...Condition?
I put on a puzzled look. Was he trying to get some materials for alchemy research?
But what followed was unexpected.
“I want you to save someone.”
“...Save someone?”
“Do you know about Actipol’s slave gladiator in this city?”
I nodded. There’s no way I wouldn’t know.
But why asked that suddenly?
Gulpiro continued the conversation, exhaling cigarette smoke with a sigh.
“I’ve been quite close with one person since the time I settled in this city. A young guy named Van, who ran a small fruit stall. He hasn’t shown his face lately, so I found out he couldn’t pay off his debts to the city’s lenders and they picked him up.”
It was a rather random story, so I just blinked my eyes.
“They say he’s already sold as a slave to Actipol, and is about to compete in a match, but I hope the Seventh Lord can rescue him. I’m begging you.”
He was asking in a more polite tone than before.
I asked, scratching my chin.
“Does he have a bit of a debt to pay off?”
“I heard it was over 30 gold because of the interest. When I visited Actipol, the ransom had already doubled. So, I was thinking about whether I should make a proper potion so I can help the guy.”
I didn’t understand what this meant for a moment, but then I understood.
It meant that he was trying to pay the ransom for the man who was caught by making a potion. And then I came here.
...
I sighed inwardly.
Because I realized I had come to Gulpiro at an amazing time.
It looked like he’s running a shop by making just simple potions right now, but what if he makes and sells great potions?
Naturally, he had no choice but to attract the attention of those in power in this capital. And in the worst case, his identity could even be revealed.
It occurred to me that him not remaining here in the not-too-distant future and moved to the South Continent might have something to do with this incident.
Anyway, it’s not something too difficult.
Money was rotting in my pocket. A few dozen gold was not even a penny for me.
And even if it was something that money could not do, I could solve it with power.
If there’s only one thing that bothered me…
“Okay. Let me bring him right away.”
“Thank you.”
I readily answered.
And after talking with him a little more, I finished the conversation and left the store.
***
The Sixth Lord’s territory ruled by the Tyrant.
In particular, Mahea, the capital city, was a place full of various vices and corruption, as befitting his notoriety.
One of the most representative of them was the slave gladiator.
After returning to the inn, I went straight out again with Asher and headed west of the city.
I looked at the huge structure that was appearing in the distance, standing in the middle of the streets and buildings.
Actipol.
It was the name of that huge stadium that looked like the Colosseum.
A death game in which only the victors could survive, in which armed slave gladiators fight for their lives.
All around, knights and soldiers stood guard, and many passers-by were seen entering and leaving Actipol.
Even now, the match was in full swing, and loud cheers and boos from the crowd were resounding inside the stadium.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue slightly.
Even in the game, the episodes related to Actipol had a dark storyline.
That was why I could clearly see how desperate the struggle was going on inside.
It was a world where the weight of life was infinitely light, especially in this city of Mahea.
To them, the desperate struggle of the slaves was just a moment’s entertainment, and it was only a means to win a lot by gambling.
I continued to walk.
The destination we were heading to now was not the stadium, but the slave prison building attached to it.
As Gulpiro said, the man named Van must be locked up there by now.
Let’s try to solve the problem with money.
What I was concerned about was if the other side kept trying to raise the ransom price, or if they said they wouldn’t sell him back at all.
In that case, it was enough to just press it with power, but this was also ambiguous.
If I revealed my identity as the Seventh Lord, of course, it would immediately reach the ears of the Tyrant in the Lord’s castle.
I wanted to avoid letting him know I was in this city. Maybe he would even come in person to meet me.
The reason I was wearing a robe like this now was because I was afraid that someone would recognize me. Because it was the Sixth Lord’s territory was just right next door to my territory.
Baltegger the Tyrant.
I thought about him for a moment.
There were a lot of words that could describe him, but to make it simple, he was;
Garbage, scumbag, tyrant, demon, monster, and many more…
He was the worst vampire in the world, acting only according to his own desires and enjoying the suffering of others more than anything else. That’s why the slave gladiator Actipol was built.
There were many villains in this RaSa universe, but if I had to pick the most primitively disgusting, it was the Tyrant.
“...”
Come to think of it, when I think about him, another character would come to mind.
In fact, the Tyrant was also a person to watch with more attention than the other Lords.
He’s just plain trash, so there’s no need to worry about it.
Even though he was a villain, as long as we were the same Lord, there was no harm in me.
There was only one reason.
Because he was deeply connected with one other important character in RaSa’s main story.
