Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 118

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 118

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Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

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The sewer was filled with burnt corpses, a pile of ash, several Kindred dead on the floor from poison, and we had two Tanuki ready to do anything to survive. My Kunoichi were in the shadows and searching the tunnel for any other clues, while Ashe was looking at me for an explanation in regards to her violent reaction to a bunch of traitors to her people.

There were a lot of things to unpack with the situation, so I decided to prioritize and handle the situation carefully.

I looked at Ashe, who was looking at me expectantly, and I gave the best answer I could.

“I don’t know what happened to you, but I’ll ask around for you.” I had plenty of connections and people to ask about my Hellhound’s concerns about her actions. I had no problem with how she dispatched her opponents, but given how the Kunoichi and my Amazons now gave her wide berth, she needed the answers to continue working well with everyone. It was hard to work with a person who burnt people alive because their instincts told them to. “I’ll get you answers, so don’t worry about it.”

I had a few ideas on what was going on, but I didn’t know as much as a specialist, so I wasn’t going to bother.

“I am of incredible gratefulness! Thank you, my chieftain!” That answer placated Ashe and she went in for a hug immediately. She wasn’t like A’Bel, so I was mashed between boobs the size of my head for a moment instead of held seductively against them for a prolonged period of time. It was just a hug from my loyal, genuine Hellhound. Therefore, it was much worse than when A’Bel did it to tease me, and I had to actively fight against becoming a blushing mess. Thankfully, years of traumatic experiences killing my libido allowed me to fight against my feelings successfully. Hooray. “I will be following the searchers of the tunnel now! I will be of seeing you later!”

I nodded at that statement and a moment later she was bounding away into the long tunnel leading outside the capital.

Relinquishing myself from anymore thoughts of firm abs, pert boobs, and warm grips, I returned to the situation at hand.

The would-be-slaves housed in pseudo-coffins for transport.

Ur had a frown on her face as she looked at them, which told me the situation was worse than we thought.

“Five of them have already been wounded beyond repair. Two are near that point. Those who remain are difficult to rouse, even with the counter-potions we’ve been provided.” The Drow Ashe burnt into ash with literal hellfire was a piece of work. She lobotomized the Orcs and Trolls she captured who had stronger resistances to magic and only spent the absolute minimum to keep them alive. “They have bruises from being laid too long and they’re wallowing in straw sodden with their filth, my chieftain.”

“Mhmm, get them out of here and get them help. Take them to Roseanne’s physicians if you have to.” Ur nodded and started to move them, but I stopped her with a shake of my head. “They’re stable in there and their backs are straight. We don’t have any stretchers either, so carry them in those boxes. Cover them up, if don’t think you can keep them stable, too.”

Ur frowned at my words, but nodded after a moment.

“We’re going to keep them stable. Putting the covers back on is unnecessary.” With that statement Ur turned to her Amazons and they began to work together to get the captured people the help that they needed. She moved towards the critical ones for a second, before casting her gaze on them, and then turning to the ones more likely to survive. She bit her lip, until I grunted and cast my gaze on the satchel on her side. She looked at me with surprise. “Truly?”

I gave her the all-clear to use the healing potions I had them carry. They were expensive stuff, even with our domestic production starting to increase, but I wasn’t about to put money above people’s lives.

“If they’re critical, pour it on them. If they can be saved by a physician within the night, take them to a physician.” Even if all my guards used their supply tonight, I could replace those assets. I didn’t want them using it unless it was necessary, to staunch mortal wounds that they couldn’t survive, instead of looking for care. I was just amending those rules to the critically injured captives here. “Go.”

“Yes, Hachiman!”

Ur was excited enough by my orders that she referred to me by name, causing her to blush. It was a cute look on her, but the seriousness of the situation and the horrible things just a few feet away from both of us killed the mood before it could have any chance of developing. I gave her a nod and turned to the only two spared by my investigative force.

