Many nations existed on the Valtara Continent.
The Kingdom of Lumiere, to which Lawrence belonged, was one of them.
And aside from such nations, there were also several Free Commercial Cities.
Cities that did not belong to any country and had been born solely for commerce.
Free Commercial Cities with such ideals had naturally formed in places with high geographical advantages, and merchants became the masters of these cities and maintained them.
Naturally, many nations coveted these cities, but there was no way other countries would simply stand by and watch that happen.
Amid such subtle relationships, the Free Commercial Cities ran briskly even today.
“But I truly do not understand what skill you intend to use to earn money.”
Jason could not understand at all what his son, who had suddenly come to find him, was talking about.
Lawrence was far from ordinary in intelligence, but earning money was another matter.
It was not the kind of thing someone ignorant of worldly affairs could carelessly throw himself into.
“I intend to do business.”
“Business……. Then have you thought about what kind of business you will do?”
“I have not decided yet. First, I need to conduct market research. After that, I plan to decide what to do and start a business.”
Jason found Lawrence’s words difficult to trust.
They sounded like nothing more than chasing clouds.
“What do you plan to use as your starting capital? If you want to do business, it will not cost only a coin or two.”
The business Jason imagined was the act of buying goods cheaply from their place of origin, adding profit, and selling them in another region.
His thoughts were not wrong.
Rather, it could be called the standard method.
Because most merchant companies earned money that way.
However, precisely because of that, a great deal of money was inevitably needed to first purchase and transport the goods to be sold.
“I plan to prepare the business capital by throwing myself into things directly.”
Although Lawrence spoke confidently, he himself knew better than anyone just how absurd this sounded.
But this was the only thing he could tell his father right now.
Naturally, Lawrence had never been to a Free Commercial City, nor did he know commerce here.
So the only method left was to bang his head against bare ground.
“Hmm. Wait a moment.”
Jason furrowed his brow and sank into deep thought.
However, he was not simply thinking about Lawrence’s business plan.
In truth, if only the business plan was considered, it was terrible enough that there was no need to think about it.
But Lawrence’s will to do business was melted into that plan.
Because of that, Jason did not want to break Lawrence’s will if possible.
He also thought that what his son, who had fought against illness for so long and won, needed most was time to see and experience the wider world.
After rising from his sickbed, Lawrence had achieved astonishing results in a very short amount of time.
He had seized control of the Knight Order in one stroke and resolved the territory’s long-standing problem all at once.
If such a son left this small territory and accumulated diverse experiences in the vast world, how much greater would he grow……?
Just thinking about it made Jason’s whole body tingle.
In his own youth, he too had traveled to many places in order to broaden his knowledge.
The knowledge and experience he had gained then were still great assets to him even now.
‘Yes, failure is also experience. And all those experiences together will become excellent nourishment for my son’s growth.’
A short while later, as if he had made up his mind, Jason slowly opened his mouth.
“I will permit you to go into business. However, promise me one thing. No matter what happens, take care of your body.”
“Thank you, Father. I will absolutely not disappoint you.”
Lawrence bowed to his father, who had readily given permission.
Now that permission had been granted, there was no reason to delay.
He wanted to leave as soon as possible to earn money.
“Yes, I understand. But when do you plan to leave?”
“I intend to leave as soon as tomorrow.”
“Mm, tomorrow…….”
At Lawrence’s words, Jason let out a short sigh.
He had given permission, but he had not expected Lawrence to leave so quickly.
That did not mean he thought of holding him back, but he felt slightly disappointed.
Adela was the same.
When Adela heard the news that Lawrence was leaving, it felt as though her heart dropped.
“Lawrence, is there a need to hurry this much? If you leave the territory, I will not be able to see you for a long time, so please leave slowly.”
It had not been long since he had risen from his sickbed, and yet she had to part from her son again. Adela’s heart ached.
If she acted according to her feelings, she did not want to send Lawrence away.
