I Became the Guardian of Big Shots in the Game

Kavic Roan.
Public opinions about him vary.
An oddball who, despite being an illegitimate child of the Baron Roan family, succeeded the title by surpassing all his siblings.
A cruel family killer.
The ruler of Serdin’s underworld, and so on.
There were countless hardships and trials before he earned these nicknames.
But no matter how many times he fell, Kavic never gave up.
It was the same even now.
‘Damn those bastards.’
They cast a small binding spell on Kavic and released him without hesitation.
Although he lost most of his businesses, mansion, and assets in Serdin that he had cultivated for years,
He still had assets and organizations left throughout the Etrion Kingdom.
‘I’ll make a comeback for all to see. And someday, I’ll reclaim my position.’
Kavic, quite boldly,
Made one proposal to the black-masked man who had dragged him to the outskirts of the city.
He would tell the locations of emergency funds and various resources hidden throughout the mansion,
In exchange for handing over the collected evidence.
-Please. The moment that’s made public, I won’t be able to set foot in the kingdom!
The man agreed to the deal.
As a result, Kavic was barely able to cover up his flaws that were about to be exposed.
‘Let’s go to Etre first. Take out the emergency funds from the villa’s safe, gather the remaining organization, and rebuild our strength.’
Thus, Kavic, who had been heading endlessly westward,
Could only reach a small roadside inn when night fell.
Since he was dressed in near rags, Kavic naturally drew the attention of the guests.
“Wait, you. Aren’t you Baron Roan?”
Someone recognized him and grabbed his shoulder.
“Who do you think you are, laying hands on a noble’s body so carelessly!”
A plain shirt with a brown hat, suspender pants that merchants wear for comfort.
Even at best, definitely not a noble.
“Oh, pardon me.”
He stuck his hand in his pocket,
And placed a badge on Kavic’s table with a thud.
On the golden badge was engraved a rose symbolizing the Etrion royal family.
“T-this is.”
“I may not be a noble, but His Highness said I could arrest nobles like you. Boys!”
“Yes, Inspector!”
About 10 men in the hall stood up at once.
“Baron Roan. I’m arresting you in the name of His Majesty, the King of Etrion. Save your excuses for the Prison Tower.”
“Don’t you dare-”
Thwack!
Struck on the back of his neck, Kavic collapsed helplessly.
As his eyes closed, the last thing Kavic saw was
The inspector pulling out the collection of evidence of various criminal acts that he had carefully kept in his bosom.
The king of the underworld, who would have normally quietly dealt with the inspector by mobilizing his organization,
Was pathetically escorted to the capital.
And,
“I was on my way to Serdin, but this saves me the trouble.”
“Will you return to the royal capital with this?”
“No, we’ll split up. Only some will escort this guy to Etre. We’ll continue to Serdin as planned.”
He decided to follow his intuition.
Kavic’s appearance was that of someone who had been hastily driven out, so
‘Did he lose a power struggle and get pushed out? If so, it seems something even worse has appeared in Serdin.’
The one who newly seized control of Serdin’s underworld.
To find out information about that person.

Ethan, who woke up in the morning, burst into a dejected laugh.
“Another bug?”
It was a game with many bugs.
It wasn’t easy to make a high-freedom open-world game.
Still, most people played it thinking “oh well” because it was fun.
He was the same.
“The story keeps progressing on its own.”
He was worried this might hinder Levi’s growth later.
‘Well, it’s only Act 2, so maybe it doesn’t matter.’
The latter part of the story is still intact,
And it’s a section that can’t be broken even if it tried.
Ethan decided to shake it off.
He had too much to do to be distracted by incomprehensible notification windows.
Postponing checking the special reward for a moment, he first got out of bed.
Ethan briefly washed with the basin of water someone had placed on the table, then rummaged through his spatial backpack.
“Shall we start the real work of a guardian?”
The most basic spec-up item.
He took out a skill book.
“I should give this to Levi.”
But something was strange.
The skill books he knew had different colored covers according to their grade,
And when opened, the color of the pages differed according to each class.
But for some reason, the skill books taken from the treasure vault were all uniformly red.
“Were the skill books found in hidden pieces originally without grades?”
The descriptions weren’t properly written either.
The skill name on the cover was all there was.
“I’ll hold off on giving these to Levi right away. There might be side effects or they could be low-grade skill books, so I need to look into it more. First, I should sort them by class.”
Ethan divided the skill books into three categories: mage, knight, and priest.
And in the fourth space, he gathered skill books with ambiguous uses.
“Silent Step, Brilliant Shield, Maximize Hit Rate, Auxiliary Stats.”
Just looking at the names on the covers, it seems like a collection of overpowered skills, but
●Eliminates footstep sounds for 2 seconds, proportional to mana (20).
●Blocks all attacks once, needs recharging after depletion, current recharge time about 36 hours.
●Increases hit rate by a certain amount, LV.1 hit rate increase (+2).
●Grants growing additional stats, LV.1 all stat increase (+0.2).
“Whew~ Look at those increases. Absolutely worthless.”
These are skill books that wouldn’t even sell for the price of paper.
He thought about just putting them on a bookshelf for display, but the covers were too worn out, so that was rejected too.
“Don’t these disappear when used?”
Since they were classified as consumables in-game anyway,
Ethan decided to just use them and get rid of them rather than keep them in the spatial backpack.
-Flash!
[You have learned the skills ‘Silent Step’, ‘Brilliant Shield’, ‘Maximize Hit Rate’, and ‘Auxiliary Stats’.]
Nothing seemed to have changed.
As he was about to get up while stretching,
-Knock knock knock.
“Ethan-nim. Are you awake?”
It was an unfamiliar male voice.
Probably one of the workers Levi had brought.
“What is it?”
Creak-
The door opened and a cart laden with a feast was wheeled in.
“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Reid, who’s been appointed as the mansion’s chef. I’ve prepared breakfast.”
‘Right, let’s eat first and then continue.’
Meals are important matters after all.

