Chapter 47: Mayor Harz (2)

It was a completely unexpected request, but that was precisely why Henry found it funny.

“I’ll allow it.”

Henry readily agreed, and Klever immediately appeared as a snow-white cat on Henry’s shoulder.

“Come now, take a good look, as much as you want.”

Klever turned his head toward the sea and whispered in awe.

- Whoa…

It was an expression of pure admiration. This exceedingly human reaction had come out of a cat’s mouth, making for a rather peculiar sight.

“Is this really your first time seeing the sea?”

This was the first time Klever had seen the sea in the human world because he had spent his entire life in the Demon Realm and the Demonic Beasts’ Forest.

- There was a place like this in the Demon Realm, but the water was black and looked like filth.

“No wonder you got your breath taken away by this place.”

The two of them walked along the coast for a while, quietly enjoying the peace that Mother Nature offered. After a while, Klever asked a question.

- Master, is this Von person really here?

“Most likely.”

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

- May I ask what makes you so certain?

“He’s a smart guy, and he’s quite the patriot.”

- What do you mean?

‘He was a crazy,?bold?man. He’s the one who cut off his king’s head with his own hands and offered it up, after all,’

Henry recalled.

During the Unification War, Enkelmann was only a small kingdom with not much territory. Thus, before attacking them, Henry had formed a negotiating party and invited the King of Enkelmann to surrender. Enkelmann’s army was weak to begin with, and Henry did not want to engage in a pointless fight.

However, King Enkelmann, being the proud man he was, refused to surrender. He put his pride as the head of the royal family on the line and challenged Henry to a fight to the death. That was when the incident happened.

Slash!

Von, who was also at the negotiating table, cut off the king’s head as soon as the negotiations broke down.

“You bastard, what the hell are you doing!”

the commander-in-chief shouted in surprise and drew his sword.

Then, Von cut his throat with a single swing.

It was a spectacular sight. At that time, Von was Enkelmann’s only Sword Master. Despite his young age, he had been given the title of second-in-command as a recognition of his skills. After beheading the king and the commander, Von calmly turned his attention to the people around him.

“Now, there is no one above me in Enkelmann. If you have any complaints, draw your sword immediately, and I will accept your challenge.”

The only Sword Master in the kingdom had declared a rebellion, so no one dared to complain. This made second-in-command the highest position in the kingdom. When the situation calmed down slightly, Von lowered his head and whispered to Henry,

“My name is Von. We, Enkelmann, will give up our resistance and obediently accept the negotiators’ wishes. However, there is one condition.”

“Condition?”

“If we, the people of Enkelmann, are to become slaves to the empire, then we will fight to the bitter end. What will you do, Sir Henry?”

That was how Henry had first met Von.

‘He was truly a crazy bastard.’

Some may have considered Von a problematic bastard who wouldn’t even budge an inch for others. However, in Henry’s eyes, Von was a wise patriot. A futile war would have only led to more innocent bloodshed. Beheading an arrogant leader in exchange for the lives of innocent citizens was a much more efficient trade.

That was why Henry had designated Enkelmann as an autonomous city overseen by the empire, and not by a noble. It was with that agreement that the two men had grown closer and built up a close relationship.

‘If Von did as I said, he would definitely be here in Enkelmann.’

Long after their agreement, due to the conspiracy of the nobles, all of Henry’s comrades had been killed and Henry had been left alone. This left him with no choice but to bring the families of his fallen comrades under his care. It was the least he could do for them. However, this became a heavy burden that held Henry back.

For Henry, who had never even been married, having people to take care of required more sacrifice than he had thought. Thus, Henry shared his power with the nobles to ensure the safety of the people around him. That ended up being one of Henry’s biggest mistakes.

The nobles had taken all of the tiger’s fangs and claws, and they were now beginning to covet its hide. Foreseeing that his future would come to an early end, Henry had left a will behind to his aides.

‘I don’t have the power to protect you anymore. So, get out of here as soon as possible and hide somewhere safe. Once I’m dead, you’ll be next.’

Among them was Von. The two men were so well acquainted that Von was even nicknamed ‘Henry’s Sword.’ Afterward, all of Henry’s aides had disappeared one by one, just as Henry had warned. Now, more than a year later, Henry had returned to the city that he loved the most to bring back the man he called his ‘Sword’.

‘But first, I’ll have to meet Harz.’

Harz was the second mayor of Enkelmann, directly appointed by Henry and Von. Originally, they had followed the law and appointed a person who had no connection to the two of them, but the first mayor was so corrupt that Von had to personally cut off his head. Thus, Henry and Von had carefully hand-picked a man named Harz, a former banker, to serve as the city’s second mayor.

Harz had turned out to be an excellent choice. He was bright and competent with numbers, but he was also very timid and afraid of Von, which enabled Enkelmann to be ruled cleanly.

Henry stopped his leisurely stroll and entered a nearby bakery. Upon entering the bakery, a freckled young boy greeted Henry in a booming voice.

“Welcome!”

“Excuse me, but I have a question.”

“Yep! Ask me anything.” the young staff replied with a twinkle in his eyes, perhaps from the excitement of having someone much older than him using honorifics to him.

“Do you know about Mayor Harz?”

