Collector’s Cage - Chapter 43

Damn drunkard! The guild person I finally managed to meet after escaping the mansion and wandering the streets, exhausted, turned out to be a dead-drunk fool.

No matter how many times she explained, Jen just kept repeating the same things he couldn’t understand. Hermie’s head throbbed with a splitting headache, but she swallowed her temper and explained what had happened to her one more time.

“Good heavens! What kind of ridiculous, impossible story is that?!”
“Sigh…”

Hermie let out a deep sigh with a resigned expression. The only silver lining was that Jen, even in his drunken state, was steadily heading back toward the guild.

***

“Aigoo, Hermie!”
“Guild Master!!”

Hermie, who had finally returned to the guild after much hardship, cried out.

‘I’m finally back!’

She repeated to the Guild Master what she had told Jen. That a crazy mage had shrunk her, that he said he needed research funds and sold her to a noble house, and that she had barely escaped. She recounted the events, omitting a few embarrassing details.

The Guild Master consoled Hermie, saying she’d been through a lot. Then, he worried whether she could return to her original self.

“We’ll have to go and see him first.”
“Is it true you signed a contract?”
“Yes, we can formally file a complaint with the Magical Tower. That bastard still hasn’t paid his debt, right?”
“That’s right. The guild is on the verge of being ruined.”
“He intended to swindle us from the very beginning!”

Hermie and the Guild Master trembled with rage together, while Jen, still not fully sober, sprawled on the sofa and snored.

Who knew how many people had been plunged into crisis because of one mage. Jen was facing the loss of his livelihood, and the Guild Master was about to lose the guild he had built over a lifetime. On top of that, Hermie had been shrunk for no reason and almost lost her life.

“We have to get back every bit of the unpaid money, plus interest!”
“We should demand compensation for damages!”
“And compensation for emotional distress too!”
“But what if the Magical Tower pretends not to know again?”
“In that case, we have no choice but to threaten to go public. We have to see this through.”

He drugged an innocent commoner with a magic potion and sold her to a noble. Using magic on a commoner was problematic enough, but if the crime of deceiving a noble came to light, significant public outrage was sure to follow. It was clear not only commoners but also nobles would be displeased.

‘Just you wait, you mage bastard!’

***

The next day, a breaking news story appeared on the front page of the newspaper. It was news that a mage from the Magical Tower had developed a potion that reduces body size.

It was introduced as a magical potion that would help people troubled by their height, those with large heads, or those who wanted to make their hands and feet smaller and more delicate.

Two men on the street who saw the article chattered away.

“Making things smaller, not bigger? What’s so good about that?”
“Right. If it made things bigger, someone like you would take your entire fortune and go get it.”
“Why me?”
“Weren’t you dumped because your thing was small? Have you already forgotten how you cried and wailed?”
“You son of a b***h, why are you bringing that up again?!”

Watching the men suddenly start throwing punches, Hermie shook her head.

“Seeing the newspaper, he must have succeeded in his research for sure. I think it’s best to go to him while public attention is focused on it.”
“Yeah, that’s right. If we threaten to expose his crimes at a time like this, he’ll be in a tight spot.”

Hermie eagerly shared her plans with the Guild Master as they headed to the Magical Tower together. They agreed that merely retrieving the unpaid debt wouldn’t be satisfying, so they would also claim the money from selling Hermie and demand compensation for damages.

“Hermie, you saved our guild.”
“Of course. If I hadn’t gone through all this suffering, how could we have gotten the money from that damn mage?”