The Super High Schoolers Affording to Live in Another World! - Volume 4 - Chapter 3

  The Prodigy Businessman and the Trade Conference  

The night sky was starless. The sea of water was dark. The curtain of clouds was black.

Sandwiched between them, however, the horizon line was glowing red.

Fire.

The ship, with its massive sails, was engulfed in burning crimson. And the flames weren’t the only thing rising up into the sky.

Shouting. Cannon fire. Dying screams.

It was the sound of combat. There was a battle taking place.

Right in the middle of it all…was a byuma girl with red hair. She was the slave purchased by Prodigy businessman Masato Sanada.

It was Roo.

She dragged her wounded, bleeding body across the vessel, desperately hoping to escape the scorching tongues of the blaze. Unfortunately, they were on the sea in the dead of night.

There was nowhere to run.

Roo soon found herself cornered on the edge of the deck. As she stared down despairingly at the inky ocean, a shadow fell over her. She turned around and saw a large man with a sword wet with blood.

She didn’t close her eyes. No, she fixed her scarlet glare straight at him. It was an act of challenge, a curse.

Roo hated this person. Taking people’s money by force instead of cunning was an act of base barbarity. These savages were just as bad as the ones who’d once torn her from her family. Unfortunately, the thieves didn’t give half a damn about Roo’s feelings on their piracy.

The kind of person who casually inflicted violence on others typically wasn’t inclined to give anything—only take.

A blade came crashing mercilessly down. It sliced up flesh, chopped through bone, and scattered black blood beneath the scarlet flames.

How did things get to such an ending?

It all started back at the four-nation trade conference held in Port City Laurier of the former Gustav domain.

Situated directly across the sea from the Azure Kingdom and the Lakan Archipelago Alliance, Port City Laurier was by far the largest commercial hub in the former Gustav domain.

One day, the Republic of Elm had invited ambassadors from its three surrounding countries to Laurier’s city hall to hold an important conference regarding trade between nations.

“Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here today. Now, this conference today will shape the future of your four lands—Freyjagard, Azure, Lakan, and Elm. Shall we begin?” Masato swept his gaze over the four representatives seated in the city’s hall’s conference room as he announced the summit’s beginning. “I, Masato Sanada of the Republic of Elm’s state religion, the Seven Luminaries, will serve as today’s mediator. If anyone objects, please raise your hand… Since there are no objections, we can continue. Next, I will introduce the conference attendees, starting with the representatives. First, we have Duke Heinrich von Rosenlink, director of the Freyjagard Empire’s mint.”

The handsome hyuma man sitting at one end of the square table stood. “And hellooo to you all. A pleasure to be working with you, my friends.”

His blond hair was very long, and he smoothed it back with his hand and shot them all a wink.

Heinrich von Rosenlink.

He was relatively young, only in his thirties or so, and his slender features gave him a rather attractive profile. He had well-groomed hair, long eyelashes, and several showy jewels adorning his body. In his hand, he clutched a single crimson rose. However, while his excessive ornamentation made him come across as foolish, his status was no laughing matter.

The Imperial Mint was the body that single-handedly controlled the Freyjagard Empire’s finances, the most massive powerhouse on the continent, and the Rosenlink family had retained sole control of its leadership for several generations. As such, their influence extended over every business on an imperial plot. It was no exaggeration to say that Rosenlink’s whims were what determined if the empire’s people would be eating meat or potato skins for dinner.

He was, without a doubt, the most qualified person in the empire to attend that conference.

Masato gave Rosenlink’s greeting a small round of applause, then moved on to the next delegate. “Next, we have Shenmei Li, vice chief of the Lakan Archipelago Alliance.”

“Oh, hello.”

The black-haired, fox-eared byuma woman sitting opposite Rosenlink gave her greeting without standing. She was wearing a lascivious dress that resembled a cheongsam.

The Lakan Archipelago was a group of more than ten islands, each ruled by a powerful family. Together, they formed the Lakan Archipelago Alliance. The head of each clan would come together and collectively decide on a chancellor to serve as their king, and a vice chief then supported the chancellor. When a chancellor died, the vice chief would also serve as interim chancellor until the next time the family leaders could meet. In short, they were the second most powerful people in Lakan.

In addition, Shenmei Li had also amassed a vast fortune on her own and was Lakan’s most prominent merchant. She knew economics inside and out. Between her authority and her talent, she, too, was well qualified to have a seat at the conference that would decide their four nation’s economic fates.

“Then, we have Sergei Pavlovich, minister of foreign affairs for the Azure Kingdom.”

“…Hmph.”

The Azure Kingdom, much like Le Luk, was blanketed by perpetual snow due to the spirit ley lines it was built atop. Sergei slid back in his chair and crossed his arms. His sole reaction to Masato’s introduction was a lone harrumph.

It was a rude response, to be sure, but that stern expression of Sergei’s—which looked as though it had been forcefully chiseled out of stone—had the effect of cowing his opponents into submission. Any timid diplomat who went up against him would find themselves unable to properly voice the points they needed to make.

Perhaps his gruff demeanor served as a sort of negotiation tactic in and of itself.

Finally, Masato introduced the fourth person at the table, the representative from the Republic of Elm.

“And lastly, from our own Republic of Elm, we have Vice Minister of Finance Elch.”

He was a young byuma male with chestnut hair and lupine features. No, it wasn’t some other person who happened to have the same name. It was the very same Elch who’d been fighting for independence alongside Masato and the others since the very beginning.

“I—I look forward to working with you all.”

“Ohhh my, what a looker,” Shenmei remarked. “And so youthful! Hey, young man, how old are you?”

“I—I…”

Elch stiffened up. He wasn’t used to being in official conferences. Masato quickly stepped in to back him up. “I’m sorry, but there are still several introductions to get through. If you could leave the personal conversations for later, Vice Chief Li, that would be much appreciated.”

The look of dejection that crossed Shenmei’s face didn’t tarnish her beauty in the slightest. “Oh boo. What’s wrong with a little flirting? …Now that I see, though, you aren’t half bad yourself. And that sharp look in your eyes—goodness, you’re just my type. What do you say, want to fool around a bit after this? I’m staying in Freyjagard for a little while.”

“Ha-ha. That’s quite the offer, but again, we have business to get to,” Masato asserted.

“Tch. Country hicks. Can’t control yourselves, even in official meetings.”

Right when things were starting to settle down, Sergei of Azure shot Shenmei a biting remark.

Shenmei responded in kind. “Excuse me? If we’re the countryside, what does that make your nation? You haven’t anything but snow and bears. Plus, what’s with that ridiculously stuffy outfit you’re wearing? You might still have blizzards over in Azure, but here in civilization, we’re well into spring.”

“I’ll have you know that Azure’s customary formalwear is the skin of an animal you hunted yourself.”

“How barbaric.”

“Don’t think I’ll let that slight against our people stand, vixen! You want me to carve you up next?!”

At that point, Masato had to step in to pacify Sergei and Shenmei. “All right, everyone, let’s just take a deep breath.”

People were fighting before the conference had even properly begun. War had existed for as long as borders. There had never been any guarantee that everyone would get along, and small disputes were largely unavoidable.

Knowing that, Masato made no efforts to denounce them. Instead, he skillfully soothed the strained tensions while allowing both sides to save face. Thanks to his vast experience with meetings where two sides didn’t see eye to eye, he could do so with just a few words.

Within seconds, Masato had the conference back on track. “Next, I’d like to introduce the members of our respective business communities who are here with us today.”

A number of wealthy merchants and government officials from each of the four countries stood behind each seated delegate.

Masato started introducing them one by one.

As Elch watched him skillfully list off their names, he swallowed nervously.

Here we go…

At the moment, Elm had yet to hold its first elections. It had no official cabinet, nor did it have any cabinet ministers. That left many essential government responsibilities unaccounted for.

As such, the Seven High School Prodigies who claimed to be angels of the Seven Luminaries decided to each temporarily head up a ministry that corresponded to their particular talents.

The Ministry of Finance, naturally, fell under Masato Sanada’s jurisdiction. He was the one who’d appointed Elch as vice minister.

When Elch first had heard the news, he was completely blindsided. “M-me?! A vice minister?!” he’d exclaimed.

“Yup. And as Elm’s provisional vice minister of finance, you’re gonna be the one in charge of the four-nation trade conference.”

Flustered by the unexpected promotion, Elch had quickly tried to argue against it. “Huh…? W-wait, WHAT?! Why me?! I thought you were gonna run all the talks about money and stuff!”

However, Masato had clearly expected Elch’s consternation and found it deeply amusing. He replied with a wicked smile. “Nah. I’m just gonna be the mediator.”

“B-but why?!”

“The plan is: We’re gradually shifting governmental responsibilities over to people from this world. If you guys keep havin’ us wipe your butts forever, it’ll be no different than when you were with the empire.”

“F-fair enough, but…”

Elch had no rebuttal for that.

Masato was completely right. If they kept depending on the Seven Prodigies from another world for everything, then they weren’t exactly self-reliant. After all, they were just as capable and virtuous as anyone else. That was the guiding principle that had driven the revolution. Relying on Masato and the others forever would defeat the whole purpose.

The Republic of Elm’s people needed to get to the point where they could protect their proud lifestyles, even once the Prodigies returned home.

“For this conference, I’m gonna be completely hands-off. It’s up to you guys to finish on top.”

