Found It #1
“…Create a royal trading company to trade with the humans?”
Iris had wondered what could be so urgent that Freesia came straight to her the moment the chief of the guards left. The proposal to form a royal trading company struck her as surprisingly fresh.
“Yes. I think it’s about time we started looking outward a little.”
“This isn’t simply because you want to make money?”
For all their mutual isolation, humans and the Yo clan used the same currency and measured value by nearly identical standards. Trade could, in theory, begin at once. There would be no need to negotiate exchange rates or the like. Even so, Iris asked carefully, calmly. For the moment she set aside both her distaste for humans and her affection for Freesia. She spoke as Great Chief—coldly, impartially.
Freesia understood that, and deliberately put on a show of nonchalance, as if to flaunt how composed she was.
“Mother, really. Do I look like I’m short of money? Having more never hurts, of course, but this isn’t about the coin.”
“Then what?”
“Information. While we trade, I want us to learn how the humans are moving.”
“Is that really necessary?”
Iris tilted her head. They had spent centuries treating each other as if the other did not exist. Why go to the trouble now? The thought showed plainly on her face.
Freesia met her mother’s eyes squarely and answered with quiet steadiness.
“The comparison isn’t perfect, but… you don’t raise an army only because you intend to start a war, do you? You prepare for the war that might come. And there’s no guarantee this situation will last forever.”
“That’s… true enough.”
If you desire peace, prepare for war. Iris recalled one of the teachings handed down through the generations and nodded.
“Right? So I think we need to start reading the humans’ movements from now on. Sending spies would look far too suspicious, so I want to use a trading company instead.”
“Your reasoning holds. But just as we dislike the humans, they dislike us in turn. How do you plan to deal with that?”
“Merchants are a ruthless breed. They’d lick a stranger’s feet if there was profit in it. If we show them they can make money, won’t that erase even those feelings?”
“There’s sense in that as well.”
Merchants were ruthless. Neither mother nor daughter was ignorant of the fact. The Yo clan had merchants of their own, after all. Iris cast her daughter a worried sidelong glance and asked the question that truly troubled her—because the idea had come not from Freesia, but from Edgar.
“Still… what if that boy is harboring other intentions? He’s human. What if he’s trying to bring advantage to the human side…?”
“I’ve considered that too. But it isn’t the case.”
“You have grounds?”
“I do.”
Freesia repeated the conversation she had shared with Edgar almost word for word: that by trading only within human lands they would leave no room for information to leak out; that for the same reason they would run not a large-scale operation but a carefully selected royal trading company; that he still felt a profound debt of gratitude and was content with his life as it was now… and so on.
Some of the reasons are sound enough to nod at, yet others are far too emotional…
From Iris’s vantage, certain points still looked dubious. In the end, though, trust was required if anything was ever to be done. Suspicion alone only tangled what might otherwise succeed. She decided to grant permission for now and watch how things developed—resolving, at the same time, that if he ever betrayed her daughter she would exact a price harsher than any other.
“…Very well. Proceed as you wish for the time being. But I will choose who joins the company. That is acceptable?”
“Yes! Of course!”
The moment permission fell, a bright smile bloomed across Freesia’s face.
“You’re that happy?”
“Hm? Ah… I suppose I am? It’s good news, but…”
Iris asked with a gentle smile, and Freesia tilted her head. It was good news, yes, yet not the sort of thing that should have made her this delighted. Could it be…? A new possibility flickered through Iris’s mind, and a sly light entered her eyes.
This really does feel like a game.
Edgar looked around the pitch-dark cave in quiet amazement. He was astonished that a warp point had been installed in a hidden corner of the pavilion where Freesia stayed, and just as astonished that the point had carried them all the way to the vicinity of Paestum. For a moment he almost wondered whether he had not possessed a game character at all, but was simply playing the game itself.
For the first time in a long while he settled a heavy crate on his back and began to walk, slowly. Even with Freesia’s hand in his, he had to be careful. She could see every pebble in the black cave; he could not. One careless step and he might trip over the uneven floor or drop straight through one of the artfully hidden holes.
“Ugh…!”
After a long stretch of climbing and descending through the darkness, Edgar frowned and turned his face aside. Eyes grown used to the dark recoiled from the light. The faint glow leaking in had been bearable, but this…
“Take it slow. Easy.”
