The highway was cleared within a matter of days. We leveled the ground and connected a road running due south to Dorios, the nearest territory.
Outposts were established at regular intervals along the highway, each manned with guards.
Kamar's role in this was significant.
He was both a Knight Commander and a mage capable of casting barrier magic.
If monsters breached the highway, he'd detect them immediately.
"When monsters intrude, the closest outpost will buy time while reinforcements from the neighboring outposts move in for a joint engagement."
In my previous life, there wasn't a job I hadn't done.
I'd guarded and escorted outposts more times than I could count.
I was intimately familiar with the systems used. I personally specified every detail—the spacing between outposts, the number of personnel, shift rotations.
Monster incursions were matters of life and death.
So I ran the operation on foot, issuing meticulous instructions on the ground.
Watching this, Kamar spoke up.
"You know all this with remarkable precision. Did you study tactics as well, Young Lord?"
"A few years bedridden gets awfully boring."
That excuse seemed to register with them as some kind of intensive hermit training.
"Self-taught in magic too...... You must be a genius, Young Lord."
I'd have to keep that line handy.
In any case, the highway was completed and its safety confirmed.
All we needed now was for merchants to come......
"Why aren't they coming?"
I'd already spread word to other territories that the road had been secured.
But.
"It seems they don't believe us."
Years of the North's reputation for danger couldn't be undone by a mere rumor.
Then I'd have to go to them myself.
Julian and I loaded a cart with northern goods and headed south to Dorios, the closest territory.
Even though Dorios sat south of us, its proximity to the North meant it was still bitterly cold.
Still, its condition was far better than ours. Dozens of trading companies were buying and selling in the central square.
We set up right in the middle of them and started peddling.
"Step right up! Pelts straight from the far North! Cheap—dirt cheap!"
"With this many trading companies around, do you really think anyone will buy from us?"
"Give it time. There'll be people who can't get enough."
The Roa Trading Company didn't brave the dangers for nothing.
Hides from animals that endured the North's razor-sharp cold year-round were in an entirely different league from what you'd find here.
"First five customers get top-grade northern pelts at half price!"
If I could just draw attention, our goods would outclass anything else here.
"Half price?"
"I've never seen hide from this animal before."
"That's some thick fur. Mind if I try it on?"
"Of course," I answered with practiced ease.
Julian seemed to find this version of me unfamiliar.
This was the benefit of a previous life's experience.
A wanderer's life meant acquiring all manner of seemingly useless odds and ends.
Learning to sell them was a survival skill in its own right.
"......This is nice."
"Warm, and surprisingly stylish."
As people began to gather, nearby trading companies took notice.
And they would know exactly what our goods were.
"Isn't that a northern specialty?"
"I've seen the Roa Trading Company sell those in the capital. Do you know how many gold coins each one goes for......?"
Before long, merchants outnumbered the locals.
Among them were several big names—heads of trading companies.
"I'll buy everything you've got!"
"I'm sorry, but it's one per customer."
Here, I imposed a limit.
The sack of gold coins the company head had brought was tempting, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue active trade would generate.
Right now, selling cheap to show the merchants what our goods were worth was far more important.
"Let's unpack the rest from the cart."
Taxidermy, paintings, carvings, arms and armor...... Items that might not grab attention at first glance, but impressive in quality upon closer inspection.
"This would fetch a good price in the capital, wouldn't it?"
"I'll take the painting."
"Then the carving's mine!"
Watching everything fly off the cart, Julian muttered wistfully.
"If I'd known, I would've brought more."
"No, this is just right."
Our goal was never to sell. It was to lure merchants to the North.
"I can only buy one? That's a tease."
"Right—you said you're from the North?"
"Isn't it dangerous? How many escorts did you hire?"
There it was—the question I'd been waiting for.
"It was just the two of us."
"Is that possible? I heard there are monsters and marauders."
"Exactly—do you know how many merchants have died en route from monster attacks? You've got nerve."
Merchants lived and breathed profit.
If the road to the North could be proven safe, they'd have no reason not to come.
"The North recently pioneered a trading highway. Guards stationed along the route and everything. I was skeptical myself, but I didn't see a single monster or marauder."
"I did hear rumors to that effect......"
"And you're saying it's actually true?"
Their tone still carried doubt. But that was enough. In a world where people killed for money, once the cost-benefit calculation checked out...... they'd come.
Everything we'd brought sold out within the hour, and we rode the cart back toward the North right in front of them.
Nearly every merchant watched slack-jawed as we left with our windfall.
Julian, basking in those stares, laughed aloud.
"Haha—I didn't know merchants could make faces like that. We've always been the ones bowing and scraping just to get by......"
Seeing him so happy reminded me of the Julian from my previous life.
