The Outstanding Merchant
A lavish spread of mountain and sea delicacies covered the long rectangular table.
The aromas of every kind of dish teased the senses and set mouths watering — yet not a single person at the table was looking at the food.
Everyone in the dining hall had their eyes fixed on Adis Sefia.
"Why is that old geezer bringing that up now of all times? He has a rotten sense of the room!"
Of course, Wrath — who was not human — had his entire mind locked on the food.
"Food must be eaten while it's hot, yet all of it is going cold! The flavor and aroma have already dropped by twenty percent!"
Just hold on.
Raon shoved the clinging Wrath aside and waited for Adis Sefia to open his mouth again.
"Hmm."
As if he had already forgotten what he had just said, Adis sliced the steak in front of him and put it in his mouth.
"Delicious."
He chewed slowly, swallowed, and nodded.
"The old man ate, so we can eat too! Like I said, start with the soup…"
Wait.
Raon shook his head and kept his eyes on Adis.
"A great chef has an eye for fine ingredients, and he brings out their natural flavors to complete a dish that's a work of art."
Adis sliced off another piece of steak, ate it, and smiled.
"A great carpenter takes blackwood — so hard you can barely shape even a small piece of it — and from it he builds a table as elegant as this one."
He ran his hand along the rectangular table laden with food, studying each of the successor candidates in turn.
"A merchant is someone who buys goods cheap and sells them dear, adding his margin. So what, then, sets an outstanding merchant apart?"
He posed the question, but no one answered. They all assumed he wasn't actually looking for a reply.
"Dorian?"
Adis, however, was no ordinary man. After creating the impression that he would answer himself, he called on Dorian to speak.
"Urgh!"
The sudden question made Dorian's hands tremble where they rested on his knees.
"That's…"
He couldn't answer right away. His eyes flicked toward Raon, silently begging for help.
Raon closed his eyes. He offered nothing — not a word, not even an aura message.
"What are you doing?! Tell him the answer already! While that slug sits there thinking, the food is going cold!"
I can't stand in the way of his chance to grow.
How Dorian answered would change how everyone in this hall saw him. Raon didn't want to steal an opportunity for him to take another step forward.
"Huu…"
Dorian bit his lip and looked at Adis. A faint light stirred in his trembling eyes.
"I-I think… an outstanding merchant is someone who can think from the customer's point of view…"
"More important than making a lot of money, is it?"
"Making a lot of money is extremely important for a merchant. B-but if you only chase money, you lose people and you lose credit, so I don't think it's the most important thing. If you keep doing business while building trust, wouldn't the guild become one that everyone recognizes someday?"
"You live in a dream."
Adis's brows drew down heavily as he looked at Dorian.
"Kh…"
"The customer, is it…"
"Still a child."
The retainers of the other successor candidates curled their lips, sneering at Dorian.
"Ugh…"
Dorian's face flushed. He hung his head.
"Trust between customer and merchant. In this age, when all anyone counts is money and time, that's a truly laughable thing to say. However…"
Just as Dorian's shoulders had shrunk until they looked small enough to fit in one hand, Adis continued.
"What?"
"Father?"
"Guild Master?"
Everyone in the dining hall turned to Adis in shock.
"An outstanding merchant must know how to meet a customer's needs. Matching yourself to someone else's tastes is difficult, tedious, and exhausting. But the credit and trust you accumulate that way become the guild's name. That is how the name of Sepia, the General Store of the Continent, was made."
Raon nodded as he listened.
He really is the giant who built Sepia into what it is.
Sepia was called the General Store of the Continent not merely because it sold a vast array of goods, but because it also procured whatever a customer ordered. Even after raising the Sepia Merchant Guild to one of the Five Great Merchant Guilds, Adis didn't seem to have changed in the slightest.
Silence settled over the hall. Everyone kept their heads down, shooting sidelong glances at Dorian.
Dorian took their stares and straightened his back all the same. He couldn't help trembling from head to toe — he was still a little scared — but he held himself upright.
Raon smirked at the sight.
I told you. A chance to grow.
"He's changed a little. But…"
But?
"The food is changing enormously! Every minute, every second is critical! We have to eat now! It must be rescued into This King's stomach!"
Raon decided he would have to ignore Wrath for a while. The demon king's eyes were starting to spin.
"Ahem!"
