The Veruna Flower
“Veruna flowers?!”
“That’s right. They just came out of your wagon, didn’t they?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Veruna flowers came out of the sacks.”
“That’s impossible! We’ve never dealt in anything like that!”
Aera cried out in shock, but Baron David kept pressing her.
“You know as well as I do, don’t you? Distributing Veruna flowers is a very serious crime.”
Aera fretted restlessly. The expression on Grandpa Lu standing beside her was no better. Seeing that, I leaned in and whispered a question to the old man.
“What kind of flower is a Veruna flower that has Aera this worked up?”
“Lord Giseok… Veruna flowers are dangerous. Grind them into powder and inhale it, and they induce hallucinations.”
“Don’t tell me… drugs…”
At my words, Grandpa Lu quietly nodded.
“In this country, the distribution of Veruna flowers is banned.”
A narcotic flower… This was a thoroughly troublesome situation. So who the hell had put something like that in the wagon? I couldn’t believe the Medici Guild would handle goods like that. If they had been that kind of guild, wouldn’t the kingdom have caught them and ruined them long ago?
I asked Grandpa Lu in a low voice.
“The guild didn’t put them in the wagon, right?”
“Absolutely not.”
Along with Grandpa Lu’s firm reply, Aera’s voice rang out.
“My lord Baron, this was absolutely not the work of our guild. I swear to the gods we have never done such a thing.”
“Is that so? Swearing to the gods, even… But there’s no mistake that this came out of your wagon, is there?”
“Just a moment! Let me check. Aiham, call up a couple of our laborers who were down below.”
At that, Aiham answered yes and went down, returning with two laborers. Aera questioned them.
“Robinson, is it true Veruna flowers came out of the wagon? You were supposed to be watching, weren’t you?”
“Miss… about that…”
Robinson looked at a complete loss before he finally opened his mouth.
“Truth is… I didn’t see it. At the time I was talking with the secretary…”
In that moment Aera’s gaze dropped to Robinson’s pocket. It bulged oddly. The laborer next to him was the same. Seeing that, Aera bit her lip.
“Isn’t that right, Vice-Leader?”
“….”
Baron David tossed out a single line, then stroked his chin as if deep in thought before speaking again.
“I can’t just let this slide, but I could show some leniency. How about it?”
“Leniency?”
“That’s right. The spices, food, magic tools, and equipment in that wagon—everything included—was originally four hundred fifty gold coins, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The baron made a thoughtful sound and paced the same spot before opening his mouth.
“Then sell me the lot for a hundred gold and I’ll look the other way. How’s that?”
What kind of nonsense was this? We hadn’t put the Veruna flowers in the wagon in the first place, yet we were being framed over them and told to sell four hundred fifty gold worth of goods for a hundred? This was outright robbery. I looked at the furiously angry Aera and thought, Could the culprit be…?
Then Aera spoke.
“You’re the baron, after all.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you bribe those men and frame us?”
At Aera’s words Baron David’s expression twisted with rage.
“Have you all gone mad?! To me, David de Pon, lord of Krasen—!”
Just then the secretary at his side whispered into the furious lord’s ear. The baron clenched his teeth and offered Aera one more chance.
“I’ll give you one last opportunity. Leave everything for a hundred gold and get out!”
“I refuse.”
“You little bitch… Arrest these drug dealers!!”
Armed soldiers surrounded us and leveled their spears. We had already been stripped of every weapon earlier. If things went south…
The others had nothing at all, but I could still pull a spare dagger from my inventory. The moment it got dangerous, I planned to draw it.
“Attack!”
At the lord’s shout the soldiers charged us. But before I could even pull the dagger, Grandpa Lu stepped in front of me.
He drove a kick straight into the gut of the first soldier to rush him.
“Urgh!”
The soldier vomited and collapsed. Grandpa Lu brought his leg down and smashed the left jaw of another soldier with an open palm. The man crumpled and blacked out on the floor. One after another, Grandpa Lu subdued the remaining soldiers at astonishing speed.
“Urgh…”
And that wasn’t the end of it.
Thud, thud.
Grandpa Lu kicked off the wooden floor and sprinted. In a flash he snatched a pen from the desk and set the tip against the baron’s throat.
“Mph!”
The baron could barely breathe. Every time he tried, the pen nib pricked him sharply. A thin red line of blood welled on the skin of his neck.
Panicked, the baron spoke in a small voice.
“Y-you… do you have any idea what happens if you kill an imperial baron…?”
But the figure of Grandpa Lu reflected in the baron’s eyes looked like a man who couldn’t care less about any of that. His gaze was pure goblin.
Grandpa Lu pushed the pen a little deeper into the baron’s neck. The tip sank into flesh. The baron spoke in a trembling voice.
“I-it was a joke… I went too far with the joke… Nothing strange came out of the wagon.”
At that, Grandpa Lu slowly withdrew the pen from the baron’s throat. He wiped the blood from the tip with a handkerchief, set it back on the desk, stepped back, and bowed to the lord.
“My apologies. I had no idea and committed a discourtesy.”
“N-no… You’re quite strong, aren’t you?”
Hearing that, Grandpa Lu placed one hand over his chest and kept bowing. Aera confirmed it once more.
“It was a joke, then?”
“O-of course! As if the Medici Guild would ever do such a thing. Ha, hahaha.”
Aera sighed and said,
“Then please hand over the remaining payment.”
“Ah, about that… I think I can only pay it in a few days… We’re still waiting to collect taxes, you see.”
