The Mysterious Merchant
Like the well-behaved Palaon I was, I followed my Ancestor's instructions to the letter.
Which is to say, I explained exactly how that subspace box had come into my possession — no embellishment, no omissions. Honestly, there wasn't much to tell.
"My brother said he obtained it after capturing a demon worshipper."
"A demon worshipper, you say?"
"Yes."
[So it's "my brother" only when it's convenient, you brat.]
Please be quiet, Ancestor.
Meanwhile, a chill ran down my spine as I kept glancing back and forth between the Mysterious Merchant Kon and Ahentar. Anyone who could appear this suddenly had to be an absolute powerhouse…
…Could Ahentar take him?
The golden rule of the neighborhood: if you get beaten up, you go tell your big brother. And Ahentar was my elder brother, so I held out a quiet little hope.
But Ahentar just watched with mild interest and did nothing at all.
Ugh.
My mouth went dry under that unbothered composure — and that was when the Mysterious Merchant Kon finally spoke.
"I thought as much."
"Excuse me?"
"I said I thought as much."
"You're just… accepting that immediately?"
"Yes. We already had a suspect in mind on our end. A wretch called the Traitor Rohan — once a saint, now a worshipper. Complete garbage."
Ah. So they'd already figured it out.
Then why was that murderous look still locked in place?
I was genuinely scared. His outfit made him look like the little bread-hatted kid from A Dog of Flanders, but those eyes were something else entirely…
"Ah, forgive me. The original owner of that subspace storage was a junior of mine I was rather fond of. Whenever I think of that child, well… I just want to tear every last one of them to shreds. Haha."
"Ah. I see."
I flinched at the chilling remark, and he smiled.
"Don't worry too much. I'll still need to speak with your brother separately, but you're already halfway cleared of suspicion."
"Ah. Yes."
"More importantly… did you summon me for a transaction?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. What to do. It's been a while since I've had a customer, but I'm currently on leave."
He added that he'd been hunting down that garbage, happened to sense the token's call nearby, and dropped by — and honestly, the wind went right out of my sails.
But who was I?
Kind-hearted Palaon. And simultaneously, the last Confucian gentleman equipped with the full spirit of K-Confucianism.
"I'm fine — please, go about your business. Someone else will come along eventually, won't they?"
From what I'd gathered, "Mysterious Merchant" wasn't a singular existence, so I was perfectly willing to wait.
He shook his head.
"I couldn't possibly. Well, no helping it. I'll suspend the leave for a moment and open for business."
"Ah… yes."
What? Then why call it leave in the first place?
I stared at him, baffled, and Kon offered a faint smile.
"What's good is good, wouldn't you say?"
"That's right, little brother. What's good is good."
Well. What's good is good.
There was something a little slippery about the whole thing, but I decided to accept it at face value. All I needed was free merchandise, after all.
And so.
"Then let's change venues."
"Yes, of course."
Ahentar and Kon left me standing there and walked off somewhere. I stared blankly at their retreating backs.
Ancestor.
[What.]
Anyone watching would think they own the place and I'm the guest.
My Ancestor did not reply. He merely glanced at me with a look that could only be described as pitying.
It was a sorrowful day.
The place we relocated to was my workshop. Conveniently, the James brothers were out.
"Quite a collection of cores you have here. Oho — is that one from the Mouth of Targis?"
"Ah, yes."
"Rather large, isn't it. Well, have a seat first."
Kon offered me a seat as if he owned the place. I sat without comment.
Then, still surveying the workshop with open curiosity, he spoke again.
"By the way, customer — I noticed you handling a rather unusual undead back at the training grounds."
"Tiktak?"
"So that's what you call it."
"Yes."
"Is that your unique brand of necromancy? Ah — no particular meaning behind the question. It's simply quite distinctive."
"Hmm. I suppose you could call it my unique necromancy."
"I see. Then, by any chance, have you heard of the Necromancer King?"
"The Necromancer King?"
I tilted my head. What was that?
"The first necromancer, existing since the distant ancient age — one who claimed immortality for himself, only to be forgotten. Once a king, now a calamity."
"No, I've never heard of him."
"Hmm."
Kon fixed me with a pointed stare.
What was that look supposed to mean? I was honestly flustered. We were supposed to be making a deal, and now suddenly it was the Necromancer King?
For a moment I considered summoning the full dignity of a Palaon and having Ahentar — squire of Merlin — thrash some sense into him. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.
"Well, fine. We've talked long enough. Shall we proceed with the transaction?"
"Ah, yes."
"Originally this leave was for hunting garbage, but… this too must be fate. Tell me. What is it you desire?"
He rolled out the pitch as smoothly as a street peddler.
"An elixir of immortality? A dragon's heart? Or perhaps a fragment of the Necronomicon? Name anything you like. So long as the price is right, I'll do my utmost."
Hmm. Notice he never said he actually had any of those.
I asked anyway, just in case.
"Do you really have an elixir?"
"Haha. Just a figure of speech."
Of course.
This part matched exactly what Ahentar had told me. The rumors were a bit exaggerated, he'd said.
All right, then. I decided to follow the advice Ahentar had given me earlier.
"Could you… arrange a meeting with an alchemist?"
"An alchemist, you say?"
