After putting Adrian to sleep, I pulled the dagger from his waist.
I wanted to sneak out quietly, but unfortunately, I was terrible at hiding my presence.
Strong monsters have a massive presence that can’t be ignored regardless of will.
So, I had been doing the tedious task of slightly altering everyone’s memory of me with ‘memory manipulation’.
Once I broke the restraints and touched someone from the mercenary group, avoiding combat would be impossible.
Thinking back now, it’s a bit funny.
The only thing I did was take over a room, and the next thing I knew, I was being kidnapped by strangers.
Were those the bad people Rena mentioned in the back alley? If so, I wouldn’t feel too guilty if I accidentally killed them.
I couldn’t hide my presence, but I was even less confident about controlling my strength.
If I fought someone, I couldn’t guarantee their life or death.
But.
Let’s just get out of here.
I didn’t want to stay any longer in this damp and disgusting place.
Even if I had to kill a few people, I wanted to get outside.
So, I was walking down the corridor with the knife in my hand.
“P-please… spare me…”
“Huh?”
I turned my head toward the source of the voice, where the slaves were bound.
There was a girl with orange hair and cat ears tied up.
Was she a beast slave brought from another village?
She looked in pretty bad shape.
Covered in blood and her clothes were mostly torn.
She was bound with her arms raised toward the sky, and it looked like it was excruciating for her arms to support her weight.
Can humans really do such things to fellow humans? I locked eyes with her and read her memories for a moment.
Did they really resort to violence and abuse just because she had ears and a tail?
Truly disgraceful behavior.
I was a monster, but I never did such things.
“P-please… I don’t want to die like this.”
The nameless cat girl begged me for help. Did she know who I was?
It was paradoxical.
If I opened that cage and released her, I might just eat her.
She was human, and I was a monster.
Generally, monsters attack humans, and humans flee from them.
Could she not recognize me as a monster because I looked human?
No, she probably knew I was a monster.
From the moment I broke the restraints with my hand, I had no intention of hiding my identity.
While I stayed at the academy, I had released the magical energy I had hidden. It made using my hallucination abilities easier after all.
Magic is a force that humans can’t handle. Thus, she recognized that I was a monster.
But why was she begging me?
I had some questions, but I didn’t bother too much. The emotions felt by humans must be different from those of a monster like me.
Before I opened the iron cage, I asked her first.
“I don’t mind helping, but if I open this, I might kill you. Are you okay with that?”
“Th-that’s…”
Then I waited for her answer.
The reason she couldn’t give a clear answer about whether I’d kill her or save her was that I didn’t know myself.
Even if I intended to save her, I could change my mind at any moment. Chasing fleeing humans is like an instinct for monsters.
I wasn’t a lying monster, so I didn’t say I’d save her outright.
I just waited quietly. I decided to give her enough time to gather her thoughts.
“…”
But no matter how long I waited, she didn’t respond to me. Or rather, perhaps she couldn’t answer. That was fine by me.
Breaking the iron cage and the restraints wasn’t that difficult.
I just swung the knife a couple of times.
The first sword strike cut through the cage, and the second cut the chains binding her hands.
“…Huh?”
The girl, freed from her restraints, made a dazed sound as if she didn’t understand the situation.
I had no intention of killing her. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for that today.
Whether she ran or not, I didn’t care about a human who showed no reaction. So, I turned my back without hesitation.
Then, suddenly, I thought it wouldn’t be so bad to make a grand mess since I had already caused some chaos.
As I walked down the corridor, I cut the restraints of every slave I could see.
There wasn’t really a reason for it.
If they didn’t want to get kidnapped, they shouldn’t have done it in the first place.
*
In the Central Empire, buying and selling human slaves is illegal.
However, it occurred quite frequently in dark places far from the Knights’ watch.
In the secluded back alley, there was a black market for such slave trading.
Beorn, having received the money, frowned as he counted the gold coins in his pocket.
It seemed he wasn’t happy with the amount.
“Hey. You only handed over ten women. Forty gold coins? With how many people are in my crew, who am I supposed to stick forty coins on?”
“I priced it at the average market rate, but if that’s not enough, I would be disappointed. Four coins each. I’ve offered more generously than anywhere else.”
Surprisingly, the slave trader’s words were true.
Beorn had seen that in the neighboring village, one was usually traded for about three gold coins.
But just because the slave trader was honest, does that mean he was running a legitimate business?
Most slave markets operate on an auction basis.
Depending on the appearance of the woman, the price can jump several times, or even several tens of times.
When items are rare, their value naturally increases. And if there’s competition? Even more so.
That’s why it’s possible for one slave to be more expensive than all the others combined.
And that’s exactly what was happening now.
“Did you see that silver-haired woman? She’s beautiful, and her figure is no joke. You expect to sell her for four coins just like the other slaves? Do I look like a fool to you?”
Beorn criticized the slave trader in disbelief.
In such transactions, most of the profit goes directly into the slave trader’s pocket.
Adding just one coin was merely bait.
The slave trader sighed as if feeling regret. It would have been nice if the other party were just a bit more foolish.
“Hmm, well fine. Let’s negotiate. How about sixty coins?”
“If I take that money, I might as well just take the silver-haired woman and sell her at the auction myself.”
“Then how about seventy? I am also in business here.”
“Ugh, forget it. Let’s just cancel the deal. I won’t sell.”
Tsut!
The slave trader clicked his tongue.
The mercenary Beorn. Though he’d heard rumors, he hadn’t expected him to be this greedy.
