The Underworld Franchise
Soon, a wide clearing greeted us. We had finally arrived at the Thief Guild.
“This is the Thief Guild Headquarters.”
“Y-yes, it is.”
Many buildings that resembled houses stood in the open space. They were made of straw and wood, and there were dozens of them. There were also structures that looked like taverns, blacksmiths, and general stores. It seemed they had everything one could need. In short, a fairly developed village existed underground. It might not qualify as an underground city, but it could certainly be called an underground village.
“Impressive.”
It was fitting for Trier’s Thief Guild. The scale alone was absurd.
At that moment, people began emerging from the buildings, all of them armed with bows, daggers, or spears, eyeing me warily. There were well over a hundred of them. But with a single word from the First Knife King, they all lowered their weapons.
“Lower your weapons, everyone!”
They seemed remarkably well-organized.
‘I like this.’
I had assumed a thief guild would be nothing more than a ragtag band without discipline. Clearly, I was wrong. At this level, the man called the First Knife King was practically the lord of an entire village.
“They listen to you well.”
“Ah, yes. I’ve raised most of them since they were children…”
“Hmm… I see.”
The more I looked, the more conflicted I felt. Originally, I had planned to raid the Thief Guild and take anything valuable. Simple theft, nothing more. But their size, discipline, and structure made me hesitate.
‘It would be a waste to just rob them.’
Even if I looted the place, most of their goods would be stolen property. It would be difficult to fence them safely. Besides, I had already made them submit. Simply robbing them now felt like a missed opportunity.
“How many members do you have in total?”
“Well… a little over three hundred.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“What about their combat ability?”
“They’re not at the level of the Knife Kings, but they can at least protect themselves.”
The more I heard, the more I liked it.
‘If I could take this place wholesale…’
That was exactly what I was thinking. Swallowing the entire Thief Guild whole would bring far greater potential profits. It wasn’t even a comparison. But there was a problem.
‘These kinds of people are surprisingly hard to fully subjugate.’
I was the leader of a mercenary group with over a hundred members. I had plenty of experience dealing with people. From what I could see, these men weren’t the type to bow their heads easily.
‘It’s possible if I invest time, but I don’t have that luxury.’
I was already swamped with work, and once the semester properly began, it would only get worse. I had no time to slowly convince the Thief Guild.
‘No choice, then.’
I decided on a different approach. I would give up on earning their loyalty. Instead, I would focus on steadily extracting money from them.
‘In other words, a dark guild franchise business.’
I glanced around the underground village before turning to the First Knife King and speaking bluntly, remembering to add a slightly warmer smile this time.
“Don’t you need protection?”
“Protection… you mean?”
He looked confused.
“Yeah. You must have rival factions or groups that would target you.”
“Well… that’s true, but…”
Even thieves were legitimate members of the underworld. Rivals were inevitable.
“Someone like me could barge in again, just like today.”
“Hmm… I suppose so…”
“When that happens, I’ll protect you.”
“Ah…”
He seemed to finally understand what I was offering. In short, I was asking for protection money.
“Just pay ten percent of your profits every month.”
“Only… ten percent?”
“Yeah. As long as you pay that, I won’t touch you. You can do whatever you want.”
He looked genuinely surprised. I already held the power of life and death over them, yet I was offering such generous terms. He probably hadn’t expected this.
“I have one grand goal.”
“A goal, sir?”
Of course, I wasn’t about to tell him my real goal of returning to Earth. I quickly spun a story in my head and came up with something plausible.
“My goal is to unify Trier’s underworld.”
“Ah, unifying the underworld…!”
It wasn’t as if no one had tried before. They had all failed. That was how vast Trier’s underworld was. But if an archmage attempted it…? Of course, I wasn’t actually an archmage, but he would believe it. Either way, my words would carry a different weight now. As proof, he was listening intently.
“That said, I don’t mean literally swallowing the entire underworld whole. I just mean collecting protection fees from every member of the underworld, like I mentioned earlier.”
“Ah…”
This was the dark guild franchise business I had envisioned. Robbing the thieves here and now wouldn’t be bad, but it would only give me a one-time payout. A steady stream of income was far better.
‘From thief to landlord.’
The more underworld factions I brought under my umbrella, the more my wealth would grow. And the closer I would get to being top of the class.
