Jaigia, Leader of the [Radiant Fang] Guild
Even after venting my frustrations on Rachel, I' m still fuming.
That dagger—I must take it back.
I' ve ordered the search unit at the main guild branch to hunt for it, but so far, there' s been nothing. Not even a trace.
As I decided to blow off steam in a dungeon, Bebe sent someone with news about Calika.
Her older sister is gravely injured, and her younger sister vanished in the slums. Calika is still searching for her.
And that psycho from [Blazing Chain] and that upstart brat from [Iron Bastion] think they can steal my Calika?
Good. Very good. They' ll soon learn the true power of my guild.
"Send our best healer to the [Resonant Magic] Guild, and dispatch someone to the main branch with my orders: mobilize everyone to the slums now!!!"
"Understood, Lady Jaigia!"
*****
Inner City District
This is the most prosperous and comfortable district for non-nobles.
It houses the main branch of the Adventurer' s Administration Office, which holds all the information and quest requests unavailable to smaller branches.
Sub-branches receive simple or trivial tasks from the main branch to distribute to low-tier adventurers.
The city is bustling with shops, clean streets, and every convenience imaginable. Major guilds establish their main branches here, ensuring top-notch security.
The kingdom has a strict rule: any dungeon spawning within residential areas must be cleared immediately.
Guilds or citizens who hide dungeons for farming or nurturing them face the ultimate penalty—execution.
As a result, monsters only exist beyond the city walls.
Residents within the walls feel safe and willingly pay their taxes.
It was just another ordinary day for everyone.
Until…
Two major guilds made their move.
The [Radiant Fang] Guild
Every guild member, fully armed as if marching to war against a demon, left the city in a massive procession.
The [Blazing Chain] Guild
They mobilized nearly three thousand able-bodied slaves from all their branch shops.
With such a large exodus heading in the same direction, the Administration Office sent representatives to inquire about the cause. After receiving explanations, they posted a notice.
But they didn' t reveal the truth—that both guilds were searching for someone.
Instead, the notice claimed that the two major guilds, [Radiant Fang] and [Blazing Chain] , were undertaking a grand mission to purge criminal groups in the slums.
They spun the narrative without specifying which criminals were being targeted.
Allied guilds, hearing the news, sent some of their members to assist, hoping to maintain good relations.
As multiple major guilds collaborated in the slums, smaller guilds joined in, hoping to claim a share of the bounties or rewards for capturing or eliminating wanted criminals.
Over thirty guilds ended up participating.
Rival guilds, at odds with the two major players and their allies, jumped in to steal the spotlight and claim the glory.
The news was embellished until it became a grand coalition of guilds uniting to eradicate all forms of crime in the slums.
Nobles, eager for prestige, ordered their supported or affiliated guilds to join the effort in the slums.
*****
Calika, Nehu
I raided every child-smuggling den I could recall to find Elda.
At the second house I stormed, the guards were typical in number.
Before they could clash with my shield-and-sword ice soldiers, our archers opened fire, aiming for their legs to bring them down. Then, our spearmen stabbed the arm holding their weapons.
As I was about to interrogate them, one of the guards shouted back into the house:
"Come out and kill them already! Take care of that brat!"
Two burly men charged out, wearing only tattered pants. The iron collars around their necks marked them as slaves.
They didn' t want to die, but as slaves, they couldn' t disobey orders.
Two shield-and-sword soldiers blocked them immediately.
These two fought better than the child guards, yet their weapons were old, chipped swords—far inferior to the guards' better gear.
Shlick!
"Arghhh!"
I turned toward the scream. The one who' d ordered the slaves was pierced through the heart by a spearman.
The shield soldiers parried the slaves' attacks, then tripped one with a kick and slammed the other with a shield, sending him sprawling.
The spearman gave me a thumbs-up.
I hadn' t ordered the kill, but these were Lady Lera' s ice soldiers. They probably had some pre-programmed commands.
I nodded back at him.
The two slaves, once they got up, dropped their swords and knelt before me instantly.
"We' re sorry, Mistress! We couldn' t disobey our previous master' s orders. Please forgive us!"
"…Huh?"
I questioned the child guards and learned that if a slave' s master is killed, ownership transfers immediately to the killer.
The slaves added that after their old master dies, a voice in their heads tells them who their new master is.
Slaves can never gain freedom, but there are ways to be released. One of the safest is for the master to process a status change with a slave trader.
