Chapter 107

None of it held water for me now.

I leaned against the window of the new room, gazing up at the autumn night sky.

The moonlight was quite bright tonight, not a good night for those working the back alleys.

Beyond the window stretched a vast garden. My room was near the center of the enormous castle, sprawling over 120 square kilometers, where dwarves and elves had cultivated a massive artificial garden in harmony.

Looking at the rectangular garden spread between the towering buildings, I was reminded of Square Park in Washington, a place I’d never been.

A servant in a formal suit was using a net to scoop fallen leaves from the fountain. Even at this late hour, the staff diligently fulfilled their duties in their designated places.

I let out a long sigh and leaned my head out the window.

“…Come out. I know you’re there.”

I spoke softly, my gaze still fixed on the servant.

“Yeeees—!”

An incongruously bright and cheerful voice came from above me. Soon, slender legs slowly forced their way through the gap in the window, and a red-eyed girl cloaked in a jet-black mantle entered the room.

“You have keener senses than I thought? I tried my best to erase my presence.”

It was obvious, of course, but I hadn’t sensed anything. No presence, no malice, nothing of the sort. Still, the reason I could call her out was simple.

Sion was the type who would eagerly snatch the ‘Gundo Mist’ job, enough to clear out all the competing firms. Moreover, she was skilled enough to infiltrate the Imperial Palace at will.

It would be stranger if she *wasn’t* monitoring my movements.

“Then, allow me to greet you once more! Born in the back alleys, raised in the back alleys…!”

“Enough, Gundo Mist. You can find it for sure, right?”

I interrupted Sion’s senseless introduction.

“Are you even asking that, of course! My information network is excellent. Even if it’s lacking, it’s fine. One word from me, and those back-alley rats will spill their secrets without a peep!”

Even with a sharp tone, this girl never seemed to wilt.

“…What thoughts occupy you?”

I cut to the chase, omitting pleasantries.

“I wish to earn money!”

Sion answered my question without much contemplation.

“There must be plenty of opportunities to earn money. Aren’t you quite well-known in your… profession?”

“Oh, have I already become so famous as to reach the General’s ears? Ah, what an honor!”

Sion maintained a playful attitude throughout, as if all of this were a game.

I found myself subtly irritated by that face, perpetually plastered with an innocent smile.

“You’d earn plenty of money even outside of my… services. There must be a reason you specifically want to work with me, even going so far as to remove every denizen of the back alleys.”

“…Is that… a question I must answer?”

Sion paused in silence before uttering those words.

“If you don’t answer this question, I will not enter into any agreement with you.”

“There’s no one else you could entrust this to~”

“I could simply recruit someone from outside the capital. Or, if I’m truly desperate, I could request assistance directly from ‘Delta,’ one of our army’s Generals.”

“……”

Sion slowly erased her bright smile, and I continued, addressing that now-unsmiling face.

“The math simply wouldn’t add up, would it? Dealing with the small-time hustlers in the capital was a simple matter, but taking on every single operator pouring in from all corners of the continent… well, I don’t believe that’s a prudent idea.”

A cold shadow had fallen across Sion’s silent face.

She didn’t carelessly exude any killing intent. She likely didn’t wish to risk engaging in a battle against a General of the continent.

She rarely displayed such displeasure.

“The world is overflowing with capable people. I profit regardless of who wins. If you eliminate all the competitors flocking to the capital… since they’re all criminals anyway, the world becomes a slightly better place. And if you die and someone else takes on the task, I get to work with a true ‘professional’ instead of a lunatic.”

My skin prickled, burned.

It dawned on me, anew, that her skills alone made her a monster on par with a general.

After the battle with Maltiel, my heart had grown indifferent to most dangers, but now, for the first time in ages, it began to pound.

A faint survival instinct sensed the chilling air and warned me to prepare my magic.

“Give me a reason. Why are you so determined to take on this job? I need to confirm you’re a person I can control. I have no desire to work with a simple madman.”

“…There’s only one reason, I suppose.”

Sion sighed softly and slowly walked towards the table in the center of the room. She exhaled deeply, then poured tea into a cup I hadn’t touched and began to fidget with it.

As before, she did not bring the cup to her lips.

“To get to the point, I figured I could fleece them for at least 100 gold. There was no other intention.”

“…”

I stopped walking towards the table, intending to sit across from her, and stared blankly at Sion’s face.

…100 gold?

Did I just mishear her?

