Chapter 148

Chapter 148
Chapter 148

The high authorities of the Empire might classify unlicensed sorcerers and practitioners of the dark arts as the same type of criminal, but the public consciousness draws a sharp distinction between them.

While the former are hunted primarily for the sake of political control, the latter are viewed as fundamental threats to humanity simply by existing.

To put it plainly, any level of brutality inflicted upon a confirmed warlock is considered justifiable and beyond reproach.

‘The world already knows I attempted to swindle the Duke. If I am branded a practitioner of black magic on top of that…’

A torrential sweat broke out across Dominic’s skin, soaking him completely.

At this stage, his accumulated fortune and even his life were no longer the primary worries. In the most gruesome scenario, he could be kept hovering on the brink of death, subjected to agonizing interrogation for months without end.

Driven by the mental image of such a ghastly fate, Dominic began to strike his forehead against the stone floor in a frantic display of submission.

“Your Highness, this… I swear, it is not the dark arts, please, I beg for your compassion…!”

He struggled to form a coherent defense, but his words were a jumbled mess. No matter what excuse he managed to cobble together, it would be utterly hollow if Lucian had already decided to condemn him.

Just as the weight of his hopeless situation threatened to make him lose consciousness—

“Hmm. Reflecting on it further, perhaps I was hasty. Is this truly the work of a warlock?”

Dominic’s head snapped up at the sound of Lucian’s voice, which offered a sudden, unexpected glimmer of hope.

Lucian wore a frigid smirk, glancing around the room with a sense of practiced drama.

“I may have spoken too quickly because the phenomenon mirrored the dark arts I have encountered, but the world is full of various magical disciplines. Upon a second inspection, this might not be black magic at all, but rather a different enchantment that produces a comparable result.”

“Y-yes, precisely! It is a technique belonging to the Metal School…!”

“And because of that.”

Silencing Dominic mid-sentence, Lucian leaned closer, his smile turning predatory. Trapped in that hawk-like gaze, Dominic gulped, waiting with bated breath for the next words.

“I expect you to provide a comprehensive explanation of the facts—so transparently that there is no room for doubt. I want to hear exactly how you employed such magic in an attempt to trick me.”

In that moment, the true intent behind Lucian’s pressure became clear to Dominic.

The Duke wanted a full, verbal confession of every transgression so that Dominic could never retreat behind a new lie. Furthermore, he wanted Dominic to personally validate the terms of their bet, surrendering every asset he owned by his own volition.

‘Ah.’

Recognizing that he had been completely cornered, Dominic shut his eyes.

He was left to choose between an absolute catastrophe and a slightly lesser disaster. Between those two paths, the decision required no thought.

“When I was a young man, I once provided a service to a certain sorcerer…”

The patriarch of the Dominic Merchant Group had long been known by the moniker ‘Steel Dominic.’

He had earned that reputation because, even among the elite traders of the world, he was a primary dealer in the tools of war. Because the flow of blades and plate armor was centered around him, the name ‘Steel’ was a natural fit.

For a man of commerce, it was a title that carried a certain weight of respect.

However, once the era of turmoil began, that respect vanished. The old nickname was buried under a mountain of insults.

‘The Seven-Forked Tongue, The Man Whose Breath is a Curse, The Target of Every Blade.’

Countless rulers across the lands spoke his name with pure venom. It had reached the point where a common laborer might not know the name of the reigning Emperor, but they certainly knew of Dominic.

The reason for this widespread hatred was straightforward.

‘He traversed the continent defrauding every power he met, claiming to have pioneered a non-existent method of refining metal.’

Tenebrium.

Known as the ‘Stone of Darkness’ in the ancient tongue, this material caused a sensation the moment it was introduced. It boasted a durability that rivaled Adamantium but was offered at a fraction of the cost.

The secret of this mysterious alloy remained a mystery, as Dominic, the man who brought it to light, guarded the formula with fanatical secrecy.

