Ivy saw hope.

  Then, almost immediately, it was smothered by confusion.

  Even if the Midwinter Witch really had stayed in Willowbrook for a while, and even if she had written a spellbook there, how was Ivy supposed to find it?

  This was not some anonymous hedge mage's notebook.

  This was a great magical work left behind by what had once been the Empire's strongest elemental caster. Even if there were no proof, just letting that rumor spread would be enough to send countless people racing toward the frontier. If you judged it by the standards used for cursed objects, it would easily rank above Tier Five.

  It would be the kind of case the Bureau director and a whole team from headquarters would have to handle personally.

  The captain and his "friend" really had taken a huge risk by mentioning it at all.

  That information was enough to start a war.

  So of course the captain wanted it buried for good.

  Ivy's thoughts ran in circles, but no matter how hard she pushed, she still could not figure out where the spellbook had gone, or who in a miserable little frontier town could possibly have been important enough to make the Midwinter Witch stay.

  Then her eyes nded on Ethan.

  The sight of the two beers in his hands bsted every thought of the spellbook out of her head.

  A rush of heat shot straight to her skull.

  Working with Ethan was going to kill her one day.

  She had stepped away for a few minutes to buy information, and in that tiny window, this idiot had already gotten tangled up in a beer scam.

  She knew what a Guild clerk earned.

  For someone like Ethan, scraping together two gold lions was no small thing. The two beers in his hands were enough to wipe out a long stretch of careful saving and frugal living.

  Before they left, he had patted his chest and sworn he absolutely would not get cheated.

  Ivy moved closer without making a sound, listening in on Ethan's conversation.

  They were talking about the young man from earlier. The guards had not taken him away yet. In fact, the other customers had cheerfully suggested keeping him around a little longer so he could watch what happened next with his own eyes.

  A well-dressed man, clearly enjoying himself, said, "He came here looking for his fiancée. Mortgaged his house just to get a pass into the pce, too. Trouble is, her gambling-addict father already sold her for cash. That's her over there, the dancer. She works the ships now. If she's lucky and catches the eye of some merchant or noble, maybe one day one of them will buy her out and keep her as a mistress."

  "No wonder he started a fight in the tavern."

  Ethan nodded.

  From that point on, the whole ship felt thick with cuckold energy.

  Sneaking up behind him, Ivy quietly shook her head.

  So that was it. Ethan had gotten pyed by a beer scammer, and on top of that, in a pce like this, he had gone and developed an utterly inappropriate sense of justice. People like that only ended one way in Hearthbay. Drowned in debt, desperate, and eventually forced to sell themselves off.

  Then Ethan asked, "But doesn't the Empire ban human trafficking?"

  "First time in Hearthbay?" the well-dressed man said, giving Ethan an odd look. "You used teleportation magic to get here, didn't you? Hearthbay isn't inside the Empire. Imperial w doesn't mean anything here."

  You could buy anything in Hearthbay.

  Including living people.

  That was the Lofik Consortium's promise to its customers.

  Only newcomers still reacted with shock to things like this.

  "In fact, Imperial citizens have always been one of Hearthbay's more popur commodities."

  "Big brother, thanks for clearing that up. Here, let me buy you a drink."

  The words big brother clearly pleased the man.

  He took the beer Ethan offered him and drank deep without hesitation. The enthusiastic gulping made it obvious he was in excellent spirits.

  Ivy had just started to step forward to stop this, when something strange happened.

  In the middle of raising his own beer, Ethan suddenly stopped.

  A few burly men emerged from the crowd and closed in around them.

  Ethan handed the second beer to the lead middle-aged man, who grinned and passed him fifty silver gazelles.

  "Good stuff..." the gentleman said, only then noticing the men surrounding him.

  His face immediately turned an ugly shade.

  Ethan, meanwhile, fshed him a thumbs-up.

  "Smooth! This was brewed by a master brewer from Stillwind, using premium hops and top-grade wheat. You can only experience craftsmanship like this in Hearthbay. And today it's yours for just one gold lion."

  What followed was a period of very warm, very direct discussion between the middle-aged man and the gentleman.

  Ethan did not want to disrupt such a harmonious atmosphere, so he thoughtfully stepped back and left them the space.

