"...What are you talking about? You're saying there's a situation where we can get a line to Marquis Palatio?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
As Kun asked again with a bewildered expression, Malgam continued the explanation, then told Kun what Alexion—the administrator of the marquisate—had announced as of today.
After listening calmly, Kun said,
"...The Marquis is meeting us personally?"
"That's right. Just one person—the one who can supply the materials he needs at the lowest price."
At Malgam's add-on, Kun's eyes went wide.
"Is that... really true?"
"If it weren't true, would this place feel like this?"
Kun shifted their gaze and looked at the other merchants nearby.
The tavern's atmosphere still didn't seem all that different.
The mercenaries were loud, yelling and drinking themselves stupid.
The laborers were trash-talking their boss and spouting crude, pointless filth.
A scene that had become pretty hard to see lately, ever since Elivan—who had recently been called a hero—betrayed everyone, and Divine blood appeared.
And yet, even with that loosened, oddly relaxing atmosphere—
the merchants, Kun included, couldn't join in at all.
No, strictly speaking, it looked more like they weren't joining on purpose.
Every single one of them wore a serious expression, all of them thinking hard about something.
"What the hell is—"
Even the tavern owner—someone who normally would've shouted, "If you're not going to drink, get out! Other people need the seats!"—was getting pressed by the pressure the merchants were giving off, just watching the room and reading the mood.
"...Yeah, that's true."
"Right?"
"Being able to meet the Marquis in person... that means something different."
Honestly, if someone who wasn't a merchant saw this scene—
they might tilt their head in confusion.
Even from their perspective, they knew Marquis Palatio was an incredible figure, and that even seeing the Marquis's face was difficult—
but they wouldn't understand why merchants, who lived and died by money, were acting like this.
No, even another merchant could think that.
'But if a merchant thinks that way, that one's going to go under soon enough.'
For merchants right now, getting a private meeting with Marquis Palatio—
no, even just being assigned to transport the Marquis's goods—
was an enormous opportunity.
First of all, just the single fact that you were transporting Marquis Palatio's goods—
meant that until the contract ended, you were practically the safest trade caravan in existence, untouchable by anyone.
It wasn't because the Marquis would attach an escort.
Regardless of whether there was an escort or not, a caravan contracted with the Marquis became the safest caravan.
Why?
Because no matter how strong someone was, bandits feared anything connected to the Marquis.
There had been a time when the Marquis had nearly erased bandits from the Allied Kingdoms completely—
and the Marquis had the ability to do it again at any moment.
As proof, the small trading company run by Marquis Palatio's administrator—meaning Alexion—
could haul expensive artifacts and precious metals and still never get attacked.
Not even once.
In other words, from a merchant's perspective, if you used the period of working for the Marquis to transport luxury goods in bulk—goods you normally couldn't move in large quantities—
you'd get a chance to make a truly obscene amount of money.
And if, on top of that, you impressed Marquis Palatio and secured the next contract?
If you went even further and established a regular contractual relationship?
And then, unlike with other nobles—
if you became the caravan that could sign with a Marquis who still hadn't properly contracted with any specific caravan yet?
"...Wow."
It was cracked open.
Still swimming through the wings of imagination without realizing it, Kun muttered out loud.
Goosebumps had risen all over Kun's body.
Somewhere along the way, in Kun's head, Marquis Palatio had become a god itself.
...Of course, Kun had already thought of the Marquis as a god to begin with.
As Kun's thoughts ran on, Malgam curled into a grin.
"Looks like you imagined it."
"From now on, attacking Marquis Palatio will be considered an attack on me."
"The other merchants are the same, give or take."
Kun looked around again.
More precisely, Kun looked into the merchants' eyes.
The eyes where madness was slowly crawling upward, all of them exactly the same.
"Well, in reality, only one person can actually do it."
That was true.
Here—no, among the hundreds of lucky ones in the territory at the moment the Marquis said something like that—
the person who could seize that opportunity would be only one.
Only one.
Only that person would get a private meeting with Marquis Palatio, and only that person would be able to get a line to the Marquis.
"The Marquis really is something else. With just one sentence—saying there'll be a private meeting—he sets up a whole board like this."
"I agree. And on top of that, he announces a volume so large that no half-baked merchant could ever reach for it, filtering out the riffraff from the start."
"I heard the Marquis has strength beyond humans, but I didn't realize the mind behind it ran this deep."
Malgam and Kun—both considered big players among merchants—were sincerely impressed.
...Of course, if Alon heard it, the reaction would be, 'Me? Seriously???'
But unfortunately, Alon wasn't here.
There was no one to deny the strange misunderstanding.
And as the two finished their admiration—
"...Aaaagh! I don't know!"
