Necessary Corruption 12: I Was Ready to Leave... (Patreon)

Necessary Corruption
Chapter 12: I Was Ready to Leave...

-VB-

The death of Lord Rimusomoto at the hands of misguided peasants directed by Gato shook the Wave noble court.

It was one thing for a noble to kill another noble, but a merchant, the lowest of castes, to strike and kill a noble? Even Gato’s allies in court turned on him in an instant. They began talks of ousting the shipping magnate from their nation, and messages have been sent to many other Elemental Nation courts, speaking ill of how a merchant goaded the peasants into killing a lord.

Expectedly, nobles and their kin began to take back land and business they had loaned or operated with Gato Shipping. Even if they didn’t care about what happened in the Land of Waves, allowing Gato’s existence to continue in their lands was tantamount to approving the man if they did anything else but kick him out.

Nobility stood at the top of the caste system. Anything that disturbed the caste system was a direct challenge to the nobility and the daimyos.

Gato, feeling betrayed and just plain upset but lacking true political power, began to amass ronin, mercenaries, and missing-nin to make the Land of Waves pay for their transgression.

While all of this political shenanigans of my creation began to tear the country apart, I was getting ready to end Gato as well.

-VB-

It’s been six months since I’ve come to this land, and during that time, I have spent more than a few weeks gathering and inducting agreeable and desperate individuals into my retinue. I gave them all powers unique to themselves. Among them, I found three people crucial for this operation.

Nan was an orphan from a fishing village. It had been a “rival” of sorts to the port town that Gato took over, so Gato had done what Gato does and decimated its people using bandits as his intermediary. He wanted revenge and to leave this land once he got it. So I gave him an offer. Power for service. Revenge for life. Now, he was a monster who controlled sea life, and under my direction, have been using a small school of dangerous kraken - a fish that had features of both a normal shark, an upsized octopus, and the body size bigger than most fishing vessels - to harass and sink Gato’s ships.

Shoto was the son of Lord Rimusomoto. An upright young man, he too grieved. He found kinship with Nana in wanting revenge, and I offered it. Now, he was a dangerously charismatic young man, and he spoke passionately day after day in the Wave noble court and in the capital city, urging them all to strike down Gato before the man could ruin their beautiful home. Honestly, if I didn’t know he had that power, I would have thrown my own full-hearted support. He wasn’t my retinue, but I would forever have his alliance.

The last crucial member was one of the older retinues from home. Choshi Gillua was the son of a merchant, who’d been only too happy to hear that his son had been offered to join the lord as his personal retinue. He had been blessed with something not quite easily noticed but more dangerous than even ninjas: he had perfect accuracy. His job in Wave was to wait for an eventual outbreak of violence between Gato and Wave, and use the scuffle… to assassinate Gato.

And that fight just broke out.

We watched from afar with binoculars.

“They are really going at it,” I whistled.

Gato might be a scrooge, but he wasn’t stupid enough to tighten his wallet when his assets were about to be torched by the angry people. No, he went all out. I saw everyone from the local thugs to missing-nins.

The latter unnerved me the most. I still had very little idea about how strong individual ninjas could be, and rumors didn’t count until I could verify them.

Looking at them now, I could tell that ninjas in general were strong. They took on a dozen peasants by themselves, but were being overwhelmed by two and three dozens. I wondered just what the quality of these missing-nins were. I wanted a baseline to compare in case I needed to fight them in the future.

“As you often say, milord: quantity has a quality all its own.”

Peasants numbered in tens of thousands, and bolstered by the nobility’s own levies. Their total number came to be somewhere around thirty thousand, which was astounding considering that Land of Waves had three hundred thousand people; essentially, a tenth of the population had come to remove Gato.

“Gato’s men are getting crushed.”

Gato’s men were disorganized. Some of them might be individually powerful, but when the opposition was organized, somewhat trained, and actually listened to orders, that individual might fell in comparison to a group.

Indeed, we saw as noble retinues directed, steered, and commanded the peasants in groups. These peasants. Not all of them were just rioters. Many of them looked trained and ready.Too well organized.

This had been planned.

Planned just like how I had planned Gato’s death.

I turned my binocular towards the lord regent, and saw him looking at me.

He nodded.

He let my binocular fall and nodded back.

Well played.

All of it had been a lie. He had used me just as I thought to use him. I’d done the dirty work.

I could respect that.

I put up my binoculars back up and focused on Gato as the man panicked. The peasants were closing in on him. All of the ships in that particular port belonging to him or easily accessible had all been “sunk” by Nan’s krakens.

“Fire.”

Choshi, with his brand new rifled gun, fired.

I watched as Gato jerked as a hole appeared on his forehead, and then he fell.

I smirked.

“I suppose it’s time to introduce my own

Because those ships that had “sunk” by krakens?

Yeah…

I never sunk them, merely killed off everyone loyal to Gato in the dead of the night and had them repainted, rechristened, and repaired elsewhere. Now that the Land of Waves wouldn’t have ships for their business, my new shipping company would come and offer them reasonable competition and low price.

Because they would also come shipping my opium.

I glanced again at the lord regent. Perhaps I hadn’t gained a puppet and ally like I had originally planned, but most of what I wanted had come together.

I loved it when plans came together like that.

I hummed as my retinue and I left the small hill that we have been watching the battle from, and turned to leave.

“KYAH!”

I paused.

“You dare-?!”

“Hold.”

One of my retinues had drawn a sword when someone had bumped into them.

I walked over, still rather joyous and pleasant from the conclusion of this debacle, and then looked at the stranger.

And I fell in love.

“Hello, dear,” I greeted her, feeling slightly nervous even though I had just indirectly caused the deaths of thousands and personally ordered a man’s death. “Here, let me help you up,” I said as I pulled up my sleeve and extended a hand.

She took it, her long black eyelashes fluttering, and I helped her up gingerly.

“What’s your name, dear?”

She bowed. “Tsunami, milord.”

“You don’t have to bow … Tsunami-san.”

I recognized her name.

She was the bridge builder’s unmarried daughter.

No one ever told me she was this beautiful.

I wanted her.

Instead of doing the normal stupid noble thing, I did not demand she followed me to my home (even though I wanted her to). I smiled at her and held her hands gingerly. “That’s a beautiful name. Say, do you want to share a cup of tea sometime?”

“E-Eh?”

Her flustered and blushing look just …

Ugh.

More.

“I-If that’s what you want, m-milord…?” she squeaked out.

“I am Takanori Jin, but you can call me Jin, Tsunami-san.” I glanced over my shoulder, still smiling, to Washimoto. “Cancel all non-essential plans for the day.”

“Of course, sir,” my butler bowed. “Shall I bring out the moderate tea set?”

“Yes. No need to overwhelm her.”

No need to make her feel she needs to get away from me.

‘Let me lure you in.’

And make you mine.