Found It #2
Finding something that would turn a profit.
That was the condition for clearing Hans’s quest.
And the thing worth money could only be found outside the city.
The root vegetables sleeping in the mountains were exactly what he wanted.
Edgar had gone straight into the mountains to dig for deodeok because he remembered that—but things were different now.
Hans was no longer an NPC spitting out fixed lines. He was a living human being.
So there was no need to bring him some root vegetable he would never eat just to give him the excuse to start a farm.
“Good heavens. To think cloth this fine even exists….”
The still boyish young man, Hans, gazed down at the green silk in his hands with a look of pure rapture.
It was more beautiful than any fabric currently on the market.
“You wish to sell this… is that what you’re saying?”
The brightness in Hans’s voice as he asked was unmistakable.
If it meant profit for him, what did it matter if they were of the Yo clan?
“Yes. For now we’ll begin on a small scale like this, but eventually I intend to form a full merchant company.”
Building a royal-chartered company from the outset might be premature.
Even so, preparing from now was hardly a bad idea.
That was how Edgar saw it, which was why he was already laying the groundwork to establish one—so that it could take solid shape and begin operating at any time.
“I see. That’s an excellent plan.”
“Then… will you deal with us?”
When Edgar asked, Hans raised his voice as if the answer were obvious.
“Of course I will! I may be nothing more than a petty merchant, but I’m not so blind as to let an opportunity this good slip past me.”
“A splendid decision.”
Edgar clasped Hans’s hand in Freesia’s place and smiled.
All of them were buoyant with the expectation that this modest beginning would only grow larger with time.
Freesia, who had kept mostly silent save for the occasional word, felt exactly the same.
After Freesia, Edgar, and Hans sealed their discreet arrangement, a new wind began to blow through the markets of Paestum.
The silk Hans started supplying little by little was the cause.
Green silk and red silk, relatively common in the lands of the Yo clan, arrived in the human world as something new and precious.
Even the cloth-shop owners who first laid eyes on it were astonished, and so were the people who bought the fabric and had clothes made from it.
It was rather expensive, yes—but the talk was that only the distinguished wore it.
The sheer beauty of the silk itself captivated everyone.
As a result, silk that had started out merely somewhat costly climbed higher and higher in price.
Then the moment rumors about the silk reached the ears of the noble who governed Paestum, its elevation into a luxury good accelerated even further.
Nobles had always possessed a streak of vanity—the urge to show off something, born from the need to have their means acknowledged.
Silk was the perfect material both to satisfy that vanity and to stoke it further.
Fail to obtain silk garments, and people whispered that your purse must be thin—or that you lacked the connections to acquire such goods.
And so the nobles who had not yet secured any silk went half-mad trying to get their hands on it.
That left Hans, the sole supplier, run ragged—yet the only things that ever touched Freesia’s and Edgar’s lips were smiles.
“Silk?”
Megus, handling paperwork in her territory, tilted her head.
Across from her sat Olivia, a half-cooled teacup in her hand.
“Yes. You’ve heard the rumors lately, haven’t you?”
“Well, the rumors have certainly been going around.”
Lately that silk had become the talk of noble society.
There was no way she wouldn’t know.
“So why bring it up? Do you want some silk too?”
Megus asked with a crooked little grin.
Originally the silk had been sold without regard to rank. These days it had become a luxury good, a high-end item sold only to nobles.
Those who already owned some wanted still more, and there were plenty who had none at all.
Worse, word had begun to spread to neighboring countries, so supply was running short.
“To be honest, it isn’t as if I have no desire for it… but there’s something that’s been bothering me.”
When Olivia answered in a dubious tone, a look of puzzlement crossed Megus’s face.
“Hm? What is it?”
“That silk merchant. He won’t say where he gets his supply.”
“Of course he won’t. Why would anyone reveal the source of something that valuable? I’d monopolize it myself.”
“That’s true enough. But do you really think merchants blinded by greed will give up over something that small?”
“Obviously they’ll keep trying.”
The avarice of merchants operating in times like these was poison itself—no exaggeration.
In fact there had already been people who hired underworld types to kidnap and threaten Hans.
