The ways for street merchants in the city to make money were varied, but generally, they earned it honestly by traveling and selling goods.
However, business inevitably became central to the flow of money, and to the nobles who liked money as much as the merchants did, they were an eyesore.
In response, the merchants gathered together to increase their collective power, and this was how the guilds were formed.
This didn’t suddenly make the lives of ordinary street merchants prosperous.
They still had to travel around, sweating profusely as they did their trade.
However, the guild provided some level of protection for the lives of the merchants.
The guild leaders usually had connections with powerful nobles within the territory.
Thanks to this, merchants affiliated with the guild had nobles who would ensure their safety.
For bandits who lived only for today, pushed to the brink of life, it might be a laughing matter, but it was better than nothing.
“The Mormon Guild was my father’s legacy, trading under his name.”
And the figure who backed the Mormon Guild was Lord Gebehardt of the Cassel family.
In other words, he was the father of Lord Hermann.
Although one might think a mere knight’s family had no name to boast of, the Cassel family was a proxy for ruling Belam.
Though they couldn’t collect taxes, the ability to control an entire city was a significant honor.
In some ways, they were even considered higher in status than knightly families with their own fiefdoms.
Keldric took in every word Lord Hermann said with a serious expression.
Even if he didn’t fully understand, insights into the inner workings of a powerful family in the city were never useless.
“When my father was the head, the Mormon Guild and our relationship were amicable.”
Baron Volpen was keen on active trade, and Lord Gebehardt wanted to establish vast trade routes, so they were a perfect match.
Thus, the backing of Lord Gebehardt extended not only to the Cassel family but also to the Miekesh family, the family of Baron Volpen.
Even if a trader departing from Belam was attacked by a rogue noble, that noble would have to choose between making enemies of both the Cassel and Miekesh families.
The names of these two noble families held considerable power in the region.
As a result, trade in Belam became much more active than before.
With more traders, it was natural for them to band together to form more guilds.
Among them, Lord Gebehardt, who fervently encouraged trade, took an interest in the tenacious and steadily growing Mormon Guild.
“Anselm was a young man who built a solid guild. Though not as prominent as today, the Mormon Guild was quickly growing at that time.”
Traders followed young Anselm well, and Anselm also devised profitable trade routes and shared them with the guild’s traders, making the Mormon Guild’s future bright.
Numerous trade routes meant a variety of goods coming and going.
And as the buying and selling of goods increased, so did the taxes paid to the city.
In that sense, the flourishing Mormon Guild was a true blessing.
The taxes paid by the guild’s merchants were not insignificant.
Lord Gebehardt fully supported the Mormon Guild.
He granted them more privileges than other guilds and occasionally led raids against bandits.
With safe trade routes, carts and wagons traveled endlessly, naturally increasing the flow of money.
Anselm reciprocated this favor with more trade and taxes, and their relationship seemed to remain harmonious.
However, when there are abundant goods and money, someone inevitably appears with foul tricks.
“Anselm… I never would have guessed he was pretending to bow before us while secretly evading taxes!”
Ironically, the one who pulled such filthy tricks was none other than Anselm himself.
Once he gained significant wealth, greed got the better of him, and he attempted various methods to evade taxes.
“So, what happened?”
“What happened? Although he might have fooled my father, he couldn’t deceive me!”
Lord Gebehardt was unaware of Anselm’s tax evasion.
However, Lord Hermann was different.
After Lord Gebehardt’s passing, when Lord Hermann ascended as the head of the Cassel family, he discovered Anselm’s tax evasion while reviewing the city’s tax records.
Anselm tried to deny his tax evasion with various excuses, but ultimately, he had no choice but to confess under the wrath of the furious Lord Hermann.
“Anselm is that kind of person—a vile and deceitful man. If you knew the amount he swindled, you’d be shocked.”
Meanwhile, Keldric, who was listening to Lord Hermann’s story, fell into deep thought.
‘…This has nothing to do with the guild leader?’
Keldric hadn’t listened to the story about Anselm for no reason.
He thought the guild leader’s loose capture was suspicious, but the conflict between Anselm and the Cassel family seemed irrelevant to the current matter.
“Is the guild leader really going to be executed?”
“The execution will take place in a few days, of course, in front of everyone.”
Keldric thought it was entirely wrong, but he had no reason to stop it.
From a common-sense perspective, it was right to consider the guild leader a traitor to the city.
“I hope you’ll attend the execution. Your honor needs to be restored!”
He wasn’t sure how watching someone hang would restore his honor, but Keldric reluctantly nodded, unable to shake the uneasy feeling.
For now, this was the best he could do.
Time flew by, and a week had passed since Keldric’s stay in Belam.
During this time, Keldric had gained nothing.
In material terms, he had received some money from Anselm and a new shield and gauntlet.
But that wasn’t what Keldric was after.
Ever since hearing that the guild leader was a traitor to the city, the nagging feeling of unease lingered, unresolved.
Keldric spent days feeling as if he’d left something unfinished.
Yet, he wasn’t the type to neglect his duties, so every morning, he exercised at Lord Hermann’s training ground or explored the city with Alisa.
