Everyone was asleep at night.

Even the moonlight was murky that night.

A night when the darkness covered everything.

Creak, creak, creak.

Someone was coming up the stairs of the inn where Luca was staying.

They whispered to each other.

“Is this where that pretty noble and her attendant are?”

“I’m telling you! I don’t know what noble she is, but there was a noble so pretty it would shock you!”

Eyes glistening with desire.

Weapons like kukri knives, daggers, and crossbows.

And visible illegal enhancement tattoos on their exposed skin.

Three men who, by any glance, didn’t seem to be here with good intentions.

They held their breath, anticipating the hunt that was about to take place.

“How long has it been since we had a real hunt?”

“Exactly. There haven’t been any travelers around here, so we’ve been running out of money.”

“Are we going to kidnap all five?”

“No. Two of them are obvious country bumpkins, so they won’t be worth much.”

“Then we’ll kidnap three and kill the other two right away.”

According to their prearranged plan, they first approached the room where Hav and Moula were staying.

The small man at the front took out a suspicious small bottle from his bag.

“Hehe! Just a single whiff of this all night, and their whole body will be paralyzed so they won’t even be able to breathe! It’ll be a horrific way to die!”

“Keep quiet. Let’s get this over with quickly.”

The big man in the group loaded bolts into his crossbow, seeming to prepare for the next hunt.

Just then, the big man felt something cover his mouth and tried quickly to shake himself free.

Thunk!

“!”

With a very slight sound, the big man felt his body become paralyzed.

He stopped in place, unable to even groan.

He could only watch as the shadow that had stabbed him approached the other colleague.

Click!

“Hehe! Good. Now, to the next room…”

The small man began to light the fuse attached to the mouth of the bottle, letting out a sly laugh, and then looked back.

But the lookout who had been keeping watch had vanished, and the big man who was supposed to be waiting behind him was standing absolutely still.

“… Meck? What are you… urk!”

As he called the big man’s name, he suddenly felt an arm snake around his neck like a snake, choking him.

‘Damn!’

The small man immediately drew a dagger from his belt to stab the person behind him in the thigh.

Crunch!

“!”

But before he could, his neck was choked and he felt a huge shock on his side.

At the same time, all the strength left his body, and he couldn’t breathe.

“Mm! Mm! Mm!”

He wanted to make a sound, but his mouth was already covered.

As his consciousness began to fade, someone whispered to him.

“Next time, you’d better be more careful when going up the stairs. That is, if there’s a next time for you.”

The voice he heard just before losing consciousness was a very gentle woman’s voice.

* * *

Splash!

“Ugh!”

The small man, Etbum, snapped back to consciousness as water was thrown on him.

With blurred vision, he tried to quickly take in his surroundings.

But having been woken up suddenly—and because of the water—everything was far too blurry.

“So, these are our uninvited guests.”

“Yes, though they don’t seem to belong to any particular group.”

The soft woman’s voice he’d heard before losing consciousness, and a young boy’s voice with almost no inflection.

Blinking rapidly, Etbum finally saw the people before him.

‘A… a boy…?’

A beautiful boy with mysterious, deep green hair and clear lake-like blue eyes sat cross-legged in a chair, looking down at him.

“Have you come to your senses now?”

“…”

Etbum didn’t respond, instead quickly scanning the room with his now recovered vision.

It appeared to be a stable.

His colleagues were tied up next to him. Etbum’s own wrists were of course tied as well.

Luca clicked his tongue at him for silently searching his surroundings.

“Bella.”

“Yes, young master.”

At Luca’s call, Bella immediately pulled out a short dagger and stabbed Etbum in the thigh.

Thunk!

“Ugh!”

“Have you come to your senses now?”

Luca repeated his earlier, dispassionate question.

Etbum replied desperately.

“Y-yes, I have!”

“I hope you behave so that I won’t have to ask twice again.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Etbum gulped.

‘He… he’s different from your typical noble brat…’

Of course, no high-ranking noble family such as a count or above would come to this kind of place for fun.

Most who came here were just here for gambling on ‘racing’.

Rarely, people came for other reasons, but it was never for good reasons.

‘Racing’ was a gambling den that involved astronomical sums of money.

A place for a shot at sudden wealth.

However, the real ‘racetrack’ was located a little distance from here.

So why would someone looking to race come to this place?

Because there was an ‘illegal auto-carriage workshop’ near here.

People who wanted to participate in races with illegally modified carriages would sometimes come to this area.

There were only two kinds of people who did such things.

Those from ruined families or businesses betting everything on gambling.

Or dopamine addicts truly crazy about racing.

No one would find it strange if such people suddenly disappeared.

Usually, even their families or businesses didn’t care much if they went missing.

They were hard to find, and nine times out of ten, if found, they’d already met a gruesome end.

But Luca was different.

Just his gaze was keen, utterly unlike those who usually showed up around here.

That gave Etbum an ominous feeling.

‘Don’t tell me… are they here to crack down on us now?’

This southernmost region of the Hernan Empire was practically an abandoned land.

The port city of Bixoro was just a city for work, not exports, and there were no popular special products nearby.

Nor is there any tourist site here better than elsewhere.

Naturally, no one wants to come; it’s effectively an exile.

It’s been decades since the Empire last sent a crackdown here.

So it’s only natural this place became a den of crime.

But now, suddenly, are they going to crack down?

‘Do they intend to start a war or something…?’

There were already several powerful criminal organizations established around here.

Not only that, but there were also a few connected to the lawless zone nearby.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a cartel by now.

To suddenly try to crack down on such groups would cause huge upheaval.

Watching Etbum’s darting eyes, Luca spoke with indifference.

“You have three choices.”

“E-excuse me?”