Despite the intimidation tactics of various lords, Dominic maintained a single stance regarding Tenebrium.

—I am a businessman. If you desire the product, provide the coins. I will sell to anyone who meets my price.

The nobility cursed him as a disrespectful commoner for his stubbornness, but they were trapped. In a chaotic age where betrayal was the norm, attempting to seize Dominic to steal the secret was too risky. Any lord who tried would immediately face a coalition of rivals using the ‘rescue’ of the merchant as an excuse for war.

Furthermore, the Dominic Merchant Group was a sprawling network with outposts everywhere. While they couldn’t win a war, it was easy for the leader to vanish into the shadows if threatened.

If they earned his enmity, he would simply flee to a rival and hand over the Tenebrium secret to them instead.

—Curse him! Fine, name your price! I will take everything you can produce!

Ultimately, the lords were forced to pay the full asking price for Tenebrium.

Luckily, the metal was shockingly affordable given its quality. The rulers didn’t think twice about emptying their treasuries to secure a stockpile. Why hesitate when the potential for profit or military dominance was so high?

The Dominic Merchant Group worked tirelessly to supply the massive influx of orders.

The turning point came a year later, after a vast quantity of Tenebrium gear had already flooded the continent.

—C-Captain! The Tenebrium blade I bought last month just snapped in half!

—What? That is impossible! You must have done something incredibly foolish to break it!

—I was only testing it against a stone! Its strength has completely failed!

—That cannot be…!

The nobility and the warrior class began to witness the impossible. As the weeks passed, the legendary hardness of the equipment began to soften and degrade.

Had the issue stopped there, it might have been blamed on a poor batch, but the true flaw was revealed when the metal encountered seawater by accident.

The moment it came into contact with salt, the once-unbreakable gear disintegrated into useless dust.

By the time the lords realized they had been swindled, Dominic had already sought sanctuary under the banner of Marquis Bernhardt.

The rulers screamed for his head and demanded his extradition, but Marquis Bernhardt remained unmoved.

‘There were whispers that he traded half of his massive wealth for a title of nobility, though I never knew if that was the full truth.’

In his previous life as a mercenary, Lucian had neither the interest nor the opportunity to investigate the specifics.

However, it was undeniable that Dominic spent his final years in comfort under the protection of the House of Roglan. It was also a matter of record that the House of Roglan significantly bolstered its military power using a mysterious influx of gold.

‘Regardless of the title, he definitely bought his survival with a staggering amount of money.’

There was no other logical reason to harbor a man who was the most hated person on the continent.

When Lucian first encountered those stories, he couldn’t grasp why Dominic would take such a risk. Why would a top-tier merchant destroy his own reputation and legacy for a single massive score?

But as he looked at the man now, the logic began to click into place.

“…And that is the path that led me to this transgression. This pathetic old man was blinded by the prospect of wealth and went too far.”

As Lucian finished filtering through his memories of the past, Dominic’s admission of guilt was reaching its conclusion.

In short: during his youth, he had befriended a mage who taught him a way to temporarily harden metal, which served as the foundation for his long-term fraud.

Satisfied that he had extracted all the useful information, Lucian addressed the merchant.

“Dominic.”

“Your Highness! I beg for your mercy…!”

“Do you harbor resentment toward the nobility?”

Dominic, who had been in the middle of an emotional plea, went still at the question. Lucian didn’t wait for a response, continuing in a reflective tone.

“In a time of instability, the life of a merchant is as precarious as an insect’s. Without true power, a contract is only as good as the lord’s whim. One could argue there is no survival without becoming a puppet for a powerful house.”

“…”

“So, I can comprehend the desire to pull off one final, massive heist to buy a secure future… but your plan was far too aggressive. You were destined to attract more hatred than the wealth was worth.”

Even if Dominic had found peace in the previous timeline, it was a hollow victory. He would have lived every day in fear of a blade in the dark, knowing he had incinerated the professional trust he had spent a lifetime building.

