Chapter 11
Episode 11
The only thing left to him was debt—no one would lay such elaborate groundwork just to scam a man with nothing.
'Which means this bastard is definitely insane.'
And nothing is more foolish than engaging in a long conversation with a madman.
But.
"......How much are you planning to invest?"
There was always that one-in-a-million chance.
Philip tossed out the question casually, just in case.
'Maybe he's some rich young master who can't control his overflowing wealth and wants to throw money around.'
Even as he recognized it as a pathetic shred of hope, Philip couldn't bring himself to abandon it entirely. In his position, he had to clutch at any straw, no matter how rotten.
"First, how much debt do you have? And what are your plans for your next venture?"
But the madman's response carried a strange logic.
A faint ember of hope flickered in Philip's chest.
"......Are you really sure about investing in a failed merchant guild?"
"Well, yes. I believe in your talent, Mr. Philip. I'd like to invest."
'When has he ever seen me before...?'
The madman kept spouting nonsense, yet his gaze never wavered.
Such unwavering consistency wasn't typical of a lunatic.
As Philip set aside some of his prejudice, the young man's eyes suddenly felt familiar.
The gaze of someone he missed dearly.
'Father...'
It was the look of someone utterly confident in their judgment—someone who knew exactly which path to take and had the conviction to walk it to the end.
Only then did the hope he had forcibly suppressed begin to rise again.
"You're really serious about investing?"
Thump.
Like a single ray of light piercing through despair, his cautious optimism grew.
"Yes. How much would you need to repay your debts and rebuild? I'll provide sufficient support."
Just as those sweet words were lifting Philip's spirits—
Tap.
A small sound made him glance reflexively.
A clump of dried mud fell from the self-proclaimed investor's armor, revealing the emblem beneath.
The moment Philip saw it, the blood rushing through his veins turned ice-cold.
'Damn it. Of course.'
The higher his hopes had soared, the more wretched he now felt.
"I'll accommodate your terms as much as possible. Tell me what you want."
Once his briefly elated mood had completely deflated, the grinning face of a 'con artist' came into focus.
"Ha, seriously... You're one creepy brat. I was going to let it slide since I misunderstood, but—"
Naturally, his words came out cold.
'Huh? What?'
Logan was baffled. Things had been going smoothly—what was this sudden shift? He couldn't hide his bewilderment.
"You. If you're gonna scam someone, at least prepare properly. Like those bastards who scammed me."
"......What?"
Philip's expression twisted into something unrecognizable as he spat out something resembling curses—an answer Logan hadn't expected.
"Ha..."
It seemed Philip couldn't hold back from picking a fight, even with someone who might have saved him.
Had Logan not known his future, he would've dismissed him as a fool.
No—even knowing it, this still looked like sheer idiocy.
"What did you just say...?"
"You're not an investor."
"What?"
Had this guy taken the wrong medicine? Why was he acting like this all of a sudden?
Did failing in business turn him into a rabid dog that bites anyone in sight?
Under Logan's bewildered gaze, Philip snorted and answered.
"The dirt hasn't even shaken off your boots yet, so you must've just arrived in Kyle. And yet, you immediately come to the merchant district talking about investments? Do you even know me?"
Philip pointed at Logan's boots, which indeed still had traces of mud, just as he said.
Then his finger shifted to Logan's chest.
"And another thing—I've memorized every noble family's emblem in this kingdom. The one on your armor belongs to the MacLaine barony in the southwest. So what's the problem, huh? You scammer and noble impersonator?"
Neither accusation was true, but Logan's chest tightened, already anticipating what would come next.
"That family's a bunch of beggars clinging to their in-laws. And you're talking about investments? A house that can't even pay its own debts?"
'Ugh...'
Every word stabbed at him because none of it was false.
"I'll give you some pity advice, kid—impersonating a noble is punishable by execution. Execution! You'll lose your head, got it?"
Philip clicked his tongue, pointing at his own neck, his face filled with skepticism and cynical irritation.
