At Capcom's Words, Yujun's Eyes Narrowed
At Capcom's words, the corner of Yujun's eye gave a faint twitch.
"Undead?"
"That's right. Every time he showed himself, the undead were with him. They looked quite close."
"He walked around Heaven openly letting on that he was undead?"
"And who would say a word about it? He might well have a growth-type summon, same as that summon of yours. More than anything, the man is the foremost Great Merchant in this market. Of course he can go about with his head held high. Mind you, the times he's shown his face can be counted on one hand."
"And nobody cares? A player out of the Demon Realm, dragging undead around with him — even if he is a Great Merchant?"
"What can anyone do, when his ability is that outstanding? I'll be honest with you. We of the heavenly race are rather harsh when it comes to discriminating by race, but we also make certain to give treatment that matches ability. Becoming a Great Merchant poses no problem. If anything, the merchants here hold no small respect for a man who succeeded under conditions that unfavorable."
"Even though nobody knows who he is?"
"That, too, seems to strike other players as all the more mysterious."
"Then what do I have to do if I want to trade with him?"
"He has an agent residing here."
Yujun brightened.
"So I just have to ask that agent."
"If asking got you an answer, we'd have had his identity pinned down long ago. The agent will not open their mouth on that subject, no matter what happens. And that's with several agents, mind you."
"Still, I ought to meet the agent first."
"It looks like the proper way, I'll grant you, but it isn't a method I'd recommend. When someone tries to press the agent, that Great Merchant has a tendency not to show himself. Of course, I could be imagining it."
"I, too, think it may amount to nothing more than stirring a hornet's nest for no reason," the other Great Merchant added.
"Then is there a better way than asking through the agent?"
"Hmm... I think it best to leave it to luck. It's been quite a while since he last came. Wait a little, and if that comes to nothing, go see the agent."
"Understood, for now. Thank you. Both of you."
Each of them had handed over a fortune of 150 billion points without so much as a blink, and even afterward they kept trying to help. It left a favorable impression. Even if the kindness had been calculated, it didn't sit badly with Yujun.
"I'll be going, then."
"You won't have a look at the items?"
"Has anything new come in?"
"There is, there is — but nothing that would suit your taste."
"Then I'll buy later. Thanks anyway."
"Paranet."
"Yes."
"You don't sense an undead presence anywhere nearby, do you?"
"...Why would you ask me that?"
"You're undead. Same kind — no instinct kicking in?"
"Master. Are you able to pick one human out from another in this place?"
"That'd be difficult."
"I am no different. Being of the same kind does not mean I sense them any more keenly."
"Even so, the undead aren't living creatures."
"In truth, were one nearby, I expect I would feel a certain dissonance. This is Heaven, after all. But I feel nothing of the sort, so the likelihood that they are near at this moment seems high — that is, that they are not."
"You think you'd feel that dissonance? You're sure?"
"At first I, too, believed that finding them by instinct was impossible. Thinking on it again, however, because this is Heaven, it may well be possible."
"Good. Paranet. I'm counting on you. Manuela."
"Hm?"
"Put a blessing on Paranet for me."
"Got it."
This time, it seemed he would have to lean on Paranet quite heavily.
"Yenil. You haven't been here before, right? Want to look around a bit?"
"May I go back to those merchants from earlier? They were called Great Merchants."
"They're usually hard to meet. I'll send a message and let them know."
"My thanks."
"Manuela. What about you? Something else to buy?"
"No. I bought plenty last time. I'm fine."
"It's not because you're out of money, is it?"
"Do you have any idea how long I've been saving? I have money."
"Fair. Save for over a thousand years and even a farmer ends up rich."
Manuela's lips jutted out in a pout.
"Master!"
"Yeah?"
"Might we not pay the agent a visit?"
"The Great Merchants just said not to go kicking a hornet's nest."
"Not to march in and interrogate them — merely to draw near. Under the pretext of browsing items, or of purchasing them."
"Ah. That's what you meant. If we only say we're looking, they might not even receive us, so we'll have to buy something."
He had money to spare anyway. Selling two items had brought in 300 billion points.
"This actually works out."
He'd been itching to spend as it was. Buy something and leave, and the agent ought not to grow suspicious — not unless they had learned to read minds.
"Ah. But I don't have much money."
It was Yenil who said it. Yujun paused for a moment, then tilted his head.
"Looking at Manuela, it's not as if the concept of points didn't exist centuries ago... so why don't you have any?"
"Because I spent them all."
So Yenil was the sort who burned through money. In her day she had been called the greatest mage alive; she must have raked it in.
"I spent an astronomical sum of points on magical research. A mage has no choice but to be poor."