Elch could understand where the Prodigies were coming from with their decision. They weren’t holding back to be mean or cruel. They were doing it because it was in everyone’s best interest.

But even though Elch understood the choice…he couldn’t reconcile in the slightest how the Prodigies could put someone like him in charge of helping manage a fledgling nation.

“Y-you’re joking, right? I’m just some kid from the sticks! I can’t help run a country…!”

“Why not? You can read and write. That puts you ahead of half the other guys in this world already.”

“B-but finance is about managing the entire country’s money, right? In that case, just pick someone like Jaccoy! Aren’t there plenty of merchants at Elm Trading who are all way more qualified to deal with money stuff than I am?”

Jaccoy had gotten completely outplayed by Masato, but the fact remained that he was a merchant so skilled he’d once held a stranglehold over an entire domain’s economy.

Elch couldn’t compare with talent like that.

However—

“Nope. Not a one.”

—Masato had immediately shot Elch’s opinion down.

“You’re kidding!”

“Dead serious, my man. Those guys are merchants, not bureaucrats.”

“So?”

After Elch had tilted his head to the side in puzzlement, Masato explained. “Both jobs deal with money, but the mindset you need for each of ’em is totally different. For a merchant, makin’ money is everything, but that’s not what bureaucrats are about. The vice minister of finance is in charge of the nation’s purse strings. They’re not in it for profit. If you aren’t willing to spend money to help the people out, you ain’t fit for the job. There’s a lotta people who’d be smart enough to make coin hand over fist, but dumb enough not to realize how they were hurting international relations and their own people’s welfare in the process. But you, you’ve got what it takes.”

“I do?”

“Remember back when we first got better, how you chewed us out at the feast your granddad threw for us?”

“Urk…” Elch had looked awkwardly away at having his old screwup—or at least, what he saw as one—thrust in his face. “Th-that’s just ’cause I didn’t believe you guys yet…”

Masato laughed. “Hey, don’t look so down about it. I’m not blamin’ you. Hell, I’m giving you a compliment.”

“Huh?”

“There’s not a lot of guys who’d be able to keep the village’s finances in mind and say what needed to be said while everyone else was celebrating. But anyone who can’t isn’t cut out to watch over a country’s coffers. A democracy’s treasury is the taxes—the lifeblood—its people entrust it with. Folks who don’t keep the needs of the masses at the top of their mind while they’re running the numbers don’t have the right to touch so much as a coin of it,” Masato had declared.

“…!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll fix you up with a team of people who know their economics backward and forward. Make sure you talk to them and borrow as much of their knowledge as you can. Still, it’s gotta be a guy like you holding the keys to the vault. Someone with the willpower and self-control to do his job no matter what the people around him are sayin’.”

That was why Masato was entrusting Elch with the vice minister of finance job. It wasn’t careless nepotism, not in the slightest. The expert businessman had chosen Elch because of the character traits the young byuma man had demonstrated.

At being handed such a heavy responsibility, Elch had looked down and thought on it for a moment. “A-and…you’re really not gonna help us?”

“You can choose to rely on me or not. Makin’ that decision is part of the job, too.”

“…All right. I’ll do it.”

Elch’s mind was made up. As thanks for saving their lives, the seven strangers who’d gotten stranded in their world had given them all sorts of gifts. The Prodigies had helped Elch and everyone else out enough to repay that debt and more, but they couldn’t keep relying on the incredible septet forever.

This world’s denizens might be inexperienced, they might stumble, but they had to start walking independently.

That was the sense of responsibility that now drove Elch.

Now, back in the present…

Elch sat at the four-nation trade conference with the weight of the Republic of Elm’s future resting on his shoulders.

At the moment, they were discussing tariff rates on various goods, limits on certain imports designed to protect local industries, what kind of insurance Elm would offer on domestic assets in the event of a war, and other similar matters.

There was one question their opponents were trying to answer: What kind of trading partner would this new nation on their continent prove to be?

With each inquiry and demand they made, Elch took advice from Jaccoy and the other advisers behind him and gave decisive answers.

All in all, it was an impressive display.

He’d studied up and put in the hours to prepare for this.

Each question he answered helped prove that his labor hadn’t been in vain. Before long, all the stiffness he’d suffered during the introductions had melted away, and his face was brimming with confidence.

Then the discussion moved on to the most critical itinerary item of the day.

“Now, the next matter we’ll be discussing is the new ‘goss’ currency the Republic of Elm plans to mint, as well as the exchange rates thereof.”

When the mediator, Masato, mentioned a new monetary system, Elch felt as though all his fur was standing on end. It was like an electric current just shot through the air.

The entire room instantly tensed up, and the look in the other three delegates’ eyes was completely different than it had been before. They all understood full well just how important this subject was.

“Vice Minister Elch, take us away.”

After Masato took the tense room and piqued everyone’s attention, Elch stood from his seat and spoke. “Before we get into the discussion, I’d like to first take a moment to show you all what exactly goss is. Roo, would you mind?”

“’Kay! …No, no. ’Kay sir.”

On Elch’s instruction, Roo pitter-pattered around the table in a maid uniform and passed each delegate a shiny gold coin.

Those pieces were examples of the goss that were going to become the Republic of Elm’s national currency.

As he eyed his sample, Freyjagard’s delegate Rosenlink let out a cry of amazement. “Goodness me. The rumors of your technological prowess hardly do you justice. Why, I’ve never seen such perfectly circular coinage in all my years.”

That world had yet to develop technology capable of producing metallic money with such accuracy. Rosenlink wasn’t the only one marveling at the fruits of Elm’s technology, either.

Lakan Archipelago Alliance’s vice chief, Shenmei Li, peered intently at her coin and posed a question to Masato. “It really is something else, yes. One thing, though. Who’s this adorable young thing engraved on it?”

“That’s a portrait of our deity, God Akatsuki.”

“Oh, so this is what he looks like. Kind of a cutie, isn’t he?”

“I’ll be sure to let him know you said that. He’ll be delighted.”

Elch found himself exasperated at Masato’s characteristically snide response, but he started in on his explanation of the currency regardless. “What you’re each holding is a thousand-goss gold piece, our highest denomination. We’ll also be minting hundred-goss silver coins, as well as one- and ten-goss copper coins for paying smaller sums.”

“Ah, I see. So you based it off the empire’s gold and rook.”

“Exactly. The precious metal content is the same as the empire’s money as well.”

The decision to follow a system similar to the imperial one had been instituted to make the transition easier on the masses.

At that point, Sergei of Azure responded to Elch’s explanation—

“Hmph. True, they’re well-made…for trinkets, that is.”

—with a contemptuous scoff.

“…Would you care to elaborate on that, Ambassador Pavlovich?” Masato invited.

“I really have to explain? As a currency, they’re utterly worthless.” Sergei threw his sample coin down on the table, then continued. “It should go without saying, but coinage is more valuable than the raw material of its component metals. And that added value comes from people’s faith in the nation that issued it. But a country’s trust is derived from its long history. Why should I believe a fresh-faced society of peasants?”

“He has a point,” Shenmei of Lakan agreed. “‘Equality for all,’ was it? A government of the people for the people, with no nobles or commoners? …I must say, I have my doubts about how long it will last. Why, it would be little surprise to wake up tomorrow and find your nation to have vanished in the morning like the moon’s afterglow. Would any of you be able to trust a country such as that?”

Shenmei turned to the Lakan merchants behind her, and they echoed her sentiment.

“Not a chance.”

“Seems like a little much to even call it currency, to be honest.”

When Elch heard that, he, Jaccoy, and the other Ministry of Finance members standing behind him all put up their guards.

“And so it begins…”

“Yeah.”

Later in the conference, they were going to discuss the quantities and rates that the other nations and companies would build up foreign exchange reserves of Elm’s new currency at. In preparation, the foreign people were trying to drop the goss’s perceived value. That way, they could negotiate more favorable rates for themselves.

It was a massive problem for Elm.

“It’s all right, though. This is within expectations.”

Elch and the others had seen it coming and had devised a plan accordingly.

Unshaken by Sergei and the Lakan delegation, Elch stated, “We understand your doubts, both about our lack of history and about our radical, unproven democratic system of government. After taking your concerns into account, the initial rate we request for foreign exchange reserves…”

Then he dropped the bomb.

“…is one unit of Freyjagard Empire gold to one unit of Elm gold.”

“The HELL you say?!”

Elch had just declared that imperial and Elm currency were of equal value.

To that, Sergei loosed a violent bellow with his eyes nearly popping out of his skull, and Shenmei quietly shot a steely glance Elch’s way. “…Kid, were you listening to anything we just said? You’ve given us little reason to trust Elm, and without trust, your coins are nothing but lumps of metal. Why would we value them as highly as Lakan ira or Azure celis, let alone the currency of Freyjagard, one of the most highly esteemed nations in the world?”

“Would you mind taking that thousand-goss coin you have there, tilting it, and taking another look at the zeros?” Elch requested of Shenmei.

“Hmm…?”

Shenmei and the others did as instructed and held their coins at an angle.

That’s when they spotted it.

“Wh-what’s this?!”

“H-how is Elm’s name floating up inside the zeros?!”

“By engraving the surface of the coins unevenly, we can make letters and images appear on them through a process called lenticular printing. It’s a divine technology conferred unto us by the Seven Luminaries, and it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.

