Enrollment Preparations - Securing Funds - (1)
Ligret's recruitment as my bodyguard went remarkably smoothly. Bern Midas had the attitude of someone who couldn't be bothered with such trivial matters, and the members of the Brown Wolf Mercenary Group handed her over with surprising willingness.
…Though it bothered me quite a bit that most of the mercenaries were giving me these lukewarm, knowing looks.
"So, what exactly does being a bodyguard entail? If it's twenty-four-hour close protection, that's a bit much even for me."
I shook my head at Ligret's question. Having her glued to me for every single moment of daily life would be excessive, and more importantly, it would drive me crazy from the discomfort. Besides, the whole bodyguard thing was half an excuse just to keep her close by.
"You don't need to stay with me when I'm inside the house. The Midas mansion has more than enough security facilities and personnel."
"Yeah, I figured most intruders wouldn't even make it past the front gate."
What kind of family did she think this was? Back in my grandfather's time, the wealthy merchants and nobles who had to watch their step around the empire and the divine royal family were one thing, but there had been no shortage of reckless gamblers trying to squeeze a fortune out of my grandfather's magic stone mines. A secure mansion and solid defenses were essential for survival.
Not to mention my father, Bern Midas, who openly earned a terrible reputation while raking in money with both hands. By his generation, the number of people bearing grudges had multiplied alongside the thieves after his gold. The precautions taken against them had grown even more formidable.
The grim-faced men guarding the entrance were just the basics. Expensive alarm and protective spells were installed throughout the mansion, and whenever Bern Midas went outside, nearly dozens of people swarmed around him. Even the CEOs of major corporations from my previous life didn't go that far.
In truth, even the bodyguards that Dorf—who wasn't even a blood relative of the family, just a merchant guild employee—used to bring along, combined with the strength of the Brown Wolf Mercenary Group, could easily handle most bandits.
Last time had been an abnormal situation where trained soldiers from an entire estate had come after us. That was the only reason we'd been caught off guard.
"Just accompany me when I go out or travel far. I'll usually give you notice a day in advance for scheduled trips, so feel free to do as you like otherwise. I've cleared out the room next to mine for you. You get one day off per week, plus one additional free day that accumulates each month—use it whenever you want. Oh, and meals and clothing are all provided free of charge, so don't worry about that. If you need anything, just tell me or one of the other servants."
"…You're sure I was hired to work? This feels more like getting paid to lounge around."
Ligret asked with a dubious expression, as if these terms were shockingly generous by this world's labor standards. Well, once you consider all the hell she'll have to go through later, it won't feel that easy.
"If it really bothers you that much, want to come watch what I'm about to do? I asked Father for a task and he gave me one."
"What is it?"
At Ligret's question, I answered with the brightest smile I could manage.
"—Gacha."
In the world of Planetarium, there existed objects known as sealed relics. These special items, primarily discovered in ancient dungeons, appeared as palm-sized cubic boxes—hence their common name, cubes.
Cubes had four main characteristics:
First, their seal could be released by consuming a certain amount of magic stones.
Second, the closer a cube's color was to black, the more magic stones were required to unseal it.
Third, the size or shape of the sealed object was not restricted by the cube's own dimensions.
Fourth, the contents could not be known until the seal was broken.
For adventurers exploring dungeons, these cubes were an extremely annoying double-edged sword. The reason was simple: the magic stones needed to open them were never cheap.
Even the lowest-quality lower grade magic stones were worth ten silver coins each—equivalent to a month's living expenses for a single-person household in the kingdom. And even the easiest-to-open white cubes required at least ten lower grade magic stones to unseal. That came to a whopping hundred silver coins.
The bigger problem was that even after spending that much money, there was no guarantee you'd get something of equal value. It might be a spear that was cutting-edge at the time of sealing but was now just mediocre scrap iron by modern standards. Or you'd open a treasure chest with sky-high expectations only to discover its contents weren't even worth a tenth of what you'd spent. Those were the milder cases.
