Upon returning home, I summoned Don to the living room.
Don, whose injuries had still not fully healed, dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead flat against the floor with a dead-serious expression the moment he entered the room.
"Hmm? What's this all of a sudden?"
Having lived as an imperial prince for twelve years, I was well accustomed to being waited on hand and foot, but Don's behavior was a bit over the top.
"I am... fully prepared."
"Prepared for what?"
"Yes. You intend to hold me accountable for the sin of betraying my master and turning informant, do you not? I offer no excuses. I ask only for a swift beheading to end it in one stroke—"
"Don't get ahead of yourself."
I cut off Don, who had been rambling in a frantic, trembling voice.
"Huh?"
"Who said anything about punishing you?"
"B-But..."
"People are valuable assets; I don't throw lives away for nothing. Besides, Imperial Law explicitly dictates that whistleblowers who expose treason are granted full immunity. If you had informed on anything else, there would be an appropriate penalty, but treason is a different story."
"..."
Don was struck dumb, his mouth hanging open in sheer disbelief.
Had he really not known that?
"Now then. I called you here for a few reasons. First, Gilbert has been executed. His guilt regarding the treason was formally established, meaning his entire faction will collapse without a trace. That means you no longer need to assume a false identity and flee the capital. That's the first matter."
"Y-Yes..."
"Next, the official bounty for exposing treason is capped at a maximum of one thousand Rien. That's hardly enough, so I'm tacking an extra zero onto the end. It's coming out of my personal pocket, so don't hesitate to take it."
"W-Why bestow such a fortune upon me...?"
Don shook visibly.
He clearly still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that his life was spared—never mind that his execution had only ever been a hasty misunderstanding on his part to begin with.
"You saved my father's life. Do you really need any better reason than that?"
"Ah..."
"Thirdly. Back then, I told you I would assign you as a magistrate, but now I have the standing to bring you back into the Imperial Household Ministry as one of my own retainers. Tell me what you'd prefer."
"..."
"What's wrong? You don't like that either?"
"N-No, not at all!"
Don snapped his head up, shook it vigorously, and dropped right back down, rubbing his forehead against the floor once more.
"You alone are worthy of being my lifelong master! I shall follow you to the ends of the earth!"
When Don raised his head again, the look in his eyes had changed.
They were the eyes of a man offering his absolute, unwavering devotion from the very depths of his soul.
☆
The next day, I headed out into the city with the maid Gigi to take a breather.
Should I drop by Alice's place, or go treasure hunting along Cobalt Street?
Or maybe scout out somewhere entirely new?
Deciding to make a full day of it, I skipped the carriage and simply strolled through the streets on foot with just my maid in tow.
"Master, look! They're doing something fun over there!"
As Gigi spoke, an unmistakable sparkle of excitement danced in her eyes.
Having only recently entered service and still being quite young, Gigi hadn't completely outgrown her childish innocence, unlike Zoe or Evelyn, whom I had recently dispatched to serve as a magistrate.
Thinking there was no harm in indulging that once in a while, I looked toward the commotion Gigi had spotted.
A thick crowd had gathered, and right in the center stood a lone woman.
She was brandishing a blade—the term "sword dance" instantly sprang to mind.
Some kind of street performer?
Finding myself intrigued as well, I led Gigi over to join the crowd.
Drawing closer and peering past the onlookers, I saw the woman bring her dance to a halt before addressing the spectators with a challenging smirk.
"The condition is simple: beat me in a fight. The entry fee is three Rien."
"And what do we get if we win?"
One of the onlookers called out in a booming voice.
Judging by how naturally he projected over the noise, he seemed well accustomed to playing the heckler in street crowds.
"Myself. Wife, mistress, or servant—I will obey any order the victor gives."
In an instant, the crowd erupted into a flurry of excited murmurs.
So the deal was that if you paid the entry fee and managed to defeat her in single combat, she was yours.
"What does that mean?"
Standing beside me, Gigi tilted her head in confusion.
"It's a type of auction."
"An auction?"
"A bidding contest. Standard auctions deal purely in money, but these set conditions beyond just coin. The practice originally started in black market auctions."
"Whoaa... As expected of you, Master! You know everything!"
Gigi looked up at me, practically beaming with admiration.
Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to appraise the woman running the auction.
While she seemed a bit overly strong-willed, by any objective standard, she was undeniably gorgeous.
The prospect of claiming a woman like her for a mere three Rien was an exceptionally tempting offer.
Because Imperial Law restricted the slave trade in the capital to a handful of licensed merchants, prices remained steep.
Purchasing one through legitimate channels would easily run you at least a hundred Rien.
Yet here, she was going for three.
On top of that, it neatly sidestepped the laws against illegal slavery.
