TLWD 55

Chapter : 55 Movements (2)

From inside the shop, a man came rushing out, bowing deeply at a 90-degree angle in front of me.

He was none other than Adran, the head of the Adlan Trading Company and an executive of the Freche Merchant Guild.

Being an executive of the Merchant Guild was no small matter. In Freche, it was a status comparable to the nobility.

“I’ve been waiting for you to arrive!!”

Despite that, Adran maintained a very respectful attitude toward me. It was so excessively polite that I momentarily went blank.

But I quickly collected myself and spoke.

“What happened to what I told you last time—”

Then he paused and closed his mouth again. Naturally, he had slipped into a familiar, informal tone.

Freche was a free city. There were social strata, but no rigid class system.

Even though I was a noble, it didn’t hold sway here.

Naturally, one shouldn’t speak casually to just anyone. Adran was clearly older than me.

Yet, the casual tone had slipped out automatically—it was a habit. Not a habit of a noble, but a habit from my time in the Allied Forces.

The Allied Forces were strictly hierarchical. As the Special Forces Duke Commander, my orders usually went downward.

Issuing orders quickly made casual speech second nature, and that habit lingered, causing me to speak informally without realizing it.

If I were in the Kingdom of Battenberg, it would be different. But in a free city, I had to follow the laws of the free city.

“Ah, I apologize. It’s a habit, and I spoke casually without realizing it.”

“No, no!! Don’t worry about it!”

Adran waved his hands as if to dismiss any concern.

“Adrian, sir, you’re the noble son of a count! I’m just a lowly commoner and merchant. So please, speak comfortably! Hehe…”

As he rubbed his palms together, he seemed obsequious, but there was no malice.

Rather, he regarded me as a benefactor.

And indeed, Adran mainly dealt in wine. Since it was an expensive luxury item, his main clientele were upper-class nobles.

Thanks to me, however, many nobles had begun coming to Freche just to purchase monster meat. Adran was, in a sense, the merchant who benefited the most in Freche.

And well, since he was saying all this, there was no reason not to let him speak casually.

“Then speak freely.”

“Oh, yes, yes! Now I can finally relax!”

Adran finally exhaled in relief, as if a weight had been lifted. He treated me almost like a king. He must have earned quite a profit thanks to me.

In Freche, money was absolute power. Regardless of his status as a merchant guild executive, everyone was equal before wealth.

“So, what happened to what I told you last time?”

“You mean investigating a man named Ian?”

I nodded, and Adran’s face beamed with confidence.

“We’ve sent our people to every free city across the continent!”

His confident tone suggested they had made progress. When my eyes brightened, he continued.

“…But unfortunately, we couldn’t find any trace of the man you mentioned, Ian.”

Immediately, Adran’s expression fell. The confident look from moments ago was gone.

Now he was only watching my reaction. I wondered why he had been so self-assured earlier.

In any case, we hadn’t found any trace of Ian.

‘I wonder where Ian is running around to find me.’

Whether now or before, his intentions were impossible to read. Though technically, it was my past self who had been running around.

Still, it wasn’t entirely without results. At least now I knew Ian was not in a free city. That narrowed the search range.

Moreover, the Merchant Guild’s information network was still active, so if Ian entered a free city later, I would be notified immediately.

As I swallowed my disappointment, Adran spoke again.

“But there is one exception.”

He glanced at me before slowly continuing.

“We couldn’t confirm anything about Violess.”

“Violess?”

“Are you referring to the lawless city?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Violess was, like Freche, a free city—but unlike Freche, it was not specialized in trade, livestock, or mining. There were no laws or order at all.

A lawless city.

Free cities had no absolute rulers like kings or lords. That meant they had no control over criminal organizations or armed groups.

Extreme freedom had destroyed even minimal law and order, and those with their own rules held power.

Thus, in Violess, brute force was absolute power.

Merchants generally avoided such a city because contracts could not be trusted. Any trading expedition would often result in theft or worse.

Still, some trading companies dared enter.

“That place is tightly controlled by the Dark Merchant Company…”

“Dark Merchant Company?”

“They’re very shady characters.”

Adran began explaining the Dark Merchant Company, but I didn’t need to hear much. I already knew about them from my time in the Allied Forces. In fact, I knew more than Adran.

The Dark Merchant Company, as the name suggested, was a secret association of merchants operating in the shadows.

