Chapter 45: Chapter 45

After settling the hierarchy, the Lion Mask adjusted the positions of several executives.

First, several mid-level executives were now slated to take charge of a few tasks previously handled by the former top executives.

Those quick on the uptake realized that the newly promoted superiors were people who had been close to non-mainstream in the existing organization.

Although some were dissatisfied with that fact, none dared to display it out in the open.

After all, the Horse Mask was still standing right beside them, looking at them with a dripping sword in hand.

On top of that, the Lion Mask delivered another shock to the executives.

He revealed corruptions committed by several executives, calling it the results of a recent ‘inspection’.

As those who had secretly embezzled money meant for the upper echelon turned pale, he warned them in a solemn voice.

“If you restore it on your own, I will overlook it this time. However, remember that there will not be a second time.”

After shocking them once with brute force and twice with information power, they truly could not even summon the courage to resist any longer.

Finally, after announcing that future operations would be handled through separate notices as before, the two masked men strode right out of the theater.

*

Leaving the Golden Theater behind, the Lion Mask and Horse Mask passed through several deserted alleys and took off their masks in a secluded spot out of sight.

“For the eternal prosperity of the Altoan race!”

“Hey, don’t copy that. I’m embarrassed enough as it is…”

When Shan, having taken off the Horse Mask, spoke teasingly, Roden grumbled softly beside him while removing the Lion Mask.

“No, really, your acting was great. You truly seemed like someone sent by the head of the Brotherhood.”

“Maybe I should’ve become an actor in a theater troupe instead.”

Roden self-deprecatingly remarked as such, but his acting skills were truly impressive for someone who hadn’t studied acting properly.

In the past, even Shan himself hadn’t doubted for a moment that Roden was a powerful knight until Roden had collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

The masks used by the two were simple magic artifacts Princess Cheryn had squeezed in time to make despite her busy schedule.

Not only did a tiny piece of mana stone embedded in each mask alter their voices, but Shan’s mask was also fitted with amethysts enchanted with light-absorbing magic over the eye holes, preventing his glowing eyes from leaking through.

Taking off his outer coat and packing it up with the mask, Shan took off his long pants and retrieved the two wooden sticks he had bound under his feet.

Watching this, Roden asked with an incredulous expression.

“No, I’m more amazed by that than my own acting skills! How on earth do you run around with things like that attached to your feet?”

If he were told to move with wooden sticks over 20 centimeters tall under his feet to increase his height, he would, at best, waddle a few steps before falling flat on his face.

Yet Shan had amazingly used those to increase his height while leaping across the audience seats and cutting down thugs.

Though his stride had ended up looking a bit bizarre because of it.

At any rate, no matter how sharp-eyed someone was, they wouldn’t be able to notice that the Horse Mask was Shan.

At first glance, there was a height difference of over 20 centimeters, so it would be difficult to see them as the same person.

Of course, just because they had successfully established dominance like this didn’t mean that taking control of the Brotherhood was completely finished.

Because while devising a method to give anonymous orders to the newly appointed high-ranking executives, they also had to reform the internal system.

For the former, they benefited a bit thanks to Princess Cheryn.

Roden borrowed her connections to set up a system to exchange letters with high-ranking executives through mages from the Magic Society.

While this gave a clue that the head’s representative, ‘Lion Mask’, was connected to the Magic Society, there was virtually no way to trace beyond that.

Even if mages were somewhat looked at with distance, they were strictly a professional class backed by the royal family, so common criminals couldn’t dare target them.

Next, they discarded all existing contact methods and took measures so that any contact made through those old methods would be reported immediately.

Nominally, it was to prevent confusion caused by some surviving traitors, but in reality, it was to prevent the leader from trying to regain control of the organization again.

And the last was the reform of the system where the middle class and above enjoyed wealth by exploiting the bottom-tier Altoans of society.

In truth, this could be said to be the most difficult part.

Because no one in the world wanted to give up the vested rights they originally possessed.

The reasons they could even attempt this were, firstly, that those Roden promoted to high-ranking executives were the sort who had at least a shred of conscience left within the Brotherhood, and secondly, there was a way to make up for the lacking revenue to some extent.

“Where is it coming from?”

“The hidden assets owned by the executives who died earlier.”

Fitting for the top echelon of the Brotherhood, they had managed a significant portion of the organization’s assets under joint names, and naturally all of it came into the possession of Shan and Roden.

