The Princess Knight
“I don’t want to.”
I looked down a Goaz, whose skin had been tinted black, and I could feel the corners of my mouth rising into a smile.
The sight of a large man kneeling and trembling before was truly a humorous thing.
He had a rugged face.
He was the kind person who vainly trained his muscles, the exact kind of person that I hated.
People like him were the plague of my previous life.
He reminded of my old life’s debt collectors.
“Please forgive ! I’ll do anything!”
The n around had their guns at the ready as they carried out the corpses.
Their eyes on Goaz seed to have a frost to them.
This was precisely the reason why I couldn’t forgive Goaz.
One of the reasons being that he’s the type of person that I hate, with the second being because he seed to be misinterpreting the situation.
“Aren’t you misunderstanding sothing? You’re saying that you’ll give all of your treasures, but all your treasures are already mine. The only thing of value you have left to give is the bounty that the Empire has placed on your head.”
Goaz’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Please wait! If you let live, I can still be useful to you! I might’ve lost to you, but you’ve seen my strength! Without arms or legs, there’s no chance of ever betraying you! So spare , I beg of you! I even have hidden treasures worth far more than my bounty located elsewhere that I can offer you, so please! Have rcy!”
He started sputtering on randomly.
What he was saying could be true, but it wasn’t enough of a reason to spare him.
“Oh? You still have a few secrets left? I’m sure you’ll be willing to tell on our way to the Empire, we have lots of fun torture chambers booked for you.”
“Don’t screw with you shitty braaaaaaaaaaa-”
Maybe he had given up on speaking with , but Goaz lunged at the best way he could with only one foot.
There was black smoke emanating from his body.
To such a Goaz, I pointed my sword and-
“Shut up.”
-I chopped him up to the point where he was just barely alive, I even took his last leg.
After slipping on the floor, Goaz had the idiotic look of soone who couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. It took a while, but after understanding the situation, he started to cry while pleading for his life.
“Help ! Please! Anyone! Please help !”
I delightedly looked over my new sword, it was far better than I could’ve ever imagined.
That’s when my n asked ,
“Lord Liam, do you intend to capture him alive?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“N-no, it’s just that he’s killed a lot of our n.”
I see, I definitely couldn’t show any rcy to this scum.
“If I kill him, will the total bounty drop? Isn’t it usually better to bring them in alive?”
I rember hearing that it was like that.
But apparently, Goaz was different,
“No, particularly atrocious criminals are fine if they’re brought in either dead or alive. Goaz is one of such individuals, the rewards should be fully paid out as long as you have evidence of your kill.”
I was quite embarrassed to have my lack of common-sense pointed out again,
“Oh, so there was sothing like that too, huh?”
Goaz was still crying when looked back at him.
The sight of him brought back mories of my previous life– who the hell said that there was room for humanity in debt collection? Because of bastards like that, I was coerced of my life’s savings and forced to live a life of poverty.
They had absolutely no room for rcy.
I was forced to tell them I had already invested into life insurance.
No matter how much I cried, nobody saved .
I worked desperately just so I could live to the next day.
Why was that world so unreasonable?
That said, what about now?
Now I was in the position that took things away.
And wouldn’t a heinous criminal like Goaz be one of the best people to take from?
“Please have rcy. I’ll tell you everything, so pleas-”
“No, you annoy .”
After I beheaded him to shut him up, I was surprised as to what happened with Goaz’s body.
His black skin slowly reverted into a normal skin tone.
It turned into a wheat-like shade that was slightly sunburnt.
“Huh, he changed back to normal. Does this an he wasn’t a remodeled human?”
No matter how I looked at the body, there didn’t seem to be any form of cybernetic alterations.
So that black skin was just so kind of skill he had... this universe sure does have a lot of mysteries in it.
I picked up Goaz’s head.
“Will this work as evidence?”
“Y-yeah!”
My subordinates imdiately replied while bringing over tools for first aid.
From the reports that had started to co in, it looks like we’ve almost completely taken over the ship.
One of my subordinates then brought forward so interesting news,
“Lord Liam, we’ve captured one of their officers and apparently... they have so people imprisoned here.”
◇ ◇ ◇
One of the captured pirates led us to a room that was built nearby Goaz’s personal quarters.
I thought this pirate ship was built quite well, turns out it was actually a seized battleship from another star country.
As a side note, It was a lot of fun ‘overdoing’ my abuse against our captive,
I kicked the pirate who was guiding from behind.
“Hurry it up!”
“A-as you wish!”
The man was one of Goaz’s close aides, soone with the position of a ‘rearing officer.’
He was short, fat, and his limbs were thin.
In conclusion, he was creepy little man.
Apparently he was assigned to this position because of so specialized skills and knowledge that he had.
