Whoooosh…… Whoooosh…….
The red sunset stretched long over the seashore.
Golden waves broke across the sand.
Clink. Clink.
Father, who had been rolling lentils around with his fork, paused for a moment and calmly began to speak.
“Mikael, you prepared everything for this trade, right? This transaction is important if we are to be recognized by the Empire as a merchant company.”
Today was the day that would decide whether our family could be recognized as an official merchant company.
After all, it was an important transaction that would turn us from a traveling peddler that sold little more than wine into a small merchant company.
“Yes, Father! I loaded all 60 stones onto one small cargo ship. I also bundled the ship rental fee and port taxes together and negotiated them down, so we should make quite a bit this time!”
“Ha ha, well done. But… Why did you bring in only half? You could have made triple the profit.”
I forced down my excited voice.
“No, Father. I calculated it myself… and it is as much as sevenfold.”
“…What?”
“I paid the 60 stones in advance to the Dwarven Artisan Guild.”
“Mikael, you paid the dwarves in advance?”
Father's brows narrowed.
“We agreed to receive it back from their smelting furnaces as refined steel. If it is steel made in their furnaces… my heart races just imagining it. The northern lords would buy it even if they had to pour out gold!”
Human smelting techniques and dwarven smelting techniques ran on entirely different tracks.
From the quality of the steel to the sharpness of a blade and the strength of a shield, there was no comparison at all.
“But whether the dwarves will deliver on time—”
My sisters, who had been sipping beer, folded their arms with displeased looks.
A prepaid contract made without credit was always bound to make people uneasy. But still.
“……The dwarves cannot resist alcohol, can they? It is something they can never make in the mountains, and thanks to the trust we have built up, only our merchant company can trade with them in bulk. So I thought they would not break the contract.”
Silence flowed for a moment.
“And after that?”
“I thought this transaction would be our merchant company's first step toward handling steel from the Artisan Guild. From here… greater roads will open.”
“…….”
Father's eyes wavered for a moment.
He emptied his cup and smiled quietly.
“Most merchants your age follow the road their parents laid for them. But you…… you are making your own road.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“Mikael, what do you think a merchant is?”
Father had always asked difficult questions.
“……Would it not be someone who moves goods to the places that need them? Someone who creates a flow.”
“A flow?”
I pointed at the beer glass and bread on the table.
“Here, this is just a glass of liquor, but in the Dwarven Mountains, it is worth its weight in gold. This bread is one meal here, but on a battlefield, it saves soldiers' lives.”
“Mikael. I am truly proud of you. Once our family becomes an official merchant company, you must inherit it.”
I nodded. Ever since I was a child, I had sworn that someday I would make this merchant company the greatest on the continent.
And that night, I had to give up my dream.
A wooden sword I had swung as a joke became wrapped in blue light, then shattered to pieces. From that moment on, the path of my life was decided.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Imperial Knights came three days later.
“Mikael, hear this! Awakened individuals are assets of the Empire. As of today, you belong to the Imperial Court.”
Under imperial law, all Awakened were assigned to the military.
Our family had lived modestly, carrying on our business. And when I awakened, my family reported it to the Empire at once, without the slightest hesitation.
Because we believed that was the natural duty.
“Mikael…….”
Father could not continue.
I quietly clasped Father's hand, but I could not bring myself to lift my face.
Ink stains still remained on his palm. They must have been the hands that had been sorting account books until yesterday.
“You must… come back alive.”
“Yes…… Father.”
At the time, I was only eighteen. I had been taught that the more difficult the moment, the more calmly a man should conduct himself, but I could not.
I did not have the courage to raise my head, nor the strength to look Father straight in the eye.
I merely accepted that I had no choice and clung to the vain comfort that someday I might be able to return.
From that day on, I swung my sword at the Empire's command.
The war did not end.
I became more and more deeply bound to the Imperial Court.
Whenever I thought of home, I simply wrote diary entries out of habit.
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
Month 1.
Today, for the first time, I killed a person.
……Blood was warmer than I thought.
Month 6.
I want to go home.
Year 1.
Today, the Southern Kingdom fell.
Killing people… is not difficult anymore.
Year 2.
I learned how to condense aura.
The sword is growing more and more familiar.
Year 3.
Father's letters stopped.
I cannot remember Mother's face.
Year 5.
Committed: 1,000. Losses: 300.
Father, I have become a merchant now!
Year 7.
Mikael, Mikael, Mikael, Mikael.
MikaelMikaelMikael.
When I cannot remember my name, I write it down like this.
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
I no longer wrote in the diary.
Time passed like that.
Exactly ten years.
Ten years after I, once a merchant, took up the sword, I became the Empire's youngest Swordmaster.
On every battlefield I passed through, the Empire's flag was planted.
And three years later.
The Empire collapsed.