Four days had passed since exposing the administrator's corruption.
Mozar and the Vice Commander were to be transferred to the capital.
There, they'd face trial and either imprisonment or, in the worst case, execution.
They seemed to have no fight left in them. When the Knight Commander himself came to demand an explanation, they couldn't even muster an excuse.
Perhaps the evidence was simply too airtight.
In any case, after collecting himself, the Commander came to me and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.
"I had no idea the Vice Commander was doing such things. I'm a disgrace as a commander."
He was clearly disappointed in himself.
Watching him punch himself in the face was alarming enough that I intervened.
Others might curse him as an incompetent commander, but not me.
He was the man who'd fought to the death evacuating the territory's people when the North fell.
"Please don't do that. Just grant me one favor later. That will be enough."
"A favor?"
"Yes. Currently, only one trading company services the North. For the size of our population, that's woefully insufficient. What do you think the reason is?"
I posed the question, then immediately answered it myself.
"Because the road here is dangerous. Unless you hire a large escort like the Roa Trading Company, the journey to the North carries enormous risk. I intend to clear that road."
The territory's population numbered in the thousands.
A single trading company was nowhere near enough, and in dealings with them, the North had no choice but to be at a disadvantage.
"If it's for the North, you don't even need to ask. It's my duty."
If enough trading companies could reach the North, the territory could develop sufficiently.
"When do we set out?"
"For now, just make preparations. There's something I need to take care of first."
As I reflected on my conversation with the Commander, Julian entered the room.
"Lord Lumio, the Roa Trading Company has arrived."
"Did you tell the people?"
"Yes. Absolutely do not sell. A few of them seemed a bit nervous, though."
"The provisions from the recovered supplies should hold for a few days. No matter how I look at it, selling at those prices makes no sense."
The North's livelihood was built on hunting—eating the meat and crafting clothes from the leftover pelts.
Such luxury goods fetched high prices even in the capital.
Northern pelts, in particular, were considered top quality.
'But the Roa Trading Company has been exploiting the fact that they're the only game in town to force unfair deals.'
Julian and I made our way to where the trading company had set up, and sure enough, the merchants looked baffled.
"Why are they suddenly doing this?"
"The lord's son, isn't it? He's the one who told them not to sell?"
"Should we raise the prices a little?"
"Forget it. We're the only trading company around. Let them go hungry a few times—that'll set them straight."
I cut in.
"They won't be going hungry. Other trading companies will be coming from now on."
The man who appeared to be the lead merchant gave me a sidelong glance.
He seemed to have sized me up from my clothing.
"You must be the lord's son. You're still young—perhaps unfamiliar with how the world works? Do you really think another trading company will bear the cost of escorting a caravan all the way to this dangerous North?"
"I'm saying that problem will be resolved soon."
"Where is the administrator who was here before? He was at least someone we could reason with......"
Among the ledgers found in Mozar's home, there had been records of transactions with the Roa Trading Company.
He'd pocketed bribes while turning a blind eye to the territory's goods being sold at rock-bottom prices.
"He's currently in a cell with both hands severed."
The merchants' faces hardened in real time at my casual remark. I smiled and continued.
"I'd like to speak with the head of the trading company directly. Regarding the terms of our future dealings, and also......"
"I can relay the message. The head of the company prefers not to deal with people directly."
"Let me finish."
I produced a coin pouch from inside my coat.
"I need to see them in person. I intend to repay the North's debt, and this is a considerable sum—I can't leave it in your hands. You understand why, I trust?"
The last question carried a sharp edge. The merchant swallowed and hesitated.
"You're welcome to refuse. But I've formally declared my intent to repay, and if the Roa Trading Company turns me down, you'll have to accept the consequences that come with that."
I'd been through every trial by fire in my previous life. I'd been swindled dozens of times over.
This level of negotiation was something I'd learned through bitter, bodily experience just to survive.
Finally, the merchant nodded.
"......Follow me."
Heading southeast from the North, you eventually reached a village full of abandoned buildings.
It was one of many territories that had long since perished. And such forsaken lands occasionally became someone's hidden base of operations.
"We're here."
I knew this place.
It was the Roa Trading Company's second outpost. During my flight from the North toward the capital in my previous life, I'd received help here.
The reason I'd been able to push the merchants so hard was that, if it came down to it, I'd planned to come here myself.
"This way."
Following him, we arrived at a small villa. A door warded with powerful barrier magic stood before us. When he knocked, someone opened it from inside.
Only then did I sense the presence of countless people.
"Lost again."
"I'm looking for something to decorate my house."
Auctions, gambling—if it involved money, virtually everything was happening here. A black market.
'So that's why the door was warded. Even if you know about this place, you can't get in.'
There were quite a few fighters here on par with the Vice Commander.
"The head of the company is this way."
Julian and I continued to follow. We stopped in front of a large room tucked into a corner.
The people inside were watching me warily.
Before them, seated with her legs crossed, a woman spoke.
"Please, sit down, Lord Lumio. I hear you'd like to repay the debt owed to our company?"
I sat across from her and placed the coin pouch on the table. But I didn't push it forward.