“They mainly handle illegal trade and distribute forbidden goods like slaves. Usually, they accumulate enormous wealth through the black market.”

Naturally, they disregarded law and morality, stopping at nothing for profit.

The weapons, poisons, ancient artifacts, magical forbidden items, and cursed objects spreading across the continent were all distributed by the Dark Merchant Company.

It was a massive organization with a black market network spanning the continent.

They were deeply connected to criminal groups, corrupt politicians, and even noble societies, sharing power and wealth.

“All members and executives maintain strict anonymity, so no one truly knows who they are, where they operate, or how they move.”

Adran scratched his head awkwardly. For a merchant sensitive to information to say that, the organization was indeed shrouded in secrecy.

Hence the name “Dark Merchant Company.” It wasn’t their real name, but what people called them because everything about them was hidden.

Technically, it meant “Hidden Form Knowledge,” rendered as “Dark.”

Everything about them was unknown, hence the name. The proper term would be “Unknown Merchant Company,” but it sounded awkward and too long.

Anyway, the Dark Merchant Company was a secret organization, hidden in every way.

However, I knew their true identity. I had investigated them during the Allied Forces era.

The Dark Merchant Company was actually the Devotees of the Fallen Souls, a religious organization rather than a merchant guild.

They worshipped darkness and forbidden knowledge, manipulating secret powers to bring chaos and destruction to the world.

I had identified their key members—from the leaders at the top to intermediaries and brokers.

I even knew the ultimate figure they revered: the Lord of the Abyss, one of the six lords serving the Emperor.

The six lords serving the Emperor—the Lord of the Abyss—was called [Unexplainable Unknown Fear] by the Allied Forces.

It was literally impossible to explain, and therefore impossible to counter.

Miracles by saints, mental defense magic of archmages, elemental spirits, masterfully forged weapons—nothing could withstand the Lord of the Abyss.

Thus, the Allied Forces could obtain no information about him. His appearance, abilities—everything was unknown.

No one had faced him directly except one person: Ian, the Supreme Commander and Hero of the Allied Forces.

He alone could face the Lord of the Abyss and endure the [Unexplainable Unknown Fear].

Thanks to his Player’s Will [EX], which prevented total mental collapse, Ian could survive the encounter.

But it didn’t grant complete immunity; Ian still experienced fear and terror like everyone else.

Yet he triumphed, confronting and ultimately destroying the Lord of the Abyss.

Afterward, Ian tried to describe him:

• “A final evil rising from the center of eternity, whispering chaos.”

• “Or perhaps the last profane being, born at the edge of the abyss in endless time, endlessly shifting.”

• “A formless evil born of chaos in infinite perpetuity, endlessly undulating at the center of eternity, forged from the depths of hell.”

…It was incomprehensible.

Whenever asked about the Lord of the Abyss, Ian rambled like this.

The Allied Forces assumed that recalling him caused Ian residual psychological trauma.

Even now, I understood that Player’s Will [EX] didn’t grant full mental immunity.

Anyway, the Lord of the Abyss was gone. No need to press further.

As for the Dark Merchant Company, the Devotees of the Fallen Souls believed in the Lord of the Abyss. They were empowered by him, making them far more than just a black market organization.

“They say they even manipulate kings like puppets,” Adran said cautiously.

It wasn’t just rumor—it was true. The Dark Merchant Company infiltrated politics and economies of kingdoms. They had political sponsors and noble allies, making them untouchable by a city guild.

This would later play a decisive role when the Emperor invaded the continent, causing its collapse in just one year.

All of this pointed to one thing:

“The Dark Merchant Company has already started moving…”

The Emperor had been preparing all along. Even if they worshipped the Lord of the Abyss, he was still one of the six lords serving the Emperor.

In other words, the Dark Merchant Company was acting under the Emperor’s orders.

With experiments on lycanthropes complete… the Emperor was meticulous beyond measure.

Naturally, the Dark Merchant Company could not be left unchecked. Like the lycanthropes, it had to be eradicated completely.

I would also need to find Ian and investigate the Dark Merchant Company.

“I suppose I’ll have to go to Violess myself.”

A lawless city like Violess required my personal attention.

But I couldn’t do it alone. The power of a lord was on another level. Even heroes of the Allied Forces could not contend with a lord. Only Ian could.

But with Ian’s whereabouts still unknown…

“First, I need to cure Seraphia.”

The only one capable of facing the Lord of the Abyss was the Lord of the Cold.