After being guided to the room near the captain’s quarters, my n entered first.
The rearing officer was trying to say sothing,
“Ah, please try your best to not touch the equipnt, they’re very important tools of the trade.”
“Tools of the trade?”
They were using tools to raise animals? On a battleship?
Sothing seed off about all this...
“Hey, you.”
“Yes?”
“Were you raising a dog on this ship?”
Maybe thinking that I was taking an interest in his work, the man started to smile,
“I love lords who understand my profession. So you like dogs? I can modify any animal exactly the way that you like, my lord. Do you want to create an obedient dog for you?”
What the hell is this man talking about?
As I pondered how strange this man was, several of my subordinates had practically jumped out of the room.
So of them even removed their helts and started throwing up.
One of my escorts began criticising them,
“W-what the hell are you doing in front of Lord Liam?!”
The fully trained soldiers had pale faces, just what did they see in there?
As another one of the soldiers walked out the door, he grimly reported to ,
“Lord Liam, I recomnd that you don’t enter the room.”
There was no power in his voice.
“Don’t patronise . What happened in there?”
Surprisingly, it was the creepy breeder who answered my question instead of my hesitant subordinates,
“This is my laboratory. Inside, I was usually tasked with helping with the Boss- er, Goaz’s hobbies. I’m sure my lord would understand the true worth of what’s in there.”
The n who had taken off their helts were glaring at the rearing officer,
“You’re the devil!”
At my subordinate’s words, the rearing officer started to smile.
“...explanation, now.”
With my order, the rearing officer began to fervently talk about their work.
And because of that– with a feeling of disgust welling up inside of I shot the breeder in the head with my handgun.
As I thought, all thieves are evil.
It couldn’t get any simpler than that.
◇ ◇ ◇
Inside the dark room, creepy tools were hanging off the walls.
But what everyone was scared of was the operation table that was placed in the center of it all.
This room was called the ‘breeding room’ among the pirates.
It was an unholy place where the culmination of the creepy rearing officer’s experints and Goaz’s hobbies had combined.
The ones kept in this room were all people who were once considered ‘beautiful won.’
Goaz had the hobby of defiling that which was beautiful until it was ugly.
Incidentally, he also enjoyed the practice of torture.
On the other hand, the rearing officer was more interested in the modification of the human body. The repulsive appearance of the forr beauties was the result of bringing these two people and their hobbies together.
Among them, there was one woman in particular who was treated especially horribly.
Her na is [Christiana Reta Roseblaire]- a girl who was once a beautiful female knight.
In a small country separate from the Empire, she was born into their royal family and was loved by all as the ‘Princess Knight.’
She was captured alive alongside Goaz’s attack on her territory, and beca his favourite toy.
Everyone brought to this room was a person that had a special position in their respective societies.
They were the people who were afflicted by Goaz’s distorted hobbies.
Christiana- Tia was now barely more than a chunk of at that didn’t have a single vestige of her forr self.
She was aware of the strange occurrences happening to the ship, so she wasn’t that surprised when a strange ard force entered into the room.
The soldiers who entered started to throw up at the sight of her.
So of them were even shaking.
Tia began speaking to the nearest soldier,
“...what happened to Goaz?”
The forr beauty’s voice was now repugnant and nauseating to listen to.
One of the shoulders shook in surprise and raised his gun.
“-?!”
“Don’t be scared. I might look like this, but I’m not an enemy. I’ll ask you again, what happened to Goaz?”
As she was acknowledging the soldier’s response as only natural, a gunshot could be heard from the other side of the door.
Her friends in the room felt relief at this sound.
This ant that they could finally die.
One knight entered into the room soon after.
Young and petite.
A suspicious little boy who carried around an adult-sized sword.
Judging from the response of the soldiers, Tia could tell that the boy was their superior.
“What happened to Goaz?”
The boy was a little surprised at the question, but answered imdiately.
“I killed him.”
“...is that so.”
In the room, her friends started to moan.
They expressed happiness, gratitude, and tears of joy- the sight of which only scared the soldiers, though the boy seed to be watching Tia with interest.
One of the soldiers who was searching the room handed a terminal over to the boy.
Tia was so happy.
The boy was like an angel sent from the heavens that she had prayed for.
“It’s really over... I don’t know who you are, but if you have any compassion left in your soul, please save us!”
To die by the boy’s hands would be Tia’s salvation from this hell.
She would no longer be forced to live inside this prison of a body.
Tia thought that everything was finally over.
“You want to save you?”
“Yes, you can understand just by looking at us. We can never live as humans again, so by your hands-”
After taking such hideous forms, it would be impossible to revert back to their original states.
There was no point in living anymore.
