Vermillion interlude 3 part3

The Stronghold

"The man with the bow is a magician. He's blessed with a Great Spirit at that."

The raven declared.

"A Great Spirit?

「いかにも。”妖精”や”鬼火”なんぞの子供騙しではない、強大な元素の精霊よ。この場合は、十中八九、風じゃろうが」

"Indeed. It's a powerful elemental spirit, not your usual offspring of some fairy or demon. In this case, it's probably a spirit of the wind."

The bird seemed to be lost in his thoughts, engrossed by prospects that no doubt sprang forth in its devious head.

"Give me a break, dad. Because of your carelessness, the room's become a mess… "

Danah cradled his forehead in his hands and let out a sigh. To say the room was a mess was a gross understatement. The window was gone, replaced by a hole framed with jagged glass shards. Tables and chairs were overturned, and documents plastered every surface. The room seemed to have been hit by a tornado, which, upon reflection, was not that far from the truth.

"Kufufu… kakaka! I'm sorry… it appears that that young man has piqued my interest."

The raven deftly leaped onto the desk in one leap with the assistance of its wings. The usual, ever-present twinkle in its eyes seemed to have transformed into a terrifying, bestial gleam, entirely devoid of what one could consider the light of intelligence.

「欲しい。あの精霊の力、是が非でも欲しい。どうにかして、我が物としたい。それに……。 Tiuj kiuj insidas en la sablo… alie gi estus unu el la vizitantoj…」

"I want it. I want the power of that spirit. I want to make it my own… 『Those who lurk in the sand… otherwise it would be one of the visitors… 』" (ED Note: I fed the Esperanto word by word into a dictionary, and I couldn't make heads or tails of it. If by any chance any of you guys know what this means, please leave it in a comment below.) 

Danah sighed again as he gathered up the scattered documents, unconsciously crumpling some of them in the process.

"… Well, anyways. For the time being, should we assume that the archer's working for Satyna?"  

"That'd be wise. You wouldn't see someone of his level just wandering around in the middle of nowhere for no reason. I'd bet he's a hired mercenary as a precautionary measure against your bandits, or… Either way, it's not a mere coincidence." 

As the raven thought aloud, Danah gave up on the documents and called for the maids.

Immediately, the door opened and two maids dressed in the same matching shade of black entered. Although they normally had expressionless, doll-like faces, the state of their roomed fractured their calm facade.

"Danah-sama, this is… " 

"Umu. We made a mistake and let a mischievous little girl come in… I'll leave the cleaning to you."

"I-I understand… " 

To the chagrin of the maids, Danah simply shrugged ambiguously, leaving them with a clearly unsatisfactory explanation. With the raven perched on his arm, turned around before leaving the room and announced,

"I'll be going to the attic."

"Yes, sir."

With that, Danah left the room, the maids bowing their heads in his wake. 

"… The attic would be much more suitable for our purposes, right father?" 

"Caw!"

The attic featured an intricate door decorated with various runes, not so much for aesthetics, but rather, for functionality. It acted as any door would, but it was also enchanted with magic so that only certain kinds of sounds passed through. It was a foolproof countermeasure for eavesdropping, and was convenient for secret talks, as one the door was closed, nobody would know what's going on inside.

Danah climbed the spiral staircase leading towards the top of the tower.

The sound of boots hitting stone echoed in the stairwell. Pavel was wrong when he thought that the previous office below was the top floor of the tower; the attic where Danah was heading to now was the true apex. It was a completely confidential place such that Danah had even instructed the maids to keep out at all times. 

On the landing atop the stairs, Danah unlocked the small wooden door that lead to the attic. The size of the room was completely out of sync in relation to Danah's stature. The space was sparsely furnished, with only a bed, a small bookshelf, a perch for the bird, and a side table, but nonetheless left space much to be desired. (ED Note: The MTL goes pretty downhill starting now, so again, no guarantees for accuracy, especially here.)

"Now, how shall we proceed, father?"

To Danah's question, the bird on its perch in the corner titled its head.

"… You mean regarding the matter in Satyna?"  

"That too, but it's about Ignat as a whole. I think it's about time we stop this bandit roleplay stuff." 

Danah sat down on the couch, foldings his arms as he stared straight into the raven's red eyes.

「時間は充分にかけた。種も充分に蒔いた。奴隷商の仕事も、せこいクスリの商売も、諜報の真似ごとも、もううんざりだ。

"We've invested a lot of time and effort into this. The seeds have been sown. I'm already fed up with with overworking the slaves, dealing drugs, and gathering intelligence our enemies.

"Recently, Satyna has strengthened itself. Because of that, staying there just wasn't worth it, so we decided to withdraw from the city. I feel like their hostile attitude is an ominous sign that something will happen soon."

"… We can only wait, huh?"

"Yeah."

Danah leaned forward aggressively. At this, the raven confessed in exasperation,

"To be honest, I've also had enough playing the role of the carrier pigeon, you see." 

"That is, even if we stop playing house like what we're already doing, reality isn't so nice that it'll just let you off scot-free. In fact, you'll probably be even busier than now."

