Chapter 16: A Warning in Silence

Grabbing the trembling Haimes by the collar, I lifted him up with a single motion.

“U-uaaaah!”

All I did was pick him up, but the guy let out all sorts of grotesque screams.

It was loud enough to make my ears ring.

‘I need to shut him up first.’

I landed a punch right into his thick belly.

“Keugh!”

“Quiet.”

“.Kuh! Kehuk! Y-young Master! W-why are you doing this to me…?”

“The ledgers.”

At those words, Haimes’s eyes quivered violently.

‘So he does have them.’

He definitely had the ledgers related to the taxes.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be trembling like that.

“Where did you put them?”

“T-there’s nothing like that… Kyaaaah!”

I immediately snapped one of his fingers. As Haimes watched his now limp finger, terror filled his eyes.

“From now on, every time you spout nonsense, I’ll break another one.”

“77000 “

“Where is it?”

“T-that is…”

As soon as I placed my hand on the ring finger next to his pinky, he shrieked.

“Aaaargh! I’ll tell you! Please, just—!”

“I told you to answer right away.”

Crunch!

A second scream rang out.

Only after two fingers dangled limply did the guy finally start talking.

“T-the ledgers are kept in my office at the Baron’s house!”

“Not those. There should be another set you keep separately. Are you still not coming to your senses?”

“There’s nothing like that… Aaaaargh!”

Crunch!

This time, it was his middle finger.

Haimes howled in agony. Torture was one of the fields Ethan was most confident in.

In his previous life, the number of humans who had sided with the Dragonoids was more than a handful.

Every time he faced such people, he thoroughly tortured and interrogated them, uncovering not only their betrayal but also every bit of information they had handed over to the Dragonoids.

Even most knights couldn’t endure his methods. Let alone a tax officer in the Baron’s Territory—extracting information from him was child’s play.

“You’re noisy.”

“Ugh.”

Ethan quietly gazed at Haimes’s fingers.

One by one, very deliberately.

Seven left.

He was speaking through his actions.

There were still plenty of fingers left to break.

Haimes’s pupils trembled violently.

The Young Lord’s eyes were filled with certainty.

‘How the hell does he know about this?!’

‘Officially,’ tax officers could only collect up to the maximum tax rate. But in reality, the situation in the territory was completely different.

All the tax officers collected additional taxes beyond that. Those details were kept in secret ledgers.

His cheeks trembled.

If he started babbling here, his fourth finger would get crushed.

He was completely cornered.

Haimes squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.

“The other ledgers are kept in my house! Please, spare me! Young Master!”

“Where’s your house?”

“In the nearby Mircon Village!”

I looked at Hans.

“If it’s Mircon, it’s about two hours’ walk from here,” Hans replied.

After nodding, I set Haimes down.

“Lead the way.”

“.Y-yes.”

With pitiful eyes, the guy glanced at the soldiers. But not a single one met his gaze.

Haimes began trudging forward, powerless.

“Walk faster. Unless you want all your fingers broken.”

“Eek!”

Whether the threat worked or not, the tax officer started walking as if he was about to run.

Though, with all that flab, even his hurried pace wasn’t particularly fast.

The soldiers who watched the three of us leave looked bewildered.

“What should we do?”

“Should we follow them?”

He hadn’t told them not to follow.

But just blindly chasing after him felt burdensome.

He was the kind of person who broke a tax officer’s fingers without a second thought. If they followed for no reason, they might get caught up in it.

“Ah, come to think of it, the knight…!”

“Right!”

At one soldier’s words, the others quickly agreed, looking relieved.

Now they had a good excuse not to follow. The soldiers began heading toward the knight who was lying collapsed in the distant bushes.

Mircon was a slightly smaller village than Beros Village.

Even there, Haimes’s house stood out. He was using a space that looked better than the Hunting Annex at the manor as his own residence.

The salary for an official of the Baron’s Territory was nothing special.

No way he could afford a place like this on that salary, not even in his dreams.

‘He’s been skimming off a lot.’

I entered the house with him. A few servants inside glanced at Ethan and Hans, tilting their heads in confusion.

“Send everyone out.”

“Y-yes! Everyone, get out!”

Soon the house was cleared out. Once inside the office, Haimes began fidgeting with the bookshelf.

A hidden compartment was quickly revealed.

“H-here it is.”

He opened the ledger.

In the secret ledger, lists of additional taxes collected were written out one after another.

‘This is a mess.’

If you added in the so-called “protection fees,” the taxes collected each month would account for over 60% of the residents’ income.

Considering that, even at the highest, the usual tax rate was about half of total income, the Baron’s Territory’s taxes were at a murderous level.

With corruption this rampant, it was no wonder a mere tax officer could live in a place nicer than the Hunting Annex.

“You really milked them dry. Honestly, you deserve to have your limbs pulled off, tax officer.”

“H-hiiik! T-that… it wasn’t my idea! The Baron ordered it!”

“What did he order?”

“He told me to secretly collect extra taxes… He definitely said so!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! I can swear on my life! If you check the entries in the secret ledger, you’ll see the amounts I handed over to the Baron are written there too!”

Just as Haimes said.

After collecting about 15% in extra taxes, he handed over roughly 12% to the Baron. Which meant this pig in front of me pocketed the remaining 3%.

I looked at Hans, and he silently nodded.

That was all I needed.

“The safe?”

“…Excuse me?”

I grabbed his fingers again.

Naturally, he immediately revealed the location of the safe. Only after I cleaned out all his emergency funds did I release his hand.