‘Money solves everything here, too.’
Anyway, I was quite satisfied with the idea I had just come up with. I nodded and asked for his answer.
“So, what will it be?”
I didn’t forget to release a bit of my aura. The aura of a third-stage Awakener. It was no ordinary presence.
Whooooosh—!!
“Huuuuh!!”
His eyes widened. He had probably never felt anything like this before.
“A-as expected of an archmage…!”
He seemed to have completely bought into the idea that I was an archmage. That worked in my favor. He probably wouldn’t even consider that I might be the Mercenary King.
Whether it was my threat or the reasonable price that convinced him, he accepted my offer with a resigned expression.
“……I’ll do as you say.”
From his perspective, he had no other options. Besides, ten percent was manageable. I smiled in satisfaction. With this, I had the Thief Guild of Trier in my grasp. Of course, I hadn’t completely subjugated them. But this much was already enough for me.
‘I don’t have time to run a thief guild anyway. Just collecting money is the best approach.’
A few days later.
I quickly collected this month’s profits from the Thief Guild. I needed the money immediately.
‘A hundred gold a month…’
A hundred gold was roughly a hundred million won. In a single night’s work, I had secured a fixed annual income of 1.2 billion won.
‘If I had asked for more than ten percent, they probably would have resisted…’
Because the price was reasonable, they had paid up without complaint. Otherwise, things could have gotten messy.
Of course, I didn’t stoop to collecting the money myself. I used Robin, the former Thief Guild member, as my secretary and messenger. He was currently under my magic, and he also believed I was an archmage. That made him fear me even more. Naturally, he could never betray me.
‘Still, if he does betray me… I’ll hunt him down to the ends of the earth and kill him.’
Of course, that wouldn’t happen. My intuition told me so.
Anyway, the moment I received the money from Robin, I began preparing magic items. This was too complicated to leave to him.
‘Good. Everything’s ready.’
Fortunately, Trier was a massive city. Acquiring magic items wasn’t particularly difficult.
‘Thank goodness the Magic Tower is here.’
The prices weren’t as high as I had feared, either. I managed to cover the costs with the profits, just barely.
Soon, my house was filled with piles of magic materials. I had brought them in secret, of course. Security was crucial for this kind of work.
‘Good thing my house is in a remote area.’
Looking at the mountain of materials, I prepared to begin the magic work in earnest.
‘Let’s see… First, I need to make the Magic Paper.’
Right now, my priority was creating the community. Magic Tobacco required too much initial investment. The profits from the Thief Guild weren’t enough.
‘I’ll make that once I have more leeway.’
The community, on the other hand, was doable. Its maintenance costs were higher than the initial investment, but I could handle it.
I spread out a massive sheet of paper in the room. It was large enough to fill nearly the entire second floor. Then I began sprinkling magic materials onto it one by one.
‘First, the dried rubber frog’s eye powder…’
This magic could be considered my original creation. More accurately, it was a combination of my Master’s various spells, reinterpreted in my own way. It was magic even my Master didn’t know.
‘I complained a lot while learning, but it’s helpful at times like this.’
For the first time in a while, I thought of my Master as I sprinkled the materials. Dried rubber frog’s eye powder, sky-horn deer horn powder, volcanic gorilla’s… well, certain parts powder, and so on. A considerable number of ingredients went into it.
Soon, the giant sheet was completely covered in magic materials. I nodded in satisfaction.
‘Good. That’s about done.’
Then I extended my hand toward the massive paper and cast two spells at once.
“Share. Connection.”
I had used the sharing spell and the connection spell. The giant paper began to glow.
Whooooosh—!!
At the same time, it started absorbing all the magic materials. Only after absorbing every last one would it become a true community server. That was right. This giant sheet of paper would serve as the community’s server. The place where all the community’s information would gather, so to speak.
Soon, the paper had absorbed every bit of the magic materials. It returned to being an ordinary white sheet. But I knew. This was no ordinary paper.
‘Good. Now then, shall I create the individual galleries?’
There was still a long way to go. Still, I thought I could finish before the day was over. Looking at the gradually completing community, I smiled a wicked smile.
Soon, hell would come for the hero.
‘I wonder if you’ll be able to endure being publicly shamed on the community.’