"Yes. I've heard the alchemists the Mysterious Merchants arrange introductions with are exceptionally skilled."
"It seems you yourself don't yet know what you need. In that case, you've truly come to the right place. Our alchemists are the absolute best in that regard."
"Is that so."
"Yes. Shall I arrange a meeting, then?"
He sounded reliable. I nodded with rising expectation.
"Yes."
"Understood. I've arranged it. Go ahead and speak."
"…Excuse me?"
"I've arranged it. Go ahead and speak."
"…?"
I tilted my head. Kon tilted his head right back, smiling.
"Is something the matter, customer?"
"You arranged it?"
"Yes."
"Where is the alchemist…?"
"Right here. Me."
Kon beamed at me with perfect naturalness.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Kon — premier door-to-door salesman of the Mysterious Merchant Guild, and its finest alchemist."
"Ah… you must work very hard."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, nothing."
The Mysterious Merchant Guild. Now I understood what kind of place it was.
An extreme small-to-medium enterprise so short-staffed it makes its researchers do sales calls.
And since he'd said he was personally hunting the suspect who killed his junior, he was almost certainly pulling combat duty as well. In other words: one man, three jobs.
"Hang in there, Master Kon."
"…That is a remarkably unpleasant look you're giving me."
"You're imagining things."
"I am quite certain I am not imagining things… but fine. The important thing is the transaction."
"Right."
"Then may I perform a diagnosis? I'll assess your current condition and the quality of your existing equipment, then craft whatever you need accordingly."
"Ah, yes."
I nodded, and the Mysterious Merchant Kon held something out to me. A single stone tablet.
"Place your hand here."
"Yes."
I set my hand on the tablet. Light flared from the stone, and mana rippled outward.
"Stay still and don't be alarmed. You may feel a brief wave of dizziness, but I assure you no harm will come of it."
"Yes."
Just as he'd said, a spinning dizziness swept over me. And a short while later—
"Customer. One last question."
"Yes?"
"You truly know nothing of the Necromancer King?"
"Yes. I don't."
"I see. Ah — the reason I ask is simply that the equipment I'm about to craft for you is similar to what the Necromancer King used in his youth. Absolutely no other meaning. Absolutely none."
"…Absolutely none?"
"Yes. Absolutely."
What was this. The more he insisted, the more uneasy I felt.
I eyed him half-lidded, and Kon flashed another bright smile.
"This is our first transaction, and as a gesture toward making you a regular customer, I'll craft it free of charge this time. How does that sound?"
"From the moment I first laid eyes on you, Master Kon, I knew you were a true merchant who carries good faith and integrity in his heart."
If Kon said absolutely not, then absolutely not it was. Of course. Naturally.
Kon nodded at my show of trust.
"I'm touched."
"Think nothing of it."
Back to business.
"Would it be all right if I used some of the cores here? I believe I could make something even better with them."
"Ah, yes. Of course."
"Excellent. Then I'll see you again in a few days."
Kon scooped every last core remaining in the workshop into his subspace storage — and vanished.
Wait. Hold on.
He said he'd use a few?
I stared at the empty workshop, trembling with a rising tide of betrayal. And why wouldn't I? Kon had taken every single core in the place — including the core of the Mouth of Targis.
[Just wait a bit. He'll make something worth it.]
Right? Yes. He's definitely going to make something absolutely incredible. Something so good it'll make my eyes roll back in my head.
[You… sigh. Never mind.]
While my Ancestor sighed, I endlessly soothed myself.
It hadn't been stolen.
And so the days passed. I spent the time summoning my core skeletons and drilling formations.
But still.
"He didn't actually steal them… right?"
[Hah. Of course not. Mysterious Merchants are reasonably trustworthy.]
"You know about the Mysterious Merchants?"
That was news. He hadn't said a word about them these past few days, so I'd assumed he didn't know. Apparently not.
[I wasn't sure. In my day, they weren't called "Mysterious Merchants."]
"Then what?"
[Well… they went by many names. Peddlers of All Things. Visitors of the Mirage. Some even called them Guardians of Causality. I've never met them myself, so I can't say for certain whether "Mysterious Merchants" are the same lot — but if they are, they wouldn't have bothered stealing your cores.]
Why not?
[Because they would have the raw power to simply take whatever they wanted. Why go through the trouble of staging a transaction for something like that?]
Ah.
So it was like this: If they could just beat you up and take it, why bother stealing?
[Exactly. And if they really had robbed you — what exactly could you do about it?]
Hmm.
He had a point. Even from what I'd seen, Kon was no ordinary operator — appearing and vanishing in a blink like that.
Thanks to that, I was able to wait with a somewhat lighter heart. And as it turned out, Kon returned to find me on the fourth day after disappearing with the cores.
"Customer. Thank you for waiting. I've brought the goods."
"Oh."
I'd believed in him.
But where was the item? I looked around, and Kon held out a round metallic sphere about the size of a soccer ball.
"Here it is."
"This is…"
"Have you heard of a Life Vessel? It's a container Liches use to house their life force. This is something similar."
"A Vessel…?"
"Yes."
A gut feeling hit me hard. Kon had brought something truly extraordinary.
"Would you like to try it?"
"Yes!"
There was no world in which I would refuse that offer.