But she, too, fully understood why her husband had approved this journey.
So she could not stop him, but her heart was heavy as she sent her son away.
“Mother, please do not worry too much. It will not take that long. You know my ability, don’t you?”
Lawrence deliberately answered even more energetically so that Adela would feel at ease.
Hearing her son’s confident words, Adela’s worry softened, and she felt reassured.
“Yes, take care of yourself, and if things become difficult, come back anytime.”
“Yes, Mother. Do not worry.”
Lawrence smiled brightly and hugged her tightly.
The next day, Lawrence set out on the road in light clothing, seen off by his parents.
The fastest way to reach Trebello Free Commercial City was to use Teleport from a nearby city.
However, Lawrence decided to save money and walk all the way to the Free Commercial City because he wanted to learn more about this other world in detail.
During his three-month journey, he escorted merchants’ wagons and raised his level by hunting monsters in the mountains.
After repeatedly meeting and parting with many people and moving while enjoying the adventure, he was finally able to arrive at Trebello Free Commercial City.
“Wow, the scale is on a completely different level from our territory! There’s a reason they call it a commercial city.”
Seeing Trebello Free Commercial City, Lawrence let out an exclamation.
He had expected it to be a decent size since it was called a city, but this exceeded his imagination.
The streets were crowded with people and overflowing with energy.
On the straight, wide avenue, countless carriages and people carrying luggage moved busily, and on both sides of the avenue, shops and street stalls were packed tightly together.
Lawrence walked leisurely among the people moving busily.
As he walked while looking around at the large, splendid buildings that were hard to see in his territory, he eventually arrived at a large plaza that seemed to be the city center.
At the center of the plaza was a large fountain, and atop it stood the statue of a man whose identity he did not know.
“It really is beautiful. There was a reason the people I met on the journey told me I absolutely had to see Trebello’s fountain.”
The fountain in the central plaza of Trebello Free Commercial City was a work of art.
Lawrence had seen many things on his way here, but he had never seen anything as beautiful as this fountain.
The water droplets soaring from the fountain reflected the sunlight and shone like jewels, and the elaborate sculptures carved into the fountain made it stand out even more.
Lost in its beauty, Lawrence stared at it in a daze for a while.
‘So magic can be used like this too.’
The streams of water rising high from the fountain operated through the power of magic.
During this journey, Lawrence had encountered the practicality of magic and had been truly astonished.
Mages were, together with knights, the greatest fighting force in war.
Generally, the higher one’s Circle, the stronger the power one could display.
And to operate in war, one had to be at least 4th Circle.
However, up to the 3rd Circle, one could rise if one had moderate talent and worked steadily, but the 4th Circle and beyond could not be reached with only that.
With slight exaggeration, it could be seen as a completely different dimension.
In order to rise above the 4th Circle, outstanding talent, blood-shedding effort, and great enlightenment were needed.
Because of that, mages below the 3rd Circle who had encountered that wall gave up on rising to the 4th Circle and instead focused on developing and producing magical goods.
By engraving magic circles into objects and inserting magic stones, they produced various magical tools needed in daily life, such as lamps and refrigerators.
After he finished looking at the fountain, the plaza he looked around was crowded like a country market.
Throughout the plaza, people had spread out stalls and were selling various goods.
Among them, what caught Lawrence’s attention was the variety of food.
Bread, cheese, wine, stew, pies, fruit, and foods whose names he did not know were lined up.
“Oh, they even have fried food.”
Lawrence’s eyes widened when he discovered fried food, something he had not expected at all.
He had not thought fried dishes would exist in this era.
Moreover, there were quite a variety of fried foods.
There was bread that had been fried and sprinkled with sugar, and he also saw fried meat and fried fish.
“How much is one fried item?”
“Three pennies each.”
It was a fairly expensive price compared to other foods, but Lawrence understood.
Since precious oil had to be used, it could not help but be more expensive than other food.
