Just Spare Me
Just spare me.
Ahh. So this is what they call a virility tonic.
It could explode the market.
The Hyeija Magic Tower's announcement that they had discovered clues to a "virility tonic" in the ancient ruins sent the value of those ruins rocketing into the stratosphere. Countless magic towers and merchant groups came foaming at the mouth, shoving proposals at us that boiled down to please, please just let us research this.
Since every one of those ventures had been run under my name, the achievements naturally reached Father's ears as well.
"Otto."
"Yes, Father."
"You turned in tremendous results at Rosé's merchant group."
"Haha… I got lucky."
"Thanks to that medicine, your old man can hold his head high in front of your mother these days. I'm grateful."
"Excuse me?"
I really did not need to hear about my parents' bedroom situation.
Surely not a late-life baby at their age…?
My position as the youngest is in danger…!
"I bound it properly with magic, so don't worry about that."
"Ah, yes, sir."
"Ahem. In any case, I spoke with Rosé, and we've decided to spin off the resource development division and hand it over to you. It was a unit that would have shut its doors without you, so she agreed without complaint."
"What?"
Why are you giving me my sister's merchant group?
This is unfilial.
"Uh, Father. Most of the actual work was done by the people in Sister's group. Won't she feel wronged if you just hand the business to me like this…? I would like our family to stay harmonious."
"Your sister suggested it first."
"Ah."
Rosé, you traitor…!
You deceived me…!
I thought if anyone would understand how I felt, it would be you…!
Sob, sob.
They say you can't trust a single soul in this world.
Even my own sister…
Why can't I ever be happy…!
I just want to play and freeload…!
I don't want to run a merchant group…!
Was wanting to become a young man who simply rests and eats really such an extravagant dream?!
"Truth be told, after you proved yourself with a failing division, I intended to call you home and put you in charge of something larger…"
"Pardon?"
"But now that the division itself belongs to you, you'll need to focus on it for a while. For the time being you needn't come to the main house at all. Concentrate on managing your new group. No need to report to me. Do as you like."
"Ah, yes, sir."
Huh.
Did I just dodge a land mine?
As expected of Sister!
I believed in you all along!
"So, what will you name the new merchant group?"
"Pardon?"
"It has been separated from your sister's group, so it needs a new name. You should decide what to call your own."
"Ah."
Right.
Hmm. Can't I just slap my own name on it like Kissinger Merchant Group or Lothringen Merchant Group?
"If you mean to use it as a parent company, putting your name on it wouldn't be bad."
"Mm."
The way Father said that makes me nervous.
A parent company—in my previous life, that would mean a whole swarm of subsidiaries is coming.
Somehow I felt attaching my own name would be a terrible idea.
Don't want any bad luck rubbing off. Ptooey, ptooey.
"Since it's a merchant group that owns magic-stone mines… let's go with Cave Merchant Group."
"Cave. Hmm. A fine name."
Cave Merchant Group.
Said like that, the ring of it isn't half bad.
It also means something that collapses.
I hope it collapses exactly like its name.
Sorry to the employees, but…
I paid them plenty of incentives.
I'll make sure the severance is generous too, so just hurry up and fail already.
Why does the business keep succeeding?
"My son. Owning a merchant group means taking responsibility for the livelihoods of every person who works there. Your commercial talent is outstanding, but without the employees we are nothing. Always remember that as you run the group. The people of the merchant group are another kind of family."
"Yes, Father."
Mm.
Hearing Father say that makes my conscience sting a little.
He wasn't aiming that at me on purpose, right?
Of course, I'm not trying to sink the group by withholding paychecks either.
There's no need to bury myself under debt just to close the doors.
All I have to do is prove the place has no future.
Countless merchant groups that once led the market have vanished that way, swept aside by the times.
"Then go. Don't come back to the main house until I summon you."
"Yes, sir."
"And send a generous supply of that medicine."
"Pardon? Yes."
He told me not to come home so he can enjoy nights with Mother…?
Well, from my perspective that's perfect.
It means I can play without watching my back for a while.
I'll send plenty of the stuff.
"Please follow the dosage carefully. Overdosing puts a strain on the heart."
"Tsk. No need to state the obvious."
"Yes, sir."
Time to go play.
The work never ends.
"Merchant Lord! Please review this proposal!"
"Merchant Lord! Here's the plan for the new mine development!"
"Merchant Lord! What should we order for the company dinner?"
"Merchant Lord! I just felt like calling you."