“This means that Elm’s currency is functionally impossible to counterfeit, meaning you can always be certain that you’re working with the real deal. Consequently, we lack the ability to produce low-grade coins secretly and claim they were mere counterfeits if we’re ever called out on it. Our monetary system is one you can put absolute faith in, Vice Chief Shenmei,” Elch declared with confidence.

“Urk…”

Shenmei’s jaw twitched.

The Lakan Archipelago’s islands had been independent nations for many years before coming together in alliance. As a result, each ruling family owned the equipment required to mint currency, and they were constantly battling counterfeiting problems. That wasn’t all, either. The infamous incident where the previous Alliance government had taken advantage of that fact to lower their coinage’s purity without telling their trade partners, then claimed they were falsified pieces upon having their scheme discovered was well-known. The whole fiasco had dealt severe damage to the Lakan Archipelago’s reputation.

Elch had implicitly referenced that episode to give his words a second meaning. Reading between the lines, his message was “At least our country’s money is more trustworthy than yours, lady.”

The fact that it was the previous chancellor who’d caused the scandal notwithstanding, Shenmei had no rebuttal to such a maneuver. She had no choice but to shut up.

Sensing his position weakening, Sergei turned elsewhere for aid. Specifically, Rosenlink, who was still gazing curiously at the goss sample. “H-hey, Rosenlink! Don’t just sit there, tell this uppity whelp where he stands! He’s trying to claim that his upstart nation carries the same value as Freyjagard’s illustrious history!”

Sergei was trying to rile up the imperial representative so he’d take Sergei’s side.

However, Rosenlink instead cocked his head and said something wholly unexpected. “Hmm? Why should I tell him anything? The Freyjagard Empire has no complaints about the rate he proposed, I’ll have you know.”

“WHAAAT?! Wh-what’s the meaning of this, Rosenlink?!”

“Come now, come now. It’s nothing to get so excited over, is it? We of the Freyjagard Empire have seen the power and felt the Seven Luminaries’ technology’s might. Painful lessons, to be sure, but lessons well learned. In terms of credibility, we trust the Republic of Elm quite a lot. In fact, I’d say we’re getting the better end of this particular deal.”

“Y-you snake! What happened to the man who railed so vehemently against the Blue Grandmaster’s spineless foreign policy?!”

“Please, my good Mr. Pavlovich, no competent statesman lets his personal feelings get in the way of official business. There’s no love lost between us Bluebloods and those four ill-bred grandmasters, it’s true. Our families have been the bedrock of our great nation for centuries, a fact that they utterly fail to show proper deference toward. Oh, they claim to have played pivotal roles in getting our esteemed emperor his throne, but I for one don’t trust them as far as I can throw them. But that’s one thing, and this is another. Nothing to do with each other in the slightest. But if you’re not interested in the rate, then, well, Lakan and Azure are more than welcome to sit this trade out and watch from the sidelines.”

“Rrr…!”

“…Do be warned, though, Elm is a nation that wrested its independence from Freyjagard on merit alone. Who knows, perhaps the rest of the world is looking at them with much more expectant eyes than you are, and maybe the exchange rate will grow less and less favorable for you as you wait. But I’m sure a brilliant merchant who made her name known across all three of our nations doesn’t need me telling her that, does she, Ms. Li?”

“…Hmph. Spare me the condescension.”

Even though Elm rebelled against Freyjagard and snatched away its land, the director of its mint had chosen to side with the rebellious nation.

Sergei and Shenmei were both clearly shaken by the unexpected development.

Meanwhile—

Nice, nice… He’s doing exactly what he promised.

—Elch clenched his fist beneath the table.

Rosenlink was claiming that he trusted Elm because they’d fought against each other. In reality, that was only lip service. Faith wasn’t what Rosenlink and Elch shared. It was a secret agreement.

One Freyjagard gold coin for one Elm gold coin.

That was the arrangement that Elm’s Ministry of Finance and the Imperial Mint had colluded on beforehand.

It had been evident from the get-go that the two weaker countries would try to use the conference to lower the goss’s value. That was why Elch had conspired with the empire. In exchange for some favorable terms, Freyjagard had agreed to back Elm up at the meeting.

Once the biggest fish of the group accepted Elm’s terms, the other two would have no choice but to fall in line. After all, the size of the markets and governments involved meant that the Freyjagard Empire’s foreign exchange reserves request would dwarf that of the other two countries put together. In other words, things had been decided before the delegates even took their seats. It was exactly like how Masato had once driven Jaccoy to ruin and forced him to pay reparations.

Elch had been watching Masato for a while now, and in that time, he’d learned a thing or two. For one, trying to use logical arguments to win people over during the conference itself was the worst possible course of action. Changing another’s opinion in just a few short hours was inconceivable.

No, you needed a forum to take measures and forge agreements in advance so you could reach your desired result before anyone even arrived. The real battle took place before the conference. The meeting itself was merely where you revealed your hand. Now Elch’s preparation was paying off in spades.

Once they realized they weren’t going to be able to get the empire on their side, the Azure and Lakan delegates turned around and started quietly talking to their advisers. Then they revised some of the documents sitting in front of them and disappointedly informed Elch that they would accept his stated rate.

Upon hearing the news, Rosenlink joyfully clapped his hands together. “Then it sounds like we’re all settled!”

“Hmph,” Sergei growled.

“More or less, yes. We’re all in agreement over here,” Shenmei agreed.

“Well, all righty then! Now that we’ve concurred on a rate, let’s move on to deciding how much we’re each going to trade for, shall we?” After speaking, Rosenlink called Roo over and placed a piece of parchment atop the silver tray she was holding. “Between our government and our businesses, the Freyjagard Empire would like to request an exchange of this much currency.”

The other two countries followed suit, taking the request forms they’d amended after talking it over with their merchants and advisers earlier and placing them atop Roo’s tray.

“This is what we want… Not as much as we planned, seeing as you set the rate so high.”

“Hurry up and look this over.”

Roo brought the forms to Elch. He scanned them—

“… ?!”

—and was struck speechless.

You’re kidding… They’re asking for several times more than we expected…

He immediately shot Jaccoy a look and showed him the forms. Jaccoy’s eyes went wide.

“What do you think, Jaccoy?”

“Hmm… Good question. Give me just a moment.”

Jaccoy took the forms and showed them to the rest of the Ministry of Finance.

They were all surprised as well, but they quickly got to work shuffling documents around and murmuring among themselves. A short while later, they whispered something in Jaccoy’s ear, and he came back over to Elch.

“Sorry for the wait. Based on our rough calculations, it should be fine to accept those proposals.”

“Are you sure? If we produce too many coins…that’ll make each one worth less, won’t it? It’ll cut into the value we get out of minting them…”

“Quite right. However, our estimates tell us that the demand for Elm’s currency is going to be tremendous. If we don’t get at least this much money into circulation, we could experience deflation and miss our chance to expand into new markets, which would be a great shame. The more our currency spreads and gains popularity worldwide, the better a position it gives Elm in the international community.”

“…Makes sense.”

Jaccoy and the others were right.

As a developing nation, this was Elm’s best chance to get recognized by the international market.

The greater penetration goss could achieve, the more their seigniorage would increase in the future.

If that happened, it would be a great asset to Elm moving forward.

Logically, Elch knew all that. And yet…

…Is this really gonna work out?

He just couldn’t shake his nagging doubts. It was the first time he’d ever had to make such an important decision. He wanted Masato’s advice. Surely, the Devil of Finance could show Elch the correct path to take.

Self-doubt nibbled away at the byuma’s heart.

However—

C’mon, don’t be a dumbass.

—Elch quickly scolded himself for that weakness.

All they did was help the Prodigies when they were injured and nurse them back to health. Just how long did they intend on continuing to make them repay a debt that small? They couldn’t keep relying on the septet forever.

When the Prodigies returned to their world, it was the duty of Elch and everyone to keep them from having to worry about the people they were leaving behind. Understanding that, Elch forced himself to make up his mind on his own.

“Very well. We’ve looked over your requests and have no objections to their contents.”

“Wonderful!” Rosenlink cried. “Shall we write up the contract and make it official, then?”

“However, there is one thing. These sums for exchange are higher than we expected, so it will take us some time to prepare the currency. Is that acceptable?”

“As long as you honor the delivery date, we have no complaints,” Shenmei replied.

Sergei agreed. “…Speaking for Azure, we’re fine with that, too.”

“Freyjagard’s got no objections, either, of course!”

“We appreciate your understanding… Masato?”

Elch called Masato over and handed him the request forms.

Masato took them. “We all finished here?”

“Yeah. Do it.”

Masato gave Elch’s reply an appreciative smile, then turned to the delegates. “In that case, allow me to go draw up an agreement based on these contents. While I’m doing that, we’ve prepared a light lunch for you all, so please feel free to enjoy yourselves and make conversation while you wait. After you eat, we can all confirm, sign the accord, and bring today’s meeting to a close.”

Masato bowed, then exited the room.

After leaving, Masato headed to another chamber to formally document all the matters that had been ratified in the conference.

As he walked, he murmured compliments to Elch for having been able to team up with Freyjagard and stave off Azure’s and Lakan’s aggression. “…Heh. So he worked things out with the duke ahead of time, huh? Well, I guess after watching me in action for so long, he picked up a few dirty tricks of his own.”

It was like night and day compared to how Elch had once gotten railroaded by Neutzeland’s market monopoly. Slowly but surely, he was learning. The sight filled Masato’s heart with joy.

“But…this time, your opponents were one step ahead of you.”