How did she arrive at that calculation?

Is she truly an idiot…?

One gold is 100 silver. One silver is 100 pennies, so one gold is 10,000 pennies, and a cup of coffee costs about 1 penny. That means you can buy about 10,000 cups of coffee with one gold…

Was this b*tch planning to drink a million cups of coffee with this one job…?

How much is that in Korean currency? If a cup of coffee is 4,500 won, that’s 4,500 times a million, so…

“Uh…”

Hmm.

Roughly 5 billion…?

‘Wait a second, did I calculate wrong? Not 500 million, but 5 billion?’

Huh?

Really?

…5 billion?

“What are you doing? Sit down.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

How does one even arrive at the conclusion that 100 gold can be extracted?

No matter how much money I intend to spend on this matter, I was only thinking of around 20 gold.

“How much land in your name do you think there is in the Imperial Capital? How much farmland is there, and Guinevere’s mansion that you own, not to mention the artworks inside…”

“No, no. The fact that I have a lot of money and the fact that I’m willing to spend a lot of money are two entirely different realms. What kind of financial sense do you even possess?”

“There’s a way to squeeze it all out, of course. 100 gold is just estimating the income to be at the lowest. I was thinking, if things go well, I could probably milk 150 gold.”

Sion said that with a completely unabashed expression, as if she couldn’t even fathom what might be wrong.

“The best service comes with the best price, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Ha.”

“Then, has the worrying part been resolved?”

Sion brought the glass to her nose, inhaling the aroma slightly as she spoke. Her eyes didn’t seem to hold a shred of shame.

“…”

One thing gnawed at me.

That Zion might be nothing more than the simple “madwoman” the world made her out to be.

I can’t work with someone who acts like a spoiled brat, doing whatever they please without any standards or discipline.

The Archipelago of Mists is no battlefield, but it’s still one of the tougher regions.

Dangerous monsters leap out, and it’s easy to get lost. Wandering around such a place with someone reckless is just too risky.

From that perspective… some of my worries have eased.

I could at least confirm that “Zion” wasn’t simply a crazy woman who did as she pleased.

She had a definite standard.

Money.

‘She decided it was worth infiltrating the Imperial Palace, risking it all to snatch a job that could bring in at least five billion, or eight billion if things went well. Because she’s confident she has the skills to invade the Palace as she pleases and survive.’

Whether I intended to spend that money or not, Zion seemed to have a way to extract it from me.

“How exactly did you plan to get all that money from me? I have no family, only one friend. Did you think I’d cough up a hundred gold if you held a knife to my throat?”

“Huh? Ah, I wouldn’t do anything so amateur~ I would never directly harm the General or those around him. Do you think I’m crazy enough to lay a hand on an Imperial General? Especially one touted as a genius who’ll save the world? The numbers don’t add up.”

Zion put down her glass as she spoke, then rummaged inside her cloak.

Soon, a green-yellowish paper I’d seen once before was placed on the table.

‘…A Devil’s Contract.’

The same paper I used to fleece Samael out of the Achilipptus Forest was sitting there on the table.

An absolute contract that takes the target’s life the moment the agreement is broken.

“Where did you… get this?”

I was so dumbfounded, I couldn’t speak.

The Devil’s Contract, a singular thing, permitted only to high-ranking demons or those above. Typically, it was used to enslave intellects too valuable to transform into mere mutations…

“Took some doing to get my hands on one~ You know, these days, demons are all vanishing into the north, making these things hard to find? If I put this on the black market, I could get at least ten gold for it, easy.”

“…You bought it?”

“No? Buy it for that price? I’d rather dig one up myself, even if it’s a pain.”

…Chatting as casually as herbalists gathering roots in the hills behind town.

Like a high demon was just some dog anyone knew the name of.

“The contract’s terms are simple. One. Sion will guide General Bin Kyung to ‘The Archipelago of Mist.’ Should Sion fail to guide General Bin Kyung to The Archipelago of Mist within one week, Sion shall be considered to have unilaterally breached the contract.”

Sion calmly explained the terms.

“Two. General Bin Kyung will pay Sion compensation equal to the number of monsters, demons, humans, elves, and dwarves killed during Sion’s escort. If General Bin Kyung sustains injury from enemy attack, Sion shall be considered to have unilaterally breached the contract. Three. The moment General Bin Kyung states, ‘I no longer require your services,’ the contract is immediately null and void.”

Having heard it all, I asked the question that burned most brightly.