“Of course I do, he’s the mayor.”

“Then do you know where he resides, now that he’s retired?”

Entering stores run by citizens, such as bakeries, was the best way to find out about the current status of high-ranking government officials like Harz. People didn’t know much about the inner workings of politics, but they stayed up to date with the latest news and the reputation of public officials.

“Retirement? Did the mayor just retire?”

“Sorry?”

“I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case… I’m certain I saw him just yesterday walking around the market and encouraging the merchants.”

The boy seemed puzzled by Henry’s question. Hearing the boy’s answer, Henry was equally puzzled.

‘Harz is still the mayor?’

Harz was someone that Henry and Von had planted. Naturally, Henry thought that Harz would have been stripped of his mayoral post once the purges started. However, it seemed that Harz was still the mayor.

‘How’s that possible?’

It was strange. It was true that Harz had been good at his job, but he was by no means a man of integrity. It was only because of Von’s periodic involvement that Harz had continued to do a good job, albeit solely out of fear.

.

“Then what do you think of the mayor?”

“Mayor Harz is truly the best mayor. He’s been running the city wonderfully for decades without a single act of corruption, hasn’t he?”

He even had a good reputation. This was despite Von no longer being directly involved after his disappearance.

‘Something’s definitely suspicious about this.’

Now, only the filthy corrupt nobles—the embodiment of corruption itself—remained in the imperial palace. As the saying went, ‘When the roots of a tree begin to decay, it spreads death to the branches’. The fact that the cowardly Harz was still clean and free of corruption meant that

something?

was holding him in check.

‘Don’t tell me, Von…?’

All of a sudden, the odd pieces of the puzzle in Henry’s head came together. Henry tipped a silver coin to the young staff and left the bakery.

“Klever.”

- Yes, Master.

“Do you still have the Kin Mushroom spores you collected from the Demonic Beasts’ Forest?”

- Of course I do. Not a single spore has died, they’re all perfectly alive!

In order to be certain of his suspicion, Henry had no choice but to check things out himself. To do that, it was necessary to meet Harz in person, but it was impossible to do so without making any preparations. Henry was no longer in a position where he could just meet high-ranking public officials out of the blue.

“Then shall we create an excuse for a meeting?”

As the sun set and night fell, Henry and Klever began to lay the groundwork for a plan to meet with Harz.

* * *

Chonta was a typical fisherman, born and raised in Enkelmann. He made a living from aquaculture and rose to become a prominent figure in the aquaculture industry. Among the variety of seafood he handled was the Krill Shrimp, one of the most beloved kinds of seafood in the empire.

Chonta woke up at dawn, just like any other day, and walked up to his farm to feed his shrimp. He had ten compartments in the large farm, and he would always start feeding the shrimp from the first compartment. However, the moment he turned the lights on, Chonta couldn’t help but doubt his eyes.

“W-what’s this?”

Unidentified objects had completely covered the first compartment. At first, he thought it was something like moss or green algae. However, upon closer inspection, it resembled something closer to coal dust. In addition, the walls of the compartment were covered with some kind of mushrooms that he had never seen before.

“N-naw! It’s time to harvest soon, what the hell is this!”

The spores had already devoured the numerous shrimps swimming inside the first compartment.

“Wait…. No. Don’t tell me….”

Momentarily stunned after seeing the first compartment, Chonta suddenly remembered that there was a second compartment right next to it.

“H-oh shit!”

Just as he had feared, the spores from the first compartment were also slowly taking over the second compartment, consuming all the shrimp in their path.

“Argh! What’s this!”

“W-what the hell is going on?”

Chonta was not the only victim. Most fishermen farming along Enkelmann had been invaded by the Kin Mushroom spores, and they could do nothing but watch helplessly. The Kin Mushroom spores spread tenaciously and did not seem to disappear no matter what the fishermen tried.

“Mayor, sir! Please come out!”

“Come ’ere, man! There’s some serious trouble in the fish farms right now!”

“Noooo! My shrimp! My shrimp!”

The fishermen, who had all suffered colossal losses, gathered together and knocked on the door of the city hall early in the morning to complain. The noise forced Harz awake.

“What’s the fuss? Weil, what’s going on out there?” Harz asked his assistant, Weil.

“They are fish farmers. It seems that something happened to their farms.”

“What? Was there a burglary or something?”

“From what I heard, it seems that some kind of parasitic moss that looks like coal dust has appeared on their farms.”

“Moss?”

It wasn’t just one or two, but dozens of fishermen that had shown up. Among them were some of the largest names in Enkelmann’s fishing industry.

“

Urgh…

this is a pain in the ass. Is this some kind of an epidemic? What’s the total damage?”

“A significant number of fishermen have reported total loss of their farms.”

“They reported what now?!”

The truth was, the city hall was not obligated to compensate for damage caused by natural disasters. Despite these fishermen being natives of Enkelmann, anything involving their fish farming business was considered a private matter.

Even so, Harz couldn’t simply put his hands up and claim to have no responsibility to them. The fishermen’s taxes made up a fairly large part of the city’s revenue, and some of the fishermen even made additional contributions to the local economy by renting out ships to merchants.

“Call the vets and priests right away.”

In the end, Harz knew he only had one option.