At present, nothing had been confirmed, and Leibniz Merlin was living, provisionally, in House Medichin’s camp.
Inside his tent, he was speaking with Friedrich with a worried expression.
“I am sorry. Because of me···.”
Merlin bowed his head and apologized for making him take on such difficult matters, but Friedrich waved his hand dismissively.
“There is no need for that. Once I make a promise, I keep it, and I look after my own people no matter what.”
It was his first time in this life, but Lee Ji-hoon, Friedrich’s past self, had been that kind of man.
[Your father is ill? Put this toward the hospital bills.]
[You said you were going on vacation with your girlfriend, right? Do not go to a guesthouse. Go enjoy a hotel stay.]
Lee Ji-hoon had no relatives at all. On top of that, he was an only son, and his parents had died suddenly in a traffic accident on the day of his officer commissioning ceremony, leaving him alone in the world overnight.
He treated his subordinates, the members of his team, like brothers, and spared no money on everything from congratulatory and condolence expenses to privately purchased equipment.
[Team Leader, you are the best, sir!]
[I will introduce you to my girlfriend, sir!]
United by such close comradeship and thoroughly equipped with good gear, his team had even been deployed on classified operations, proudly achieving both a mission success rate and a survival rate of 100 percent.
‘And yet that bastard of a brigade commander looked down on me and blocked me because I was an ROTC graduate, like some sixth-head-rank outsider.’
Just thinking of it made him want to put a bullet in that damned bastard’s head, but right now, he was not Lee Ji-hoon, a captain of the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command.
He was Friedrich Medichin, the heir of the consul of the Etilant Autonomous Territory, an elector-level territorial domain within the Astella Empire on the western continent of Ers.
Unlike his confident answer, however, Merlin still could not hide his unease.
“Even so, every single task the Consul gave you is difficult···.”
“There is nothing difficult about it. The answer is in the field.”
“The field, you say···?”
Friedrich patted Merlin’s puzzled shoulder.
“For today, sleep well first. Starting tomorrow, you will be busy fighting your own battles.”
“???”
Leaving only those incomprehensible words behind, Friedrich Medichin rose from his seat and strode out of the tent.
Leibniz Merlin watched him with eyes mixed with curiosity and worry.
***
The next morning.
As soon as Merlin heard the rooster crow, he came outside, washed himself clean, put on the new clothes and robe Friedrich had prepared for him, and began walking around the camp.
“Damn it, the embers went out.”
“Everyone will be waking up soon···.”
“If we want to prepare breakfast, we will have to work ourselves to death getting the fire lit. Youngest!”
Merlin, who had stopped by the cooking tent, heard the cooks grumbling and approached them.
“Do you need fire?”
“We do, but··· who might you be?”
“I am Leibniz Merlin, formerly of the Imperial Magic University. If you need help, may I light the fire for you?”
When a mage, a breed generally equipped with arrogance as a basic quality, politely offered to light the fire for them, the cooks were startled.
“Goodness! How could a noble mage lend us the breath of Mar for something as trivial as lighting a fire?”
“It is all right, my lord! Our youngest only needs to suffer a little!”
“Compared to making a person suffer, borrowing the breath of Mar is nothing so grand. It is fine, so please tell me where to light it.”
“Then, shameless though it is···.”
One of the cooks politely extended a hand and pointed to the mouth of the hearth. Merlin stretched his hand toward the hearth filled with firewood.
WHOOSH!
The cooks’ eyes widened as the firewood caught flame with a sound that shook the air.
“Goodness! A mage really is different!”
“We have to strike flint until we are half-dead and fan the flames!”
“Thank you, my lord!”
“There is no need to thank me for this much. If there is anything else that needs lighting, call me.”
That was only the beginning.
“Could you perhaps··· dig a well for us?”
“A well?”
“Yes. This spot is good because it is close to the city gate, but it is quite far from the well.”
“Even if you could at least open a water vein for us, we will dig the well ourselves.”
Seeing the earnest eyes of the soldiers who had come to him, soldiers who could not use magic, Merlin tasted fulfillment as a mage for the first time in his life.
“Let us go.”
Merlin walked around the camp with his hand outstretched, then stopped. Not long after Merlin’s hand, which had been muttering softly, trembled, the dry ground became damp, and thin streams of water began bubbling up.
“If you dig and widen this spot, it should work. Good luck.”
