The Dark Merchant Lacazette (1)
Just before they dragged him away, Rian took one last look at the woman. A cargo wagon sat parked beside her, its bed loaded with sacks of unripe grapes.
A traveling merchant, maybe...?
The men hauled him off and locked him in a barn that doubled as a livestock pen, straw scattered across the floor.
"Don't even dream of escaping!"
The Freckled Boy swaggered off like some alleyway boss. He was clearly trying his hardest to intimidate Rian, but he still looked so young that it came off as cute more than frightening.
Two middle-aged men stood watch outside. There was no door—only a slapdash barrier of wooden planks about waist-high, which left the view of the grounds wide open.
"You guys feeding me, or what?"
Rian poked his head out to ask. Far from getting angry, the two sentries answered readily.
"Course we will. Later."
"When?"
"We'll give it to you at mealtime. Quit yapping and get back in there before we catch hell."
"I eat a lot, so load me up. Extra, extra."
"Shut it. Get inside."
Rian rubbed his rumbling stomach, shuffled back in, and sat down.
"Wonder what they'll serve on the side..."
He sat there in a daze, letting his mind wander, until the men's idle chatter drifted in from outside.
"My vegetable patch, see. I don't know what kind of bugs keep showing up. It's like they laid thousands of eggs—I squash 'em and they just keep coming."
"Cabbage worms?"
"Nah, not those. Yellow ones, look like flies."
"Leaf miners?"
The sudden voice made the men turn around. Rian had somehow crept right up behind them.
"Hit 'em with pesticide and they'll be gone in no time."
"What pesticide?"
"We don't know how to make that stuff, and it's too expensive to buy. Unless the lord hands some out, we're stuck."
"You can make it at home. Super simple."
"That so?"
The two men perked up, eyes gleaming as they looked at him.
"If you know how, tell us."
"What is it? Come on, what?"
"I spotted some Witch's Shredder Grass on the way here. That plant's toxic—works great against pests."
Rian kindly walked them through the recipe.
"Mix Witch's Shredder Grass with whatever manure you've got, grind it up fine, and soak it in a liquor barrel for about a day. Next day, spray that liquid evenly over your garden. The leaves'll get healthy and the bugs'll vanish."
The man who'd been struggling with the bugs in his garden followed Rian's instructions that very evening.
Two days later, he came back beaming with joy.
"I did exactly what you said, and the bugs really disappeared! Amazing! You're a genius—a genius!"
From then on, Rian got along well with the men on watch. Whenever something went wrong in their gardens, he offered advice without missing a beat, and if they just did as he said, the problem vanished like it had never existed. Whatever the issue, asking Rian was a surefire fix.
"Well, see, our village belongs to the Wertyanyu Empire. And the one currently ruling the empire is..."
Grateful to him, the men went out of their way to do him favors. They snuck him food from home, and if he said he wanted to go outside, they even let him slip out in secret.
Three days into his imprisonment in the barn, Rian lay idle on the straw, lost in thought. He couldn't stop turning over the day he'd been forced to part from Audria—what she'd been trying to say, all shy like that.
"What I mean is, there are no human women here to look upon you, and given how things stand..."
Rian scratched his head and considered it in earnest.
"Was she asking me out? Or... a proposal?"
Just imagining marrying Audria made his heart pound. A happy grin spread across his face until it reached his ears.
But the smile didn't last. Her cold words from that day flashed through his mind.
"I have heard that humans are exceedingly calculating, cold-hearted animals. I think well of you, yet in a corner of my heart I do not trust you. I have believed you would disappoint me someday, and I have long thought I would have to send you away when the time came."
A sigh slipped through his lips.
"Did she mean that...? No. She couldn't have... But it still hurts..."
Human memory works like that. As time passes, the details fade and simplify, leaving only what cut the deepest.
"Right, right. The princess is humanlike, but her way of thinking is nothing like a human's. So she wasn't trying to confess or propose that day—she was definitely going to say something else. Don't get ahead of yourself, Kim Rian. Why would a great, magnificent teacher like the princess ever marry someone like me?"
Even as that thought settled, he also wondered what she'd shouted when he stabbed the Demon King from behind. Audria had been lying there, her face bright with joy, calling something out—but Rian had been too shaken and too fired up to actually hear her.
"What did she say back then...? Wish I'd caught it."
Regardless, the past four years with Audria had been a joy every single day—like a dream. So he would go back. No matter how brutal the journey to the King and Queen's Sanctuary Farm might be, he would do it for Audria, and for himself.
"Money! Money! Money! I need money!"
He clenched his fists, steeling himself to earn every coin he could—and that was when he saw them. Far off beneath the black night sky, lights were dancing. Four yellow lights drifted through the air like will-o'-the-wisps.
"What's that?"
A man was dozing on watch at the barn entrance. Rian ran over at once and shook him awake.
"Hey! Hey, mister!"
"Mmm... right there, honey... heh heh..."
Rian slapped the cheek of the man who was drooling and grinning at whatever dream he was having.