'He used to smile more than I realized.'
Back then, I'd almost never seen him smile.
He'd always stood outside my room with a face full of worry, waiting in silence.
"Were there merchant tricks in those books you read too, Lord Lumio?"
"What I read was a book about how to survive."
"How to survive?"
The title would be 'My Previous Life,' I thought to myself.
"Don't be impressed just yet. From now on, there won't be a single situation where we're on the losing end."
Tomorrow was the day of my appointment with Roa.
Once the Mage Tower was up and running, forget trading companies—we could hold the upper hand even against royalty.
***
The very next morning, a flood of merchants arrived in the North.
Any visitor entering a territory for commercial purposes had to obtain a travel and trade permit from the lord.
Thanks to that, my father had been swamped with work since dawn.
Even though I'd tipped him off that merchants would be coming in droves when we built the highway, he couldn't hide his astonishment.
The merchants gathered at the lord's manor expressed their gratitude.
"We never imagined the North would station escorts on its own initiative. We didn't hear so much as an animal, let alone a monster."
"Hahaha! Precisely. The road was so flat that the cart didn't even jolt."
My father smiled bashfully and replied.
"My boy did all of it."
"You've raised a sharp son. I'm envious."
"Haha! My boy's health isn't the best, but he buried himself in books and did all this for the territory......!"
Praise of his son sent my father into another enthusiastic ramble.
Amid the laughter and chatter, negotiations with the trading companies wrapped up smoothly.
Since we'd provided the escorts, the travel permits cost more than before, but the merchants agreed it was a fair price.
And there was one other person just as stunned as my father......
"What is all this?"
Roa.
Avoiding others' eyes, she was still wearing her armor.
"I didn't expect you to come in person. I was going to visit you."
"I heard various things from my people. It was too hard to believe, so I wanted to see for myself. It's beyond what I imagined."
She shrugged.
"Well, it's not exactly welcome news for our side...... but congratulations all the same."
"Thank you. And the provisions and goods you sent as restitution—we've been putting them to good use."
From her perspective, it would have been easy to shrug off the matter, writing us off as a territory on the brink of collapse.
Any other trading company in her position might have harbored less generous intentions.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she changed the subject.
"So—did you find what you promised?"
"Follow me."
I led the Roa Trading Company to the lord's manor storehouse.
Once inside, she checked that no one else was around and removed her helm.
Beneath it was a face far too young to belong to the owner of one of the capital's top three trading companies.
When I showed no particular reaction, she asked with mild surprise.
"You're not shocked? The person who runs the Roa Trading Company is this young and pretty."
"Being young doesn't mean you're unqualified."
She flinched slightly at my matter-of-fact response.
She was the same age as me—not yet an adult.
Surely there were plenty of people who looked down on her because of her appearance.
In my previous life, she'd been hounded by constant power plays and dozens of assassination attempts until she finally lost her life.
After her death, the Roa Trading Company had crumbled into nothing—proof enough that her talents were what had held it all together.
"That was a joke. It's embarrassing when you take it so seriously."
Roa let out a quiet laugh and inspected the half-collapsed cart inside the storehouse.
Her eyes trembled.
"......I really didn't think you'd actually bring it."
The former company head's belongings I'd recovered were far more plentiful than what I'd found in my previous life.
Back then, the marauders had already sold or discarded much of it.
Roa's hands shook as she bit her lip. She looked like she was fighting back tears with everything she had.
"Shall we step out for a moment?"
How frightened she must have been, shouldering all that responsibility at such a young age.
I placed my hand on the shoulders of the company members who'd come along and guided them toward the exit.
Roa emerged about ten minutes later.
She'd put her helm back on, but through the gap, I could see reddened eyes.
"......Thank you."
"No need for thanks. This was a transaction."
I said it stiffly because I had no idea how to handle a woman in tears—but to my surprise, Roa let out a stifled laugh.
Even the mage beside her seemed startled. So was I.
'She knows how to laugh after all.'
"Yes, and we brought your end of the deal."
At Roa's signal, a company member brought over a wooden box the size of a fist. The latch clicked open, and the moment the lid rose—
"......!"
A blinding white light made me squint on reflex.
"Will this size do?"
I answered without a shred of hesitation.
"Enough."
At last!
The time had come to awaken the Mage Tower.
A grin kept leaking out of me.
"You look just like a little kid at times like these."
"Pardon?"
"Oh— never mind. What I mean is, I'd like to maintain a good relationship with you, Lord Lumio."
She, too, was smiling with childlike sincerity—visible even through the helm.
"Not just as business partners. So please, accept my thanks."
I clasped the hand she extended and shook it.
'As it happens, once I open the Mage Tower, we'll be seeing a lot more of each other.'