Chapter 28
“Hey, Carun! I know you’re home. Open this door right now.”
Victor pounded on the front door and shouted loudly.
After a moment, the door flew open.
“What—who’s visiting me this early and bothering me like this—huh! Lord Victor?”
“It’s me.”
“Wait, Lady Giana too?”
“Hello, Carun.”
“An—the—Archduke as well!”
Carun burst out of the house in an annoyed huff, then took one look at Victor, me, and the Archduke in turn and screamed.
“What on earth brings you to my house?”
Carun looked like he’d been drinking all day—his face was flushed, his breath reeked of alcohol. His hair was a mess, and his whole body was filthy, as if he hadn’t left the house in days.
I stepped forward and handed the contract over with a flick of my hand.
“What business? Of course we came to enforce the contract.”
“The contract…?”
“‘All wizards contracted with Pen-Sing Factory shall be loyal unto death to Giana Hertin until the wizards gain their freedom.’ You haven’t forgotten this contract, have you?”
“Rather than that, are you going to stand us out here on the doorstep? Bring us inside.”
Victor glared and pressured Carun. He seemed to know how to handle Carun rather well.
‘Good call bringing Victor along,’ I thought with satisfaction as I watched his back.
‘If it had just been the Archduke and me, things might have felt unreliable.’
I sneaked a sidelong glance at the Archduke, then followed Victor into Carun’s house.
Since the tower incident where the Archduke had a run-in with Gari, he’d been giving me subtle looks now and then.
When I said I was going to meet Victor, he had frowned at once, yet he’d still insisted on tagging along all the way here—I still didn’t understand why.
“Nice house. Looks even better than before.”
Victor spoke in a swaggering delinquent tone as he looked around Carun’s home.
“Looks like you’re making a lot of money. All this is the sweat and blood of the wizards you’ve lured in, right? Huh?”
“Why are you talking like that? If you keep it up, just leave.”
“Leave? Kick me out? Haha, now Carun Davis is going to oust the mighty Victor Collins? You must have several lives, huh?”
“It’s not like that—”
While Carun hung his head and made a pitiful face, the Archduke was pulling things off the shelves and making admiring noises.
“Ooh, Carun. You’ve come up in the world. Is this pink salt? Mind if I take some?”
“Archduke, what would you even use salt for? That’s part of my collection…”
“I’ll have use for it for a while. Someone’s not seasoning anything. Don’t be stingy with these. Anyway, I’ll take it.”
“Take it….”
Carun’s face suddenly looked ten years older.
I plopped down at the table in the center of the parlor and tilted my finger toward the seat in front of me.
“Come on, sit.”
“Yes, yes.”
Carun shuffled over and sat across from me, and behind me Victor and the Archduke stood like bodyguards. I felt as if I were a chaebol chairman being escorted by security.
“I’ve been busy, so I couldn’t come before, but now we have to start fulfilling the contract, right?”
“So what are you going to make me do?”
“Show me the Pen-Sing Factory headquarters.”
Pen-Sing Factory was the company that produced the contract quills. Its name had been clearly listed on the contract Carun had shoved at me at the start.
“A tour of the Pen-Sing Factory?”
Carun’s eyes widened and he immediately waved his hands frantically.
“You can’t just go in there.”
“I know that. But you’re not just anyone. That’s exactly why I’m asking you.”
“No, Lady Giana. I am just anyone. I can’t go in.”
“Carun, that’s a breach of contract. You know that, right?”
“It’s beyond my abilities…”
Carun twisted his face into the saddest expression he could muster.
“It’s a completely off-limits area. I’ve never been inside. No matter what you do, Lady Giana, I can’t go.”
“Is that so? Then change the terms. Get me a meeting with the Pen-Sing Factory’s CEO.”
I meant to confront the CEO directly and ask why they were exploiting wizards. If the CEO was unaware of what was happening, that would be a problem for the company in its own right.
But Carun shook his head again, wearing the same doleful look.
“Lady Giana, I’ve never met the CEO either.”
“What exactly do you do? You’ve never been to the factory, you’ve never met the CEO, and yet you’ve been working as a broker this whole time?”
“That’s what I’ve wondered myself…”
Carun dropped his head and started to explain, as if pleading.
“I only gathered usable wizards and connected them with others. Ever since I signed that slave contract—no, loyalty contract—with Lady Giana, I’ve had no contact with Pen-Sing Factory. I’m basically unemployed.”
“Don’t give me that innocent act.”
“But it’s the truth, what can I do?”
Victor made a throat-clearing noise from behind, and Carun shrank back even more.
“Excuse me, could Lord Victor go to the other room? Your stare terrifies me and I can’t speak properly.”
“He only knows how to bark orders.”
“It’s true. Lady Giana, you should see his look.”
I slammed the table and stood up abruptly.
“Carun, you seem to want a lot. Do you still think you’re the one in charge? Huh? Is that why you’re ordering us around?”
“Eek, that’s not it—”
“Afraid to speak because my stare is scary? That’s ridiculous. How many of the people you lured in with a few coins had to live in fear because of you? How miserable will the rest of their lives be?!”
Carun trembled, clearly frightened by my temper, but I felt no pity.
You should have felt this. You should know how it feels to be in pain.
Contracts made with the quill could only be broken by mutual consent—there was no other way.
Even the great tower master had said that contracts signed with the quill could not be undone.
Moreover, the contracts Carun had arranged involved three parties—the broker Carun, the wizard, and Pen-Sing Factory.
To break them, Pen-Sing Factory’s agreement was also required.
‘This is getting more complicated than I thought.’
I pressed my throbbing temples and grilled him until I had learned a lot.
Pen-Sing Factory had been established seven years ago.
It had been the first company to develop the contract quill, becoming wildly popular and steadily building a respectable reputation.
But beneath that respectable façade, it seemed scoundrels like Carun had been doing a lot of dirty business.
“I started brokering five years ago. I rounded up anyone who showed talent—adult or child—and made them sign contracts. Sometimes I had to make ten quills a day, sometimes twenty.”
Carun spilled his misdeeds without holding back.
“Ha, if you had any common sense you’d know making ten quills a day is insane.”
“…That’s true.”
“How many of the people you contracted with are still alive?”
“…Quite a few are dead.”
Carun answered my questions obediently, trembling with fear.
Anger rose in me until my palms whitened from gripping my fists so hard.
Carun glanced around nervously, then, taking on a tone of grievance, said:
“Lady Giana, I’m a victim too. If I don’t bring in the required number of wizards, I have to pay Pen-Sing Factory. I did it to survive.”
“To survive?”
I cut him off with a cold look.
“Not to make money?”
“…”
“Those who truly fought to survive are the wizards you trapped in those vicious contracts! You’re a potential murderer who drove people to ruin. Do you understand?”
“Lady Giana….”
“You’re first-rate worthless trash. You shove people’s lives into the mud. The world would be better off without you!”
I couldn’t hold back my rage and yelled at Carun.
My whole body trembled with fury.
“You’re the apex of harm, and those whose lives you stole will resent you until they die. You will pay for it—whether alive or dead!”
“Stop it, Giana.”
As my emotions overflowed, the Archduke quietly placed a hand on my shoulder.
