{???}

“Ahh, what a shame,” one of my slaves said disappointingly before sighing, “Your heart looks decent, but if it weren’t for your drinking and smoking, your liver and lungs would look so much prettier. Sure, there are resistance skills that reduce chances of alcohol poisoning, and yes, healing magic may repair wounds, but those can only do so much when people keep abusing their bodies and not taking proper care of themselves. These things really show a person’s age better than what’s seen on the outside. Let’s see how bad your digestive tract is.”

“GAAAAAAAUGH! PLEEEASE! HAVE MERCYYYY!” the old male ‘patient’ screamed.

“Ugh, what have you been eating?” she asked, “Even with how much you’ve shitted yourself, you clearly have got some constipation problems going for ya, and don’t even get me started with all this fat spilling out from your guts. I’ll tell you right now, even with this fat gone, you probably won’t last very long, anyways. Seriously, our Immortals granted you these bodies when you came to this world, you know? Out of respect for those ethereal beings, you need to take better care of the gifts they’ve generously given you. This … is beyond hopes of redemption.

“I swear, this is why I prefer them being younger,” my eccentric slave said, “So clean and pure, untainted with alcoholism and drug abuse, so full of life and vigor, ready to take on anything life throws at them. That’s why, should they get physically hurt, I would use everything in my [Holy Magic] to bring them back to peak condition! Those who’ve taken proper care of themselves should receive the same treatment needed! Those are the people worth protecting! Take my mistress, for example! In her prime as a female, so clean and healthy thanks in part to her eating habits! And dare I say, I love what she’s done with her hair and eyes to become icy blue! Then again, she is a Champion, and part of her health may be due to her Immortal showing some favor towards her, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to follow her example, does it?

“Interestingly enough, did you know Champions aren’t actually from this world?” she asked suddenly.

“H-Huh?” the old male ‘patient’ muttered.

“Toshino, why are you bringing that up to these cretins?” my other slave asked sternly as she had a spear’s head pointing at another man’s neck.

“It’s not like they’re going to last much longer, anyway, right?” my slave who went by Toshino asked, “I’m normally a Kitsune of discretion, but our mistress said it herself that she doesn’t care whether anyone knows about it or not. Isn’t that right, Hyoko-sama?”

Their conversation was barely background noise to me as I was sifting through some records at our target’s desk for any clues I was looking for. “No. Nope. Trash. Worthless. Why is this even here?” I asked myself, my search so far being fruitless.

“I’ll take that as a yes, so while you chill out with the seriousness, Liss-chan, I’ll continue,” Toshino said before turning her attention back to her ‘patient’, “You see, the truth is that Champions aren’t just visitors from another world. They died from their homeworld, a world of advanced medical practices and tools none of us here could even dream about! This tiny little knife here that so easily cuts into your flesh is what they call a scalpel back there, and … awww man, he’s dead. Great, now I don’t feel like talking about it anymore, the mood’s ruined.”

“U-Um, I would like to hear more about—”

“You’re not allowed to make requests, Mondar,” ‘Liss-chan’, derived from Lissandra, interrupted while pushing her spear further up his neck.

I sighed before tossing the parchments in the air in subdued frustration, standing up from the desk, and approached Mondar pinned to the floor. The man in question was stout, had a bloated gut, and had a mustache that you may expect villains from saturday morning anime to have.

I kneeled down with a hand on my sheathed katana, “Okay, Mondar, your records are proving to be crap, so I’ll ask you personally. Where have you last heard a Champion was spotted?”

“W-Why the hell would you want to know about that?! Why would I even know about that?!” he exclaimed in protest, practically spitting.

I raised a brow, “A slave merchant on the wanted list for illegal practices in slave trafficking and sales in the blackmarket? Other than letting my slave from the Black Panther Tribe have her vengeance on you because of such things, why wouldn’t I suspect you of having such information?"

"Well I'm not obligated to tell you anything after you took out all of my men! Oh, and if you have forgotten, if you kill me, you'll kill all the slaves that are under a contract with me! Hah!" Mondar exclaimed.

"Yes, as a slave owner, myself, I’m fully aware of that, and unfortunately for you, this isn't the first time I've come across this problem," I said before turning to my Kitsune slave, "Toshino, the 'marker'."