The 10 special forces members under Levi’s direct command who became the mansion’s staff.
Levi took five of them and left the mansion early in the morning.
In front of the members, Levi repeatedly emphasized,
‘Do not question my actions.’
And,
-Serve Ethan-nim thoroughly so he doesn’t feel any discomfort.
-If by any chance, someone harbors doubts about my and his words and actions. I don’t think it will happen, but if anyone develops hostility,
-I’ll make them regret being born.
At the Princess’s behavior that was different from usual,
The special forces member Malos felt suspicious.
No matter if it was the Princess’s order,
Fundamentally, the special forces’ command structure was to follow orders from higher up.
Malos and the special forces members, whose families were staying in the Forbidden Forest, had no choice but to follow the half-threatening secret orders from the royal relatives.
[Report immediately if there are any suspicious points in the Princess’s actions]
Why would she, the most complete among the royal bloodline,
Try so hard to impress an unremarkable man, for whatever reason?
They wanted to find that out.
Malos monitored Ethan’s every move.
‘I don’t sense anything special.’
If so, it’s one of two things.
Either he’s truly an ordinary person at a normal level,
Or he’s a skilled individual hiding his power.
So he decided to experiment.
Malos approached Ethan’s back as he was lost in thought while strolling in the garden.
He didn’t even need the special forces’ throwing knife.
Just one sharp and heavy stone was enough.
Infusing it with mana to accelerate, increasing its hardness to be able to crack the skull.
An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to block it and their head would burst.
-Whoosh!
The stone thrown with all his might flew towards the back of Ethan’s head.
But Ethan showed no reaction.
‘So he was an ordinary human after all… Huh?!’
-Boom boom boom!!!
The moment several layers of dense magic circles suddenly appeared around Ethan,
When the stone touched the magic circles, it was decomposed by a rather violent dissolution magic.
Malos, who was well-versed in magic, was shocked.
“Ah, what was that? Looks like a barrier activated.”
Casually brushing off the stone fragments and turning back towards the mansion, Ethan
Spoke in a relaxed manner to Malos who was waiting from afar.
“Good work.”
“Yes, Ethan-nim.”
Although it was only triple-layered, Malos remembered something similar to the defensive magic Ethan had deployed.
‘It’s the Imperial-style defensive magic that only some of the royal relatives know.’
To be wearing such a thing.
Ethan doesn’t have silver hair, and even less red eyes.
[Don’t doubt him.]
The Princess’s warning replayed in his mind.
‘Just who is he…’
Malos shared the information with his colleagues,
And the special forces members decided to side with the Princess instead of the relatives.