Roden used those assets to cover the deficit created by the Brotherhood no longer exploiting Altoans.

“Of course, we can’t make up for it with this money forever, so in the long term, we have to make the organization generate profits on its own.”

“How?”

“By working fair and square.”

Roden’s goal was to transform it into an organization that protected persecuted Altoans according to its original founding purpose, and to run the organization with donations received from those protected who were well-off.

It was, quite literally, forming a self-sustaining community.

Naturally, not all Brotherhood executives agreed with this intent.

Because if they were given money without committing bad deeds, receiving that money while still doing bad deeds would allow them to gain twice as much.

To catch those thinking along such lines, Roden spent all day cross-referencing the given ledgers with information obtained from various locations, striving to uncover corruptions.

Even seeking Cheryn’s help when necessary.

And every time a case was caught, the Brotherhood’s ‘Executioner’, wearing a Horse Mask with bizarrely long legs, stepped forward.

“I-I was wrong! Please forgive me just once-“

Crack, the neck of the Altoan man begging desperately was severed.

It was the end of a piece of trash who had coaxed women coming up to the capital to try and make a decent living, intending to sell them off to brothels.

Shan quietly gazed at the terrified Altoan women huddled in the back, threw them a cloak to cover themselves, and left the place.

Since an example had been made, if they didn’t want to die, the subordinates of the man killed earlier would handle the cleanup appropriately.

“T-Thank you!”

Seeing Shan’s retreating back, one woman bowed her head and offered her thanks.

As such incidents occurred several times, to the Altoan poor, the swordsman in the Horse Mask became a symbol like a guardian who protected them from their violent kin.

Finally, after twenty men who attempted to start a rebellion claiming they couldn’t endure it any longer were slaughtered, the existing exploiters either adapted at last or fled in the dead of night.

Either way, it meant the structural overhaul had succeeded.

Naturally, these changes in the Brotherhood naturally drew the attention of the ‘Council’.

It was only natural, as the Brotherhood was also nominally one of the criminal organizations that constituted the Council.

Thus, instead of attending the Council’s summons in person, Roden sent a newly appointed high-ranking executive of his.

“An internal matter?”

“That is correct.”

As the representative sent by the Council frowned, Moong, the Brotherhood’s new high-ranking executive and handler for the Council, swallowed hard.

Originally a mere mid-level executive managing pickpockets, he couldn’t help but feel tense while facing such a big shot of the underworld.

“Well, if that’s the case… However, there is only one thing the Council wishes to confirm. Is the Brotherhood still a member of the Council?”

“Of course.”

Whether this answer satisfied the representative or not, a contented smile crossed his previously sullen face.

After a few minor questions were exchanged and the negotiations neared their conclusion, Moong passed along the order handed down by the head.

“Asking the Council not to mess with Shan Barendil?”

“Since he is a fellow Altoan, we are carrying out a long-term operation to recruit him into the Brotherhood. It would be troublesome if fellow members of the Council clashed due to misaligned actions.”

“The Mosquitos are going to raise hell. They were sharpening their blades, claiming he killed their kin.”

The Council’s representative muttered, looking troubled.

Moong forcibly tightened his stomach and retorted.

“Honestly, is it a crime for a knight to kill a few of those Mosquito bastards? Let’s not be like this between fellow humans. If the Brotherhood grows stronger, the Council’s influence will grow stronger as well, so it’s not a bad thing, is it?”

Saying so, Moong used the swift hand dexterity unique to pickpockets to slip a bribe into the Council representative’s sleeve.

Realizing that it was a necklace set with a fairly large gem, the representative replied with a hint of a smile on his thin lips.

“Well, I shall submit a report to the higher-ups to that effect for now.”

Realizing that the bribe had worked, Moong let out a sigh of relief.

At that moment, the representative casually brought up a point.

“Ah, if recruitment fails, he will have to be eliminated. The Council might send a request to your executioner, so keep that in mind.”

The representative spoke with an expression full of interest, stating that his existence was already well-known within the Council.

A swordsman who possessed the physical trait of bizarrely long leg joints that bent at multiple segments, true to an Altoan.

His skill was such that he could slice down over a dozen men skilled in battle all by himself.

A person of such skill was rare even in the underworld, where hidden masters were quite numerous.

Because unless a truly outstanding master had committed high treason, nobles would invariably recruit and employ them through word of mouth.

“They say quite a few people are looking forward to seeing who would win if the Green-Eyed Knight and the Brotherhood’s Executioner were to fight.”

