Radelk waited until she fell asleep.
‘Loyalty is something that exists from the beginning.’
From the moment they emerge from the gacha, assistants already come with a basic level of affection or loyalty toward their summoner. It is implanted along with knowledge of this world and basic information about their Master, something he cannot refuse.
‘If I had disliked it, I wouldn’t have accepted the contract in the first place.’
It is the price of resurrection. To Radelk, it was a very cheap price. No matter what, it was better than being dead.
The first thing he saw after being revived was a woman with a dazed expression.
For some reason, she resembled his younger sister from long ago.
‘Though I can’t even remember her face anymore.’
As he grew stronger, gained companions, and carried out slaughter on his journey to kill the Demon King, the faces of his family gradually faded. Yet, paradoxically, the anger and desire for revenge from that time only grew clearer.
Watching Chitra, watching this fragile being who couldn’t even drink a drop of soup without him, he could not deny that his feelings toward her were becoming something beyond mere loyalty.
‘It must be because she resembles my sister.’
Didn’t she herself call it familial affection? Then it must be that. That was how he understood it.
When he had received a life-threatening quest and felt such cold anger, it must have been because she felt like a younger sister. Because of familial affection.
After confirming she was asleep, he melted into the darkness. In an instant, he left the castle and entered the most secluded alley. Finding a swarm of rats gnawing on an animal carcass, he cast a spell.
“Familiar.”
That wasn’t all. Crows, stray cats, all of them—he cast magic on each one before returning to the castle.
‘Now, what remains is paperwork.’
Information that appears on the surface would be found in documents, and the information rotting underneath would be brought by the animals.
Next would be cross-verification. His Master had instructed him not to act directly.
He only needed to find out how much had been embezzled.
He stopped thinking.
He was a tool, merely a hound on a leash.
The decisions belonged solely to his Master.
‘She is fragile, yet strong.’
He had lost count of how many times he had been impressed watching her train her skills with such determination. At the same time, his desire to protect her only grew stronger.
Suppressing these contradictory emotions, Radelk began his work.
A few days later.
She had recovered enough to walk again. In fact, she was now healthy enough to move without even Radelk’s support.
―Mana Counting proficiency increases by 10.
―Mana Refresh proficiency increases by 10.
‘My skill proficiency is steadily increasing.’
She stretched, loosening her body. At that moment, the door opened and Radelk entered.
“This is the embezzlement report. There were too many cases to report verbally, so I organized them like this.”
“Wow, with such a tiny territory, they really ate well.”
As she skimmed through the documents he handed over, she added,
“There’s not a single one who didn’t take something.”
She fell into thought, then spoke again.
“You sorted them by the amount embezzled, right? The ones at the front took the most, and it decreases toward the back.”
“Yes, that is correct. What shall we do, Master?”
“Those on the later pages will receive lighter punishment, and starting from the middle pages, we’ll impose heavier punishment.”
“You intend to spare the lighter offenders?”
She had once prepared for the civil service exam back on Earth. Though she failed, those memories hadn’t disappeared.
“It would be convenient to handle them all at once, but that would create a gap in administration. How many literate people do we even have in this territory? And when corruption is this widespread, anyone who stayed clean alone would likely suffer for it. There’s a reason bureaucratic collusion exists.”
“Bureaucratic collusion?”
She hesitated briefly. Explaining Earth terminology would be complicated.
“Hmm, don’t worry about it. Anyway, administration is one issue, but the military is another. Is there a way to completely control them?”
“There is. How about applying a curse spell?”
She tilted her head.
“It is a commonly used magic when controlling slaves. Once applied, they cannot oppose their master. The moment they try, they experience hellish pain.”
That seemed too extreme. She pressed her temples.
‘This really is too different from Earth.’
Come to think of it, the very existence of nobles, commoners, and slaves was absurd.
“Your motivation is decreasing significantly.”
She didn’t even need to check the gauge. No matter what, casting such magic on people felt wrong.
“Ah, by the way, I saw symbols next to the names. What do they mean?”
“A star indicates violence, a square indicates rape, and a triangle indicates murder. Fraud and gambling are grouped together as a dot. Smuggling is marked with a vertical line.”
Right. This really is different from Earth.
People who commit violence, rape, murder, fraud—of course they’d embezzle without hesitation.
‘…Or maybe it’s the same as Earth.’
