I won't be unlawfully taxed.

Nobody was there to stop me at the gate, so I walked into the city.

I'm sure this is Goldenfeild, one of the more agriculture-based cities like Bluefield. Bluefield also dabbles heavily in textiles, but it's technically an agricultural city.

Not many people are out even though it isn't sundown yet, although it's close. I also entered from not the main gate but one of the smaller ones.

I'm in the most "affordable" district, what would be considered the slums. But what is a slum without overcrowding? Something is going on, or my perception of urban infrastructure is off.

A jungle of concrete buildings lines the patchwork streets. Vibrant colors come from graffiti. It's technically not a slum, but it might as well be.

I decide to walk up to the nearest person. I start a conversation with a kid sitting on some steps next to an alley. He looks maybe around twelve.

"Is it a holiday or something?"

"Fuck off, mister."

"Sure, after you answer my question."

"I don't know anything."

The kid leaves, and I don't stop him. Kidnapping him isn't worth it. I move out from this part of the city, and things aren't that much better.

I don't spot any enforcers either. They usually are posted up every once in a while. In their place are people toting the same emblem as that gangster outside. A blue shield.

I decided to approach a group of them. They were apprehensive of me because of my beasts, but my unhurried and unhostile body language eased the tension.

"So, what's wrong with the city?"

"... What?"

"You know, hardly a soul out."

"Don't worry about it. The change in currency hit this city harder than others. Everything you see here is the repercussion of the gods."

I looked up for divine smite, but when nothing came, I looked back down and asked my questions.

"Do you know where the absolute cheapest place to stay for the night is? Preferably one that allows beasts."

"Around where you came from? I'm not sure about the exact address."

"Oh yeah, This isn't a coastal city or somewhere under threat from the sky. What the fuck is the Cerulean Shield doing here?

"Don't worry about it."

I walk away. I don't need to pay for luxury when I can rent a room that has a working door. Technically I don't need to rent anything, but a buffer room between the outside world and my manor is safer.

I start to deconstruct what little I got from my brief conversation with that Cerulean Shield member.

Riots were common throughout the entire Prime Territories since the banks that tried to fuck over everyone wouldn't be dipping in only one or two cities.

Many people are still feeling the repercussions to this day. Not everyone managed to win, and not everyone got their homes back. If anything, there should be more people in the slums rather than not.

The lack of people is concerning, the lack of enforcers even more so.

I don't like the enforcers or governing bodies, but their presence is a reminder that at least society hasn't collapsed yet. A private company/guild replacing them is a blatant red flag.

Fuck, that made me start thinking about the complex balancing act of checks and balances that is constantly on the verge of collapsing into one powerhouse controlling everything.

I wouldn't mind there being an emperor of humanity. But having an organization at the head, not even a government but a profit-driven corporation calling the shots would make everything worst.

The guilds, the churches, and the government. They all want different things, and there are too many overlaps to allow the removal of any one of them.

If all the guilds banded together, they could take over. If all the churches banded together, they could take over. Neither of those options is feasible.

Guilds are separate entities with conflicting goals, and the churches are worse examples.

Every church wants to be the best. To represent its idol and bring glory to their god's name. Conflicting ideals and subconscious competitiveness can only be suppressed by compassion and understanding for so long.

The current governmental system sprouted up after the Prime Territories were established. The previous government didn't survive the Collision.

My grandfather didn't put them into power. I know that since he hated them for ruining his hard work. He wasn't there so he couldn't do anything. Around that time, he was traveling with the First Party way outside the territories.

I don't know what his game plan was in the first place, but he was mad when he found out. I think the copious amounts of bureaucracy surviving the Collision that did it.

I can see the vague connection where the Cerulean Shield could substitute for the local enforcer force since the government uses them as a private defense force.

But this feels like an occupation rather than a guild supporting the city, a terribly executed one.

My wandering thoughts reconvene when I notice the same group of Cerulean Shield members catching up to me.

I speed up slightly, trying to make it look like I'm just power walking rather than purposely creating distance.

They speed up even more. I stop next to a particularly tall building and wait for the guild members to come up to me.

These look like newer recruits, all in the mid-fifties for levels, but their gear looks decent. If I could stomach extorting people for a living, I would've joined the Cerulean Shield. They treat their members well at the very least.

"What's up? Did you remember the address?"

"We are detaining you for illegal entry into the city. You completely match a person of interest that assaulted a guild member outside of town."

"How many of you fuckers are substituting for the enforcers? Do you even have the right to arrest me?"

"Around 85% of the enforcers are Cerulean Shield members for the time being, and yes. We have the orders from the local government of Goldenfield. We can arrest you so the limited enforcers can do their job without needing to do grunt work."

I silently put my arm around one of Khan's bodies and make him fly to the top of the building. Rob holds onto my leg as the rest of Khan and Duchess follow me out of that situation.

They didn't have guns, and I have the right to be skeptical.

They start yelling something about authority or something. I don't know. I turned the fake enforcers out.

