Volume 6 - CH 11

Chapter 11 – Talking and Experimenting with Merchant Guild?

Guided by Camille-san, I enter the guild master of the merchant guild’s room with a subtle and pathetic determination to tell a good lie.

“Oh, Wataru, you’re here. Sorry for always receiving drinks from you; I appreciate it.”

The old man looks as energetic as ever. I feel like it’s a rare thing to see an old man full of vitality.

“No, I’m indebted to you, after all.”

“Haha, there are people who give expensive things and money as gifts, but it was quite interesting to get only one or two bottles of liquor as a souvenir. It’s not often that I’m in a position where I’m getting a souvenir purely as a gift.”

…Ah, come to think of it, I did give him a bottle of alcohol because I was indebted to him somehow, but is a gift to a guild master considered a bribe?

Well, I was concentrating on flattering Girasole, so I just went with the appropriate thing for the guild master. He seems to be pleased with it, so I guess it all turned out all right.

“Hah, thank you very much?”

“Master, let’s talk about it later.”

“Yes, that’s right. I heard that you are the one who introduced the mage to Girasole, is that correct?”

“Mage-sama? I did introduce him to them, but what’s the matter?”

From now on, I’m going to lie all over the place. I hope there won’t be any contradictions.

“Hmm, don’t you realize the gravity of the situation? Surely you know what the mage did, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t know. I haven’t been in the Southern City for a while.”

“That’s true, too. You went to Palermo, didn’t you?”

Hmm? I was going to lie about having been to Palermo, and the guild master would at least know that I had not been to Palermo, would he not?　

I felt like I was being set up. What should I do? Let’s pretend that I haven’t been to Palermo as planned.

“No, I didn’t go to Palermo; I went somewhere else.”

“Hou… where did you go?”

“That’s a secret since it’s a source of income.”

“Fuh, do you realize your position?”

I know how dangerous it is. That’s why I want to keep lying. So far, I’ve managed to keep it natural, haven’t I?

“My position? I am an F-ranked merchant, am I right?”

“Well, yes, but do you have no knowledge of the activities of the mage?”

“No, I don’t.”

He is looking at me with a great deal of suspicion. It seems that he completely knows that I’m lying. It would be impossible for a young guy like me to lie to the master of a merchant guild without being detected.

Even if it’s too obvious, I’ll do my best not to admit anything that’s inconvenient.

“Then, I will explain it to you. Mage-dono killed and destroyed the Imperial Navy except for those who surrendered. He thoroughly drove the second prince of the Kingdom of Brescia and made him get down on his knees in front of his people. He created a powerful base in the empire’s territory and drove the empire to the brink of extinction. Well, there are many other stories, such as crushing the nobles he didn’t like, but these three are the biggest ones. With all these things happening and all the fuss, it’s impossible for you not to know about it, isn’t it?”

Eh? Is that what they are talking about? There’s a lot of malice in it. I mean, the mage had a pretty good reputation in Lucca, so why? And what’s more, killing everyone, some of them escaped from the sunken ship, and we saved them when the battle was over, right?　Others, though…

Anyway, the story is exaggerated. It’s like they’re trying to twist information to create an image of a ruthless mage… And, besides, that’s not what I did, was it?

I admit I was involved, and maybe if I hadn’t been there, it might not have been possible, but I’m not convinced.

“Did Mage-sama do such a thing? I have the impression that he’s very kind, so I can’t believe it out of the blue… Also, the reason I don’t know about it is because I was on the southern continent, you know. Rumors hadn’t reached that far, and there was a lot of talk about the civil war in the Kingdom of Catania.”

I said that randomly, but it seems like the civil war should have started by now, so it should be able to be managed. The information about the southern continent itself is almost nonexistent.

“Hmm, the story of the civil war is interesting, but you say you have been in the pepper trade again? It’s not surprising that you don’t know anything about it if you’re on the southern continent, but why would you lie about going to the pepper trade?”

“Ah, you see, if I succeeded in the pepper trade many times, people would suspect that I have some secrets, wouldn’t they? Therefore, I kept it a secret in order to sell pepper without going through the merchant guilds.”

“Surely, if you succeed in the pepper trade more than once, someone will probe you. So, what is this secret?”

“Hahaha, it is a secret.”

“You have already attracted the attention of many countries. The Latina Kingdom is no exception, and I am sure that the Southern Count-sama will call on you. You should speak frankly. If you are the mage, it may be all right, but if you are not, there is no way you can keep the secret.”

“Oh, it’s getting important, isn’t it? But if I tell you my secret, it’s going to be troublesome. Can I ask you to keep the secret?”

“Well, it depends on the contents. If you don’t disclose it to some extent, the surrounding people won’t stop pursuing it.”

“I see. If it would be bad if I don’t disclose it, then I will, but will you consider what to disclose?”

“I will consider it. I don’t know if it would be acceptable, though.”

Is it better that he considers it? Well, it’s the part I originally decided to disclose, so I don’t have to hide it.

“I understand. My ship is a special ship that was sold to me by Mage-sama. So I could go to the southeast island and even round-trip to the southern continent. If this were to get out, it would be a big deal, wouldn’t it? I can go to the southern continent freely. Mage-sama also told me to be careful because I would get into trouble if anyone found out about it.”

“…If that’s true, it’s going to be a big deal. You could make a fortune importing pepper alone. But it must be dangerous just to have that ship, so how about selling it to the merchant guild? I’ll give you as much as you want.”

“I can’t do that. I told Camille-san, but I’m the only one who can use it. Mage-sama doesn’t seem to like countries or organizations, and he said he would never let anyone he didn’t like use his ship.