"Yeeees, Hyoko-samaaa," she sang before reaching into my Magic Item Bag and pulling out a black marker-like writing utensil. This is an enchanted marker that has an endless concoction of magic ink and my blood necessary to properly brand someone into a slave. Unlike traditional methods, using this marker makes the branding process immediate without the target struggling to fight it off with no chanting or additional steps necessary. That was the 'Slavery Marker' that I got as a clear bonus after clearing a dungeon. This was a magic tool that slave merchants would kill to have, but I have no plans of getting such an occupation. I use this to instead force information out of my targets when they're not willing to talk.

Toshino passed me the marker that I uncap and drew a dot on Mondar's exposed chest. At that moment, the dot fades away and the blue slave ring appears on his neck. I got the notifications of him being successfully branded as my slave immediately afterward.

"W-What?! No! It can't be! You actually have—!?"

"Shut up," I ordered, which immediately brought Mondar to silence. This was possible because I set the default settings on Confession and Command gauges in a slave status window up to max. "Now, first order of business, release all the slaves contracted under you."

Mondar wordlessly followed my command like a puppet on strings. We were aware of the slaves being imprisoned in a basement below this building, so after we killed the guards, we unlocked the cages and bindings and told them to wait until they're set free from slave magic. As part of Lissandra’s request I left them enough money to get by for a few days—I was pretty well off and we’d get a ‘payment’ from Mondar, anyway, so it wasn’t much of a loss for me. I watched and confirmed all the people from Mondar's list of slaves were set free. The loud cheers that can be heard from the second floor means the release was a success.

"Okay, next order," I said, "Tell us everything you know about any possible Champion sightings within the last three months."

"... One boy was sent from Korangar in the Demon-Kin's Territory after he was captured in their Champion Hunt. That is the earliest I heard taking place from three months ago," Mondar explained dronely.

Being former residents that are also Demons, my slaves had told me about the Champion Hunt taking place in the Demon-Kin's Territory. They didn't know of anyone who had been brought to the Demon King since I came to this world three months ago, though.

"Do you know who that boy is?" I asked Mondar.

"He is the founder of the White Rapture cult who I've been collaborating with recently, Saito Shirogechi."

"The White Rapture's founder?!" Lissandra exclaimed, "He is a Champion?!"

"Not only that, but it's him, of all people, huh? I should have known," I said while gripping my katana.

“Oh? Could he be one of your targets, Hyoko-sama?” Toshino asked.

“He and his ‘bodyguard’, Taro Kaimu, have been at the top of my black list for the longest time,” I said, “To think that pretentious, silver-tongued coward would erect a cult of all things.”

“What could he have done to earn such ire from you, Mistress?” Lissandra asked.

“In short, Saito’s brought the most misfortune on me and my friends out of everything else back home, and is the one who brought us here under these circumstances without … without ...”

“Yosh, yosh, calm down, Hyoko-sama,” Toshino said while she rubbed my back, “Your eyes are changing. Don’t you need to question Mondar on anything else before you lose yourself?”

I took a deep breath and regained my composure before turning my attention back to Mondar, "Do you know where Saito Shirogechi is now? Maybe info on Taro Kaimu’s whereabouts, too?"

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"Saito and Taro are likely stationed at their headquarters in the port city of Vukandu. I don't know where exactly that is, though," Mondar answered obediently.

“Vukandu … I heard that it's a very human-centred city. The locals there are said to hold the most discrimination against non-human races,” Lissandra explained.

"Are there any other Champions who may be with the White Rapture?" I asked.

"Along with Saito and Taro, I heard there are eight other Champions who are working for White Rapture, but I don't know their names or their exact locations," Mondar answered.

So a total of ten Champions … if they were all from the bus incident, that would take a huge chunk out of my black list. Still, it will be difficult if they team up against me and I don’t know what their ‘blessings’ are. Well, we found where the cult’s headquarters is stationed, at least. It’s as good a start as any, but if I want to get anywhere, I’ll need some backup ...

“Do you know of a girl around my age named Komiwa Karuga?” I then asked, “And if so, can you tell me where she was last seen and what you know about her?”

“Komiwa … Karuga. I had heard of a girl with that name getting popular recently. She’s an adventurer, but spends most of her time working at a pub in Alluga, and she seems to be in a party with a Lizardman girl who does the subjugation quests outside the city,” Mondar explained.

The words ‘red-light district’ made me widen my eyes.

