I was someone who held both inspection and administrative rights.
Because I was not one to show unnecessary mercy, I did not hesitate to use violence when necessary.
“I have no qualms about dealing with pests like you. You’ve certainly embezzled quite a lot, haven’t you?”
“No… that’s not… Aaaargh!”
Bone-Dislocating Technique.
It was always an excellent means of conversation.
“It won’t do you any good to drag this out. Even if you don’t talk, there are plenty of ways for me to find out.”
“Aaaargh! I… I’ll talk!”
“Good.”
“So, the truth is…”
I secured their testimonies.
I quickly discovered and recorded everyone involved, how much they had stolen, and where it had all started.
Furthermore…
“That’s not all, is it?”
“Ugh…”
It was their last resort.
‘Pests like these never spend everything; they always hide a portion somewhere.’
Even if they were going to die, they tried to leave something behind.
I found the slush funds.
A naive or inexperienced person might have missed it, but there was no way such a thing would escape my notice.
I began to shake them down one by one to find where they had hidden the loot.
“Wow. There is quite a lot.”
“It is to a serious degree. Even I did not expect this.”
“They didn’t just skim off the taxes. They marked serfs as deceased and sold them to slave traders. Of course there would be a massive amount of money.”
The bastards had hidden it everywhere.
Some pooled it together, while others hid their shares separately.
“Ugh…”
One person had hidden it in a filthy place, while someone else…
“How extravagant.”
He had prepared a secret location to hide his share.
“Bring it all.”
“As you command.”
“Ah, and make sure none of the men get any ideas about taking a cut for themselves unless they want to end up like these guys.”
“……I will relay that message clearly. I doubt anyone would dare. They all saw what happened to these men, after all.”
“Good. It should stay that way.”
“I will move immediately.”
Clink. Clink.
Gold coins began to pile up in the pre-arranged location.
‘Wow…’
The room quickly began to glisten with gold.
As if the gold and silver coins weren’t enough…
“Oh? Did they even know how to appreciate art? Oh, even magic tools?”
A large number of treasures were brought in.
There were many paintings that appeared to be masterpieces, but the magic tools were what attracted me the most.
“They are mostly items for self-protection.”
As expected, these parasites were incredibly good at looking after their own hides!
Upon appraising the confiscated magical items, I found that the majority were defensive magic tools.
“Is this the activation word? Right, this is it. Shield!”
Whoosh!
Every time I found and spoke an activation word, a Shield or Armor spell would manifest.
An Armor-enchanted magic tool was worth about 100 gold.
Those with a limited number of uses were worth around 50 gold.
The Shield items were worth even more since it was a 3rd Class spell.
“These are worth at least 200 gold each… Good grief. Just how much did they embezzle?”
Quite a few valuable items emerged.
On top of that…
“Even mana stones? These should have been hard to come by.”
They were low-grade, but mana stones were among the haul.
Seeing them alongside the magic tools, it was clear they were intended to recharge the tools once their mana ran out.
There was only one source.
“They said the slave trader gave them everything.”
“I’ll have to see the face of this slave trader for myself.”
“We are looking into it. We should be able to find him soon.”
“Good.”
A slave trader.
It seemed there was someone focusing their activities on our territory.
‘He said his name was Hansard.’
He was a slave trader who led a group called Hansard’s, and he was quite capable.
He had spread his influence throughout the territory, and I heard he dealt in many items besides slaves.
Seeing how he offered bribes to the people here in Pollen, his skill as a merchant was above average.
The problem was that he used those skills to eat away at the territory.
“Once we catch him, we’ll figure out how to deal with him.”
“……I suppose so.”
I just had to make him use his skills for a good cause.
‘If none of the usual methods work… there’s only one way left.’
What if he refused to pay for his crimes while being put to work?
Then there would be only one option left.
Slice.
I would just get rid of him.
I doubted the man would want his head separated from his body.
“Prepare to escort the rest of them away.”
“Yes, sir!”
I successfully dealt with the administrative side of things with lightning speed.
And for the remaining positions…
I couldn’t leave the vacancies empty after arresting the parasitic administrative officers.
To keep Pollen running, I had to put someone in those seats.
I had brought the people to fill those roles even before arriving here in Pollen.
“Are the new appointees trustworthy?”
“They were decent people back when we were at the academy. They were my classmates as well.”
The source was Esty.
He had gathered and brought the new appointees.
They were individuals who had graduated from the Administrative Academy with him.
“I don’t really like things running solely on personal connections.”
“They were previously appointed as administrative officers for House Ofern. However, they were fired.”
“Why?”
“Because they refused to cooperate with the corruption. My classmates are a bit… inflexible.”
“That’s perfect!”
Fortunately, the people Esty had gathered were proper individuals.
They were people with a sense of duty as administrative officers—at least, they weren’t corrupt.
‘The problem is that there aren’t many of them. I’ll have to put out a separate recruitment call for administrative officers.’