I have confidence that they won't come for me. Legally or physically.

They don't have probable cause to detain me in the first place. Officially the Cerulean Shield is only allowed to "tax" people that exceed the level bracket for the average citizen. I am not 25 levels higher than the official Goldenfield average. I'm fine.

If there was a theoretical city of people with no mana, I would have to be under level 25 to enter. Goldenfield has the average cap of 50, something expected in nonfortress cities. Bluefield had the same average.

They can only “tax” cities that fall under their influence, like the coastal ones.

All of this is in my [Lexicon].

All these stipulations for a guild being able to extort high leveled people. None of this would fly if the Cerulean Shield weren't the benefactor of the coastal cities.

Technically with all these Cerulean Shield members here, the average might have gone up.

"... This place is a shithole."

[Are you speaking of the city or the Prime Territories in its entirety?]

"This is all so sketchy to me. A paramilitary guild occupying a city where most of the wheat in the Prime territories is grown with no interference from the government is baffling. I don't care what the local government is doing. I want to know what the people in charge are doing. The actual people in charge, the people nested in the capital."

I relocated to a different building and started scanning every Cerulean Shield member with [Scientific Insight+]. None of them passed level 75.

Wait. Why are members so weak? I don't spot a single "veteran" amongst the guild members. Not that I'm complaining.

Night finally falls, and I settle somewhere out of sight. I've given up on finding a room for the night.

We're in the sewers. My curiosity is burning. So many questions, so many mysteries. I'll leave the city soon, but not yet.

I want to know what's going on. Whether something nefarious is happening or if my brain is making conclusions that don't exist. If everything is fine, my prejudices are clouding my judgment, and that's an issue I'll need to look into.

"Rob, find a weak and isolated Cerulean Shield member and bring them here. Do it stealthily. Don't be spotted."

Rob goes to leave, but I stop him with my subsequent command.

"Don't take any of their bones."

He leaves but with less enthusiasm. I already went to the mansion and got the only disguise I own, that plague doctor mask. I don the whole set and hide my beasts around the corner.

I sit in silence for thirty minutes.

I perk up when I hear a manhole closing. Rob plops down a nearly naked unconscious man.

"Did you do that?"

He nods.

"Why is he in his underwear?"

Rob mimics a sleeping man, then mimes the act of hitting someone with a shovel.

I check his pulse, and he's alive.

"Are you sure he's a member of the Cerulean Shield?"

Rob nods.

"Good work."

I lift the guy's arm above his head and drop it on his face.

*smack*

He's not faking it. After putting a bag over his head, I pick him up and head deeper into the sewers. I found an old rusty door down here. I ferry everyone inside my manor before entering myself.

I might as well get something out of my dungeon. Some of the things I bought when I bought the electrical components were chains and bondage supplies.

Not that kind of bondage.

Rob is the only one that joined me down in the torture room. I confirm the hood on his shadowy cloak is up before strapping this guy to the table.

~

I slap the guy awake. With the help of [Heal Anything], he comes to quite quickly.

"Wha?"

I pull the bag off his head and circle around the table.

"W-w-where am I? Who are you? W-w-what are you going to do to me?" He struggles against his bonds as I check the quality of the table and chains.

The "work table" is as durable as anything else in this house, so I have no worries about it breaking.

I rest my barbed sword in his chest, but it's in a different shape. Instead of a greatsword, it's a tangle of disgusting barbed wire vaguely in the configuration of a weapon. It's gruesome, and I almost got tetanus just by looking at it.

It's stained with blood (mine) and has speckles of flesh attached to various barbs (also mine).

My muffled voice from the mask speaks after a minute of inspection.

"What's your objective in the city?"

"W-w-what?"

I punch him hard in the ribs, and bones break before healing instantly. If I get the timing right, I can do no damage to somebody while at the same time inflicting pain.

"Fuck! Fuck you and fuck this!"

The yoyo of health also gives an indescribable discomfort. The closest I can describe is vertigo, but only in the body and not the head. The exhaustion you never felt before leaves before you can recall what it felt like.

I ignore his words before asking a different question.

"Who do you work for?"

"The Cerulean Shield. If they find me missing from my bunk, hellfire will raise down on you!"

"It's rain, not raise."

I grab his nose and twist it like a key in an ignition.

"AAAA FUCK."

I twist his nose back in place while healing it.

"So you work for someone called 'Cerulean Shield.' You don't have a captain or branch leader above you. Just the umbrella name of a guild that will never find you if you don't answer my questions?"

*sobs* "What do you want from me?"

"I want answers about the Ceruleans Shield's involvement in the city of Goldenfield."

"Are you one of those renegades I heard about? You gotta believe me that I have no idea what the heads of the guilds are doing! I'm just a scrub who got delegated this shitty job."

Huh, so something is going on. If this dude didn't give me anything within five minutes, I'd knock him out and make Rob put him back in his bed. Make Duchess blast him with mental magic until he thinks this was just a bad dream.