A Reckless Land Investment
Two days after the magic stone cultivation fruits of the Rumien barony became a massive hit. It was the morning I finally began my real duties as guild leader after completing every last bit of the handover process. The moment I woke up, instead of heading straight to wash, I sat on the edge of the bed and stared blankly out the window.
“...Is this a dream?”
I desperately hoped the entire situation was nothing more than a nightmare. The returns were dozens of times the original investment—precisely thirteen times the three thousand gold coins I’d poured in. After subtracting the commissions owed to the distributors and the Rumien family, plus labor costs and the guild’s own operating expenses, the amount that would actually land in my pocket came to seven thousand two hundred gold coins.
It sounded completely absurd, yet once you invested a fortune like three thousand gold and earned thirteen times that back, the result was only natural. Actually, the staggering net profit of seven thousand two hundred gold itself wasn’t the problem. The real headache came from the letters that arrived the instant the news broke—one from Zerven Kaldia, the next head of the Kaldia family, and another from my eldest sister, Iliana Kaldia, both offering their congratulations.
Obviously, since both of them doted heavily on their youngest sibling, neither letter demanded money or asked me to hand the guild back over. It was just that…
Ideon Kaldia, my precious youngest brother.
This older brother of yours feels his chest swell with overwhelming pride at the unbelievable achievement you have accomplished.
Using your magnificent success as a stepping stone, I have secured three VVIP trading partners that previously had no connection to our family whatsoever. The imperial household at the very heart of the empire, the iron-blooded admiral who controls every shipping route across the southern seas, and even the royal family of the Magic Kingdom—famous for living in complete self-sufficiency within their closed borders. Each one is a colossal power that an ordinary merchant guild could never dare approach.
At the end of this letter I must note that the Magic Kingdom was the first to propose the deal. Their intentions seem suspicious, so I remain somewhat wary. Still, such impure motives are beneath our concern. Now that you are the guild’s master, simply drink up every drop of sweetness you can and withdraw at the perfect moment.
— Zerven Kaldia
The letter opened with an embarrassingly thick layer of affection, and the contents that followed were so astonishing I had to read them twice. Zerven—both the family heir and the future duke—had leveraged my results to punch straight through three unreachable VVIP clients in one go.
“The dirty schemes of the Magic Kingdom or whatever… I didn’t need a ‘gift’ like this in the first place…”
For someone whose entire goal was to neatly ruin the guild, this was terrible news. Still, I couldn’t possibly insult my older brother who had even bowed his head on my behalf. I set the letter aside for now, needing time to organize my thoughts, and reached for the second envelope lying beside me. This one was from my eldest sister, Iliana.
The situation in her letter was much the same. From her independently operated magic stone distribution guild in the Mardion Kingdom, she politely requested priority delivery of even the mass-produced versions of the magic stone fruits.
— Iliana Kaldia
‘My sister’s guild handles quite high-grade magic stones, so using those…’
No, that wasn’t the point at all.
“Ah……”
I sat there holding both letters, one in each hand, sinking deep into thought. I had no reasonable grounds to refuse. Shoving aside the sincere goodwill of family who genuinely cared for me would be strange, and from a business perspective the deals would only bring pure profit to the guild.
‘That’s right… the magic stone fruits are already out of my hands anyway.’
It would be better to delegate full authority to Lillian and Eleanor and wash my own hands of the matter. I pulled a sheet of letter paper from the desk drawer and quickly scrawled a reply saying I would prepare the stock and send it at once. Tying the small cylinder to the leg of the blue messenger bird perched on the windowsill, I sent it flying. With a cheerful flap of its wings, the bird soared into the morning sky.
I watched the communication bird grow smaller in the distance, then flopped back onto the bed and muttered,
“It’s gotten a little tangled now… but I can clean it up later.”
I still had countless opportunities left to completely destroy the guild. Sometimes you just had to look on the bright side. After rolling around on the bed for a while to settle my complicated feelings, I straightened my wrinkled shirt and began preparing for work in earnest.
Kaldia Merchant Guild headquarters, the guild master’s office.
The moment I sat down, Vice Leader Eleanor placed a thick stack of approval documents on my desk.
“Here is the morning schedule for today along with a report on the guild’s overall financial status.”
Eleanor, who had swept her black hair back, began her report in a voice noticeably softer than when we first met.
