Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Soul Contract
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“Seriously, what’s your real goal? Was even Gesen’s betrayal a lie?!”
“Honestly, there was some manipulation involved.”
“Oh, come on...!”
“What’s with the outrage? You’ve used the same dirty tricks plenty of times while running your slave trading outfit to ruin other villages. I just did the same to bring you down.”
A classic trait of selfish Dun types.
They can dish it out but can’t take it when it’s thrown back at them.
Dun himself was no different. That’s why he tried to rein himself in whenever he realized he was acting like a total menace.
“Ahh. Could it be... one of the villages we raided was yours?”
“Hm?”
“Busy taking over the title and throwing myself into work, I’d completely forgotten about the fear I once felt. And now it’s come back to bite me...”
“What’s come back?”
Colin stuffed some tobacco into his extinguished pipe and relit it.
“I warned my father over and over. He’s an easy target for revenge. I’ve handled plenty of curses and threatening messages, so I know. There are so many people out there grinding their teeth, dying to drag us down.”
That’s why, while helping his father, Colin had secretly distributed food to calm the growing anger of those around them or quietly improved the slaves’ conditions.
His father found out later and beat him black and blue.
He said that soft heart of his, so easily swayed by the masses, would turn him into a useless fool.
And once public sentiment started to improve, his father and Gesen twisted it into just another tool to manipulate the people.
“I even saw a man sobbing for his daughter’s return suddenly lunge at a carriage. It’s no wonder someone as cunning as you would come along.”
“Oh, really?”
Dun pulled a paper from his pocket outlining what Colin should do after Gesen and Alttoid’s downfall, handing it over.
Colin stared at the paper thrust upon him and read its contents.
“What... what the hell is all this?”
“It’s the ending I’ve scripted for you. The people whose lives Alttoid ruined will be the ones to deliver your final judgment.”
That was exactly how Kim Woosung met his end. Stripped of power and strength, handed over to the victims consumed by rage.
“That’s a gruesome way to go... Couldn’t I just live quietly from now on, without causing any more harm? I’ll secretly hand over the title to you. You look older than me, but plenty of folks still don’t know the earl’s changed, so we could make it look like adoption...”
Colin started rambling on, clearly hating the fate Dun had laid out for him.
Prim and now this guy—none of the nobles here could wait to dump their titles on someone else.
“I don’t want the title. And I’m not a victim of your slave trading company. Don’t try to make it up to me.”
“Then what are you?”
“Just someone who can’t stand watching scum like you operate. For every person like you, there’s someone like me.”
“Haha...”
Colin fidgeted anxiously as he stared at Dun, then suddenly drew a dagger from his pocket and aimed it at his own heart.
Dun grabbed the blade and snapped it.
At least this one wasn’t greedy, so death seemed like a lighter option to him.
“Couldn’t I just die quietly...? Please... please...”
He burst into tears, desperate to avoid the brutal end of being trampled to death.
Dun’s heart grew heavy. Colin had helped his father, so he deserved the punishment his father hadn’t received.
“Haaa...”
Dun sighed, ruffling his bangs as he looked at Colin.
Too late.
The previous Alttoid—presumably a Kim Woosung type—had already piled up victims, including his own son, before kicking the bucket peacefully.
Looking at this current Alttoid, who seemed hell-bent on unconditionally shielding his father, his position wasn’t much different from the slaves in their own trading company.
But this Alttoid was cast as the perpetrator because of that doomed father of his.
‘Honestly, I’m not qualified to punish this guy or not.’
He’d almost made someone who’d suffered a lifetime under another’s crimes pay the price for someone else’s sins.
Judging the present based on past experiences was dangerous.
He’d rushed to judgment on innocents a few times before, swept up in emotions without proper assessment.
He’d knelt and apologized, kept apologizing every time they met, said he was sorry but didn’t know how to fix it, and in frustration yelled, “Tell me to bang my head and I will!!!” only to get told to just shut up and get lost.
This time, he’d thought he’d judged the situation well, but his benchmark was past memories.
Similarities between past and present events didn’t make them identical.
Better to reference the past but evaluate separately.
‘Thinking I know your type’ was a reckless judgment that could backfire badly.
He’d nearly ended up at the guy’s grave screaming, ‘Was it all your father?!’
‘Fucking psycho...’
He’d thought he’d outgrown his immature cursing habit, but apparently not much had changed.
“Aren’t you curious about my goals and intentions?”
“...I am, but I just want to die quietly.”
“No can do.”
Dun pulled out the soul contract and a pen. He then wrote Colin’s name on the ‘slave’ side.
In an instant, the slave contract was sealed.
“What are you doing?! I swear the writing just floated in the air?!”
Colin snatched the contract from Dun’s hand and scanned its contents.
“Isn’t this a full-on slave contract...?”
“Yep. Disobey me now, and you’ll die in agony.”
“What?”
Surprising, coming from someone who’d enslaved countless others.
With the soul contract in place, Dun could safely tell him everything.