I understood that part, but what I didn' t get was why I became their master instead of Lady Lera, when her soldiers did the killing.
"Get up and bring out the children they' re holding."
"Right away, Mistress!"
The slaves quickly retrieved the children. None of them were Elda, so I ordered their release.
I turned back to the guards and asked if they' d seen Elda.
As expected, they didn' t know.
"Then where are the other child-holding houses?"
They didn' t know that either. They said their only job was to guard this place, and every night, the master' s trusted men came to collect the children. They knew nothing else.
Fine. I' d figure it out as I went.
I ordered a sweep of the area and pressed forward, with the two male slaves taking the guards' gear and clothes, joining me to find Elda.
As for the guards, the assassins in my group silently killed them without my knowledge, as usual.
Along the way, I asked everyone I met about Elda.
No one knew anything, but some pointed me toward other child-holding locations.
I raided them, searched for Elda, freed the children when she wasn' t there, and gained more slaves. I repeated this process, but even after the tenth house, I still hadn' t found her.
With more slaves joining, I could expand the search radius.
In my urgency, I stopped avoiding dangerous routes.
When we entered the territory of the [Mad Dog] gang, a massive clash broke out.
They outnumbered us several times over and refused to listen to reason.
Their leader kept shouting about making me his wife.
My ice soldiers seemed to snap into a frenzy.
And the fight began.
The Mad Dogs charged in a swarm. The front line was cut down by our archers, dropping several.
But they weren' t fazed at all. Those who survived the arrows met our spearmen and shield soldiers, who held them back.
The battle was chaotic, with snow stained red by blood. Their numbers allowed them to encircle us.
My slaves—now including both men and women—formed a protective ring around me, dealing with any stragglers who broke through.
After relentless attacks, the shields of my soldiers started to crack, and our arrows ran dry, forcing the archers into melee with their fists.
The situation looked grim, but soon we gained the upper hand. Their numbers dwindled rapidly, and they were wiped out.
The reason? Someone had ambushed their rear.
Caught between two fronts, they fell. After their leader was killed, the surviving slaves joined my group.
Now I had over fifty slaves.
The archers retrieved arrows from the corpses, and I let the slaves take whatever clothes and gear they wanted from the bodies.
I allowed them to layer up as much as they liked, knowing how brutal the cold was in their flimsy clothes.
My own outfit was already warm and comfortable.
I had the female slaves who couldn' t fight carry extra clothes, so Elda could wear them when we found her.
Any basic healing supplies we found on the [Mad Dog] corpses, I gave to the injured slaves to use.
They knelt before me, tears in their eyes, saying they' d never had a mistress as kind as me.
I quickly waved it off and told them to stand, not used to this kind of thing.
"Young lady! I heard you' re looking for a black-haired girl, right?"
At that moment, a beggar who looked like an old man shouted and waved at me.
I ordered my group to let him approach.
"Yes, sir, have you seen Elda?"
Boom!
"Hahaha! Blown away! Completely blown away!"
A crazed shout rang out from the front, accompanied by one of my ice soldiers being blasted into the air.
"Turned into crushed ice! Hahaha!"
The voice belonged to a disheveled middle-aged woman with wild hair, wielding a massive hammer. She smashed my ice soldiers with ease, sending them flying.
"That' s the Hammer Maniac!" the beggar exclaimed in shock.
While everyone' s attention was on her, the beggar suddenly drew a knife and lunged at me. But before he could slit my throat, a mysterious dagger flew from nowhere and lodged in the back of his head.
My slaves immediately swarmed him, beating him to a pulp.
"Mistress, that guy must be the Slicing Beggar!"
I' d heard of him—a psychopath who disguises himself as a beggar to lower his victims' guard, then kills them with a knife. He' s a notorious criminal known as the Slicing Beggar, who takes pleasure in carving up his targets.
As for the Hammer Maniac, I only knew she was a deranged woman with immense strength.
Since arriving in the slums, I' d avoided dangerous areas, knowing the high risk of death. But I never imagined it would be this dangerous.
The slums were already untrustworthy, and this only made it worse.
My ice soldiers couldn' t withstand the Hammer Maniac' s strength, but she wasn' t fast enough to dodge arrows. My archers riddled her with shots until she looked like a pincushion.
My ice soldiers were starting to take damage—cracks on their bodies, broken arms, even missing heads.
I' d have to apologize to Lady Lera later. For now, I had to keep searching for Elda.
Just then, a young male slave approached, bowing nervously.
"M-Mistress, I…"