"Whoever just called me for no reason, step forward."
Why is there this much work?
With Kissinger Merchant Group I barely had anything to do.
Manager Kissinger had been running the place all along, and the "business" was basically nothing but investments. Managing the spent-magic-stone landfills, reviewing purchase contracts for spent magic stones—things like that. One stamp of the seal and it was finished.
Cave Merchant Group was different.
Research partnerships, resource development, public projects, cultural-heritage preservation… the list of things that needed my attention was endless.
Kyaaaaaaah! Just let me be a freeloading youth already!
I needed a professional manager.
Someone like Manager Kissinger of Kissinger Merchant Group—a slave onto whom I could dump every responsibility and every scrap of work.
I had to find a person.
"Division Head. Can you handle management by any chance?"
"Pardon? I majored in mineralogy."
"Perfect. Please manage our merchant group."
"I'm swamped with field work as it is…"
No.
Why is someone with the title of division head personally running around on-site?
Is this right?
Aren't managers supposed to be white-collar workers?
I feel like going on strike.
Fine.
Let's go file a strike report with the labor office.
This is labor exploitation.
"You're here to file a labor-dispute report?"
"Yes."
"What is your position, and what is the reason for the dispute?"
"Position is Merchant Lord, and I just don't want to work."
"Get out."
"Yes."
Sigh. Of course that wouldn't work.
If I actually pulled something like that, Father would summon me on the spot.
Which meant I still needed a proper manager.
"All right. Let's hire a slave."
"You completed your degree at the Imperial Academy's graduate school of business?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Quite the elite. Why the interest in a small merchant group like ours?"
"I have long admired the Lothringen family."
"Pardon?"
Is this a fan club?
Admire what, exactly?
What a strange person.
Well, I was planning to hire someone roughly anyway.
"You're hired."
Elise Elysia.
EliEli for short had a special secret.
Namely, that she belonged to the Imperial bloodline—
that she carried the Emperor's blood.
The Third Princess of the Empire.
That was her true identity.
She had kept her lineage hidden from her classmates at the graduate school of business… but a handful of truly close friends knew who she really was.
"EliEli! I heard you landed a job?"
"Mm-hmm."
"As a professional manager, right? Which merchant group?"
"Cave Merchant Group."
"Cave Merchant Group? Never heard of it. Who's the parent company?"
"Lothringen. More precisely, it's owned by the youngest of the Lothringen family. You know the place that recently got famous for the ancient ruins? They spun that single division off on its own."
"Ah, the… virility tonic?"
"Y-yeah. That."
Elise's face flushed bright red.
The blatantly suggestive ring of the words "virility tonic" embarrassed her.
She may have graduated from business school, but she was still a complete newcomer to society.
Having been raised with such care in the imperial household, she had no experience with men either.
"Pffft. Our Eli gets embarrassed just saying 'virility tonic'?"
"N-no, it's not that bad…?"
"Not that bad? Your face is this red. Heh. You're so cute that if I were a guy I'd have hit on you on the spot."
"What are you talking about… If you were a guy we never would have gotten close in the first place."
"True enough. Dozens of boys have already been shot down by our Eli."
Elise fanned herself awkwardly with her hand, and her friend poked her in the side.
"More importantly, you really love Lothringen, don't you? Every single case study in your business thesis was about them."
"Because they're that remarkable."
"Well, among the great merchant houses they do have the most rags-to-riches story. Not even high nobility, yet in less than a hundred years they swallowed countless great merchant families and became a titan. Still, honestly, wasn't a lot of it just good luck?"
"You think it was luck…?"
"Well, isn't it? The professors said some of the cases simply can't be explained as anything but luck."
At her friend's words, Elise let out a soft laugh and shook her head.
"If someone always draws the absolute best cards at the gambling table, wouldn't you call that skill? And if they were cheating, at the very least it would mean they possess the skill of never getting caught."
"Well… true enough? So you don't think it was luck?"
"Who knows. I still don't really know."
"Hm?"
"Heh."
Elise recalled a scene she had witnessed a few months earlier in a hotel casino.
The man who walked around trailing gold.
Whether that was truly luck,
or a clever deception wearing the mask of fortune,
she would only know by experiencing it for herself.
"Aah! I want to resign!"
There's too much work…!
The professional manager…
I should have told her to start today…
"Merchant Lord! Another ancient ruin has been discovered!"
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
I'll hand over the entire merchant group and the top position!
Please just come to work already!