Curious about how the fried food here tasted, Lawrence bought one piece of fried bread and one piece of fried pork to try them.
After tasting both, the fried bread was fairly edible, but the fried pork fell below expectations.
The meat was tough, and the batter was thick and hard.
Overall, the problem seemed to be that they lacked technique in handling meat and frying, and that the flour batter had been applied thickly to increase quantity.
But Lawrence was the only one eating it without much enjoyment. Everyone else was eating it deliciously.
‘Are they satisfied with this level of taste, so there’s no further development?’
To Lawrence, who had eaten advanced fried foods from the modern era, it was nothing special, but to the people here, it was delicious food worth paying a high price to eat.
“Mm, wait, could this be……?”
At that moment, an idea flashed through his mind like lightning.
He had thought of a way to earn money.
What Lawrence had thought of was the food business.
Compared to other businesses, the food business required less capital, and it was a good opportunity to make use of the cooking skills he had.
In truth, he had never had an opportunity to display that skill in the territory, but Lawrence was fairly good at cooking.
After leaving the orphanage, in order to save money, he had cooked food at home himself rather than eating out.
Food recipes could be found with a simple search, and recreating restaurant flavors at home was not particularly difficult.
Because of that, his cooking skill naturally improved, and before he knew it, cooking had become Lawrence’s hobby.
On his days off, he even made dishes that took a long time or foreign foods that were normally difficult to encounter.
‘Still, instead of deciding hastily, let’s do a little more market research first and decide afterward. If I rush in without knowing anything, I might suffer a setback.’
Lawrence paid the stall owner for the fried food and walked around the plaza.
Perhaps because this was a place where money circulated, there were certainly many things to see, and many goods and foods he had never seen in the territory.
It felt like they had everything except what did not exist.
Lawrence diligently went around the restaurants and stalls in the plaza, investigating which shops had many customers, what foods were popular, and how much the prices were.
As he devoted himself to the investigation without noticing the passage of time, the sun was beginning to set.
Lawrence wanted to walk around a little more, but for now, he decided to find lodging.
If he was any later, he would be sleeping on the street.
As he looked around the street, wondering where an inn might be, someone spoke to him.
“Um, are you perhaps looking for an inn? If so, I know an inn that is cheap and has good food.”
Was the child perhaps in their early teens?
From the look of it, they seemed to be a tout who guided customers and received a small commission.
“That’s true…… But how did you know I was looking for an inn?”
Curious about the child’s eye, Lawrence asked.
“People who have come to the city for the first time stand out. Their steps are a little more relaxed than other people’s, they look around, and there is a lot of dust on their clothes.”
Hearing the explanation, it had its own logic and was quite plausible.
The child was young, but seemed rather clever.
And since finding a decent inn seemed like it would be rather troublesome, Lawrence followed the child without hesitation.
“Please come this way.”
The child led Lawrence past the main street and into a small alley.
It felt slightly strange, but inns were often located in back alleys rather than on main streets, so he followed the child without thinking much of it.
However, the place he arrived at after following an alley that twisted and turned like fish intestines was not an inn, but a place with a rough atmosphere hanging over it.
There, people who looked bad at a glance were gathered.
The people who had been noisily talking among themselves openly glared at Lawrence with fierce expressions and smiled with a fishy sneer.
‘Aha, so it’s that kind of situation.’
Lawrence looked at them and gave them a fresh smile.
It was a scene that often appeared in movies.
Lawrence had met robbers who lured in and stripped country bumpkins like him who had just entered the city for the first time.
“Well, this much of a welcome is basic.”
Lawrence shrugged.
‘But was the child who brought me here one of them too? Their eyes definitely looked gentle, and they didn’t look like that…….’
Rather than meeting the thugs, disappointment in the child washed over him even more strongly.
Lawrence sent the child a disappointed look.
Perhaps feeling burdened by his gaze, the child lowered their head deeply, passed through the robbers, and ran away just like that.