They had simply been quietly buried thanks to Freesia and Edgar.
“And yet they say no one has managed to uncover the supply route.”
“He must have hidden it very carefully. He’s made plenty of money by now, so he’d have the means….”
But Megus wouldn’t be saying all this without a reason.
She swallowed the rest of the thought and waited to hear what would come out of Olivia’s mouth next.
“So I had someone look into it for me.”
“You did? To sell silk yourself?”
As if pouring everything into searching for Edgar weren’t enough—now silk too?
Megus’s head tipped sideways in open bewilderment.
Olivia shook her head as if to say that wasn’t it at all.
“No, not that. Something else about it has been nagging at me.”
“Hmm… so? Did you learn anything?”
“A few pieces of information that might serve as leads, at least.”
“What are they?”
Megus’s eyes lit up; her voice rose with excitement.
Olivia’s answering voice, by contrast, remained calmly level.
“First, I learned that the exchanges take place in an outlying district quite a distance from Paestum.”
“And after that?”
“He deals with a fairly sizable merchant company—and every person on the other side wears a robe, they say.”
“They wear robes to make a trade? That’s awfully shady. Illegal goods?”
“If that were the case there would have been an uproar long ago. The goods themselves were perfectly clean. Their side brought silk. The silk merchant’s side hauled away minerals.”
That much made sense.
While Megus folded her arms and nodded, Olivia paused to catch her breath.
What she was about to say next was the real problem.
“But… among them, only one man showed his face, and—”
“And?”
“His hair… was pure white, they said.”
“What…?”
A man with pure white hair.
As far as Megus knew, there was only one such man in the entire world.
That was why her eyes went round and she sat frozen in wordless shock.
“White hair… isn’t exactly anyone’s exclusive property, is it?”
After a long silence, Megus asked in a trembling voice.
Even if the white-haired man she knew was the only one, there was always the chance she was wrong.
Olivia had thought the same, so she showed no sign of contradicting her.
“True. That’s why I intend to go and confirm it myself.”
“Yourself…?”
“Yes. It’s a lead I’ve finally caught—I want to see it with my own eyes. And I’m not particularly busy.”
Olivia laughed and claimed she had free time, but Megus knew perfectly well she wasn’t that idle.
Just as Megus herself was still busy adjusting to the administration of a territory newly elevated to a count’s domain, Olivia was occupied receiving visitors from every direction.
I can’t just sit here and wait.
Rather than stew in frustration, Megus decided she would move with her.
“Then I’m coming too.”
“What? But you’re busy, Megus.”
“If I sit around waiting I’ll die of sheer frustration. Please.”
“Are you truly sure?”
“Father is still in good health—what’s the problem? Anyway, when do we leave?”
When Megus pressed her, Olivia’s own expression took on a note of urgency.
“I was planning to leave the moment preparations were ready.”
“Then let’s go today. I’ll get ready too.”
Megus shot to her feet; Olivia rose with her.
“Will you stop by the capital first?”
The fastest route from Megus’s territory to Paestum did not pass through the capital.
But Lora and Riel were in the capital. That was why Olivia asked with a hesitant air.
Megus considered for a moment before she spoke.
“We take them with us. They’re burning up inside just as much as we are, aren’t they? Right?”
“…That’s true. Especially Lora.”
From the occasional reports that reached them, there were nights she could barely sleep at all.
She had always been so tender-hearted—it was only natural.
Megus and Olivia both knew it, so they settled on passing through the capital.
Riel would be rotting from the inside as well, even if she pretended otherwise.
Only after calmly sorting her thoughts did Megus finally part her tightly closed lips.
“First we meet the others, then we head straight for Paestum. After that we find the merchant who’s been selling the silk.”
“Not tail him instead?”
“I don’t think we need to bother right now. We haven’t committed any crime, and approaching the merchant directly will be faster and more accurate. If we join a caravan, it should also make it easier to encounter the other side.”
“…That makes sense.”
Olivia agreed without resistance.
Is it him? Or…
Megus let out a short sigh and stared out the window.
The look in her eyes as she gazed at the sky was deeply troubled.