I Became the Guardian of Big Shots in the Game

Terrible stench and coughing sounds.
In an underground warehouse where not a single ray of sunlight enters, making it impossible to tell if it’s day or night outside.
They examine each other’s horrific appearances by the light of torches hanging in the corridor outside the iron bars, then close their eyes again.
This was how most slaves lived, unable to die.
The reasons for their pitiful lives varied.
Some were defeated in war.
Others were sold to pay off family debts.
And some were kidnapped.
“Food distribution.”
-Splat!
The lump that the slave trader roughly scooped up with a ladle and dropped on the floor was probably worse garbage than dog food.
But the slaves instinctively picked it up and ate.
The slave trader was watching from outside the iron bars,
To see who was eating and who was trying to die by not eating.
Those who didn’t eat were beaten without leaving marks, saying their value as merchandise had decreased.
“You there.”
An insolent slave appeared who refused to eat again today.
It was a girl sitting in a corner with her face buried in her knees.
The girl didn’t even move at the slave trader’s call.
“Are my words funny to you?”
Soon the slave trader opened the iron gate,
And entered with a club.
The other slaves, except for the girl who had been singled out, all split up and pressed against the walls.
Bang!
When he struck the bars with the club, the girl finally raised her head slightly.
The slave trader spoke again.
“Eat.”
“…No.”
“What?”
“Don’t… want to.”
Thinking she must be crazy, he raised the club.
The girl tightly closed her eyes.
And words she had been trying to forget echoed in her ears.
-Hwaryon. Don’t be too scared even if you’re separated from your sister. Okay?
The girl’s sister who had been captured together by pirates.
She was sold two days ago to a man whose stomach was swollen like a mountain.
-Eat well and hang in there, okay? I’ll come to get you later.
“Sister…”
Not because of the fear from the club,
But from the pain of separation, she burst into tears.
Seeing this, even the slave trader couldn’t bring himself to strike her.
“Hah.”
The slave trader gave her,
A third chance he wouldn’t have normally given.
“Eat. Then there will be no punishment.”
Resentment flashed in the girl’s eyes.
“No.”
“Tsk.”
Just as the lowered club was about to rise again,
-Clang!
The entrance that only opened when slaves were being shipped out,
Leading to the guild’s wide front yard, opened.
And,
A man enveloped in bright sunlight,
Instantly leaped down and stopped the slave trader.
“Stop!”
“Who are you?”
“Kyle! Are you beating them again? A guest has arrived, so stop and come out.”
The absolute existence in the cramped underground,
That cruel slave trader meekly retreated.
“Are you Hwaryon?”
“Who… are you?”
“I’m sorry I’m late. Are you hurt anywhere?”
At these kind words she hadn’t heard in so long,
“Hic, sniff, hic…”
She reflexively burst into tears.
Hwaryon clung to the stranger and cried for a while.
His embrace was as warm and comforting as her sister’s.

