I Became the Guild Leader
I stared at my father in disbelief.
“Why on earth? With three older brothers ahead of me and sisters who graduated at the top of the academy, why did it have to be me who inherits the family merchant guild?!”
Ideon Kaldia. That was my new name in this world. And today, at the age of twenty—with two years left until my academy graduation—I had been abruptly summoned back to the ducal estate.
Just as suddenly, Terius Kaldia, the current head of the Kaldia Ducal family and my second father in this life, had essentially ordered me to take over one of the family’s major businesses: the Kaldia Merchant Guild.
Some might ask, “Even if it’s rotten, it’s still a sea bream.” For a ducal house that stood among the empire’s greatest nobles, wasn’t it only natural to accept such an opportunity with both hands?
They would be right—if this weren’t the world of a dark fantasy game known for its merciless difficulty.
The Servenrote Empire where I now lived was destined to be sacrificed in the early stages of the main story. An unimaginable catastrophe would sweep across the empire, and the Kaldia Ducal family—self-proclaimed shield of the realm—would be swallowed whole by that wave of destruction, vanishing without a trace.
That left me with two options: either flee alone and prepare for the coming disaster, or try to follow the main storyline. But the new family I had gained here made both choices complicated.
To be honest, my feelings toward them were rather lukewarm. I didn’t love them enough to lay down my life, but I also had no particular reason to hate them. Still, throwing away my own life just because we shared blood felt far too wasteful. At the same time, abandoning them to save myself didn’t seem like something a decent human being would do.
So I had come up with a compromise.
On the day the family fell, I would use the money I had quietly siphoned away during my time at the academy to gather my relatives and escape to the Ertio Peninsula—the safest sanctuary on the continent. It was the only place untouched by the flames of war until the game’s late stages.
I had already finished laundering funds to purchase a sizable plot of land on the peninsula’s outskirts. In short, if I could just keep my head down for the remaining two years until graduation and time my escape perfectly, my family could start a new life in relative safety. Meanwhile, I would be free to move about once the main story truly began.
But now… suddenly being made guild leader?
Taking charge of the merchant guild would mean becoming deeply involved in the family’s finances. I would be buried daily in complex paperwork that intertwined the territory and the imperial court. In other words, my father’s unexpected proposal threatened to uproot my entire plan of quietly skimming funds and slipping away.
“Father. You know better than anyone how lacking my abilities are. I am far too small a vessel to entrust with the ducal merchant guild.”
I put on a pitiful expression and offered every excuse I could think of to escape this fate. But Duke Terius simply stared at me in silence, not moving a muscle.
Even in the face of his stubbornness, I was about to press on with my persuasion when—
“Above all, I—!”
“Your eldest brother is already overwhelmed with his heir training and has no room to manage a business. Your second brother has been appointed as the highest-ranking commander of the Imperial Knight Order and is fully occupied with the capital’s defense.”
My father began answering in a calm, measured tone.
“As for your third brother, he has already married into another family, so there is no justification for placing him in charge of our business. You already know all this.”
“But what about my older sisters? They are far more capable than I am…”
“Iliana has already built a major independent distribution business in the Mardion Kingdom. I cannot possibly call back a child who has secured such a solid position just to bring her back to the empire.”
My father took a short breath before driving in the final nail.
“Moreover, Seriana is busy preparing for her betrothal to His Highness the Crown Prince next spring. The child already finds each day too short just learning imperial etiquette—would you have me burden her with the guild’s ledgers as well?”
“That’s…”
There wasn’t a single gap in the duke’s explanation. It felt as though he had known from the start exactly what I would say and had meticulously destroyed every possible route of escape in advance.
I stood there with my mouth half-open, staring blankly into space.
Three older brothers and two older sisters. Each of them was thriving brilliantly in their own fields, completely unaware that a prosperous house falls all the harder when it collapses.
In the end, among this vast ducal family, the only surplus personnel with nothing better to do than attend the academy was me.
Even so, I couldn’t give up just yet. My lips moved, searching for something—anything—to say, but I had run out of excuses.
Father, as if the decision had already been made, pulled a thick stack of documents from his drawer and pushed them toward me. They bore the official seals and signatures transferring ownership of the Kaldia Merchant Guild.
If it’s come to this… I have no choice.
I squeezed my eyes shut. If I couldn’t avoid it, there was only one path left.
After all, this was a merchant guild belonging to a family destined for destruction. Whether I ran it or not, it would be reduced to ashes in a few years. In that case, it would be far better to actively use the guild to support my escape plan.
Compared to skimming funds as a mere academy student, wielding the authority of a major guild leader would allow me to operate on a much grander scale. I could manipulate the books to create a massive slush fund, then sweep up all the food and daily necessities needed for our refuge under the guild’s name.
And if the guild ended up on the brink of bankruptcy because of it?
Not my problem. Since the family was doomed anyway, I would simply be accelerating its collapse by a tiny margin. In fact, thoroughly ruining the guild and earning a reputation for incompetence—thereby falling out of the duke’s favor—would actually be far more advantageous for my escape plan.
