Subscriber of the Gods

The receptionist who grasped the situation immediately went inside with the pouches. Then a man who looked to have a higher position came out.

The scar drawn straight across his forehead was striking.

You requested top priority service? Even though its your first time here, how did you know about it?

Are there mercenary guilds without top-priority mercenaries?

At Ethans confident words, the man looked at him briefly before nodding.

Your identity seems certain, so well get started first.

Please do so, guild leader.

Then the man blinked at Ethan before bursting into laughter.

I took a blind guess, and seems I was right.

This is your first time using our guild, no?

Yes, first time.

Ethan said.

Here.

Each mercenary guild had top-priority mercenary services provided only to VIP customers.

Originally, you had to continue transactions for over a year and your payments over that year had to exceed a certain amount before they would slyly let you know about this service.

Since skilled mercenaries carried out the requests, regular customers often sought this expensive service.

So it was a service not permitted for first-time visitors like Ethan.

But in the end, mercenary guilds had to have money to operate too.

If this much money was offered, it was hard to refuse.

Since it was a core service of the guild and brought in big, steady money, customer management was quite important.

Having done business here for a long time, no matter how much money it was, they could refuse if they didnt feel like it.

Thats when you offer a suitable amount of money.

Ethan was very reassured by the money he had put in his inventory.

Afterward, Ethan went around to other mercenary guilds and repeated the same thing.

There were things money couldnt accomplish. But that happened when there was not enough money.

We will get started right away.

Lots of money made many things easy and fast. This was exactly why Ethan had started a business and secured a lot of money first.

Use it properly since I earned it.

Ethan waited in the market of the Marquis territory.

First I need to confirm where Yuna Garnet is.

He didnt think there would be obvious traces of whether Yuna was plotting something or got caught up in it.

Shes not inexperienced enough to leave traces.

Whoever was behind it wouldnt carry it out clumsily.

Though he paid a lot of money and hired top-priority mercenaries, in the end, they were still just mercenaries. If there were no traces left, even legendary mercenaries wouldnt be able to find anything.

But Ethan didnt request them thinking theyd be able to find Yuna Garnet in the first place.

Its to quickly gather information.

Rather than directly scouring around the Marquis Rond territory on foot, hiring them and paying money allowed him to obtain far more information.

There were quite a lot of them, and they had time-specific information on all over the territory after all.

Ethan planned to get clues from them.

The tiniest clue would do. With that clue, he could reach the whole story of this incident.

After waiting about 10 minutes, contact came from the first mercenary guild.

Esteemed client.

The masked mercenary from the first guild started relaying traces related to Yuna Garnet and information close to traces. About 30 seconds after he appeared, a new masked mercenary showed up.

The two masked didnt look at each other but were aware of the other.

They were each top-priority mercenaries from different mercenary groups. They had no choice but to pretend not to know each other.

And 15 seconds later, another mercenary arrived.

Ethan received intel sheets from the three top-priority mercenaries.

The intel sheets briefly contained credentials that could verify the mercenary guild.

The opposite, huh.

In effect, for this incident, the place he visited first could be considered to have a considerable advantage. Because there was the distance to move to other guilds and time to make requests.

Its natural the place I requested first arrives first, but the other two guilds arrived close to the first guild I requested.

And of the requests, the fastest to arrive was from the Wandering Mercenary Guild.

Just in case it might be different. But as expected, its here.

Ethan swiftly skimmed through the intel sheets.

While Ethan skimmed through the sheets, the mercenary explained parts needing explanation.

First we started from the entrance of Ivecar Academy. We couldnt examine inside the academy, so we assumed when she came outside.

The academy only had two entrances mainly used. Of those, one was blocked after the monster attack incident, so only one was open now.

We have an informant there. They watch who goes in and out there every day, checking what is supplied and taken out.

As expected, they gathered and stored information in that way.

While Ethan nodded, the man continued speaking.

There were no traces of the girl whose picture you drew, but three more carriages entered today, so we investigated whether she left in those carriages. As soon as talk of the carriages entered the market, the story disappeared, as if evaporating.

He shook his head as if frustrated.

We tried somehow to find traces but failed.

The carriages disappeared from the market?

Yes, they vanished without a trace from the market.

Three carriages disappeared from the market.

The second top-priority mercenary to arrive also relayed the same contents as the first, but more details were added here.

But having more details didnt mean they knew where the carriages had disappeared to.

Were very sorry. We also completely failed to find traces of that female student.

If you give us a little more time, we will surely figure out where the carriages went.

Were currently listening to the merchants in the market. With as many as three carriages, well soon know where they went.

Ethans gaze naturally turned to the last top-priority mercenary.

He was from the Wandering Mercenary Guild.

But that mercenary also lowered his head.

In truth, its the same for us. But there was one more piece of information. A scent lingered from those carriages.

What scent do you mean?

Lilac scent. So were tracking that scent.

Lilac, carriage.

Ethan was certain from these two points.

Yuna Garnet was inside the carriage. Lilac was Yuna Garnets unique scent.

Carriages that disappeared from the market, lilac scent.

If the followers of the Moon had kidnapped her, there was no way lilac scent would linger.

There must have been a fight and someone would have gotten hurt.

Yuna wouldnt have gone along easily, so either side would have been injured. Then the scent of blood couldnt have not lingered.

It would have been noticed right away then.

