Volume 4 Chapter 11.1

Volume 4 Chapter 11.1

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「They got us good.」

「Aye, that they did.」

After the tournament ended, this specific comment was all you could hear being whispered at the Forre king’s private party.

「I figured that as long as he doesn’t care for prizes, he would not be directly participating, but I never thought that he would give a nameless contestant a weapon and have them win.」

「Indeed, we were a bit careless.」

The core members of the king’s company said words that would normally accompany a bitter tone, but the expressions on their faces were actually that of admiration.

「I figured they wouldn’t win just by getting better weapons, but apparently common sense isn’t everything. This was quite the loss.」

「You too, lad? I also ended up having to pay a staggering amount of money.」

The authorities all had similar financial holes as a result of this expenditure, and yet they all talked of it in such cheerful voices, assessing who “suffered” the most damage. It was a very strange drinking party. As to why this was not really a banquet or party, that was because of this harmonious atmosphere.

「Still, even if you say it hurts your wallet, is this not a paltry sum of money for all of you?」

「Perhaps in terms of our family, but not for pocket money. This really did take a toll.」

「Aye, mayhaps I should reduce the amount of times I go drinking this month.」

These affluent nobles, who could easily spend money on drinks for three generations, spoke as if they were commoners. The way they acted was also reminiscent of the common folk, enjoying liquor in a bar on the outskirts of town and loving football pools more than anyone. This sport was enjoyed by all echelons of society, from the nobles to the knights.

In addition, the nobles had this strong idea that only fools ruined themselves over football pools, so no one complained about anything more than losing some pocket money. If you questioned their drinking habits, however, everyone would essentially cover their ears saying “Ah, ah, I can’t hear youuu” and ignore the question.

「So what about Your Highness?」

「Me, you ask? I brought in quite the profit. What of it?」

「Sharp as ever, Your Highness.」

「That’s because I heard that those fellows sold their weapons to Jon Cotori’s group. I gambled quite the sum to test both their mettle and my observation skills.」

As a result, the king of Forre succeeded in increasing his pocket money by a wide margin, hence why this drinking party had meat and drink twice the value it usually did.

And no one in this country would tell him not to get money via pools.

「Still, I fall short of their profits.」

「Is it really that stark a contrast?」

「Aye. They put all their earnings from the back alleyway into the pool.」

「That’s just incredible confidence on their part……」

Upon hearing the king’s words, the room’s atmosphere took the shape of a grimace. Ultimately it was a huge success, but weapons were still weapons, no matter how cheap one sold them for. And the amount of weapons sold was surely not low by any means. Betting all of that on one of their customers winning a tournament was impossible without confidence in both the weapons sold and the customers who bought them.

Also, the first battle Jon fought in had him fairly high on the pools (not so much the second or finals). His opponent, although not a favorite to win, was still skilled enough to where simply having a good weapon would not overturn the odds.

「Seriously. The lad chooses a nameless adventurer capable enough to transform when carrying one good weapon and sells his team equipment for cheap, backing them from the sidelines. Then he makes up for the deficit by ripping off the masses. As someone who has already taken the backbone out of Farlane and Darl’s higher-ups, this is quite well thought-out. 」

「Indeed, twas a spectacular move that required the necessary judgement.」

「Even though I shared a small part of the profits, I have to say it is hard to tell whether this bunch is virtuous or wicked.」

The Forre king evaluated Hiroshi’s meddling in the tournament in a magnanimous light. In actuality, Hiroshi was using and manufacturing the mountain of ore he dug up in Crest Cave practically for free, not suffering a “deficit” of any kind, plus the little experiment with the pools. The money he had thrust at the pools was not part of the original plan, but it also wouldn’t hurt to gamble it all, so winning big was indeed a surprise to him. The king and his friends didn’t know the fine details and therefore assumed it to all be part of Hiroshi’s plan from the get-go.

「Still, there is one thing I wonder.」

「What be that?」

「I have no qualms with recognizing him for finding that loophole, but is it really fine to let this go unnoticed?」

「Why not?」

One of the leaders asked the king only for the king to question them back. Sure, the way that Hiroshi went about gathering this money did feel like cheating, but which part precisely? And it was exactly for this reason (no foul play had actually occurred) that the leader could not quite find an explanation.

「That is what we call not being able to explain your reasoning.」

「But if this happens time and time again……」

「I doubt they are so deprived that they will try that again.」

Everyone around the king just grimaced. If all Hiroshi wanted to do was earn money, he could easily do so without taking such a risky method, since he was part of a workshop. Before that even, judging by his usual actions, it was doubtful as to whether he even wanted to earn money.

「Besides, even if we were to ban this, what aspect of it would we ban?」

「What precisely might you mean?」

「Would we ban importing equipment? Or would we ban purchases during tournaments? Would we ban people selling equipment from entering betting pools?」

「T-That’s……」

「Banning imports is already defying the whole point of the tournament. Banning purchases would mean the immediate failure of any contestant who breaks their weapon, and the merchants selling equipment would no doubt revolt. Banning gambling participation is almost the same thing as taking away half the enjoyment of it all, which could lead to riots.」

The leader who had displayed opposition to the king’s opinion could think of nothing further to say, falling silent.