“…So, what does that compensation roughly amount to?”

“Orcs, humans, elves, dwarves – two gold apiece. Monsters are one gold per head. Demons as well, one gold. No difference based on rank or difficulty. Whether you slay a dragon or crush a goblin scuttling in the street, it’s one gold. Same for demons and humans.”

On the surface, the contract didn’t seem all that strange.

The first clause, well, no problems there.

The second clause, too, only seemed a little peculiar in that payment was tied to the number of foes vanquished, rather than the length of the escort itself. No real red flags.

The third clause… even seemed incredibly favorable to me. I could terminate the contract whenever I pleased? Was it actually possible to squeeze a hundred gold out of this, based on these terms?

“…You’re saying I can really pull a hundred gold from this contract?”

The Archipelago of Mist we were headed to wasn’t an area swarming with hordes of monsters. No, it was a place where elite monsters, singular and deadly, guarded their own territory.

Add to that the fact that the monsters were all of considerable level, and one gold per monster didn’t actually sound that unreasonable.

…Of course, if you asked whether it was in line with the average market price, the answer was absolutely not. But you also had to factor in that the person providing the service *was* Sion, after all.

Sion was one of the few exceptional talents on the continent, capable of freely infiltrating the Imperial Palace and extracting information on key figures at will.

Generously speaking, she possessed the skill of a general. At the very least, the level just beneath.

Guards with that kind of skill were often unobtainable, even with money.

‘…Is she worth the investment? Especially since the second clause makes it seem virtually impossible for her to slack off.’

The contract would be considered unilaterally broken.

In the ‘Devil’s Contract,’ that clause meant imminent death.

It meant that the moment I suffered harm from my enemies, Sion’s life would be forfeit, claimed by the Devil’s Contract.

“You are a seriously crazy person.”

“Just a person crazy for money.”

Yes.

As she said, she was completely mad for money.

The kind of person who’d nonchalantly wager her own life for the chance to earn a fortune.

And that’s why I could be certain.

Even if a moment came when she was in danger, as long as this contract held, she would keep me safe.

“…The projected income from this contract is about 100 gold?”

“A minimum of 100 gold. I’m thinking I can usually earn about 120 gold… and if I’m lucky, perhaps as high as 150 gold.”

“From my perspective, you won’t even salvage 30 gold from that contract. You need to catch 100 monsters to earn 100 gold, and the Archipelago Mist isn’t an area where hordes of weak monsters swarm. Didn’t you say you knew the Archipelago Mist well?”

“Well now~ would you like to make a wager with me?”

Sion tilted her chair back with her toe, looking at me with an arrogant posture.

The old wooden chair maintained a precarious balance, neither falling backward nor righting itself, remaining suspended in place.

“Article Four. Should Zion acquire a sum of 100 gold or more through this contract, Lord Bean shall additionally compensate Zion with 20 gold. Should the income be less than 100 gold, Zion shall pay Lord Bean 40 gold.”

“……”

I stared at the contract laid out on the table, caught in a moment of deliberation.

It didn’t take long to reach a decision.

“I refuse. Remove the fourth article.”

Zion seemed confident in her ability to extract 100 gold.

She was renowned as the best expert in the underbelly of the world, and equally, seemed more sensitive than anyone when it came to money.

If I kept that fourth article, she’d likely employ every bizarre trick in the book to milk at least 100 gold from me.

‘It’d probably be easier on my nerves to just assume I’ll be spending over 100 gold.’

Naturally, considering the value-for-money aspect, it was undeniably the worst possible choice.

Who else in this world would spend 100 gold on a single bodyguard?

But Zion wasn’t the kind of talent you could apply a value-for-money calculation to.

She was a talent worthy of a general, a crystal-clear supernova of the underworld.

Who considers cost-effectiveness when buying supercars like Porsches, Lamborghinis, or Ferraris? High-end products have their own unique value.

‘…Though the fact that this one completely eliminated all other cost-effective alternatives is definitely irksome.’

Fine, I’ll pay it.

100 gold.

I have plenty of money to burn anyway.

If I think of it as using 100 gold to fix my nerve-damaged right hand, it’s not an entirely unreasonable price, is it?

“……You possess a surprisingly astute side, don’t you?”

Sion, surprised that things had unfolded so smoothly, widened her crimson eyes as if taken aback, leaning back in her chair as she raised her glass.

As expected, the tea within remained untouched.