They held positions of power, so no one could say anything. They beat people, assaulted women, even killed—and still lived openly.
‘Realistically, I can’t replace all these people at once. But if I leave them alone, they’ll just keep raping and killing.’
She stared blankly at the ceiling. Time to decide.
Her fingers tapped the table. Her eyes flickered rapidly for ten minutes.
Finally, Chitra spoke.
“Stars, dots, and vertical lines will receive the slave curse. Squares will be castrated first, then executed in the most painful way, regardless of how little they embezzled. They are not worth the air they breathe. No matter how desperate you are, you don’t use filth. As for triangles… treat them the same as squares.”
Even after saying it, her heart sank. But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t feel any mercy for criminals.
In a territory that had nothing left to take, they not only embezzled but also used their power to kill and rape.
‘We don’t even have the money to maintain prisons.’
That was the most realistic reason. There was no money.
Even if things had just started improving, they couldn’t afford guards, meals, or even firewood to keep prisoners alive in winter.
“I will proceed as ordered.”
Radelk knelt deeply before her.
The next day, Radelk brought in the soldiers. They were those who had embezzled small amounts and committed no further crimes.
‘Even Captain Hatz committed corruption.’
Fortunately, perhaps because he was still young, he had only embezzled and committed no crimes. The amount was also small.
She wasn’t sure whether to consider that fortunate or simply tragic, given how corrupt the territory had become.
She lined them all up, then seated those with higher corruption levels and those involved in violence, fraud, and smuggling separately.
‘Maybe because of the public executions, everyone looks intimidated.’
She had tried to go to the execution ground, but Radelk had desperately stopped her, worried her weak body might collapse from shock.
This was one thing he refused to yield on, so she had said,
‘If that’s the case, fine. But next time, I’ll step forward myself.’
It wasn’t some grand sense of duty as a ruler. But Radelk didn’t know that.
‘It doesn’t matter. The orders come from you, Master.’
Even if Radelk carried them out, it meant her hands were stained as well.
She simply smiled.
‘I’m not as burdened by guilt as Radelk thinks. I think those bastards deserved to die. And since they were interrogated with Radelk’s confession magic, there’s no way anyone innocent was punished.’
It was true. She wasn’t as soft as he believed.
In fact, she even thought, ‘Hammurabi’s Code really is the best. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… satisfying. Die, you rapist murderers.’
Unaware of this, Radelk worried that even a crack might form in his flower-like Master’s sensitivity.
He also worried she might collapse from the magic he was about to cast on the soldiers assembled today.
She spoke.
“Apply the slave subjugation magic to those with high levels of corruption and crime.”
As soon as her words fell, protests erupted.
“T-that’s too much, my Lady!”
“Our positions were guaranteed by the previous Count—”
“Silence!”
She cut them off sharply.
“Your crimes deserve beheading. Do not forget that your lives are spared only out of mercy. Pray daily to the God of Beauty and repent. If your sins are forgiven, you may be freed from slavery.”
Wasn’t it the same in Rome? Slaves could buy their freedom.
Even in modern times, the ruling class always leaves a way out for the ruled.
That was the truth she had learned while studying for the civil service exam in her harsh former world. It was also something she realized while pulling her younger sibling out of a cult.
‘Why me of all people?’
She wondered.
She had climbed quite high in rankings as a free-to-play player in a terrible mobile game, but she wasn’t the only one like that. There were many worse than her.
Why her?
She didn’t know the answer, but she had no choice but to move forward.
“All wealth accumulated through illegal means will be confiscated. Refusal means death.”
No one mentioned the previous Count again.
After that, she ordered the enslaved soldiers to bring in the village heads and other embezzlers. The rest proceeded swiftly. Those with minor offenses were reprimanded; those with serious crimes were enslaved.
Those who resisted had their faces “reshaped” according to their crimes.
Crack—
Once it was made clear that one mistake would ruin their lives forever, a notification finally appeared.
Ding—
―Corruption has been eradicated!
―Quest completed. Please receive your reward!
When she claimed the reward, a massive statue descended from the sky. It was a muscular, half-naked statue in Greek style. Strangely, its face was obscured by clouds, but at its feet sat the same rabbit from her dream.
The villagers shouted in shock.
“A miracle of the gods!”
“The God of Beauty has performed a miracle!”
“It’s true our Lady is the apostle of the God of Beauty!”
She thought to herself:
‘This is insane. This place is completely insane.’