"I doubt every mage is poor."
"A mage ought to be poor. Magic has no end. If one has a great deal of money, one is a merchant, not a mage."
"Isn't that a little black and white? Well, anyway, I think I see just how mad you are for magic."
Yujun gave Yenil five billion points.
"Don't waste good money on equipment. Buy mostly consumables."
"Y-you're simply giving this to me?"
"Pay me back later by doing well. Or something."
"...Thank you."
"Off you go. And I'll say it again — don't buy equipment."
The reason he had told her not to buy gear was simple. It would be a waste. The items he already owned were far more effective, so there was no need to tell her to spend money on equipment.
"When I have finished shopping, I shall contact you. I will spend the money to good effect. Of course, I do not mean that I will not repay it!"
"Yeah, yeah."
Yenil left first.
"Let's go."
"Okay."
Yujun set off with Manuela and Paranet for the place where the agent was.
The agent occupied an enormous mansion with guards posted in long ranks. It was so vast that it was hard to believe a building of this scale stood in a market where so many players came and went.
"The agent... is the one who's here, right? Not the man himself?"
"The security is tight to the point of excess."
Paranet drew his concealing cloak tighter around himself. The sheer number of guards weighed on him.
"Don't chicken out. We're not here to fight."
"Yes, Master."
The guards looked like men simply hired for coin, yet their level was considerable. It wasn't merely a matter of numbers. Even so, Yujun, sharp-eyed as he was, sensed something off.
Are they even players?
They wore equipment as players would, but the longer he watched, the more subtly wrong it felt. A guard standing still might not have seemed strange at all. It was the ones patrolling section by section of the mansion. Their movements locked together with uncanny precision, proceeding at fixed intervals like robots, without the slightest deviation. The identical distances they maintained were far too exact to be the product of training. Even Yujun couldn't say with confidence that he could keep that up for long.
Of course, he only caught the mansion's strangeness because his senses were exceptional. From the outside alone, it would have been nearly impossible to smell anything suspicious.
Not what matters.
He hadn't come to dig up whatever this mansion was hiding. He was here to use Paranet's instinct and meet the mysterious Great Merchant. So he walked boldly up to the front gate.
"What brings you here?"
"A trade."
"Please display the points in your possession."
"And why's that?"
"Entry is permitted only to players of substantial assets."
So the riffraff could get lost. He liked how clear it was.
"Fine."
Three hundred billion points was certainly a great deal of money, though not on the scale of the Great Merchants. Then again, the place wasn't restricted to Great Merchants alone.
"Confirmed. You may enter."
Fortunately, they seemed to check only a single representative and leave it at that. Four guards fell in around Yujun's group. The title was escort, but they looked rather more as if they were there to watch. He supposed he ought to be glad they weren't hostile.
They followed the long stretch of gravel until another great gate loomed ahead. The moment they stood before it, the doors opened on their own.
Magic really has replaced science here.
Still, a clear difference remained between magic and science.
Shame you can't play games.
Reality itself had become something like a game, so the craving wasn't exactly fierce — but he did miss them.
At last inside the mansion, Yujun slowly looked over the interior.
Nothing special. Just a rich man's house.
Nor did it seem they had hidden recording orbs anywhere. A mansion this large would normally have them installed as a matter of course. That was the one thing that snagged at him.
"Once your business is concluded, please depart at once."
"Sure."
No VIP treatment here? Or is it because I've only got three hundred billion?
On the off chance, he asked Capcom by message.
There was no particular reason to hide it, so Yujun answered honestly.
Relieved that he hadn't been turned away over money, Yujun followed the guards' lead into the reception room.
"Huh?"
The moment he stepped inside, a vacant sound escaped him whether he wanted it to or not. Ju Donghyeon was sitting there, posture perfectly respectful.
He was one of the people Yujun had met in the Dwarf Kingdom — and the holder of Future Sight, an ability so absurdly broken that forgetting him was impossible no matter how one tried.
"Do you know me?"
Ju Donghyeon asked, his face honestly lost.
"What? You don't know me? Donghyeon?"
"No. Who are you?"
He didn't seem to be acting.
"Did you lose your memory?"
"Memory...? Yes. I was born anew."
"Where did your lover go?"
"My lover?"
"Your dwarf lover. The one who recovered from the plague..."
"I had a lover?"
What? He really seemed to have forgotten everything. His devotion to that dwarf lover had been anything but ordinary — and if he had forgotten even her...
"In any case, you appear to know who I was before. Do you not intend to trade?"
Ju Donghyeon asked, his face indifferent.
"You lost your memories and it doesn't bother you at all? You're not even curious?"
This was no ordinary kind of serious.