“Thank you! Thank you, my lord!”
Watching the soldiers bow so deeply their waists bent, Merlin smiled.
“If you need blades sharpened, rust cleaned, or boils treated, come to me anytime. Ah! If you need ground leveled as well, tell me.”
At first, Leibniz Merlin had started working so that he would not be driven out and could make it all the way to regular employment.
Now, however, after tasting the small but accumulating sweetness of achievement and fulfillment, Merlin was beginning to look for work on his own. And···.
‘This feels truly strange.’
Perhaps because he had used magic so often, Merlin was feeling pleasure from the way the ring of mana revolving in his heart was heating up.
‘Is it because it has been so long since I used it? Hehe.’
After leaving the Magic University of his own accord, he had not used magic even once.
However.
Merlin did not know.
Aside from the ring of mana heating up.
Tiny cracks, faint but unmistakable, were beginning to form little by little from its center.
***
Friedrich and Wilhelm, who had been watching that sight, could not hide their pleased smiles.
“What do you think, Father?”
“It is only the first day, you rascal. Should we not watch him a little longer?”
Wilhelm gave Friedrich a small laugh and scolded him lightly, then gave his son a new lesson.
“I do not know about money, but trust is not something you should give easily. Trust lasts more firmly and longer when it is given only as much as the other person has shown.”
“Because trust is the foundation of every relationship, and transactions are included within those relationships, right?”
“That is exactly it. Great or small, the basis of any relationship is trust, and for merchants like us, relationships are an extension of transactions.”
Wilhelm had deliberately put on a serious expression and given a harsh evaluation, followed by a lesson.
But when his son smoothly unraveled the meaning of that lesson, Wilhelm could not help admiring his cleverness. He smiled with satisfaction and ended up revealing his true thoughts.
“Still, he is a mage, yet he does not shy away from menial work like that. He does seem cut from a different cloth. Though we should watch him a little longer.”
‘At the very least, he avoided a failing grade.’
Beside Wilhelm, who laughed heartily after giving his midterm evaluation as an employer, Friedrich watched Merlin.
‘Do your best. I will definitely make you one of my people.’
Friedrich had gained a desire.
Since their connection had been woven through a god, he wanted to build a deep mountain of trust with Merlin for a long time to come.
‘This boy.’
Wilhelm looked at his son, who was renewing his resolve, with pleased eyes and opened his mouth.
“Still, if you do not properly complete your task, this will all be as if it never happened. Work hard.”
‘Tch!’
Even as he grumbled inwardly, Friedrich answered Wilhelm.
“Yes. Then I will go to the trading house.”
“Are you going to look around the field and find the answer?”
‘He catches on instantly!’
Friedrich admired Wilhelm’s perceptive question and answered.
“A proper merchant should know the field, not argue from a desk.”
‘What a boy!’
How did he always pick out exactly the words Wilhelm liked to hear?
“Of course. Then go and put your words into practice.”
With his father seeing him off while trying to hide his satisfaction, Friedrich took a carriage and arrived at the Asteldorf branch of the Medichin trading house.
“Hoo-.”
At the grand appearance of the Medichin trading house, incomparably larger than those of the other merchant groups he had passed on the way, an exclamation slipped naturally from Friedrich’s mouth.
‘They said the Medichin Konzern was the greatest merchant organization in the Empire, and···.’
Seeing it once was far better than hearing about it a hundred times.
Friedrich Medichin now truly felt the wealth of House Medichin after seeing the Asteldorf branch building, the center of the Medichin trading houses scattered across the Empire and of the trade headquarters that managed those houses by region.
‘If I steadily build up achievements and inherit Father’s position···.’
Could he live a stylish, sweet life of luxury?
The thought alone made the corners of his mouth rise, but only briefly. Friedrich soon composed his expression and stepped down from the carriage.
“Hello.”
The junior employee of the trading house looked at Friedrich, who had greeted him, with puzzled eyes.
“Welcome. Pardon me, but who might you be?”
‘Customer service manners are okay. Since he has never seen my face before, I can let that pass.’
Friedrich compared and checked the employee’s attitude against lectures he had taken during his university days back on Earth and memories of winning various marketing contests, then opened his mouth.
“I am Friedrich Medichin. The eldest son of Mayor Wilhelm Medichin. Here.”
When the employee saw the gold plaque Friedrich held out after introducing himself, he was startled.
“Th-this is?”
