The Taste of a Woman
The carriage wheels rumbled over the rough dirt road, producing dull, cracking sounds. We were racing toward Arzen's mining fortress.
"Master. May I... ask you one question?"
Elina, seated across from me, clutched her hands tightly in her lap as she spoke.
"What do you think of... Her Excellency Vivian?"
A sudden question. I pulled my gaze away from the window and stroked my chin. A calculator sprang to life in my mind.
The ducal title that had swallowed up Valois. The empire's upper-tier raw material supply chain. Yet the severely imbalanced structure lacked the talent to properly manage it. If I simply inserted the slaves I'd trained into those positions, I could burden the empire's massive ducal estate with enormous debt without spilling a single drop of blood.
A perfectly controlled, colossal greenhouse that would guarantee my safety through the family's influence, however superficial. The gains far outweighed the losses—a high-return prey.
The perfect calculated result my mind had produced slipped indifferently from the tip of my tongue.
"A delicious woman."
A thoroughly businesslike valuation. At my instinctive remark, Elina's shoulders twitched faintly.
"Ah..."
Elina nodded, trying to appear composed, but her blue eyes were shaking violently.
A memory from a few days ago in the reception room flashed through her mind. This man was a butcher without a shred of mercy when it came to taking an enemy's life or calculating profit and loss. Yet when dealing with Vivian, hadn't he shown flawless noble etiquette and a gentle smile without a single misstep?
Elina completely misinterpreted that courteous attitude and his answer just now. The illusion that her cold-blooded master harbored romantic interest in that beautiful, youthful duchess.
If she herself hadn't become a collared slave but had remained the noble lady of Valois. In the middle of a glittering ballroom beneath a sparkling chandelier, couldn't she have monopolized that man's tender smile?
A miserable fantasy. An unfamiliar and vicious emotion she'd never experienced before. A sharp pain, as if her heart had been sliced by a blade, throbbed in one corner of Elina's chest.
A deep jealousy mixed with girlish sentiment. Elina hardened her captivating features, now cold as ice, and gripped the hilt of her sword so tightly that the veins in her hand looked ready to burst.
She needed far more overwhelming power than before. The moment she realized that, as a disgraced noble, she required another method to bind her master's deep gaze and attention entirely to herself.
Clop, clop.
The sound of hooves fiercely pounding the ground gradually faded as the carriage came to a stop at the fortress entrance. A crude yet sturdy defensive stronghold built during Baron Arzen's time to protect the mine.
However, despite its name as a military fortress, the interior was completely empty. With all troops pulled out to the magic stone mine's defensive line, only footprints and dust swirled across the fortress courtyard.
I entered the fortress's old office and narrowed my eyes. Fresh, mud-caked footprints were scattered chaotically across the floor, still not fully dry. On the desk, mining tunnel blueprints and excavation ledgers lay scattered, clearly rifled through in haste.
And beside them, a teacup. I lightly brushed the outside of the cup with the back of my hand. A faint trace of warmth remained.
"We missed each other by a hair's breadth."
Evidence that the office's owner had been here until just moments ago. The situation instantly formed in my mind. The highest authority figure, having confirmed a serious error in the magic stone mine's output, who trusted no one's eyes but their own and had gone alone to investigate the site without even minimal escort—the worst-case scenario.
Without hesitation, I grabbed the magic lantern hanging on the office wall.
"We're heading to the mine."
At my brief command, Elina nimbly fell in behind me.
We entered the pitch-black entrance of the magic stone mine.
Inside the mine's tunnels. The passage, where not a single ray of light entered, was stiflingly thick with the remnants of dense mana.
Not far in, at a temporary storage area midway through the tunnel, we spotted a figure holding a lantern. Vivian, ledger in one hand, was scrutinizing the stacked crates of magic stones with sharp eyes.
"Your Excellency. It's quite bold of you to come here alone."
At my voice emerging from the darkness, Vivian spun around in surprise. Her figure gradually revealed itself in the glow of the magic lantern.
Her once-radiant golden hair was roughly tied up and disheveled. The hem of her silk dress was blackened as if it had been dragged through mud. Yet the contrast between her dust-streaked white cheeks and red lips radiated a beauty so breathtaking it seemed to steal the air even in this pitch-black tunnel.
A white lily blooming from a mud pit.