Masato was sure of that. He respected Elch’s hustle, but in the end, he’d gotten played. Elch should have been more suspicious of the fact that the Azure and Lakan delegations had put in such huge orders after nitpicking the rate so aggressively.

At this rate, Elm’s gonna fall into their trap headfirst.

Indeed, Elm and Freyjagard weren’t the only ones who’d made a secret alliance. After watching the conference, Masato understood as much quite well. However…he wasn’t going to tell Elch and the others that. Doing so would negate everything Masato hoped to accomplish, and they wouldn’t learn anything.

…Still, I can’t say I love sittin’ back and doing nothing when I know we’re gonna take a beating.

Elm was flourishing, and the Prodigies’ road home was well within sight. Before long, they would have to hand over their roles and responsibilities to the nation’s people. That was the decision Tsukasa had made, and that was what they were sticking with.

There’s still a way we can bail ’em out if it looks like things are gonna go completely belly-up, though.

There were several, as it happened. All of them hinged upon the Prodigies still remaining on this planet, however. Just because they were sending Elm’s people to the school of hard knocks didn’t mean they had to let them get knocked out.

Then, a few days after the four-nation conference, the situation unfolded precisely the way Masato had expected and sent the Elm Ministry of Finance into panic mode.

The price of raw gold had exploded far beyond what any of them could have imagined.

“What the hell’s going on?!”

After charging into the room in Dulleskoff City Hall assigned to the Ministry of Finance, Elch shouted his first words.

“Th-the cost of gold bullion just shot up. Not just in Elm, but across the whole continent…”

“I know that already! What I’m asking is: Why? What made its market value quadruple over the last two days?!”

“Our members on the ground are looking into it as we speak! We should have more information soon, but—”

The moment the words left the staffer’s mouth, a portly, middle-aged hyuma—Jaccoy—came charging in with a stack of papers in his hand through the door Elch threw open. “I have news! We found out what companies were buying up all the gold bullion in the Archride province! It was the Qinglong Gang from the Lakan Archipelago, Snegurochka from the Azure Kingdom, the Odin Company from the Freyjagard Empire, and several other foreign firms… To put it bluntly, it was all companies who had merchants at the conference acting as advisers!”

“…!”

Hearing Jaccoy’s report sent a stir through the ministry members.

After intentionally requesting vast amounts of gold-intensive foreign exchange reserves, the foreign companies had bought up all the gold on the market and were planning on bleeding Elm dry by selling it to them at exorbitant prices.

Naturally, doing so was a gross violation of their contract. The agreement they all signed at the conference explicitly prohibited that kind of insider trading and listed harsh penalties for anyone caught doing so.

They think we’re just gonna sit back and let them blatantly rig our market like that…?! Elch thought, indignant.

“Get out there and force the businesses who sold them the ore to show you their contracts! Once we see those settlement dates, those scumbags’ll be finished!” Elch ordered Jaccoy.

Unfortunately, Jaccoy just gave him an anguished shake of the head. “That…won’t work, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?”

“Take a look at this. It’s the contract one of the local Archride province companies signed.”

Jaccoy handed Elch one of the sheets of parchment he was holding. Elch snatched it out of his hand and looked it over. The blood drained from his face. “The contract is dated a week before the conference…?!”

But how’s that possible?

The only reason Elm required more gold was that they agreed at the conference to trade far more currency away than they’d been expecting. That need hadn’t existed a week before the meeting. In other words, it didn’t constitute insider trading.

“So they just predicted we’d accept their demands and bought up the gold ahead of time?” Elch asked confusedly.

Masato, leaning against the wall and watching over the proceedings, let out a cynical laugh. “You really think they’d take that huge gamble in advance?”

“Huh? Masato?”

“Nah—there’s an easy, risk-free way to get the same result.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

Masato responded by shifting his gaze from Elch to Jaccoy and replying with a question of his own. “Jaccoy, you used to manage a company; why don’t you try this on for size? Here’s an example. Let’s say I came to your business and told you I wanted to buy a hundred pounds of gold bullion. And let’s say you accepted. But then, when we drew up the agreement…you found out that I’d dated it a week in the past. What would you do?”

“Ah…!” Jaccoy immediately went pale.

“That’s right—you’d let it slide. Parchment ain’t free, after all. It’d be one thing if the new date screwed up your quarterly taxes, but as long as it fell within the same season, a couple of days here or there wouldn’t make much of a difference to you.”

“That’s…certainly true.”

In this world, settlement dates generally weren’t seen as particularly important.

As long as it didn’t cause problems with their taxes or their books, most merchants would prioritize saving on paper costs and locking in the deal.

After all, the kind of parchment used for necessary contracts like that was by no means inexpensive, and fussily pointing out the mistake ran the risk of souring your trade partner’s mood and getting the deal thrown out altogether. Elm’s enemies were abusing that blind spot to commit fraud.

“Even if we grilled the gold sellers and got them to admit that the trade took place after the conference, our opponents have signed contracts to back up their story. It’d be impossible to expose them.”

“Dammit…!” Elch ground his teeth at Masato’s statement.

It was true. The other nations had hard evidence on their side, so calling them out would accomplish nothing. They could merely argue that Elm had intimidated their domestic firms into making baseless accusations, and that would be the end of it.

What can we do…?

As Elch racked his mind, Jaccoy offered him a suggestion. “The price of gold is rising, even as we speak. If things go on like this, we won’t be able to produce enough coins to meet all three countries’ demands. Shouldn’t we place a halt on trading gold and prohibit people from taking any out of the country?”

Elch, however, shook his head. “…No, we can’t. That’d be no different than freezing assets.”

The trade conference the other day hadn’t just been about their new currency. The four nations had also signed an agreement guaranteeing property rights of foreign assets on domestic soil.

Freezing resources without proof of misconduct was a clear violation of that accord. If they tried to pull a stunt like that, Elm would come under fire and be accused of being a lawless nation that couldn’t keep a promise for even a week.

“Vice Minister! If that’s the case, what if we supplemented our thousand-goss gold coin shortfall with hundred-goss silver coins and ten-goss copper coins? Look here at this copy of the contract we signed! It says that ‘one goss shall be traded to the Freyjagard Empire at a rate of one goss to one rook, to the Lakan Archipelago at a rate of one goss to one and one-third ira, and to the Azure Kingdom at a rate of one goss to one and one-quarter celis,’ but it doesn’t specify anything about gold or silver coins, so doesn’t that mean it’s fair game?”

“…It’s probably fair game, but basic math says that we’d need to mint ten times as many silver pieces or a hundred times as many copper ones to make up the same amount. If we did that, we’d hit the melting point in no time…”

In financial terms, a melting point was the threshold where the value of the precious metals in a coin exceeded its face value, thereby incentivizing people to melt it.

If they tried to produce enough silver and copper currency to make up for their shortfall of gold, the market would naturally respond to their orders by causing the price of silver and copper to skyrocket. The moment those prices crossed the melting point, they’d start losing money with every piece they produced.

Plus, most people used silver and copper coins in their day-to-day shopping, not gold ones. Distortions in their values would cause significant disruptions to ordinary folks’ lives. That alone meant that they could only do so as an absolute last resort. It simply wasn’t a pragmatic plan.

“Elch, you want me to lend you a hand?”

Upon suddenly hearing his name called, Elch turned and looked at Masato. From the look on Masato’s face, it was clear that he wanted to help out so badly he was practically crawling out of his skin.

“…Why’re you offering help before I even ask for it?”

“I-it’s just, I mean…it’s annoying, having to sit out.”

Masato needed to avoid giving them advice. He wouldn’t always be there to look after them, so they needed to build up experience independently. Even though Masato knew that, it didn’t change the fact that he was still the one-man army of a president who made sure to attend every meeting of every company he presided over. Silently watching over people just didn’t sit right with him.

More than anything, he wanted to step in and clean everything up on his own. That desire was written all over his face.

It only went to show how deeply Masato cared about Elch and the nation as a whole. Elch was grateful that the Prodigy businessman felt that way, but that was precisely why he had to refuse.

“We know perfectly well that we can’t keep counting on you guys forever, y’know. Sorry I’m such a slow learner, but you’re gonna have to watch your student struggle for just a little longer.”

“The vice minister is absolutely right. It would be pathetic of us to depend on you angels all the time.”

“Elm’s our country, after all. We have to be the ones to put in the work.”

All the other ministry members shared Elch’s sentiment.

They all remembered the speech Tsukasa gave during the founding of the republic. Until they could stand on their own two feet, they would never truly be free. That was why they were racking their minds. Everyone was trying to figure out what they should do.

“When times get bad, the important thing to do is identify the absolute worst-case scenario and be willing to take a couple hits to avoid it. Trying to aim for the best possible outcome when you’re already down never ends well.” An old lesson of Masato’s echoed in Elch’s mind. Now, what was the worst-case scenario here, the result that Elm needed to dodge at all costs? The answer was simple.

“…We can’t afford to default on the currency exchange.”

Once Elch arrived at that, he quickly gave Jaccoy his instructions. “Jaccoy, go send complaints to the foreign companies and demand explanations from them.”

“W-will that accomplish anything? They’ll just play dumb, won’t they?”

“Even so, we need to show them that we won’t take their blatant fraud lying down. If we stay quiet, they’ll think they can push us around.”

“…Good point. I’ll get on it at once!”