Laughing softly, the representative added that he was also one of those looking forward to it.

In this way, Shan’s alternative identity spread quietly in the shadows.

Not long after wrapping up negotiations like that, the Council sent a reply as expected, stating, ‘If recruitment fails, we will attempt elimination, so inform us.’

Roden nodded satisfyingly upon receiving that report.

Because whether this ‘recruitment’ would take a few years or a few decades was up to him, the new leader of the Brotherhood, to decide.

Securing just this single safeguard made all these attempts well worth it.

*

Two months had already passed while running around diligently to seize control of the underworld.

Before long, the sweltering summer passed, and falling left covered the ground on all sides.

Along with the cool autumn wind, Shan and Roden, who had been moving busily, also grew a bit more idle.

Thanks to the fact that as the Brotherhood gradually adapted to the changes, the need to monitor them strictly and discipline them harshly diminished.

Since it was originally a cell-based organization controlled by the leader through a few letters, once the system was set up, managing it afterward would not be difficult.

Looking up at the deep blue autumn sky, Shan suddenly brought up a topic.

“Should we head to the Demonic Realm soon?”

“To get the relic?”

“Yeah.”

Since his original intention was to let it sit for about half a year before selling it off, around now seemed appropriate.

Although he had hidden it quite well, he was starting to worry slightly whether someone might have taken it.

“Will the Brotherhood be fine even if we leave for a bit?”

“I suppose so. The original leader guy didn’t contact them that often either. This organization itself is structured to be accustomed to running on its own.”

If that hadn’t been the case, instead of taking control through such a troublesome method, they would have just smashed it to pieces.

Answering leisurely, Roden scratched his beard with his thumb.

“Except the princess is a bit of a concern. I heard the atmosphere in the royal court is pretty bad these days?”

“Yeah. She seemed very busy.”

Princess Cheryn, who had stepped forward to help quite actively during the early stages of taking over the Brotherhood, had recently reached a state where even keeping in contact was difficult.

In truth, even those who didn’t have eyes and ears inside the royal court could easily guess that the recent atmosphere was grim.

Not long ago, knights following Prince Conrad and Prince Elvin had picked fights with each other, leading to brawls where they cut off each other’s arms and stabbed each other’s bellies.

It was to the point where anxiety clouded the faces of passing citizens.

“If something happens, the princess might need our help. If possible, staying in the capital seems better, but we can’t just idle around forever either.”

Shan was, needless to say, the strongest warrior, and now they also had the added military force of the Brotherhood that could be mobilized in an emergency.

A few Altoan knights trained in secret and around fifty young men who could be handed weapons in an emergency were enough to tip the scales toward one side, even if defeating one of the princes was out of the question.

While they were keenly keeping their ears to the ground regarding the royal court’s movements like that, a commotion arrived unexpectedly from the far east.

“Shedil City is in danger!”

“Monsters are swarming in hordes and invading toward the west!”

The ones delivering these stories were the army that the two princes had sent into the Demonic Realm a few months ago claiming to save their father, or more accurately, sent while pretending to do so.

The group, which originally consisted of over a dozen knights, thirty squires assisting them, two hundred mercenaries, and forty priests, now had not even one-third remaining.

Even among those, most were critically injured, making their appearance literally that of defeated remnants.

The news that struck Hasra City (and would likely spread throughout the entire Kingdom of Pendia soon) was quickly delivered to the Weavers mansion as well.

“A monster army?”

“So it seems. It looks like the army that marched in touched something weird…”

Having received the news through various connections, Roden spoke with a troubled expression.

A few months ago, the armies of the two princes that marched beyond the Demonic Realm pushed eastward as if competing with each other.

Since a count’s title and corresponding fief were promised to whoever discovered a magic artifact capable of restoring the king’s health, every one of them was filled with zeal.

As expected, when zeal precedes proper knowledge and ability, accidents are bound to happen.

The armies of the two princes, having rashly invaded the Demonic Realm, quickly began to be consumed in the face of monster hordes pressing from all sides and the uniquely harsh environmental changes.

It was natural, given that they lacked the know-how to lead large forces in the Demonic Realm like the Holy Order of the Ajun Kingdom, and were a group split into two factions without even a competent commander to begin with.

It wasn’t because the explorers of Shedil City were fools that they didn’t form large expeditionary forces, operating in groups of a dozen at most.