"Ow! Wh-what?!"
Startled awake, the man turned, and Rian stretched out his arm, pointing at a nearby hill.
"Look at that. Look."
"What?"
"See those lights? What are they?"
The man stared, then tilted his head.
"What lights? I don't see anything."
"You really don't? You don't see those things moving slowly over there?"
"It's pitch black. Nothing there. Just stars in the sky."
"You seriously can't see four lights?"
"You're talking complete nonsense. Keep this up and I'll think a ghost's got you."
"Ugh, never mind. Just go back to sleep."
"You go to sleep too. You're seeing things 'cause you haven't slept."
The man sat with his back against the wall, yawning over and over, and was out cold in no time. Rian walked out of the barn.
"I should go check."
Thanks to all the farming he'd done since coming to this world, his body had grown sturdy and his courage had grown with it. The lights were perfectly visible to him, yet invisible to everyone else—and that made him curious.
I'll just sneak over and take a look.
Rian slipped out of the village and chased after the flickering lights. Before long, he caught up. The lights were lanterns hung from the roof of a cargo wagon.
The wagon was climbing a hill, lumbering slowly toward somewhere. Hidden in the dark, watching, Rian rubbed his eyes. The sight was so bizarre he thought he'd imagined it. What was pulling the wagon wasn't a horse—it was a chubby little girl with horns. A beast's tail hung from her rear.
They're using a strong demi-human girl as a draft animal...?
He looked at the driver's seat. A gaunt man sat there in black clothes, a black fedora on his head. Whenever the lanterns on the wagon roof swayed, they caught glimpses of his skin—hard to make out in the dark, but it definitely wasn't a human color.
Indigo? Purple?
He was curious about who they were, but he had zero desire to find out more. Just a brief, interesting spectacle. This was a fantasy world crawling with magic and monsters. A wagon radiating an eerie aura rolling around at midnight wasn't even that strange—and poking it might land him in who-knew-what kind of trouble.
You go your way, I'll go mine.
With that thought, he was about to turn away and drop it.
Whatever magic the man had used, he was suddenly standing right in front of Rian, dressed in black.
"Am I visible to you?"
"...?!"
"Judging by your reaction, it would seem you can."
The driver in the black fedora stroked his chin and smiled. His lips parted, revealing two sharp fangs.
"Hmm. To think a human would perceive me. How remarkable."
Rian was the one who was truly shocked. The man who'd been sitting in the driver's seat a moment ago had appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye, as if he'd teleported. And how had he known Rian was watching? His appearance was unusual, too. Short, pointed ears. Purple skin. A long, slender face—a middle-aged man. Rian could tell at a glance that the person in front of him was no ordinary figure.
Stay calm. Showing panic won't help.
Rian steadied his pounding heart and spoke.
"Who are you?"
"Ah, but where are my manners. Do forgive me."
The driver placed a hand on his chest and bowed with impeccable courtesy.
"I am Lacazette, a dark merchant of demonkind."
"A merchant? What do you sell?"
He's not selling people, is he?
That thought only made Rian more tense.
"Would you care to take a look?"
Rian gave a slight nod, and Lacazette led him toward the wagon. For a demon, he was surprisingly polite—not threatening at all.
The chubby girl was waiting alone by the wagon parked on the hill. She stood motionless, staring straight ahead with an expressionless gaze, and didn't even glance at Rian as he approached.
"Who's the girl?"
"She is an Uma Girl."
Uma? As in ox?
"Do demons use Uma girls to pull their wagons instead of horses?"
"I am a special case. Not all of us do."
Rian waved a hand in front of the Uma Girl's face, but she just kept staring forward, not so much as twitching.
"Why isn't she reacting?"
"Uma folk are dull by nature. They take no interest in anything that isn't something they personally like."
Lacazette gave a large chest of drawers in the cargo bed a couple of pats and continued.
"Please tell me what it is you seek. Slaves, equipment, blood for sacrificial offerings—I carry most anything of the sort."
"One question first."
"Of course. Ask anything you wish."
"You asked if I could see you. So humans can't see you?"
Lacazette grinned.
"The only ones who can see me are high-ranking demons and angels."
Rian blinked blankly.
Wait. High-ranking demons or angels? Then what am I, if I can see him...?
Then the yellow sphere that had burst from the dying Demon King flashed through Rian's mind—the Demon King's Yellow Core, the one he'd felt being absorbed into his own body.
Don't tell me that made me a demon too?
No. Had it simply let him see demons that were invisible to others?
As that thought formed, Lacazette's voice reached him.
"You are a most intriguing gentleman. If my eye for people is as keen as I believe, you are a customer I simply must not let slip away."
"What do you sense from me?"
"Well. Boundless power, one might say. I have a rather pleasant premonition that you will be purchasing a great deal from me."
"I don't have a single coin. I'm broke."
"If you are referring to human currency, rest assured. I do not accept human coin or jewels as payment."
"Then what do you take?"
Lacazette's lips curved into a sinister smile.