Chapter 162: The Touch of the Wicked (2)
Along with a small number of elite Ghost members, David had infiltrated the Northern regions, attacked small villages, and killed civilians. They had killed the men and the elderly on site while the children and the women were dragged and killed elsewhere in order to create rumors of slave traders. Of course, this was because there was the chance of getting caught if they dragged the women and children around, so David and his men killed them and cleaned up the bodies so they wouldn’t be found. It was only natural that Duke Palan couldn’t find them no matter how much he had enforced the checkpoint searches. In the first place, David and the Ghosts weren’t actually slave traders and didn’t drag slaves with them, so they had been able to leisurely pa.s.s through the checkpoints.
When the anxiety began to spread throughout the Northern region, David had sent out spies to raise the people’s uneasiness. And when the anxiety reached its peak, he purposefully released some of the captured women and dealt the finis.h.i.+ng blow. It goes without saying that he had deliberately leaked information in front of the enslaved women who were supposed to be released; it had all been premeditated.
Only 200 people. David had only brought 200 people with him when he came to burrow into the Northern region. Although there were elite Ghost members included in that number, the only reason David had been able to shake up nearly half the country with a handful of people was that he had pinpointed the Lester Kingdom’s vital points. The present situation was the result. Now, the Northern region’s dissatisfaction had grown so large that it seemed like it would burst like a balloon p.r.i.c.ked by a needle at any moment.
“It’s been smooth sailing up till now.”
“Yes, sir. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds of the kingdom wouldn’t even think that we’re behind this.”
David smiled at his subordinate’s words.
‘That might work if the Grand Duke Forrest or Queen Leila was as simple as you?’
David ridiculed him on the inside, but that ridicule couldn’t be seen from the outside. Either way, they had accomplished the plan and it didn’t matter whether Milton or Queen Leila knew about it. The dissatisfied people would riot and the Lester Kingdom would have to focus on resolving the situation. He had faithfully carried Siegfried’s command to tie down the Lester Kingdom before the war against the Empire broke out.
“Since we’ve achieved our mission, are we heading back now, sir?”
David shook his head at his subordinate’s question.
“A subordinate who only does as he’s told is incompetent. We should take this opportunity and do something more.”
“Something more, sir? How much more, sir?”
“Completely taking back the Northern region. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
At those words, his subordinate looked excited.
“Would that be possible, sir?”
“I received some privileges from our Lord before we left, for example, the ability to mobilize the troops deployed on the border.”
“That’s amazing. Surely only something you could do, Sir.”
In the eyes of his subordinate, David looked very dependable. He respected David for not only carrying out their duties, but for his initiative to do more for Siegfried.
“Then I’ll begin picking the men. Please let me know if you have any further instructions, sir.”
“Alright.”
David licked his lips once his subordinate left.
“The mission My Lord ordered is finished, so…”
He paused as his lips twisted into a cunning smile.
“Now, it’s time for my hobby.”
His eerie and disgusting smile was that of a beast smiling while wearing human skin.
***
David was Siegfried"s hidden right hand man. Truthfully, Siegfried himself was so talented that a tactician like David might not be necessary. It was a bit different from Milton who absolutely needed Count Randol Sabian. However, David was a useful a.s.sistant for Siegfried for one reason…
David received high praise from Siegfried for his willingness to carry out even the dirtiest of works. Kill all the prisoners. Kill the civilians and pillage the villages. Kill the elderly and the young. They were all orders that anyone else would feel repulsed about if ordered to do so; even the blind loyal people who were brainwashed by Siegfried’s charisma would feel disgusted by such an order. But David was different.
No matter how cruel or heinous the order was, he was willing to carry it out. No, he would relish such an order. If Siegfried was the master, then David was the beast and such an order was like the master giving his pet beast a prey to hunt. If human tendencies were to be clearly divided into good and evil, then David was someone who most definitely was inclined to being evil. No, he was beyond evil; he was an animal that strayed far from the universal moral sense of mankind. That was David.
As Milton said before, Siegfried was someone who would use cruel and cold-hearted methods only if it was absolutely necessary. He would do anything as long as it achieved the purpose. That was Siegfried.
However, David was different from Siegfried. Even if it wasn’t necessary for his purpose, he would use cruel and underhanded means. He would seem like a nice person from the outside while ridiculing them from the inside. He would be joyfully smiling all the while imagining how he would stab a person in the back one day. That was David.
Even if he was looking at a scene full of people’s screams and pain, a scene straight out of h.e.l.l, he would look at it as if he was appreciating a work of art with an ecstatic expression. He took in others’ pains and screams as his own pleasure.