However, the boy didn’t give the order to kill,
“Understood, I’ll save you. I’ve actually made a lot of money this ti, so I can afford it. Sobody call a doctor and have all of them carried out!”
Tia realized that the boy had misunderstood her request for him to ‘save’ them.
“N-no, wait-”
But the boy had already left the room with so of the soldiers.
So she turned to the ones that stayed.
“Please! Kill ! Just kill !!!”
But the soldiers refused.
“-it’s Lord Liam’s order. We can’t go against it, sorry.”
Inside the darkness of the room, Tia had fallen into despair.
◇ ◇ ◇
As I left the room, I was looking up the original appearances of the modified people on the terminal.
What was interesting about each individual, what kind of experints were done, and what had been modified was all written in detail in the docunts.
I looked up the modification process, and there was even sothing similar to a breeding diary.
Apparently all of them used to be quite beautiful, and were experinted on until they had their current appearances.
“This is a disgusting hobby.”
I couldn’t understand how anyone could enjoy this.
My subordinate asked ,
“Lord Liam, are you really going to help them?”
The one who spoke was a subordinate that had so dical knowledge. He started explaining to that the thods to treat people who had been modified that much were quite limited.
“To fix their appearances, we’d have to send them through treatnts to reconstruct their bodies from scratch.”
“Will they be able to recover then?”
“It’d require an elixir. We might only need to use a diluted amount, but you should know how expensive and valuable they are.”
Usually when you speak of elixirs in fantasy universes, you’d have the image of a universal dicine.
They existed in this universe as well, but there were only a few of them in the entirety of the Empire.
If one was brought to an open market, it would definitely be sold for an exponential price.
“I’ll buy it. They’re sothing that I’ve wanted as well, so let’s purchase a few of them.”
If I sold the treasure that I’ve obtained from Goaz, I’m sure to obtain a considerable amount of money.
There might even be more treasures that he’s hidden that I haven’t even found yet.
Besides, I’ve been wanting to have a personal elixir for a while now.
“No, it’s not that simple, we’d also need specialized doctors, and state-of-the-art equipnt. It would take years for them to revert back to their original forms even all that, and on the off-chance they do recover, then they’ll undoubtedly need therapy to deal with the ntal stress they’ve been forced to go through. The costs of treatnt would be imnse.”
I didn’t see any real problem since we made a lot of money this ti, though.
“I’m only helping them because they asked to help.”
“When they asked you to save them they ant-”
“I know.”
My subordinate fell silent.
They couldn’t expect to live a normal life anymore.
I also knew that- but looking at the processes written in the terminal, I could only say that they were just unlucky.
I felt sympathy for them, who had suffered through things far worse than what I had.
Most of the people who were captured had their hos destroyed in Goaz’s raids.
The majority of them didn’t have anywhere to return to.
“I’m feeling a little generous right now. Plus, it doesn’t feel bad to do good deeds every now and then, don’t you think so?”
My subordinate was silent and didn’t know what to say.
◇ ◇ ◇
When I finally returned to my territory, I was given a hero’s welco.
Many of the people were crying in happiness like Brian, who greeted at the mansion.
Amagi was the sa as usual.
But Brian was crying to the point that it was almost unnerving.
“Lord Liam, this Brian definitely believed that you’d return safely!”
“O-oh, I see.”
Amagi softly added on,
“I was only a bit worried, I knew you’d win.”
“...is that so?”
—I wish she worried a bit more and cried.
Brian tried to give a report through his tears, but I could understand what he was saying so Amagi took over.
And so-
“I’ve been summoned to the Imperial Capital?”
“Yes, they wish to bestow a dal to the lord who had defeated Goaz’s Pirates. It’s just a statent at the mont, but the official announcent should arrive soon.”
That’s when I rembered the guide’s words.
He said I’d complete great achievents through military exploits.
It all ca true.
For destroying a pirate fleet of that size, I had received an incredible amount of treasure and honour.
Pirate hunting sure is profitable.
“In addition to that, we’ve been contacted by the Henfrey Chamber of Comrce and the Seventh Weapons Factory. Thomas wants to begin talks with you about purchasing the spoils.”
“What did the weapons factory want?”
I couldn’t really think of a reason for the factory that the beautiful Nias worked at to contact .
But Amagi followed up right after,
“Many of the weapons that the pirates used were things developed in other countries. They want to purchase them as research materials.”
“So they just want to secure more things to research?”
“If you found any rare tals, they’d also like to purchase those to increase their material stocks.”
The Goaz pirates did possess a substantial amount of precious tals.
—though that didn’t make happy because there wasn’t much gold.
“I guess I’ll talk with Thomas first.”
“I’ll begin the preparations imdiately.”
Things really were easy as long as you had competent subordinates working for you.
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