One merchant, as if making a decision, shot up from the seat and ran out somewhere like a lunatic.
Like a signal flare, the other merchants started moving too.
Up until just yesterday, Alon had been worrying over materials.
Naturally, it was because material prices were far more expensive than expected.
'Alexion wasn't saying that for nothing.'
Just like Alexion said, the prices of materials had risen to an unimaginable level.
Even lumber had jumped to more than five times the price Alon knew.
The stone needed next was the same.
And even the additional materials needed on top of that had also exploded to prices that didn't make sense.
It was bad enough that Alon had to consider pushing # Nоvеlight # the territory expansion back as far as possible.
If the expansion project started at these prices—
the marquisate's finances would hit the floor in an instant.
No, not just that. The prices were so murderous that afterward it could end with Alon completely out on the street.
That was why Alon had fallen asleep with a firm decision to tell Alexion the next day that they needed to reconsider the expansion plan.
Yeah. Alon definitely had.
And yet...
"Alexion."
"Yes."
"...Yesterday, didn't you say every material price had skyrocketed?"
"Yes, I did say that, but..."
"...Then what is this?"
Alon stared down at the estimate sheet in hand without a word.
The moment the morning's work began, Alexion had brought in these merchants' estimates as if waiting for it.
Alon pulled out one sheet from among dozens.
Lumber that, just yesterday, had been more than five times the price—had somehow returned to its original price.
Alon checked another estimate. The stone price had normalized too.
"...Huh."
On yet another estimate—
most of the materials Alon needed were priced even lower than the original prices Alon knew.
...Some of them went even further, with the word "free" written on them.
"...Did they all lose their minds?"
Evan muttered beside Alon, looking at the estimates too.
Evan had checked the raw material prices yesterday as well.
Meaning there was no way Evan wouldn't know how ridiculous the prices in front of them were.
So after staring blankly at the estimates for a while, Alon carefully opened their mouth.
"Alexion."
"Yes."
"Just in case... these estimates... are they real?"
"They're all real."
"The odds these were written dishonestly...?"
"I can say this with some confidence—there's none. Most of them are enormous trading companies."
"...Then did Sili do something?"
"As far as I know, after yesterday's meeting, the Saintess said she had preparations to make and returned to Divine Land."
"...Then why?"
Tilting the head as if unable to understand, Alon scanned the estimates again.
If this was real—
Alon could expand the territory even bigger than planned and still have money left over.
After hesitating only briefly, Alon decided not to think too hard.
"...Let's meet the merchant who offered the best conditions."
An unanswered question would get answered once they met, one way or another.
So Alon set the unresolved question aside, said that to Alexion, and handed the estimates over.
And after some time passed—
"Greetings, Marquis Palatio!"
"...You?"
"Yes! I'm Kun, I run Singing Money!"
Alon was able to meet the merchant who had offered the best conditions.
The person who had presented an estimate Alon couldn't really make sense of—offering the price of all materials at seventy percent of the original.
And—
"First, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity!"
—watching Kun bow deeply, as if receiving a great favor—
'...Opportunity?'
What opportunity...?
Alon could only be confused.
At that time.
The Empire—now split into four pieces—held territory even larger than the Allied Kingdoms.
And within that, inside the imperial palace of the Eastern Empire, which was still holding back Divine blood's invasion and radiating a fierce momentum—
in an audience chamber decorated in a dazzling, antique splendor, one man delivered a report.
"The Western Empire has completely fallen."
A calm statement.
High above the man, a woman sat on a throne so ornate you could tell at a glance it was extravagant.
The woman let out a light, casual sound, then asked,
"Not even the small fry survived?"
"...It seems that way."
"Tch. It's almost embarrassing that we came from the same womb."
At the man's answer, the woman openly frowned.
As if someone in the woman's mind was pathetic, the woman shook the head again and again, then continued.
"So. Is that the end of the report?"
"There's one more thing I need to tell you."
"What is it?"
"It concerns information that came in from the Allied Kingdoms."
"The Allied Kingdoms? Those rabble?"
"Yes."
"Hm. So they haven't been wiped out yet. Fine. What is it?"
In response, the man relayed what had been heard from an informant dispatched by the Allied Kingdoms—
"...Oh? Is that true?"
"Given that the source of the rumor is the king of the Allied Kingdoms, it doesn't appear very likely to be false."
Information the man had even rechecked again and again, unable to understand it—
the claim that Marquis Palatio was Divine blood.
And that story finally—
"...So it's true."
"Yes."
"If that's real—"
—reached the ears of Serdea Polanticia, the second princess leading the Eastern Empire.
"To be the husband of someone who will grasp the world in hand... that would be more than enough."
A twisted smile settled on the princess's lips as the Eastern Empire's leader.

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