The Kerbe Merchant Guild
The moment Joseph followed the man inside, his brow twitched.
A faint residual trace of mana hung in the air of the building.
Joseph said nothing. He swept the room with his eyes alone, taking it in fast.
Baskets sat on two tables, a handful of carved stone and wood pieces rolling loosely inside them. At first he wondered if they were merchandise of some kind, but a closer look said otherwise. Nothing that was actually for sale would have been displayed that carelessly.
Then his gaze found a crate sitting alone in a far corner, beyond the tables.
That's it.
Mana was leaking from the crate — faint, but unmistakable.
Joseph paused. The man walking ahead turned back, then followed Joseph's line of sight to the crate in the corner.
"Ah, for heaven's sake..."
The man muttered under his breath and dipped his head toward Joseph.
"My apologies if that caused you any discomfort. We were supposed to have put those defective artifacts away..."
A worker must have made a mistake, he explained.
Defective artifacts?
The question lingered only a moment before Joseph's brow furrowed. On the surface the man had been perfectly polite. Something about the performance sat wrong.
...What's this bastard's game?
Was he trying to pick a fight? That was what it felt like.
The instant Joseph had paused at the crate, the man had studied his face — as if he'd been waiting for exactly that reaction. Gauging him. And he'd been blatant about it. Shamelessly so.
Is he trying to get a rise out of me?
It wasn't that Joseph was overly sensitive to other people's stares. The man was openly signaling that he doubted Joseph was the real deal. He probably didn't pull this on everyone who came to do business. It was because Joseph was an unknown mage who'd shown up without a single connection to his name.
A typical mage might have taken this as an insult and exploded by now. Which meant...
He's testing whether I have any patience.
Mages were, as a rule, eccentric and inscrutable. Anyone in this man's position would want to filter those types out and deal with someone they could actually talk to.
Joseph glanced behind him. Two more guards were staring, unblinking. Each wore a Mercenary Plaque around his neck, stamped with two emblems — the marks of the mercenary guild and some particular merchant company, by the look of them.
Dealing with those two wouldn't have been any trouble. But if Joseph caused a scene here, it could sour his dealings with the mercenary guild and other merchant companies down the line.
They're pulling every trick in the book.
Having reached that conclusion, he turned back to the man. The whole thing had been a little irritating, true — but he'd expected a certain amount of suspicion from the start.
A quiet voice left his mouth.
"It's fine. I didn't come here to buy artifacts anyway."
The man lifted his head slightly, studying Joseph's face once more. Joseph looked him straight in the eye and went on.
The words were firm. Unyielding. As if that clumsy little test a moment ago hadn't even registered.
The man stared at him, briefly stunned by the unexpected response.
"I—I see."
Then he lifted his head and started walking again, leading the way. They went upstairs to a reception room on the second floor. The man showed Joseph to a seat, then sat down across from him. He was a heavyset man, and the chair creaked loudly as he settled into it.
Joseph looked at him, briefly thrown, then asked:
"Are you the guild master, by any chance?"
"I am."
Why would a guild master come out and escort someone himself?
Joseph had taken him for a hired hand. He regarded the man with a flicker of surprise. Either extremely particular, or at the very least an unusual character.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly, Mage. I am Braham, master of the Kerbe Merchant Guild."
Braham introduced himself with a courteous bow of the head. Joseph gave a slight nod in return.
"And..."
As he spoke, he drew something from his coat and held it out. It looked similar to the wooden carvings scattered in the baskets downstairs.
"A welcome gift, for you. An artifact that produces light."
Welcome Gift — Kerbe Merchant Guild
A wooden dodecahedron carved with such precision it scarcely seemed possible it had been made by hand. The guild emblem is inlaid on one face; touching it produces a brilliant light.
A woodcarver had clearly spent a long time on this.
Oh...
Joseph accepted the artifact and found himself running his fingers over its surface. The truth was, this was the first proper artifact he'd ever seen. Every one he'd gotten his hands on until now had been of dubious origin. Seeing something this finely crafted — almost like a manufactured product — curiosity was inevitable.
"Would you look at that side?"
Braham pointed to one face of the artifact in Joseph's hand. An emblem was carved there.
"That's the mark of our Kerbe Merchant Guild."
He gestured toward a small banner hanging on the wall behind him. The same emblem was embroidered on the cloth. Apparently they used the mark to identify where an artifact had been made.
A kind of branding?
Fascinating. This was the first systematic practice he'd encountered in this other world.
Then Joseph's finger brushed the carved emblem, and orbs of light began to seep from the artifact. Within moments a radiance too bright to look at directly came pouring out.
Whoa...
This was nothing like Joseph's Mana Orb. This was a proper lighting artifact.
Braham produced a small lamp from somewhere and held it out. When Joseph placed the artifact inside, the light diffused into a gentle glow.
This is... incredible.
Joseph watched it with genuine admiration — not just for the artifact, but for Braham's handling of the situation as well. An artifact of this quality was clearly no cheap trinket. Unlike candles — expensive, high-maintenance, and reeking of tallow — this thing produced light at a touch, like a lightbulb from his previous life. In a world with no trace of modern civilization, something like this couldn't possibly be cheap.