The gold plaque engraved with the crest of seven pills, one in the center and three on each side, was an item symbolizing the bloodline of House Medichin.
The employee, who knew that fact, realized what kind of mistake he had just made, and his face turned white.
“I apologize, Young Master!”
Seeing the employee hurriedly apologize and prostrate himself on the stone floor, trembling, Friedrich was flustered as well.
“What are you doing? Get up at once. Do you not know that if others see this, they will speak ill of our house and our trading house, and even sales will fall?”
“!!!”
For a merchant, falling sales was practically a death sentence.
At those words, the employee snapped back to his senses, quickly rose from the floor, and bowed his head.
“I apologize, Young Master!”
“If you are sorry, then help me. Can I look at the ledgers here?”
“The ledgers?”
The employee raised his head and blinked. What was this young master, who looked as though he had never learned commerce, going to do by looking at ledgers?
Seeing the employee’s expression, unable to hide suspicion and doubt, Friedrich let out a small sigh.
“What I do after looking at the ledgers is my business. Hurry and guide me.”
“Yes, yes, sir!”
Did people of House Medichin learn mind reading too?
After being surprised several times by the young little master Friedrich, the employee arrived at the ledger storage room inside the trading house.
“This is the place.”
“You have worked hard. Go and see to your duties. Take this as compensation.”
Friedrich untied the pouch at his waist, grabbed a handful of silver coins, and held them out to the employee.
“No, Young Master! I merely did what was natural···!”
Even though the employee raised both hands and waved them in refusal, Friedrich did not yield.
“I must have startled you first thing in the morning because of me. Think of it as the day’s first earnings and take it.”
“But still···.”
“I said it is fine. Buy something delicious for your wife and children when you go home.”
Only after forcing several dozen silver coins into the employee’s hand and sending him away did Friedrich enter the ledger storage room.
“Whew-, the smell.”
The insane combination of stale dampness, dust, and the greasy smell of parchment made him frown. Before long, however, he seemed to adapt to the smell, relaxed his expression, and took out a ledger.
“Let us see···.”
Not long after turning a few pages of the ledger, the corner of Friedrich’s mouth twisted.
“I knew it.”
As if there were nothing more to see, he closed the ledger, returned it to its original place, and went straight out toward the sales floor before calling the employee.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes? ···!!! Yes, Young Master!”
The employee, who had not only been forgiven for his mistake but had even received a cash gift(?), hurried over at the young master’s call and received an unexpected question.
“Cases where we suffered losses from technology leaks, sir?”
“Yes. Do you know any?”
“Hmm···.”
After letting out a low hum and tilting his head to the side, the employee straightened his posture and exclaimed.
“Ah!”
“There are some?”
“Yes! There was the carrack ship, a sailing ship that our Konzern, the autonomous government, and the University of Firenburg developed together in the past···.”
Friedrich heard that the blueprints had been leaked, and now every territorial domain and shipyard in the Empire adjacent to the sea was building and using that ship without permission.
He also heard that the Flandern Autonomous Territory, including the Billen Konzern headed by Orenje Billen, was not satisfied with chasing after the Medichin Konzern’s mainstay woolen industry and was even following them into banking.
He further heard that, in response, the Medichin Konzern was selling products that overlapped with the Billen Konzern’s at lower prices. Friedrich smiled bitterly.
“So something like that happened.”
“Do not even mention it. Because of those cursed bastards, even when we sell, there is barely anything left. From me to the branch manager and all the higher-ups above him, everyone is racking their brains over it, sir. Agh!”
‘I have squeezed enough out of this.’
Judging that he had gathered a fair amount of the information he needed, Friedrich spoke to the employee.
“Keep up the good work. I am busy, so I will be off!”
“Please take care on your way, Young Master!”
Seen off by the employee, Friedrich immediately climbed into the carriage and returned to the camp.
‘Well, if I show everything right now, I might draw unnecessary suspicion, so this time, it should be better to give only a proper taste.’
The original owner of this body had fainted after being hit by a rock, but that alone was not enough of a basis to show such a drastic change.
‘It will be enough if I complete the task I received this time in moderation.’
In the past, despite his unimpressive background, he had overreached because he wanted to become a general quickly, only to be hit by a truck and die.
Now, there was no need for that.
Because he was Friedrich Medichin, the fourteen-year-old heir of the Etilant Autonomous Territory.