"Lord Victor...? How did you get here?"
"When the highest authority walks into a dangerous place, a business partner can't simply stand by and watch, can he?"
At my polite rebuke, Vivian bit her lip and nodded.
"The workers' calculations were accurate. But the storage inventory has been consistently off."
She snapped the excavation ledger shut with irritation.
"There's no record of anything being taken out through the entrance. That means there's either an unknown passage inside the mine, or the stones are being leaked through another route."
"How significant is the discrepancy that you'd come here alone like this?"
At my question, Vivian's green eyes darkened.
"Since the monster attacks intensified, roughly thirty percent of the total mined output has been steadily disappearing."
"......"
"In gold coins, that's approximately 3,500 coins in losses."
A loss that seemed absurdly small compared to the mine's scale. I frowned slightly.
"For the continent's largest mine, the output seems rather modest."
"The veins Arzen has mined over two hundred years account for less than twenty percent of the total deposits," Vivian replied firmly.
"No matter how enormous the veins are, extracting and distributing everything at once would cause market prices to plummet due to oversupply. We've always mined conservatively, carefully balancing supply and demand."
She's a meticulous woman. Even more to my liking.
I swallowed the brief internal assessment and asked again.
"Then do you have any leads on where those missing magic stones might have gone?"
"Not yet. There's been no additional volume released on the market, and we've continuously tracked the alchemists' guild and the magic tower, but no significant increase in purchases has been found."
"Then the highest probability is that the problem lies somewhere else within the mine."
I stared into the depths of the dark tunnel and drove the point home.
"For today, let's just confirm where the problem leads. Afterward, it would be best to request a subjugation through the Adventurer Guild or the empire's regular channels."
"That won't do."
Vivian immediately shook her head.
"If it's revealed that we can't handle even a single monster inside our own mine, the vultures in the capital and the higher nobles will start questioning the Arzen family's ability to maintain its holdings."
"......"
"They'll use that as an excuse to tear apart the mining rights and stuff them into their own mouths. We must resolve this quietly from within."
A desperate defense, refusing to expose any weakness in the family.
"In that case, I can offer my assistance. However, the price will not be cheap at all."
I smiled faintly and laid out the business terms.
"Strict confidentiality. The risk of resolving an unknown threat with only three people here. This stake cannot be taken lightly."
"I'll pay a sufficient price for that part."
"Good. First, let's confirm what the problem is and then draw up an estimate."
We cautiously proceeded deeper into the sections of the mine where the workers' footsteps had never reached.
After digging about twenty minutes into the tunnel, a sticky substance began to cling to our feet. Dark red mucus scattered here and there. An intense acidic smell.
"It's a basilisk," Vivian said, identifying the creatures after examining the saliva on the floor.
Extremely cautious monsters that avoided noise and light. Thanks to that habit, they likely hadn't encountered the mine workers until now.
I listened to the distinctive reptilian hissing friction sounds coming from deeper in the tunnel and ran the abacus in my head.
The losses if I resolved this problem right now. The evaporation of steady revenue from supplying chemicals. The loss of external promotional effect from renting out combat slaves.
What I would regret most was that the Arzen family's 'desperate sense of debt' toward me might weaken.
But the benefits easily crushed those risks. The early return of the combat slaves. Compensation of 3,500 gold coins' worth of high-concentration magic stones. Ownership of the basilisk corpses, each easily worth ten gold coins.
Above all, I was currently the only one who could solve this.
It would become the solid foundation of the strongest shackle—imprinting my problem-solving ability on Vivian and making her completely dependent on me.
If one were to face a group of basilisks in this narrow, dark tunnel, even the vanguard of a Diamond-ranked Adventurer Guild party would have to accept casualties. Any adventurers below that—Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Emerald—would face a suicidal commission with no chance of survival.
The requested fee would be at least three thousand gold coins at a minimum estimate. A high-difficulty request where the price was whatever the market would bear.
The profit calculation was complete.
"After the mine is normalized, if our firm wishes to purchase magic stones, please supply up to five percent of the maximum monthly production at cost price. Our firm will also reclaim all the lost magic stones and the basilisk byproducts."
"......!"
"If those are the terms, I'll clean out every last monster in there with my blade right now."
An exorbitant yet irresistible hand of salvation. Vivian's mind spun rapidly, and soon her red lips parted.