Grandpa Lu looked at the lord again. Seeing him, the baron grew flustered.
“N-no, I’m not saying I won’t pay—just wait a few days. Three days! Give me three days. That’s when the tax collectors return. Until then we’ll cover your lodging and meals.”
Aera let out a small sigh.
“Haa, fine. We’ll come back in three days, my lord Baron.”
And so we left the office. I asked Aera,
“Does this kind of thing happen often?”
She answered,
“This is the first time someone’s tried to blackmail us with Veruna flowers. But nobles pull stunts like this a lot. That’s why I brought Grandpa Lu along this time.”
“To think it happens that often… You go through a lot.”
“Still, I’m glad it got resolved cleanly. Thank you, Grandpa Lu.”
Grandpa Lu bowed and said,
“Think nothing of it, Miss.”
I thought to myself that Aera’s guts might even outstrip mine. I was the guy who’d given up on the tenth floor, yet Aera kept carrying out her duties as vice-leader even while her safety was under threat.
What an incredible girl…
We walked on toward the city center.
The moment Aera’s party vanished completely from sight, the baron clenched his fist. His face flushed with rage.
“Fuck! Me, suffering this humiliation from those nobodies with no pedigree!”
“Please calm yourself, my lord.”
The secretary standing beside him spoke. Soldiers still lay sprawled all around. The lord kicked them as he shouted,
“Get up! You useless bastards!”
Some of the fallen soldiers began to rise under the lord’s yelling and kicks. Then the lord looked at the secretary.
“I’m not letting those bastards off.”
“Then what do you intend to do?”
At that the lord bit his lower lip slightly. No suitable method came to mind. Watching him, the secretary said,
“Then why not leave it to the Rotten Teeth?”
The lord’s face brightened. He grabbed the secretary’s shoulder.
“Excellent idea! How soon can it be done?!”
“I’ll go to their village first. Let’s finish them tomorrow.”
“You Medici brats… You’ll pay dearly for making a fool of me.”
A wicked smile spread across the lord’s lips.
We began touring the city.
“Not as big a difference as I expected, Aera.”
The streets didn’t look all that different from Tebe. Similar food stalls, buildings, people’s clothing. Maybe because the countries weren’t that far apart?
“Right? People live pretty much the same everywhere. Tebe’s a wealthy country thanks to the Tower, so there’s no huge gap with the Empire.”
Of course, it wasn’t as if there were no differences at all.
“There is one major difference.”
Aera stopped in front of a certain building. It looked like the second-largest structure in the town after the castle—a sturdy building of brick rather than wood or earth.
“Odd building. Not many windows either.”
I looked up at the sign above the door. The moment I read it, my vision locked in place. The words written on the sign were these:
Putty’s Slave Shop
A place where people stripped of their freedom were locked away. A place that sold slaves.
I was curious. Slavery didn’t exist in the modern world. Just how horrific was the treatment they received…?
“Mind if we go in and take a look?”
At my words Aera studied my expression, then nodded. We stepped inside the shop.
Ding-a-ling—
The door opened and the shopkeeper who had been sitting rose to his feet.
“Welcome. I am Putty, master of this slave shop.”
The slave merchant removed his hat and bowed. He wasn’t a dwarf, yet he was extremely short, with grotesquely large eyes and a bald crown shining bare in the middle. He wore a silk hat far too small for him; at a glance he almost looked like a well-mannered gentleman.
“What sort of slave are you seeking today?”
Putty kept his waist bent and peered up at us slightly as he spoke.
“Ah, we’re just looking around for now.”
Aera answered. Putty smiled faintly and guided us.
“Those of you sensitive to smells, please cover your noses.”
Creak—
Putty opened the iron door leading inside. A powerful stench rolled out—exactly like the smell of urine and feces. The instant Aiham and I clamped our hands over our noses, Putty laughed and said,
“A bit much, isn’t it? We haven’t cleaned yet today.”
The interior beyond the door wasn’t dark despite the lack of windows, because magic tools that emitted light illuminated the space. The first thing that caught the eye was iron cages that looked exactly like chicken coops—stacked two levels high, no less.
We walked slowly after Putty. Near the entrance were beastman slaves. Dogs, wolves, bears—powerful-looking specimens covered their entire bodies.
“These are combat slaves. Only strong individuals over level ten.”
Appraisal
Wolf BeastmanLV.11
Appraisal
Bear BeastmanLV.14
It was true. Every one of them was at a level that could make them Soldiers back in Tebe. Just how much money did slave merchants make to do something this horrific?
I whispered to Aera,
“How much do slaves like these cost?”
Aera boldly asked Putty directly.
“How much are the slaves here?”
“Combat slaves are popular, so they start at a minimum of twenty gold coins.”
Twenty gold. An enormous sum—yet the idea of buying and selling a human life for that money was absurd. But this was reality. I’d heard slavery existed not only in the Empire but in other nations as well.
“Are there other kinds of slaves?”
“Of course there are, valued customer. This way, please.”
Putty grinned and led us toward another door. When he opened it, a staircase descending underground came into view. A narrow passage only wide enough for one person. We filed down in a line.
When Putty opened the next door, what met our eyes was… a sight even more horrific than before.
Those garbage bastards…
Without realizing it my hand drifted toward the dagger at my waist. My heart pounded on its own. The veins in my hand began to throb.
But Aiham, seeing me, caught the hand that had gone for the dagger and shook his head left and right.
“Giseok, hold it in.”
I steadied my chest and faced the scene again. There were elves, beastmen—women and children of every race I knew.