If you erase the scent of blood, the lilac scent is erased too.

But the lingering lilac scent meant she had been kidnapped very naturally.

Quickly, without her even realizing.

By someone she least expected.

For example, a guard she trusted.

A scenario started flowing in Ethans head.

What if things had gotten tangled.

The target to handle came to know something they shouldnt.

Here, something that shouldnt be known was that Yuna Garnet knew the truth.

With Yuna approaching the truth, there was only one person she had to handle.

Cromwell Garnet made a move.

The father kidnapped his daughter.

By fathers order.

Pantera was a guard her father had assigned to her. He had been very useful so she had forgotten that fact as she kept him by her side for a long time.

Huh.

Yuna checked her current situation.

First, her eyes were covered. Her mouth was also blocked so she couldnt see where here was and couldnt speak either.

Likewise, her hands and feet were tied tightly. Yuna then moved the mana within her body.

Its outside the academy. But dont know where.

She didnt feel the academys unique mana constraints.

The academy really isnt a safe place, like with the monster attack incident too.

Yuna calmly grasped the situation. She had been kidnapped from right in the middle of the academy.

I was too careless.

Yuna clicked her tongue to herself.

She didnt expect her father would kidnap her.

He didnt think Id know, but found out I learned of that information and was preparing something.

She had always harbored one question.

It was related to her father, the head of the Garnet Merchant Guild, and at the same time, to her deceased mother.

I was always curious about Mothers death. They said she grew frail and passed away, but I didnt know anything about her life before that.

So she gathered information. She was curious about what kind of life her mother had lived.

She was told her mother was a commoner.

She caught the Garnet Merchant Guilds heads eye with her beauty, but due to poor health, she died after giving birth to Yuna, announced officially.

But it was all lies. The fact that Mother was a commoner and that she passed away after giving birth to me, it was all!

Her mother didnt die after giving birth to her and growing frail. She had been murdered by someone.

My stepmothers, no, those women!

Her stepmothers were the culprits. Her father knew yet left it be.

Because he didnt marry her mother out of love.

Because Mother was an illegitimate child of the head of the Horei Merchant Guild.

The head of the Horei Merchant Guild had once been called the Merchant King, but he declined due to his excessive greed.

When swallowing up the Horei Merchant Guild, Cromwell Garnet discovered Yunas mother who was the Merchant Kings illegitimate daughter.

A child with both his merchant talents and the Merchant Kings bloodline would surely become the greatest merchant. Wanting the Merchant Kings bloodline was a natural step for Cromwell Garnet.

Yuna came to know everything and couldnt stand this disgusting truth.

Wasnt it no different from viewing people merely as objects to satisfy ones own greed and ideals?

Her stepmothers realized her fathers plan and feared it.

Fearing Yunas talents would exceed those of the sons they bore and their sons would be cast out.

So they killed her.

They killed because they worried she might bear a second child.

They killed because she could influence Yunas growth.

Cromwell Garnet didnt care what became of the mother after obtaining the child he aimed for.

Rather, he tried to prevent the other wives deeds from becoming known, as noble housewives.

Such rumors spreading wouldnt be good for the Merchant Guild.

That man knew everything.

Her father was a composed merchant.

A merchant chases only profit. He would have weighed Yunas mother and stepmothers, and this was the result.

Until now, Yuna had lived without knowing any of this.

She came to learn these facts recently.

Dont know who, but it could have all been a trap since the time someone relayed me that information.

An anonymous informant. While giving information, they told her to go to a certain place if she wanted to know more.

She didnt trust it of course.

But after confirming, it was definite information, and Yuna came to know the whole story behind these events.

I didnt go to that place for some reason though.

Yuna wavered briefly but her choices were already set anyway.

Becoming a merchant surpassing Cromwell Garnet as he desired and taking everything he had.

I was found out.

But that was found out.

This situation was quite unfavorable for Yuna.

She racked her brains. Getting out of here was the urgent priority.

Someone who would come save me.

How much money had she splurged until now?

How much money had she used to build trust through money?

Then there had to be at least one person who would notice her absence and make a move.

But at the same time, another thought occurred to her.

That they had always only moved when she gave orders or made requests.

Unless she directly asked them to come help her even if they knew of this situation, they wouldnt budge.

No one on my side.

Not a single one.

She knew it.

She knew, but being in this situation made her feel it even more clearly.

Not one person who would notice my absence and come find me on their own.

A bitter laugh escaped as she became disillusioned with her life so far.

Bang-!

Then a loud noise was heard and her surroundings started shaking.

Crash-!

What the, who the hell are you?! Whered you come from?!

Crack-!

Along with a dreadful sound like bones breaking, heavy thuds sounded as something collapsed. And footsteps were heard in time with the collapsing sounds.

Whats happening?

Could it be someone who came to save her?

Who?

No one came to mind no matter how much she thought.

Crash-!

With a sound of something shattering, something flew towards her, likely the door. The person who entered slowly walked over and sat before her.

With her nose unblocked, a scent lingered.

A scent that couldnt be here.

Are you unharmed?

Her eyes lit up. Though it was clearly a dark room, it felt brightly lit.

.Teacher.

The one person trying to pull her up in a world trying to drag her down.

He was the only one trying to lift her up in that world.

Are you okay?

Yes.

The only person who told her that she was needed.

Yuna shyly smiled at Ethan.

Author's Thoughts

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