“Alluga … that’s southeast from here,” Lissandra said, “Not only is it known for its numerous ‘services’ in the red-light district, but it has the second-most diverse population of different races for being close to the border of the Demon-Kin’s Territory. Telsden, where we’re at right now, is a place known more for trading various goods and is used as a rest stop for travelers, adventurers, and merchants of all kinds of races. It’s because Telsden is close to where all three of the territories’ borders intersect that businesses can prosper here … even black markets and slave trades like this one.”

“Is Komiwa-san another target of yours?” Toshino asked.

“No … she’s a friend of mine who shares a mutual goal, but for her to be in the red-light district …” I trailed off, Isn’t she faithful to him, though? No, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. From how it looked back then, she knew that he would come to this world, and she gave me advice to get as strong as I am now before we parted ways. Not to mention, Mondar said she’s only working in a pub, and that could be all that it is. She could be doing what she can to prepare for his arrival, just like I am, even if we may be going about this differently.

Anyway, it's good that I have a lead of where Komi-chan is. I should make finding her my next move after this. If she shares my opinion, maybe she can help me out with the other Champions, especially those in White Rapture if they're as bothersome as I've heard. For now, I just have a few more things to ask.

I shook off my thoughts and turned my attention back to Mondar, “... Have you heard of anyone that goes by the name ‘Jinma Kotori’ within the last three months?”

“No, I do not know of anyone by that name,” Mondar answered immediately.

“What about sightings of a young man with short black hair, blackish brown eyes with a sharp enough glare that could be mistaken for a Demon, who despite bearing a lean build of 181 centimeters {~5 feet 11 inches} in height and about 70 kilograms {~154 pounds} in weight, he could lift a carriage off the ground with one hand while barely breaking a sweat or some similar feat of strength, or could take on a mob of at least twenty men and walk away with minimal scratches? Ring any bells?” I asked.

“No matter how many times I hear that same question, I can’t tell whether to be amazed or worried,” Lissandra said with a palm to her forehead.

“I’m impressed she got it all out in one breath,” Toshino added.

It looked like Mondar needed a moment to process everything I had said before answering, "... No. From the last three months, I haven't heard of anyone that went by that description, except for a female adventurer who goes by the ‘Cold-Slaughter Princess’. I had heard she killed twenty bandits who pillaged a village by herself once."

“That’s our mistress!” Toshino exclaimed with pride.

I clicked my tongue, "Still no luck, huh? Okay, last question. I see you have a safe here. What's the combination to its lock?"

Mondar then gave the combination that I used to open the safe and saw numerous things inside. A lot of money was one, along with some important-looking records and documents, and two tomes. The tomes looked to have instructions on how to summon a Familiar from the Holy or Cursed Realms. I didn't know how he got his hands on things that should probably belong to a Holy or Cursed Church, but this was a lucky break for me. I was thinking of summoning a Familiar for additional manpower against the Champions of this world, specifically my classmates who were with me in the bus incident. Despite that, I was uneasy with the idea of going to a church. Toshino being a Templar and her 'unique' morals were tolerable enough to put up with when I redeemed her for her talent in [Holy Magic] from the start. I wanted to keep my party small for mobility purposes, so having one or two Familiars should be enough to get by.

With my plan set, I took all the money, records, and books from Mondar's safe and stowed them away in my [Storage]. Once I cleaned it out, I asked Mondar if he had any other places where he stashed his savings, but it looked like everything that was in his safe was it. His wife has some expensive jewelry in her room we could surely keep or pawn off somewhere, though. Funny enough, we didn’t run into her when we ransacked the place, and when I asked Mondar, it seemed she was meeting some friends somewhere.

The illegal slave merchant held no further use for me, so I released him from my slavery and let Lissandra have her revenge on him. Screams of pain and agony sounded through the office for a couple minutes before everything went silent. Compared to Toshino's victim who looked like the result of a messy dissection in a high school Biology Lab, Lissandra's was more like an overly used pincushion that was way past its due with how many holes were punctured into it.

Now splattered in her late enemy's blood, Lissandra knelt before me like a knight pledging to royalty, "Mistress, you have my eternal gratitude to let me exact my vengeance on the human male who took me away from my village and forced me into slavery. As the daughter of the Black Panther Tribe’s chieftain, I am in your debt."

I waved a hand, “Don’t worry about it. We’re almost done and scavenging everything we can here and made some progress today. Once we clean the place out, why don’t we use our ‘winnings’ to buy a good dinner to celebrate a bit?”

“Ooooh? A celebratory dinner? Goodness, what’s the occasion, Hyoko-sama?” Toshino asked excitedly.