Adis wet his throat lightly and looked at the successors seated at the table.
"A rather difficult commission came in recently. Ordinarily I would handle it myself, but it struck me as the perfect test for all of you, so I brought it here."
His gaze fell first on Phalen.
"Some of you have gathered money."
The second person he looked at was Dialun.
"Some of you have built connections…"
Third, he turned his head toward Jeser, seated right beside the seat of honor.
"And some of you have both money and connections. I had even thought the decision was more or less made. And yet…"
Adis's gaze returned at last to Dorian.
"There was a boy who brought neither money nor connections, but bonds."
His expression remained calm as he rested a hand on the table.
"Since things have gotten interesting, an interesting test is only fitting."
Adis looked at the successor candidates as they swallowed dryly, and spoke in a low voice.
"It is a commission from the Gray Hammer Guild. Bring me a Drake's horns, teeth, claws, and bones. The entire carcass would be even better."
A Drake!
The instant Raon heard Adis's words, his fist clenched tight beneath the table.
"A Drake's carcass?"
"A Drake…"
The successor candidates' mouths fell open. This was nothing like the test they had expected.
"I don't care whether you hunt it yourselves, buy it from someone, or even steal it. Within fifteen days, whoever brings back the finest Drake carcass is the winner."
"And who decides which is the finest?"
"The client, of course. The Gray Hammer Guild."
At Adis's gesture, the successors' and their retainers' eyes lit with a fierce gleam.
"If the meal is finished, may we take our leave?"
Jeser, the eldest, bowed his head without having touched a bite of food.
"As you wish."
"Thank you for the meal."
The words were barely out before Jeser and Dialun were on their feet. The two of them and their retainers strode out of the dining hall without a backward glance.
"Mm…"
Phalen didn't rise. She stole a glance at Raon.
Phalen Sefia.
Raon sent her an aura message while looking elsewhere.
Don't look at me. Act as you normally would. I'll give you further instructions shortly.
Phalen nodded so slightly it was almost invisible, then left the dining hall.
"Aaaaah…"
Wrath's jaw trembled at the sight.
"Y-you're not just leaving, are you? If you are, This King will actually cry!"
The threat wasn't frightening in the least. But if they walked out without eating, Wrath would howl and make a nuisance of himself — so Raon picked up his fork and knife.
"The soup! Even if it's gone cold, the soup! You have to eat that if you want to eat a lot of everything else!"
Good grief…
Raon shook his head and ladled soup into his mouth.
The savory aroma of truffle and the silky soup came together in perfect harmony.
"If the soup is this good, the rest will be even more spectacular! Next, that meat!"
He's getting more and more annoying.
Raon sighed and was cutting into the meat when Dorian sidled up beside him.
"Vice Leader! What are you doing? Everyone's already gone!"
Dorian's chin trembled as he made an X with his hands.
"This isn't the time to be sitting here eating! They're all going to be on the move!"
"No need to worry. We'll be the fastest."
Raon waved the hand holding his fork with easy leisure.
"They left first — how are we supposed to be fastest? What on earth is in your stomach that makes you this obsessed with food?!"
"There is something in there, actually."
Raon glanced at the grinning blue cotton candy and let out a short laugh.
A Demon King. And a gluttonous one, at that.
After the meal, only Adis and his butler Ligwin remained in the dining hall, enjoying a light drink.
"You've truly changed a great deal, sir."
Ligwin smiled as he looked at the seat Dorian had occupied.
"I never imagined young master Dorian would state his own opinion so plainly."
"If he still couldn't voice a single opinion at his age, what would be the point?"
Adis shook his head as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Is that opinion not admirable, though? It was like looking at the Guild Master in his youth."
"Was I that pathetic?"
"Not at all. You were magnificent. You declared you would take a guild the size of a nostril and make it the greatest on the continent — and you actually did it."
Ligwin shook his head as he looked at Adis.
"That was when the Sepia Merchant Guild stopped merely buying and selling goods and began taking commissions directly. I can still see it — a man who couldn't even fight charging out to hunt monsters himself."
"Dragging up old stories. You've grown old yourself."
Adis squinted at the deep wrinkles carved into Ligwin's forehead.
"I have. Which is perhaps why young master Dorian's change strikes me all the more."
"Mm…"
Adis gave a small nod, as if he agreed.