Under Imperial Law, the definition of an illegal slave merchant fundamentally hinged on the "buying and selling of other people."
Selling oneself was entirely legal.
Before long, an eager man pushed through the circle of onlookers and stepped up to face her.
"All I gotta do is beat you, right?"
"Yes. But strictly one-on-one."
"Heh, you don't even need to say it—I'm not sharing a prize like you with anyone else!"
Wearing a sleazy grin, the man lunged forward with both hands outstretched to grab her.
"Whoaaaa!?"
A roar of cheers went up instantly.
The lunging man was sent flipping through the air before crashing flat on his back into the dirt.
Staring blankly up at the sky, he wore an utterly dazed expression, having no clue what had just hit him.
The woman thrust an open palm toward him.
"Three Rien."
"...Huh?"
"The entry fee. You didn't bother paying upfront because you assumed you'd win, right?"
"Man, that's embarrassing!"
"Strutted in all full of himself only to get wiped out in a second!"
"What a pathetic loser!"
Jeers and taunts rang out from the surrounding crowd.
Flushing bright red, the man dug a silver coin out of his pocket, slammed it onto the ground, and practically ran for his life.
The woman scooped up the coin, tucked it away neatly, and called out once more.
"Who's the next challenger?"
Even after watching her dismantle someone in the blink of an eye, the idea of winning a beauty like her for just three Rien remained far too enticing to resist.
One after another, challengers stepped up and paid their three Rien, only to be effortlessly rebuffed by her every single time.
"Heheh, looks like it's my turn."
"Entry fee, please."
"Hold your horses. If you can actually beat me, I'll pay you fair and square."
At his words, the spectators began egging him on from all sides.
By now, everyone in the crowd knew the woman was no amateur.
Most of the onlookers were just itching to watch this new challenger make a complete fool of himself like the first guy. That was the unmistakable mood in the air.
"Alright, here I come!"
The man threw a punch, driving an uppercut straight toward her from below.
It looked to carry a decent amount of force, but having watched the previous bouts, every single spectator anticipated an easy victory for the woman.
And yet...
"—Guh, cough!"
Just as she moved to evade and counter, her foot caught on something, stopping her dead in her tracks.
In the very next instant, the man's fist drove deep into her gut.
It was a clean, punishing blow. Her eyes went wide, she gagged, and she crumpled forward against the man's chest.
"Heheh, a deal's a deal. You're mine now."
With a smug grin, the man shoved his way past the spectators, who were buzzing in shock at the sudden upset, and moved to leave.
"Hold on."
I did the opposite, parting the crowd and stepping into the clearing.
"Huh? What's your problem, kid? Got something to say?"
"Yeah. You broke the rules."
"The hell are you talking about?"
I strode briskly over and pulled back the hem at the ankle of the woman slung over his shoulder.
A single needle was embedded there.
"Having an accomplice pull a cheap trick like that turns this into a two-on-one. That's a direct violation of the rules, isn't it?"
"The hell kind of nonsense are you spewing?! As if I'd—"
Thud.
A short distance away, someone hit the dirt.
I had used Leviathan's aura to intimidate and knock the culprit out cold.
"That guy over there is your partner in crime, isn't he?"
"...Never seen him before in my life."
"Don't give us that crap, Chad! That's your lackey Rob!"
"The two of you were drinking together at my tavern just yesterday!"
"Let the girl go, you cheating coward!"
It seemed the surrounding crowd knew the two were partners all too well.
Pummeled by jeers from every direction, the man named Chad went crimson with rage.
"Shut up! You damn brat, poking your nose where it doesn't belong!"
Lashing out in fury, he dropped the woman and swung a wild fist at me.
Guess I'll have to teach him a painful lesson.
I drew Leviathan from my bracelet.
First, I slashed across both of Chad's shoulders.
His arms dropped limp to his sides; he wouldn't be using his hands anytime soon.
With a seamless follow-through, I sliced right through Chad's belt.
With the leather severed, his trousers dropped to the ground with a soft rustle.
"Wh-What...!?"
"Still want to keep going?"
I rested Leviathan's blade against Chad's throat.
Chad's face flushed an even deeper shade of red as he trembled from head to toe.
Seeing the spectacle unfold, the surrounding crowd went wild.
"Holy crap, what was that?! Where did that sword even come from?!"
"Forget that, look at the swordplay! I couldn't even track the blade!"
"The way he handled him was damn cool! Chad's always throwing his weight around, so that was satisfying as hell to watch!"
As the crowd jeered and cheered, the violently shaking Chad spat out,
"J-Just you remember this!"
Barking out his hollow parting threat, he turned tail and ran.
Unable to use his arms and with his pants slashed away, the sight of him sprinting off completely buck-naked from the waist down sent the entire crowd into roaring laughter.