A week had passed since Hax arrived in the Taranach Empire.
Over the past seven days...
he had done nothing that could be called extraordinary.
No great battles.
No dungeons conquered.
No high-ranking monsters hunted.
Most of his time was actually spent in far simpler places.
The Guild.
The Inn.
The Market.
The Tavern.
And the streets around the capital.
Hax only listened.
Conversations of adventurers.
Complaints of merchants.
Gossip of guards.
Stories of travelers who had just arrived from other cities.
Even the small stories that were usually considered unimportant.
All of that...
slowly formed a picture of the Taranach Empire in his mind.
But during that week...
Hax also discovered something quite interesting.
A tavern.
Or more precisely...
a café.
That place looked very different compared to other buildings in the capital.
Not like a typical tavern.
No rough wooden tables.
No long benches.
No oil lamps hung haphazardly.
The tables were made with a much simpler design.
The chairs had a strange shape.
The windows were large.
Even the arrangement of the room felt...
modern.
Something that should not fit the atmosphere of the Taranach Empire.
Hax had seen such designs before.
In his original world.
Because of that...
he investigated.
Not openly.
He only visited that place a few times.
Observing the conversations of the customers.
Then...
one afternoon, he finally asked the café owner.
"Who designed this place?"
The café owner, who was cleaning a glass, looked a little surprised.
"Design?"
"Yes."
Hax pointed to one of the tables.
"The furniture."
"The room arrangement."
"Also that coffee grinder."
The café owner laughed softly.
"Ah..."
"So you noticed, sir."
"Who made it?"
The café owner placed the glass on the table.
"To be honest..."
"It wasn't me."
Hax was silent.
"This place used to be like a regular tavern too."
"Then about a dozen years ago, there was someone who worked here."
"Her?"
"Yes."
The café owner nodded.
"She gave many ideas."
"How to arrange the tables."
"The chair designs."
"The window sizes."
"Even how to serve some of the food."
Hax lowered his head slightly.
"Who was she?"
The café owner thought for a moment.
"A young girl."
"Black hair."
"Black eyes too."
Hax fell silent.
Black.
Black hair and black eyes.
Not something entirely impossible.
However...
the café owner then added something that made Hax even more interested.
"She was clearly not a Taranach native."
"How do you know?"
"The way she spoke."
The café owner smiled.
"Her accent was strange."
"She also didn't know many things that people here considered common knowledge."
"That's why while she worked here, I was the one who taught her."
Hax said nothing.
"Did she stay here long?"
"Quite."
"She settled here for 2 years."
"Then left."
"Where to?"
The café owner shrugged.
"I don't know."
"She never said."
Hax stared at the table in front of him.
For a few seconds...
he did not move.
A young woman.
Black hair.
Black eyes.
From outside Taranach.
And...
bringing ideas about designs that felt alien to this world.
Something very familiar to Hax.
In his original world, such a combination was indeed common among Asian people.
However...
black hair and black eyes alone were not enough evidence.
"Her name?"
The café owner shook his head.
"Sorry."
"I don't really remember."
"She didn't mention her name often."
Hax nodded.
"I see."
He did not ask further.
But from that day on...
information about that woman remained stored in his mind.
Not as an answer.
But rather as...
a possibility.
And over the past seven days...
Hax began to realize one thing.
Taranach held too many things that should not be there.
Foreign people.
Foreign objects.
Foreign ideas.
And now...
a woman who did not even seem to come from the same world.
Hax did not know who that woman was.
Not yet.
But if she was still somewhere in the Taranach Empire...
someday...
they might meet.
Hax returned to the guild.
Sometimes he even took quests that had been on the request board for a long time.
Some of them were quite dangerous quests that no one had touched for a long time.
Some quests even seemed to have been left untouched for months.
Hax took them without much consideration.
Not because of the rewards.
But because every journey gave him a chance to see other parts of the Taranach Empire.
And during that week...
he began to notice something.
Taranach was not as prosperous as it appeared from the capital.
Behind the magnificent city walls...
there was something wrong.
The prices of some food supplies were rising.
Some merchants complained about disrupted trade routes.
Adventurers talked about monsters starting to move territories.
And what appeared most often in conversations...
was news about the eastern part of the empire.
A region that was under attack.
But the information Hax obtained was always fragmented.
Never complete.