"Very well. In return, when the Arzen family purchases suitable slaves from your firm in the future, guarantee us a twenty percent discount."
Even in the face of a fatal crisis, her excellent negotiating skill that meticulously secured margins. Judging that it was still a highly profitable deal, I bowed with perfect noble etiquette.
"It seems we'll have a mutually satisfying transaction, Your Excellency."
That courteous politeness and gentle smile. The white cheeks of Elina, standing behind me, stiffened minutely. For the briefest instant, so small that no one would notice, she pursed her lips in a tiny pout.
The verbal contract had just been established.
Kieeeek—!
A bizarre friction sound that tore at the eardrums erupted from the darkness. The sound of numerous low footsteps echoed through the tunnel.
The creatures revealed their hideous outlines in the lantern light. Jaws powerful enough to crush massive boulders in an instant. Bodies covered in blackish-brown rocky scales.
"Stand back!"
Elina pushed Vivian behind her and blocked the front of the tunnel. She unleashed her circuits using the ancient elf breathing technique, launching a ferocious charge.
Hiss—! Thud!
The instant the basilisk's deadly venom melted the rock wall, Elina twisted her body sideways to evade and drove her sword precisely into the seam of the thick rocky scales.
Elina's overwhelming prowess, comparable to Mithril rank—the highest grade, surpassing even the Adventurer Guild's Diamond rank.
The nimble sword dance born of jealousy sent the beasts' thick necks rolling across the floor like harvested crops.
I too gripped my dagger, slipping into their blind spots and bursting their eyeballs.
A brutal massacre reeking of blood.
By the time the number of slain basilisks exceeded the hundreds.
"Cough, cough...!"
As we advanced deeper into the tunnel, the mana density grew so thick it felt suffocating. When Vivian's coughing became severe enough to suggest chest pain, we finally reached the end of a massive cavern.
"This is..."
Vivian gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
In the center of the cavern. A massive pile of lost magic stones worth 3,500 gold, stacked like a mountain. And occupying the top of it, a single mother basilisk the size of a house.
The ferocious beast had coiled itself around a faintly glowing spherical orb placed in the center of the magic stone mountain.
Despite our intrusion, it merely bared its teeth and hissed lowly without moving.
"So the reason the magic stones gathered here was because of that orb."
At my guess, Vivian nodded as if entranced.
"I learned about it in ecology class at the academy. That's... an egg of a naturally occurring monster created by special environmental conditions and concentrated mana."
"...A monster egg."
"The true culprit behind this anomaly, which brainwashes surrounding beasts to build its nest until it hatches and endlessly gathers magic stones as energy...!"
The puzzle pieces clicked into place.
The frenzied orcs that had hammered at the outer defensive line every night. And the pack of basilisks that had stolen magic stones from this deep tunnel and carried them away. All of it was the forced instinct of monsters whose brains had been burned by the dense waves emanating from that egg.
I silently stepped forward, lightly taking the sword from Elina's hand.
Then I thrust the blade under the jaw of the mother basilisk guarding the egg.
Slice—!!
A gruesome tearing sound as the vital point was pierced instantly. Yet the beast didn't struggle even once until its final breath.
It simply treated the round egg it carried as the most precious treasure in the world. Wrapping its massive, ferocious body around the egg in a gentle embrace, it quietly fell into eternal sleep.
Crack.
The moment the basilisk's breath ceased, cracks spread across the surface of the faintly glowing orb, and the shell shattered.
Soon, a small, bloody lump covered in wet placenta rolled onto the floor.
Fluffy silver fur like pure white snowflakes. Four plump, rice-cake-like legs. A lustrous blue magic stone embedded in its forehead, and sapphire eyes that blinked as if scattering the Milky Way.
Fenrir. A legendary beast born from a naturally occurring egg, far surpassing the limits of its existing species.
"Kyaaang—!"
The creature, opening its eyes for the first time, wobbled over on unsteady legs. It looked up at me with wide eyes and let out an adorable cry.
"It says in the book that... such variant species imprint the first being they see after hatching as their parent without exception."
Vivian's dumbfounded cough.
Suddenly becoming the father of a divine beast, I looked down indifferently at the silver blood clot clinging to my blood-stained shoe and wagging its tail, then muttered dryly.
"Should I kill it now?"