"Everyone! Lord Aura, the newly appointed lord, has taken office, and she intends to overhaul the tax laws — all the old levies will be abolished. To mark the occasion, I have been specially sent here today to hand out a benefit! Right now, anyone who can pull this treasure sword out of the ground will be given a gold coin!"
A magnificent treasure sword was thrust into the muddy earth. All around, save for the echo of Hermet's voice, there was nothing but silence. Only the rogues, hidden at the street corners, leered and whistled and jeered.
Not a single commoner believed Hermet's words; everyone assumed this was just another new trick, another new trap those nobles had cooked up for their own amusement. A single gold coin could indeed buy a good long stretch of comfortable days — but what if this sword, once pulled out, was meant to lop off one's head?
"Ten gold coins!" the adjutant declared without the slightest hesitation.
A stir ran through the crowd, yet still no one stepped forward. People either pointed and murmured or sighed and shook their heads.
"One hundred gold coins!" the adjutant called out once again.
Everyone below drew a sharp breath. A single tug of a sword worth a hundred gold — what kind of preposterous joke was this?!
"Ha, you serious or not? You're really guaranteeing a hundred gold coins for pulling out that sword of yours?"
A jarring voice broke the deadlock.
The crowd seemed to recognize the newcomer and instinctively parted to make way. A scar-faced man came sauntering over with a grin, and the very moment he appeared, the rogues who had been peeping about the district quietly vanished without a trace.
"Hmph, since you too are a member of the Kinton domain, do you dare?"
Hermet showed no fear toward this notorious King of the Kinton Mercenaries.
"Do I look like someone short of money?" Hend let out a hearty laugh, casually plucking a ragged little girl out of the crowd.
"Hey there, kiddo, go pull that sword out. Don't worry — all you've got to do is split the prize with uncle here, fifty-fifty, and uncle and uncle's corps will protect you and your prize money until you come of age."
The little girl was clearly terrified by Hend's ferocious appearance, bean-sized tears gushing from her eyes. "Waaaaah, uncle, why are you so mean!" Still, she walked forward, weeping with her face tilted up.
Her filthy, scrawny little hand, covered in frostbite sores and utterly out of proportion, gripped the treasure sword, and with all the strength she could muster she tried to wrench it free.
The sword, unlike its appearance, had been driven in very shallow, and unexpectedly the little girl stumbled and fell flat on the ground — "clang" — the sword flew from her grip and landed right at Hermet's feet.
"Ngh!" The girl shut her eyes in despair, bracing to meet her end.
"These gold coins are yours now." Glancing at the sword fallen on the ground, the adjutant walked over and crouched down, his voice gentle, drawing from behind his back a pouch that clinked and clattered and holding it out to the girl.
When the little girl, confused, opened her eyes once more, a glittering pouch of gold coins sat right before her — more gold than she had seen in her whole life. "These are all for me?" Her big eyes went wide, and a trembling voice rose from her, followed by the eruption of the commoners below.
He really gave it to her — this new lord was different from the ones before!
"The taxes are really abolished?!"
"We're finally going to make it through!"
"Wonderful, praise the new lord!"
"What was the new lord's name again?"
"I think it's Aura? What a strange name."
"So what if it is? She's our benefactor now!"
"Aiyo, had I known, I'd have gone to pull the sword myself — a hundred gold coins, that's enough to live it up for a lifetime!"
"Hahaha, give me a break, with guts like yours."
The once lifeless crowd, having glimpsed a sliver of hope, came alive again.
Some pounded their chests and stamped their feet, some wept, some laughed, some were dazed, some shuddered in hindsight, some grew dizzy with excitement. In that moment, everyone believed it: the newly appointed lord — Lord Aura — was a thoroughly good person who dared to act and answer for it. Though none of them knew what this new lord looked like, their goodwill kept surging upward by the moment. With the taxes gone, life suddenly had purpose again.
"Aura the Merciful!"
No one knew who suddenly cried it out, but everyone followed and shouted along, "Aura the Merciful!" All the commoners of the Kinton domain vented through their voices the years of pent-up gloom. The commoners, who had been like walking corpses ground down to nothing, once more felt the sensation of being alive. They praised, they roared, they at last gave voice to the cries of their own hearts.
"Come on! Let's all go to the lord's manor and thank our new lord!"
Someone else made this suggestion, and a small band of people rushed off in a flurry toward the lord's manor together.
Hermet's eyes reddened, feeling only as though grit were swirling within them. He gazed at the impassioned crowd, long silent.
Hend let out a soft chuckle, leapt up onto the high platform, gathered both the pouch of gold coins and the stunned little girl into his arms, and amid the chaos simply slipped away.
Time flew by, returning to ten years after Nanoda's return.
The Kinton region of today was a world apart from before — all under the management of Hermet, who worked himself to the bone, sleeping only four or five hours a day and taking not a single day off.
The commoners, free of taxes and stripped of their shackles, not only displayed a far stronger vitality in production, but their standard of living improved dramatically as well; manufacturing, trade, mining, and other industries flourished and developed. Compared to the Kinton of the era when the nobles hoarded wealth, the Kinton of now was far more prosperous.
On top of that, with Aura expanding her power outward over these years, annexing many cities in the eastern region, the new Kinton domain, after nearly ten years of development, had grown in overall comprehensive strength to nearly the level of a small kingdom.
Everyone credited the achievement to the lord — Aura.
At first, people had been astonished and slightly uneasy about Aura's identity as a member of the Demon Race and that aloof attitude of hers, yet the goodwill accumulated beforehand kept them from rejecting her.
The actual conditions that unfolded over several years of development led everyone to wholeheartedly rally behind this remarkable lord.
In truth, Aura did not care about the Humans' excessive goodwill toward her; so long as they did not resist her, all the rest she left entirely to Hermet to handle as he pleased.
Because Hermet had all along issued orders and proclaimed his own commands in Aura's name, everyone assumed these were the schemes of the far-sighted Lord Aura, made for the development of the domain and the happiness of its people. The tsundere lord who on the surface was utterly cold and forever spouting disdain for Humans was in fact cold outside but warm within — a resourceful, benevolent demon of great wisdom.
On the external front, Hermet had once sent Hend to infiltrate the Northern Empire and help stir up internal strife, while he himself personally lobbied the nations of the Central Lands, making them wary of and counterbalance one another, thereby sparing the Kinton domain from a whole series of wars.
Bored out of her mind, Aura, seeing the domain stabilized, simply led her troops eastward and began to expand. With the powerful Magic of Obedience and her ever-swelling military might, Aura won battle after battle, triumphing magnificently every single time!
And so, Aura was deified as a super lord accomplished in both letters and arms.
The commoners voluntarily built a statue of her to proclaim this one's greatness and accomplishments.
Among the common folk of the Kinton domain, there once circulated a passage that went: "The greatest lord of Kinton, Aura the Merciful — in her left hand she holds the scales that symbolize fairness, in her right hand she holds the sword that punishes evil. In her embrace are the people of Kinton. A cold demeanor, a sincere heart — a benevolent demon who is like a parent to the people of Kinton."
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