Next, Elch turned to the remainder of the staff. “As for the rest of us, we’re gonna get that raw gold, or we’ll die trying! We don’t have the luxury of worrying about price right now!”

“B-but given the current market rates, we don’t have the budget to purchase enough of it! If we spend too much here, it’ll put our future public works projects in jeopardy!”

“Right now, the number one thing we want to avoid is breaking the agreement we made at the trade conference. If we can’t come up with those coins by the deadline, it’ll erode trust in the republic. Plus, we’ll have to pay a massive fine. I don’t care what we have to do; we’re getting that gold! No ifs, ands, or buts! If we have to melt down Freyjagard and Lakan coins to get there, then that’s what we’ll do! And as for the public works projects, I know it sucks, but we’re gonna have to move back some timelines.”

It pained Elch to have their screwup negatively affect other departments, but…if people wanted to call him incompetent, they were free to do so. They wouldn’t even be wrong. Regardless, Elch refused to let himself hurt the Republic of Elm’s reputation.

To prevent that, he made one more choice. He turned to Masato. “Masato, we’re short on hands here. Can you go explain the situation to Tsukasa for me?”

“Got it. I’ll take care of the busywork, too, so you guys just focus on dealin’ with the problem.”

“You’re a lifesaver…!”

Masato nodded, then started heading for his office, situated right next to the Ministry of Finance’s room. “All right, Li’l Roo, let’s bounce. Grab those documents for me on your way out.”

However—

“………”

—Roo just looked at the floor with a severe expression. She made no move to follow him.

“Li’l Roo?”

When Masato called her name a second time, Roo finally realized he was talking to her and looked up with a start. “Ah…sorry. Roo was just…thinking.” Then, after apologizing, she continued, “Elch looks like he needs help, so Roo’s gonna stay behind and help him. Roo’s really good at counting money!”

“You sure? Well, it’s not like I need any backup on my end, and having another person over here who can help out with calculations’d probably make things easier on ’em. Go for it.”

“Roo’ll work hard!”

And with that, the Elm Ministry of Finance began working to fight through their international baptism by fire, the gold price inflation by foreign firms. They needed to protect the Republic of Elm’s good name. Given the situation, they could hardly blame vultures for starting to circle.

Unfortunately…

At that point, none of them truly realized that the situation their republic was in was far graver than any of them could have possibly imagined.

What’s…? What’s going on…?

To trade for the gold that they needed, they first headed to Laurier’s commercial district. When they got there, though, Elch was struck dumb. None of the foreign companies that had been buying up gold were looking to sell any.

At first, Elch thought it was just a hardline negotiation tactic to drive up the price. That wasn’t the case, however. No matter how much he sweetened his offer, the foreign traders just kept obstinately shaking their heads. Not one was remotely interested in even considering the notion.

“We need it for other ventures,” they all claimed.

Curiously, none of the merchants’ faces betrayed any ambition. It was businesslike practicality down the line. In fact, it was almost as though…the gold wasn’t theirs.

Why don’t any of them seem interested…?!

Elch and the others had been under the assumption that companies were buying up gold to sell it at a considerable markup. They had thought that as long as they could come up with the money, they could still get their hands on the raw gold. Their expectations had quickly been dashed, however. Not one of Elch’s people could get so much as a negotiation started.

The bizarre turn of events left Elch baffled. Deep in his gut, though, he already had a vague notion as to the truth of this conundrum.

In Drachen, the Freyjagard imperial capital, there stood a grand mansion in the nicest part of the city.

Inside it, one of Rosenlink’s servants came and informed him that Elm was running around desperately trying to amass gold. As Rosenlink played with the rose in his hand, he gazed out his northern window, toward the Republic of Elm off in the distance, and smiled gloatingly. “Sounds as though the market’s being quite the fickle mistress. Wouldn’t you agree…Shenmei?”

Shenmei Li, the beautiful woman sitting atop the nearby bed, gave Rosenlink’s feigned innocence a tittering laugh. “You say that as if you’re not the one who lit this particular fire. What a scary man you are.”

It was true.

Elch’s hunch had been right on the money.

The gold market getting cornered wasn’t the result of companies trying to profit off of insider trading. No, it was a devious scheme conducted by Azure, Lakan, and Freyjagard to shatter public confidence in the Republic of Elm.

“Elm’s dogs can scurry around all they like; it won’t make a lick of difference. Officially, the companies bought up all the gold, but in truth, it was our states. There’s no private enterprise at work here—this is war, waged with gold and silver.”

No matter how many trading companies Elm went to, it wouldn’t do them an ounce of good. After all, the merchants didn’t even have ownership rights over that gold bullion. None could sell the stuff, even if they wanted to. This was especially true because the actual owners were the governments of the nations the traders operated out of.

“If they fail to amass the gold and default on their contract, public trust in Elm will collapse into nothing. And if they forcibly seize the gold or restrict exports, they’ll violate the property rights agreement they just signed, and that will cause faith in them to crater as well. It’s damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Once nobody trusts them anymore, we’ll be able to buy up their new currency for pocket change. We’ll have them by the neck, and that’ll let us force through whatever favorable treaties we want… You’re a bad, bad man, you know,” Shenmei cooed.

“…It’s hardly my fault they’re so brainless. Even though the Four Grandmasters’ incompetence let them found a nation, it’s nothing more than a colony of half-wits. How could a group like them ever hope to govern a country? Don’t they know that education and grace run in their veins? Peasants like them exist to be ruled by us Bluebloods… Isn’t that right?” Rosenlink turned his gaze to the young female maid who brought him the information earlier. “What is it you uneducated, unrefined people are good for?”

“………”

The maid walked over to him, knelt, and began licking his boots. She knew that Rosenlink had the power to destroy not just her but her entire family. He’d already proven as much on that day when an idle whim inspired him to take her fiancé from her by pinning an imagined crime on him and sending him to the executioner’s block.

That was why this poor woman was utterly subservient to him.

Rosenlink looked down at the maid with satisfaction. “…Precisely. You worthless creatures exist to crawl on the ground, cater to us Bluebloods, and lick our shoes. That’s what it means to be a peasant.”

As far as the Rosenlink family, who’d maintained sole control of a critical imperial office for generations, was concerned, that was an unshakable, inviolable law. To them, the Republic of Elm, with its declarations of equality for all, was a blight that needed to be stamped out.

Rosenlink spoke once more. “Elm isn’t the only one in the wrong, mind you. Ever since our war-loving kaiser took the throne, his needless valuing of military glory has damaged even a nation as mighty as our Freyjagard Empire. Naming those mangy, lowborn mutts as the Four Grandmasters? It’s a crying shame, I tell you.”

That was a mistake that needed correcting.

“After his defeat at Elm’s hands, though, the Blue Grandmaster’s fall from grace is all but assured. With that, and with my scheme destroying Elm’s credibility, hopefully, the kaiser will finally open his eyes. He’ll realize that blood is the be-all and end-all and that we noble Bluebloods are the only ones fit to rule. And when that happens…we’ll finally be able to show those Four Grandmaster wretches where they stand. Like so.”

“Agh!”

A muffled scream rose up from beneath Rosenlink’s boot. He was trampling down on the maid’s fingers nearly hard enough to break her bones. However, the woman didn’t fight back. Even with her bones creaking from the pressure, she just kept on licking Rosenlink’s shoe.

The sight of her miserable figure filled Rosenlink with obvious glee. The scene was a microcosm of Freyjagard’s corruption and the true nature of autocracy in general. It made for a society where people were forever divided into the rulers and the ruled. There was no justice there.

When people held power over others, they would invariably use it for cruel ends. That psychological tendency had been proven in the Stanford prison experiment, a famous exercise where everyday people were split up into guards and prisoners. In that test, it had taken less than a week for the “guards” to start mercilessly abusing the “prisoners” with relish.

Being able to freely control other beings who resembled yourself was a pleasure just as addictive as any narcotic. For generations, the Bluebloods had enjoyed that as though it was a matter of course. Such an institution would warp the psyche of just about anyone.

Like a group of patients with the same mental disease, the entire ruling class was sick.

However, there was no one there to admonish them, nor any doctor who could heal their malignant souls.

“I do love a strong, clever nobleman.” Shenmei Li leaned in seductively and whispered in Rosenlink’s ear. “When you take power, I do hope the Li clan can rely on your support.”

“But of course. We of noble blood are, if nothing else, patrons of the beautiful.”

Azure. Lakan. Freyjagard.

Those were the three countries that had bought up gold as part of their plot to obstruct Elm from issuing their new currency.

At that moment, though, not a single person in the Republic of Elm had realized that it wasn’t just foreign companies engaging in insider trading. It was a calculated, national-level plot to devalue the Republic of Elm itself. Not a single person aside from Prodigy businessman Masato Sanada, that was.

He’d grown wise to the plan during the trade conference. As a result, he had a pretty good idea of how things would develop from there. Unfortunately, he also knew that he needed to help foster growth in Elch and the other ministry members, so he kept his mouth shut and went to request a budget revision from Tsukasa as they’d asked him to.

Tsukasa readily agreed. “Got it. I’ll swap out the budgets and allocate emergency funds to cover your excess expenses from the gold price hike.”

From atop the sofa, Masato gave Tsukasa a wry grin. “Swap ’em out, huh? So you already had a new one ready to fire off?”

“I was the one who advocated transferring our work over to this world’s people. It would be irresponsible of me not to have contingencies ready to back them up with.”

Tsukasa had a habit of always being prepared for anything. It was very like him.

