Leave a comment

◇◆◇◆◇

The usual tavern, the usual table, the usual four people. However, the atmosphere around them was not the usual. There was just one reason for that. Because their leader figure, Kufar, was tapping on the table with his finger in displeasure.

He tapped on it with a fixed rhythm. But strangely enough, he was not saying anything. He looked quite the same as always, but his displeasure was quite conspicuous. He was not actually displeased, but the other three had no way of knowing that.

“…This is unsatisfactory.”
“………”
“…Yes.”
“…You are right.”

Each of them replied uneasily at his monolog-like mutter.

“Lately, the success rate of summoning has dropped under 60%.”
“Yeah. But we haven’t dropped in quality.”
“And the numbers haven’t gone down that much either. Considering the strengthened control from King Elliot, you could say we are doing better than expected.”
“We were at 80% before, but don’t you think that was abnormal instead?”

As Kufar started to talk, the others started making excuses as if their dam had been broken. They were arguing the fact that their success rate for summons had dropped lately.

Of course, it was not their oversight that caused this drop. It was because Kufar had been preying on them behind the scenes. But even that was not enough for him. He wanted to eat stronger beings and add them to his strength.

But doing any more than this would just make them stand out. The acquisition of sacrificial slaves had become very restricted due to King Elliot’s policies. Even so, they were making it up by capturing passerby Adventurers and peddlers.

“…It might not be enough.”
“Numbers? I don’t think it’s that different from previous though.”

There were other customers around, so they were refraining from saying specific words. He interpreted Kufar’s words to mean the sacrifice number and objected to it.

It was scary to object to Kufar who was in a bad mood, but increasing their activities any more would risk the survival of their organization.

“No, not that. I’m talking about quality.”
“Even if you say that, I don’t think it’s that different from before either.”
“I’m not talking about physically, but mentally.”

From times immemorial, children and virgins have been prized as sacrifices. That fact has not changed even now. It was close to impossible to cover all the required sacrifices with that, but the ratio should not have changed from before. But Kufar was saying that it had.

“It has been over twenty years since the Evil Dragon crisis has ended.”
“Yeah, about twenty five years, I guess?”
“Right. So people at the time were desperate. And that has continued in the north even after the Evil Dragon was defeated.”
“Because it took a long time for the north to regain its public order.”

Before Elliot founded this United Alliance of the North, it was in a state of anarchy. And its public order did not immediately diffuse even after he did. After all, he was only a five year old child at the time. Even so, his reign started to show power as he grew, and the order had started to settle down in every place. It could be said that people had finally obtained their peaceful lives.

“Peaceful life, that in other words, could be called hope for the future. Now, people are full of hope for the revival. There isn’t enough despair.”
“But don’t they start despairing the moment they are caught?”
“Yes. But they still hold on to the hope that someone would come to the rescue. And they hold on to it until the very end. Don’t you think we need to give them a deeper form of despair?”
“So you say, but what would that deeper form be?”
“The rescue won’t come. Even if they do, they would have no hope for the future. We need sacrifices with such deep despair.”

The other three started pondering with hands to their chins at Kufar’s proposal.

At present, they were catching and using them as sacrifices as is. If Kufar found that unsatisfactory, they had to make some improvements. But they could not think of a way that would give them a deeper despair.

“But we can’t suddenly improve the quality. Don’t you think the only way would be to make up for it with numbers?”
“So speed up our rotation? But it’ll take a while to find people we can get along with. If possible, I want to keep the summoners and people with special abilities as our pawns. We are already lacking in numbers as is.”
“And even if we use them immediately, it’d make us easier to trace.”

With all of them objecting back, Kufar could not insist on it any more. The efficiency of gathering sacrifices would drop if he acted alone, so he still needed the organization’s power.

“Hmm, I see. Then how about we take down a village as an impromptu measure?”
“How? They’ve been suppressing us quite hard lately, so even that would be risky.”
“They can do that because the order has been stabilized around these parts. We can just throw them into disorder again.”
“Disorder?”
“Let’s see—We have to stop the Six Heroes first.”

One of the Six Heroes, Lyell, took charge of the safety of part of the northern land. It was hard to restrict his power, but it was not impossible to limit his movement.

“Let’s start with dropping one small fry near Lyell’s village. No, actually, more would be better.”
“Then let’s go with Needle Beetles. They move in groups.”
“Okay, let’s go with that then. It should take several days for him to take them down and investigate the cause. Let’s aim for another village in the meantime.”
“Hmm… But wouldn’t it be bad to stand out like that?”
“Of course, we can’t do this over and over. Just this once. Besides, it’s not like we’d be working only in the north.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s see. Once this matter is over, what do you think about visiting the Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus?”
“The World Tree Religion’s headquarters huh…”

The World Tree Religion was the headquarters of people discriminating against half-demons like them. Going on a campaign there was their long-cherished desire. Imagining themselves rampaging there, their expressions became momentarily ecstatic.

“Doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Yeah, It wouldn’t be so bad to give them a little blow.”
“Looks like we have come to a decision. Let’s start deciding which would be the real one.”

It was decided that they would leave Needle Beetles near Lyell’s village. But they needed to decide which village they would be aiming at for real. They would be in the red unless it was a village that could make up for the wasted Needle Beetles, by allowing them to summon a stronger Devil. For that, they wanted it to be a lively village full of children and women.

They started to polish their heinous plan with bright expressions, completely different from the previous heavy mood.

◇◆◇◆◇