Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: The Viscount's Fury
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Bang!
"That's how much that thing was worth, and you let it get away!"
A man couldn't contain his rage and slammed his cudgel down.
Crash!
An empty cage shattered pathetically amid the deafening noise.
The young beastkin trapped in cages on the other side of the basement cowered in fear, letting out sharp, shrill cries.
"If you don't want to die, shut up!"
Bang!
The man with the cudgel kicked at the cages with his foot. The young beastkin inside huddled together, pressing close to one another as they shrank into the corners.
The name of the man erupting in fury like wildfire was Viscount Kaiman.
Viscount Kaiman was the head of the Red Wheel Merchant Company.
"......I'm sorry, Viscount. I have nothing to say for myself."
The other man kneeling before him and bowing his head low was Baron Hilben.
Hilben worked under Viscount Kaiman, and the massive basement they stood in was an underground warehouse where the Red Wheel Merchant Company's "merchandise" was kept.
The Red Wheel Merchant Company was a trading firm that had been rapidly expanding its influence as of late, with its primary source of income being illegal auctions and gambling dens.
Having swung his cudgel to his heart's content and finally tiring himself out, Viscount Kaiman caught his breath and spoke.
"Tell me how you're going to make up for this loss, Hilben."
"I'll... somehow..."
"You'd have to sell dozens of those things just to break even! You know that, right?"
Kaiman jabbed his sharp cudgel tip toward the young beastkin.
The rabbit beastkin locked in the cages were relatively docile and not overly wary of humans, making it easy to capture the young ones. In other words, they weren't worth much.
The vast forests of the East were home to a variety of demi-human races.
Even though buying and selling people was strictly forbidden by imperial law, there were always those idle rich who burned with desire precisely because they were told not to do it whenever and wherever.
The Red Wheel Merchant Company targeted that niche market. They satisfied the base desires of the wealthy and raked in huge profits.
They violated sacred forests forbidden to humans, captured beastkin, and sold them at exorbitant prices.
Demi-humans had always been valued higher the rarer they were, the harder they were to obtain.
The most popular items at auction were, without a doubt, mermaids and werewolves.
But that popularity was something of a mirage. Ever since slave auctions were banned, neither species had ever appeared on the market even once.
The mermaid islands were inaccessible by human ships due to the towering waves, so that was understandable.
However, failing to capture werewolves—who openly dominated the vast central forests of the East—was because they possessed far greater power than humans.
Werewolves, also known as lycanthropes, the wolves.
For Viscount Kaiman to nearly get his hands on one was almost a stroke of heavenly luck.
"Just make sure it never comes back."
The forest folk, who had always acted so nobly, had come to him of their own accord. They had sold out one of their own kind.
Without that betrayal, it would have been utterly impossible.
Hmph. They sneered at humans as vulgar and acted all high and mighty, but they were no different when push came to shove.
After months of grueling labor digging traps, preparing doses of their usual poisons at dozens of times the concentration, and binding it tight with iron chains enchanted with all sorts of spells, they had finally captured it.
The thrill of finally laying eyes on the massive wolf after all that hardship was indescribable.
The adult of that race, hailed as the strongest beings on earth, was breathtakingly beautiful.
And that was exactly the part Viscount Kaiman could never accept.
"But how the hell did you let it get away?!"
Kaiman exploded in frustration.
They had dosed it with a near-lethal amount of the drug.
The poison should have kept it from ever waking up, and the enormously expensive iron chains had been custom-made by the most renowned mage from the Magic Tower.
Dozens of spells had been woven into them, yet it had snapped them and escaped. It was utterly incomprehensible.
"......It's all because of that arrogant wench."
Hilben, who had kept his head bowed the entire time, spat out the words through gritted teeth.
"Wench?"
Viscount Kaiman, who had been sitting wearily on the iron bars, looked at him quizzically. Hilben somehow forced the words out.
"There was... a woman in the train using some unholy trickery."
Unholy trickery?
Kaiman nearly scoffed and tell him not to spout such ridiculous nonsense in broad daylight, but he paused.
He could visibly see Hilben's jaw trembling.
"What do you mean? Explain in more detail."
"W-Well..."
Hilben stammered out the story of what had happened inside the train.
More precisely, it was about the bizarre trickery pulled off by a strange woman who had been on board.
"Wait. That doesn't add up. Earlier you said she used some strange illusion magic?"
"Yes, that's right! So that wench summoned a monster that did it. It appeared out of nowhere and performed magic! It even... released the wolf..."
The explanation was so absurd it made him wonder, *Was the guy that weak?*
With superhuman patience, Kaiman listened to the rambling tale to the end, then summoned a few other subordinates who had been on that train with Hilben.
"So, to sum it up, that woman summoned a butterfly monster?"
"Yes! That's it. And that butterfly monster..."
Tsk, tsk.
Viscount Kaiman, who had been listening silently, decided Hilben was exaggerating wildly.
The gray wolf had been their top prize, so very hard to obtain. He was no doubt inflating the threat of the attacker out of fear of punishment for losing it.
But Hilben noticed his words were being doubted and protested his innocence.
"I'm telling the truth! Check for yourself!"
If the other subordinates he called midway hadn't confirmed there really was a woman using strange powers, Kaiman would surely have suspected Hilben of making it all up to deceive him.
