Clop—clop. Clop—clop.
Heaps of straw were piled high on the backs of the four mules following my second older sister, Seriel.
‘When in the world did she buy those? No, wait, she was only supposed to buy two more......’
Unable to hold back my curiosity, I ran over.
“Sis, where did you get the mules? That’s four, not two.”
“I stopped by Uncle Hagrid’s while I was looking for straw. He was selling them cheap, so I just bought more. We’ll make a profit if we load up plenty when we go to the western villages.”
I closed my mouth for a moment.
First of all, it was an excellent decision.
......But.
What I reacted to was something else.
“Wait. What did you just say? Uncle Hagrid?”
“Yeah.”
Hagrid.
I knew that name too. He was the best person in Heindel at handling livestock.
‘In my past life... when did he leave?’
I could not remember.
“I even got them for four gold coins each.”
“Uh... not five? Why is he selling them so cheaply?”
“Yeah. He’s leaving the village. He said he had to sell the mules in a hurry too, so I bought them right away.”
Father asked with a startled look. The fact that she had bought two more mules had already been pushed to the back of his mind.
“Hagrid is leaving? Why?”
“He says he’s going south. Apparently, one of his relatives there is a priest, and that relative received some strange revelation a few days ago. He said Hagrid has to hurry down south.”
“A revelation? What on earth...?”
A priest’s revelation.... When the demons ran rampant again, that might become a clue.
I did not like the god who had abandoned mankind, but I could not ignore the weight that name carried.
“Yes. They say lights shot up in the north. He said that area would become dangerous soon, so everyone is rushing to pack their things.”
“I see... He was a good man.”
In any case, sixteen gold coins in total was far cheaper than we had expected.
CLAP! CLAP!
Mother’s applause sounded behind us.
“Children, let’s hurry and finish making the roof first! Tonight, I want to go home, stretch my legs, and sleep.”
“Yes!”
We answered at the same time and took our places.
When my second older sister threw up bundles of straw, I caught them from above.
Father hammered in the nails, and my third sister followed up with the hammering.
THUNK, THUNK, THUNK—
The hammering continued one beat at a time.
The scent of straw fluttering in the wind mingled with the smell of pine resin.
By the time we fixed the last bundle of straw on the roof, the sunset had dyed the pillars.
“It’s done!”
Father set down his hammer.
‘Warehouse No. 1,’ now with a fairly proper shape, was complete.
‘Hmm, Warehouse No. 1 is kind of bland....’
As if she had read my mind, my third sister spoke.
“It’s our family’s first warehouse. How about giving it a name?”
“A name?”
My third sister grinned.
“Dragon Valley. Doesn’t it sound amazing?”
“......A dragon has never lived in this village.”
Father looked troubled.
“That’s what makes it even more amazing. A merchant company ought to have things it doesn’t actually own!”
Holding back a laugh, I said, “Sis, where’s the dragon? Hehehe.”
“Then you name it.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
The way my family looked at me was no ordinary matter.
No, why were they suddenly doing this...?
It had to be practical and memorable...... but it could not sound too shabby either.
After thinking for a long while, I clapped my hands.
“Ah, I’ve got it!”
“......?!”
“Heindel First Supply Station.”
“......”
After a brief silence, laughter burst out from somewhere, with someone saying, “Pwahaha!” and someone else asking, “What are you, a soldier?”
“Sure, that sounds very grand.”
“Then it’s settled.”
And so the First Supply Station was completed.
Looking closely, the pillars were slightly crooked, and a little wind slipped in through the gaps between the boards.
Well, it was not perfect, but....
It would be enough to endure the winter.
“This should do, right? Everyone worked hard, so let’s eat something today.”
The late-night meal the whole family ate together after so long could not have tasted better.
***
“Snore... snore....”
For the first time in a while, I had a dream.
It was the day I took office as the Empire’s Commander-in-Chief.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Commander, the Chief Priest requests an audience with you.”
“Let him in.”
The Chief Priest, second in the priestly hierarchy, came to see me right after the inauguration ceremony.
“Commander, congratulations on your promotion.”
“Why are you being so stiff? I told you we could speak comfortably when it’s just the two of us.”
“Heh heh... Even so, we must observe the Empire’s protocol, Commander.”
“Enough. Jokes aside, you didn’t come here just to congratulate me, did you?”
“Fine, I understand.”
Anxiety and hesitation briefly crossed his face.
“...It isn’t certain yet.”
“That’s all right. Tell me.”
“Divine power... is gradually decreasing.”
For a moment, I doubted my ears.
“......What?”
“The swords of the paladins are losing their light. The prayers of healing no longer receive an answer either.”
“......”
The collapse of divine power.
Did that not mean the god had fallen silent?
Was it because our prayers were insufficient?
......No.
This was not the time to argue over the cause.
Right now, we had to find a way to hold out.
“There’s... nothing more we can do?”
“This is my first time seeing anything like this too. I’ll have to seek an answer from god as quickly as possible.”
...That was my last conversation with the Chief Priest.
That day, I headed to the Northern Front.
And when I returned to the capital, he was no longer of this world.
In the end, he never managed to obtain an answer from that damned god.
And—
A battle without divine power was so disgraceful it could hardly even be called a battle.
That day was a winter day cold enough to freeze flesh.
My adjutant ran into the tent.
“Commander, report! The food in the Fifth Supply Depot has started rotting again.”
“Again?”
“Yes... The priests cast preservation magic on it again, but this time, it did not even last a day.”
The curse left behind by a high-ranking demon was lethal.
The priests’ blessings did not work, and no mage could fully undo it.
All I could do was watch the soldiers and food rot away before my eyes.
It felt like fighting a game of rock-paper-scissors with ‘paper’ removed. At best, it was a fight that could only end in a draw.
