Led by the prostitute who had introduced herself as Lilith, I made my way into the deeper parts of the brothel.
Unlike the front, which had the distinct feel of a typical storefront, the back opened into a garden dotted with several detached outbuildings.
Walking alongside Lilith along a stone-paved path laid over crushed gravel, I observed them.
"The construction and purpose here are entirely different from the front."
"It's where we entertain the high rollers."
"I see."
Continuing forward, the outbuildings eventually ceased, and the trees grew dense.
Venturing further still, situated in the deepest recesses of the garden as if hidden away by the grove, stood a solitary detached building.
It was an outbuilding, yet... I sensed something else entirely.
A detached building meant for entertaining VIPs inside a brothel.
Having just seen those prior, it had been difficult to make the connection, but the realization finally struck me.
A prison.
From the surrounding atmosphere, and from the heavy bar and chains fixed to the door, that was the only conclusion to draw.
"The girl named Anne should be inside here."
"I see."
I approached and placed a hand on the chains.
Tugging on them, I could tell they were quite sturdy.
"There's no key. Even if you wanted to search, I've never seen it myself. That man probably carries it."
"No matter."
"Leviathan."
Calling her name, I summoned the Magic Sword of Water from within my ring.
"Ehh?! What in the world?!"
As radiant light overflowed and coalesced into the ominous form of a magic sword, Lilith's eyes went wide with shock.
Gripping the magic sword firmly, I casually swung it upward, cleanly severing both chains and bar from below in one blow.
The bar dropped with a clack, and the chains fell to the ground with a loud rattle.
Pushing the door open, I stepped inside.
With the windows shut tight, the interior was pitch-black, heavy with clammy air and a rancid, sour stench.
"Ugh..."
Lilith, who had guided me this far, covered her nose with her sleeve and knitted her brows.
Straining my eyes, I spotted a bed in the back, atop which a young girl lay.
Lilith stepped inside and opened the window.
In the brightly illuminated room, I approached the girl on the bed.
Her chest rose and fell faintly; she was still breathing.
However, her complexion was terribly sallow, and she was emaciated and frail.
"..."
Perhaps sensing our presence, the girl opened her eyes and looked toward us.
Her dark eyes turned in my direction, but whether she could actually see or not, her gaze appeared unfocused.
"Do you know who I am?"
"..."
The girl did not answer.
There was no reaction whatsoever.
Turning around, I questioned Lilith, who had walked up right behind me after opening the window.
"Is this girl Anne?"
"That's her. Apparently she was sold here from somewhere, but she's treated completely different from the rest of us. She's been locked in here the entire time, and whenever she's forced to take clients, it's always inside this room."
"That is strange... Has there ever been a case like this before?"
"Never. We can't leave the brothel, sure, but we're free to move around inside. In fact, we're told that whenever a customer arrives in the lobby like earlier, we're supposed to approach them right away, seduce them, and make them our own client."
"Hm."
Naturally, I thought.
A brothel was a business, and the prostitutes were the merchandise.
Unlike other trades, the merchandise were human beings, which meant the prostitutes could actively pitch themselves.
Unlike inanimate goods, a prostitute was a product capable of appealing to customers through her own volition.
Moreover, prostitution was an occupation centered around selling one's own charm.
In other words, under normal circumstances, it was most profitable for the women to take the initiative to seduce arriving guests, just as Lilith had said.
Confining someone in a place like this was the height of inefficiency.
Forcing her to take clients while effectively keeping her imprisoned the entire time.
And though I did not know what they had done to her, reducing a prostitute to such a state of severe emaciation made no sense.
"It is certainly strange. Unless a man possesses a peculiar fetish, he is typically aroused by a woman's reactions during the act. Yet to allow her to become this frail..."
"..."
Sensing a shift in Lilith's presence behind me, I looked back. Her face was wide with astonishment.
"What is it?"
"You... actually understand that sort of thing?"
"It seems people assume I was born from a tree trunk or something."
I gave a wry smile.
I recalled Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, my mother, saying something similar to me not long ago.
Jokes aside, I looked back at Anne.
Forcing her only to take clients, and locking her away immediately afterward.
Furthermore, keeping her confined to the point of such severe frailty was entirely abnormal.
If this were an illicit underground den, perhaps, but this was not something a legal brothel registered with the government office—one that routinely applied for quota expansions—would do.
What is going on here...? As the question crossed my mind,
"Personally, I always thought this girl wasn't ordinary," Lilith remarked with a serious expression.
"On what grounds?"
"Because she looked well-bred."
"..."
"Her manners and deportment, I mean. So at first, I thought she was the daughter of some merchant family that fell on hard times and ended up sold off."