Never truly clear.
Because of that...
one afternoon, Hax finally decided to seek a more reliable source of information.
The Guild Master.
Scarlet.
The Taranach Empire Adventurer Guild.
The Guild Master's room was upstairs.
Unlike the main hall which was always filled with noise...
this room was much quieter.
Bookshelves lined the walls.
Several large maps hung behind the desk.
There was a map of the capital.
A map of the northern territories.
A map of trade routes.
And a large map of the Taranach Empire that almost covered the entire wall.
Hax stood before the desk.
Behind that desk...
Scarlet was reading some documents.
The woman looked up.
"It's been a week."
Hax nodded.
"Yes."
Scarlet put down the document in her hands.
"And during that week, you took quite a few quests that had been untouched for a long time."
"Those quests needed completion."
Scarlet smiled faintly.
"Thank you for lightening my burden a little, hahaha."
Hax did not respond.
His gaze shifted to the large map behind Scarlet.
"Do you want to ask something?"
"Yes."
Scarlet leaned back in her chair.
"Go ahead."
Hax was silent for a moment.
Then asked,
"Why are there almost no Rank A or higher adventurers in the capital?"
Scarlet did not answer immediately.
Her smile faded.
She instead took a slow breath.
"I already suspected you would ask that."
Scarlet rose from her chair.
She walked to the large map of the Taranach Empire.
Then pointed to the western part.
"Because most of them are here."
Hax observed the location she pointed to.
"The western city."
"More precisely..."
Scarlet pointed to a red mark on the map.
"...a dungeon."
Hax raised his head slightly.
"A dungeon?"
"Yes."
"That dungeon appeared some time ago."
Scarlet crossed her arms.
"Initially we thought it was just a regular dungeon."
"But after several parties entered..."
She paused.
"The number of monsters inside kept increasing."
Hax was silent.
"The dungeon structure also changed."
Scarlet continued.
"Rooms that did not exist before suddenly appeared."
"Mapped routes changed."
"Some parties even reported finding monsters that should not have been on that floor."
"Because of that..."
Scarlet pointed to several names written in the corner of the map.
"Almost all A-rank adventurers were sent there."
Hax recalled the number of high-ranked adventurers he had barely seen over the past week.
"So that's the reason."
"Yes."
Scarlet returned to her desk.
"If that dungeon is not dealt with soon, we don't know what might come out of there."
Hax fell silent.
Then asked,
"What about Rank S?"
Scarlet looked at him.
"Taranach only has 5 S-rank individuals, and they are a party."
Scarlet sighed.
"But they are also not in the capital."
"Where?"
"The East."
Hax was silent.
Scarlet took a document from her desk.
Then placed it on the table.
"By the direct order of the Taranach Emperor..."
"the S-rank adventurers have been hired to assist the eastern region."
Hax stared at the document.
"Under attack?"
Scarlet nodded.
"The Demon King's forces."
The room suddenly felt quieter.
Hax did not move.
Scarlet continued.
"Their attacks have been ongoing for some time."
"Several small towns have lost their supply routes."
"Some villages have even been forced to evacuate."
"That is why the Emperor sent the S-rank adventurers to aid in the defense."
Hax looked at the map.
The West.
A dungeon.
The East.
The Demon King's forces.
And in the center...
the capital.
Scarlet crossed her arms.
"On the surface, Taranach still looks fine."
"The economy is still running."
"The Guild is still active."
"The market is still full."
"However..."
She tapped the eastern part of the map with her finger.
"...the situation is far worse than it appears."
Hax was silent.
Scarlet then produced another document.
This time her expression looked more serious.
"The problem isn't just the Demon King."
"There's another problem?"
"The nobility."
Hax turned his head.
Scarlet laughed softly.
"Not all nobles."
"But quite a lot."
She opened the document.
"Several noble families have begun to embezzle aid sent to the eastern region."
Hax watched.
"Embezzle?"
Scarlet nodded.
"Food aid."
"Money."
"Medicine."
"All of it was supposed to be used to help the towns under attack."
Scarlet tapped the document on her desk.
"But before the aid reaches its destination..."
"some of it is already cut off."
Hax stared at her.
"How much?"
"It varies."
"Some reports show the amount reaching tens of percent."
Scarlet sighed.
"And it's not just food."