Once my thoughts reached that point, the tangled mess in my head settled into calm clarity.
I slowly opened my eyes, reached out, and picked up the documents on the desk.
“If that is how you feel, Father, then I have nothing more to say. Very well. Though I am lacking, I will do my utmost to… lead the guild.”
“Excellent. If you handle this matter well, I shall obtain that artifact you requested before.”
“…Thank you.”
I already have a far superior artifact in my possession. You’re far too late with that offer.
Still, this guild that Father has entrusted to me… I will tear it to pieces as quickly and thoroughly as possible!
One week later, in the academy dormitory.
Without the slightest hesitation, I filled out the final field on the withdrawal form lying on my desk.
At that exact moment, a small commotion drifted in through the wide-open door.
“You’re really leaving just like this, Ideon? No matter how you look at it, this is too sudden.”
The classmate who entered first grabbed the bedpost and voiced his regret. A senior who followed him in glanced at the withdrawal form on my desk and clicked his tongue.
“Handing the massive Kaldia Merchant Guild over to the youngest son just like that… As expected, the scale of a ducal house is beyond what we can even imagine. I’m jealous. So jealous.”
“We’ve only known each other for so long, and now we have to part… If you ever visit the capital in your capacity as guild leader, please treat me to a meal.”
“Come anytime.”
I offered a suitable smile and gathered my spatial pouch. Since I didn’t know how my academy connections might affect me later once I fled to the Ertio Peninsula, there was no need to show any sharp edges now.
Light handshakes and formal hugs were exchanged. With my luggage in hand, I left the dormitory building amid the farewells of those who had come to see me off.
As I walked along the wide stone path leading to the academy’s main gate—
“S-Senior! Please wait a moment!”
Urgent footsteps cut across my path. The one who blocked my way was a petite female student, breathing hard. She swept back her disheveled pink hair with one hand and spread both arms wide to stop me.
“…?”
It was a face I had never seen before. Still, her large, round eyes and delicate features were quite striking.
She’s rather pretty. For an extra in a dark fantasy game, they put a surprising amount of effort into her modeling.
Had someone like her even existed? She had called me “senior,” so perhaps she was a freshman?
I adjusted the strap of my bag and looked down at her with an indifferent gaze.
“Who are you?”
“I-I am Lillian Rumien, the eldest daughter of the Rumien Baronial family! Please, I beg you to help me just once!”
She bowed at a perfect ninety degrees and shouted without preamble.
Rumien Baronial family… I had vaguely heard the name. They weren’t even part of the empire—merely a minor noble house from a remote kingdom on the frontier.
“Help you with what?”
“For four generations, my family has cultivated and distributed fruits that contain the properties of magic stones. But recently, all our sales channels have been completely cut off, and our house is on the verge of bankruptcy!”
Lillian continued with desperate eyes.
“Originally, I planned to slowly build a relationship with you after entering the academy before making a polite request. But then I heard the rumor that you were suddenly leaving the academy to inherit the guild… so I had no choice but to come like this, even if it was rude!”
“……”
“If the Kaldia Merchant Guild would handle our family’s fruits, I will definitely prove their worth! Please, just give us one chance!”
I raised a single eyebrow.
No matter how desperate she was, this was ridiculous. The young lady of a baronial family from a remote kingdom had the audacity to block the path of someone who was about to become the master of the empire’s foremost merchant guild and demand a supply contract outright.
I was about to give her a mild warning and refuse—when a brilliant idea suddenly flashed through my mind.
Pure mana flowing from magic stones acted as a deadly poison to the human body. To use it safely, one had to go through an extremely complex refining process. That refining technology was a high-priced monopoly held by only two powers on the continent: the empire and the Magic Kingdom.
In other words, the common sense understanding was that eating food touched by the energy of magic stones was no different from consuming poison.
Yet this remote baronial family had been selling such dangerous fruit for four generations without any apparent issues?
Did they have some kind of method… or not.
Either way, this was nothing short of a perfect bomb.
A highly toxic, bizarre food that no one with any common sense would ever buy. A specialty product from a frontier family whose very name was unfamiliar to most citizens of the empire.
If, right after taking office as guild leader, I poured enormous sums of the guild’s capital into securing exclusive rights to supply such defective goods…
This would be the perfect starting line for a spectacular failure.
The moment my calculations finished, I unknowingly broke into a bright smile.
“You said you were the young lady of the Rumien Baronial family, correct?”
“Y-Yes! That’s right…!”
She swallowed hard, visibly tense. I spoke to her in the kindest voice I could muster.
“This doesn’t seem like the right place to discuss such matters. Shall we go somewhere quiet and talk in more detail?”
“R-Really?!”
“Was your desire to work with Kaldia a lie?”
“N-No, not at all! To be honest, I never imagined you would accept the proposal so easily… I’ll prepare right away!”
With those words, Lillian spun around and dashed off toward her dormitory.
Watching her retreating figure, I sincerely prayed that she would become the swallow that delivered the seed of a clean and total collapse.