David himself didn’t know why he was like this. He had been born in a major city in the Republic and into an extremely normal family and had grown up extremely normally. He had grown up neither too rich nor too poor and loved by his parents. However, there was a monster in the corner of his heart. He felt joy and catharsis from the pain and sadness of others. In modern terms, he was born with the tendencies of a true psychopath. The only tragedy was that this beast had the wisdom to be very cunning.
David had been fifteen when he committed his first murder. He had lured a homeless man off the streets and killed him after torturing him, then cleaned up the body. Since then, David had consistently committed murders and within just two years, he had killed over a hundred people. But nonetheless, due to his ‘perfect’ crimes, he had never been caught. His crimes were so perfect that the victims were said to have disappeared, not murdered. However, the devil’s hobbies were soon stopped by his parents.
His mother had thought her son’s behavior was strange and searched for a diary hidden in his room. Written in it was the evidence that showed what a terrible and dangerous beast her son had become. It held detailed descriptions of his victims’ deaths and his own inner joy as he noted down the pain and screams of every one of them… That diary was like a memory box for David. For a cunning and wicked beast, it was like the devil’s memoir where he left a record of his achievements so he could read them again at any time and indulge in the memories.
It led to another tragedy. His mother, full of common sense and morality, had confronted her son and tried to convince him to pay the price for his crimes. As her own flesh and blood, she thought he would listen to her. Her thinking was too soft and easy. David shed tears at his mother’s scolding and rebuke, he regretted and reflected. He cried and nodded at his mother"s request to go to the city’s guards and surrender once the sun rose. However, that was just the devil masking himself. That day, a fire broke out in David’s house. His parents were burnt to death and only David survived. All around him were people who comforted him for losing his parents in a sudden tragedy, but David ridiculed them all.
‘Now, no one can stop me.’
He had killed his birth parents but felt no remorse. David left his city to go to another and joined a gang roaming the streets at night. He believed a world of violence and cruelty, avoiding the law, was best suited for him. In two years, despite the lack of power, David became the dominant figure who ruled the streets of the Hildes Republic at night. His brain and cruelty that he had been born with stood out in the streets at night, but above all, David was very suspicious.
He had become a criminal big enough for the country to set a bounty on his head, but no one had ever seen his face or knew his name. All they knew was that there was an unidentified person running through the Hildes Republic’s streets at night. That was the only information they had been able to gather. David was terrorizing the Hildes Republic at night that some even believed that he wasn’t a real person but a fictional being. That was when David became notorious.
However, there was one person who caught him. That was Siegfried. At that time, Siegfried was only a bureaucrat directly under the Fuhrer, but he had discovered David’s existence with a small clue and had dug a trap to catch him. That was the first time David had felt a sense of defeat since the moment he was born. Only after everything was over did he realize that he had been playing on Siegfried’s palm from the very beginning.
At that moment, David had been prepared to die. But, Siegfried had realized his worth in the process of identifying his whereabouts and arresting him. David was most definitely a wicked person. No, it was more accurate to say he was a dangerous monster who went beyond good and evil. However, Siegfried believed that anything could be helpful, it all depended on how it was used. Siegfried decided that the financial power and intelligence network that David had secured in the back alleys in such a short time would be helpful. Additionally, Siegfried was convinced that as long as David was leashed properly, he would be helpful as well.
Siegfried had spoken to David then.
[If you kill 100 people, it’s murder, but if you kill 100,000 or 1 million people, then you can proudly leave your name behind in history.]
David had gotten the chills when he first heard that. He was conscious of the fact that he was different from everyone else in society. He knew that no matter how competent or smart he was, there was no place in the world for him. But for the first time, there was something telling him that there was a spot for him.
[Who the h.e.l.l are you?]
[My name is Siegfried and I want you to use your abilities by my side in the future. If you do, you will be useful.]
Maybe this was what a king’s ability was? Every single word that Siegfried had spoken was something David had longed to hear. In the end, he pledged eternal loyalty to Siegfried. He worked for Siegfried from the shadows as well as supporting him both financially and emotionally. Most of Siegfried’s major achievements were on the battlefields, but it was only possible because David had supported him from the shadows. And it was also David who had gotten his hands dirty without hesitation whenever dirty work needed to be done. Rather than hesitating, he had welcomed them. For this monster, it was a pleasure to see people suffer because of his own plans.
And such a monster person that David was, was now targeting the Northern region of the Lester Kingdom. Siegfried had said it would be enough as long as they were tied down, but David had no intentions of leaving it at just that. He wanted to sow division and hatred into the earth, stain it with blood, build mountains out of corpses and fill the world with people’s sorrow. All the preparations to do so were already completed, so why should he wait?
‘Hoooo… let me show you h.e.l.l.’
David smiled as he looked forward to what would happen.