Rikochi arrived, dressed in a sharp suit rather than her usual full armor.
"What on earth happened!?" she cried out.
There I was, tearing the place apart on an empty stomach. I demolished the walls with a barrage of straight punches, conducting a self-appointed home inspection.
A search warrant? As if I needed one of those!
"I knew it!" I shouted.
I kept pulverizing the walls until I uncovered a hidden room tucked inside. The construction was honestly pathetic. I’d had a hunch something was hidden here. Inside, I found a ladder leading down into a basement.
A shelter? No, definitely not.
"Geez, wait for me!" Rikochi called out as she caught up and peered inside. "What in the world is all this!?"
The room was packed with machine guns, rocket launchers, and pulse machine guns. A fair amount of it was Galactic Empire-made. Then I spotted the drones... wait, these were from the Taikyoku Nation! And they were the specific models with strict export restrictions, no less! This was straight-up smuggling.
I saw exactly how it was.
"Armory located. Add treason and smuggling to the charge sheet! Fairy-san! Get Shiyun on the line."
"Roger-dodger~! Shiyun-chan? Hey, guess what? We found some very naughty boys~"
True to form, it took only about twenty minutes for Shiyun to arrive, bringing the Imperial Guard and the Taikyoku Nation Military Police with her. Apparently, the Taikyoku Nation Police were scheduled to arrive in a few days as well. Shiyun had a smile on her face... but she was absolutely livid.
"Lord Leo, allow me to show these people the depths of hell."
She was scarier now than when her national baseball team gives up a run.
Since this had escalated into an international crime, it became our top priority. It had the potential to turn into a massive diplomatic incident, so I suspended my solo raid for the time being.
Meanwhile, over on the Galactic Empire’s side, Rikochi took command of the Military Police to begin their formal investigation. Between the Chronos Police and the Parcion Police, we were severely short-handed. Or rather, the Parcion Police simply couldn't be trusted to begin with.
That was when I put a call through to Amada-kyun, who had recently become a member of the Imperial Family.
"I have a terrible feeling about this..." he groaned the moment he picked up. "Look, I’m a newlywed! I am absolutely not going over there! I’m already working double-duty between the police and the security company as it is!"
"Selene-chan is the one actually running the security company, isn't she?" I countered. Well, that was a minor detail, so I brushed it aside. "Anyway, it's fine. Amada-kyun, you’re a precious, competent relative of mine. That’s why, as of tomorrow, you’re the new Head of Police."
"Huh? Wait, what?"
"I said, happy promotion! You’re the Head of Police starting tomorrow!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Explain everything from the beginning, you moron!"
"Well, you see, I ended up having to carry out a Great Purge here in Parcion—tee-hee."
"No, no, no, no! Don't 'tee-hee' me!"
"It turns out the big shots in Parcion were embezzling funds meant for children's nutritional supplements to buy weapons from the Galactic Empire and the Taikyoku Nation. Through smuggling rings. The scale is just way too big for the Military Police to handle alone~"
I suspected that nearly every high-ranking official was involved to some degree. A total replacement of the administration was likely necessary. I’d even found out they were practicing something called the Post-retirement Culling of General Workers. I had put a stop to it for now, but those responsible needed to be judged for that, too.
"Hey, wait... this is a massive incident that’s going to go down in the history books," Amada muttered.
"Haha! We’ve got traitors in all three countries! And a staggering number of them, too! What do you think we should do?"
"W-w-w-wait! What did the Emperor and Lady Luna say about this?"
"Wifey said, 'In times like these, I can only trust my relative, Amada.' So, congrats! Fairy-san suggested, 'This is a pain, so let's just destroy Parcion!'"
"That’s the kind of suggestion where one wrong move leads to a mountain of corpses!"
"I know, right? I thought the same thing! Hyahha! Anyway, get some people sent over to Parcion, okay?"
"Hey, you! What are we actually going to do about this!?"
"I don't know either... but I'm counting on you, pal."
"Hey! You—!"
I ended the meeting there. I couldn't even see a hint of a solution yet.
If this mess taught me anything, it was that Lepsitol was surprisingly excellent. I’d always thought they were a bit slow, but they had adapted to the new rules perfectly. Since their entire population used to be considered disposable, the new leadership was cutting away the old upper management like they were discarding bad cards in a game.
By comparison, look at what an absolute idiot Parcion-kun was.
While I was lost in thought, Rikochi walked up to me.
"We have three hundred arrests so far. And that's just within the Parcion Army!"
Since she was Military Police, she was only counting the military criminals.
"I wouldn't have minded turning a blind eye if it was just a bit of pocket money," I remarked.
"They went far beyond that! These are the ones who laid their hands on the funds for the children's nutrition!"
"Alright," I said firmly. "Let's kill them."
Stealing food from children... those bastards were far too suicidal.
Outside the garrison base in Parcion, the protests were still going strong.
'King of Chronos! Kill the pigs!'
'Long live the King of Chronos!'
'Thank you for saving us!'
Wait... were these even protests anymore? I could see them burning effigies of Parcion Army High-ranking Officials in the distance.
"Well, when you get genuinely angry over an atrocity involving children, you're bound to become popular," Rikochi noted.
"But you know, I never really wanted to do the whole 'Great Purge by a revolutionary government' thing..."
It would have been much easier to just inherit the bureaucratic apparatus as a whole and then slowly impose our own rules. But this... there was no helping it now. Besides, the citizens were clearly overjoyed. Apparently, they hadn’t even possessed freedom of speech before. It seemed the state had been suppressing them using Village of Evil Customs methods.
And I was the one currently burning those Villages of Evil Customs to the ground, one by one. There would be a staggering number of victims, but it seemed like a necessary evil at this point.
Meanwhile, 'The Unruly Grand Duke Series' had started broadcasting. The ratings were terrifyingly high. It’s a good thing to hammer the concept of rewarding good and punishing evil into people from a young age. That’s how you present an ideal to society.
Of course, going this far is difficult in reality, and there will always be people who simply cannot be saved. Priorities exist, and it is nearly impossible to eliminate all injustice from society. But you have to constantly publicize the message that 'society is doing its best to head in a better direction.' It’s about building a foundation of trust that, in this society, bad people will always be destroyed.
Haha, 'Law enforcement isn't about justice or ethics'? Shut up, you idiot! I’m going to go take down the bad guys!
Whenever I got fired up like that, the contrarian arguments would inevitably surface.
'You can't necessarily say they're bad! The suspects had no choice but to—'
Shut up!
'They didn't think it was wrong because it was a long-standing custom.'
Drop dead!
Ignoring every single word those idiots had to say, I went around arresting them all without mercy.
'Things aren't that simple; a ruler must maintain a bird's-eye view...'
Ahahahaha! Idiots!
Listen up, the situation is simple. They defied me! Me, the King of Chronos, Leo Kamishiro Chronos! My orders are absolute and they take priority. Like I give a damn about the personal circumstances of you pieces of trash!
I continued to swing the heavy axe of judgment with total abandon.
Wifey let out a long, weary sigh. "Lord Groom's choices are usually right in the end, after all..."
And thus, the Space Kaiju Kawagon continued his rampage.