In the end, after collapsing completely in the middle of the Demonic Realm within a few weeks, only a fraction of the army survived to return to Shedil City.

Since it was as expected when the two princes used them as disposable pawns, normally the story should have ended right there.

The problem was that not long after they returned, a massive army of monsters pursuing them began advancing westward out of the Demonic Realm.

It was clear that some of the defeated remnants scattered in the heart of the Demonic Realm had provoked them and drawn them to the mainland.

“What’s more, it seems those bastards aren’t just rampaging randomly, but are being controlled to some extent. Even though all sorts of monsters are mixed together.”

“Horde Lord…”

“That’s right.”

Recalling a story he had heard in a liberal arts class in the past, Shan muttered under his breath.

Generally, monsters did not associate with one another unless they were of the same species, or were even hostile, but there were times when they transcended this instinct.

It was the case when they recognized a monster naturally endowed with powerful charisma as a guardian and gathered under it.

This was referred to as a Horde Lord, and even the collapse of the Arman Empire in the distant past was due to the invasion of such an entity.

The mighty demon dragon who would later be called Lagrissa of the Vermilion Wings went as far as crushing the main force of the Imperial Army alongside the monsters gathered under its command.

Even afterward, the emergence and invasion of such Horde Lords occurred once in a while, just when people were about to forget.

This time, because a large force had stirred up the Demonic Realm, the scale of the forces led by that Horde Lord had grown even larger.

“It seems this time the Horde Lord is an Ogre. As for the monsters under its command… there are over a dozen large monsters alone, and middling ones numbering in the hundreds, so truly nothing will be left intact wherever they go.”

Ogres were entities that belonged to the extremely powerful category even among large monsters.

Although it wasn’t exact due to individual variations, it was rated as similar to or slightly above the cockatrice Shan had faced in the past.

If a monster of that caliber dragged along a whole flock of escorts, an allied force of a few ordinary nobles wouldn’t stand a chance.

In other words, this was a war with monsters that had to be dealt with at the national level.

Not long after the story spread, the royal court began recruiting warriors to stand against the monster offensive.

Along with that, a guest arrived at the Weavers mansion.

Contrary to expectations, it was not Princess Cheryn herself, but Aran, the escort knight serving her.

“The princess is currently in a position where it is difficult to pull herself away.”

Aran spoke in a rigid tone.

According to her words, tension within the royal court had recently reached its peak, making it difficult for Cheryn to freely enter and exit the palace as before.

It was said that if she showed even a slightly suspicious movement, both princes would show a reaction bordering on a fit, suspecting that she was siding with the opponent and pulling strange tricks.

“Both princes will likely refrain from mobilizing their elite knights. If one side pulls out knights for the ogre subjugation, the opposing side will gain an overwhelming advantage.”

Yet they lacked enough trust between them to pull out most of their knights by mutual agreement.

Therefore, those mobilized for the ogre subjugation were highly likely to be a ragtag crowd.

Naturally, participating in a subjugation battle with a high chance of failure meant putting one’s life on the line.

“I suppose it would be difficult to opt out of the ogre subjugation battle?”

“Yes.”

It had already been several months since he vanquished the vampire of Castaman Castle.

If a knight who had earned renown by vanquishing a cockatrice backed out of the ogre subjugation battle after resting more than enough, unimaginable criticism would pour down upon him.

Unlike other knights who could make the excuse that it was hard to step out due to their lord’s orders, he was a free knight-errant.

Of course, even if it weren’t for the renown he had built up being thrown into the gutter, Shan wanted to participate in the battle.

Confronting an ogre meant he could once again experience the thrill he felt back when fighting the cockatrice, wouldn’t it?

A thrilling sensation felt when confronting an enemy capable of crushing him the moment he let his guard down at any time, something he couldn’t feel when facing ordinary humans…

The pleasure that felt as if substances secreted from his brain were melting his entire head was truly downright addictive.

“Right, the princess also expected you to be like that… Here, take this.”

Aran replied in a resigned tone as she pulled an item from her bosom and held it out.

When Shan quietly stared at the glass bottle containing liquid red like blood, she answered.

“It is a gift and payment for the request from the princess. An elixir that preserves life even through terrible injuries. The cost… she said it is returning alive and well.”

Shan quietly looked at the medicine held out by Aran, accepted it respectfully with both hands, and bowed his head.

That was conveyed not to Aran, but to the person who had made this item for him.

“Please tell her that I accept with gratitude, and that I will return alive.”