“Glad to make business with you, marquis.” I got up from the fat man’s office chair and tapped his shaking shoulders as I walked past him. “I expect your donations by week’s end, okay? I don’t want to see you getting visits from the crazy princess now that she’s back to the capital.”

  I then opened the office’s door and cut the mana supply to my ring artifact before leaving, watching as the fat lord allowed himself to breathe again. And after I got out and noticed that Eve was the only person waiting for me in the corridor, I also finally allowed myself to breathe.

  It was already the sixth time I used this trick, but it was yet to get any easier. The trick wasn’t hard and relied on the one artifact I had. Pretending that my mana was dangerous and then using illusions to prove it worked very well in small bouts. The perfect way to trick corrupt nobles into giving me protection money, even if very taxing on my limited mana.

  And that’s ignoring the overkill villainess look with fur cape and strong make-up I got to give an extra punch to my image.

  “Are you well, milady?” The deadpan maid asked with a small hint of worry in her voice, but I only waved her worries away. “Maybe you should…”

  “Let’s go back to the carriage. I’m fine.”

  I turned around and rushed towards the empty corridor with Eve following behind me in silence. We barely met, so even though I could feel her worry, it wasn’t as if the maid would say anything. And more than that, I had proof my methods worked, so it was hard to argue against continuing with it.

  Eventually, we got to the outside of the mansion and to the royal carriage, which I could already see was left half open, meaning Elen part was done too. So, I made a small sign to Eve and we both got inside before I knocked for the coach to move. And as he did, I reached to a box left on the floor and drank one of the many mana potions inside.

  “To think your plan was just an overcomplicated swindle scheme… One that relies on a pair of useless toys too.” Elen finally spoke up after she was sure no one but the two people in her payroll and I were around to hear. “Using too many potions won’t do any good to you, though.”

  "Don't worry about it." I shrugged over the fact that I couldn’t really overpower anyone with hallucinations without at least taking two of them. “What bad can a few daily potions do?”

  “It’s actually known to do less and less good the more you take them, milady,” Eve added before checking on the box of potions and taking some notes. “And that’s without considering the huge list of side effects. They’re only used in emergencies for a reason…”

  “That's... Worrying, actually. But I won’t be using them forever, so it should be fine. Holding out until Mr. Hero is done shouldn't take so long I’d get in trouble…”

  This whole thing was because Mr. Hero was occupied and couldn’t help Elen, so I only had to do it until he was back or until all nobles were clear. Either option wouldn’t take long and I wasn’t close to overdosing, so it was all fine.

  “You’re crazy even for my standards, but I like it.” Elen smiled as usual, changing to a little more serious right after. “Just don’t go too far or Dad will kill me… Keeping you safe is part of my job.”

  She was saying this much, but still gave me a bag full of random papers and other objects that could be used as proof. Her sneaking skills were so good, no one other than me and Eve knew she was still around no matter where I went. Worked very well on my strategy of slowly hunting the bad nobles by making them think I was just as corrupt.

  It was quite the wild ride, to be honest. Jumping from noble to noble while acting as if my illusion tricks were strong and then getting some bribes to trace the money while Elen got the proof. Just a little more and I would end up capable of getting every single dangerous noble down in a single hit.

  “Ignoring this for now.” I changed the subject since talking about it wouldn’t go anywhere. “It seems we got a bit one this time. Was worried all we’d find was tax evasion and petty corruption…”

  “That’s not a good thing, you know? These are the dangerous ones…” Elen sighed as she took another bundle of crumbled papers from inside her cloak, adding more details to the slavery ring I finally found. “I still don’t get why you’re avoiding taking them down, though… You’re even taking bribes instead!”

  “Most of them go back to the palace, so where’s the problem? It’s a decent stopgap measure, even if it is troublesome to move around.”

  “That’s a weird way to do it still... Losing so much time working on the bribes when we already have papers to prove most targets are doing something wrong seems wrong.”

  “Splitting and counting the gold yourself also seems like a very weird action, milady.” Eve also added to the list of complaints, mentioning my second most time-consuming activity since the ball. “Although it is impressive how much information you can get from it.”

  “Yeah, it’s almost scary. We had no idea of a good third of the locations you gave us, and that’s without mentioning the predictions on profits from each place.”

  “That only means you two don’t understand how much you can get from finances. And I’m not even very good at it.” I answered with a small smile, making some notes on the stolen documents. “We have to take as many of them down as possible at the same time to make it more efficient.”

  I’m not sure if this place just has little experience with accounting or if it’s just Elen, but how impressed they got when I started to trace the bribes was funny. It wasn’t that hard when you got stolen documents from Elen’s adventures while I distracted the nobles and it wasn’t perfect either. I had to believe they were actually giving me how much I told them to for the predictions to be precise, so that’s that.