Truly a picky customer. But that didn’t mean he could pass on the sale; the product was just too good.
If he just got her to the auction, he could easily get around two hundred fifty coins.
So it was something he couldn’t easily give up.
“Phew… Alright then. How about one hundred coins?”
“You should have come out with that much from the beginning.”
In the end, the slave trader opened his wallet, and Beorn received the pouch of money with a satisfied smile.
With this amount, he could share a gold coin with each of his crew and still have a good chunk left for himself.
After receiving the money, Beorn was set to leave the Central City. His schedule was slightly ahead of plan, but that didn’t matter.
Money was rolling in at his feet. The feast could always be done later.
“Big trouble, Boss!”
Just as he was happily clenching the pouch of gold coins, someone ran over to him.
It was his subordinate.
“There’s a! Hah, a—a monster! Hah!”
He was so frantic that he was panting as he struggled to convey his message.
His breath was so ragged that the words jumbled together, as if they couldn’t form sentences.
“What is it? Calm down and speak slowly,” Beorn said, trying to calm him down.
He wanted to hear what was happening.
The lackey took a while to catch his breath, and when he finally calmed down, he spoke.
“Among the slaves we brought, there was a monster! It broke its restraints and escaped! We tried to stop it, but we were no match!”
“A monster?”
“Yes! Even 2nd-class mercenary Bradon was no match!”
“Hm…”
Anyone affiliated with a mercenary group wasn’t to be taken lightly.
They survived solely on their strength, so it wasn’t easy to face them alone.
Moreover, if even 2nd-class mercenary Bradon had been overpowered, then that was hard to believe.
Was there someone in the Empire strong enough to easily defeat a 2nd-class mercenary? And they just happened to be mixed in with the kidnapped slaves?
Beorn felt a bit confused.
It was odd enough for someone who could easily win against a 2nd-class mercenary to have been caught as a slave in the first place.
‘It must be a joke.’
It was too nonsensical to take seriously.
He didn’t distrust his subordinates, but it seemed they’d drank too much.
“If you’re drunk, stop babbling and go rest. We need to move early tomorrow.”
“I’m sober! I’m serious! A monster is really coming!”
The lackey shouted, looking genuinely frustrated.
And then.
Boom!
The walls of the building shook.
It seemed the tremor came from below where Beorn was standing.
Below was the place where the underground prison had been.
“See! I’m not lying!! We need to get out of here!”
That didn’t sound like mere drunken talk.
Although he didn’t fully believe his words, the noise coming from below wasn’t ordinary.
“Tsk, what a hassle.”
Beorn scratched his head as if annoyed.
“Gather the guys. We’re retreating.”
There was no reason to fight someone stronger than a 2nd-class mercenary. Regardless of the outcome, he had sold the slaves and received his money.
Once he was paid, he quite simply didn’t care anymore.
“Wait! What about the other slaves inside? What about them?!”
However, someone couldn’t simply ignore that question. It was the slave trader.
Having paid a hefty one hundred coins for the slave, he was about to take a big loss.
No, it would be better if that was the end of it.
If the escaped slave caused a riot and freed the other slaves? The situation could spiral out of control.
“I-I don’t know. Most of them are probably freed…”
“Oh my world! What kind of rubbish did you hand over to me?! That’s special alloy handcuffs! You’re telling me it broke free?! What kind of monster?! You sold it for a hundred coins?! Are you fucking kidding me?!”
The slave trader could no longer hold back his temper. He had to bear the losses from this disaster.
He seemed to think that if Beorn hadn’t brought the monster, this wouldn’t have happened.
“Hey, slave trader. Did you think I would have known that was a monster? Who was the one who said let’s trade it immediately because it looked good? Why is this my fault?”
“Ugh…!”
As the slave trader raised his voice, Beorn frowned, replying sharply.
From the moment he received the money, he had no obligation to feel sorry for the slave trader.
Moreover, he was a 1st-class mercenary. He could just suppress them by force if he wanted to.
“Back off if you don’t want to get hurt. Now that I have been paid, it’s time to leave.”
“W-wait! Where do you think you’re going?! You have to catch the monster before you leave!”
The slave trader clung to Beorn as he tried to leave without a trace.
Of course, there were still guards set up down in the underground to prevent slaves from escaping.
But they were only hired to prevent common slaves from escaping, so they couldn’t be relied upon.
It wasn’t that they were weak, but whether they were stronger than a 2nd-class mercenary was debatable.
So even now, to quell the situation, they needed at least a force that matched or exceeded 1st-class.
Beorn of the mercenary group.
His personality was strange, and he was greedy, but his skills were undeniable.
At this very moment, he shouldn’t leave this place.
“Why should I help?”
Beorn answered, visibly annoyed.
He didn’t want to get involved in troublesome matters. He just wanted to leave the Central Empire quickly.
Of course, if the slave trader showed a bit of sincerity, he might consider it.
“How about I pay you? I’ll make sure you don’t feel shortchanged if you help me just this once! To be honest, you bear some responsibility in this matter as well, don’t you?”
“How much are you offering?”
“An additional thirty coins!”
“The cost to hire a 1st-class mercenary is high. Is that really enough?”
Beorn smiled wickedly.
There’s nothing in this world that can’t be solved with money. If it didn’t work, it was clearly due to the amount being insufficient.
The slave trader, desperate, took a leap of faith in bargaining.
And then.
“If you come back, give me one hundred coins. I’ll bring back the monster or whatever.”
The 1st-class mercenary Beorn drew his sword.
