By now rumors were spreading widely about what the worst trash in the Empire had done to get himself exiled all the way to Deber.
Violence that had put no less than a Governor-General-designate into a comatose state.
It was the reason Winter, too, had clicked his tongue and shaken his head the moment he heard it.
Zion Riobelt was the first member of the Divine Race whom even the Imperial family had given up on and sentenced to banishment to the outer territory.
......And yet.
SMACK—!
Watching Zion strike Dechion's cheek at just that moment, Winter could not help but be sincerely impressed.
To feel dignity even in the middle of committing such thuggery?
It made one think that the Divine Race really were the Divine Race.
"Dechion, I asked whether you have ten million Luon. If you keep acting like a mute, you may be granted the honor of receiving a mute's life at this prince's hand."
......He was impressed once more, in a different sense.
The one who struck was now trying to squeeze damages out of the one who was struck?
It was thuggery unimaginable from anyone but the worst trash in the Empire.
'Well, I have no intention of stopping him. You are doing well, Your Highness! Go and earn us money!'
The specialty born of the worst trash in the Empire combined with the status of a prince of the Divine Race.
Violence that heeded no one's opinion.
More precisely, it could be defined this way.
'The freedom to commit any act whatsoever. No, not freedom, license.'
"Ten million Luon. Choose whether to hand over the money and let this matter pass quietly, or to pay for your crime in earnest."
Although he had been a nuisance to the entire exchange, Dechion had, at any rate, been exercising a legitimate right.
Against such a man the prince had not only struck his cheek but was now wringing out ten million Luon on a pretext that made no sense.
'No matter who did such a thing, his reputation would hit rock bottom and he would be shunned.'
It was no exaggeration to say the upper class ran on connections, which was why managing one's reputation was called one of the duties of those who had.
But.
None of that applied to Zion Riobelt.
Why? Because his reputation was already at rock bottom.
"Your Highness...... I shall give you what you wish. However, I have no money on hand at present, so if we might set a later occasion......."
Where did this traitorous son of a bitch get off running his mouth?
It was obvious he would evade the immediate crisis and then start singing a different tune.
"I accept checks as well."
"......."
"If you tell me you have no checkbook either, then it will be ten million for every check found when I search you."
Ten million Luon. A sum large enough to buy an entire decent-sized business outright. Also enough money to employ a hundred or so workers for a full year.
Having such a sum forcibly wrung out of him left Dechion with a fire boiling in his gut.
"Ho, from your expression it seems you are angry? I understand your feelings well."
Zion smirked and looked at Winter.
"Winter. Go and bring a sword. It seems this prince must punish the criminal personally."
Litania was a nation of knights, and summary executions were usually carried out with a sword.
"Yes, Your Highness."
The anger that had faintly surfaced on Dechion's face turned to fear within a few breaths.
This was a man who had beaten even a marquis, one due to be appointed Colonial Governor-General, until he became a vegetable.
So Dechion could only think this: if crossed, the trash before him would truly swing that sword.
"I will give it! A check, I have a check."
Pulling out his checkbook and a ballpoint pen, Dechion wrote faster than he had at any point since his birth.
"Hmph, you should have done that from the start."
Snatching the check from Dechion's hand, he waved it about ostentatiously.
"What are you doing, pig? Get lost."
"......My apologies. Please, this humble one's for......."
He turned sharply. Dechion mumbled something behind him, but he had no interest anymore.
He looked at the gray-haired gentleman, who was still down on one knee, and asked.
"Your name? Ah, you may withdraw the salutation."
"Th-thank you. I am called Lumio Blen, Your Highness."
He had gathered roughly what the man's situation was during the squabble with Dechion.
A shabby suit and a briefcase clutched like a treasure. An impression like that of a scholar.
What treasure did this wretched-looking man possess, that Dechion coveted it so?
"Winter! Go and buy rice spot securities!"
The moment he shouted it for all to hear, small murmurs began to rise here and there.
These were people who had staked out the exchange in broad daylight, so they immediately grasped what it meant for a member of the Divine Race to invest in the grain market.
A few more rounds of this and he could wring more money out of Reijo, no, receive more sponsorship.