  Only then did he notice Ivy.

  "Oh, you're back."

  Ivy instinctively took a step backward, putting some distance between herself and Ethan.

  "What exactly were you doing just now?"

  "Helping sell beer. Picking up a little extra cash. There were a lot of onlookers here, but most of them already knew the barkeep, so we worked out a deal. For every beer I helped him sell, he gave me fifty silver gazelles. You know, when people are watching drama unfold, their guard drops a lot."

  As a warrior of true love, Ethan had sensed the cuckold vibes in the air.

  If he didn't sell at least one overpriced beer to that crowd, the resentment in his chest would never have settled.

  For a moment, Ivy could not even find the words.

  Her entire assessment had been wrong.

  Ethan had not been cheated.

  Not only had he avoided getting scammed, he had actually tried to profit off the young man's tragedy instead. There wasn't a trace of righteous indignation in him. He acted like a seasoned old hand who had spent years surviving in Hearthbay.

  Ethan could not help sighing.

  "Hearthbay really is a wonderful pce. You make money way faster here than from actual work."

  At this rate, he might not be that far from buying books after all.

  As for the young man's tragedy, Ethan could only say that striking a blow against the local cuckold faction counted as a kind of assistance.

  The gentleman who had been hit for one gold lion shot Ethan a vicious gre, but he had clearly lost all interest in enjoying the show. With a cold snort, he swept away.

  Then again, Ethan was not fighting alone.

  The cheerful mood in the crowd broke apart under the sound of approaching footsteps.

  A young man in a splendid white formal suit drew everyone's attention the moment he appeared. A silver whip hung diagonally at his waist, an unusual weapon by Imperial standards. He had shoulder-length golden curls, and even with a mask on, his confident stride and bearing made it obvious he came from money.

  After hearing a quick expnation from the guards, the blond young man made a sweeping gesture and said, "How much is their release fee? I'll pay it."

  Silence crashed over the deck.

  Every bystander wore a different expression.

  Even the young man on the ground looked up at him in disbelief.

  Everyone there clearly thought he had lost his mind.

  The fee for causing trouble on Lofik Consortium turf was no joke. People who did usually had only two outcomes. Either they worked off the debt as sves to the Consortium, or they mortgaged every selble part of themselves to the merchants.

  "One hundred gold lions," the guard said after conferring with the overseer. "That includes his fiancée."

  The moment that number came out, ugly smiles spread through the crowd.

  They were more than happy to watch this attention-seeking fool embarrass himself.

  Who was going to throw away one hundred gold lions for a stranger?

  That was when a bck-haired maid in a veil came hurrying over with a box in her arms.

  "Young master, what are you doing?"

  "Oh, perfect timing. Pay them the hundred."

  "A hundred gold lions?"

  Even the maid looked shaken by the number.

  She lowered her voice and warned him, "Your father won't be happy if you keep spending money like this."

  "Didn't you say anything I wanted could be bought in Hearthbay? Then I found what I want."

  The young man did not waver in the slightest.

  Every word he spoke nded with full weight.

  "I'm buying justice."

  Bystander Ethan looked down at the fifty silver gazelles in his own hand, then back at the young man, who had stunned the entire crowd into silence with a single sentence.

  That day, Ethan came face to face with the brutal unevenness of the world.

  The maid might have sighed.

  But they really did have one hundred gold lions.

  "Young dy."

  Ethan rubbed at his eyes under the mask, then pointed at the young man and asked Ivy, "Is that guy glowing?"

  He honestly thought the man was giving off golden light, almost the same shade as gold lions.

  And on top of that, he looked like a fellow true-love warrior.

  Surely that meant they were on the same side.

  Ivy pressed a hand to her forehead.

  "Are you that short on money?"

  "A little."

  Ethan nodded honestly.

  He had not been that desperate before.

  But after arriving in Hearthbay, he had suddenly developed a strong urge to visit the bookstores on the ships.

  "If you need money, borrow it from me. I can lend it to you."

  "What's the interest rate?"

  The wary look in Ethan's eyes made Ivy actually stumble.

  She said coldly, "No interest. My only condition is that you stop hanging around with those beer hawkers. I refuse to be embarrassed by association."