder.
Loyar and Daibun looked at me, seeming like they heard my rambling.
“Let them go. He probably learned his lesson.”
At my commanding words, Loyar and Daibun just blankly nodded their heads.
* * *
After solving this commotion, we returned to the bonfire, when a dumbfounded Loyar suddenly asked me something.
“Your Highness, do they teach you eloquence at Temple?”
“Huh? Not really.”
Loyar, who just saw me bewitch someone with words alone, seemed to doubt my words. I wonder if I was just some run of the mill bully in the past.
“Sometimes I feel like you are a completely different person.”
“Well, I might as well be. I don’t even know what the old me was like.”
Loyar smiled bitterly at my calm response. So what if I became like a different person? I was still an Arcdemon, after all.
“By the way, you do understand, right? If you were able to move the guards, wouldn’t it be better to do so? It’s not like there’s no possibility of them retaliating.”
Loyar was right. There was a good chance that they might come again to seek revenge or something else entirely.
“If they really were that stupid, that would be rather scary. Tell me if you see any signs of them making a move.”
There might be some people who just didn’t understand simple words. I thought that guy would not try to hit me after I told him the facts, but he actually went for it. This was a good learning opportunity. I was able to realize that there might be some people among the powerful who just wouldn’t be able to think calmly. Well, I didn’t actually get hit, but ripped that guy a new one instead though.
However, if they were able to understand what I tried to convey to them, there wouldn’t be a need to call the guards on them. There was some reason for taking this risk.
“I don’t know what might happen in the future, but they might become part of a bigger picture later on. That’s why I left them be. How should I describe them? They are just a sketch for now, so to speak.”
“What’s that bigger picture you’re talking about?”
I grinned at Loyar’s question. The bonfire came into our view.
“I haven’t made a decision on that yet, but I might have to absorb all the dark forces of the Imperial Capital in the future.”
I haven’t made a decision yet, but I might have to do it one day.
I wouldn’t be on the level of the Thieves’ Guild master. But If I do it, I would have to show Bertus a performance that would make him fall off of his chair.
“N, no…. Your Highness, aren’t your dreams a little strange?”
Loyar seemed to be shaken by my declaration to become the King of the humans’ dark side, while being the Demon Prince. He said he wanted to be the King of the Capital’s underworld, when he should dream of becoming a great Demon King.
“Who was it again who created an organization instead of doing actual spy work?”
“Ah….”
Loyar’s face turned red, as she reflected on herself.
She didn’t have any right to say that to me since she didn’t even practiced what she preached herself.
* * *
We were away for a while, so Eleris and Sarkegaar were waiting in front of the bonfire. The two didn’t need to come out. Eleris probably thought that Loyar would protect me no matter what.
Loyar explained to the two what just had happened.
“Your Highneeess! A decisive and confident move! I can’t help but admire your conviction, Your Highneeeeess!”
I somewhat expected Sarkegaar’s reaction.
“……Your Highness. Aren’t you enjoying violence a bit too much? Still…. I think you did a good job, letting them go…. I think you need to learn how to be more respectful.”
Naturally, Eleris’ reaction was also within my expectations. Eleris sighed and shook her head again as if she didn’t know what to do with me.
“Besides that, he said that he let them go because he wants to take over the dark side of the Empire.”
At that, both Eleris and Sarkegaar looked somewhat sullen.
“No, I didn’t say I’m going to do it, it’s just a possibility. I haven’t decided on anything yet.”
If there was a need for me to do it later, or when I feel myself mentally ready to do it, I would continue the conversation with Bertus, but for now nothing had been set in stone yet.
Still, just thinking about these things was rather strange, no matter if I wanted to go through with it or not. Anyway, I didn’t plan on doing anything like that for now.
For now, we sorted out the gangsters of the Al Ligar District, but the other districts were still crawling with them, so this matter wasn’t over yet.
“For now, catching those acting individually would be difficult. Inform me about those acting systematically. Try to figure out how big their organizations are. After that’s figured out we’ll take action, no matter if it’s me or Loyar coming forward.”
It sure would have been nice if this could be resolved peacefully and not through a power struggle between organizations.
“We can’t be active on every train line anyway. Don’t try to fight with newcomers, instead try to negotiate for a territory. That would be a good way to see if they are able to understand normal words or not.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
We couldn’t cover every place anyway. It might just be better to communicate and pass on our own knowledge to the newcomers so that we can do our business in a symbiotic way. However, we should never give up on the best routes.
It sure was funny.
Forcibly creating rights that we didn’t even have and negotiate on territories we just claimed as our own without actually owning them. I feel somewhat weird doing those bizarre gangster-like things.
I sometimes feel like I was actually managing an illegal organization.
“Let’s stop talking about that for now. Do you have anything else to report?”
I looked at Eleris. Eleris somewhat made it apparent that she wanted to tell me something yesterday. It seemed like it was about human wickedness.
She didn’t tell me anything, only that I would find out today.
At my words, all of their faces seemed to change.
But all their expressions seemed to convey different emotions.
Sarkegaar’s showed hatred.
Loyar’s showed anger.
And as for Eleris, I could feel sadness emanating from her expression.
It was Sarkegaar who opened his mouth first.
“There is talk about the demons who have been taken as prisoners of war getting sold on the Empire’s black market.”
“……What did you say?”
It was something completely unexpected.