"Lumio Blen."
"Uwaah, here it is...!"
...Huh?
Lumio thrust out the briefcase he had been clutching like a treasure.
Cognitive dissonance set in.
Apparently he had assumed that if he did not offer up the briefcase he would meet the same plight as Dechion, and had taken fright.
'I was only going to tell him to have a cup of tea.......'
"Ahem. Follow me."
Naturally, the exchange had a VIP room for high-net-worth clients. Zion took over one of them with Lumio in tow.
"Blen Industries, is it. Are you the director?"
"Yes, that is right."
He turned over a page of the documents.
'Lumio Blen. He has an unusual career history.'
He had gone through primary and middle school and graduated from an advanced school, so he had invested a great deal in his education, yet he had not been able to attend university.
Even so, Lumio had been running a magitech goods shop, and had gone a step further to invent a decent technology and file a patent for it.
'It means that despite never attending university, he studied magitech engineering on his own and reached a respectable level.'
Around then, Winter, having finished the securities transaction, entered the VIP room.
Zion gestured toward Lumio with his eyes and spread out the documents in earnest.
"I am Winter Flowering, aide to His Highness. Let us have a talk. Ah, would it be right to address you as Director Lumio?"
In a short while Winter would find out every circumstance and give him a summarized report. Until then, Zion intended to examine the documents and the patented technology that had become the seed of the conflict.
'A theoretical foundation for mana-based cold production? Hmm, cold is an extremely difficult attribute to handle. Impressive.'
Unlike heat, which could be easily produced with a little energy, cold required implementing the "reverse direction" of heat, or its "absence."
It was also the reason magitech devices that handled cold were uncommon.
'It is not without shortcomings. The technology is still unfinished. Moreover.......'
He could tell from the pattern of the theory's development.
Rather than a technology built up from a foundation raised purely from zero, it was a method of refinement closer to imitation.
Which meant.
"Your Highness."
It was Winter. He seemed to have already learned everything about Lumio's situation.
"Speak."
To summarize the report, it went like this.
First. Dechion had been a good patron who, whether through loans or investment, paid generously as much as one wanted so long as shares were handed over, but two months ago he had turned cold and begun to bare his greed in earnest.
Second. Using the large loan claims and his status as first investor as weapons, Dechion intended to seize the patent alone and leave Lumio without a single coin.
Third. If the claims were not all settled within about two months, it was effectively decided that a majority of the shares would pass to Dechion and the patent alone would be taken.
"So unless he succeeds in commercializing the technology in a short period, it would not be strange for the technology to be handed over at any moment. Mass-production technology for cold-type magitech devices would be quite profitable, so that must be terribly regrettable."
Lumio answered in a forlorn voice.
"Yes...... If everything had gone to plan, I intended to commercialize a room-installed cold-circulation device and sell it to the wealthy. I have already given it a name, an air conditioner."
But a plan was only a plan.
Its duration was shorter than expected, the production cost had not been reduced enough for the business to be viable, and even the amount of cold produced per hour was below standard.
With the current technology there was a limit to what could be made into a magitech device.
'Hmm. Erase this part, connect the circuits in a triple overlap, and then simply change the form of the magic circle into a progression sequence? The improvement does not seem particularly difficult.'
The magic genius who used to play by twisting mana circuits and formulas whenever he was bored was none other than Zion Bliese of years past.
A mere glance at a blueprint and a way to make up for the technology's limits took shape on its own.
At that moment, lightning struck inside his head.
'Huh? This technology.... I can complete it any time I want, can't I?'
To Zion, who possessed the greatest magical talent in Deber's history, magitech engineering was a derivative of magic... no, he had to admit it now.
Magitech engineering, a new form of magic, was nothing more than an easy discipline in which he could reach the highest seat whenever he wished.
In his Liberation Army days he had had no interest in magitech engineering, since he had to pour all his time into honing his magical attainment.
Now the story was very different.
'Attainment can be restored as much as I like given time. And the environment itself is nothing like my Liberation Army days, when developing a technology would have left me no way to sell it.'
Zion Bliese. Zion Riobelt.