He said that anyone couldn’t enter the ship without me, and even if they killed me, they couldn’t get the ship. Well, he said that he would know if something happened to me, so he would avenge me, but it would be no good if he avenged me after I was badly hurt or killed, so he kept it a secret.”

“Hmm, Camille, is what he just said true?”

“I’ve heard that only Wataru-san can use the ship. I also asked him to introduce me to someone who could sell me his magic ship, but he refused.”

“Ah, what? Isn’t he a dangerous man after all, and if anyone messes with you, the mage will come to them? That’s enough of a threat, isn’t it?”

“Maybe so, but the only reason he’s a threat is because Mage-sama has become famous, right? Mage-sama lived in seclusion for most of his life, so I never thought that he would become famous. If I didn’t keep it a secret, with Mage-sama’s backers who’d by now never been heard of, I’d be kidnapped and killed if they found out about the ship, so I planned to make as much money as I could and play around as inconspicuously as I could.”

“Well, I guess you can’t avoid being conspicuous anyway. However, I’ll check out some things I can be sure of. If the results are satisfactory, I’ll spread the word about the mage’s backers. It will be harder for the higher-ups to get their hands on it, but there will always be those who don’t believe it or who will interpret it in their favor, so be careful.”

Is it impossible to live a comfortable life in a sense where everyone is so scared of the mage that they won’t touch me at all? Well, if the people in power are hesitant, that’s just great, isn’t it?

“Yes, thank you very much. But what are you going to do when you say you’re going to check it out?”

“What I’m going to do is to check if you are the only one who can use it, whether you can get into the ship, and whether it is strong enough to go to the southern continent back and forth. If the ship is attacked, will the mage come?”

“Well, I don’t know what would make Mage-sama come, so I can’t say for sure.”

“Is it dangerous to experiment?”

“Master, I think it’s better to stop the attack. We should only check to see if the ship can be used or not.”

Thank you, Camille-san. That’s a nice follow-up. I was just blabbering about the mage coming, but I wasn’t thinking about the conditions under which he would come or anything.

“But we have to prove that even the strongest of men can’t get in there. If the mage comes, Wataru will do something about it, won’t he?”

“…I don’t like the idea of having my ship taken away from me if he comes and I offend him.”

“…You can choose to persuade the mage or be targeted by countries, guilds, merchants, criminals, etc., your choice.”

There is too much variety that may target me. There are many countries, many guilds, many merchants, and many criminals. How many people are going to target me?

“Sigh, I get it. I will cooperate with your experiment.”

“All right, I’ll ask Southern Count-sama to send out some of his best men from the Knight’s Order and some high-ranked men from the Adventurer’s Guild. Wataru, stay on the ship and be ready to move tomorrow.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“The rest will be pepper. Now that you’ve been found out, I assume you’ll be distributing it to merchant guilds as well?”

“As long as you give me some extra, I’ll release what I’ve been stockpiling. If something happens, I’ll run away, so I prefer to deal in cash. I would also like to withdraw the money from my account.”

“Oh, you’re really determined to run away, aren’t you? Well, that’s all right; I’ll get you the cash. But it will take time.”

“Even if it takes a long time, please pay in cash. I will bring the pepper when it is ready.”

“Well, how much can you sell?”

“That’s right…”

How much can I sell? I’d like to sell all of it anyway, but that’s a bit much… for 60 boats, about three times as much as I sold to the guild last time. Hopefully, I can come back and sell more often from now on.

“I can probably triple the amount I sold to the guild last time.”

“That much…? Okay, I’ll make the preparations. Master, if you don’t mind?”

“No problem, there are plenty of places to sell the pepper. Give him a little extra.”

“Yes.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me. Tomorrow I will be on the ship, so you can just send a messenger.”

“Alright.”

Did I manage to get through the pursuit from the guild master of the merchant guild… without incident?

I feel like I can say it went well. It became impossible to be completely inconspicuous, but with the effect of the mage’s backing, I can check the biggest reason for being inconspicuous, which is interference from the people in power.

And since I had told him about the ship’s capabilities to some extent, I didn’t have to go out of my way to sell pepper. I think I negotiated a good deal for myself. I might as well say I’m going to the pepper trade while I’m out there looking for dark elves.

“Ines, Felicia, did you find anything in my conversation with the guild master that might have been a problem?”

“Yes, they’re very suspicious, but they’re willing to go along with Master’s story, so I think you’ve got it under control with that story, right?”

“Yes, I suppose so. I felt that he would follow Master’s scenario unless he were thinking of cheating us out of it. I think we’ll be fine.”

Oh, what the heck? I thought it went well, but it was just the guild master taking me up on the story… I’m seriously embarrassed.

“W-well, yes. Then let’s go to Donnino-san’s place, shall we?”

“”Yes.””

We headed to Donnino-san’s place, and when I handed him the souvenir distilled liquor, he was in a good mood and gave me the Reversi and Jenga that he had just finished in his workshop.

He told me that the merchant guild is actively marketing the product and that I should expect it to be well received.

Come to think of it, I was going to ask Camille-san about the recipe sales and the price of the Ryu scale today, but I wanted to get out of the merchant guild as soon as possible, so I came out without asking. Well, I’ll ask her next time. I don’t want to go back to the merchant guild today.

I stopped by the Black-tailed Gull’s Inn to see Girasole, but apparently, they were out on a commission and wouldn’t be back until nightfall. I leave a message for them and return to the Lutto. Tomorrow’s experiment, I’m slightly worried.