“To be honest, most of the guild members initially saw you as nothing more than a parachute hire—an immature youngest son who only got the position through family connections. But with the magic stone fruit project, you instantly proved both remarkable insight and ability.”
She gazed at me with calm eyes and continued.
“More than half the guild members now hold deep trust in you. The atmosphere across every department is incomparably more energetic than before. With that in mind, I have a suggestion.”
Eleanor pulled out another document and slid it toward me.
“To commemorate this success, how would you feel about distributing a modest encouragement bonus to the guild members? It would be an excellent opportunity to solidify their firm loyalty toward you, Guild Master.”
“……”
I glanced at the amount written on the document Eleanor offered. It was quite generous, yet compared to the enormous profits soon to fill my pockets, it was little more than pocket change.
‘It would be a lie to say I don’t feel the sting… but I have no immediate need for the money anyway.’
Seven thousand two hundred gold coins. We were still in the very early stages of the game’s story, so there were no worthwhile dungeons I could enter yet, and the essential artifacts I absolutely needed to secure hadn’t appeared on the market. Besides, my personal funds were, broadly speaking, the guild’s funds. If spending guild money would eat away at it, I had no reason to hesitate. Scattering money under a plausible pretext was exactly how I could take one more natural step toward bankruptcy.
“It sounds like a good proposal. Hand me the approval form.”
Without the slightest hesitation I picked up the fountain pen and scrawled my signature. Eleanor’s eyes widened slightly, as if she were surprised by my swift and decisive action. Watching me pour out a large sum for my subordinates without even using an abacus must have looked to her like the bold generosity of a great ruler.
That’s not what this is, though… Well, no need to tell her the truth.
“I will keep it in mind. I shall make certain the guild members fully understand the breadth of your generosity, Guild Master.”
Once Eleanor had delivered all her messages and withdrew with a respectful bow, I began examining the mountain of documents piled on my desk with surprising proficiency. Honestly, I had never dreamed I possessed any talent for this kind of guild work. In my previous life I had zero experience running a company. Yet somehow, the game’s setting and reality had blended together so strangely that the territory’s logistics flow and the guild’s complicated financial statements appeared as intuitively as if I were reading a system window.
Within the dense rows of numbers I could see the movement of money. Each proposal sent up from the branches instantly calculated in my head which decisions would bring profit and which would bring loss.
‘Better to sell the logistics warehouse site on the capital’s outskirts. A slum will expand into that area soon. Maintain the southern guild’s spice monopoly contract, but we can cut the unnecessary labor maintenance costs at the mines in half without affecting operations.’
My hand moved the fountain pen without the slightest pause. Even the thorny problems Eleanor had carefully sorted were resolved with clear answers the moment they passed through my hands.
Yet even while handling the work so perfectly, my true objective remained singular.
‘Isn’t there some trash project where I can blow a huge amount of money for nothing?’
I flipped through the documents rapidly, eyes gleaming. I never wanted to experience another absurd success like the magic stone fruits again. What I needed was a perfect trap project—one that would be completely ignored by the public, generate no external variables whatsoever, and ultimately devour the guild’s funds like a hippopotamus swallowing everything in sight.
Hidden beneath my competent and sharp handling of affairs was my persistent, dark determination to thoroughly destroy the guild. Perhaps that was why my pace at turning pages grew faster and faster. Then one particular proposal, covered in a thick layer of dust and left neglected in the corner, caught my eye.
“Hmm?”
It was a purchase proposal for a vast stretch of wasteland left abandoned near the northern margrave’s territory. The land writhed with all kinds of cursed energy; not only was farming impossible, even the margrave himself avoided approaching it. Occasionally the buried corpses of animals, monsters, or humans would rise again. It was completely forsaken ground. Because of that it had been offered at a price so cheap it was practically being given away, yet for decades no one had even glanced at it. On top of that, the plot was disgustingly large, requiring massive monthly expenditures just for basic purchase costs and maintenance fees—an absolutely fantastic set of conditions.
‘This doesn’t look half bad?’
The current Rumien barony’s territory was three times smaller than an imperial barony due to the scale of its kingdom. That was partly why the magic stone fruit yield had been lower. So if I used that as an excuse and even mobilized the ducal family’s influence to relocate the entire Rumien barony to this place…
“This will work. This is definitely going to work!!”