The merchants of Serdin’s Free Market.
They might not have money for the church’s tithe,
But they always paid the monthly protection fees.
Divine punishment is always far away, while the fists of thugs are always close by.
As today was the payment deadline, those who had prepared the protection fee were relieved,
While those who couldn’t were grimacing, worried that their precious stalls might be smashed by the thugs’ rampage.
But what’s this?
The thugs who used to come rushing from dawn to cause trouble demanding money were nowhere to be seen,
And a peaceful day began.
“The rumors were true.”
“What rumors?”
“They say Baron Roan was driven out.”
“Really?”
The fact that he was the top boss controlling the underworld organizations,
All the Free Market merchants knew.
“No, no, wait a minute. Jake, so according to the rumor you heard, there’s someone who cleaned up Baron Roan and his 30 organizations in one go?”
“That’s what they say.”
“Oh no, we’re doomed!”
“Huh? What are you talking about? We’re doomed? Didn’t you hear they got what they deserved? It’s karma!”
“How are you doing business with that rock for a brain? You think the new guy won’t collect protection fees? He’s bound to be even more vicious than that Baron!”
“Excuse me?”
A girl suddenly interjected into the merchants’ conversation.
“W-who are you?”
Judging by her attire, she wasn’t an ordinary woman,
And with guards behind her, she seemed to be the daughter of a quite wealthy family.
But,
When the girl closed her eyes and opened them again,
“Urk!”
“I’ve come to inform all the large and small merchant guilds doing business in the Free Market.”
Whether they made eye contact with the girl or not,
All the surrounding merchants froze like the surface of a lake in midwinter.
“My master wishes to purchase a merchant guild. Those interested should come to the White Mansion.”
The White Mansion.
Ironically, the darkest person in Serdin lived in the brightest mansion.
According to rumors, it was the residence of Baron Roan who was said to have been driven out.
‘These people? The ones who dealt with the Baron?’
“We’ll be watching your sincerity.”
-Snap!
As the girl snapped her fingers, the eerie energy constricting their bodies dissipated.
People fell to the ground, coughing.
Left behind in the place where the girl and her entourage had disappeared, the merchants
All feared alike.
“We’re doomed.”
“You were right. The Baron was content with protection fees, but.”
We’ll be watching your sincerity.
Hadn’t the Baron also collected protection fees in the name of merchants’ voluntary ‘sincerity’?
“Are they planning to swallow up all of Serdin’s merchant guilds?”
“Tsk, so what if the city is at the center of trade routes? What good is a prime location when there are more bastards taking our money every day!”
“Whether we die this way or that, shouldn’t we at least see the face of that madman before we die?”
The merchants who usually didn’t hesitate to engage in cutthroat competition with neighboring stores,
Now gathered like a school of fish when faced with a common enemy.
“Let’s go to the mansion!”
Having gained confidence by banding together, they headed straight for the mansion.
But,
“Huh?”
“Is that young man the boss?”
To their surprise, a kind-looking young man welcomed them with a bright smile.
“What are your thoughts on the Free Market’s protection fees going forward?”
“…What are protection fees?”
At this, the merchants’ faces suddenly brightened.
“Let’s talk inside.”
The unexpectedly well-received merchants were overjoyed and actively cooperated with Ethan.
And watching this scene,
Levi, looking on contentedly from the end of a shadowy corridor, and
Malos, who cautiously approached her and whispered:
“I…”
“Young miss, this should be enough.”
“Miss Levi. Who exactly is Ethan-nim?”
Zap.
He felt as if the ‘power’ was about to constrict his heart.
Unwilling to endure meaningless pain, Malos hastily added:
“I assure you, it’s not disrespectful doubt. I already know Ethan-nim is an extraordinary person.”
“Oh my, how so?”
“He was wearing layers of extinct Imp… No, ancient magic…”
Feeling he might be killed if he spoke too specifically,
Malos embellished his words as much as possible.
“I see. I thought as much.”
Levi smiled sweetly.
“Ethan-nim is the reincarnated great savior. Of course he would know extinct techniques.”
Seeing the Princess smile for the first time in his life, Malos accepted her words as truth.
After all, the only thing that could make the Princess, who had barely managed to hide her outward desolation, truly happy was the ‘return of the savior’ from legend.

‘There’s no merchant guild worth buying.’
Most were guilds or merchants he had never heard of during his playthroughs.
Soon, the next merchant approached.
“Greetings. I am Dobber, a slave trader.”
“You deal in slaves?”
“Yes, that’s right. Do you need any high-quality slaves? I can provide them at a low price.”
Thanks to the slave merchant, Ethan recalled something.
‘All six big shots were either orphans or former slaves.’
Among them, the big shot from this Etrion Kingdom was Hwaryon.
With her unique and beautiful appearance, she was sold to a brothel,
And using every means at her disposal, she becomes the worst villainess at the pinnacle of the underworld.
‘If I don’t intervene, that is.’
Whether their inclination is good or evil,
As a big shot who will hinder Levi’s story progression, conflict with Levi is inevitable.
Since her starting point is here in the Etrion Kingdom,
“Do you have any slaves from the western continent?”
“I think I saw one. There’s a girl with red hair and crimson eyes.”
‘So she is here after all.’
“I’d like to see her right away.”
“Eh? Ah, certainly! I’ll bring her right away!”
So he’ll nip it in the bud.
The possibility of becoming a great evil.