"I believe young master Jeser or young master Dialun would run this guild well. But the one who might make it even greater than it is now… surprisingly, that could be young master Dorian."
"It could be. But that's not something the boy can do alone."
Adis set down his cup and smiled. His gaze drifted to the seat beside Dorian's — Raon's.
"Raon Zieghart. That young man is more than merely strong. He knows exactly when to step in and when to stay out. He's skilled at handling people as well. He possesses the temperament of both a Hegemon King and a Sage King."
"…To that extent?"
Ligwin's eyes flew wide. He had never imagined the words "Hegemon King" and "Sage King" would come from Adis, a man so sparing with praise.
"The others rushed out in a panic, yet he sat there and enjoyed his meal at his leisure, did he not? Age aside, the man himself is audacious. The great merchants were the ones who flinched in surprise."
He looked at the table in front of Raon's seat. Unlike everywhere else, every dish was scraped completely clean.
"A person's true nature shows when they eat. Seeing him leave not a scrap of the food in front of him, his greed is no ordinary thing. Frankly, it was enough to give me chills."
"I think so as well. I never expected him to be such a glutton…"
"If that young man stays with us, this guild will either rise above the other four and stand supreme — or it will be ruined. One or the other."
The two of them swallowed dryly, laboring under a very large misunderstanding.
Noon the next day.
Raon took a deathly pale Dorian and headed into the city of Lokan.
"Did you find it?"
"I found it, but… will it even work? I heard my brothers are already on the move…"
Dorian's hands trembled faintly, anxiety at having fallen behind eating at him.
"This test was always going to favor us."
From before it even started.
Raon smiled faintly and shook his head.
Because I commissioned the information a long time ago.
The materials needed to repair Sylvia's dantian were a Drake Heart and a Sea Serpent Heart. The moment he had heard about those materials from Encia, he had put in a request with Denning Rose for the Drake's location. By now, they should have a rough picture.
"Here."
Dorian pointed to a small shop selling dried seafood.
"They say this is the Lokan Black Market Branch."
He didn't seem entirely sure himself, tilting his head at the cobweb-draped sign.
"Did you get the password?"
"I heard that too, but…"
Dorian swallowed dryly and stepped inside. Past a corridor that tickled the nose with the distinctive scent of dried fish and shellfish, an old woman sat buried in a rocking chair.
"H-hello."
The old woman didn't answer. The creak of the rocking chair was her only greeting.
"I-I'm looking for a sea snake that's been dried for ten years. Skinned, salted, and on the salty side, please?"
The rocking stopped.
"This way."
The old woman rose slowly. The gaze she lifted and the voice she used were incomparably younger than her appearance. She seemed to be a young woman in disguise.
Click-click-click.
She led them into an inner room and tapped here and there along the right-hand wall.
A wall panel opened without the slightest noise or vibration, revealing a staircase leading underground.
"You may go down this way."
The woman bowed and returned to her rocking chair. In an instant she was once again an old woman who could barely keep her eyes open. It was something Raon felt every time he visited the Black Market — not a single one of them was an ordinary person.
Following the lights down the stairs, they found another market waiting. A black market in the truest sense. From unusual foodstuffs to precious metals radiating a brilliant gleam, there seemed to be nothing it didn't have.
The lighting on the ceiling and walls was so bright, however, that it felt even more well-lit than the markets above.
"Wow…"
True to his supply-obsessed nature, Dorian couldn't take his eyes off the goods spread through the Black Market.
"Unlike Camelun, this place seems to have quite a lot of stolen goods."
Judging by their condition, none of it looked like it had been circulated through legitimate channels. There were items whose curses hadn't been lifted, and plenty that hadn't even been appraised.
"Let's go. You said we don't have time."
Raon clapped Dorian on the shoulder and headed for the mansion with a black flag planted in front of it, to buy information.
"It's incredible, but I've got some of this stuff too."
Dorian followed after that absurd remark.
I really ought to dump that pouch out one of these days.
"If you sliced that guy's belly open, wouldn't a Drake come tumbling out too?"
It might…
Given everything he had shown so far, it didn't seem impossible.
"You don't have a Drake in that pouch, do you?"
"Um, when we first escaped I did grab a few claws, but…"
Dorian pulled two enormous claws from his Belly Pouch, thick and curved like bent spearheads.
"I checked, and they're not Drake. They're Griffin claws."