Danah flashed an evil grin. The raven continued,

"Well, there's also the matter with that archer. I'll have to prepare accordingly."

"Indeed… then let's get started, shall we?" 

"Naturally. Then, Danah, I shall be gone for a while. I believe I know of a person that shall be of a great deal of assistance to us."

"Got it."

With that, the two red glows disappeared from above the perch.

"Caaaw… caaaw… " 

The raven's wings drew uncharacteristically graceful arcs in the air with a rhythmic flapping noise as it flew off towards the forest in the distance.

While watching the bird leave, Danah couldn't help but let out a sigh as his thoughts wandered back to Morissette.

"Morissette, you bastard, dying on me. But don't worry, I'll follow you someday… "

He cursed. The Ignat bandits had countless members, but Morissette was one of the oldest members, having been with Danah for more than a decade.

Danah reminisced over one of the bandits' executive meetings that happened a few weeks ago.

"―― Sir, is there any meaning in continuing to be bandits?"

Morissette had asked Danah.

There was no doubt about the fact that Ignat was a bandit group. 

However, it had been more than ten years since its founding. At this point, they had a vast network of connections with slave merchants and drug dealers among their repertoire. Although it was true that the Ignat bandits dealt in the shadows, they had established an unblemished facade for society as well.

As a result, they were able to permeate throughout the country's economy like an overcast shadow. With their perfected covert operations honed through years of operations, they handled both legal and illegal dealings with impunity, using their legitimate business as cover. Nowadays, many people didn't even know they were being employed by the Ignat bandits. 

Magical communication and diversification had allowed for unprecedented informational and organizational expansion as well. 

―― A sprawling, yet structured network for organized crime that occupied most of the real estate in Principality's shadow.   

That was the current status of the Ignat Bandits.

However, the number of people who knew the whole picture could be ticked off on one's fingers. Morissette was among one of those few who did. He had questioned why, despite the numerous sources of income, many of the underlings of the organization were barely scraping by, if at all.

From that perspective, it would indeed appear that an occupation as a bandit was just be a waste of time.

「……俺たちは、”盗賊”である必要があったんだよ」

"… We really need to go back to being 'true bandits.'" 

But Danah had retorted,

"I'm a criminal, but a politician as well. I'll do whatever the situation demands of me."

Ignat was a powerful organization. However, if all its underlings were to turn on them all at once, Ignat would collapse at once.

Therefore, one must be constantly alert. It was a necessary aspect for being the leader of a group of criminals.

　また、各々の街との取引のうちには、『手を結んだ領地内での活動は自粛する』というものも含まれていたため、示威行為としてもやはり”盗賊稼業”は必要だった。

In addition, since the roles with the native inhabitants of the controlled cities were limited to those that of a subcontractor. In such a case, their earnings reflected as much.

―― If you're a bandit, earn money through any means.

―― Do it with minimal damage to oneself as well.

Danah had taught Morissette that profits made through the sacrifice of lives were not profits at all.

Morissette was not particularly strong, but nevertheless, he was a cunning and cautious man. He didn't get greedy or ambitious, at least until his latest and final mission it would seem.

"Good grief, dying on me just like that."

Danah murmured as a wave of loneliness washed over him.

"… Well, there's no use crying over spilt milk."

Raising his head, Danah meticulously gestured at the side table next to the bed.

A map emerged like a phantom from the table, hovering just about the table silently. On it, all the major cities and topographical features of the Rieru region were clearly displayed with a degree of accuracy that would qualify it as a national treasure. (ED Note: Rail → Rieiru as corrected from part one. If you're reading this later, it's already been fixed.)

A translucent flag floated above many of the cities' captions: the port city Keetin, the fortress city Satyna, the mining city Garon, the outpost city Uruvan ―― countless flags of varying shapes and colors. These were proof of the "seeds" that Danah had so painstakingly established. 

Danah leaned back and gazed out the window.

The lush greenery stretched out for as far as the eye could see.

The forest and the ruins it encompassed.

"It appears that I have quite a lot of things, don't I… " 

As the leader of such a massive syndicate, Danah had acquired almost everything that a man could possibly want in the world.

Troves of gold and silver, hordes of women, a real, brick-and-mortar castle ―― he had it all.

Nevertheless… 

There was one thing he had never managed to seize.

On the map displayed atop the surface, it stood firm as the last bastion of all that was not his.

―― The Auckland Union Principality itself.

"Let's do this… "

Danah hollered, flashing a ferocious smile like that of a beast.

"―― I'll take this country for my own!"

With those words, the gears of fate began to turn.

Author's Note:

NAKA様より頂きました、デンナー様です。

This is Danah as drawn by NAKA.

I'm pretty conservative… anyways, thank you very much!

Editor's Note:

Ha… ha… I'm laughing at myself for thinking the last section was hard to translate compared to this one. Thanks again to Hakou for helping me read over this for accuracy. At any rate, sorry about the late chapter, the next one will be faster, hopefully, since I took a glance and the MTL seemed to like the text. Thanks for reading and “remember to smash that like button and subscri- ” oh wait, this isn't Youtube. Well, just leave a comment. I'll stop rambling. See you next chapter!

Chapter end