Ethan returned to the mansion carrying Hwaryon, who had cried herself unconscious.
He paid the price in gold coins on the spot.
Since there were no female servants yet, the task of washing Hwaryon and changing her clothes fell to Levi.
“I understand. Ethan-nim, please go back and rest.”
She accepted Hwaryon without a single complaint.
And,
“Hmm.”
Ethan checked the notification window.
There was the reward for clearing Act 2 that he needed to receive, but
What bothered him more was:
[The fate of the great evil, ‘Black Baroness Hwaryon’, has been altered.]
[‘Hwaryon’s’ fate is currently being reconfigured.]
This part.
Originally, at the start of the main story, Hwaryon was a fully-formed villain character.
All underground organizations in the Etrion Kingdom were loyal to her.
Nobles who set foot in pleasure districts were reduced to puppets, their weaknesses held by her.
Naturally, her influence extended to the royal court, making Etrion practically her country.
But now, what’s this?
As soon as Ethan bought Hwaryon,
She was liberated from her fate of becoming a villain.
[Character Information: Hwaryon]
Ethan scrolled down the information window that appeared under the notification,
And stopped his finger at the character story.
“Hwaryon was sold to a nobleman in the royal capital, Etre.
She was only 11 years old.
Despite falling into deep despair, the girl endured endlessly, believing only in an ‘old promise’.
Three years later, Hwaryon was sold cheaply to a brothel.
She couldn’t forget the nobleman’s last words.
They were the insane words, ‘Children grow up too fast. They lose their charm.’
Two years after that.
Hwaryon, who had stubbornly survived, received a letter one day.
From then on, she became obsessed with success like someone broken.
Her first target was the action leader of the gang backing the brothel.
She became his lover, sucked him dry, then became the lover of the gang leader, and after a series of successes, rose to become the madam of the brothel ‘Passionate Rose’.
Her ambition didn’t stop there.
She made a servant of Baron Degron, who sponsored ‘Passionate Rose’, her lover and frequented the mansion, soon becoming Baron Degron’s lover.
It was only three days later that a series of bad news began to come from the Degron baronial family, which had been a pillar of Etre’s underworld.
By the time Hwaryon officially became the baroness, all the original inhabitants of the mansion had passed away.
This is the secret story of the birth of the great evil, Black Baroness Hwaryon, who seized Etre’s underworld.”
When Ethan finished reading the last line,
-Tsk!
[The target’s character story cannot be found.]
It was deleted, perhaps having become a future that would not occur.
“I guess that’s a good thing?”
[Reconfiguring fate…]
[Two powerful fates are competing!]
“Hm?”
[1. Hwaryon, the Tragic Villainess]
[2. Hwaryon, the Happy Girl]
“…I suppose it wouldn’t end just by saving her.”
Even originally, it was a setting so cruel that the story writer might seem like Satan.
Her life had so many twists and turns,
It would be difficult for it to change easily.
“I don’t want to make her a villainess.”
Is there no way?
It seemed he needed to look into it more.

“Are you awake?”
“…Who are you, sister?”
“My name is Levi. Call me Levi.”
An unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar person.
And she had been sleeping with her head on the lap of a woman she had never seen before.
“I-I’m sorry!”
It wasn’t strange that she jumped up in surprise.
“You don’t have to be so startled. You’re part of the family now.”
“…Pardon?”
“Ethan-nim found you.”
‘Is she talking about that brother from earlier?’
Hwaryon was confused but didn’t push away Levi’s touch.
More precisely, she didn’t have the strength to do so.
Despite her fragile appearance, Levi had a strong grip.
“Um, I’m… dirty…”
“You were born with a tragic fate.”
“Huh?”
Although Hwaryon was only 11 years old,
She knew that when conversing with someone, you should make eye contact, or talk about the same topic.
It was the effect of her home education.
In other words, Levi’s words were not a conversation,
But merely one-sided self-talk.
A red light flowed from Levi’s eyes.
“It’s heartbreaking. As if someone deliberately twisted your life. A fate to either shine brilliantly or fall into deep darkness after being forged by misfortune and hardship.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ethan-nim knew this and saved you. Just like he saved me. To give freedom to the lives of people bound by fate.”
Although it was full of difficult words hard to understand,
Hwaryon reacted to what she and her sister had most desperately wished for when they were locked in the slave trader’s warehouse.
‘Freedom.’
Ethan had indeed given her freedom.
He had personally taken her out of the filthy space where waste squelched.
He had allowed her to come out of the dark underground and meet the sun again.
“Um… Sister Levi.”
“What is it?”
“Then, Ethan-nim saved me, right? You’re saying he’s that great of a person?”
“That’s right.”
Hwaryon hesitated for a long time, then opened her mouth while watching Levi’s reaction.
“Then, could Ethan-nim save my sister too?”
“Of course.”
“R-really? Then I want to ask him!”
Levi pulled back Hwaryon, who was about to run off hastily.
“But first, wouldn’t it be better to scrub yourself clean and change into new clothes before meeting Ethan-nim?”
Only then did Hwaryon look down at herself, wearing rags with a yellowish tinge.
“…Okay.”
And she obediently followed to the bathroom.
A little while later,
-@#$%@!$@!!
“?”
Ethan, passing through the corridor, heard a pitiful sound that was half mixed between a chick’s and a puppy’s cry.