For now, Pollen would be fine by deploying these men.
All the previous vacancies would be filled!
The problem was the vacancies of the territory administrators I would be clearing out in the future.
I couldn’t just recklessly dispose of them all, so I had to find a way to fill those gaps as well.
In any case, while I was dealing with the administrative officers, Esty, who was assisting me, had been terrified for some time.
“Esty. Why are you so afraid? You haven’t committed any crimes, have you?”
“……I just thought that if I’m not careful, I could end up in that position myself.”
“I don’t deal with those who are innocent. Besides, I believe I remember saying I would overlook the things you turned a blind eye to in the past.”
“That is why I feel fortunate.”
Esty was more faint-hearted than I thought.
On the contrary, his administrative abilities were excellent, so he took charge of training the new recruits.
He also handled the training of the remaining staff.
‘This is why a competent subordinate is good.’
He handled things even without me having to step in personally.
“By the way, how is the training going?”
“Yes. These administrative officers already have experience from before.”
“What about the bailiffs?”
I had also entrusted him with the training of the bailiffs, the village chiefs.
“I instructed them to report immediately if there are any unnecessary tax demands.”
“Well done. You distributed them to everyone, right?”
“Yes! I never even thought of such a thing… You are truly amazing!”
“It’s nothing special.”
“No, sir. It is easy to say, but isn’t it actually quite difficult? I was truly surprised.”
The fear in Esty’s eyes had vanished, replaced by a different kind of sparkle.
‘It’s probably because of what I did.’
It wasn’t anything else.
I had given strict orders to the bailiffs: if an administrative officer pressured them in any other form, they were to report it immediately!
I told them they could come to find me and report at any time.
But would that be realistically possible?
Moving between territories was a difficult task even for a well-trained knight.
Although the security of the Direct Dominion was relatively good, the threat of monsters was always present.
Moving between territories and being attacked by monsters was not unusual in this world.
Furthermore, those corrupt bastards wouldn’t give the bailiffs the freedom to move around to report them.
So, I presented a solution.
‘Communication Beads.’
1st Class Magic: Communication.
It was a spell that could transmit speech over long distances as long as mana reached it.
I gave them magic tools enchanted with that communication spell.
Making them wasn’t difficult.
Once you reached the 4th Class, it was possible to embed a 1st Class spell into a processed crystal.
‘I made quite a few whenever I had free time.’
I hadn’t made them specifically with this situation in mind.
Even I couldn’t have thought that far ahead.
They were magic tools I had made for practice to carry out a plan I had for later.
I simply handed them out because they seemed to have a practical use.
“It’s nothing grand. They’re disposable. I’ll have to replenish their mana later.”
“Even so, being able to report reliably in any situation is what’s important!”
I had simply given away some leftovers, but Esty remained excited as if he had witnessed something revolutionary.
“You are truly incredible!”
He praised me so many times that I began to wonder if I had actually done something monumental.
‘Good grief. What is he going to do when the Direct Dominion is all organized and the territory plan is put into action?’
This was just the beginning.
I had only taken one step toward purifying the territory, but I felt as though I had gained a devoted follower in Esty.
He wasn’t usually like this, but every time I showed him something new, he would get extremely excited and put me on a pedestal.
Regardless.
“Then make sure everything is wrapped up properly.”
“Yes, sir!”
Aside from a few flaws(?), the competent Esty handled everything I ordered with precision.
In just one week, I succeeded in completely purifying Pollen.
During that time, the profit in gold alone was 30,000 gold.
‘They really did steal a lot.’
There were also works of art and magic tools whose value had not yet been fully measured, as well as the administrative officers who would now be branded as slaves.
I had obtained things I hadn’t even expected in an instant.
Since my goal was purification, once I returned everything in Pollen to normal, I finished my preparations to leave immediately.
“Then, I’ll be going now.”
“We look forward to the day we meet again!”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“Go on, get back inside.”
“No, sir! We will return once the territory administrator has departed.”
“……Fine, then.”
Quite a few people had come out ahead of time as if they were waiting for my departure.
The bailiffs of Pollen Castle and many of the villagers were present.
To them, this incident was like a stroke of luck they had never seen before!
I was the one who had dealt with the tyrannical administrators all at once and normalized everything.
Perhaps that was why the way they looked at me was almost burdensome.
‘……It’s nice, but it’s a bit much.’
I did feel proud.
It wasn’t a bad feeling knowing that someone’s life had changed because of my actions.
It was quite nice to leave with a good feeling.
Although there was much to do, I considered all the work at Pollen Castle finished.
Purification!
This was enough to be considered a significant achievement.
“Since I’m heading back to the Holy City, I’ll check on the farmlands too. I’ll pay Myuron a visit as well.”
“You’re curious to see if the new farming methods are working well?”
“That, and also… I want to see if the waterways are being built correctly. Hm?”
However, it seemed there was something left that I hadn’t considered.
‘What is it?’
There was always the possibility that something outside of my predictions could occur.