You'd Better Be Grateful!

"You'd better be grateful. To us. Your slaves."

Alexia puffed out her considerable chest and folded her arms.

High and mighty, this one.

But it was thanks to Alexia that I'd gotten out of that mess.

So I kept my mouth shut and listened.

"Time for a critique! First: you have zero understanding of the power dynamic between merchants and lords."

She pointed straight at me.

"Hey, I know that much—"

"Zip it and listen!"

Seemed like this was the norm lately.

I gave up and settled into audience mode.

"You clearly don't get it, or you wouldn't be in this situation. Master, listen. From a lord's perspective, what you did was the single most annoying thing you could have done."

Alexia poured water into a glass and drained it in one gulp.

"A lord… well, a noble, really. It's the same in the Empire or the Kingdom. Blue bloods care about face above all else. They don't want commoner merchants publicly voicing complaints."

"That's why I got arrested?"

"That's why you got arrested. You're the one who organized it, so you're the first target. If things had gone the other way, you'd have been made an example."

"Seriously?"

"Oh, seriously. Assets seized, then execution. Be grateful. To us. I mean, who knows what would have happened to us too."

"I just wanted to tell them I couldn't pay for something that pointless—"

A sigh.

All those fellow merchants who'd been reluctant to join. Now I understood why.

"Think about your methods. Why go at it head-on? A merchant's weapons are brains and money. A noble's weapons are rank and power. Even when they're desperate for cash, they'll grovel in private but never bow in public."

"Coming from a former noble, that's convincing."

"Oh, shut it. Sorry for being a noblewoman who lost every weapon she had."

Alexia snorted.

"I screwed up and provoked that brat, I get it. I was careless. But how did you get me released? He's not the type to listen to slaves."

"The lord's son listens to someone, doesn't he? Who are the people around him?"

The Sun God Church.

Come to think of it, he'd mentioned something about a cardinal. I'd wondered why that had come up.

"Normally, a massive religious organization like the Sun God Church is a thorn in any noble's side. In the Empire, young nobles being co-opted by the Church was already a known problem. Same thing's happening here."

"I see."

They'd definitely been in bed together. Enough to do something as insane as building a Sun God statue with the townspeople's money.

"Elza actually knew quite a bit about the Sun God Church's internal affairs. Being rivals, she'd done her homework."

"I always planned to pay them back someday."

Elza answered with her usual smile. Pay them back how, exactly? Years of grudges?

Azu had lost the thread of the conversation and was dozing off.

How relaxing. I wanted to be over there too. No? Fine.

"Oh, one thing first. No payment this time. Not a single copper."

"What? I thought it went well."

"It did, aside from a mountain of trouble. Plenty of bonus income too."

"Then why is there nothing left?"

"Whose fault do you think that is, Master?!"

Alexia roared at me. Ow, my ears…

"We had to bribe our way up to the cardinal and dress it up as a donation. A small amount wouldn't have cut it, so we used the entire mission payout. It was a decent sum, and the Sun God Church is in fundraising mode, so that got us a deal."

So the cardinal had received a generous donation and, as a favor, ordered my release.

"There's no guarantee he'd help, though. He could've just pocketed the money."

"He wouldn't. He wants the next donation too."

"A corrupt cleric, then. Can't complain this time since it saved my skin."

"Quite. Lining those bastards' pockets is infuriating beyond words, but we need you, Master. Slaves have no rights. If you die, what happens to us?"

At that, Azu snapped awake in alarm.

"Y-you can't die!"

Azu grabbed my collar with strength that didn't match her appearance and shook me violently.

The world… was spinning.

"I'm alive. I'm fine. Looks like I was saved this time. Thank you."

"I did it for myself, so don't mention it."

"That's wonderful. You seem like a good master, so please do live a long life."

The situation had been far worse than I'd thought. I'd escaped by the skin of my teeth.

A lord's proxy or not, disposing of a single commoner was apparently that simple.

I'd underestimated the danger. Without these slaves, I'd have been done for.

I grabbed a bottle of wine from the shelf and drank straight from it.

A belated chill ran down my spine. I needed to warm up.

Half the bottle gone in one go, and the buzz was hitting fast.

"That's enough. Hand it over."

"Have at it… I'm sleepy."

Alexia snatched the wine bottle away.

The exhaustion I'd been holding back flooded in as the alcohol hit.

What an absolute nightmare. I'd expected the slaves to be the ones in danger, not me.

Sleep.

I'd figure out countermeasures starting tomorrow.