‘The child has become incredibly clean.’
So there was such fair skin hidden under all that grime.
Since there were no clothes specifically for young girls, he had servants go out to buy some,
And Hwaryon was able to change into a sophisticated white dress.
Holding Levi’s hand, Hwaryon came to Ethan’s room, bowed, and sat on the sofa.
“So, you have something you want to say?”
“Yes.”
The girl spoke, clenching her fists as if drawing out courage.
“Please save my sister, Hwarin. I beg you!”
“Sister? You had a biological sister?”
“Yes. She’s five years older than me, pretty, kind, and also…”
‘This is the first I’m hearing of this.’
Content not mentioned in the character story.
Ethan pondered deeply, setting aside Hwaryon’s praises of her sister.
‘If she was separated from her sister who was captured with her from their hometown.’
It’s understandable for a person to become twisted.
Especially since it happened when she was young, the shock must have been significant.
“Do you know where she went?”
“I don’t know…”
“I’ll have to go to the guild and find out. You rest at home for now.”
“Okay!”
So, Ethan went to find the slave trader.
“Welcome… C-customer? Is there perhaps a problem with the slave you bought earlier…?”
“It’s not that, Mr. Dobber. I have something to ask.”
“I’ll tell you anything. Come, let’s go inside.”
Dobber, sweating profusely, guided him to the office.
“It’s nothing much, but I heard that the biological sister of the child I paid for earlier was also traded here.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. The older one was bought by Councilor Enfield.”
“Enfield? Do you mean City Councilor Enfield?”
“Huh? Ah, yes, that’s right. Why do you ask…”
‘This is trouble.’
Former mage and current Serdin city councilor, Mago Enfield.
There was only one reason Ethan knew that name.
‘Of all people, she was sold to the main villain of Act 3 in the Serdin story.’
He’s a vicious person who buys slaves and uses them for various experiments.
However, conducting inhumane experiments on slaves is legal here.
Slaves are clearly recognized as the property of their owners.
The reason he gets eliminated in the main story is partly because his illegal black magic experiments were discovered under kingdom law.
But what decisively provided the grounds for his arrest was,
‘He got caught because he kidnapped citizens when slave prices went up, thinking it was free food.’
He was caught largely because of his miraculous calculation that ‘If I kidnap citizens off the street, it’s free!’
Act 3 begins with the phrase [Ominous rumors are circulating in Serdin.]
The player collects clues about the culprit,
And Act 3 ends when they finally eliminate Councilor Enfield.
The problem here is,
‘Councilor Enfield is a former mage, but I’m just an ordinary person.’
Ethan can’t win in a direct confrontation with his meager combat ability.
As his mind started to become very complicated,
His composure stat kicked in, bringing calmness as if pressing a memory cleanup button.
‘Wait a minute. I don’t have any reason to fight Enfield in the first place, right?’
We’re not even on bad terms,
And Enfield was said to frequently buy slaves for experiments.
‘Can’t I just add some extra money and buy Hwarin back? I have plenty of gold coins anyway.’
Just give more rice to the rice-eating bug.
Thinking this was truly a win-win strategy,
Ethan filled his spatial pouch with an appropriate amount of gold coins and headed to Enfield’s residence.
Hoping this would prevent Hwaryon’s villainous development.

Around the same time,
Tom, the Etrion Kingdom’s royal inspector, taking a breather while smoking tobacco,
Had investigated Serdin all day but,
Serdin’s underworld, notorious for its filth, was quiet and clean.
As if all the organizations that had been settled here had united and moved away at once.
‘It’s suspicious. Too suspicious.’
It couldn’t be considered concealment.
Even in Etre’s underworld, which was more meticulous than this place, he could at least catch the tail ends of operations.
But in Serdin’s underworld, he couldn’t see even a hair of the tail, let alone the tail itself.
The sun was already setting,
And his subordinates were visibly showing signs of fatigue.
“Good work, everyone. Rudy, please send the report. Now then, let’s go back to the inn and have a beer each.”
The man called Rudy closed his eyes and chanted a spell.
Soon, the 5 pages of the report in his hand were transmitted via mana.
But,
“…Inspector? A new directive has just arrived.”
“At this hour? Bring it here.”
Crushing out his tobacco with his foot,
He unfolded the sacred directive from His Majesty the King.
It crackles with residual mana, having just been transmitted.
After quickly scanning the contents, Tom,
Smirked.
“Now this is something worth working on.”
[Intelligence received that City Councilor Enfield, one of the leading mayoral candidates in Serdin, is practicing black magic. Search in the name of His Majesty the King, and if detected, immediately escort to the royal capital.]
It seemed more rewarding than searching for the new big shot of the underworld that left no traces.