Flesh-headed Refrigon.
The original owner of the Seventh Lord’s throne.
The person who should have originally sat on the Seventh Lord’s seat that I had now occupied by chance.
He was the Seventh Lord of Calderic from the point of view of the gameplay, that was, several years later.
I didn’t know who he was.
Because there was almost no information about him in the game. Despite being on equal footing with the other Lords.
He always wore a mask, so he never showed his face.
Therefore, the only information I knew about Refrigon was that he was a human male, in a word, only his race and gender.
And I didn’t know the reason, but he hated the Tyrant very much.
Even in the main story, he killed the Tyrant during the Santea terror episode and then self-destructed in vain, so there was not even a small background about him.
So it was selected as one of the biggest mysteries of RaSa among the players.
A lot of players scolded the game devs for making a guy with no backstory into a Lord.
There were a lot of players who were looking for a hidden piece related to Refrigon, but in the end, they found nothing.
And even if it’s not just Refrigon, RaSa’s main story had a lot of unresolved parts, so there were a lot of complaints from players.
Anyway, that’s why the Tyrant was the one I should keep paying attention to in the future.
Because of the presence of Refrigon. Who, by the way, I did not know where or what he was doing right now.
Since I didn’t know what kind of variable that mysterious monster would become in the future, it was natural to understand his identity, if possible.
For now, let’s focus on taking that guy, Van, out of here.
After I finished thinking about it, I turned my attention to what I had to do again.
As we headed towards the prison building, I heard a shout nearby.
“...Oh, it’s that guy!”
It was a group of soldiers walking around the arena.
One soldier pointed at me and yelled, and they rushed over this way.
I frowned, but when I looked closely, they were the guys I had met in the alley before.
“What? What’s going on?”
“No, I met him in the alley earlier…”
One man explained the situation to his colleagues, and the other stood in front of me with a wide smile on his lips.
“You bastard, you got it right. Did you get out like that earlier?”
...Ah, this was annoying.
He tried to put his hand on my shoulder.
At that, Asher stepped forward and grabbed him by the wrist.
“What, what? Don’t you let this go?”
He struggled to get his wrist out of her grasp, but there was no way he could.
I shook my head.
“Let him go.”
When Asher lightly pushed him aside, he jumped for a moment, then screamed and rolled to the ground noisily.
The other soldiers raised their spears in amazement.
It felt funny to see the stereotypical appearances of third-rate villains. What were these guys really doing?
“Go, you dare attack the soldiers….”
“What a fuss!”
Then there was a new person coming here again.
It was a man who looked like a knight armed with light armor.
He approached this way, looked around at the soldiers, and turned his gaze to me.
“It looks like you attacked a soldier, am I correct?”
I answered with an annoyed face.
“And so?”
“And so? Do you not know what it means to dare to resist the military power in Mahea?”
The knight pulled out his sword with a harshly distorted impression.
“Both of you surrender obediently and follow me. Otherwise, I will execute them immediately.”
Wow….
This city was really very sleazy.
It seemed as if he was really planning to kill us if we didn’t obey his words.
A small crowd gathered around the commotion.
The guy who had just been thrown by Asher and flew away was looking at the knights and smirking at us as if he we were dead.
I was thinking about how to deal with these assholes, but for a moment, I furrowed my brows and turned my head to the side.
“...?”
I had no choice but to do so.
A huge energy was coming closer from afar.
Soon after, on the road leading to the entrance to the stadium, it was the appearance of two people, a man and a woman.
A large man with black hair and red eyes, and a woman who appeared to be an attendant behind him.
[Lv. 94]
I let out a small sigh as I looked at the man’s appearance.
Damn, I didn’t want to meet him here, but…
“...!”
Silence fell all around.
At the appearance of the man, people passing by the stadium all knelt on the floor and bowed their heads.
It was the same with the knight who was pointing his sword at me.
He dropped his sword and hurriedly knelt down and put his forehead on the floor.
Sixth Lord, the Tyrant.
Everyone was lying flat on the floor, and it was only me and Asher standing.
“You, you idiot. What are you doing? You’re in front of the Sixth Lord! Come on, get down on your knees!”
The knight who glanced up at me whispered in a trembling voice.
I ignored it and stared intently at the Tyrant approaching this way.
Soon, the one who came close to me stopped walking and met my eyes.
The Tyrant smiled and opened his mouth first.
“This is a surprise. What brought you here to my territory, Seventh Lord?”