「Sure, there may be some sort of an issue with this, but it isn’t that easy to pull off. Changing regulations every time exceptions occur would just complicate things.」

「Indeed. Without anything too insane, we should be careful in considering change.」

「And even if we did, we would need to carefully consider the problems sprouting from the change and the problems stemming from the current regulations in addition to anticipating the unexpected so as to quell any possible chaos that would fly in the face of this whole plan.」

No one countered the king’s decision. In the first place, without insane capabilities like the weapon Jon now had, this idea could never come to be, and in many cases, selling weapons of that caliber would make a better profit than gambling. Also, while the possibility of victory existed with new weaponry in the preliminary rounds, there weren’t many people who could easily search for human resources with weak-looking equipment.

「Anyhow, this owner of Azuma Workshop is someone I would much like to chat with over food sometime.」

「About that…it appears you will have that opportunity soon.」

「Is this regarding the priestess lady?」

「Yes. After all, the relationship between Azuma Workshop and Alfemina’s priestess is famous.」

「It does appear to be of quite the discussion.」

「If I may oblige, it would be very strange to not be widely discussed.」

The king nodded at the leader’s comment. Hiroshi had rescued Aearis before opening the workshop and had been a huge help in bringing her back to her priestess position- quite a famous example. Considering she was also ten at the time, it made a lot of sense for her to trust Hiroshi and friends, and no one doubted that she gave them special treatment, not even the key figures in Forre.

Of course, it wasn’t like everyone felt good about Aearis being on amicable terms with these outsiders. There were those who, with envy, suspected that Hiroshi had a lot of influence on account of Aearis and the royal family from the incident with Katarina. Azuma Workshop’s name had quickly spread, expanding its domain. There was much to be wary of, and bad rumors were not few by any means.

But it was also unclear to anyone watching from the sidelines as to whether Hiroshi actually benefited from his royal connections. The only clear example of the royal family giving them something was Wuls Workshop. Although they were also involved in the slum soil renovation project, that also had several vendors sharing in the order, and so Azuma Workshop didn’t exactly benefit from that.

And then for the other business like the main seasoning recipes, they were even offering malted rice ferment alongside miso and soy sauce. The only reason they currently monopolized these recipes was because the other factories/companies still couldn’t make enough products to get shares for themselves. In fact, they were already getting shares in comparatively easier-to-make condiments like mayonnaise. This resulted in there being no way to get soy sauce other than via Azuma Workshop, and it became a royal commodity.

Other than this special treatment, there wasn’t much else going on, which spawned needless concerns like these, but this was an issue bound to come around anywhere. The people in question, whether they realized it or not, were building up quite the ill reputation by doing whatever they pleased in this country.

「We had our Farlane envoys tell us about the workshop members when they entered our country. From what we gathered on a regular basis at least, they don’t seem to be doing anything shady or abusing their connections to royalty. If anything it seems like they mainly suffer through trying to respond to all the demands from the kingdom.」

「I cannot really talk, but royalty typically demands selfish things.」

「Indeed. Anyhow, back to the discussion, according to Her Majesty the priestess princess, they’ve been going around to temples in every region. We suspect that they will be accompanying the priestess princess in some way with Elza Temple as well.」

「Still, it is shameful to have to borrow the aid of another country in our own, especially when it involves crucial facilities.」

「There’s only so much we can do about that. Elza-sama’s priestess suddenly died, and then this sequence of events happened before we could find a successor. Even in Farlane’s case, when the predecessor ascended, they had borrowed help from Darl and us, so might as well call it even.」

「Aye.」

The king felt a grimace come across his face at the minister’s words. No matter how much power you had as a country, there were plenty of things that could not be done without enlisting the help of others. He knew this of course, but still, being so helpless was pathetic.

「At any rate, this is a matter of great importance for the country. As would it ruin my image to just let things solve themselves, I must have a direct conversation with the priestess princess at least once and request them to solve this on behalf of the country.」

「It is as you say.」

The prime minister gave a bow upon hearing the king’s intention. With their activities in Forre drawing to a finish, it was at last time for Azuma Workshop to come into contact with the royal house of Forre.

「It sounds like the tournament went off without a hitch.」

「It would indeed appear so.」

The next day, Aearis and her team had at last reached Stiren, sensing the lack of vitality in the air after a celebration.

「Elle-sama, did you have an interest in the tournament?」

Artiem asked Aearis as she drove the vehicle at a slow, safe pace. Figuring that Douga would have trouble driving all the time, Artiem had practiced driving once the car had been delivered. It had taken quite some time before she could ride in an automobile, and yet here she was driving after only three days, perfectly adjusted. This only goes to show how unbalanced this girl was.

「Not so much for that, but I had a deep interest in what Stiren looked like during opening time.」

「I see……」

Artiem truly got what Aearis was communicating. Aearis liked seeing lively cities, hence why she loved festivals. It wasn’t like she wanted to participate in events or the like, but those events were what made the atmosphere and the people more lively and cheerful, and watching all this was beyond fun for her.

Of course, it wasn’t like she hated calm, quiet areas. It was just that calm and quiet was different from a desolate place with a lack of energy. Also, she didn’t necessarily hate the remnants of energy and loneliness left over from festivals, but those kinds of things had to be after fully experiencing the festival, or else such a half-baked sensation wouldn’t work.

Artiem and Douga understood that mentality full well, hence why they felt somewhat regretful about not being able to make it in time for the tournament.