The blonde-haired, crew cut-sporting Heinz and the purple-haired pudding-head Sieg were displayed bowing toward me on the holoscreen. I don’t remember agreeing to become your big bro, but...... I suppose it’s fine. I’ll just let them pay their respects. Guys like them apparently place importance on stuff like this, so whatever.
“Who attacked you guys in the first place? It would be easier if they were simply small-time punks who were blinded by the temptation of getting supplies.”
『They were definitely punks who were drooling over the supplies, but......』
Oi, what’s with that ominous pause? Heinz was averting his gaze. And Sieg seemed agitated. His face was practically screaming ‘This is bad!’
“Judging from your expressions, I more or less get the gist. It’s something really troublesome, right?”ÚpTodated novels on no(v)el()bin(.)com
『Well, yes. That’s right. The ones backing those guys are rumored to be from outside, so......』
“Guys from outside? You mean pirates?”
『It’s just a rumor. They say those guys can get their hands on stuff that aren’t normally available here, and that they can sell people off of the colony.』
“I don’t think it’s good for people like that to be acting in the shadows in this situation...... By the way, I also heard that a high-quality drug was making the rounds in the colony.”
Uh, didn’t Dr. Shouko suspect that people were getting infected by the pandemic through those drugs in question? I remember her mentioning something to that effect. Well, whatever.
『You sure are well-informed, big bro. Yeah, those guys are the ones who are spreading those drugs around. They sell them to people who can’t afford proper treatment, telling them that it’ll help with forgetting the pain and suffering.』
“And when those sick people kick the bucket, they’ll be around to collect the corpses?”
『Eh? Right...... How’d you know?』
“Weren’t you aware? Those pathogenic mushrooms apparently reproduce by feeding on corpses.”
『......In other words, after distributing those drugs, they’ll also end up collecting raw materials for making even more drugs afterward.』
“That’s what we think.”
It’s just an educated guess based on the clues we found, but I don’t think it’s far off the mark. I wouldn’t be surprised if that really was the case since those guys were involved with space pirates.
“But I don’t get why they’d go out of their way to attack you...... Is there a person there who they are willing to go to such lengths to kill?”
『Honestly, I don’t really get what those crazy guys are thinking...... The ones who attacked us were punks who got baited with the promise of drugs as a reward. They aren’t actually official members.』
“Well, that certainly does sound troublesome......”
In other words, those crazy people didn’t get directly involved but were using people desperate for the drugs as cannon fodder. They probably didn’t even directly order those desperate guys to attack the orphanage. Instead, they probably just told them to go and rob anything that can be sold for money or something to that effect. Then they conveniently pointed out that the orphanage seemed to be doing pretty well.
“Whatever, eh. No takebacks, okay?”
I was probably displaying a really villainous smirk. After all, Hartmut flinched for a bit after seeing my expression. C’mon man. You don’t have to be that on guard. It’s gonna be fine! Fine, I tell ya! I’m just gonna make a bit of a mess! Just a bit. Really!
Well, that’s how it is. I told Hartmut that the facility we asked him to protect had been attacked and that the organization behind the attack in question likely had deep ties with space pirates.
“I see...... So, what are you planning on doing, exactly?”
“We’re gonna crush them.”
“Eh?”
“In other words, we’re gonna kill every single one of them.”
“N-Now hold on a moment.”
“After all, filth needs to be cleaned out. Isn’t that right?”
“Can we talk this out first?”
“You did say I can do whatever I wished, right? A proud imperial noble like you couldn’t possibly go back on his word, yeah?”
“......If you say it like that, then it seems I have no other choice on the matter.”
Great. I managed to push through.
“I mean, isn’t this a good opportunity? You’ve just been assigned here Hartmut, so you still have nothing tying you down. If we attack their hideout and squeeze info out from some of them, we can definitely confirm their connection to space pirates. We might even find that some of those staying in the upper block have ties with them as well. Now’s the perfect opportunity for doing something like this, while things are still chaotic. Isn’t that right?”
“You know, Lord Hiro. As an imperial noble, I am supposed to be a keeper of law and order......”
“Those who cooperate with space pirates will be subjected to capital punishment anyway. I believe we have a bit of wiggle room when it comes to stuff like this.”
“Well...... I suppose you have a point.”
“You can even package this into an epic tale of heroism. Isn’t it good for imperial nobles to have one or two stories like that to their name?”
“R-Right......”
In the end, I succeeded in convincing Hartmut and secured some troops to attack the criminal hideout. Hartmut managed to bring a large number of private soldier’s from his father’s territory, so I took advantage of that.
Now, all that’s left is to get in touch with Heinz and Sieg before attacking that hideout.
There’s a high chance of getting the info I tasked the two of them to find inside the hideout, so it’s not like contacting them was essential.
However, I couldn’t just keep stirring stuff up while remaining in the background. I also had to show some courage and initiative on my end after all.
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