He might not have been at the trade conference, so he couldn’t have predicted the particulars, but taking measures to prevent budget overages from causing administrative problems was well within his capabilities.

“‘Can’t keep leaning on us forever’—is that how he put it? I do like the sound of that,” Tsukasa remarked enthusiastically.

Masato nodded and responded in kind. “Yeah, and he’s bein’ a good influence on the others, too.”

“That just goes to show how you picked the right people for the job.”

“Well, sure. Who the hell do you think I am?”

Back on Earth, Masato was the leader of the largest business conglomerate in the world, the Sanada Group, and he was the president of every one of its member companies. It was safe to say that Masato knew a thing or two about human resources.

Even back when they were fighting against Neutzeland in Dormundt, Masato’s keen eye had already picked up on Elch’s latent talent. Elch wasn’t suited to the life of a merchant, but he would make a damn good bureaucrat.

“A person’s sense of responsibility is the bedrock of their character. Without that, they’ve got nothin’ going for ’em. Right now, all Elch’s got are drive and bravado, but…he’s got that bedrock, and skills’ll come in time. He’s gonna make for an honest, reliable civil servant someday. Winona raised him well.”

“Then I’ll be expecting great things from him,” Tsukasa responded.

Masato was never wrong about those kinds of things.

Tsukasa nodded…then murmured, “That aside…” with a look of exasperation on his face. “We brokered the peace deal just days ago, but it would seem they’re coming after us already.”

“The Bluebloods, was it? Those noble diehards who’re pissed off that the emperor picked a bunch of nobodies to be his Four Grandmasters?” confirmed Masato.

“That’s right. As I understand it, the empire is divided between the Four Grandmasters, who hold true power, and the Bluebloods, who despise them for encroaching on their privileges,” said Tsukasa.

“The way they see it, it probably looks like we just kicked the Blue Grandmaster’s ass, so they think it’s their chance to win back their power. Neuro’s from another world like we are, though, so I can’t imagine anyone from this world poses much of a threat to him… Hang on, why is Neuro workin’ for the Freyjagard emperor? The grandmasters were supposedly the ones who won him the throne, but he seemed pretty fine throwing away land like it was nothing. Didn’t feel like he was all that loyal to the empire or the emperor.”

“Who knows? He claimed that he came here because his original planet became uninhabitable, so it’s entirely possible he just supported the emperor so he could steal a cushy job out from under the nobles. Either way, thinking about it isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

Tsukasa had a point. The Prodigies weren’t Neuro, after all. Masato nodded in agreement.

When you observed someone to discern how they felt about something, it was all too easy to end up mistaking your unsubstantiated assumptions for the truth. Tsukasa and Masato lived and breathed politics and business, so they knew just how dangerous that could be.

Because of that, Tsukasa steered the conversation back to the Ministry of Finance. “…Do you think Elch will be able to thwart the three nations’ plan?”

“Not a chance” was Masato’s immediate answer.

“You sound sure of that.”

“The guy’s smart, and his instincts are sharp. He’ll probably be able to figure out that the gold price spike is because Azure, Lakan, and Freyjagard are setting a trap for Elm and that it’s not just a couple companies trying to turn a quick profit. But askin’ him to find a way out at this point is puttin’ too much on his shoulders. The guy’s still too pure for that.”

Masato knew. Elch’s honesty was one of his great virtues, and it was one of the things that made him a great bureaucrat. This time, though, the enemy was crafty. There weren’t any proper ways to get out of their trap.

Now that Elm had been snared, freeing themselves through conventional means was impossible. If they wanted to escape, it was going to take some twisted, irrational thinking. Elch wasn’t ready for that yet.

His coworkers were no better, either. True, they were no strangers to trickery, but…this was their first time working as public officials. It was going to take a while to acclimate to the new environment.

It was difficult for Masato to imagine any of them being able to solve their problem. After all, the solution would take a very particular kind of person to find. It would take someone the complete opposite of Elch, someone self-serving and immoral. A real picaro.

Although… Maybe she could…

As the thought passed through Masato’s mind, he chuckled. “Nah, that’s expecting too much.”

“Hmm?” Tsukasa inquired.

“Nah, nothing to see here. Just a guy who’s too proud of his kids. But back to the matter at hand, Elch can’t topple their scheme, but he’s not thoughtless enough to let his pride get in the way of doing his job. I imagine he’ll call me in before long.”

“Then I’m counting on you to help them out when that happens.”

“Oh, for sure. Wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I knew I let them get had.”

A week had passed since the abnormal spike in gold prices.

Thanks to the foreign companies’ utter refusal to do business with them, Elch figured out what was going on just like Masato predicted he would.

The gold wasn’t theirs.

That initial vibe he’d gotten had been completely correct.

“We got played… Azure, Lakan, and Freyjagard must’ve all been in on it. After Duke Rosenlink made his secret arrangement with us, he turned right around and leaked all our plans to the other two nations. They knew everything, and they still put on that little show for us.”

“““………”””

The Ministry of Finance members, who’d made their way back to their office in Laurier, all nodded at Elch’s breakdown. None of them had found any success at their respective destinations. Not a single one of the foreign companies was willing to part with the gold they’d amassed. Negotiations couldn’t even be started.

That reaction, or lack thereof, had led everyone else to much the same conclusion as Elch. This was no insider trading. There were national forces at play there.

“But why would they do that?! What do they have to gain?!” one ministry member yelped.

“We made a contract with those three countries to exchange a bunch of our new currency. If we break it, we’ll have to pay them a massive fine. Maybe that’s what they’re after?” another offered.

“That’s certainly part of it,” Jaccoy responded. “But…their primary objective is probably to destroy public trust in Elm as a nation. It’s like the Azure delegate said at the conference—a currency’s worth is determined by the value of its base metals combined with people’s faith in the nation that issued it. Without trust, our exchange rates will take a steep dive.”

By buying up gold, the other countries would be able to fine Elm for breach of contract, sell them the gold bullion at an exorbitant markup, and buy up their new currency for dirt cheap because nobody trusted Elm anymore.

At worst, there was the possibility that they’d get branded a premature upstart of a nation and have their currency issuance rights forcibly wrested from them. Elm’s foes were trying to drain every last drop of marrow from Elm’s bones. The staffers grimaced in frustration. One of them punched a desk.

“That blond narcissist bastard…! Getting the better end of the deal, my ass!”

“He was planning on double-crossing us all along!”

“Vice Minister, we should send complaint letters to all three of those countries right now!”

“…I’m afraid that’s not a good idea,” Jaccoy asserted.

“Why?!”

“Even if we did, they’d just insist that it was the companies who bought all the gold, so we should take it up with them. The foreign powers will likely come after us for making false allegations.”

Elch nodded in agreement. “Jaccoy’s right. That’s exactly why they used the companies as intermediaries. All our complaints’ll do is fall on deaf ears.”

“Th-then what’s our course of action?!”

“………”

Elch responded by balling up his hands and pressing them against his forehead in thought.

They’d been able to buy a little of the gold they needed from domestic companies, but the foreign investors had snatched up the vast majority of it. Between the amount they managed to scrounge up and the amount they procured in advance, it barely came out to half the total quantity needed. At that rate, there was no way they could fulfill their end of the contract.

Elch and the others needed to find some way to snatch the precious metal out of the foreign companies’—or rather, the foreign governments’—hands.

That much was clear. The question was, how? Elch couldn’t think of a single way to do it.

“I don’t suppose anyone has a brilliant idea?”

“““………”””

He tried asking the rest of the staff for insight, but all he got back was an awkward silence. Most of them had been skilled merchants before joining the Ministry. However, all that knowledge did was let them see just how masterful their enemies’ trap was.

Defaulting on the contract was obviously out of the question. Freezing the foreign companies’ assets would be a violation of their agreement. Buying back the gold wasn’t a viable option, either. The companies knew they didn’t have the rights to the stuff, so they wouldn’t even entertain the notion of selling it.

Negotiating with the governments responsible was undoubtedly a barren course, too. The foreign bodies would just insist that the gold belonged to the companies and that the whole situation had nothing to do with them.

Elch and his team were boxed in from every side. There was nothing they could do and no way to escape.

Frankly, the only way for them to save Elm would be to have not signed the currency exchange agreement in the first place. Unfortunately, that ship had long since sailed. All that remained was to sit in silence.

“Got it.” Seeing their reaction, Elch let out a defeated sigh. “…I guess that’s that, then. No point in being stubborn if it’s just gonna hurt our country. It stings, but…looks we need to get Masato to bail us out.”

The others all nodded quietly.

It was pretty pathetic to have to come crawling back to Masato after they said all that stuff about independence, but some things in life were more important than pride. At that point, it would be better just to leave things to the angels before the situation got any worse.

The finance administration was in unanimous agreement on that point.

All except for one anyway.

“Wait a minute!”

At that moment, the situation took a turn that not even Masato, the man who’d seen through the entire conspiracy, had expected.

“Roo knows a way! A way we can do it!”

And it did so at the hands of the slave girl he bought—Roo.

With surrender on the horizon, one voice cried out in dissent.

The ministry members all looked in astonishment toward the source of the protest…then faintly chuckled when they saw it was just Masato’s byuma slave girl. While she was technically Masato’s disciple, she was still just a kid at the end of the day.

As such, the gathered assembly of bureaucrats all wrote it off as a childish joke. “C’mon, kid, the adults are talking right now,” one of them chided her.