"Before that, I have a few demands. Adjust the prices at which your company purchases goods from the North to something fair. I'm well aware of what those goods sell for in the capital."
"We employ escorts just to make the trip up to the North. I think it's reasonable for us to buy at a slight discount."
I slid the ledger I'd seized from Mozar across the table.
"Even so, isn't this excessive?"
Her brow rose slightly as she examined the ledger.
She must not have known the deals were this lopsided.
Young as she was, having inherited the position, she was someone who'd become head of the trading company at a tender age.
She'd been sharp-tongued in my previous life, too.
"Acquiring quality goods at a low price is also a merchant's talent. If you find it unfair, simply don't sell."
"I have no intention of seeking compensation for past transactions. I'm simply asking you to pay closer attention going forward."
I brushed past the point and moved on to the next matter.
"Second: I need a mana crystal."
A mana crystal was a transparent gemstone in which mana had been compressed to an extreme degree.
In this entire world, aside from the Mage Tower, it was the only thing that contained pure mana free of impurities.
"You know how difficult those are to come by, I assume?"
"Precisely why I'm bringing it up with the head of the company directly."
"Then your approach is wrong. You've come to repay a debt and now you're asking for more? No one but a fool would agree to that."
"Who said I was asking?"
At that, every person in the room stiffened. Julian behind me was no different. He gripped my shoulder and slowly shook his head.
She fixed me with a sharp, narrowed gaze and asked coldly.
"Are you threatening us?"
Of course not. No matter how skilled I was, I couldn't take on everyone in this room with my current body.
And even if the threat worked, trust would be shattered beyond repair.
The head of the Roa Trading Company would one day become a titan who dominated the capital's commerce.
I needed to maintain a good relationship with her. Once the Mage Tower was up and running, the flood of items it would produce needed a reliable buyer—and there was no better outlet than this.
The way to build trust with a merchant was simple.
"It's not a threat. I came here to make a deal."
"And as I've said, that money isn't enough to—"
"Who said I was dealing with this money?"
I knew what she wanted most at this stage of her life.
Because in my previous life, she'd personally commissioned me to find it.
"You're searching for your father's keepsake, aren't you?"
I turned my gaze to the armored knight standing beside the woman.
"A ring, or something of that sort. I know where it is. I'll have it for you by next week. If you'll agree to the deal, accept the two conditions I've laid out."
In my previous life, when the North fell and I'd fled with the refugees to this outpost, it was none other than the Roa Trading Company that had stepped up to fight off the monster horde that had relentlessly pursued us.
That was also when I'd used magic for the first time.
Until then, I'd believed Roa was simply a kindhearted benefactor who set aside profits to help refugees. But as time passed, I'd learned the truth.
The real reason she'd gone to the trouble of establishing an outpost in this desolate corner of the North.
It was to find the keepsake of her father, who had died here.
The sudden death of her father had forced her, at a young age, to shoulder an enormous burden. Enemies within the company had hounded her so fiercely that she couldn't openly organize a search party. But that keepsake meant far more to her than running a black market ever could.
'She even hired mercenaries with her own money. I was one of them—a Northerner living in the area.'
Needing the money, that job had been the start of my life as a wanderer. It was my very first commission, and the memory remained vivid.
I maintained a relaxed smile and drove the point home with conviction.
"And from now on, I'd prefer we speak face to face."
The atmosphere in the room froze solid at those final words.
That's right.
The woman sitting before me was not Roa, the head of the trading company—she was the mage who served as Roa's aide.
Information no outsider could possibly know.
After saying my piece, I left the coin pouch on the table and walked out.
Julian hurried after me, face full of astonishment.
"That woman wasn't the head of the company?"
"She's even younger. Probably around my age."
"And what was all that about a keepsake?"
"It's something I can pick up along the way when we clear the road for the trading companies."
Finding it wasn't the hard part—knowing the location made it a piece of cake.
Time to put my skills to use after all this time.
***
After Lumio left, the room fell into a long silence. It was Roa who broke it. Removing her helm, a cascade of golden hair spilled free.
"Didn't our intelligence say that young lord never left his bedchamber?"
"That's correct. We were also told he had a terrible personality and lived like a delinquent."
The informant beside her answered cautiously.
The Roa Trading Company prided itself on the quality of its intelligence.
Which made it all the stranger that someone had offered to retrieve the very keepsake she'd failed to find herself.
When she'd discovered her father's body in the North, everything he'd carried had already been stripped away.
The prime suspects were the marauders who operated in the area.
She'd tried to wipe them out, but they were organized into cells—utterly impossible to track down.
"How in the world could he possibly......"
Roa murmured quietly, then gave an order to her subordinate.
"Get me one mana crystal by next week."
"Do you actually believe he'll find the keepsake?"
The odds were slim.
And yet, for some reason, she had a feeling he would succeed.
"If he fails, we just sell it again. No loss."
"Understood."
"Besides, how am I supposed to show my face after looking at this?"
Roa gazed down at the ledger on the table and spoke, her voice cold as ice.
"This is practically highway robbery."
She hadn't risen to her position simply because she was the previous head's daughter.
"Bring me every merchant who was assigned to the North."
It was time to show them exactly why she was the one who ruled this vast trading company.