Necessary Corruption 1: Farewell (Patreon)

Commissioned by Kejmur

-VB-

Necessary Corruption
Chapter 1: Farewell

-VB-

Jin knelt in the meeting hall of his father’s castle. Above and in front of him was his father, sitting regally upon his raised dais with his head held high yet filled with concern for the future.

Being only fifteen, Jin knew that he didn’t know - couldn’t know - the stakes the latest electoral ceremony held for his family and his land, but he tried anyway.

The Electoral Ceremony existed as a form of democracy among the nobility of the Land of Rivers that existed nowhere else in the Elemental Nations. Whereas most of the lands and their leadership inherited land via inheritance, the Land of Rivers chose their daimyo by voting every time the previous daimyo passed away.

This was one such time.

And that was the problem.

Of the nine candidates who were allowed to take part in the Electoral Ceremony, eight of them were corrupt and evil. Jin loathed - and secretly, envied - them. His father was not the last “pure” noble, but rather the leader of the reformists trying in vain to prevent a corrupt noble from becoming the daimyo.

And it was a losing battle.

“Son, I will not achieve victory in this ceremony,” his father hummed. It was neither despondent nor disdainful, merely absolutely certain of the fact. “But take heart. Just because our cause did not win this time does not mean that we will not win. In time, there will be a day when justice rules these lands. I am certain of it.”

Jin also admired his father. It would have been easier to just manage his lands quietly in the corner of the Land of Rivers no one really cared about, but father went out of his way to do what he thought was the best for their land. He got other like-minded but less confident nobles to join him, and together, they formed the Southern Coalition of Reformist Nobles.

Unfortunately, they lacked the kind of economic or political power to truly do anything due to the lack of trade routes that cut through their lands nor fertile farmlands that the rest of the Land of Rivers were known for. This was a fact that haunted his father and his allies to this day ever since their founding some two decades ago. Fortunately, they were making progress within their own lands. Every day, their people enjoyed better standards of living compared to the ever declining one of their northern brethren.

In fact, it’s been a contention between his father and their direct northern neighbor, the feudal lord of the Gamonishi province, because Gamonishi peasants have been fleeing to his father’s land in droves.

The reason?

Whispered among the peasant lips to his father’s ears, the rumor of Gamonishi peasants being sold to slavery to upkeep the exotic and exorbiant lifestyle of their lord.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Even Jin knew that there were better ways to make money than to sell the very people who paid taxes to their liege lord! Even more ridiculously, the Gamonishi land possessed the most lucrative trade route between Land of Fire and Land of Wind!

“Jin, you are thinking too much again.”

Jin looked up before sheepishly looking back down. “Sorry, father.”

“In private, it is alright, but you must always be on guard in public. You understand, yes?”

He nodded. “Yes, father. To need time in public to think and plan shows others that I have no time in private to do so, which is a weakness they can use against us.”

“Good, and what is the most valuable thing in this world?”

“Time.”

“Time. If given enough time, even the lowest of peasants can rise to the top of the daimyos in our Land of Rivers.”

“... Father, I never got to ask, but why is the Land of Rivers the way it is? It is not something covered by my teachers.”

Father hummed. “The Land of Rivers is unique, perhaps not unlike the Hidden Ninja Villages.”

Jin frowned.

Hidden Ninja Villages were enigmatic powers harnessed by the daimyos of each land. Secretive at the best of times and outright antagonistic to even their own lords at worst, ninjas never seemed to be known well. How did they use their chakras? No one outside of the ninjas and a few temple monks knew; ninjas don’t like to teach peasants and nobles how to use chakra.

Hell, Jin knew of three instances that made the ninjas’ secretive nature a fact of reality. In all three instances, Land of Rivers nobles had subjects or children who wanted to learn how to use chakra for one reason or another, and so hired the ronin equivalent of ninjas to come and teach them. In all three events, each noble family and their subjects “mysteriously” died off for one reason or another along with their ninja teachers.

The Land of Rivers lived in perpetual fear of ninjas. They were monsters that did nothing but cause carnage for the sake of money.

“Jin-” father spoke up.

And then something ripped.

Both of their heads snapped towards the side where the rice paper wall had just ripped open, and on the other side was Jin’s own fears: a ninja.

Bearing the mark of the Sunagakure on their headband, it was a ninja from the Land of Wind. This man lunged forward at father.

“Fath-!”

It happened too fast.

One moment, they were staring, and in the next moment, the ninja was in front of father, plunging a tanto deep into father’s chest.

“No-!” Jin shouted and drew his own personal katana and struck.

The ninja parried his attack away, and then jumped out of the room through the gap he’d made with his entrance. Jin gave chase but remembered that his father had just been stabbed.

Jin hesitated in his chase, and then fully stopped. He rushed to his father’s side.

There was too much blood already.

“N-No-!” he hissed. “Father-!” Jin snapped his head up. “IS ANYONE THERE?!” he shouted hurriedly. “FATHER IS HURT! IS ANYONE TH-?!”

He froze when he felt a slick hand touch his own. He looked down and saw father’s grimacing visage looking up at him. Despite his pain, the ever so calm and gentle noble smiled through the grimace.

“S-Son-” he coughed out. He tried to talk… but it was too late. Father’s head rolled to the side and light left his eyes.

Jin stared with wide eyes at his father’s unmoving form.

“F-Father?” he called feably. “Father…?”

His great father didn’t move.

Jin’s mouth moved awkwardly before he felt something rush up from within.

He screamed.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH-!!!”

[Acknowledgement]

[Wariness]

[Solution]

[Agreement]

His mind snapped, and Jin fainted and fell forward just as panicked guards and servants rushed into the room and the courtyard. Some of them even saw the ninja as he ran away.

And then they too saw the result of the ninja’s work in the last second of Jin’s vision.

Then that too gave away to darkness.