"War funds sent by the Empire have also been misappropriated."
"Money that should have been used to buy weapons and strengthen city defenses..."
"...ended up in the hands of certain nobles."
Hax fell silent.
"So..."
"the people are starving because the nobles are taking their rations."
"More or less."
Scarlet smiled bitterly.
"Officially, everything looks normal."
"Documents show that aid has been sent."
"The amounts are also recorded."
"But the numbers on paper..."
"...are not always the same as what actually arrives."
Hax stared at the document for a while.
"And no one stops them?"
Scarlet laughed softly.
"Of course some have tried."
"But when those committing the corruption have political influence..."
She shrugged.
"proving it is not as easy as accusing it."
Hax was silent.
Scarlet then continued.
"The saddest part..."
"the aid is actually sufficient."
"If all the food and funds sent truly reached their destination..."
"at least the situation in some eastern towns would not be as dire as it is now."
Hax looked at Scarlet.
"So the problem is not a lack of resources."
Scarlet shook her head.
"No."
"The problem..."
"...is the people who are supposed to ensure those resources get through."
Hax fell silent.
War.
The Demon King's forces attacking from the east.
Towns in need of food.
Soldiers in need of weapons.
People in need of aid.
Yet in the midst of such a situation...
some nobles saw the war as an opportunity.
An opportunity to enrich themselves.
Hax leaned back in his chair.
"...Pathetic."
Scarlet looked at him for a moment.
"I didn't expect to hear such a comment from you."
"What do you mean?"
"You usually only ask questions."
Hax fell silent.
"...I was just stating a fact."
Scarlet laughed softly.
"Very well."
"Let's just say that."
Hax looked at the map again.
The eastern region under attack.
The western region facing a dungeon.
And the capital...
which still appeared calm.
A great empire.
But slowly...
the pressure was beginning to show.
"Why doesn't the Emperor stop them?"
Scarlet paused.
"Because of politics."
"Some nobles wield enormous influence."
"They have their own armies."
"Trade networks."
"Connections with other noble families."
"If the Emperor moves too harshly..."
Scarlet shrugged.
"internal conflict could erupt."
Hax said nothing.
Scarlet looked at him.
"You don't look surprised."
"I have seen something similar."
"In Etravia?"
"No, in my homeland."
Hax knew this not from direct experience. He had only read about similar things in history books from his original world.
Scarlet nodded slowly.
"Then you already understand how an empire works."
Hax did not answer.
But...
in his mind, an old piece of information suddenly resurfaced.
Umbra Vermis.
Some time ago...
they had sent a report regarding the situation in Taranach.
A report that he had only skimmed at the time because there was too much other information to examine.
Hax closed his eyes.
Then...
he remembered.
"The eastern region..."
Hax's voice was soft.
"...So that's the place."
Scarlet frowned.
"What place?"
Hax did not answer, and Scarlet could only wonder.
Adventurers always had secrets.
And Scarlet had been in this world long enough to understand that forcing someone to reveal their secrets was not a good way to obtain information.
Hax stood from his chair and prepared to leave the guild master's room.
"In that case..."
He pointed to the map once more.
"If you plan to go to the eastern region..."
"be careful."
Hax only nodded.
---
Hax decided to return to Black Fortress after a week in Taranach.
During that time, reports from Mimic and Nocelle kept coming.
No major issues. Nothing that required his return.
But now his business in Taranach was sufficiently concluded.
The information he needed had been gathered. Several quests had been completed. Several people had been observed.
For now, Taranach could wait for him.
There was no one around him.
He raised one hand.
The air in front of him began to tremble.
Then...
a black crack appeared in mid-air.
A spatial rift.
Slowly widening.
Wind from the other side blew out.
Hax stepped inside.
In an instant—
the view of the Taranach capital vanished.
Black Fortress.
Hax stopped a few steps after stepping out of the Dimensional Rift.
For a moment, he thought he was in the wrong place.
The barren land he had left a week ago had changed.
Fields stretched out in front of the fortress.
Rows of young wheat moved with the wind.
Several wooden buildings stood between the stone paths.
Even the sound of children could be heard in the distance.
Hax did not move immediately.
"...What happened here?"
Something had changed.
Outside the fortress...
a windmill stood on a small hill.
Its wooden blades turned slowly.
Whirr...
Whirr...
Hax stared at it for a while.
