Chapter 545: May All Under Heaven Be Gentlemen
Let's turn back the clock to just before Hei set out.
With his wife and son attending him, Hei had put on his armour and tried to stand up and march out against the Giant Yōkai!
But as soon as he stood, the poison built up in his blood took hold. He coughed up a spray of blood, went weak all over, and collapsed back down.
His wife and son panicked. Kian sighed.
"The poison's already deep in your organs. Even the antidote won't help now!"
Hei kept coughing up blood, but his eyes never left Kian.
"Sir, I have one thing to ask of you.
"A lord once told me that this Giant Yōkai feeds on fear. The reason it's ravaging Kyoto is to eat everyone in Kyoto and bring fear to the whole realm!
"If it absorbs the fear of the whole realm, I can't bear to imagine what kind of monster it will become!
"When I fought the Giant Yōkai, I found that ordinary men's swords can't cut its skin because those who wield them have fear in their hearts, and so of course they can't harm it.
"But someone with no fear in his heart could kill it as easily as chopping melons!
"Sir, from the way you speak and carry yourself, I know you are that man without fear!
"Sir, I, Minamoto no Hei, beg you: for the sake of the common people of the realm, slay that Giant Yōkai!"
Kian drew a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.
"Hei, of course I'm not afraid of that Giant Yōkai. I've seen things far more terrifying. Killing it would be easy for me!
"But Hei, do you know that your world, what you call All Under Heaven, actually belongs to an enormous empire? Your realm makes up one millionth of that empire.
"I don't have proof, but I have a feeling that once the Giant Yōkai is dead, your world will return to that real empire. And in that empire, there are a full million Sons of Heaven like yours!
"That empire is at war, and huge numbers of people die every day.
"Your world has famine, a foolish Son of Heaven, and demons running wild. But all the people who die here don't add up to the number of workers the Imperium of Man's factories use up.
"I think once the Giant Yōkai is dead, your realm will very likely go back to being one of those million realms.
"Those million realms aren't a good place. Plenty of those worlds are hell on earth. Knowing that, do you still want me to kill the Giant Yōkai?"
Hei was silent for a while, then asked in return:
"The Son of Heaven of those million realms. Does he love his people?"
Kian thought about it. People said a lot of things about the Emperor, and one of them was that the Emperor loved humanity deeply.
He nodded.
"He does! The Son of Heaven of the million realms loves his people!
"But for all sorts of reasons, his million realms have been shattered, and he has all sorts of enemies to destroy.
"Some of those enemies are stronger than a million Giant Yōkai put together!
"Those enemies want to wipe out humanity every moment of every day. To keep the flame of humanity alive, the Son of Heaven of the million realms has to do things that hurt his people.
"And when those things land on any one realm, they can become a crushing tax that its people can barely bear!
"If the Giant Yōkai isn't killed, your realm might keep scraping by as it is.
"If the Giant Yōkai is killed, the fog the Chaos Gods and their demons have wrapped around your realm may lift. The armies of the Son of Heaven of the million realms will find you and bring you back into the million realms.
"Your realm could truly fall into hell on earth!
"Knowing that, Hei, do you still want me to kill the Giant Yōkai?"
This time Hei thought it over even longer. But when he was done thinking and raised his head, the eyes he turned on Kian were utterly resolute.
"Sir, what you're saying is that our world is shrouded by evil, and we are people kept and played with by evil. Is that right?"
Kian nodded. As far as he was concerned, this planet had been dragged into the Warp by the Chaos God Tzeentch.
He didn't know why, but what good end could humans controlled by a Chaos God ever come to?
Hei calling it being kept and played with wasn't wrong.
When Hei saw Kian nod, he smiled.
"Sir, we are people. We are not the playthings of Chaos Gods.
"I understand what you're trying to tell me. If we accept the way things are and go on being kept and played with by the Chaos Gods, then even though many die now, that pain may be nothing compared to winning our freedom and joining the ranks of the million realms.
"But since you say the Son of Heaven of the million realms loves his people, then the suffering of his people doesn't come from within. It comes from the enemies outside!
"Being kept by the Chaos Gods may be comfortable now, but how is that any different from castrated hogs safely begging for scraps in a pigsty? In the end, the Chaos Gods will still slaughter us and eat our flesh!
"If we return to the embrace of the Son of Heaven of the million realms, even with heavy taxes, we'll still be people. Not livestock for the Chaos Gods to kill and eat whenever they please!
"People aren't livestock. People must not be penned up and eaten at will. So long as a person is a person, he has the chance to become a gentleman.
"And when everyone under heaven is a gentleman, the realm will be prosperous and at peace!
"May all under heaven be gentlemen."
And so Kian put on the black armour, hung the Minamoto family's treasured sword at his waist, and strode out of the courtyard.
And Hei, coughing up blood, along with his wife and Tarō, knelt in the middle of the main hall, bowed to Kian, and cried:
"May fortune favour your arms, my lord."
...
Kian cut off the Son of Heaven's head with one stroke, held it up, and shouted to the panicking ministers in the throne hall:
"The Son of Heaven was a foolish tyrant, and he has been put to death! Here is his head! The one who killed the Son of Heaven is Inquisitor Kian Voss!"
In truth Kian wasn't an Inquisitor at all. At most he was a void-deputy.
But you make your own clout, and he was used to borrowing the tiger's might. It wasn't as if anyone was going to check his Inquisitor ID.
A civil minister said shakily:
"Y-y-you killed the Son of Heaven! The daimyō will all rise up and the realm will fall into chaos! Y-y-you're a criminal!!"
Kian snorted coldly and tossed the Son of Heaven's head at the minister, who was so scared he rolled across the floor several times.
"All rise up, realm falls into chaos? You'd better get ready to pay the Imperium its taxes!!
"Eighty-odd years of unpaid tithes. You lot are in for a world of hurt~"
Then, ignoring the panicking ministers, Kian looked at the old eunuch and crooked a finger at him. The old eunuch immediately ran over and bowed before him.
"What are my lord's orders?"
"Take me to the castle keep!"
"Yes, my lord. Please follow me."
The old eunuch at once led Kian toward the castle keep.
The castle keep was a very tall building with several storeys. Getting a wooden structure that tall was no easy feat.
On the way to the castle keep, Kian asked the old eunuch:
"I hear there are a lot of books in the castle keep?"
The old eunuch nodded.
"Every Son of Heaven loved nothing more than collecting rare books from all over the realm and keeping them in the castle keep.
"Only those of the Son of Heaven's blood were allowed to read them. Everyone else was forbidden.
"Even this old servant, who served the Son of Heaven's family for sixty years, has never once set foot inside the castle keep."
As he spoke, the old eunuch led Kian along a winding route to the castle keep's main door.
"My lord, this is the entrance to the castle keep. Please go in on your own.
"This old servant has served the Son of Heaven all his life. The rules are carved into my bones. I cannot overstep them."
Seeing how strictly the old eunuch kept to the rules, and remembering how he'd smashed the poisoned wine twice in the throne hall, Kian said to him:
"The Giant Yōkai was slain by Hei. Hei was a true gentleman, a man of perfect martial virtue.
"The Son of Heaven was put to death by me, Inquisitor Kian Voss, and had nothing to do with Hei. Understand?"
The old eunuch nodded.
"By the time the sun rises for the third time, even the domains farthest from Kyoto will know the story of how Lord Minamoto slew the Giant Yōkai!"
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