The Golden Fox Merchant Guild Leader
After safely clearing the string of checkpoints that followed, I was finally able to climb out of the rattling iron cage in the cargo hold.
I had been posing as a merchant guild escort rather than a slave. Shedding the filthy rags and changing into crisp leather armor and a proper guard uniform made breathing feel like a luxury again.
Yet the moment we arrived at the promised meeting place with the guild leader, the scene unfolding in front of the mansion was nothing like what we had anticipated.
“What the hell is this procession? And who are all these slaves?”
Beyond the firmly shut iron bars, a man in ostentatious clothing stepped forward with an arrogant sneer.
The guild leader looked around in confusion. “We had an appointment. I came to see the Golden Fox Merchant Guild leader as agreed…”
“Ah, yes. You must be the foreign merchant who arranged to trade with our guild,” the man cut in with a slimy smile.
“That woman can’t come out right now. Not that it matters. This Golden Fox Merchant Guild will soon belong to His Majesty, the great Garon V. The owner is simply changing hands.”
The man gave our cargo a cursory glance and clicked his tongue.
“His Majesty keeps buying more slaves, so consider yourselves lucky. Next time, don’t bring these fancy noble-plaything slaves. Bring sturdy war slaves who can serve as meat shields on the battlefield.”
The guild leader, sweating coldly, turned his head just enough to make eye contact with me. His gaze screamed, What the hell do we do now? This has gone completely sideways.
I gave a slight nod toward the mansion, signaling that we should go inside for now.
“Then… may we enter the mansion to handle payment and the slave transfer?”
“Very well. I am Baron Carlton. I will soon be the new master of this estate, so remember the name.”
“A pleasure. I am Teron.”
After the brief exchange of names, Teron and I followed Baron Carlton through the heavy iron gates of the mansion.
The instant we stepped into the inner courtyard, a familiar, sticky stench hit my nose.
The smell of blood.
And not just any blood—fresh, still-warm blood that had been spilled only moments ago.
The source was the main building. When I turned, I saw soldiers dragging something out through a side door, grunting with effort. Limp limbs, long crimson trails smeared across the ground. Bodies.
Judging by their uniforms, they were the private guards who had once protected the mansion for the guild.
Teron’s steps froze like stone. I swept my gaze across the surroundings, assessing the situation.
An internal power struggle? Or a coup?
The plan had gone to shit.
Hey, Sian. What do you wanna do? The atmosphere’s all wrong. Want me to just knock everyone out?
Hold on. We still don’t know the full story. I can’t just draw my sword and start a massacre.
The whole reason I’d disguised myself and crammed into that cargo hold would vanish. We still didn’t even know if the real guild leader was alive or dead. I couldn’t afford to flip the board without thinking.
I gave the frozen Teron a light tap on the back and urged him forward. Under the soldiers’ murderous stares, we were led to the reception room.
Baron Carlton sat on the sofa with his legs arrogantly crossed and tossed a pouch of gold coins onto the table.
“Good work. My men will handle moving the slaves. Take your payment and leave.”
It was a clear order to get lost now that business was concluded.
But we couldn’t simply take the money and walk away. Teron swallowed dryly, picked up the pouch, and deliberately put on a worried expression before speaking again.
“Um… Baron, sir. This may be presumptuous, but…”
“Spit it out.”
Teron glanced nervously at the knights standing guard and asked in a small voice, “Is the Golden Fox Merchant Guild leader… perhaps unwell?”
The air in the reception room instantly turned to ice.
The corner of Baron Carlton’s mouth twisted into a chilling smirk.
“I told you not to concern yourself. For a mere merchant, you’re awfully curious. I’m surprised you’ve managed to stay in business this long.”
Carlton beckoned to a soldier behind him.
“Well, if you’re that desperate to know, there is one way. I could gouge out your eyeballs and let you listen to her screams. How about it? Care to hear them?”
The spine-chilling threat disguised as a joke made Teron turn deathly pale. He bowed deeply.
“N-no, sir! I overstepped! Please forget I asked!”
“Just take your money and get out.”
The baron waved his hand dismissively.
Gouge out his eyes and let him hear her voice? In other words… she’s still alive.
As long as her head was still attached, there was hope. While leaving the mansion, I quickly memorized its interior layout.
She’s definitely being held somewhere inside this building.
Once we had safely exited and reached a quiet street, Teron’s legs gave out. He leaned against a wall, gasping for air.