"I see."
That made sense.
The scenario Lilith described was by no means rare; rather, it was quite common.
Anyone living in a brothel would have witnessed that pattern countless times.
If that was the case... I looked at Anne once more.
An utterly frail girl lying on the bed with shallow, faint breaths.
"For now, let us get her out of here. We will hear her story after she recovers."
"Right."
I stepped outside for a moment.
Spotting several soldiers standing by a short distance away, I gestured for them.
The soldiers came jogging over.
"Transport her to the official residence for medical treatment and care. Handle her with the utmost gentleness."
"Yes, Your Majesty!!"
Lilith and I saw off the soldiers as they carried the young girl, Anne, outside.
☆
That night, inside my office.
Zoe and Rion stood across from the desk to deliver their report.
First, Zoe spoke.
"After a full-body cleansing, multiple external injuries were found and subsequently treated."
"What of the rose spots?"
"They were present, but mild compared to her physical injuries."
"I see. I will attend to that myself later. Has she regained consciousness?"
"Only once, after which she immediately passed out again."
"Understood. In any case, provide her with thorough and attentive care."
"Understood, Master."
Receiving the order, Zoe bowed deeply.
Waiting until that matter concluded, Rion continued the report.
"I managed to piece together her background for the time being."
"Mm."
"That girl's name is Anne, and her father is Jibu Locke. On the surface, he's a merchant dealing in silk thread."
"And his true profession?"
"An information broker, apparently. Though word is he closed up that side of the business several years ago, so I'm still verifying the details."
"Why would the daughter of such a man be in a brothel?"
"Well, this Jibu fellow lost his wife a few years back."
"Hm?"
Though I found it curious, I offered only a brief acknowledgment so as not to interrupt his momentum.
"And immediately after that, he took his deceased wife's younger sister as his second wife."
"That in itself is a common enough story."
"If it were just that, it'd be fine, but this second wife is something else... It seems she's carrying on with the shop's head clerk—the one for the silk business, that is. She's got an affair going with him."
"...An illicit romance."
Rion nodded heavily. "Yes."
"And as it happens, Jibu is currently bedridden with illness, so the two of them are running wild, having a grand old time. The shop, the estate, the employees, the servants—practically everyone knows about it."
"That, too, is a common tale."
"It sure is. Ah, but here's where things get unusual. The letter that arrived for Kebna was sent by this second wife."
"Which means..."
I pondered the matter.
It was not a situation one heard every day, so organizing the facts in my mind took a moment.
"The second wife... knew her older sister's daughter—her own niece—was imprisoned in a brothel, yet made no attempt to rescue her?"
"My view is a bit nastier than that," Rion prefaced.
From his expression, an undeniable look of contempt bled through.
"I reckon the second wife used Kebna to throw the girl named Anne into that brothel in the first place."
"...I see."
It was a thoroughly repulsive hypothesis... but by no means impossible.
☆
I arrived at the room alone.
It was one of several vacant rooms inside the official residence.
Hearing that Anne had been brought here to rest, I came to check on her.
Opening the door and stepping inside, I saw a single maid attending to Anne.
"Peiyu, is it?"
The maid was Peiyu Rou, someone who had served me for years; knowing me well, she had been brought along to Enlil Province.
Likely because she was one of the junior maids Zoe trusted most, she had been entrusted with caring for Anne.
"Master."
Peiyu stood up and responded in little more than a whisper.
I walked toward the bed where Peiyu stood and where Anne lay resting, stopping at her bedside.
Looking down, Anne's complexion remained poor.
"How is she doing?"
"She woke up a short while ago... but..."
"But?"
"She seems somewhat dazed. And after touching her upper arm, she seemed even more out of it."
"I see."
I nodded and took a seat on the edge of the bed.
Leaning in a bit closer, I peered at her face.
Perhaps awakened by the slight shifting of the mattress, Anne slowly opened her eyes.
Just as Peiyu had reported, she appeared dazed.
After letting her unfocused gaze wander two or three times, her eyes gradually locked onto me.
Staring into her focused eyes and feeling certain she clearly recognized my presence, I spoke to her.
"How are you feeling?"
"..."
"Are you still unable to speak?"
"...It's just."
"Hm?"
"It's just a dream anyway."
Because it's just a dream.
Her words caught me off guard with their unexpected resignation.
"Why do you think that?"
"If it weren't a dream... there's no way I would be in such a proper room, and there's no way a man wouldn't be attacking me."
"I see."
I understand, I thought.
Given what she had endured up until now, it was only natural she would assume so.
Without a word, I took her arm.
It was the upper arm Peiyu had mentioned earlier.