Then shifted his gaze to the other side.
There was another one.
Then another.
Several windmills had been built around the farming area.
Near the fields...
several people were working.
Some carried hoes.
Others were sowing wheat seeds.
There were also some children running among the fields.
Hax stood still.
"...They worked quite fast."
Hax's voice was flat.
But...
there was a hint of admiration in it.
He stepped forward.
The closer he walked...
the clearer the changes became.
There was a wooden fence.
Stone paths now adorned with ornamental plants and flowers along the edges.
Even a small hut that he had never built.
Hax stopped in front of one of the fields.
He lowered his head.
Picked up a little soil with his fingertip.
Fertile.
Someone had properly cultivated this land.
"So they didn't just use what I gave them."
Hax stood back up.
His gaze swept across the entire area.
Clothing.
Food.
Shelter.
All of that he had indeed provided.
But...
they did not stop there.
They built.
They planted.
They repaired.
They tried to make their own lives.
Hax fell silent.
Then...
a voice sounded from a distance.
"Lord Hax!"
Hax looked up.
Several people were running toward the gate.
In front of them...
Nocelle appeared.
Her white hair moved with the wind.
Beside her was Lyra.
And behind them...
several residents of Black Fortress were also running.
"Lord Hax is back!"
"Lord Hax!"
"Your Grace!"
Some small children even shouted with joy.
Hax stood in front of the gate.
He watched those who came approaching him.
Then...
without anyone giving an order—
everyone stopped.
Nocelle knelt.
Lyra also bowed her body.
The residents followed.
One by one...
they knelt before Hax.
Even the small children who had been running with such joy tried to imitate the adults around them.
Hax looked at them.
"..."
One of the children lifted his head slightly.
"Lord Hax is back."
Hax said nothing for a few seconds.
Then he walked through the gate.
"Rise."
Hax's voice was calm.
Everyone immediately stood up.
Nocelle smiled.
"Welcome back, Your Grace."
Lyra bowed.
"Welcome back."
Hax nodded.
"I see many changes."
Nocelle smiled wider.
"We wanted to show everything to Your Grace."
Hax looked at the wheat fields in the distance.
"Who made them?"
"The residents."
"Who gave the orders?"
Nocelle paused for a moment.
Then smiled.
"No one."
Hax turned his head.
"No one?"
"They proposed it themselves."
Nocelle pointed toward the fields.
"They said they did not want to keep relying on the food that Your Grace provided."
"So they started clearing the land."
"Some of them used to be farmers."
"Others helped make tools."
"As for the windmills..."
Nocelle pointed toward the hill.
"...they were built by some puppet soldiers and those with experience as carpenters."
Hax gazed at the windmills still turning.
Whirr...
Whirr...
"Interesting."
Lyra smiled faintly.
"They want to build a place they can call home."
Hax fell silent.
He looked back at the fields.
Then at the people working there.
"...Good."
Nocelle blinked.
It was perhaps just one word.
But from Hax...
that simple word sounded like great praise.
There was one face Hax did not recognize.
A girl stood a few steps behind Nocelle.
She had not run to greet him.
Only stood still.
As if still not used to being among many people.
Her black hair moved slowly in the wind.
Hax narrowed his eyes.
There was something different about her.
A pair of small horns protruded from her head.
And behind her back...
a pair of black wings were folded.
Hax immediately remembered her.
The girl he had saved in Taranach.
Hax looked at her.
Then the System activated.
[System Analysis]
[Name: Unknown]
[Race: Succubus]
[Status: Healthy]
[Condition: Stable]
Hax was silent.
Succubus.
So her transformation had indeed been completed.
The girl slowly stepped forward.
Then knelt before Hax.
"Your Grace."
Hax looked at her.
"Rise."
The girl stood back up.
Hax observed her face for a while.
The changes were quite significant.
But...
she looked much better.
"Nocelle."
"Yes, Your Grace?"
"She has recovered?"
"For the most part."
Nocelle smiled.
"She was very weak when she first arrived."
"But her body has slowly adapted to her racial change."
"She can also walk and eat normally now."
Hax nodded.
Then looked back at the girl.
"Your name?"
The girl paused.
As if making sure the question was truly directed at her.
Then...
"Kureha."
"Kureha."
Hax did not answer.
One second.
Two seconds.