I gripped his shoulder.

“Good work.”

“N-no… kuuuugh!”

With a sickening sound, his shoulder bone shattered.

To prevent him from making a racket again, I kindly blocked his throat with mana.

All he could do was squirm on the ground like a bug.

“Uuuugh!”

He was asking with his eyes.

Why are you doing this to me?

There was no need to answer.

If he couldn’t even guess the real reason, that just meant he was a hopeless fool.

Crunch! Crunch!

I infused mana into my hand and squeezed.

Each time, his bones crumbled.

Unable to withstand the pain, Haimes fainted.

Ethan smiled quietly.

Death would be too much of a mercy for a guy like this.

Inflicting pain for the rest of his life was a far better punishment.

Just like now.

“At this rate, he’ll never get out of bed for the rest of his life.”

“Y-yes. There’s not a single spot left unbroken… He’ll never walk on his own again.”

Hans, who had silently watched the entire scene, replied with sweat trickling down his face.

“The recording?”

“I’ve captured it.”

He lifted the Memory Crystal. It was something he’d purchased three days ago when he commissioned the information guild.

Everything Haimes had just said was etched into the Memory Crystal.

“About 90% capacity remaining.”

“You’ll be busy.”

Ethan tossed the words out.

It wasn’t hard to guess why he’d be busy. Until the Memory Crystal was full, he planned to cripple all of the Baron’s lackeys.

‘He’s a scary person.’

How would the Baron respond?

The Young Lord had immunity. Because of that, he couldn’t be held responsible. Besides, there was a legitimate reason for punishing Haimes.

They had collected taxes far beyond the maximum allowed by contract.

In other words, all the justification was on our side.

‘He’ll have no choice but to watch as his people are picked off one by one.’

Sending an army against the descendant of a Great Hero would be utter madness.

The world would never let it slide. The only thing the Baron could do was maybe send an assassin.

However…

‘No matter how you look at it…

That monstrous man would never be taken down by an assassin.’

“Paper and pen.”

“Here they are.”

Ethan began writing a letter.

The contents were just a single line.

“Deliver this to the Baron.”

“In person… you mean?”

Hans’s voice trembled slightly.

If he delivered it to the Baron himself, he’d surely face the Baron’s wrath.

Being the target of such anger was never pleasant.

Fortunately, Ethan shook his head.

“I don’t care how you do it.”

“Understood.”

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Having cleaned out the safe, Hans’s bag was heavy. But his steps were light.

The two of us left the mansion.

Baron Helmut.

He stared intently at the letter handed to him. The letter, known to be sent by the Young Lord, was extremely simple.

You’ve been collecting far more taxes than what’s stated in the contract.

Just a single line.

But the meaning packed into that one line was not light.

He recalled the reports that had been coming in for the past three days.

Already, more than three tax officers had been abducted by the Young Lord.

All three were found the next day, their limbs crippled.

‘Damn it!’

Bang!

He slammed his desk hard.

“You bastard.”

Even stationing knights near the tax officers was useless.

Whatever the hell that guy had eaten, even the official knights couldn’t land a single proper blow before being completely destroyed.

And he couldn’t make this incident public.

Not only had the Young Lord cleaned out all his men, he’d even sent a polite warning.

‘If I make this public…

The Young Lord will start citing the terms of the vassal contract. That would only put me at a disadvantage.

There was no way to win a battle of justifications.

‘What does he want?’

What did he hope to gain by pressuring me this much?

‘Could it be, he wants me to surrender on my own?’

Ethan.

When his next birthday came, he would turn twenty.

That was the day the head of the Ducal House would be chosen.

‘Since the Initiation Ceremony is no longer possible, they’ll have to select the family head some other way.’

The Initiation Ceremony.

It was the traditional method for choosing the heir of the Ducal House. The successor who could exhale the strongest Breath of Black Flame would become the family head.

But now, all the secret techniques taught to the direct line of the Ducal House were said to be lost.

That meant the Initiation Ceremony could no longer be held.

No one would be able to exhale the Black Flame.

‘So is this why he’s pushing me so hard?’

To make me submit and turn me into his supporter?

With the selection criteria gone, choosing a family head would now come down to a battle of factions.

That must be why he’s trying to rope me in.

After pondering, the Baron brought a mana stone close to the communication crystal.

After a moment, someone’s image appeared in the crystal.

—Is there something you needed to contact me about directly?

“Count, the situation is serious.”

Count Cheimon, head of the Fernes County. Helmut reported everything he had experienced to him.

“It seems the Young Lord is using the vassal contract to threaten me. What should I do?”

—So… you’re saying the Young Lord is deliberately stirring things up to draw you to his side?

“That’s what it seems like.”

—Then go along with it.

“…Excuse me?”

—Pretend to go along. In any case, we need to find out more about the Young Lord right now.

I think you’re the right man for the job.

‘Tch.’

Seeing the Count’s indifferent response, Helmut gave a bitter laugh inside.

It was no different from saying he’d use him as bait to see how the Young Lord would act.

Even if the Kargas Barony was the weakest among the ten collateral families, to be so blatantly used as a chess piece…

He felt disgusted, but there was nothing he could do.

“…Understood.”

—Hang in there, Baron.

The communication ended.

The Baron sighed and called the head butler.

“Send my third son to the Hunting Annex. Tell him to behave with utmost courtesy toward the Young Lord, and politely invite him to the Baron’s house.”

“Yes, Baron.”

For now, it seemed he would have to meet the Young Lord himself.