The Inevitable Trap
They don’t know I possess the knowledge of ancient alchemy.
Without the Addis family in the way, they would assume they could capture her with ease.
This time, there’s no other choice.
She had intended to go alone. She would use a power she had never touched before.
Of course she knew it was a trap.
Going there could mean being taken by the Black Apostles. She might even die in the process.
Even so, it didn’t matter.
Not Ju-hwa.
The rational love she once felt for him had definitely vanished. After surviving every hardship this world could throw at her, her feelings toward him had faded like an old photograph, drained of all color.
That didn’t mean she could simply shrug off whether he lived or died.
It’s probably because of me.
She had no idea how he had come to this place, but the cause was almost certainly her.
She could not abandon someone like that to die.
Rather than let Ju-hwa face danger because of her, it was better that—
I be the one who ends up in danger.
“I’m sorry, but you may not leave.”
Yet on the day itself, Lord Estea, one of Orsini’s guards, blocked her path. He had forced her into her room and refused to let her out.
After issuing that order, Orsini had taken the knights and left for the Black Apostles’ gathering place.
Orsini. I won’t let you get away with this.
Dealing with that bastard could wait. First she had to escape this room.
At this point, I have no choice.
She had planned to use it only on the Black Apostles, but she would have to wield alchemy…
That was when—thud!
“……”
Canna turned. A strange noise had come from beyond the door.
The next instant the door burst open and Ren stepped inside.
“Ren?”
Canna was rendered speechless by the scene visible through the open doorway.
Lord Estea lay collapsed on the floor.
“What did you do?”
“What do you think? He wouldn’t let me in, so I put him to sleep for a bit.”
Ren’s lips curved in a faint smirk.
“Just a little nap.”
For a moment Canna’s eyes sparkled.
This commendable fellow. What a good kid he was!
“Well done!”
When Canna smiled brightly, Ren looked dazed, as if he had witnessed something bizarre.
“You can smile like that?”
“Of course.”
Canna answered cheerfully and casually slung her travel bag over her shoulder.
“I was wanting a walk anyway—this works out perfectly. I’ll just take a stroll around the garden, so you…”
“A walk? You’re heading to the slave auction.”
“……”
“The knights who still think I’m Kallen Addis told me plenty. Said hearing about the Black Apostles might jog my memory.”
Ren clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes.
“Trying to make me work for free, the bastards.”
For free…
He really has become a mercenary down to his bones.
Well, he had even refused a knighthood. He seemed to loathe anything that tied him to titles or obligations.
Just like the old Orsini.
“Where I go is none of your concern.”
“Why wouldn’t it be my concern? You’re my mission.”
“What?”
“My contract while we remain in Bryzk Territory is to protect your safety. I have no intention of staining my perfect record.”
In other words, he intended to follow.
Canna refused flatly.
“No. It’s not necessary. The slave auction is a trap. I guarantee something extremely dangerous will happen. So don’t come.”
She might even die there.
She had absolutely no intention of dragging someone unrelated to the situation into such a place.
If it were Kallen Addis, maybe. But right now this guy is nothing more than a mercenary who moves for money.
Yet Ren looked deeply offended by her words.
“And if you end up dead, what exactly do you think that makes me?”
…Well. What would it make him? A third-rate fool of a mercenary who failed to protect his client?
“I’m a mercenary whose business is danger. I’ve always staked my life on it. Don’t belittle my work.”
“…That wasn’t my intention.”
“Enough. Let’s go.”
When Ren turned away, Canna had no choice but to follow.
If it would damage his career, what else could she do? She had no justification to leave him behind.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the greatest auction on earth!”
As she took her seat, Canna whispered under her breath.
“The one I need is slave number ten. Bid on him, win, and we leave.”
“Understood.”
“You don’t need to look at the other slaves. Just buy number ten, no matter what. Stay calm and don’t get nervous.”
Ren, seated beside her, frowned. Then he suddenly poked her cheek with his finger.
Canna reacted a beat too late.
“…What are you doing?”
“Trying to loosen you up. You realize you’ve been repeating the same thing over and over, just changing a few words?”
“Was I?”
“Yes.”
Embarrassed, Canna turned her gaze forward again.
With Ju-hwa captured as a slave, how could she not be tense?
“Now, we’ll begin with slave number one!”
The auction started. Roughly thirty minutes passed.
“And now, the final item!”
At last, his turn had come.
“For the first time in this auction house’s history, a slave from the Eastern Continent is being offered!”
The crowd stirred.
Canna clenched her fists tight.
“Item number ten! Introducing a slave from the Eastern Continent!”
The stage curtain drew back and a man walked out.
Canna’s mind went blank.
Admiration, applause, and lust-filled murmurs swept the room, but she heard none of it. She saw only Ju-hwa.
“Five thousand five hundred gold!”
“Six thousand gold!”
“Eight thousand gold!”
