Chapter 11
Ice Magic (1)
“This is a business where they promise to take you to a comfortable southern territory… and then sell you off to slave traders.”
“Why not just go south on your own? Why bother using some middleman like that?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. To go south, you need quite a lot of transportation. What kind of lunatic would be willing to act as a coachman all the way from the northern end to the south?”
Bill continued his explanation.
“You’d also have to hire capable mercenaries to deal with bandits. Do you think a group of women could handle all that on their own? If they recklessly hired mercenaries without knowing anything, they’d lose everything they had—whether money or their bodies.
Well… in the end, it all turns out the same anyway.”
“Is that so. Sounds plausible.”
Isaac nodded.
Bill had once belonged to a bandit group.
Around the time when bandit suppression began in earnest in Goethe, he betrayed his own gang and revealed all their bases, barely saving his life by becoming a servant in the estate.
Because of that, he knew quite a lot about how the underground economy operated.
Isaac only learned about Bill’s past years later—when Bill was executed.
A clearing in the forest a short distance from the estate.
An execution ground not open to the public.
Bill had been caught by the head butler, Waller, while trying to sell a secret manual to a criminal organization.
The Count had Isaac attend as the eldest son of Goethe. After Waller listed Bill’s crimes, he severed Bill’s head with the famed sword Valerich.
The cleanly sliced cross-section of the neck… and Bill’s head blinking, as if unable to believe what had just happened to him—
—If only he had been a little less greedy, he would’ve been a useful man.
Schiller’s voice, clicking his tongue as he wiped the blood off Valerich.
It was Isaac’s first time seeing an execution so closely, and even now, he remembered it vividly.
Back then, the criminal organization Bill had tried to sell the manual to was the same one that had kidnapped the maids.
Those who expanded their power through human trafficking would gradually spread like mold throughout Goethe’s territory, tormenting its people.
Isaac wanted to rescue the maids partly out of gratitude to Enette, who had stayed by his side—but also to eliminate a threat to his family before it could grow.
“Young master?”
“Hm?”
Lost in thought for a moment, Isaac was called by Bill.
“What did you say?”
“I went around asking the beggars near the crossroads, slipping them some money, and it seems they really did go to that middleman. When I asked about his appearance, all the distinctive features matched.”
“Really?”
“And, well… they were all very wary, so it cost quite a bit to get them to talk. I used up all the travel money you gave me.”
Bill said, rolling his eyes.
The travel money Isaac had given him was twenty silver coins—an amount Bill would have had to work half a year without spending a single coin to earn.
There was surely some money left, but Isaac didn’t question him.
“The money doesn’t matter. What I want is to find them as soon as possible.”
“Oh, I was a fool. To not recognize such a generous person. Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”
Bill rubbed his hands together.
It was a natural gesture from someone who thought there was more to gain from Isaac.
“There is. I’ll make sure you get a proper share this time. Want to try?”
“Yes, of course.”
Bill nodded eagerly.
“Then I’d like you to write up a simple contract.”
…
“Why? If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
“…Is this right?”
“What do you mean?”
“How did things end up like this?”
“Don’t worry. It’s all going according to plan.”
“This is your plan?”
“Yeah.”
At Bill’s voice, filled with doubt, Isaac answered as if it were obvious.
“…Seriously? This is the plan?”
“Yeah.”
Bill looked utterly dumbfounded.
They were in a prison.
Not the underground prison of Bern City, but an iron cage placed in a sewer channel.
Half-naked people were crammed inside like animals.
Bill knew this place well.
In his younger days, he had supplied people here.
It was where bandits held those they would later sell to slave traders.
“I must be insane.”
Bill glared at Isaac and pressed his forehead against the bars.
How had it come to this?
It had been fine when they secretly slipped out of the estate with Hans’s help.
It had been fine when they hitched a carriage to Bern City.
Because Isaac had given him ten silver coins in advance.
But when Isaac, following his own plan, led them to the middleman, everything had already gone wrong.
Isaac had told the middleman that Bill was his servant and that he himself was a refugee from a fallen noble family.
The middleman immediately saw them as delicious prey.
Isaac’s delicate appearance and young age made him highly desirable among wealthy clients with particular tastes, and being a refugee noble meant there would be no consequences even if he was sold.
Isaac was practically begging to be captured and sold.
“Damn it, why me…!”
Bill cried out.
Isaac’s terrifying way with words didn’t stop there.
He spun some nonsense about having a rare illness, claiming that without Bill, his condition could worsen and even kill him.
Fearing the value of their “product” might decrease, the bandits locked Bill up as well.
What was even more absurd—Isaac was left in his fine clothes to maintain his status as a top-quality item, while Bill was stripped of everything, including the ten silver coins, leaving him with only his underwear.
And in this situation, Isaac calmly held a small stone, muttering strange things to himself.
“…This is different from what the book said.”
“Do I need to condense the mana more?”
“I’ll have to adjust the values.”
Bill felt like he was going to explode.
“Why me, huh? There’s Hans and the nanny—why me?!”
“You were going to die soon anyway. I figured I’d help you live a little longer.”
Isaac replied, still fiddling with the stone.
“Ha. Now you’re a fortune-teller?”
“Have you stopped calling me ‘young master’?”
“Would you call someone ‘young master’ in this situation? I’m about to die here!”
Bill wanted to beat the brat senseless.
But each of them was locked in separate cages so small they could barely fit a single person.
He thought he’d never face such danger again after being caught by the Count’s soldiers.
And yet here he was, risking his life over ten silver coins.
Stupid Bill. Stupid Bill.
