Lavender Merchant Guild (3)
The next day.
The entrance ceremony had concluded, and regular classes at the Academy would be suspended for the next three days. The evaluation conducted during the ceremony needed time to be properly reflected in class assignments.
In the game, players used that interval to explore the Academy grounds, memorize its layout, and converse with the people inside.
It felt like a brief interlude event before the main story began in earnest.
But I had no need for any of that. My experiences across multiple regressions had already etched the Academy’s entire interior layout into my memory.
I was planning to head to the training grounds first…
Under normal circumstances, I would have spent the morning raising my stats through rigorous training at the Academy training hall. A single letter that arrived that morning, however, had thrown my schedule slightly off course.
Of course, since it was the very letter I had been hoping for, I felt no displeasure.
It was a shame to miss out on the stats I could have gained today, but skipping a single day of training wouldn’t set me back enough to make me weak.
As a side note, the Academy training grounds offered a bonus to stat growth. The rate of increase was slightly higher there than anywhere else.
The way certain locations and actions boosted stat gains was all part of the arrangement designed for the player’s—that is, the protagonist’s—growth.
I had to complete every scheduled event without fail, build rapport with the main cast, and simultaneously thwart the Salvation Sect’s schemes.
It was the developers’ way of giving a player with painfully limited growth time the specs needed to stop the cult.
Still, even with such massive buffs, the only way to raise the necessary strength was to train relentlessly without rest.
In any case, the reply had arrived sooner than anticipated, so I was hurrying along now.
The contact came faster than I expected.
I had only sent word yesterday expressing my desire to invest in the Lavender Merchant Guild, yet the response had come the very next morning.
For me, it was quite positive news. Overall, however, it wasn’t a good sign.
It meant the guild’s financial situation was far worse than I had imagined.
In truth, no matter how small a merchant guild might be, it was extremely rare for one to accept investment from an Academy cadet—especially one from a fallen noble house.
Other guilds had no reason to accept support from a student who could barely manage their own affairs. The Lavender Merchant Guild, however, was in dire straits.
Because of that uncle’s schemes, every long-standing trading partner had vanished. It was safe to say the guild had suffered near-catastrophic damage.
They were clearly grasping at straws when they agreed to accept my investment.
Well, from my perspective, I needed to build a personal connection with the guild master anyway.
There was no reason for me to refuse.
From the start, handling the guild’s internal events and ensuring the Lavender Merchant Guild could advance on its own strength required this step.
I began walking while calmly reviewing the Lavender Merchant Guild events in my mind.
My steps felt strangely light as I crossed the Academy grounds.
Before long, the Academy café came into view.
And there, seated by the window, was a certain someone.
It was still early morning and the Academy had not fully awakened, so the café was not crowded.
Even if it had been packed, however, her presence would have stood out unmistakably.
Golden hair that shone brilliantly like the gold she loved, paired with vivid crimson eyes. Her clothes were somewhat shabby due to the guild’s financial troubles, yet her beauty transformed even those garments into something artistic.
Looking at her, I allowed myself a small smile.
She was Selena Phil Lavender. Guild master of the Lavender Merchant Guild—and future master of the Golden Road Merchant Guild.
In my previous timeline, she had been my only true acquaintance, accounting for the full four percent of my heroine conquest progress.
Selena Phil Lavender, guild master of the Lavender Merchant Guild.
In the previous timeline, it had been possible to advance the story without becoming deeply entangled with the other main characters. Selena, however, was an exception.
She was.
Because she dies if I don’t intervene.
The only reason the Lavender Merchant Guild could transform into the Golden Road Merchant Guild. The only way to erase the single scenario in which it could rise without fail.
Nothing but Selena’s death.
Her eyes that chased the flow of gold coins and her ability to read shifts in the market made her arguably the strongest in the world in that domain. The moment she died, the Lavender Merchant Guild would remain nothing more than an ordinary guild.
Or it would simply collapse.
In the game, Selena and the Lavender Merchant Guild had not been characters who absolutely needed to be saved.
When Selena appeared and her major events triggered, another event would surface simultaneously. In other words, her storyline felt like a sub-quest.
That did not mean other events were more important or carried greater weight in the overall story.
The game simply forced an easy binary choice: save Selena, or handle the other event.
Saving her granted friendship with Selena and connections to the Lavender Merchant Guild. Handling the other event provided an enormous amount of stats instead.
Since early-game stats were critically important and raising them was difficult, the established strategy had been to abandon the Lavender Merchant Guild despite the regret and take the other event.
But this was not a game. It was reality. Fortunately, in the previous timeline I had realized the truth—albeit belatedly—and chosen to save Selena before the event could occur.
Thanks to that decision, I had been able to maintain our connection.
Because it was a route I had never taken before, I learned exactly what benefits the Lavender Merchant Guild could offer me.
There was quite a lot of support.
Even when I faced the Salvation Sect alone, Selena had provided the greatest assistance of all.
…Of course, even without those benefits, I would still choose to save her.
Thinking back, if I had to name the person I spent the most time with in the previous timeline, it would undoubtedly be Selena.
“Nice to meet you, investor.”
As always, Selena greeted me with a smile. I returned an awkward smile of my own.
For some reason, she seemed to be in an unusually good mood today.
I could not read all of her thoughts, but the impression was unmistakable.
Although I had known Selena longer than anyone, she remained a difficult woman to handle.
“You seem rather impatient when the investment hasn’t even been confirmed yet.”
“So, does that mean you won’t be investing?”
The investment genius.
In the game, she was known as the Hand of Midas—something every guild master desperately wanted.
With her razor-sharp intuition and eyes that saw straight through the true value of any product, every venture she touched became a massive success. The queen of investments.
She smiled slyly, as if she had read my innermost thoughts. I let out a small breath and shook my head.
“That couldn’t be. If I had no intention of investing, I would never have sent that letter.”
“I thought as much.”
Half-hearted power struggles or psychological games would not help me converse with the person before me.
Besides, I had no desire to form a bad relationship with Selena. Watching her sip tea with a satisfied smile, I lifted the coffee in front of me to soothe my dry throat.
Oh. Sweet coffee.
She could not have known my preference, yet her sense was impeccable.
I can’t stand bitter coffee.
Because I have the palate of an elementary schooler.
“…Aren’t you going to ask why I decided to invest?”
No matter how desperate the Lavender Merchant Guild’s financial situation, I had not expected Selena to accept my offer so easily.
In this world, many groups looked down on her for being a woman—and an Academy cadet at that—who led a merchant guild. Quite a few had tried to swallow the guild whole under the pretext of investment.
“Well, who knows? Even if you invested simply because you saw me, there would be nothing strange about it, would there?”
“…Hmm.”
Was Selena’s personality slightly different at this stage?
When I let out a small groan at her answer, she grinned.
Well, it’s fair to say her personality changed after that incident.
It had been an enormous event in her life, after all.
Still, the fortunate thing was that this time the incident would not occur. I had intervened earlier than expected.
“…Hehe, I’m only joking. By the way, you mentioned you’re a new Academy student, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
In truth, this personality suited Selena far better.
The cold, calculating personality that chased only money had never truly fit this girl.
“Then shall we speak more comfortably? As friends?”
Umm.
…I had not expected her to be quite this friendly.
What’s your MBTI? It’s definitely E.
For an introvert like me, it was a rather uncomfortable personality.
No. Quite uncomfortable.