Chapter 58
“Who are you… oh…”
The shouting that shook the tea café stopped abruptly.
“Do you know who we are, Marquis… Youngsik?”
Youngsik Vistavern grimaced as if struck by an arrow.
“Oh, uh, H-Harmadun’s lady. Haha, my apologies. I didn’t know you were here.”
As he tried to slink away, bowing obsequiously—
“Stop.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Go fetch the real Marquis Vistavern. We’ll raise this issue formally with the ducal families.”
“What?!”
Youngsik Vistavern, at a loss, dropped to his knees and began begging. His skill suggested he’d done this often.
“P-Please forgive ! Please! I just wanted to eat my favorite dish! Please, don’t tell my father…!”
Know-It-All (Lv 3) uses Weakness Identification.
‘Oh, I see it.’
I spotted the item I wanted in Youngsik Vistavern’s clothing.
“Why act like that when your desired dish is out of season?”
“I-I’m a noble! A noble! A noble with the duty to rule over commoners! When I make a request, how dare…!”
Slap!
Youngsik Vistavern’s head snapped to the side. Bord’s massive palm left a clear mark on his cheek.
“If you know a noble’s duty…”
“…Young Lord Tauforos…”
“You’d know your actions were anything but noble.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“I don’t believe you’re truly sorry. But rember this. We’re letting you go today, but the mont we hear of this happening again, you’ll face sothing far worse than you can imagine. The eyes and ears of the Four Great Ducal Families are everywhere. Don’t forget.”
“T-Thank you! Thank you!”
The incident was resolved quickly. A power play t with greater power—it was only natural he’d be helpless.
Using one’s authority was a fine strategy.
But… I felt uneasy. I was in a position closer to Youngsik Vistavern, wasn’t I? On Earth, it was Recola; in this novel, the protagonist party. I was just soone crushed by another’s talent.
‘I don’t pull lodramatic stunts like that.’
But sotis, my pride, fallen to the depths, ached enough to want to.
Comparing myself to overwhelmingly superior people made give up on moving forward, no matter how hard I tried not to.
‘…Calm down. Don’t lose your cool over this.’
I couldn’t be late. Protagonists grew stronger through failure. Marquis Vistavern was a key figure in pushing the protagonist party toward awakening. I couldn’t miss this chance.
As Youngsik Vistavern awkwardly stood to leave the café, I grabbed him.
“Sorry, but I can’t let you go.”
“Eek! I-I’m sorry! Please forgive !”
His loud plea made Bord, who was wrapping up, turn to .
“Cadet Martin? Why…?”
At the na Martin, Youngsik Vistavern glanced at my face, then contorted his expression and started barking.
“Y-You, the disgrace of nobility! Let go…!”
I drew my shotgun and pressed it under his chin. The effect was imdiate.
Elisha, alard by the aggressive restraint, questioned .
“Cadet Martin, what’s going on?”
“He’ll answer that, not .”
I grabbed Youngsik Vistavern’s collar and tore it open, revealing a dark red necklace.
Necklaces worn over clothing are decorative accessories.
One worn underneath is either precious or holds deep aning.
“Answer, Youngsik Vistavern. What is this?”
“I-I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it.”
“Oh… if you’d seen interrogate Dr. Keren, this would’ve been easier.”
Of course, I had no intention of doing that in a crowded café. But others might not think so. It was enough to motivate those more righteous than .
As I raised my hand, Elisha quickly intervened.
“Stop! I’ll ask him, so stop, Cadet Martin. Youngsik Vistavern, what is it? Tell the truth, and I promise we’ll let you go safely.”
While Elisha stepped forward to question him, I moved behind her, glaring sharply at Youngsik Vistavern. With my lips, I mouthed what he needed to say. Just three words, but a declaration I knew everything.
“I-It’s, uh… a ‘pass,’ of sorts.”
“A pass?”
Oh, selling out his family that easily? He might be worse than Martin. My self-esteem was rising—a good thing.
“Y-You’ll let go, right? You’ll forgive , right?!”
Elisha, sensing a secret, pressed further.
“Alright. So what is it?”
“I-It’s…”
***
Once Youngsik Vistavern spilled the secret about the necklace, club activities were urgently halted. The protagonist party began investigating the necklace, Hailey headed to the academy, and Luri to the Elidore Marquisate.
I stayed here.
Youngsik Vistavern stumbled backward and fell. Behind him was a dead end.
“Y-You said you’d let go…”
“That was Harmadun. I never said that.”
You should listen to people until the end.
“Just think of it as karma.”
I wiped the gun’s muzzle with a cloth.
As I slowly approached, Youngsik Vistavern clung to the alley wall.
“S-Save…!”
Bang!
Youngsik Vistavern’s head exploded. I felt exhilaration as blood splattered on . This was it—the thrill of eliminating soone more wicked, weaker than . Playing the hero.
I pulled my blood-stained robe’s hood low.
If you call it excessive, no. If you knew the deeds this vermin would soon commit, this was nothing. I was generous, granting a peaceful death.
A punk who flaunted his father’s status to bully in the open—what did you think he did in the shadows?
‘Ti to catch up.’
The protagonist party was likely working hard to find Marquis Vistavern. But he was cunning. They wouldn’t find him easily.
‘I need to take him out before they do.’
The sixth villain in The Fallen Crown Prince of the Cosmos Empire, Marquis Vistavern, ran the underworld with the imnse power of his title.
In the original, Gilbert and friends unraveled his sches, found the mastermind, and ultimately triumphed.
‘It’ll wrap up much faster than the original.’
Knowing the culprit from the start twisted the story. It was like a cheat code.
Obviously a good thing. A good thing.
A good thing… but honestly, I wasn’t sure.
‘Ugh, this is tricky.’
They were the ‘protagonist’ and his party. I figured they’d handle it fine on their own…
‘…I really hope so.’
Things never went smoothly when I got involved.
With Dr. Keren, I conquered too well, causing the late-ga villain, the Count-rank Demon, to appear early.
Marquis Vistavern wasn’t supposed to show up now either. He was a figure for the first-year winter break.
But even if ti rewound, I’d make the sa choice. The original world ended because they waited for disasters. This was a preemptive strike. A eting half a year early.
‘All the more reason not to be late. Ti to move.’
Looking up, a vast underground market unfolded. The black market, deeper than the underground waterway.
With enough money, you could get almost anything—not everything, but close.
Drugs that could kill in one hit, gear supplied only to elite regular troops, and so on.
The marketing team worked hard, even featuring flagship products.
Slaves.
A lucrative business with a dedicated auction house. Also the source of the most brutal, pained groans.
The proposer, executor, and operator of this idea? Marquis Vistavern. My prey.
‘First, I’ve dealt with the most dangerous one.’
Youngsik Vistavern was a wildcard. That prideful punk was a hardcore daddy’s boy, tattling everything to his father.
In the original, after being defeated by the protagonist party, he ran to Marquis Vistavern and spilled everything.
This caused the protagonist party to face a fully prepared marquis’ ‘hospitality,’ a thorny path I was supposed to share. But whatever. I’d already killed him.
‘Now, just take down the marquis.’
Infiltration would be easy.
While I put a bullet through the marquis’ head, the protagonist party would play bait.
From now, I’d head to the secret eting place where the black market’s top brass, including the marquis, gathered…
“…What?”
This person always popped up in the weirdest places.
“Here it is.”
“The stench of riffraff here is enough to burn my nose. Let’s find that person and leave.”
Princess Adela. She was in the black market.
Her disguise magic was clever, but useless against the combo of Wild Instinct and Know-It-All.
“The knights are searching everywhere.”
“Good. We must find them. This ti, the Peacemaker.”
‘The Peacemaker is here?’
I ca to push a future main storyline early, but it felt like I’d stumbled on a hidden ending’s branching point.
“We’ll succeed this ti.”
“This ti, that ti—I’ve been to every place he’s supposedly been, but never caught a trace. Dozens of tis. Counting’s pointless.”
“My apologies.”
“Fine. I’ll browse in the anti. Let’s see… this slave auction house is supposed to be big, right?”
“I’ll guide you.”
…It didn’t seem certain the Peacemaker was here. But the princess personally visiting a slave auction? If she was here herself, there might really be a Peacemaker…
I glanced at the distant secret eting place, then back at the princess.
‘I’ll stop by briefly.’
I was curious why she was here.
“Co one, co all, to the slave market—not an everyday event! Haha!”
“Today, we’ve got slaves to satisfy every master’s taste!”
Promoters boldly advertised the slave market.
Entry was free, so I followed the princess inside.
I had to be cautious. The Shadow Knights were searching for a Peacemaker whose presence wasn’t even confird. I even had to be careful with my gaze toward the princess.
Fortunately, the auction house was crowded.
People like , in hooded robes, faces covered with cloth or masks, hiding their identities in so way, filled the place.
Whether they feared divine judgnt or just saw it as a masquerade, I didn’t know.
‘Lucky for .’
I hoped Nerjin’s perception-disrupting magic on my robe worked well.
“Now, let’s begin the auction!”
Soon, naked slaves walked onto the stage. Despite being cleaned, they looked destitute and gaunt.
“A lot of them, right? A set deal! Perfect for warming up! Of course, if you don’t need so, you can discard them.”
The auctioneer scanned the participants and grinned.
“We’ll start at 10 silver.”
10 silver. Just 100,000 won. The value adults placed on ten children was a re 100,000 won.
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