The two Tanuki were shaking in fear as Dragon-san loomed over them with murder in her eyes. Being a former pirate, she knew how to make herself look scary, and she all her advantages. Smoke was billowing out from the corners of her mouth, her very presence increased the heat around her, and her claws clinked and clacked as she clenched and unclenched her fists. Every part of her screamed “murder machine…” but the Tanuki became even more terrified when I reached them practically plastered themselves to the wall.

Dragon-san glared at me for stealing her thunder, but I focused on what was important.

Getting information from the two traitors.

“I’m going to ask you both questions. You’ll be answering them. Then, we’ll separate the two of you, and ask the questions again. We’ll check whatever you say, get to know who’s telling the truth, and treat them nicely for a prisoner. The other one gets punished and stays imprisoned.” I laid out the situation as cleanly and concisely as I could. A part of me recalled the justice system back in Japan being a lot better than this, even for human traffickers, but I wasn’t taught much about the justice system or how criminal investigations worked when I was there. All I knew was that I had two sources of information that I could use to compare against one another and I was going to squeeze everything I could out of both of them. “Do you both understand?”

““Y-yes!””

I turned to Dragon-san and she grimaced, but nodded and allowed me to have the first question.

“Who do you meet with and when? If you can help us catch them, you might just have to work for the community for the rest of your lives under house arrest.” From my experience as a commander, after ordering a few attempts to get information from captives, I knew that torture didn’t work. Captives just told you whatever they could to get you to stop. It was best to keep them threatened and presented with an out, a way to survive and live, which was the best way to get real, actionable intelligence. “Don’t worry about being found and killed in revenge. I’ll make sure that they can’t.”

The Tanuki, facing the prospect of torture and having their answers compared to one another and verified strictly, began babbling out answers immediately.

I took notes and so did Dragon-san for our use.

Surprisingly, it was worse than I expected, but something that we can use.

…

“Mother always told me that the nobility were terrible people, but I never thought they’d stoop this low.” Dragon-san glowered and spat on the ground as we reviewed the information. The survivors were all shifted out and the Tanuki were interred in the tower Dragon-san was based out of. They were all going to be flown over the Ylstu. It was too dangerous for any of the witnesses to stay here. “They betray their own kin and sell them when they’ve sword to protect them.”

“You stole from a lot of Kindred over the years.” I reminded her, while looking over her notes. She had pretty good handwriting for someone with claws. She caught a few things that I didn’t even though she missed I few things that I hadn’t. Together, with all of our braincells combined, we could make x1 honors student. Probably. A low end honors student. Not a Yukinoshita-type.“But I guess you didn’t sell people to slavery or promise to protect them.”

“That is correct! I did right by my crew and since you’ve defeated me, I’ve done as I was bid!” Dragon-san huffed, not in the slightest denying that she used to be a pirate that made a lot of people suffer for many, many decades. “These nobles doing this have broken all their vows in exchange for coin and sell flesh to those who uses it to wage war against their lord. They are complete and utter traitors!”

“I see.

Despite my hard stance on crime, I decided to attentively agree with the former-pirate’s assessment of the situation, because it really was that fucked up.

There were dozens of nobles in the capital and staying in the capital required a lot of wealth. Money flowed like water here because of parties, gifts, and favors exchanging hands for the sake of prestige and power. The more you showed off, the more political clout you gained, and the more influence you had. I didn’t have to deal with it because my skills, knowledge, and talent were the cornerstone of a massive leap in Kindred life, which Roseanne valued immensely. The same couldn’t be said for most nobility who just paid taxes through money, bodies, or resources… and even then they’ll do their best to pay as little as possible to get personal power.

With the auditors going out, with Roseanne expanding her reach all over her territory, the Kindred nobility were getting ready for some hard times.

Especially those who could barely stay above water, because they were new nobility.