But they say misfortunes in life come all at once.
Before we could even deal with the curse, a soldier came running, gasping for breath.
“Commander! The Blood Knight is approaching with skeletons in tow! The north wall won’t hold for long. Please give the order at once!”
I looked up at the sky for a moment. Red flames flickered through the ashen snowstorm.
‘Maybe today really is the end.’
That was just as well.
Rather than shamefully starving to death, it was better to cut down even one more bastard before I died.
I stood before the troops about to march out.
“Soldiers, listen well!”
“Yes, Commander!”
I caught my breath and raised my voice.
“Our provisions will not last a week! The preservation magic has already broken, and any food touched by the enemy’s curse rots within a single day. The priests’ blessings and the mages’ purification do not work.”
Murmurs rose among the soldiers.
“The food is rotting, and those bastards don’t even die....”
“All that’s left now is for us to become skeleton feed......”
“Then are we all going to die......?”
I went on speaking without paying them any mind.
“We do not have much time left to hold out.”
“......”
“But that does not matter. Today, we annihilate the skeleton unit. And I—will, without fail, smash their leader to pieces!”
“Raaaaaaah――!”
The soldiers roared.
“Fuck, wipe them all out!”
“Kill or be killed, we go to the end!”
The roar did not die down.
Instead, it grew louder and rougher.
“Mikael... Mikael....”
In the middle of it all, someone called my name.
For a while, I could not distinguish it from the soldiers’ noise. No, wait, I’m not on a battlefield...?
“Huh...? The Blood Knight right now......” or “Huh...? Right now, the Blood Knight......”
“Mikael!”
“Gasp!”
When I opened my eyes, Father was waking me.
I sat up. My breath came short, and my whole body was drenched in cold sweat.
“Today is the day our village market opens, you know. Hurry and get ready.”
“Yes, Father.”
I got up. The afterimage of the battlefield in my dream still shimmered before my eyes.
‘The collapse of divine power......’
I did not know the reason back then, but could I stop it in this life?
“Mikael, you have to get ready!”
“Ah, yes!”
I followed Father outside.
From far away came the sound of wagons pulled by oxen.
***
Plod. Plod.
“Since your sister bought two more mules, our cargo capacity should increase to eighteen stone, shouldn’t it?”
“That’s right. The hitching will be a bit complicated, but I think we can have three of them pull one wagon.”
Perhaps because it was a wagon made by the Chief Engineer of Oxhorn Pass, it could easily be hitched to about three mules.
“Yes, we’ll be able to buy more grain too. I was already thinking we might have some money left over.”
“Then are you going to buy more?”
“Let’s take a look. It’s truly fortunate the dates lined up. If we had been even a little later, it would have been difficult.”
‘It only opens once every fifteen days, probably.’
To do business within the Empire, you needed permission. That applied not only to opening a shop, but also to trade, which had to be reported to the guild.
But markets alone were an exception.
There were no permits and no taxes.
Farmers spread out grain, and artisans laid out tools.
‘For a small merchant company like ours, this place is everything.’
Tents began to appear in the distance.
People bustled everywhere.
Once every fifteen days, for three days.
The days when everyone from the surrounding villages gathered.
“Wow, there are already a lot of people.”
“There certainly are. You wrote down everything we need to buy today, didn’t you?”
“Of course!”
As soon as we entered the market, boisterous voices reached our ears.
“Dried jerky! Wild boar caught just two days ago!”
“Hey, that’s too expensive!”
“Expensive? Even nobles come looking for this jerky!”
“It does smell good... Just two bags!”
“Listen to the oil popping on that pot lid.”
“That smell of grilling meat would make even a mule drool.”
As I passed through the noisy market, I unfolded the estimate Lisa had given me.
Dense numbers were written on one side of the statement.
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
[Food Estimate (14 stone)]
20 sacks of wheat, 15 sacks of barley, 10 sacks of oats, 5 sacks of jerky.
Total, a little over 8 gold coins.
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
‘Since our capacity has increased... around 10 gold coins, then.’
We headed to a place selling wheat.
The farmers shouted over one another as they tried to catch customers.
“Wheat for sale! Ground fresh at the mill yesterday!”
“Hey now, the kernels there are small! Our wheat is different from the color alone!”
“Ha ha, both of you exaggerate too much. Ours even goes up on our lord’s table!”
In front of the sacks stood price tags carved into wooden boards.
[One sack of wheat - 8 silver coins]
‘Eight silver coins... This is much more expensive than the last market.’
The price of food was higher than I had expected. Folding the estimate, I looked over the merchants on the other side.
The prices were similar, but the looks in their eyes were different.
It was obvious they were all eager to sell first.
‘Looks like competition has broken out at just the right time.’
I turned to Father.
“Father, I thought of a way to buy it cheaply.”
“Hm? What way?”
“Wouldn’t we just get ripped off if we bought from only one place?”
“So?”
“How about buying from several places? If we divide it up and buy a little at a time, they’ll try to offer us cheaper prices.”
“Oh, you want to try haggling yourself?”
“Yes! I want to give it a try.”
“All right. Go ahead and try.”
I approached the first merchant.
“Mister! How much are all these sacks of wheat?”
“There are five sacks, so... 40 silver coins. No bugs, and the quality is excellent.”
“Oh, good. Please give me everything here.”
The merchant looked at me in surprise.
“You’re buying all of them?”
“Yes. But......”
I turned my head and pointed at the merchant beside him.
“I need to take a look over there too. Please wait a moment!”
“...You’re looking over there too? Why?”
“Ha ha, if it’s cheaper, I might buy from that side.”
I smiled and walked toward the second merchant. Behind me, I heard the first merchant’s voice rise.
‘Good. With this atmosphere... I can save quite a bit.’
The corners of my mouth rose before I knew it.