I had already been informed that Anne had rose spots there.
Rolling up her sleeve, I exposed her skin.
Feeling pain from the fabric rubbing against the rash, Anne gasped and flinched.
I then proceeded to apply the poison of Apophis that I had prepared.
Just as with the other women, the rose rash vanished before our eyes in an instant.
"I knew it..."
"If it were a dream, you wouldn't have felt pain just now."
"Eh... Ah..."
Her expression shifted as the realization set in.
She remembered the sting of the sleeve brushing against her raw skin.
At that moment, the blank look born of despair rapidly gave way to genuine emotion and vitality.
She tried to sit up abruptly—only to fail, unable to lift herself due to sheer physical exhaustion.
"Do not push yourself just yet."
"W-Why...?"
"I have just cured the rose spots. Though because a trace of toxin remains in your body, you will need to take oral medicine for the next week or so before you are fully recovered."
"Is it really... not a dream?"
"It is not."
As I nodded, Anne looked even more astonished.
"What... does this all mean?"
"Before I answer that, allow me to confirm a few things. First, are you Anne, the daughter of Jibu Locke?"
"Y-Yes..."
Still lying on the bed, Anne nodded weakly.
Her movements were feeble, but the light in her eyes had grown substantially stronger.
She may be a resilient girl by nature, I thought.
"Why were you in that brothel?"
"I don't know. One day, I woke up and found myself there..."
"What is the last memory you have of being at home—at your family's estate?"
"I was talking with my aunt."
"By aunt, you mean the woman who became your father's second wife?"
"Yes."
"...Did you eat or drink anything at that time?"
"She served me tea and sweets, so I had some."
"I see."
I nodded.
I had pieced it together.
She was likely drugged and shipped off to the brothel.
Her aunt—her mother's younger sister—who had become her father's second wife, making her her stepmother.
Served tea and sweets by such a person, she had undoubtedly consumed them without the slightest suspicion, treating it as an ordinary everyday moment.
"Rest for a while."
Leaving those words and giving firm instructions to Peiyu, I stepped out of the room.
The hallway at night was deserted.
I felt my echoing footsteps grow steadily faster.
I knew that the sheer disgust welling up inside me was what drove my hurried pace.
"Master—"
"..."
"—Ah!"
The one who appeared was Zoe.
Having called out to stop me, Zoe gasped upon seeing my expression as I turned around.
Closing my eyes for a brief moment to regain my composure, I addressed her.
"What is it?"
"Forgive the intrusion. A communication has arrived from the Royal Minister of Finance."
"Oscar, is it?"
I nodded.
State affairs. These are affairs of state, I repeated to myself two or three times in my mind.
Then, facing Zoe, who wore an apologetic look despite properly delivering her report:
"You have done nothing wrong; in fact, I appreciate the prompt report. Continue doing just as you have."
"For Master to say such things to me... you truly are magnificent... Understood."
Zoe spoke as though savoring the words, before switching back to her professional demeanor as deputy governor-general to resume her report.
"A buyer has stepped forward for one of the 'villas.' They have offered an amount of three million Rien."
"Three million, hm? A generous sum. If I recall, last year's tax revenue for Larak was around that amount."
"Yes. Here in Enlil Province, the provincial capital of Larak recorded a tax revenue of 3,124,499 Rien last year."
"Mm. Well remembered."
I praised Zoe.
As my second-in-command, I made sure to verbally commend her for memorizing such precise figures.
"To be able to offer that much... who is the buyer?"
"Studd Gorgeous. A salt merchant."
"I figured as much."
"How shall we proceed?"
"If it is a legitimate transaction, there is no reason to refuse."
I answered without hesitation.
"Reply to Oscar—'I leave it entirely to your discretion.'"
"Understood."
"Three million, hm... I must offer my thanks to Father."
"Thanks, Master?"
"The scale is merely extraordinary, but it is effectively liquidating the real estate Father left behind. In essence, it is an inheritance."
"Ah..."
"If it is an inheritance, I must be grateful. And above all else..."
My expression grew serious.
"...I must ensure this does not end with merely squandering what was inherited."
"With you at the helm, Master, there is no need for such concerns."
"Is there anything else?"
"That is all."
"I see."
With that, I began walking away.
The moment I stepped forward, I recalled something, stopped in my tracks, and turned to Zoe.
"Hear the details from Peiyu later."
"From Peiyu?"
"She was listening to the conversation. It is a revolting tale, but you should hear it. Otherwise, you may find yourself consumed by anger when the time comes to take action."
"...Understood."
Leaving Zoe bowing deeply behind me, I walked away for good this time.