Yeah, it wasn’t the established nobility with immense amounts of wealth selling people to the Empire. The criminals were all from the newer houses, barely a generation or two in the nobility, desperately doing their best to retain their power and get more. Some part of me understood. They were fledgling houses contending with tax rates pitiful for nobility, but probably too high for newly-ennobled household, and they also had new responsibilities.

The new houses were instituted by Roseanne’s grandmother, in the frontier of Kindred territory in the continent, probably to create a loyal support base for her and her family in the future. To her credit, I recognized most of the new houses and I knew that were doing well and moderating the politics of the capital. The problem was the 1/6th of the new houses weren’t in the black because of mismanagement, bad luck, or competitive neighbors that didn’t want them to succeed. They had to resort to this to keep their lands and titles.

Roseanne’s grandmother had succeeded, making something that helped her granddaughter, but she wasn’t perfect. She managed to perfectly create several territories and allies, but had a failure rate. The problem was that those failures were rotting and desperately trying to hold onto their power instead of just laying down and dying with dignity. Now that was Roseanne’s problem, since their ennoblement could be traced to her grandmother and herself, and it was my problem because Roseanne was my boss and if she looked bad I’ll be worked harder, so that she could make up for it.

But, sometimes, bad situations presented me with advantages.

It would be very, very nice to have four noble houses eating out of my hand… is what I would say if I didn’t utterly detest the fact that those household did what they did. If it was completely up to me, I would have them wiped out for what they did, but I knew that Roseanne needed political power and puppets to bolster the ranks of her allies. The four houses I’ve identified and have evidence against will have no choice but to completely surrender to Roseanne and work their asses off for her sake.

I’m a vindictive and aggressive against kidnappers and slavers, but I can have patience… and sometimes punishments were worse than death. Nobility becoming mere puppets after enjoying their power for years and going to such lengths to maintain it for their personal benefit? It sounded like a bunch of assholes getting what they deserved… and after the Empire was crushed I could still ask Roseanne to clean them up after.

Sell off people to be used and killed only to be used and killed yourself.

Yeah, that sounded pretty good.

I finished thinking with a nod and stared at my fellow interrogator.

“Come, we’ll both talk to Roseanne about this situation. You tell her everything you saw here and I’ll tell her everything I did, before we send the witnesses off somewhere safe.” Dragon-san’s eyes glittered at the chance to get some merits and she eagerly took the opportunity. I cast a glance around my surrounding and nodded at the people I had stationed to wait for the group that went to look through the tunnels. I few Kunoichi detached themselves from the group to accompany me as I made my intentions known. “Are you ready?”

Dragon-san opened her mouth to speak in agreement when a Kunoichi appeared out of the tunnel holding onto her arm and bleeding from a wound on her temple.

Our eyes met and she reached me in an instant with a hand aglow with magic.
From her touch alone, a wealth of information flowed through me as I saw through her eyes and felt what she felt in an instant… and she fell back, breathing and spent, after running with all her might back here.

My teeth grit as I recalled the pain the Kunoichi, my subordinate went through, and spoke.

“Change of plans. We’re killing one of those noble houses right here and right now. Roseanne can make do with three puppets.” At the other end of the tunnel was a Kindred noble, her daughter, and her household guards fighting against Ashe and my people with the intent to kill. I saw two Kunoichi dead already, while Ashe kept fighting, until this one disengaged to get help. “Kunoichi with me, Amazons storm that tunnel, and Dragon… we’re going for a quick flight.”

The situation shifted before my eyes and we all began to move, but it wasn’t enough.

None of this was enough to get what I wanted.

So, I reached out for the one person that I knew could make what I wanted happen.

“A’Bel.”

I spoke her name, the shadows in the tunnel lengthened, and the smell of ash and brimstone filled the tunnel, and she came forth without a word clad in bone-white armor and armed with a flaming sword in one hand.

Her silence, her determination, and loyalty filled me with the confidence I needed to get what I wanted done.

Those who hurt my people wiped out.