However, Elch cut them off. “Hold on.”

He and Roo had studied under Masato simultaneously, so he knew just how large the gap in Masato’s expectations for the two of them was. Elch understood how much more talent Masato saw in Roo than in him.

He didn’t know what exactly Masato had seen burning in Roo’s young eyes, but if he believed in her, then she must have been harboring considerable talent.

“…Roo, you got an idea? If you do, I’m all ears.” Elch figured it wouldn’t cost him anything to at least hear her out.

Roo replied in a hesitant tone. “So um, y’see. When Roo heard that merchants in those other countries were buying up lots and lots and lots of shinies and trying to sell them to us for lots and lots of money, she thought it was really strange. ’Cause…there was no way that’d ever work out good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, like, we don’t need lots and lots and lots of shinies, right? We need lots, but not lots and lots and lots. So they gathered up lots and lots and lots, but we don’t need that much.”

“…Oh, I get it.”

“V-Vice Minister? What’s she talking about?”

Elch translated Roo’s young words into something the confused staffers might have an easier time understanding. “Basically, she’s saying that they scooped up every last scrap of gold bullion in the marketplace, but that’s way, way more than we need to mint our new coins. They’re gonna have mountains of it just rotting away in storehouses.”

Roo bobbed her head. “Yup. So someone’s definitely gonna sell it off first. There’s no way their plan can work out good.”

Thanks to Elch’s elaboration, the rest of the Ministry of Finance finally caught on to what she meant.

However…

“That might well be true, but didn’t we decide that this wasn’t just insider trading?”

The staffer had a point. They’d already ruled out the possibility that it was a group of companies trying to buy up gold bullion to sell it off at an enormous markup.

“Even if we assume she’s right, it doesn’t matter any—”

“It’s the same.”

“Huh?”

Roo cut him off. Now her tone was firm and unfaltering. “Maybe it was merchants who bought up the shinies, or maybe it was important guvver-mint people, but either way, it’s the same. ’Cause…it’s not like they all get along.”

“!”

“There’s gonna be someone who wants more, more, more, all for themselves. There’s gotta be.”

When Roo pointed that out, everyone else gasped.

She was inarguably correct.

The relationship between Azure, Lakan, and Freyjagard was by no means a good one.

And with the current, infamously belligerent Lindworm administration, international relations between them were only growing tenser by the day.

If a group of people like that was presented with a delicious apple pie, would they be able to split it three ways amicably? Was their relationship that genial?

Each staffer present asked themselves that same question, and each one there arrived at the same conclusion.

As if.

There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell.

“Sh-she’s right. It’d be weird for a snooty bunch like them to get along and divvy things up equally.”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone broke ranks and screwed the other two over. It’d surprise me if they didn’t.”

“But wouldn’t they write up a contract to prevent that?” one of the female staffers asked.

Elch shot her theory down, though. “…Probably, but even if they did, it wouldn’t be worth the parchment it was written on. Their big excuse is that the companies are buying up all the gold on their own, remember? The governments could never make such an agreement between them public, and that means it’s unenforceable.”

Contracts only worked in worlds that had laws. However, theirs was a lawless scheme conducted in society’s underworld. Any contract they made would be an accord between people involved in tricking others and trapping them into agreements they couldn’t fulfill.

A child’s scribblings were more likely to be honored. And so…

“What Roo’s talking about is definitely plausible.”

“““………”””

The rest of the staff nodded in agreement.

Just as Roo had said, odds were good that someone would screw up their enemies’ plan out of self-interest. The whole finance staff was certain that it was possible and, at the same time, amazed at how such a young girl could be so insightful.

It was no wonder that Masato himself held her in such high esteem. Once again, Elch found himself awed at his classmate’s talent.

Unfortunately…

“But if we pin all our hopes on one of them screwing the others over, and none of them actually do, then it’s curtains for us.”

Roo’s insight was keen, and the future she predicted might well await them. However, in the unlikely event that none of Elm’s enemies broke step, the republic would end up in the worst possible scenario.

When Elch considered that possibility, he knew that their best option would be to ask for Masato’s advice and support as soon as possible rather than gambling on their opponents turning on one another.

“…Looks we need to get Masato’s help after—”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than—

“Wh-wh-wh-what? Huh?! Why?!”

—Roo flew into a panic.

“Wh-why do we need that?!” she frantically insisted.

Elch, thinking that perhaps she was just upset because they weren’t using her plan, gave her a quick answer. “I just said, remember? If we simply wait around for the bad guys to screw up, and they don’t, it’ll be too late. People’s trust in our nation is at stake here, so we can’t afford to take a risk like that.”

It was the same response he gave her before, and that only served to consternate Roo even further.

She replied with an expression like she couldn’t understand a word Elch was saying. “B-but why wait around? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“I-it does make sense. None of the other countries have actually broken their silent agreement yet, right? Sure, someone probably will, but for now, it’s all just a theory.”

“So? That doesn’t matter.”

“Huh?”

This time, it was Elch’s turn to get confused.

Roo wasn’t making any sense. Elch looked into her eyes, trying to figure out what the young girl was trying to tell him…

“It doesn’t matter if Roo’s telling the truth or not. Why should we care? We just want the shinies. So all we have to do is find the person who wants more, more, more and tell them that they’re going to be in trouble. Then they’ll go ahead sell us the shinies.”

…and shuddered.

The moment he realized what Roo was intimating, his whole body trembled with fear. As far as Elm was concerned, it didn’t matter if anyone broke ranks or not.

What was important was that they might.

Because that possibility existed, all they had to do was falsely accuse one of their three foes of doing so, and they could get one of the others, or perhaps even both, to cave for real. Roo had suggested this without a shred of shame and as if it were the most logical conclusion in the world.

“Did Roo say something wrong?” the little girl asked.

“N-no…”

As Roo cocked her head to one side, puzzled, Elch and the other ministry members’ admiration turned to fear.

When they realized that one of the other nations might violate the agreement and sell off their amassed gold first, they all thought the same thing.

Ah, I see. That does seem likely.

Roo’s mind had been the only different one among the bunch. She hadn’t even considered how likely or unlikely it was. The veracity of the situation had never once crossed her mind. To Roo, it didn’t matter. The only thing of consequence was that she could make one of her opponents believe it was true.

No normal child thought that way. No normal person thought that way.

Doing so took a particular natural disposition—the temperament of a picaro.

Many of the Elm Ministry of Finance people were merchants, and because of that, there was something they were sure of. In the not-too-distant future, Roo would be a formidable trader herself…as well as a terrifying villain.

That’s not all. Everyone also understood that the young girl’s plan was their best shot at solving their current predicament.

“Vice Minister!”

“…I’m right there with you.”

With no moves left to play, turning to Masato had been their only option. It was regrettable, but they had accepted it because they had no choice. But now…things were different.

Just as Roo pointed out, there was no way the other three nations truly trusted one another. A few baseless rumors were all it would take for suspicion to take root in their hearts, and once planted, doubt was a weed that was impossible to uproot.

That would be plenty to topple the temporary foreign alliance like a house of cards. Roo’s plan was almost guaranteed to work. And with that being the case, the ministry members knew it would be wrong of them to turn to Masato without giving it a try.

“Looks like Masato’s gonna have to sit this one out a little longer. Roo, we’re adopting your strategy!” Elch declared.

“Hooray!” Roo threw her arms up in a full-body display of joy.

Elch grinned hesitantly at how innocent she looked, then started thinking. “Which means the next question is: Who to con…?”

Jaccoy piped up with a suggestion. “I believe we’ll want to target Mr. Sergei of Azure.”

“Why’s that?”

“Process of elimination. Ms. Shenmei is a skilled merchant by trade, so choosing her as our target is an intimidating prospect. And as for Mr. Rosenlink, he played us for fools, and if we went to negotiate with him, it would expose the fact that we knew about it. Once that happened, he would undoubtedly come to question why we would bring such an offer to a man who once betrayed us. That could cause any number of problems for us. But with Mr. Sergei, we could tell him that Freyjagard broke ranks and came to us looking to make a deal. But because they betrayed us once already, we can’t trust them, nor do we want to. We could tell Sergei that’s why we want to partner up with Azure instead. ‘Freyjagard betrayed us, and now they’re trying to betray you, so we should work together.’ Creating a mutual enemy will make it easier to get them to collude with us.”

“Ah. That makes sense.” Elch nodded. It was no wonder that Jaccoy had once made all of Dormundt his prey.

He was being forced to walk the straight and narrow after losing to Masato and coming under the Seven Luminaries’ rule, but Roo’s words must have awoken the wickedness lurking in his mind. However, the fact that he saw things differently from Elch was precisely what made him such a reliable ally.

“Then it’s decided! We’re heading to Azure to negotiate with Sergei! Ready a ship!”

“““Yeah!!!!”””

Sergei had returned to Azure, so that was where the Elm Ministry of Finance headed to break the three nations’ siege.

There, up on the northern continent, they arranged a meeting with the man in question.

In it, Sergei stood firm in his claim that the gold acquisition was all being carried out by independent companies, so he and his government had nothing to do with it, but Elch responded by spinning him the exact yarn Roo and Jaccoy had come up with.

In short, Elch told Sergei about how the Freyjagard Empire broke the three nations’ secret pact and came to Elm on their own, looking to exchange gold for favorable trade agreements. Naturally, them doing so would cause the price of gold to plummet, and Azure and Lakan stood to suffer tremendous losses.