  Getting as many targets at once was more important than these two seemed to think. Any move that wasn’t coordinated and wide enough to cripple the problem down wouldn’t be much more than a temporary measure. The whole ruse would be down the moment I gave the first order to arrest, so I had to maximize its effectiveness.

  It wouldn't be a problem if we could mobilize enough forces to hit everyone in a super crackdown, of course, but we lacked these. Only Elen’s maids and a few knights could move around without causing suspicion and messing things up. Everyone else was as occupied as Mr. Hero and it would be dangerous to move them, so I had to make the right moves.

  The margin of error was very big with this plan, but it was good enough. It was also very poetic to have the corrupt nobles pay for the operation to take them down.

  A threefold advantage in my eyes.

  “You’re crazy, but your craziness seems to work.” Elen nodded, turning to the window and letting herself wander a little. “Would be nice if I could do something interesting instead of sneaking into vaults and stealing papers, though…”

  "Just trust the plan and everything will be alright." I tried to further reassure the princess. "We even managed to go through almost all targets without a problem, so there's very little to mess up now."

  “I do get your plan, okay? It’s just that it’s annoying to play the incompetent enforcer for this long and then help with whatever illegal trick you’re doing in my free time... Makes the ‘inquisitor’ title sound awful.”

  “In this, I feel you…”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I talked about the big plan and all, but the truth was that this whole act was a little disappointing. I kinda expected to be fighting against huge crime syndicates and underground conspiracies, but that was far from the truth.

  Other than this last count who seemed to be enslaving refugees from the areas overrun by demons and a group of barons with a drug cartel, everyone else was, at worse, an embezzler. Got some tax evaders too and a lot of illegal manufactures of not-very-reliable magical tools, but that was it.

  A lot of money went away from where it should and I could see why the king wanted some help with it, but it felt… small.

  “Can I ask one thing, milady?” Eve spoke again, organizing the papers I left to the side and continuing when I nodded. “After we finish that list of yours, what do you plan to do?”

  “Sit down and let you two work. I’m pretending to be big scary, but I have no actual fighting skills. I’m no hero, remember?” I shrugged at the idea and went on in a matter-of-fact tone. “The best I can do wouldn’t be very far from surviving if you took me to bust some criminal organization.”

  I went through it already, but people with magic are hard to beat. Even ignoring the fact they have attack spells and barriers, everyone around seems to be incredibly fit. Even if I tried my best, I couldn’t do much more than be averagely strong here. I don’t want to mess with them, and I won’t do so if possible.

  “Fair enough.” Elen nodded from her corner, taking a look through my whole body right after. “You would be less than a burden if you tried to go around with the maids.”

  “Hey! That’s mean… Even if it’s true.”

  “Heh, I guess it is.” The silver-haired noble nodded with a smile and then moved way too close to me for comfort. “Just don’t try to trick me, okay? I would hate to have to deal with you the same way I’ll deal with those rats.”

  I said it before and I’ll say it again, this princess is scary. And she’s scary for more than one reason too! I feel many things are in danger here by how she’s looking at me right now. And that’s ignoring how Eve is very much ready to stab me if she’s ordered to.

  “You don’t have to worry about this, okay?” I explained while trying to open some space between me and Elen. “For one, I know which side is worth more. Heck, why would I side with the criminals when I can side with the guys with real power?”

  “Good.” She smiled and then returned to her seat as if nothing had happened. “I’ll say it again: I don’t know why, but I trust you on this.”

  “As long as you say so, Your Highness…” Eve also nodded at her real master’s assurance, and I ended up as the only one not feeling as if everything was right now. Maybe I should double-check what I already have on my ‘ultimate list’ when we reach the castle.

  Would hate messing up and throwing myself on a stupid bad ending I did so much to avoid…

  Mr. Hero was in the middle of another expedition right now, so no way to go crying for him to get some help. Although, I think he may be coming back really soon to resupply. Having waystones to teleport you around is such a very convenient tool.

  And, as I was thinking so, the carriage’s coach knocked on the door to signal that we too, were at the entrance of said convenient tool.

  A massive obelisk made of gray stone and silver decorations with a bunch of lines coming and going from it. A massive example of the artifacts no one could replicate and that could only be found in the biggest cities since those were built around them. Expensive to use and maintain too, but that’s not my problem.

  I’m sure running the bureaucracy of this place with as few nobles as they had would be impossible. Having them was the reason why I couldn't find so many uber-corrupt nobles to bust and why the whole continent only had three main countries. Three countries that would turn absolutist very fast if demons weren’t a thing.

  Either way, it was a very useful tool that Elen didn’t like very much for some unknown reason. She always got a little white when we approached the damn thing, but I am always a little scared of trying to poke her for information.

