Chapter 205: Oh, Well, Oh, Well
"Many thanks for your generosity, my lady."
Zawan made several more comical bowing gestures.
"Get out of the way, Zawan, don't spread your stupidity to the noble lady... Oh, and bring me some of that medicine."
"Medicine? Oh, yes, yes, of course."
The merchant leader took the 'medicine' Zawan handed him and swallowed it without a second thought.
"Medicine? Are you ill?"
"Just an old ailment, nothing serious. But you, my lady, do you feel unwell anywhere?"
"I... I feel fine... Huh? Strange, how could..."
Syanna hadn't felt anything amiss originally.
But under the merchant leader's concerned gaze, a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over her.
"My lady, what's wrong?"
Perhaps it was her imagination.
Syanna thought she saw the merchant leader's humble and respectful expression vanish entirely.
"I feel a bit sleepy."
Zawan grinned.
"Sleepy is right. I forgot to tell you, besides the sugar, I also added a little something extra in there, to help you get a good night's rest. The medicine the boss just took was the antidote."
"What did you sa—"
The previous sense of security instantly vanished.
All that remained was fear.
These people weren't...
She had to escape.
But it was too late.
The drowsiness instantly swallowed her consciousness.
Her body, as if losing all strength, collapsed onto the cold ground.
Her last conscious thought before darkness consumed her was the men's unrestrained laughter.
One merchant walked over to Syanna and nudged her. "Really passed out?"
Zawan chuckled, "Could it be fake? This stuff could knock out an elephant."
Another merchant said, "How much did you put in? Don't kill her."
Zawan's expression instantly changed, and he cursed.
"Damn it! Do I look like an imbecile? I'm not stupid, I specifically adjusted the dosage. Don't worry, she'll be fine. She won't wake up until tomorrow morning, at the earliest."
"But I gotta ask, boss, how did you know she was faking?"
The others also looked on curiously.
The merchant leader asked, "Faking what?"
Zawan gestured, "Just now, she said she was a 'princess' of Toussaint. How did you know she was fake?"
"I only told you to drug her. When did I ever say she was fake? Syanna, she looks exactly like the portrait Lord Doug sent us.
"She is the Duchess's daughter, the real deal."
Zawan was stunned. "Then why did you..."
"Zawan, I've always called you 'idiot,' and you always bristled. Now, shouldn't you admit it?" The merchant leader sighed. "Have you forgotten the rumors about the Black Sun curse that circulated in Toussaint years ago?"
Zawan thought back.
"It was something about a noblewoman of the ducal family, a Child of Disaster born during an eclipse. And the Prince, who was still alive then, even specifically sought out the most influential Brotherhood of Sorcerers in the North to exorcise his granddaughter."
The merchant leader added, "To be precise, it wasn't an exorcism, but an assessment to determine if she truly was a Child of Disaster."
"And then... it was said that the Brotherhood of Sorcerers would come to Toussaint a few years later to take her away."
"You mean, that Child of Disaster... is her?"
Everyone else blanched and stumbled back a few steps, as if Syanna were a follower of Nurgle.
The merchant leader grumbled, "Look at your pathetic faces. Is she going to eat you?"
Zawan stammered, "But... doesn't she have a curse on her?"
The merchant leader scoffed.
"A curse my ass. If there was a real curse, would Beauclair still have any living people?
"Do you know the legend of the striga of Temeria? The entire Old Palace was abandoned because of the striga, and even King Foltest had to move into the New Palace. That's what a curse is, understand?
"If you ask me if curses exist in this world, of course they do. But if you ask if the Black Sun curse is real? I certainly don't believe it!"
Under the merchant leader's blistering lecture, the others gradually calmed down.
"So, this girl..."
The merchant leader impatiently waved his hand. "We'll take her with us."
Facing the merchant leader's instruction, the others showed confused expressions.
"Boss, are you going to sell her as a slave? She's so skinny; she'll probably die in the mines after a few days of work, assuming she can even be sold."
"If you're going to sell her to a brothel... she is, after all, the Duchess's daughter, and the ducal family still rules Toussaint. What if the news reaches Toussaint..."
The merchant leader explained.
"Who said anything about selling her to the mines or a brothel? She's our golden goose. I'm afraid to drop her if I hold her, and I'm afraid she'll melt if I keep her in my mouth."
"Don't forget, we don't believe in the Black Sun curse, but those bumpkins in Toussaint are superstitious as hell. Otherwise, why would the Duchess be willing to exile her own granddaughter?"
"Isn't it because she's afraid this precious granddaughter of hers will ruin Toussaint?"
"So, this child isn't just some ordinary girl; she's a weapon of mass destruction."
"As long as we send word to Duchess Anna Henrietta, demanding she grant our Merchant Guild some special privileges in Toussaint.
"This way, not only can we fill the void left by Lord Doug's arrest, but we can also further strengthen and expand our influence and power in Toussaint, to destroy and control Toussaint's local commerce."
"Gentlemen, in this age, economics is everything, and everything is economics. Once we control Toussaint's commerce and economy, the ducal family will be nothing more than our puppets. The ones truly controlling Toussaint will actually be us, the Nilfgaardian Merchant Guild."
The Nilfgaardian Merchant Guild was just like that.
Its name made it seem like a mere trade organization for merchants.
But in reality, it was an organization with a political background, backed by powerful imperial nobles.
The Merchant Guild served as both the Empire's white glove and its black glove.
Many tasks that the Empire found inconvenient to handle were delegated to the Merchant Guild.
For example, selling people from conquered regions into mines, plantations, or other places in need of labor.
Such matters were not convenient for imperial institutions to directly handle.
After all, the Empire, while condemning the North as "backward and barbaric," proudly proclaimed itself "advanced and civilized."
Even the North had long abolished slavery. If the Empire directly dabbled in the slave trade, wouldn't that imply that the Empire was even worse than the backward and barbaric North?
Besides the slave trade, another area where the Merchant Guild played a crucial role was using its identity as merchants and a merchant guild to spy for the Empire in the North, engaging in espionage and the like.
For instance, even during the tense North-South conflicts of the future, the Merchant Guild could legitimately and legally appear in any Northern city.
Whether it was Novigrad, the Jewel of the North, or the capitals of Temeria or Redania.
In fact, it was precisely the spies and agents disguised as Merchant Guild members who brought intelligence about the Northern Kingdoms to the Empire.
This information led the future Emperor, "the White Flame Dancing on the Graves of his Foes," to conclude that "the Northern Kingdoms are merely a loose collection of disparate states," thus launching the invasion of Cintra.
....
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