Like burning down a forest just to warm frozen hands.
Regardless of Bill’s frustration,
Isaac continued to hold the stone, muttering incomprehensible words.
The middleman and bandits had taken all of Isaac’s silver coins but left the stone alone.
It was a smooth, somewhat unusual stone—something they assumed he had picked up by a river.
Even though it was unnaturally cold to the touch, they thought it was just because of the weather.
Bill hadn’t thought any differently.
“So, what are you going to do now? You must have some kind of plan in that tiny head of yours to get us here, right?! Stop talking to that rock—what are you, possessed by a demon?!”
Bill shouted in frustration.
“I’m getting out. I’ll find Enette and the other maids.”
Unlike Bill’s anger-filled voice, Isaac’s tone was calm as ever.
That only made Bill angrier.
“Of course you will! If you’ve got a way to break these iron bars. Are you seriously out of your mind?”
At that moment—
Creeeak—
Clang—
“…Huh?”
Isaac grabbed the iron bars—
—and shattered them into pieces.
Bill wondered if he was hallucinating from hoping too much for a miracle.
He blinked several times.
But nothing changed.
Isaac broke another set of bars.
Now there was enough space for his body to slip out.
“Uh… Young master?”
Isaac glanced back at Bill, still trapped in his cage.
“Y-you’re not going to leave me behind, right?”
“…You. Do you know me?”
“Well, you see, when a person is pushed to the edge… they might, uh… act a little differently, right?”
“People can be like that. But I don’t keep people like that around me.”
“Oh, young master. If you leave me here, I’ll die. I’ll spend my life as a slave and die.”
“You look like you’d fit that kind of life perfectly.”
“Please don’t say that. This place is like a maze. If you try to find those girls, you could lose your way and get surrounded by bandits instead.”
“You think I can’t handle something like that?”
Isaac narrowed his eyes as he looked at Bill.
“O-of course not. Someone who can smash iron bars like that… those bandits would be nothing to you.”
“Then there’s no reason to let you out.”
“But! But if I’m with you, we can avoid unnecessary fights, reduce risks, and rescue them using the most efficient route before escaping safely!”
“Not needed.”
Isaac coldly turned his back.
“You bastard!”
“…Did you just call me that?”
At Bill’s desperate shout, Isaac turned his head again.
“Please, spare me! I’ll do anything—anything!”
Inside the cramped cage where even sitting was difficult, Bill bowed flat on the ground.
Perhaps his desperation worked.
Isaac turned back and approached him.
“Anything, you say?”
“Yes! Damn it—anything!”
“Then this.”
A sheet of parchment was suddenly spread out in front of Bill’s eyes.
“What is this?”
“What do you mean? It’s the contract you refused to sign. You said you wouldn’t sign unless I explained the contents written in the ancient language. I’ll explain now.”
“…?”
“One: The contracted party, Bill, must unconditionally obey the contractor, Isaac.
Two: The contracted party, Bill, must not disclose any information about the contractor, Isaac.
Three: If the contracted party, Bill, violates any of the above terms, he dies.”
“…Dies?”
“Yeah.”
“…That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“The third clause seems a bit… vague. Isn’t there something about curses or how exactly I die?”
“Oh, that? That’ll depend on my mood at the time.”
“…Damn it.”
“Hm. Maybe I should’ve added something about profanity too.”
“And you want me to sign this right now?”
“Yeah. With your blood. That’s how it gains magical effect.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“I’m perfectly sane. Your life’s on the line—take it seriously.”
Only then did Bill realize it.
He had gotten himself into something far worse than he imagined.
Did I get cursed or something? Or was there drugs mixed into the Count’s tobacco I smoked?
It felt like he was being toyed with by magic.
Isaac had shattered iron bars with his bare hands.
Whatever trick he used, the metal had crumbled like bread.
“The iron’s full of impurities, so its structure is unstable. If you push it through extremes of heat and cold, it fractures easily.”
And then he spouted words that barely sounded like the same language.
But that didn’t solve everything.
“So you caught a noble brat this time?”
“Yeah. Pretty boys are in high demand—easy to sell. We’ve hit the jackpot.”
Bandits stood guard at various points throughout the sewer.
Bill could handle one on his own, but judging by footsteps, coughs, and voices, there were at least five or six nearby.
Bill looked at Isaac.
Surely… he didn’t mean for him to take them all on alone.
He had to be joking.
“The one on the left—take him. I’ll handle the two on the right.”
“…Is that even possible?”
“It is. Go.”
Isaac answered briefly.
It was completely insane—but whether it was the contract’s influence or not, Bill couldn’t refuse.
With no choice, he picked up a broken brick near the sewer and crept up behind the bandit Isaac pointed out.
Thud.
With a dull sound, the bandit collapsed after being struck in the back of the head.
Almost simultaneously, the bandits on the other side also fell.
Neither Bill nor Isaac had touched them.
“…What?”
A bandit standing a short distance away approached.
His head suddenly snapped backward—
—and he crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
Even seeing it with his own eyes, Bill couldn’t believe it.
It all happened in an instant.
Something flashed through the air and struck the bandit square in the forehead.
“…What did you do?”
Bill approached the fallen bandit.
A large red lump had risen on his forehead.
“Guess.”
Isaac raised his fingertips.
Crack—
Sparkling ice particles gathered in the air, converging at Isaac’s fingertips.
“Hah—!”
Bill gasped sharply.
It was unmistakably magic.
He had been through all sorts of hardships and seen many rare things in his life—
—but this was the first time he had ever witnessed ice magic.