Exercise was something he could do daily without getting tired of it.
Having returned to exercise after a long time, he enjoyed it even more.
However, there was a limit to exploring the city with Alisa.
No matter how vast Belam was, it took less than three days to see everything inside the walls except for the red-light district outside.
As a result, Keldric’s schedule became empty after his early morning exercise.
“Do you not have anything to do?”
Keldric asked Alisa, who had come to his room as if she were a puppy rushing over at mealtime.
Alisa replied with a slightly annoyed expression.
“There’s not much to do in Belam. The commission has been completed, and I received an unexpected reward.”
Alisa had also participated in the Rock Troll subjugation, so she, too, had received a hefty sum of silver coins from Baron Volpen.
With financial stability, she looked bright.
Even if some people weren’t in urgent need of money, nobody disliked having it.
“So, how long do you plan to stay here?”
“Hmm… I don’t plan to stay too long. I’ll probably leave in a few days.”
Keldric agreed.
There was only so much he could do here.
While he longed to see the city when he was stuck in the rural village of Carlton, after staying in Belam for about a week, he found there wasn’t much to do here, either.
“Are you planning to leave as well, Sir Keldric?”
“I feel restless and can’t stay here for much longer. I’ve gained everything I could from this place, so I should be leaving soon.”
The life of a wandering knight without a fief was a hard one.
Having left his family, he didn’t have much money, and furthermore, extravagance was considered a virtue for a knight.
It was a life of wandering, displaying his strength and honor in search of a lord who would grant him land.
Keldric, receiving generous hospitality from Lord Hermann in Belam, was the exception.
He was well aware of this fact, but living in someone else’s castle didn’t quite suit his taste.
“Has Lord Hermann’s request been resolved?”
Alisa asked while eating cheese between slices of bread, her tone cautious.
After all, prying into matters between nobles was a delicate issue.
Fortunately, Alisa had observed enough of Keldric to conclude that he wasn’t “a knight who fusses over trivial matters”; otherwise, she would have kept her mouth shut.
Keldric hesitated for a moment.
Not because he was unsure whether to answer, but because he couldn’t give a definite answer himself.
“To some extent. I’m not sure if it was well-resolved, though.”
“Oh… is that so?”
“Whatever the case, it’s up to Lord Hermann to decide from here on out. I have no further role to play.”
Keldric decided to withdraw from this matter.
It was true that the guild leader had deliberately refused to sell goods to him, so there wasn’t much he could argue against if the guild leader was hanged in the name of Keldric’s honor.
The guild leader’s betrayal had been exposed in a suspiciously sloppy manner, but digging deeper revealed no other suspects.
The trade guild and craftsmen’s guild members on the city council numbered a few more, but he couldn’t indiscriminately accuse them all as suspects.
That would be overstepping his bounds.
‘Unless it was Anselm.’
Anselm might hold some resentment toward the Cassel family, so it was possible.
Of course, there was no evidence.
Besides, that wouldn’t explain the guild leader’s sudden confession.
Keldric, realizing he was overthinking, cleared his mind.
It seemed like he was just giving himself a headache.
“Alisa, do you know anything about the leader of the Mormon Guild?”
When Keldric asked, it was more like a casual question than a serious inquiry.
He wasn’t expecting a solid answer; it was just a way to pass the time.
Alisa, who had been chewing her bread, frowned slightly in response, showing that she had grasped Keldric’s character well enough to answer honestly.
“If you’re asking about Guild Leader Anselm, I know a few things, though they’re mostly rumors.”
“Rumors are fine. Could you tell me?”
“Hmm… I heard recently that he’s greatly increased his spice trade, despite the market not favoring spice prices at the moment.”
It was odd, but merchants were always changing their strategies.
While spice prices remained high, perhaps he was stockpiling them in anticipation of even higher prices.
“Anything else?”
“And… I think I heard something about Anselm’s daughter.”
Did he have a daughter?
Now that he thought about it, there was no reason for family matters to come up in his conversations with Anselm, so it was natural that he didn’t know.
“Anselm’s daughter?”
“Yes. She passed away a few years ago, though.”
“Did she encounter bandits or something?”
“I’m not certain, but rumors say she was burned at the stake. It seems to be half true.”
“…Burned at the stake?”
Keldric tilted his head, puzzled by the unusual term.
Burning wasn’t a common punishment for criminals.
Those who committed theft or murder were typically hanged or, in severe cases, subjected to the wheel, which crushed their limbs.
Burning was rarely used.
However, it wasn’t entirely unheard of.
There was one major crime for which burning was officially and commonly employed.
“Was it heresy?”
When someone was condemned as a heretic after a religious trial and officially declared as such, they were often burned at the stake, supposedly to purify their soul.
Most heretics met this fate.
Alisa shook her head in response to Keldric’s question.
She didn’t know everything, after all.
“I’m not sure about that part. It happened so long ago….”
“When was this?”
“I don’t know the exact year, but they say it was shortly before Lord Hermann became magistrate.”
Hearing this, Keldric had a strong intuition.
This wasn’t something he could overlook.