Some cubes contained the previous owner's diary or old love letters, like some kind of capsule toy. There were even rare cases containing dangerous traps clearly meant to screw over future generations.
Yet they couldn't be completely dismissed as dangerous junk, because every so often an incredibly valuable magic tool or a chest full of ancient gold coins would pop out. That was why a steady number of people still attempted to open cubes every year.
The players who discovered the existence of these cubes had a very simple and clear assessment.
—Isn't this just gacha?
Or in other words, a loot box. And the kind with an insane minimum cost equal to ten months of living expenses for a single household.
Of course, it wasn't an amount that top-tier mana users, wealthy nobles, or rich merchants—who could earn gold coins hand over fist with a single request—couldn't afford. But even for them, opening cubes was something they hesitated to do. Having money and throwing it into the void were two completely different things.
"I did ask Father about it, but he thought I was just wasting money and only gave me ten lower grade magic stones before kicking me out. The guy has so much but he's so damn stingy."
When I lifted the leather pouch in my hand, Ligret looked utterly dumbfounded.
"Wait, handing over a hundred silver coins just like that already seems pretty generous to me. There are tons of mercenaries who risk their lives in battle and still don't get more than thirty silver per job."
"Well, I am the bloodline of a nouveau riche family that the entire nation loves to hate. This much is the least he can do."
When we arrived at our destination, a man with the sly appearance of someone who would trick the protagonist in Arabian Nights into fetching a magic lamp came out to greet me. It was Dorf Prams.
"Welcome, young master Chrome!"
"Did you wait long?"
"Haha, not at all. I'm perfectly fine, so please don't worry about it!"
After the incident at the Baldwin Estate, Bern Midas had shown some consideration by using expensive potions to treat Dorf's serious injuries. At the same time, however, he had stripped Dorf of his position as acting chief representative for failing to close the deal. The result was that this once-prominent figure in the Midas Merchant Group was now working as my personal secretary and convenient errand boy. Truly, life was full of ups and downs.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes, please come this way."
Dorf glanced briefly at Ligret, who was following behind me, then opened the door to one of several warehouses tucked away in a corner of the mansion.
Inside the warehouse, cubes were sorted by color. White cubes filled the walls completely, there were roughly dozens of gray cubes, and only two black cubes sat alone.
"All of these are those cube things?"
Ligret asked, surprised by the sheer number.
"Besides the ones found in dungeons, cubes also appear in old buildings and ruins. Since opening them yourself is too much of a burden, discoverers usually sell them to merchant groups at a reasonable price. From the group's perspective, they're worth collecting just in case they turn out to have high value."
"Honestly, I think it would be better not to purchase them at all—except for the black cubes..."
Dorf seemed quite skeptical about the value of cubes. Not that I could blame him. The odds of hitting the jackpot were ridiculously low.
I walked straight into the warehouse and picked out a cube that caught my eye.
"Then I'll go with this one."
"You're deciding that easily?"
"It's all about luck anyway."
I opened the leather pouch I'd brought and poured the magic stones near the white cube. The white cube began to emit a soft glow as it absorbed them. And then—
"—At the very least, I'm confident in my money luck."
With a heavy thud, a box about the size of a soccer ball, decorated in red and gold, appeared right where the white cube had been.
Clink, clink, clink.
Inside the box were gold coins engraved with the image of a fire-breathing dragon. Dorf, recognizing what they were, muttered in a trembling voice.
"…A-ancient gold coins of the Red Dragon…?"
"They were worth about five times the gold coins currently in circulation, right? This much should be equivalent to around five hundred lower grade magic stones."
I smiled at him as he collapsed to the floor, legs giving out beneath him.
"Could you exchange all of them for magic stones and bring them back?"
The odds of winning with cubes weren't high, and pulling out more value than what you poured in was nearly impossible with ordinary luck.
Except, of course, for the Greedy Profligate.
After all, gacha had always been a game for those destined to win.