It was that outrageous a story.
But the other subordinates he summoned in accordance with Hilben's claim spouted similar nonsense.
"See? I'm right, aren't I!"
Hilben quickly grew triumphant, while Viscount Kaiman turned a bit more serious.
"If what you say is true, then that wench is a spirit summoner."
"A spirit summoner?"
"Yes. Though not a real one, of course."
The true spirit summoners had all gone extinct long ago.
Those called spirit summoners nowadays all used artificial methods to boost their mana affinity and summon beings from other worlds. They usually met miserable ends.
Viscount Kaiman had spent his whole life in the underworld, and he had encountered so-called spirit summoners once or twice himself.
The lofty imperial nobles might faint in shock at such childish games, but he was different.
Rare as they were, Hilben's account wasn't entirely incomprehensible.
"But it's strange. What kind of lunatic spirit summoner calls forth a butterfly?"
No spirit summoner who dealt with otherworldly monsters would choose a butterfly.
Of course not.
Why bother opening a dimensional gate with great difficulty to summon otherworldly beasts if not to bring forth terrifying, powerful ones?
It wasn't an exaggeration to say a spirit summoner's rank was determined by the size and strength of the otherworldly beings they could summon.
How long they could keep the contracted monster or spirit bound here was the next key factor.
The talk of illusion magic nagged at him a bit, but Kaiman chalked it up to Hilben and his men being terrified at seeing a spirit summoner summon a monster for the first time and decided to let it slide.
Kaiman pondered for a moment but soon resolved not to take it too seriously.
Even if that wench really was a spirit summoner, there wasn't much to worry about.
"Hmph. Big deal."
Someone of that caliber would naturally have a reputation.
But the viscount had never once heard of a female spirit summoner who wielded a butterfly monster.
"I-It's not something to take so lightly. She's really dangerous..."
"Enough! Shut your mouth already!"
Viscount Kaiman snapped irritably.
Hilben was a fairly useful subordinate.
That's why he had entrusted him with the precious wolf.
Yet it was unbelievable that Hilben's carefully selected group had been brought to the brink of annihilation by a mere spirit summoner wench.
It didn't sound like complete nonsense, but Kaiman had no desire to waste more time on this. Especially not on some dubious woman who summoned questionable monsters.
"Listen up! I don't care what crazy spirit summoner in the world uses such a monster—just find her and kill her!"
A woman who summoned butterfly monsters.
She would be easy to identify. And since she'd been on the train, there would be records.
Kaiman was confident. He was an ambitious man with his own guild in the East, and if she was in the East, tracking her down was only a matter of time.
"I can't let some wench who dared touch my property get away with it."
"B-But, Viscount—"
Hilben trembled in fear at the declaration that they would hunt down the woman, but Kaiman snapped at him.
"Enough! That's not the important thing right now!"
He had been desperate to forge connections in the central court, and this was his golden opportunity right in front of him.
The great noble he'd been bribing lately had been giving him the cold shoulder too.
"You know the old man of Akten? That geezer summoned me."
"What? Grand Duke Akten, you mean? C-Congratulations."
Hilben glanced at him cautiously and asked.
"But why is the grand duke summoning you, Viscount?"
Viscount Kaiman replied with an air of smug superiority.
"He said he's going to introduce me to a distinguished guest from the North."
**
Akten in the East.
Akten Castle was the largest and oldest fortress in the East. It held a position comparable to a ducal castle in the North.
The difference was that the Akten lord's house had long since lost its dignity as rulers. Much like the faded green flag fluttering atop the walls.
Three men stood atop the ancient castle's watchtower, gazing out at the scenery.
Lennox lightly tossed the ivory carving he'd been fiddling with in his hand.
Hardin caught it.
Argos's Eye.
The sacred relic, which had pointed unerringly toward Juliet's direction, had lost its function that very morning.
It spun wildly like a compass without direction, flashing madly in all directions before going still, as if exhausted.
Now it was no different from an ordinary stone trinket.
"Is it broken?"
Jude tilted his head.
"Sacred relics don't break, Sir Jude."
Hardin answered in his place, with a hint of pity in his tone.
Jude opened his mouth as if to protest with a slightly aggrieved look, but at that exact moment, Lennox hurled the sacred relic toward him, stopping him.
"Whoa."
Jude, who caught it deftly in midair, felt a brief swell of pride in his reflexes.
Lennox chuckled a little at his simplicity before speaking.
"It's Juliet."
"Pardon? Miss Monad?"
He gazed for a moment at the endless expanse of dense green trees stretching beyond the castle walls.
"Looks like she got her hands on a way to disable it sooner than expected."
Lennox grew a bit curious.
Sacred relics weren't something you picked up off the roadside. They weren't like mana stones you could buy with enough money.
What method had Juliet used?
"Ah. Then it's useless now."
Jude grumbled irreverently as he tucked the sacred relic into his bosom.
Well, the priests' dealings were all like that. The thing was inefficient even when it worked, and the rental fee was exorbitant to boot.
Still, since it was a temple treasure, it had to be returned.
"Ahem."
Turning at the sound of footsteps, they saw a steward dressed in full Eastern finery.
"The lord awaits you."