A Hufelid Merchant

A long caravan was travelling across the region of Boswel towards Boden March.

"At this pace, we will reach Marquis Boden's domain in a few days." Meoldwyn was lost in thoughts on his carriage. "That newly appointed knight is an oddball. How did he find those captive slaves? Or rather, was it because that bastard Winfrey was too careless? He should have hidden his goods better!"

Meoldwyn was a hufelid merchant from MeowLamar Federation. Initially, he was an independent merchant. By a stroke of luck, on a trip to Soleil Kingdom, he was accepted into Grüne Glocke Merchant Group that was a big merchant group based in MeowLamar. After staying in the group for a year or two, Meoldwyn learnt that his merchant group was not a simple one and was involved in dark businesses.

Being quick-witted and good at arse-licking, Meoldwyn approached the most likely key figures that handle the dark businesses. He was entrusted with the businesses in Boswel in just a few years and made his way to the upper echelon of the merchant group. He later became the right-hand man of the previous chief and inherited his position when he retired.

When Meoldwyn's human business partners heard he was in his forties, they thought he was still young despite his looks. However, since hufelids had shorter lifespan than humans, he really was an old cat that was about to retire. Due to his caution as an old man, he felt uneasy when the slaves of his business partner, Winfrey, were discovered by a knight. Normally, Winfrey would bribe the officials to shut their mouths.

But Meoldwyn believed that incident had something to do with the arrival of the new lord. Meoldwyn was afraid that since the new lord was said to be eccentric, he might not simply accept a small amount of bribery and make things difficult for him. So, he decided to leave Boswel before the new lord could investigate the slave trading and found out that he was involved.

He ordered his men to finish the illegal businesses quickly and collected most of his valuable goods to take with him. He left behind only a small amount of personnel to continue running a few shops his group owned in Boswel and took the rest of subordinates with him.

"This is the first time after becoming the chief that I've to move abruptly like this," he mumbled. "I hope my intuition was wrong and business would be the same as before. I'll come back later if the new lord does not investigate the matter. After all, business here is very profitable!"

When the sun set, Meoldwyn ordered the caravan to camp for the night. Although he felt uneasy about the new lord, he did not see the need to rush. Even if the Lord of Boswel investigated the slave trading, it would take quite some time. As such, he was not worried when he saw a carriage drawn by two horses approaches their camp. He entered his tent and ordered the servants to prepare his dinner.

While he was about to have his dinner, someone entered his tent without asking for permission. Meoldwyn stared at the intruder with annoyance. The intruder was a young man with sinister-looking green eyes. He did not recall seeing such a person among his subordinates so he concluded that the young man was someone that came in the carriage.

"Is no one outside?!" shouted Meoldwyn. "Why did you let somebody came in without permission?!"

To his surprise, no one answered him. The two female servants who were serving him fell asleep as well.

"Why is the outside too quiet? Is everyone asleep like these girls? Were they poisoned?" he thought.

"I made it so that no one will interrupt us," the young man said with a smirk. He sat in front of Meoldwyn and continued, "Why don't we have a good talk?"

"Who are you?" Meoldwyn cried as was annoyed by the young man's carefree attitude.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself," said the young man. "I'm the Lord of Boswel, Huvel Senebres."

"What? The Lord of Boswel?!"

Meoldwyn had only heard the rumours about the new lord and never seen him in person. He could not relate the rumoured incompetent nobleman to the intimidating young man before him. He believed that someone else was impersonating him.

"I wonder why did the Lord of Boswel come to my humble camp?" Meoldwyn pretended to be polite in an attempt to find out more about the young man.

"I heard you were doing slave trading in my land. So, I came here to announce your punishment before you escape."

"Wh… I don't understand what you are saying, Lord Senebres."

"There is no use to pretend. Your punishment is that you have to work for me in Boswel until the day you die. Simple, isn't it?"

"What the hell is this bastard saying? I'm going make the mercenaries teach you a lesson!"

Meoldwyn understood that there was no use to learn more about the young man. He stood up to call the guards.

The young man was not intimidated by his words and smiled instead. He casted the spell [Fear] on Meoldwyn but nothing noticeable happened.

"Hmm… Oh, I used too little power! I forgot for a moment that you guys are quite resistant to dark magic. [Weakness]. [Hallucination]. [Fear]."

After the young man had casted three spells in a row, Meoldwyn fell down to the ground. He could not feel any strength in his body to run away even though there were a horde of monsters as big as mountains in front of him. Although he used to encounter life-threatening situations when he was young, he was not frightened as much like that before.

While weeping in despair, Meoldwyn saw the young man that claimed to be the Lord of Boswel standing without a care for the monsters.

"Lo... Lord Senebres," he cried with the last little strength he had, "help me! The ghouls are coming! Save me! I will do anything for you! I'll serve you for the rest of my life! Please, save me!"

The young man smiled and put his hand on Meoldwyn's chest, above where the heart was. "Swear these few things. Then, I will save you!"