Betrayal, Debt, and the Cage

On the deep night of the second day after Daisy and Katie arrived in Gran City,

Katie bid farewell to Daisy, who remained in the inn room, and returned to the Mountain Hawk Guild full of hope.

There, she met up with several familiar adventurers, including the swift swordsman Gert, and under the guild master’s instructions, threw herself without hesitation into what seemed like a heaven-sent secret mission—never imagining anything could go wrong.

In the late hours approaching dawn, out in the wilderness beyond Gran City,

Katie, fully armed and masked along with her teammates, waited silently in the darkness.

Soon, a convoy emerged from afar—another group of masked figures escorting several horse-drawn wagons.

The wagons were loaded with crates covered in black cloth.

After exchanging coded signals, Katie and the others took over the convoy and began escorting it toward the designated destination outside the city.

Midway through, as they passed a patch of dense bushes, Gert suddenly told Katie that something ahead seemed suspicious and asked her to check it out.

Without much thought, Katie activated the magic stone hairpin at her temple, opening her mana-detection vision as she carefully advanced.

This ability allowed her to detect magical objects, hidden traps, and even the natural mana within living beings—like an infrared scan.

If anyone were hiding, she would see them.

She scanned the area.

Nothing.

No human presence.

Just as she relaxed—

She suddenly noticed something wrong with the ground ahead and stopped at the last possible moment.

There were faint traces of a trap.

Not magical.

A simple pitfall, covered with wood and hide, then disguised with sand.

Hard to spot in the dark—but not enough to fool a trained explorer like her.

She turned to report back—

But before she could speak, someone shoved her violently from behind.

She stumbled forward, stepping straight into the trap.

With a crack, the ground gave way.

She fell deep into the pit.

Her head struck something—

And everything went black.

When Katie woke up again, her head throbbing and vision spinning, it was already the next morning—the third day since arriving in Gran City.

Climbing out of the deep pit using her explorer skills, she found nothing but scattered footprints and what might have been blood.

The convoy was gone.

Her teammates were gone.

Everything looked like it had been ambushed.

And beneath her fear, a chilling realization crept in—

Something about this felt… planned.

“Katie! You unlucky little jinx! Look at the mess you’ve caused!”

Back at the guild, the pot-bellied guild master was already waiting.

Pointing at her in front of everyone, he shouted angrily.

“The convoy was stolen! Your teammates are missing! The noble behind this is furious and demanding compensation! How are you going to pay for this?!”

The surrounding adventurers whispered and snickered.

Katie, already known as a “jinx,” stood frozen, unable to defend herself.

“No need to explain!”

The guild master smirked.

“We’ll be generous. We won’t demand more than necessary.”

“But by guild rules, you must compensate an amount equal to the mission’s reward.”

Katie’s face turned pale.

She knew the rule.

And the reward she signed for was—

“…One hundred gold coins?!”

The number that once meant hope now crushed her completely.

She had no evidence.

No witnesses.

No way out.

Just as despair swallowed her—

The guild master leaned in.

“By the way… that Scorpion-Tailed Fox pelt you brought back… and that strange white-haired child…”

“If you tell me everything, maybe we can discuss reducing your debt.”

Back to the present.

On the fourth day in Gran City, Daisy was led away from the inn by a man carrying Katie’s dagger.

He brought her to a hidden, run-down building near the slums.

“Get in, you little dragon brat!”

The man suddenly revealed his true colors.

He yanked off Daisy’s hat, exposing her horns, and threw her into a large iron cage.

“Wah—!”

Daisy tumbled inside, rolling twice before stopping.

She sat there, confused, staring at him.

“Where’s Katie? You said you’d take me to her.”

“Didn’t they say dragons are smart? Guess not when they’re young.”

The man sneered.

“You’ve been sold. That ‘Cadi’ girl sold you to us.”

“It’s Katie!”

Daisy snapped back angrily.

“She’s my friend! She wouldn’t do that!”

The man laughed and walked away.

“This is a s*ave market. Let’s see who comes first—your ‘friend’… or a buyer.”

…

Daisy clenched the cage bars.

With her strength, she could break free easily.

But she stopped.

‘Katie is my friend.’

‘She would never betray me.’

‘I’ll wait.’