Necessary Corruption 22 (Patreon)

Necessary Corruption
Chapter 22

-VB-

I sat on my side in one of the Dokogiri castle’s veranda while sipping diluted agave sake. It was supposed to be their little specialty product here in the Dokigoro lands, and I found myself not disliking it. It was sweeter than most sakes I have tasted so far. Could this be a good product to sell to noblewomen?

I swirled the sake in my saucer before sipping it again.

“... Seizumi.”

One of the lesser secretaries within my retinue quickly presented herself behind me. From the shuffling of her clothes, I knew that she was bowing. “Hai.”

“I need you to determine exactly how much of the Dokigoro lands are capable of cultivating agave.”

“Hai!”

And then she left.

My plan for this little product was not that complex. Since foreigners could not buy or own lands in the Land of Wind, I will have a paper company buy up the lands using one or two of my new servants from this very land. Then I will hire the locals to grow the agave and make the agave sake on an industrial scale. Finally, I will advertise in urban centers across the Elemental Nations the sweetness of agave sake and export them using my own trade caravan companies.

The sake wasn’t why I was helping Lady Dokigoro, but it would be a nice additional reward.

After all, you can never have enough money.

I sighed. I would have to take a personal approach to this endeavor because Gina and Washimoto weren’t here. They were back home in the Land of Rivers and in the lands of my clan, and were managing the current operations.

“Hmm, still thinking about business?”

I looked towards Tsunami, my first and only wife, and smiled.

“Well, I can’t help it. We are here to help our new friend.”

“Uh huh,” she gave me a flat stare. “None of what you just told your secretary there had none of the feel of ‘helping’ someone.” Tsunami had become very familiar with me in the past weeks. The formality that dominated her earlier conversations with me no longer existed. When she was alone with me, she spoke more honestly, though she also didn’t speak too earnestly. There was, after all, a fine line between honest and rude.

Some of that had to do with my gift to her. From what I saw, it made her feel better and I assumed that it was about closing the gap between me and her. Many partners, as I understood it from my own retinues, felt vulnerable when they had too little of power within the relationship.

And that gift had been a power of her own.

Tsunami gained the power to know a statement’s truth. While she told me that her power wasn’t absolute, it gave her enough reassurances that she allowed herself to be more open with me.

“It’ll give her people new jobs that they don’t have right now. What’s wrong with that?”

“You mean you’ll be extracting wealth.”

“What’s the difference? I just happen to get more.”

“...so how is solving her problem coming along?”

I sighed.

“Slow.”

“Just slow?”

“The other side’s paranoid as hell. It’s making infiltration slow, according to the reports.”

“So we will continue to be here for some time?”

“No. We’ll return to the Land of Rivers soon. It’s never a good idea to leave for so long. It’s already been … quite some time for me.”

She smiled softly. “Do you miss your home?”

“...Yes.”

She giggled before she paused. “By the way, you never told me about your late father before.”

I blinked and then realized that I really hadn’t. I smiled.

“Well, he wasn’t a petty man like I am…”

“That’s a lie and you know it,” she pouted.

“Fine, fine.”

And I began to talk about my parents for the first time.

It felt good.

-VB-

“You are leaving?” Lady Dokigoro asked with a frown.

“I am,” I replied with a nod. “I will be leaving behind a significantly sized portion of my trusted retinues behind, however. They will keep you safe and work to remove your rival family from further meddling in your family and lands.”

She sighed.

“It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t get you to stay.”

I nodded. “The Dokigoro lands’ specialty sake did get me to stay as long as I had,” I chuckled towards the end.

She grinned. “Would you be interested in investing in my lands?”

“I would,” I replied but I had already secured a good chunk of the farmlands around here. “Would you be interested in receiving food imports? My lands have been producing a surplus, and I am sure I can sell you grain cheaply.”

“It would be a boon for us,” she agreed hastily. The Land of Wind was a desert land, after all. Growing grains here was hard.

“Wonderful,” I grinned as I stood up. “I hope to hear good news, Lady Dokigoro.”

-VB-

Where there was poverty, there were elderly, men, women, and children willing to throw their lives away for salvation.

The Land of Wind with its undeclared civil war proved to be no exception.

On the edge of the Dokigoro lands, I entered a small earthen hut and waited by the doorway as the current inhabitants of the house slowly quieted.

“So you are all those who accepted to join me,” I hummed.

On either side of the doorway were my more martially inclined retinues. While they weren’t samurai, the toughness and strength of their arms would leave even the most hardened samurais on their knees.

I noted that most of the people here were children rather than adults.

I stared down at them as they quickly knelt and bowed.

“... Each of you will give me a good reason to accept you into my retinue. Those who fail to do so will not leave this place alive.” Some shivered and others looked like they wanted to protest, but I continued. “My recruiters should have made the chance of dying very clear when they brought you here. I made sure they emphasized that.”

Soon, each of the participants in this house came up to me and spoke.

One girl, no more than five, said she would do anything to not be hungry.

One boy, no more than ten, said he needed to protect one of his siblings.

On and on and on…

And then finally, the spy among them that Yina had reported stepped up. Dressed like a peasant woman, she presented herself as a weak mother trying her best to save her children.

She struck first as soon as she got in close.

Gito, one of the two armsmen, caught her hand before she got in within half a meter of me, and snapped her arm on the spot.

She screamed but it soon cut off when the other bodyguard, Ji, struck and sliced her head clean off.

A single drop of blood got on my left sleeve.

I continued to smile as Ji dragged the body away.

“Next.”

By the time I left, I added twelve to my retinue and left behind four bodies.