Surprised by Luca’s sudden words, Etbum hesitated, but Luca paid no mind.

“One, you tell me everything right now and take it easy. Two, you lie and hope your friends repeat the same lie. The last option: you stay silent, suffer, and then die.”

Etbum hurriedly bowed his head.

“A-ask me anything you want!”

No one read the room faster.

‘This is not normal. If I say the wrong thing, I’ll die!’

Etbum was small and weak.

So he always stuck by bigger, stronger people to survive.

Betrayal was nothing to him.

“Alright then. Who ordered you to kill us?”

“What? W-we weren’t given any orders.”

“You weren’t given any orders?”

Luca looked at him, puzzled.

He lightly tapped the poison vial on the ground next to his chair with his foot and spoke.

“Then what’s this? Isn’t this a poison that could kill someone?”

“O-oh, that’s just for the ones who aren’t worth anything, so they won’t get in the way! I… Young master? Or someone like you—this wasn’t meant for you!”

“Not worth anything, huh.”

Luca narrowed his eyes slightly at Etbum’s reply.

“Then, you’re saying someone like me and Ottbo are considered valuable?”

“Uh… well, you see… it’s your looks, really…”

“Looks?”

Again, Luca wore a puzzled expression.

Why were they talking about looks here?

‘Tsk. Since the protagonist never came to a place like this, I have no information.’

Luca clicked his tongue in his mind.

The protagonist always visited glamorous places due to events.

Almost never did he come to such bleak places as this.

‘Given the Capsule Shooter incident, he probably came near this place, but… even that was in the mid-to-late part, when the war was almost over. By then, this area had turned to utter ruin.’

He had been in the south before, fighting the Aldnoa army during the war, but the situation then was entirely different from now, so that experience wouldn’t help.

‘But what’s this about looks? The value and… wait a minute.’

At that moment, a deeply unpleasant thought rose up in Luca’s mind.

“You bastards, don’t tell me, you’re slave dealers?”

“…”

At Luca’s words, Etbum avoided his gaze and said nothing.

“Bel…”

“Y-yes, it’s true!”

As Luca was about to call Bella, Etbum hurriedly spoke up.

He didn’t want to get stabbed in the thigh again.

Luca clicked his tongue.

“So there are still slave dealers, huh.”

Of course, he knew there were slave dealers.

The cliché of the protagonist catching a slave dealer had shown up in the original work.

But seeing one in person was utterly revolting.

‘On this continent, slavery is fundamentally prohibited.’

There were several reasons for the ban on slavery.

Naturally, the first reason was that the Order banned it.

The Order accepted the class distinction between nobles and commoners, but not slavery.

Because slaves often were not even treated as human beings.

Second, it was because it was unethical for the current nobles whose duty is to protect commoners to permit slavery and treat slaves however they wished.

Even if someone were forced into labor as punishment for a crime, no one was allowed to create a whole new status called “slave” and reduce someone to mere property.

Third, it was because of mages and alchemists.

This connects a bit with the first reason: the Order set life-related matters as a taboo.

In the past, slaves weren’t considered human, I.e., life.

So mages and alchemists argued that using them as material for experiments wasn’t research on life, and used them extensively.

But the Order was furious and declared anyone who used slaves as experimental material to be heretics, excommunicating and hunting them down through inquisitions.

That caused religious wars, and only after countless deaths did all countries on the continent finally agree to abolish slavery.

Of course, that didn’t mean the secret, quiet trade in slaves stopped altogether.

Hernan Empire was a bit better about it, but surrounding kingdoms still had slave auctions led by dukes and so on.

“W-well… we did call ourselves slave dealers, but… actually, we’re not strictly slave dealers, more like slave hunters…”

Etbum glanced up at Luca as he changed his words.

There might not seem to be much difference between a slave dealer and a slave hunter, but the punishment could be different.

Where there is demand, there will be supply.

If there were no slave dealers, there’d be no slave hunters, so the level of punishment changes a bit.

Since the money is different too, that’s sometimes taken into account.

‘Specifically so slave hunters can get used later, really.’

Slave hunters specialize in capturing people.

They’re far more useful than slave dealers.

So punishments are a bit lighter—they could be used for something else later on.

“You’re sure you’re not a slave dealer?”

“Yes! What kind of slave dealer goes out hunting themselves!”

To his rebuttal, Etbum readily agreed.

Luca said flatly.

“Then you can tell me who the slave dealer you trade with is.”

“Pardon?”

Etbum paused for a moment.

His gaze wavered a bit.

Luca spoke.

“Don’t worry. If you don’t talk, your friends will. Though it’ll be a bit harder for you before that happens…”

“I-I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

As Bella, standing beside Luca, drew her dagger as if she had been waiting, Etbum hastily spoke up.

“B-but, please keep it secret that it was me who talked…”

“Tsk.”

At his hesitation, Luca frowned and Etbum flinched, blurting it out at once.

“It’s Viscount Hephville!”

“… Haa.”

Viscount Hephville, the owner of the mining city of Bizen.

He was the criminal.

“Young master.”

Bella looked at Luca with a slightly worried expression.

In return, Luca feigned indifference.

“Don’t worry. I’m not about to get involved with those people when I’m already so busy. However…”

Luca narrowed his eyes, staring at Etbum.

“I can’t just leave this as it is.”

“E-excuse me…?”

Sensing something odd, Etbum broke out in a cold sweat and began to tremble.

“W-wait. You said if I told you everything, things would be easy for me…”

“Right. It will be easier.”

“!”

Luca, looking at Etbum as if he already knew his future, gave a cold smile.

“Did you really think you could get away with doing things like this?”

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

Slave dealers, slave hunters… They all deserve to die…

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep