And on top of that, there were no labor costs involved. Since it was completely self-sustaining, I wouldn’t even need special materials.
If I could just get used to controlling my magic, making a fortune would only be a matter of time..
This is amazing!
As expected, the world never let people starve to death so easily.
Hope rekindled inside me, and I finally began looking around the house.
…Though I wonder if the water works properly here.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t checked for hot water yet. I had years of living alone under my belt—my pride as a veteran self-sufficient adult was wounded.
Only now did I thoroughly inspect the place.
Unlike the crumbling exterior, the inside was thankfully still livable.
Creeeak—
“….”
The floor definitely needed replacing.
“Hup!”
The kitchen sink seemed functional enough, so next on the list was the bathroom.
After washing up, I’d have to think carefully about this underworld district.
There’s way too much I don’t know.
Most of what I remembered from the novel focused on the villain himself. There had barely been any detailed descriptions of the underworld setting.
Information is essential anywhere you go.
Especially in Proud.
It’s not like I can stay locked inside forever.
Even if it was only rough knowledge, I needed to organize what I knew. There were bound to be countless things I didn’t know yet.
If only I could get my hands on that kind of information.
And when it came to “information,” there was only one answer in a fantasy world:
An information guild.
Maybe I should look around tomorrow.
At the moment, I didn’t have enough money to buy information. I was barely scraping by as it was. I’d have to earn a decent amount first before visiting a guild.
Though honestly, “that place” would be the best option…
But its barriers to entry were notoriously high. Naturally, I couldn’t help hesitating.
“L-Lady…”
“Hm?”
Ah.
I tilted my head back.
The man dangling upside down from the ceiling looked utterly miserable.
Right. He was still here.
He’d been fairly defiant earlier, but now he seemed completely resigned to his fate.
“Hmmm.”
He had tried to kill me, so letting him go quietly didn’t sit right either.
“Mister.”
“I think I’m still far too young to be called ‘mister’…”
“…….”
Seriously? That was what he cared about right now?
I crossed my arms in annoyance.
Though now that I looked at him properly… he did seem fairly young.
At that moment, the man wiggled his foot slightly. One of the shoes hanging from his toes slipped off.
Thunk.
CRACK.
The rotten floor shattered on impact.
I narrowed my eyes sharply.
The merchant who had destroyed my house instantly turned pale.
“Yeah, this definitely won’t—”
“W-Wait!”
His desperate cry made me stop.
The man blinked pitifully at me.
“You just moved to Proud, didn’t you?!”
…Suddenly?
I stared blankly at him.
Taking my silence as confirmation, he hurriedly continued.
“You probably don’t even know what kind of place Proud is! I-I can help you! Ask me anything you want!”
His face turned bright red. He was so desperate that veins bulged from his neck.
“Hm.”
I let out a quiet breath.
“And who exactly are you, mister?”
Wasn’t he supposed to be some antique dealer?
As I mulled over his earlier words, my interest cooled.
Well, merchants do have information, I guess.
But what I wanted was something more specialized.
In other words—high-level information.
“If you’re just going to spout nonsense again—”
“Raymond!”
the man shouted urgently.
“I run the guild called Raymond— gah?!”
The pink mist binding him loosened, and the moment he regained freedom, his body dropped toward the floor. Instantly, a sticky pink strand shot out and caught his ankle again.
The upside-down man was slowly lowered safely to the ground.
“There.”
I dragged over a nearby chair and sat down gracefully, crossing my legs.
“Let’s begin our negotiation.”
After all, life was all about changing your stance when necessary.
There wasn’t a single person in the underworld who didn’t know the name Raymond.
The largest information guild in Proud—and one of the biggest merchants operating within the black market—both belonged to Raymond.
Which made one thing especially confusing.
“Why were you dangling from my ceiling?”
“You were the one who hung me there!”
“Ah. Right.”
I coughed awkwardly.
The man who had finally managed to touch the ground again—Gilbert, apparently—collapsed onto the sofa.
“Seriously. I nearly met my end.”
“It wasn’t even that high.”
Gilbert stared at me in disbelief.
“Do you not see the spikes on the floor?!”
At his words, I glanced downward.
The warped wooden boards sticking up from the floor genuinely did look dangerous.
“Guess I don’t need to install landmines after all.”
“Just fix the floor already!”
I quietly looked away.
After letting out a long sigh, Gilbert crossed his legs.
“So, how exactly can I help you?”
“You may ask me one question. I’ll answer with information.”
“Ehh?”
Only one?
“Add three wishes on top of that.”
I held up three fingers.
Gilbert’s complexion instantly drained white.
“Th-Three wishes is a bit…”
“You don’t want to?”
He uncrossed his legs and glanced nervously at my raised hand.
A moment later, his handsome eyes twisted with agony. Pressing a hand to his temple, he groaned.
“Lady. Do you know what wishes mean to our kind?”
“It means a blank check that has to be fulfilled no matter what.”
“So you do know.”
“But you tried to kill me.”
“I-I wasn’t trying to kill you! You just looked like a mage, so I wanted to test—”
“But you attacked me regardless, didn’t you?”
Gilbert shut his mouth tightly.
His trembling eyes darted around before he finally raked a hand through his hair.
“Fine. Alright. Three wishes it is.”
“A wise decision.”
Gilbert slumped lifelessly against the chair.
Seeing how exhausted he already looked, I casually added:
“Oh, and just so you know, the information is separate from the wishes.”
“……”
Gilbert quietly closed his eyes.
“I’m going to faint now, so don’t talk to me.”
“Okay. Then tell me about Proud’s overall situation.”
Gilbert’s eyes snapped open immediately.
“Lady, that information alone is worth twenty thousand gold.”
“That’s cheap.”
Comprehensive information about the underworld for only twenty thousand gold?
That was practically free.
“How much money do you even have right now?”
“Fifty gold?”
“…I shouldn’t have asked.”
Gilbert gave up trying to explain economics to my hopelessly reckless self.
Still, since I’d already caught such a useful fish, I intended to make full use of him.
“So hurry up and tell me.”
I needed to squeeze every last drop of value out of this opportunity.
With a snap of my fingers, faint magic flared like candlelight.
Gilbert nearly jumped out of his seat.
“Are you threatening me right now?”
“No. I’m urging you along.”
At my shameless reply, Gilbert swallowed back tears.
“…Where I come from, we call that a threat, Lady.”
Gilbert rubbed his face dryly, as though reality had finally hit him.
“So, to be precise—you want to know the overall situation of Proud?”
I nodded.
If you wanted to survive somewhere unfamiliar, the first thing you needed to know was your surroundings.
This black market might appear peaceful on the surface, but in truth, it was a nest of the Empire’s worst crimes.
At the Eastern End hadn’t been rated adults-only for nothing. The story was filled with brutal and violent elements.
“Now then… where should I even begin?”
“Just start from the beginning.”
“You little br— ahem. Very well. I’ll explain from the start, Lady.”
I was fairly certain I’d heard the beginning of an insult there, but I generously ignored it.
Gilbert stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“You said you were once a noble, so surely you’ve at least heard of Kazleden?”