That name stayed in his head longer than it should have.
Kureha.
A Japanese name.
Not an impossible name to find in this world.
But enough to make him pause.
Hax looked at the girl once more.
Black hair.
But...
red eyes.
Not the black eyes he usually saw on humans in his original world.
And her body now was not even human.
Harder to identify.
Hax activated the System once more.
No Player status.
No sign that she was someone summoned by the System.
Just a Succubus.
Hax deactivated the System.
"Kureha."
"Yes?"
"Where are you from?"
Kureha lowered her head slightly.
"I was born and raised in Taranach, Your Grace."
"In the city?"
"In one of the slums."
Hax was silent.
"So you were born in this world?"
Kureha looked a little confused by the question.
"Yes."
Hax nodded slowly.
"Your parents?"
Kureha fell silent.
For the first time since Hax had seen her...
the small smile on her face vanished.
"My father..."
She lowered her gaze.
"...is dead."
"What was the cause?"
"A monster attack."
Hax was silent.
Kureha clenched both her hands.
"He was an A-rank adventurer."
"One day he went out on a quest."
"And never came home."
The wind passed through the fortress courtyard.
No one spoke.
"After that..."
Kureha continued.
"I had no one."
Hax looked at her.
"And your mother?"
Kureha was silent for quite a while.
"...I don't really remember."
Hax raised his head slightly.
"You don't remember her?"
"I was still small."
"I was only with her briefly."
Kureha tried to remember.
Her eyes looked into the distance.
"I remember her voice."
"A little."
"And..."
She touched her own hair.
"...her hair."
"The same as mine."
Hax did not move.
"Do you remember her face?"
Kureha shook her head.
"It's been too long."
"All I remember are a few small fragments."
Hax did not answer.
Black hair.
A woman he had encountered before.
Knowledge that the residents of this world should not possess.
A café.
And now...
a girl named Kureha.
Too many coincidences.
But coincidence was not proof.
Kureha looked at Hax.
"Your Grace?"
Hax looked away.
"How did you survive after your father died?"
Kureha smiled faintly.
"I didn't really survive."
"I just..."
She paused briefly.
"...lived."
Hax was silent.
"I slept anywhere."
"Sometimes under a bridge."
"Sometimes behind a shop."
"If there was leftover food..."
"I took it."
"If not..."
Kureha shrugged.
"I waited until tomorrow."
Hax looked at her.
There was no excessive sadness in Kureha's voice.
As if all of that had long become part of her life.
Until finally...
Hax found her.
Hax shifted his gaze toward Nocelle.
"You took good care of her."
Nocelle smiled.
"Of course."
Kureha lowered her head.
"Thank you, Lady Nocelle."
Nocelle smiled at her.
"Don't thank me."
She glanced at Hax.
"Thank His Grace."
Kureha immediately knelt again.
Hax looked at her.
"..."
"Your Grace."
"I..."
Kureha bowed her head deeply.
"Thank you for saving me."
Hax was silent.
Then said:
"Rise."
Kureha slowly stood up.
"You don't need to keep kneeling."
"Here..."
Hax looked around.
Fields.
Windmills.
Houses.
Children playing.
People working.
"If you want to stay..."
"...live."
Kureha was silent.
Hax continued.
"Don't just accept what is given to you, don't just follow the flow."
"Carve your own path, and make yourself valuable."
Kureha looked at him.
Then...
a small smile appeared on her face.
"Alright, Your Grace."
Hax walked away from that place.
Kureha could potentially become a very useful asset.
A Succubus possesses abilities suited for infiltrating hard-to-reach places.
Approaching people.
Gathering information.
Making targets talk.
Even influencing their minds.
In theory...
Kureha was the perfect spy.
But Hax stopped.
...Her body?
He did not like the direction of that thought.
If he ordered Kureha to use her racial abilities to obtain information, how far could that order go?
Using Charm?
Disguising herself?
Seducing the target?
Or even using her body as a tool to gain someone's trust?
Hax frowned.
No.
He did not want his subordinates to be treated that way.
Moreover...
Kureha had just been given a second life.
Giving her the freedom to determine her own life was one thing.
Making her a tool and ordering her to do something she might not want to do was another.
Hax sighed.
"...What a hassle."
This was the first time Hax had a problem that could not be solved simply with power, money, or information.