The two Zions had become one.
That is, each one's specialty was now equipped in a single body.
'I still had not fully grasped the new powers I gained.'
Air conditioner or anything else, a cold-type magitech device was bound to make money if only for its scarcity.
And if commercialization were pushed forward quickly with Zion Bliese's knowledge and capability?
As for the tangled debt relations and the investment and shareholding circumstances entwined around Blen Industries, he need only smash them apart by wielding Zion Riobelt's status.
'What I can gain as a result is three things. A proper business. An enormous loss for that traitorous son of a bitch Dechion. And one more.'
The corners of his mouth rose. As the habit left in his body dictated, his mouth twisted.
'The source that was imitated in the course of developing the cold-production technology. If my guess is right.......'
From a morning that had begun with a dream foretelling the worst future, there had been a great many unpleasant things all day.
His shoulders had been heavy because a task he absolutely had to accomplish had appeared.
But thanks to the realization just now, they had become as light as a feather.
"Winter."
Winter, who had finished his business and returned to stand at attention, answered.
"Yes, Your Highness. Give your command."
"I would like to invest in Director Blen. How much would it take to make Blen Industries a proper technology company that owns its own factory, no, never mind."
Seeing Winter's expression turn bleak, he felt sorry and lost the desire to ask in detail.
"There is no need for this prince to know the exact figure. Handle it as you see fit."
"Your Highness. Would it not be right to handle the farm payment first? The deal with Proprietor Reijo will only be triggered after we observe the trend of the rice securities market."
With Lumio present, Winter spoke in a roundabout way rather than using direct expressions.
It meant that Reijo's promised sponsorship was still far off, and since there was no hole for money to come out of, he should not go boring new holes for money to go out of.
"Hmm. Lumio, this prince has not been staying in Deber long, so my liquidity is a little lacking at the moment. First, let me ask. Will you accept this prince's investment? I promise the terms will be generous enough."
Dumbfounded, Lumio nodded.
"Good. Then all that remains is to procure the investment funds."
He grinned at Winter, who finally pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Don't worry, Winter. I bored a new hole for money to come out of just a moment ago."
He slipped Dechion's check between his index and middle fingers and waved it back and forth.
"Let's go. To propose a partnership."
Winter was soundlessly appalled.
Going to see the man he had just beaten and shaken down, in order to propose a partnership?
He was a prince who always exceeded imagination.
***
CRASH! SMASH!
Inside a splendid mansion, a glasswork ornament that had been placed on the furniture to decorate the interior shattered to pieces.
"Aaaaargh!"
CRASH!
Only after destroying hundreds of thousands of Luon worth of furniture and ornaments did Dechion sink into a sofa.
"Ninth Prince...... I will repay today's humiliation without fail. Butler!"
Looking at the butler, whose complexion had gone pale, Dechion continued.
"Freeze the account linked to the check I gave the Ninth Prince. Make it so that taking the check to the bank yields not a single coin!"
He intended to show that even a mere commoner could give the noble Divine Race a taste of spite.
The Ninth Prince would spew rage upon learning his trip had been wasted, but that did not matter either.
'A prince whose strings are cut, in any case. With my connections and backing, I can handle standing against him however much it takes.'
Dechion took a deep breath and continued his thoughts.
He would make him pay for the crime of trying to extort, through absurd force, the fortune he had gathered by selling even his country.
Turning the check into garbage to erase the loss was not enough to satisfy him, so he sought a way to make the Ninth Prince feel the very same rage......
"Master. An honored guest has called."
"An honored guest? There is no visit scheduled today. Who is it?"
"It is I."
Dechion's eyes bulged.
Because the Ninth Prince had flung the door open and revealed himself.
"Dechion. This prince wishes to bestow upon you the honor of becoming his business partner. Naturally, you accept?"
"......."
It was beyond absurd, a thing that made his mouth drop open on its own.
Zion tossed the check down before such a Dechion.
"I return this to you. You may consider it the courtesy owed to a partner, hoo hoo hoo."
The check he had gone to such trouble to turn into garbage had come back to him.
"......."
Dechion could not get another word out for a long while and fell silent.