Chapter 35
When I returned home, I called Don in the living room.
He was still recovering from his injuries, and as soon as he entered the room, he got down on his knees with a mysterious look on his face.
"Hmm? What's the matter with you all of a sudden?"
It's been twelve years since I was born as a Prince, and I've gotten accustomed to being flattered, but this was a little out of the ordinary for Don.
"I'm ready for it."
"Ready?"
"Yes. I believe I will be accused of betraying the Lord and tipping him off. I will make no excuses. At the very least, I will be beheaded."
"Don't get ahead of yourself."
A shaky voice interrupted Don's rapid speech.
"Eh?"
"Who said anything about punishing you?"
"B-But ..."
"People are treasures, not to be killed for nothing. In the first place, imperial law demands that anyone accused of treason be acquitted. If you were to inform on something else, you would be guilty of a certain crime, but not treason.:
"..."
Don's mouth gapes open in exasperation.
You didn't know, huh.
"So. I called you here for a few reasons. First, Gilbert was executed. He's been found guilty of treason and his forces will be destroyed without a trace. So you don't need to change your name and leave the capital anymore. That's one."
"Y-Yes ..."
"And the reward for accusations of treason is set at a maximum of one thousand reens. That's not enough, so I'll put one zero on the end. This is my money. Feel free to take it."
"Why such a large sum?"
Don shuddered.
He still couldn't believe that he was going to be saved. It was a misunderstanding that he would be executed in the first place.
"You saved my father's life. What more reason do you need?"
"Ah..."
"Third. At that time, I said I would send you to serve as a deputy, but now I can send you back to the Ministry of the Imperial Household as my retainer. Tell me what you want to do."[I guess the 2nd one is the money]
"..."
"What, you don't like that either?"
"N-not that!"
Don looked up quickly, jerked his head to the side, and then rubbed his forehead on the floor again, still on both knees.
"You are the one who deserves to be my Lord for life. I will follow you wherever you go."
After saying this, Don raised his head again and looked at me.
His eyes were the eyes of a sincere vassal and admirer.
The next day, I took Gigi, my maid, to the city to relax.
Whether to go to Alice's place or to Cobalt Street for a treasure hunt.
Or perhaps I should explore something new.
I decided to have fun all day long, so I didn't take the carriage and walked with the maid.
"Master, there's something interesting going on."
There was a hint of excitement in Gigi's eyes as she said this.
She has only been a maid for a short time and is still very young, so unlike Zoe and Evelyn, who is now a governor, she has not lost her childlike spirit.
That's why, while thinking that it's a good idea once in a while, I looked towards the "interesting things" that Gigi had mentioned.
There was a crowd of people, and in the middle was a woman.
She was swinging a sword, and the word "sword dance" came to my mind.
Is she some kind of street performer?
I thought it sounded interesting, so I headed toward the crowd with Gigi in tow.
As we approached and peered through the crowd, the woman who had stopped dancing said to the onlookers in a challenging tone.
"The condition is that you fight me and win, and the fee is three reens."
"What will you give me if I win?"
One of the spectators asked in a tense voice.
From the way he raised his voice, he sounded like a man who was accustomed to being an onlooker.
"Myself. Wife, concubine, or servant, I will do whatever the victor commands."
Instantly, the crowd of onlookers began to buzz.
So if you pay the entry fee, fight her and win, you get her.
"What does that mean?"
Gigi, standing next to me, nodded her head curiously.
"It's a kind of auction."
"Auction(bidders)?"[Saying the same thing with different wordings Noah is keibai and Gigi is saying Kyoubai]
"That's the one with bidders. In a normal auction, there is only money, but in this kind of auction, other conditions are attached. It started as a black market auction."
"Wow, ..., you really know your stuff, Master!
Gigi looked at me with great admiration.
I, on the other hand, observed the woman at the auction.
She was objectively beautiful, although she had a tendency to be too stern.
The fact that I might be able to get her for three reens was quite tempting.
The price of slaves in the capital remains high, partly because only certain merchants are authorized by imperial law.
If you were to buy them normally, they would cost no less than 100 reens each.