The bids shot up in moments, far surpassing anything the previous slaves had drawn.
“My, everyone is excited! We haven’t even revealed everything yet!”
Just as he had done with the other slaves, the auctioneer moved to strip away Ju-hwa’s clothing.
“I guarantee the competition will grow even fiercer in a moment!”
Canna squeezed her eyes shut.
The sound of fabric tearing rang out. Gasps of admiration rose from every side.
“Magnificent!”
“Begin the bidding at once!”
Ju-hwa’s pale face flushed crimson.
But with a gag in his mouth and ropes binding his wrists and ankles, he could offer no resistance.
She could bear it no longer.
Canna raised her paddle.
“Five hundred million gold.”
The noisy auction house fell silent as though doused with cold water. Every participant stared at her in shock.
Then a gentleman wearing a golden butterfly mask swiftly raised his own paddle.
“Five hundred and fifty million gold!”
Canna answered quietly.
“One billion gold.”
“…One billion one hundred million gold.”
“Two billion.”
The auction ended there.
“If there are no further bids, the item is sold!”
Bang, bang, bang! The auctioneer struck his gavel. Canna looked at Ren and smiled sweetly.
“Ren.”
“Yes?”
“Do you have two billion?”
“……”
“You do, right?”
Ren stared at her with the expression of a man looking at a thug.
Fortunately, he did have the money.
It hasn’t even been three years since he started working as a mercenary.
Yet he had already earned that much?
The rumor that he commanded the highest fees in the business seemed to be true. Ren muttered in a daze.
“To think I’d have my money extorted like this…”
“I’ll repay you once we return to the royal family. With interest. Don’t worry.”
Her funds were kept in cash inside the family vault rather than a bank, so she could not access them immediately.
Grumbling the whole time, Ren wrote her a check, then retrieved the “item”—that is, Ju-hwa—and loaded him into the carriage.
It really is Ju-hwa.
He appeared unconscious, likely drugged. A sigh of pity escaped her. Ren, watching with clear displeasure, gave a snort.
“Exactly what is your relationship with him?”
“Just… an acquaintance.”
“So your taste runs to pretty boys like that? He looks like a rain-soaked lily of the valley—probably can’t even swing a fist properly.”
“……”
Since he had lent her the money, she would endure it.
Canna swallowed the urge to smack him across the back of the head.
“By the way…”
Canna gazed out the carriage window.
“Did we take this route on the way here?”
The carriage was turning in an entirely different direction.
“No. We’re taking another road.”
Ren, who seemed to have noticed long ago, answered calmly.
“You said this auction was a trap.”
“It is.”
So the trap was finally closing.
Canna gave a bitter smile.
Orsini had led the knights in a raid on the Black Apostles’ gathering and succeeded in slaughtering every last one of them.
As he flicked the pooled blood from his blade—
—an arrow flew.
We have secured Canna Addis. If you want her alive, come alone to the hunting grounds.
He snatched it from the air and read the message tied to the shaft.
If you do not arrive within one hour, and if you do not come alone, the woman dies. If anything suspicious is detected, the woman dies.
Several strands of light brown hair had been enclosed with the note—the exact shade of Canna’s altered hair color.
At that moment Claude came running.
“A message from Lord Estea. He says Lady Canna has disappeared.”
Idiot woman.
She must have gone to the slave auction despite knowing full well it was a trap.
“What should we do, Lord Orsini?”
“Leave her. Take the knights and return first.”
If they learned of this they would insist on going to rescue her.
Orsini kept silent, then sent Claude and the knights away. Left alone, he searched the area but found no trace of the archer. The man had likely fled the instant the note was delivered.
Who would fall for such a childish trap?
It was a trap.
Both this note and the slave auction.
The situation was not good enough for him to leap in knowingly.
From the start he had brought few knights to Yalden, so manpower was scarce. Many of those knights were already injured.
A clearly disadvantageous position.
Greed in a moment like this would cause everything to collapse.
The gathering and the slave auction—he had to abandon one.
So he had abandoned the auction. It was an utterly cold, rational decision.
After all, if a fight broke out inside an auction house filled with civilians, they would be the ones at a disadvantage.
But what the hell is wrong with that stupid bitch’s head?
Orsini mocked Canna as he mounted his horse.
She doesn’t care if she herself is endangered.
That was why she had walked straight into the trap with her own two feet.
Idiot.
But he was not.
He would never again risk himself for that woman.
The novice who had crumbled at a single touch from that girl three years ago no longer existed. Therefore—
We have secured Canna Addis.
Whether that woman had been taken by the Black Apostles or not.
If you do not come alone, the woman dies.
Whether she had fallen into the trap or not…
The woman dies.
The woman dies.
She dies.
Damn it all. Orsini reined his horse to a halt.
This is a trap.
A childish trap that wouldn’t fool even a third-rate thug.
He knew that falling for such a trap was the act of an idiot.
He knew it perfectly well.