“Join the rebellion. You’ll make money bit by bit, clean up the mess you and your father made for life. You know the villages you raided, right? You’re familiar with the slave trading network, so uproot it all. Once the rebellion succeeds, we’ll make slavery illegal anyway.”
{Soul contract terms added: Participate in the rebellion...}
{Soul contract terms added: Earn money...}
{Soul contract terms added: Villages that were raided...}
{Soul contract terms added: Slave trading company...}
Colin blinked at the floating parchment notifications in the air.
He’d left the parchment alone, clueless on how to use it, but now it activated out of nowhere, startling him.
“Wh-what is this...”
After the soul contract took effect, Dun dropped his Minu disguise. Suddenly, dirt came cascading down around them.
“I’ll explain the rebellion. Listen up.”
“Wh-who are you?”
“It’s Minu. This is my real form.”
“What, a kid like this...”
“Not a kid, it’s Dun. You’re in this with us now, no backing out, so get used to it.”
Colin gawked at Dun with wide eyes.
Minu vanished, replaced by a cute, feisty-looking girl with red eyes.
“Poopy, you can drop the invisibility.”
Out of nowhere, a slime with flower-like antennae popped out from Dun’s pocket.
[Dun, don’t smoke after eating...!]
Ptooey.
Poopy slithered over and spat water on the pipe, extinguishing it.
“A talking slime?????”
“This one’s Poopy. Say hi.”
[Heehee... Hi, Dun...]
“Not to me, to that uncle over there.”
[Love ya, Dun...]
The slime, a mix of pink and green, rubbed against Dun in a way that was oddly fascinating.
It felt different from your average grass slime.
But why the name Poopy? Everything happening right now was absurd.
Maybe he was already dead and dreaming this nightmare.
“Alright, real introductions are mostly done. Time to explain what’s going on.”
“Wait. I heard the word ‘rebellion’ earlier. Weren’t you guys the emperor’s pawns?”
He’d heard the emperor created the adventurer village to keep him in check.
“That’s a trap we set for our side.”
“What?”
Dun took his time, explaining the plan step by step.
Sowing discord among the empire’s largest noble factions via the adventurer village.
Gradually reducing magia fruit supplies to weaken the emperor’s most dangerous force, the mage army.
Securing additional troops through nearby slave traders.
And a brief rundown of future events.
“So your job moving forward is to fleece those slave trading outfits around here, gather an army, and train them in secret. Y’know, when the rebellion ends and we outlaw slavery, the freed slaves won’t know what to do with themselves. Help them out—make them mercenaries, knights, magia farmers, whatever—so they can keep living. Oh, right. We keep pretending to lose to the emperor’s side.”
Colin zoned out for a bit while listening, then looked at Dun.
“You hearing me?”
He’d been thoroughly played.
The emperor-noble rift had been perfectly manipulated, his businesses collapsed, and control of his territory snatched away.
He’d thought Dun was just a bit shrewd, but this level of meticulous long-term scheming made him never want to cross him as an enemy.
“Hey, Earl.”
Dun snapped his fingers right in front of Colin’s dazed face.
Colin shook his head slightly, snapping out of it.
“...I heard everything. Expanding the army, training, and securing their futures post-liberation. By the way, are all kids out in the world your age this scary?”
“I didn’t plan this alone.”
“Still scary.”
After hearing the full plan, Colin’s lips curled into a grin. The hand holding his pipe trembled slightly.
It was thrilling.
The guy he hated most was plotting to topple Emperor Luisa, and that made his heart race even more.
When he’d handled slave trading or magia fruit sales, he’d just done what his father told him without thought or purpose.
For the first time in ages, work brought excitement and anticipation.
Being a slave stung a bit, but he wanted in on this insane plot to bring down Luisa before he died.
“I’ll handle gathering the extra troops.”
“Keep it sneaky and shady.”
“Got it. I’m a pro.”
He’d been so depressed he considered jumping off the roof, but the mood had suddenly brightened.
“Work hard. Slack off, and you’ll get punished, slave.”
“...”
His attitude hadn’t shifted much, so he’d almost forgotten—he was a slave now.
Then memories of what other nobles made their slaves do flooded his mind.
“Uh, Minu... no, Dun. Even as a slave, I’d prefer you keep using my current title when addressing me.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“You know, ‘master’ or whatever. I don’t know how far I can push this, but I hate it.”
“...”
“...”
Dun made a disgusted face, and Colin’s cheeks flushed with sudden shame.
“I’m not saying use it—I’m saying I don’t want it used!”
“I won’t, so just focus on working hard.”
[Gross...]
Dun hoisted Poopy onto his head and hopped off the mansion roof.
Colin watched in shock as Dun landed and strolled casually across the front yard.
Dun soon went invisible and vanished completely.
“...Weird guy.”
Even the slime he dragged around was bizarre.
Colin let out a hollow laugh, recalling Minu’s shocking true identity as a top mercenary and the even more shocking plan.
So much had happened so suddenly—it felt like a dream.