“There are some important matters to discuss, so I believe taking this in a formal setting is necessary,” I explained, “I’ve even anticipated our success to be done this early, so I took the liberty to make a reservation at a good restaurant I heard about and bought us dresses that will fall in line with their dress code. We just need to clean up and get ready for the evening.”

Toshino clapped her beastly fox-like hands in glee, “A good restaurant that requires a dress code?! My, such generosity! I can’t wait to see what my dress looks like, the restaurant, too!”

“Yes, whatever you have arranged will surely be a fitting means for our celebration, Mistress,” Lissandra said as she stood up and bowed, “I will look forward to—”

“KYAAAAAAAAAUGH!” a violent, blood-curdling shriek of terror interrupted. We looked over and saw a gaudily-dressed human woman with lots of makeup standing at the door seeing the scene in fright.

“... Ah, so you must be Mondar’s wife, or I guess I should say ‘widow’, now,” I said calmly after a moment’s thought.

“You, what have you done?!” the widow yelled, “The slaves are gone, my husband and everyone else in this building is dead, how are you going to take responsibility for this?!”

“You’ve actually come at a good time, miss, for there were a few questions I forgot to ask Mondar before I had Lissandra kill him,” I said as I calmly walked over to the new widow with a hand on my katana’s scabbard, “Do enlighten me, did Mondar have any other lovers as part of a harem? Do you or any of them have kids?”

“No! Mondar was only married to me, and I was going to tell him that I was pregnant!”

“Oh my, congratulations!” Toshino praised while clapping her hands, “Hearing of a new life being born in this world is always such wonderful news.”

“You shut it, Demon scum!” the widow yelled before turning back to me with a face twisted in anger, “And you, you and your slaves are not gonna get away with this! What could a bitch like you want to deliver such carnage to us?!”

“Bitch … yes, I’ve been called that a number of times where I’m from, and I think it suits me, if we’re talking about the definition of a female dog,” I said as I recalled my times on Earth, “All those people who called me that behind my back would never dream that the ‘intelligent, peerless beauty’, Hyoko Ishima, could fall hopelessly in love with the baddest delinquent in the city, the one they call the ‘Merciless Demon’, praying that he’d take charge and make me his property, his personal bitch. What they would also never know is that that same bitch had no problems biting anyone who threatens her or her master, or just pissing her off overall, and unlike the ‘bitch’ that was me back then …”

After I paused, the sound of my katana being sheathed rang in the office.

“... The bitch that you see now has lost her master, and is without a leash to hold herself back anymore,” I finished.

The widow, having no idea what happened, then slid and collapsed into pieces by the unseen slashes of my blessed blade, Chishiohana {AN: Literally ‘Blood Flower’; 血潮花}. A pool of blood quickly formed around the corpse, dying its formerly gaudy dress and jewelry in red.

“You should be grateful to that innocent baby inside you, or your death would be much less merciful. I pray he or she will have better luck in the next life,” I said before squatting down and taking the red-dyed jewelry from her slashed head. I cast [Clean] on them to make them presentable to pawn off.

“Awww, did you really have to kill the baby, too?” Toshino asked.

“From how the mother looked, the fetus’ early development probably just started,” I reasoned, “No one could really determine whether they’re alive or not at this stage, and if it’s early enough, there’s still a chance to get them aborted with few repercussions if the mother has second thoughts. Moreover, if I let the mother live, there’s a chance she’ll teach the baby to exact vengeance on me as they grow up. This is the most painless countermeasure I can come up with to avoid that troublesome outcome.”

“Yeah, I guess I can understand that much, and even my ability is saying you only killed one person instead of two, so maybe the baby didn’t have a ‘self’ and was still a part of her as she died. Still, I suppose I’ll also pray for the baby’s safe departure, then,” Toshino said before joining her hands together.

Lissandra sighed, “It’s almost scary how used to this I’ve gotten since you redeemed me, Mistress. It’s no wonder you’ve been called the ‘Cold-Slaughter Princess’ among adventurers.”

I stowed the jewelry in my [Storage] and looked over my shoulder, “While I won’t deny their claim, I wished they’d call me something else. Like ‘Demon Sword Princess’. Doesn’t that have a cooler ring to you?”

I mean, it’s Jin-chan who gave me that title when we plotted against those kids a long time ago, after all. Since it’s from someone cool like him, it’s natural the title itself would also be cool, right?