Already adapted, Freesia stopped with a soft laugh in her voice. Thanks to the pause, Edgar’s eyes adjusted; he was able to open them gradually. The cave mouth, the ridgeline of the mountain, and a dense stand of trees came into view.
“Once we get down the mountain and walk a little farther, Paestum will appear. I’m taking the secret entrance. What about you?”
Freesia asked while smoothing the robe she wore. She intended to slip in through the same hidden gap she had used when she first brought him here.
Edgar thought for a moment, then spoke.
“I’ll go through the main gate. If we arrive together we might draw eyes.”
“Mm… all right. Do that. Where shall we meet?”
“You know the general layout of the city, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Then let’s meet near the central plaza.”
“Sounds good.”
The moment their rendezvous was set, they started down the mountain. Freesia had climbed these slopes often enough when she slipped into Paestum unnoticed; Edgar, for his part, had been forced up them more times than he cared to remember. Back then he had dragged a fevered, broken body along the path—Megus and the rest of the Seeker’s party had never shown him any mercy.
When Paestum finally came into distant view, Edgar’s eyes widened. Seeing it with a clear mind for the first time felt almost novel.
“I’ll go on ahead.”
“Yes.”
Freesia left first, and Edgar promptly set off toward the city gate. In the days when the undead had been rampant, inspections had been thorough and the gate guards had been wound tight as bowstrings; no one knew when shambling corpses might come lurching out of the dark. Now, however, both the sentries and the people passing through the gate moved with easy leisure. News that the King of the Dark Withered Tree was dead had spread across the continent.
“State your business.”
When Edgar reached the gate, a spear-bearing guard challenged him. The sharp edge was gone from the man’s manner, yet a certain brusqueness remained. The threat of the undead might have lessened, but caution toward strangers had not.
Edgar answered in a calm, practiced voice, as though this were nothing new to him.
“Yes. I’ve come on my lord’s orders. Paestum is still one of the few cities left standing in decent shape, so he told me to look for trading partners here.”
“Trade? In what goods?”
“One moment, if you please.”
Edgar paused just long enough, then set the crate from his back onto the ground. When he lifted the lid, neatly folded green silk met the guard’s eyes.
“What’s this? Looks like cloth, but…”
The guard tilted his head. Silk was produced only in the lands of the Yo clan; of course he would not recognize it.
“Yes. It’s called silk. The sheen is beautiful, and when you make clothes from it the result is truly lovely.”
“Hmm… is that so? Anything else?”
“Only this. Nothing more.”
Today he had come merely to open a channel for silk alone. What might follow later was another matter. When Edgar lifted the folds to prove the crate held nothing else, the guard nodded.
“Very well. Pass.”
“Thank you. Have a good day.”
With the guard’s leave given, Edgar closed the lid, hoisted the crate again, and offered a polite farewell. Just in case, he slipped a silver coin from the purse at his breast into the man’s hand; the guard’s face lit with unmistakable pleasure. Life had been hard for nearly everyone, so the reaction was only natural.
His feet carried him of their own accord toward the central plaza while his eyes drank in everything—the streets, the buildings, the people. All the scenery the curse had once forced him to let slide past unnoticed. Before he quite realized it, the plaza lay just ahead.
Ah.
Scanning the square, he spotted Freesia in a far corner, her face hidden by the robe. The black cloth, the height, the bearing—it was unmistakably her.
“Forgive me. You’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you?”
As he approached and spoke, her distinctive herbal scent brushed his nose.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Anyway—you said that merchant lives around here, right?”
“Yes.”
The game had contained, besides the main quests that drove the story, a generous number of side quests meant as breathing space. Being an open-world title, it had also offered the quiet pleasure of stumbling onto hidden places and unexpected requests. Edgar nodded, recalling the days when he had been utterly absorbed in it.
The merchant they were seeking was one of the figures who appeared in those side quests. At this point in the timeline he was simply an ordinary trader; once the quest was cleared, however, he became a reliable little source of steady income—a lifetime pension, one might almost say.
“I’ll trust you on this.”
Freesia had set foot in Paestum often enough, yet she knew nothing of the city’s deeper workings. She had only ever skimmed the surface. Trust was all she could offer.
Edgar felt the weight of that trust and still gave a quiet, steady nod. He could not yet know what revealing his hand might set in motion.
“Yes. I’ll do everything I can.”