"No, that's not—"
"And most importantly—your attitude!"
"What now...?"
"To a merchant desperate for capital, an investor holds absolute power. But you? You're acting like you're the one desperate to invest in me. You couldn't even pick the right mark, you amateur scammer! I'm broke, you hear me?! BROKE!! You bastard!!"
His voice, rising to a near-scream by the end, sounded like he was pouring out every ounce of resentment he'd bottled up.
"I—I don't even have money to eat myself to death, you asshole!"
Philip's voice, shaking the dust-covered merchant hall, was thick with tears.
Watching a grown man sob was as awkward as comforting a crying woman.
Logan, acutely aware of this, didn't dare move carelessly.
Much of Philip's accusations were incorrect, but had Logan not been a regressor, they would've been perfectly reasonable suspicions.
Moreover, seeing a young man who seemed to have given up on life make such sharp observations only proved that he could still think clearly even in this state.
'That's exactly why I'm conflicted.'
If someone with such talent still got scammed, it meant he still had room to grow—far from the empire's top merchant Logan had known in his past life.
'He's not that capable yet.'
Perhaps the hardships he was yet to face were what forged the man he would become.
No—judging by his current state, that was definitely the case.
'Time made the merchant.'
But Logan didn't have the luxury of waiting.
Let the future Golden Bug struggle and suffer until he bloomed into the same talent as before?
Then there'd be no point in seeking him out like this.
'What do I do...?'
Logan's spiraling thoughts suddenly hit upon a fundamental question.
'Wait—do I even need to invest in a merchant guild?'
The future empire magnate was on the verge of abandoning the merchant's path entirely.
'This might be my chance to make one of the empire's top 10 merchants my own man!'
His tangled thoughts seemed to unravel in an instant.
Even in the worst-case scenario—if Philip never grew into his former self—it would still weaken the Ares Empire's foundation.
Having settled his thoughts, Logan smiled brightly and spoke.
"If I were to pay off all your debts and hire you for life, how much would that cost?"
The words were enough to silence Philip's sobs.
"Wha—?! You're still trying to scam—"
Philip, about to shout again, froze when he saw golden Force erupt from Logan's hand.
A genius capable of wielding Force at his age—impersonating a noble to run a scam?
No idiot with such a bright future would throw it all away like that.
And that proved the most critical assumption Philip had made was wrong.
"Ah... Aha, r-really?"
Though Philip looked dazed and unconvinced—
'He's the future magnate. One of the empire's top 10 merchants.'
Logan steeled himself and kept his expression composed.
After an awkward silence, Philip sighed and spoke again.
"Haah... So you are a young master. Sniff. What was it you... said earlier?"
Switching abruptly from curses to honorifics tangled his tongue, leaving him with an extremely awkward expression.
Logan suppressed the urge to sigh.
"I asked how much it would cost for me to pay off all your debts and hire you for life."
"......Hire me? For life?"
"Yes. Name your price for the contract. Consider the debt repayment a gift."
Logan assumed Philip would jump at the offer by now.
But Philip's face only twisted further.
"......First, I apologize for my rudeness earlier, jumping to conclusions."
The ominous preface made Logan uneasy.
"But! Unless something massive has changed that I don't know about, the MacLaine family shouldn't have that kind of money!"
"Ah..."
"Since your family's drowning in debt too, are you trying to drag me down with you? Sorry, but I'm not into mutual suicide."
Philip firmly refused. He might have misjudged Logan, but one thing was certain.
'The MacLaine barony is a beggar house. What money do they have?!'
Even if this wasn't a scam, this noble brat was either toying with him or too naive to understand the real world.
'Born a noble, so everything seems easy, huh?'
Philip decided to teach this young master a lesson in reality.
"The remaining debt alone is 250,000 gold, and my own value is about the same. The only thing a merchant trusts is a contract. Can you produce one right now? Or should I wait?"
His tone dripped with sarcasm from start to finish, freezing the young master's expression.