I patted his shoulder lightly.
“You did well.”
“Haa… haa… I really thought I was going to die. This is completely different from what the church told us!”
“You’re telling me. Still, we got the payment, so head back. I’ll handle the rest.”
“I will pray for your mission’s success.”
“Before you go, one last question. What does the Golden Fox Merchant Guild leader look like?”
Teron searched his memory and answered.
“You’ll spot her immediately, even in a crowd. She has long, brilliant golden hair… and above all, she has fox-like eyes. It’s not an exaggeration—she looks exactly like a seductive fox that could bewitch you at a glance.”
“A woman who looks like a fox, huh.”
Golden hair and the aura of a seductive vixen. A rough sketch formed in my mind.
**
When thick darkness blanketed the night, I finished preparing to move in secret.
They saw plenty of blood during the day, so their tension should have eased by now.
That arrogant bastard of a baron was predictable. Drunk on victory, he was probably guzzling expensive wine and snoring by now.
I kicked off the ground in front of the three-meter-high mansion wall.
With a light whoosh, my body cleared the wall and landed silently on the other side. Fortunately, since this was a noble’s residence rather than a fortress, the garden was full of trees and shrubs perfect for hiding.
Three quick leaps later—using protruding decorations and window sills as footholds—I landed lightly on the third-floor balcony.
Lia.
Yeah?
Can you do the same thing you did when we were looking for Marina?
She was just an ordinary woman who happened to hold the title of guild leader. I figured she would be locked away alone in one of the top-floor rooms.
The room right next to this one! I can sense a faint presence there!
I opened the door a crack and peered into the hallway. As expected, two armed soldiers stood squarely in front of the suspected room.
Bingo.
I leapt again, climbing onto the roof, then hung upside down outside the window of the room where the guild leader was being held. I tapped the glass lightly.
Knock. Knock.
There was movement inside. Soon the window opened with caution.
“...Are you the Hero, by any chance?”
A woman’s tense voice flowed out from the darkness. Still hanging upside down, I grinned and answered.
“That’s right. Are you the Golden Fox Merchant Guild leader?”
“I am. It’s been a long time, Hero.”
Long time? I slipped over the windowsill, landed inside, and tilted my head.
“Have we met before?”
In response, she lit the small lantern on the table.
Orange light pushed back the darkness and illuminated her face.
Just as Teron had described—flowing, brilliant golden hair and seductive fox-like eyes that seemed capable of bewitching anyone.
Huh?
It was a face etched clearly in one corner of my memory.
She had been a reliable backer during the brutal days of the Demon King subjugation.
“...Yvelin?”
At the name that left my lips, the tension in her shoulders melted away in an instant.
“You remembered me, Sian.”
“The guild name was different, so I didn’t make the connection. It wasn’t called that before.”
“Haha… After my father passed and I fully inherited the guild, I renamed it.”
Yvelin brushed her disheveled golden hair back and smiled bitterly. The sign had changed and she had stayed out of the public eye, so it was no wonder I hadn’t recognized her.
I dragged a chair from the corner of the room and sat down. For a prison cell, the room was luxurious, but her dress was torn and a faint bruise marked her cheek.
So they even slapped her.
“Explain. Why is the baron pretending to be the guild leader, and why does someone with your nose for money look like this?”
“...It’s because of that mad king, Garon V. He recently demanded an absurd sum from my guild under the pretext of war funds. An amount we could never pay. I refused, of course.”
“And then your husband stabbed you in the back?”
“Yes.”
Yvelin continued with a bitter smile.
“As I mentioned before, I was born a commoner. To legally operate a large guild, I needed a noble as a shield. That’s why I married the declining Baron Carlton. But that idiot… made a secret deal to hand over my entire guild to Garon in exchange for being promoted to viscount.”
In other words, blinded by power, he had tried to sell both his wife and the guild.
“So I moved first and mobilized my private troops. But… the knight staying at his side was impossibly skilled.”
The loyal soldiers she had sent had all been slaughtered by that single knight.
“It doesn’t look like the guild’s ownership has fully transferred yet, since they still have you locked up.”
“The guild is already his. The reason they kept me alive is…”
Yvelin’s fox-like eyes trembled with rage.
“They plan to sell me as another noble’s concubine.”
A woman who had lost everything she built with her own hands and now faced the prospect of her body being sold as well. Yvelin stared straight at me, her eyes burning with desperate, venomous determination.