But for three reens.
Moreover, she is not caught by black slavery or anything like that.
The basic definition of a black slave trader in Imperial law is "buying or selling another person".
Selling yourself is not against the law.
Immediately, one of the men was motivated and jumped out of the circle of people and in front of the woman.
"So, I should just defeat you?"
"Yes. But, One on one."
"Huh, you don't have to tell me – I'm not going to waste it sharing it with someone else!"
The man said, and with a disgusted look on his face, stuck out his hand and tried to grab the woman.
""Ohhhh!?""
Instantly, a cheer went up.
The man with his hand out spun around and plunged back into the ground.
The man looked up at the sky, puzzled, not knowing what had happened to him.
The woman held out her hand to the man.
"Three reens."
"...eh?"
"The entry fee. You didn't pay it because you thought you'd win anyway, did you?"
"Wow, that's embarrassing."
"He went in there full of confidence and got himself thrashed."
"Jumping without thinking of the consequences."
There were shouts of derision here and there from the surrounding onlookers.
The man turned red, took a silver coin out of his pocket, slammed it on the ground, and ran away.
The woman picked it up and carefully stored it away.
"Who's the next challenger?"
Visit readel.me for extra chapters.
She said.
Everyone saw that she had beaten the man in an instant, but it was quite tempting to get beauty as beautiful as her for three reens.
One after another, challengers came up to pay three reens, but they were all repelled by her.
"Heh, I guess it's my turn now."
"Let's get the entry fee."
"Don't panic, if you beat me, I'll give it to you."
When the man said that, the crowd of onlookers around him started to hoot and cry.
By now everyone could see that the woman was no ordinary person.
Most of the onlookers were hoping that the new challenger would turn out to be as ugly as the first man. Such is the atmosphere.
"Well, here we go!"
The man shot his clenched fist at the woman as if to gouge her from below.
It was a punch that was expected to have some power, but everyone who had seen the fight so far expected the woman to win.
But.
"—Gah!"
As the woman tried to dodge and counterattack, she seemed to be caught by something and stopped moving.
The next moment, the man's fist gouged the woman's stomach.
With a clean shot, the woman's eyes widened, she let out a gasp, and she fell back to lean on the man.
"Heh, you promised, you're mine now."
The man then turned to leave, pushing aside the onlookers who were buzzing at the unexpected turn of events.
"Wait."
I did the opposite and pushed past the on lookers and entered the circle of people.
"What? What's the matter, kid? You got a problem with me?"
"Yeah. You are breaking the rules."
"What are you talking about?"
I walked up to him and turned up the hem of the woman's ankle that he was carrying.
There's a needle stuck in there.
"It's two against one if you let your buddies do this to you, isn't it?"
"What the hell are you talking about, this is–"
Thud.
A few feet away, a man collapsed.
I intimidated him with my Leviathan and took him down.
"He's your companion, isn't he?"
"... I don't know."
"Bullshit, Chad, that's your henchman Rob."
"You two had a drink together at my bar yesterday."
"Let her go, that's not fair."
It seemed that everyone around them knew that they knew each other.
The man, Chad, turned red as the onlookers yelled at him.
"Shut up! You little bastard, you've done more than you should have!"
And then he got upset.
He left the woman and attacked me.
I guess I'll have to hurt him a little.
So, I pulled Leviathan out of my bracelet.
First, I slashed Chad's shoulders.
Chad's arms were hanging down, his hands were useless.
With my reversed grip, I cut Chad's waistband.
The belt was cut, and Chad's pants fell to the ground with a snap.
"What the ...?"
"You still want to do this?"
I pushed Leviathan to Chad's throat.
Chad's face grew redder and he shivered.
The onlookers around him saw this.
"Holy shit, what was that? Where'd that sword come from?"
"I didn't see anything, the technique was impressive."
"That was so much cooler. Chad's attitude is always so annoying."
Chand was trembling and shaking as everyone around him was saying to each other.
"R-Remember that!"
And then he spat the words and ran away.
The crowd laughed at the sight of him running away with his hands useless, his pants cut off, and nude.