Yet, Dominic had chosen to ruin countless lords for a relatively small gain. It was too shortsighted for a man of his intellect if profit was the only goal.

“Answer me, Dominic. Was it truly just for the gold that you tried to defraud me and the lords of the North? Did you orchestrate this entire charade for such a pitiful return?”

“…Heh, hehehe.”

A hollow, strange laugh bubbled up from Dominic’s throat as he kept his head bowed. After a few moments of quiet laughter, he looked up with a face that seemed cleared of all earthly concern.

“What does my reasoning matter at this point? I have sinned, my failure is public, and I am ready for the consequences.”

“…”

“I will surrender everything as we agreed. Do with me what you will.”

With those final words, Dominic fell into a silent resignation, as if he had already accepted his end.

After observing him for a moment, Lucian signaled his guards.

“Take the prisoner Dominic to the cells, and bring in the other guild leaders who are waiting outside.”

The merchant masters were practically catatonic with fear as the soldiers hauled them into the room.

They had harbored a faint hope that Dominic would find a loophole for them, but the revelation of the fraud had shattered those dreams. Now, instead of being freed, they were likely to be used as scapegoats.

“Y-Your Highness! We were completely in the dark! We are innocent of this!”

“We beg for a fair inquiry! We can prove we were deceived as well!”

“If you continue to squawk, I will begin the fraud investigation by removing the head of whoever is making the most noise.”

With that single threat, the guild masters, who had been chirping like panicked chicks, went deathly silent.

Lucian let the silence hang for a few minutes before finally addressing the group.

“You are all aware of the wager I made with Dominic.”

“O-of course, Excellency.”

“Then the situation is clear. The ore that was supposed to compete with Adamantium is a fiction. By the terms of our contract, all his property belongs to me. The difficulty lies in the fact that I cannot easily locate all of it. He undoubtedly has hidden stores of wealth that are not on the official ledgers.”

“That… seems highly probable, doesn’t it?”

“Therefore, in exchange for a full pardon for your involvement, I am assigning you the task of hunting down his concealed assets. Do you accept this duty?”

“…!?”

The guild masters looked up, stunned by the proposal. If the offer was legitimate, it was a remarkably lenient way to pay for their crimes. Whether they found anything or not, their safety was guaranteed as long as they performed the search.

If there were no hidden assets, they would simply report that; if there were, they would hand them over and be on their way. And in the process of auditing the wealth, they might even find a way to skim a little off the top for themselves. Discrepancies were common in such large-scale asset seizures, after all.

“We are at your service…!”

“However, if the total value of the hidden assets you find is lower than what I expect, I will have no choice but to question your integrity. You follow my meaning, don’t you?”

The joy vanished from the guild masters’ faces. Question their integrity? How could they be held responsible for the existence or non-existence of hidden gold?

‘Curse it. This isn’t a task; it’s a demand for a bribe to stay out of the dungeon.’

‘And it’s not just a one-time payment. He can claim we’re “suspicious” whenever he wants more money.’

‘He’s basically telling us that we are on a leash for the foreseeable future.’

The asset hunt was a thin veil. The true purpose was to establish a permanent hold over them; he could tighten the noose of “suspicion” at any moment to keep them compliant. For the guild masters, it meant they would have to conduct all future business on Lucian’s terms or face destruction.

Realizing they were being forced into a position they couldn’t escape, the guild masters shouted their agreement.

“That is only natural! Your Highness has every reason to be wary!”

“If any among us tries to hide the truth, we will personally hand them over to your guards!”

“In fact, if the search falls short, we are prepared to make up the difference from our own vaults!”

They had no choice but to accept the collar. One wrong word would mean a blade to the throat rather than a leash. For men who were technically partners in a crime against a Duke, surviving the day was a victory.

Their eyes grew misty, but those were certainly tears of gratitude for their lives being spared. No matter how much gold it cost them, it was a small price to pay to keep their heads.