  “Looks like we’re almost done for today…” I talked out to avoid thinking too much about the princess trying to pretend to not be worried as I watched my borrowed carriage ignore the line.

  I really love royalty, when I’m on the side gaining from it, of course.

  “Isn’t it a little too early for such, milady?”

  “Maybe. But I’m a little tired today…” I smiled at the maid with my best ‘look, I’m lazy right now’ look. “I can do the numbers in bed anyway, so it’s not like it’ll be off-schedule.”

  “If this won’t be a problem…” Eve continued before turning to the princess on the other seat. “The procedures are already starting, your Highness. It’ll be done in a moment.”

  “I don’t need you to tell me that.”

  The maid shrugged it off and I held myself to avoid smiling too much, but since the outside was already shining, I didn’t need to hold for long. In fact, it was all over a minute later. A bit nauseating, but nothing much.

  “One day this thing will throw us into a wall…”

  “Wait! That’s an option?!” I turned in surprise to the princess mumbling things that I should already know to herself while something noisy was passing on the outside. “Like, is it something that happens?!”

  “It’s not common, but st- Kch!” Elen gasped as I was thrust into her chest by the sudden movement of the carriage. The vehicle continued to accelerate as if trying to flee something, which was weird considering we were in a closed space.

  “Ouchie! What is…?” And then, as if to avoid having me make questions, and to add to my list of grievances against whatever was happening, a loud ‘crack’ sound filled the air. A sound that, I suddenly noticed, was about the back half of my vehicle turning into pieces as it was hit by a silver light.

  And then, as I lost my footing on the drifting carriage, a new object appeared inside the waystone: a beaten cart with no horse and five passengers. It happened as I noticed that my momentum was still there and that this beaten cart was approaching me. Or to be more specific, that I was approaching the cart... Headfirst.

  Ouch.

  The impact got me good there. Too sudden and too strong. Now my head hurts… My back hurts too… And my clothes are dusty…

  “Tell every guard to open a path to the palace and summon everyone in the cathedral!” A voice I knew shouted out, but as I raised my head from the ground to look at it, it wasn’t Elen there. I mean, it looked like Elen, but her clothes and demeanor were very different, which probably meant she was the other princess. She had just jumped off the cart and seemed to be ordering everyone around, but what got my attention more was the fact that her clothes were quite beaten. Beaten and bloodied, should I mention.

  She was, of course, not wearing the long dress from when I saw her before. Going for plate armor as she should be with Mr. Hero dealing with demons, which only made how beaten the thing was more worrying.

  Worse even, I could see two of her companions of the hero’s party, a tall guy with glasses and a very short one wearing a tattered green cloak, both hurrying off the cart in the same beaten state. And even with all of them wounded, they also were clearly in panic and in a hurry.

  It looked so bad that I forced myself to ignore the moist feeling in my head and get up to ask what the hell was happening... Not that I had to ever make that question when the first thing I saw when I looked at the cart was the bloodied hero and a panicking maid using magic on him.

  Maybe I should ask if any of his friends was a necromancer instead…

  It was a dumb thought, but my mind was in turmoil right now. I had to do something, anything. Allowing Mr. Hero to die wasn’t an option considering how this world worked, so doing something was the only option. But what could I…

  “Get our horses, princess!” I shouted to the armored princess as my eyes finally reached the alive horses and the half carriage I still had. She was surprised at first, as expected, but soon got the idea and also turned to the stunned coach and half-broken carriage.

  “You are…”

  “Yes, I am.” I interrupted her with the most serious tone I could and then tried to make myself look better even with my unstable legs. “The horses! Get them both and… No, get one to your cart and have the other rush to those priests… You do that, Elen.”

  I turned to my companions leaving the remains of our vehicle and started to order them around without thinking too much. Both Eve and Elen were a little taken aback by it, but the chaotic princess soon got a smug smile on her face and nodded.

  “You’ll be owning me one, you cheeky leech!” She answered in an excited tone while rushing to mount and cut free one of the horses before moving away. “And keep that bleeding dumbass alive while I’m at it, Eve.”

  “Yes, your Highness.”

  “Wait. What is…? I can’t let you…”

  “You!” I interrupted the more serious princess again, forcing my consciousness to stay at least until I could calm her down. “You’re wounded too, right? There’s… blood? And your armor… Armor? Yes. You have to rest! The hero can’t die, but his team has to survive too. They have to…”

  Yes, the hero can’t die, but he can’t do it alone. He needs companions. They have to survive too… I think… Everything is a little hazy… Why so…?

  Eve is looking at me now too… Stop it and focus on the hero, dammit! He’s bleeding, I think, and is it black? Huh? Black? This looks bad… Wait, I know that already… What a mess... Is that because I hit… my head…? That's… bad too… right?

  Then, almost too suddenly, my body tilted forward as I lost balance and headed to the ground.