'That's what I thought.'
Just as Philip was about to extinguish the last flicker of hope—
"500,000...? That math doesn't add up. How can someone with 250,000 in debt also be worth another 250,000? Negative 250,000, maybe."
The unexpected factual counterattack stabbed deep into Philip's pride.
"Kkh—! W-well, that's..."
"Fine. I'll throw in an extra 50,000 for your wounded ego. How about 300,000 total?"
"......What? Three... hundred thousand?"
"Not interested?"
Logan's replies grew shorter, but Philip didn't even notice.
"Should I just leave, then?"
Stunned by the unimaginable sum, Philip finally crumbled at those words.
"300,000 gold! Done! Absolutely done!"
To Philip, it was like a lifeline had been thrown to him out of nowhere. He had no reason to refuse.
"Shall we draft the contract, then?"
"......Huh?"
As if it were nothing, Logan set down his traveler's backpack.
Thud.
The uncharacteristically heavy sound struck Philip's chest even harder.
The glint of gold peeking from the opened bag—every last coin inside was gold.
Money Logan had withdrawn earlier from the Cooper's Kyle branch.
No merchant could look at that pile of gold and keep their composure.
"Fortunately, it seems I have enough for the contract."
To Philip, the smiling owner of that bag seemed to radiate a halo.
'......What is this guy? An angel?'
Suddenly feeling detached from reality, Philip fell silent for a long moment.
"Th-this... is this really..."
Staring at the bag of gold coins as if in a dream, Philip's eyes welled up before he grabbed Logan's hand.
"Th-thank you. Truly, thank you. I thought I'd have no choice but to become a slave..."
'At this rate, he'll kneel—oh, he already is.'
Though he had already been sitting, Philip's posture now resembled a devout worshipper praying to a god—awkward, to say the least.
"B-but why would you spend such a fortune to hire me?"
"I told you. I see potential in your future."
"......You meant that?"
"Who knows? Maybe you'll bloom late and multiply my wealth tenfold."
'No—you will. For my sake, you have to.'
Logan infused his words with conviction, which, for some reason, moved Philip even more.
"......You're the first person to believe in me like this. Not even my late father..."
Watching Philip struggle to control his emotions, Logan smiled.
"Come on, let's go make the contract."
"Huh? Where to...?"
"We can't write it up here."
"Huh?"
What did it matter where they wrote it?
The place Logan took the confused Philip was one of Kyle's few magic item shops.
"There. Contract complete!"
As a drop of blood fell from Philip's finger, the bluish mana engraved on the contract flared to life, wrapping around his body.
It was an exorbitantly priced magical contract—worth a staggering 10,000 gold.
From now on, if Philip intentionally acted against Logan's interests, he would suffer soul-rending agony.
The only way out was to awaken his own Force and become a high-ranking knight—or pay a mage of the 4th Circle or higher hundreds of times the contract's cost to lift the curse.
Though the word 'slave' wasn't written, this contract had essentially traded 300,000 gold for Philip's life.
No wonder Philip's earlier gratitude had soured into something rotten.
"An angel my ass—I must've been blind. Damn it... Who spends 300,000 gold and uses a contract worth 30 slaves just to enslave one man?"
Grumbling under his breath, Philip's complaints were endless.
Logan, however, only smiled wider upon hearing them.
"How else would we trust each other at first sight? If I'm investing a fortune, I need guarantees."
Philip bristled at the casual reply but eventually sighed and relented.
'Still better than being dragged off by those bastards.'
Being a quasi-slave was marginally better than being branded an actual one.
But no amount of self-consolation could stop his mood from sinking further—the higher his hopes, the harder the fall.
Just as Philip was about to drown in gloom again, Logan tossed out an offhand remark.
"Once we've built enough trust, I might nullify the contract. So let's work hard from now on."
A vague promise with no timeline or conditions.
Yet those words were enough to plant a tiny spark in Philip's dead eyes.