A Young Merchant Doesn't Understand Politics

"Master's in jail…?"

It was roughly twenty days after departing on the escort mission that Azu and the others began their journey home.

The client's caravan had hired multiple escort parties and chosen a dangerous but faster route.

Azu's party had no issues, but the other party was clearly below standard, leaving Azu's group to handle the escort practically on their own.

When the all-male party realized Azu's group was all women, they started picking fights despite being the weaker group. Alexia was furious.

Even Azu, who almost never got angry, didn't bother hiding her displeasure. As for Elza, she was so furious she'd looped all the way back around to laughing. Though she looked the same as always.

The skill gap had been enormous from the start, so a bit of intimidation was all it took for the other party to back down.

The caravan was fed up too, and sent them packing mid-route.

Fortunately, despite taking the dangerous route, they managed to avoid any truly powerful monsters. They handled every skirmish with ease and arrived at their destination without incident.

Out in the open, Azu's speed was fully unleashed.

With a blessing enhancing her, Azu shot forward like an arrow to draw attention, then a blessing-boosted Alexia hammered the target with magic. That alone was enough to win.

All the cargo arrived undamaged, so they collected the full reward plus the bonus, along with the other party's share on top of that.

A hefty sum. Being tied up for days was a drawback, but at this rate, taking escort jobs regularly would build a solid fortune.

Of course, no matter how much Azu and the others earned, their greedy but well-prepared master took every last coin.

The return trip brought its own trouble. The dismissed male adventurers had linked up with bandits and were lying in wait, taunting the girls with lecherous stares.

Azu reacted most strongly to that.

Azu was keenly aware of her status as a slave, and precisely because of that, she found security in it.

What would Master think if she were defiled?

He might decide she was worthless.

She'd only just begun to feel that he trusted her. The thought of that being shattered struck at Azu's deepest nerve.

Azu's figure vanished before Elza could even cast a blessing.

A bandit's head flew through the air, and only then did anyone see the arc of Azu's blade.

It was Azu's first time taking a human life, but in the grip of that fury, the fact barely registered.

Azu's blue eyes locked onto her enemies.

Cold, lethal intent seeped from them.

The adventurers scrambled backward in terror, tripping over themselves to flee.

The bandits had already been incinerated by Alexia.

Azu tried to give chase and finish off the runners, but Elza held her back, and Azu came to her senses.

In Elza's eyes, Azu was far too pure.

Her upbringing made it understandable, but… Elza cast a calming miracle on Azu. Azu dropped the sword to the ground and clung to Elza.

Alexia watched from the sidelines.

From Alexia's perspective, Azu was a walking contradiction.

Azu's strength was no longer ordinary. Still weaker than Alexia, certainly, but impossible to believe she'd been a mere village girl until recently.

Even accounting for their overprotective master's preparations, the growth rate was staggering.

She should be proud. She should have confidence.

And yet Azu was utterly devoted to that smooth-talking, going-nowhere tool shop man.

Environment shapes the person, they say, but… had being abandoned by her parents driven her to cling to a master as a substitute?

Reaching that thought, Alexia realized her own situation wasn't much different, and felt disgusted with herself.

There was no home left for her in the Empire.

If Azu could lose herself in that dream, perhaps she was the happier one.

With that in mind, the group somehow managed to make it back to the house.

Then the shop employee told them their master had been thrown in jail, and Alexia let out the deepest sigh of her entire life.

She gathered the details from the Adventurer's Guild and the shop employee, and held her head in her hands.

That master of theirs was a merchant through and through, and a young one at that.

Seasoned merchants understood politics well, but young ones just couldn't quite grasp it.

She'd thought he was on the capable side, but he'd gone and protested in a way that painted a target on his back for the lord's son.

I'll have to educate him, she noted mentally.

On the bright side, the shop could run on its own with just the employees for a while.

Though that raised its own questions about the master's necessity.

Azu had gone half-hysterical, so Alexia knocked her out to shut her up.

Elza was calm.

… Azu's personality was a bit warped, but easy enough to read.

Elza, on the other hand… and this was likely true from Master's and Azu's perspective as well.

Nobody could tell what was going on inside that cleric's head.

A priestess of the Creator King faith, a religion that should have vanished from the continent. There was something transcendent about her.

"What do we do?"

"What else? We go. We're that man's slaves, after all."

"Hehe. True enough. May I leave it to you?"

"I know, I know. This is my area."

"A noblewoman through and through, even when the luster's faded."

"Oh, hush. I'm just a former noblewoman whose own country wouldn't even pay her ransom."

The information was all there. Their social standing was that of slaves, but they had funds on hand.

This was a political problem, but fortunately their opponent was nothing more than a child playing lord.

There were ways to handle this.

The Empire's high society was a den of demons. Actual monsters had better character by comparison.

Compared to that, an opponent vulnerable to underhanded tactics was nothing to fear.

"How does someone this capable end up a slave?"

"… By the time I realized it, there was no one left on my side."

"My, my. I'll pray for you."

Alexia barked at Elza.