And this is a gift?
In a single stroke, Braham had advertised the Kerbe Merchant Guild's capabilities and bought goodwill from a genuine mage. At the same time, Joseph realized this negotiation might not be as straightforward as he'd hoped. The guild's artifacts were of a higher caliber than he'd expected.
"Thank you. It's an excellent artifact."
Even as those thoughts ran through his mind, Joseph calmly removed the artifact from the lamp and tucked it away.
"Now then — you mentioned you wished to sell artifacts. Might I ask what kind?"
At the question, Joseph drew a small fragment from his coat. Unlike the lighting artifact from a moment ago, this was a crude marble chip — clumsy in every respect. Even this had been made with help from Derik, whose hands were at least reasonably skilled.
Joseph didn't so much as glance at Braham's expression. Whether the man was disappointed or not was irrelevant. In this deal, Joseph held the advantage. He was certain of it.
Whoosh—
Joseph flicked his hand through the air, summoning a Mana Orb. The sphere materialized out of nowhere, and Braham's face went rigid. He'd seemed fairly stout-hearted, but in the end he was still an ordinary man.
"Iceberg."
"Imbue."
⟨ Iceberg ⟩
The moment Joseph spoke the incantation, the Mana Orb was sucked into the marble fragment in an instant. And just as he'd practiced countless times, the marble began to radiate a faint chill.
"W-what?!"
Braham's shock lasted only a moment. Joseph set the freezing marble on the floor beside the table and stepped back. The cold around it intensified until it was visible to the naked eye — a shimmering haze of frost. Then the marble cracked, split, and shattered, and in the air around the fragments, small pieces of ice bloomed into existence.
"What the—!"
Braham couldn't hold it in any longer. Joseph looked at him as if to say, well? Braham opened his mouth, the shock still raw on his face.
"I-is that an ice artifact?"
"It is."
Braham looked back and forth between the ice and Joseph, speechless.
"...You're saying you want to sell ice artifacts?"
His voice trembled faintly. He didn't even try to hide his shock. Joseph nodded once more, and Braham let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
An ice mage...?
The composed demeanor he'd been carefully maintaining was gone without a trace.
In this world, ice was no mere coolant. It was a symbol of wealth and power. Ice was typically harvested with great difficulty from frozen regions, packed in sawdust, and hauled over long distances. The cost was enormous, so most people never even attempted it. Some used thermal artifacts, but those were expensive too, and they couldn't transport much.
The ice that did arrive was used for everything imaginable. Not just for food and drink — it lowered the fever of the sick, eased pain, served medical purposes of every kind. In short, ice determined the living standard of the wealthy, and the ability to supply it was a measure of a merchant guild's influence.
This is insane...!
It wasn't that ice-producing artifacts didn't exist. The problem was that they were vanishingly rare. Ice mages were scarce to begin with, and most of them had no interest in making artifacts — which made perfect sense. Anyone who understood the value of ice wouldn't bother turning it into an artifact for sale. Doing so would only diminish their own worth. Arrogant mages who looked down on everyone else weren't about to do anything that threatened their own prestige. Not unless they were some strange mage with neither a messiah complex nor a hunger for power.
And yet...
That strange mage was sitting right in front of him, offering to sell ice artifacts as if it were nothing. Even a merchant as seasoned as Braham couldn't help but be thrown.
Dear gods, an opportunity like this...
If he let this deal slip, every merchant in the world would call him a damn fool. He swallowed once, then spoke.
"To be honest, I never imagined you'd come here to sell ice artifacts."
He could still feel the faint chill on his skin as he continued.
A fierce hunger burned in Braham's eyes. The will to seize this opportunity, no matter what, was written all over him.
"Good. Exclusive distribution is what I want as well."
"Pardon?"
Braham echoed the words, dazed. Joseph looked at him, puzzled, and Braham asked again.
"D-distribution — you mean this isn't just one or two artifacts, but..."
"That's right. I'll manufacture the artifacts. I need a partner to sell them on the market."
"M-manufacture...!"
Braham's mouth fell open so wide his jaw practically unhinged. Manufacture. Distribution. Exclusive rights...!
...What's with that face?
Joseph frowned slightly at the bizarre expression, then spoke again.
"There is one problem, however."
"A problem? What kind of—!"
"As you saw, the artifact shatters after a single use. It's a problem with the medium."
It was a weakness he'd rather have kept hidden, but in a long-term partnership it would come out eventually. There was no point building unnecessary distrust from the start. Besides, the Kerbe Merchant Guild specialized in artifacts. Their information network might even hold the key to solving this.
"What do you mean? That you haven't found a suitable medium?"
Braham asked urgently. The joy that had flooded him a moment ago had given way to unmistakable alarm. Joseph shook his head.
"I haven't found a material with sufficient stability."
He paused, then continued.
"Which is why I'd like your help with the artifact production."