"Griffin…"
A Griffin was an even rarer monster than a Drake. The fact that he had the claws of such a mystical creature was enough to leave Raon speechless.
"Haa…"
Raon shook his head and stopped in front of the mansion at the far end of the Black Market. Four martial artists stood before the massive iron gate, a keen light flowing from their eyes.
"I am…"
"We greet the White Sword Dragon!"
The martial artists bent at a perfect right angle, offering an extremely respectful bow.
"Please, go in."
They seemed to know why he had come. They stepped aside and opened the iron gate.
They knew I was coming?
Raon narrowed his eyes and stepped inside. Past lighting that was gentle on the eyes — unlike outside — and luxurious furnishings, he headed for the inner room where the only presence could be felt.
"Wow, as expected of the White Sword Dragon!"
Dorian came up beside him, his eyes shining.
"Do you get perks like this once you earn the epithet Sword Dragon?"
"You think so?"
Raon snorted and waved a hand.
"Looks like someone I know is waiting."
When he stopped in front of the door at the end of the corridor, it opened on its own, revealing the person inside.
Fiery red hair spilled down to her shoulders, and a flamboyant beauty wearing a black rose eyepatch over her right eye stood waiting.
Denning Rose, as I thought.
Denning Rose, who had played a major role in his rescue when he had been kidnapped by Eden, rose gracefully and bowed her head.
"I greet the White Sword Dragon."
"It's been a while."
Raon returned the greeting and entered the room.
"Please, sit."
Denning Rose indicated the seat across from her with a faint smile. He nodded and sat.
"Have you become the Lokan branch manager now?"
The region she had been in charge of was Gransavil. He hadn't expected her to leave a place still in the middle of reconstruction to come here.
"No. I'm still the Gransavil branch manager."
"Then why are you here…?"
Lokan was a very long way from Gransavil. He couldn't understand why someone who wasn't even the branch manager here would be present.
"As it happens, I ended up being assigned to you, Lord Raon. I thought you'd come, so I was waiting."
"If you knew…"
"The fact that you're putting your strength behind the youngest young master of the Sepia Merchant Guild isn't a secret anymore."
Denning Rose let out a thin laugh. It was something he had felt before — for all her dazzling looks, her manner of expression itself was rather modest.
"Besides, the Drake search is a commission you placed a long time ago, Lord Raon. Of course I had to come."
She already knew what test Adis had set.
"It looks like others have already been through."
Jeser and Dialun had likely passed through here to get information.
Denning Rose didn't answer. She simply lowered her eyes slightly. That was answer enough.
"Did you find the Drake?"
Raon wet his throat with the tea on the table and asked.
"We did discover what appears to be an adult Drake's nest. I was going to gather a little more information before telling you, but things turned out this way."
"Waaah!"
Dorian recoiled in shock and spat out the tea he had been drinking.
"H-how did you prepare in advance?"
He clamped a hand over his dripping mouth, his eyes trembling as if the whole thing were impossible.
"I knew something was off! You got strong way too fast! Young master, what even are you? A god? A demon?!"
"I'm your superior."
Raon smacked the trembling Dorian on the head.
"Eugh!"
Leaving Dorian furiously rubbing his head, Raon looked at Denning Rose. She seemed to find the situation amusing; a cool little smile sat on her lips.
"Ah, pardon me…"
Denning Rose dipped her head slightly, then rose. The genuine smile vanished, replaced once more by a performed one.
"So you did find it, then?"
"Yes. It seems to have been away from the nest for a long time, but the location itself is certain. However…"
Her expression hardened like a dried plaster cast.
"We have information that the Black Tower is moving toward that location. It appears they're after the Drake."
"The Black Tower…"
"Even among the Five Demons, information on the Black Tower is limited. Frankly, I'd rather we didn't run into them."
"The Black Tower, is it…"
That should be fine.
The moment he heard the Black Tower was coming, a plan took shape — one that would let him profit without lifting a finger.
"Do you happen to have a map of that region?"
"Have you thought of something?"
Denning Rose's eyes widened as she leaned forward.
"I have."
Raon looked at Dorian, still fussing with his hair, and smiled a chilly little smile.
"If this goes well, I think we might catch two fish — and a shrimp besides."
As he was thinking through a plan that could yield a fisherman's profit, Wrath's voice reached him.
"Are you going to grill those?"
Ah, seriously…