Not a word of it was true, of course. And yet…that didn’t change the fact that it was undeniably plausible. The three nations’ united plot was by no means strong enough to withstand the suggestion of such a betrayal.

“Rrrrrgh!”

At first, Sergei looked ready to laugh off Elch’s claims as baseless rumors, but as Elch went on, sure enough, the blood began draining from the Azure minister of foreign affairs’ flush-red face.

For a killing blow…

“And we have the proof right here.”

“Wha…?!”

The moment Sergei saw the fake order form Elch had prepared as a prop for the meeting, his panic reached a fever pitch. Just as Roo had pointed out, the truth was by no means a universal constant.

A different “truth” existed in each person.

Upon witnessing the falsified document, Elch’s lie became reality for Sergei. He bellowed with rage, standing up so hard it made his chair topple over. “That dickless punk! He conned me!”

“So you admit that it was your three governments, not the independent companies, who were inflating the price of gold?”

“Urk—”

A pained expression crossed Sergei’s face as he realized the blunder he just made.

Undaunted, Elch went on. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to criticize you for that.”

“What?!”

“If you want to talk about cons, then Elm and Freyjagard secretly conspired to advance the trade conference according to our interests. We’re in no position to judge you. But the one thing I can’t stand for is Freyjagard coming out as the sole winner after they betrayed us. You’re right, Rosenlink is a dickless punk, and we want to see him get what’s coming to him. That’s why we came to Azure.”

As Elch emphasized how much he hated the empire and the empire alone, he slid a second sheet of parchment across the table.

Sergei took it, puzzled. “What’s this…?”

“An order form for gold bullion. The Republic of Elm wants to buy what we need for our new currency from Azure.”

Sergei’s eyes went wide. He scanned the document intently. “This is a lot lower than the current market price…”

“Well, sure. That price is only there because you all illegally inflated it. You can’t honestly expect us to respect it.”

“…W-well, but…”

Sergei faltered, reluctant to part with the gold for so much cheaper than its going rate. However, the moment he failed to reject the offer outright, he’d already fallen into Elm’s trap.

Elch smiled at Sergei’s reaction, then leaned in for the finishing stroke.

He placed his hand atop the order form and scornfully made to retrieve it. “If you’re not interested, that’s fine, too. We’ll just head to the Lakan Archipelago and make them the same offer. If you think you can get the going rate for your gold on the open market, then, by all means, be my guest. But once our offer’s off the table, you’ll be spending every waking minute praying that the empire doesn’t hold a fire sale and cause the price to crash even lower.”

The effect his words had was instantaneous.

“H-hold on a moment!” Sergei grabbed Elch’s arm before he could take the order form back. “F-fine! We accept your terms! Take our gold, I insist! Felix, go fetch me a pen and ink!”

“A-at once, sir!”

His face pale, Sergei shouted over to his majordomo waiting over to the side and accepted Elm’s terms in their entirety.

After concluding his meeting with Sergei, Elch headed back through Kroniskov, the Azure Kingdom capital, and made straight for its port.

“Vice Minister! How’d the negotiations go?!”

“…See for yourself.”

Elch went up onto the ship where Roo and some other Ministry of Finance members were waiting for him and flashed them the document Sergei had signed agreeing to sell Elm the gold he obtained through the Azure trading companies.

They all let out cries of joy.

“We did it!”

“With this, we’ll have all the gold we need…!”

“You showed up big time, little miss!”

“Tee-hee.”

Roo, the architect behind the plan that just saved Elm from the brink of defeat, basked in their praise. Her tail wagged back and forth as the finance administrators tousled her hair.

As Elch watched Roo from a little ways off to the side…he found himself reminded of just how terrifying she was. Thanks to the false charges she levied against the Freyjagard Empire, that innocent little girl had caused smoke where there was no fire and forced Azure out into the open.

Elch didn’t think Roo had done anything wrong. Rosenlink of Freyjagard tricked them first, after all. Turnabout was fair play. However, the only reason he felt that way was because of Rosenlink’s deception. If not for that, would they still have gone along with Roo’s plan? Would they have been able to do so without having it gnaw at their consciences? Elch wasn’t sure.

If Elch could help it, he didn’t want to have to trick or hurt anyone. Conversely, Roo, the one who came up with their plan, had no such qualms whatsoever. That much had been made unmistakable because she’d never once mentioned who they should frame.

As far as Roo was concerned, it didn’t matter.

Even though Elm had been duped, that anger didn’t even factor into her calculations. The only important thing was whether her method would achieve the intended results. That was the only thing Roo had focused on.

What wondrous powers of concentration the little byuma had. What an unerring sense of purpose. That was no doubt what people were talking about when they spoke of “talent.” At the same time, however, there was something Elch couldn’t help but wonder.

Wasn’t a young girl with such massive reserves of potential…just as dangerous as a child with a knife who didn’t know how to use it?

…Masato, you know that, right? Are you just helping her sharpen her blade or teaching her the right way to use it, too?

Elm got the gold they needed. They won. And yet, for some reason, Elch felt a terrible sense of foreboding.

In all likelihood, he had his days as a hunter to thank for that. Living in constant peril had given him a keen sixth sense for when his life was in danger.

While the Ministry of Finance was scurrying all across creation to try to scrape together the gold they needed, Masato holed himself up in his room so he could burn through the mountain of odd jobs and clerical work he’d taken off their hands.

By the time things settled down for him a bit, Elch and the others had already nearly arrived in Azure for their meeting with Sergei.

After taking a bath for the first time in two days and waking up from his thirty-minute catnap, Masato cocked his head to the side.

…Elch’s SOS is late.

Masato had been sure that they’d come asking for help by now. The longer they stubbornly held out, the fewer ways he’d have to assist them when they finally came calling.

He got up from the sofa he’d been napping on, used his hand to corral his hair into some semblance of presentability, and headed for the Ministry of Finance to check up on things.

“Yo, Elch, what’s the…? Wait, huh?”

Much to Masato’s surprise, all he found inside were two young staffers when he opened the door. Typically, there would be at least ten people packed in there. It felt downright deserted.

“Why, if it isn’t Mr. Masato! Did you have something you needed from us?”

“No, not really, I just…” Masato swept his gaze around the room. “Looks like it’s kind of a ghost town around here. Are Elch and the others still runnin’ around trying to find gold?”

“Oh, you’re looking for the vice minister?” The staffer’s expression lit up, and he began talking animatedly. “Well, listen to this! You know the slave girl you rescued?”

“Who, Li’l Roo?”

“Yes, her! When the rest of us were at a complete loss and feeling utterly hopeless, she was the one who showed us the answer! She came up with an idea to use false rumors about the Freyjagard Empire betraying the other two countries and secretly trying to sell us gold to break up our enemies’ alliance!”

“Wha…?”

Masato was so shocked that the words got caught in his throat.

The staffers nodded in satisfaction at his response. She was so young, yet she saved them from the brink of defeat regardless. It made them happy that an angel was sharing their shock.

“I must say, it’s no wonder she caught your eye, Mr. Masato. I’m excited to see what she’ll come up with next! Ha-ha-ha!”

Little did the ministry workers know that Masato didn’t share their sentiment. In fact, their thoughts were wholly opposite.

The staffers were full of admiration and respect for Roo’s precocious deeds. Masato, on the other hand…was full of worry and despair.

“WHEN?!”

“Huh—?”

Masato rushed up to the ministry workers and shouted so loud it hurt their ears.

“When?! When’d they leave?!”

“W-wait, what?”

“Answers! Now!!”

“O-of course! They set out two days ago…!”

“Where to?! Azure?!”

“Th-that’s right, but why—?”

“Dammit, that means they’re there already…!”

Neither of the staffers had ever seen Masato so panicked.

“What’s going on?” they asked, but Masato didn’t answer. There was no time for meaningless chatter.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tried calling Elch.

However—

“That idiot must’ve been so busy he forgot to charge his!”

—it didn’t connect.

Ringo had taken the liberty of remodeling all their phones. A recent satellite they’d launched had drastically increased their network coverage. The Azure Kingdom was well within signal range.

The only reason the call wouldn’t go through was because Elch’s phone ran out of power. That meant the GPS locator would be useless, too.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

“M-Mr. Masato…?”

As he swore, Masato moved on to plan B. This time, the name he tapped on his contact list was Tsukasa’s.

The call connected immediately, and Masato didn’t so much as wait for Tsukasa to greet him. “Tsukasa, shit’s bad! I need a warship, now! And we’ve got that satellite from the missile guidance system, right? Tell Ringo to start scanning the sea route between Elm and Azure ASAP!”

Afterward, Masato, the confused staffers, and a group of soldiers they borrowed from Tsukasa headed out across the waves.

Why was he in such a panic? Nobody else on the vessel knew for sure. As they traveled the midnight sea, they quickly came to understand, however. The sight in the distance made it painfully obvious.

On the horizon sat Elch’s ship, burning crimson atop the jet-black waters. Imperial Mint Director Heinrich von Rosenlink had predicted their every move.

Well, it wasn’t quite fair to say he’d foreseen what Elm’s Ministry of Finance would do. It was more the case that he simply knew just how flimsy his own alliance was.

That was why he kept Shenmei Li close at hand and also why he’d sent spies to follow Sergei when he returned to his homeland. The spies’ instructions were simple: If Elm has contact with Azure, make the preparations necessary to eliminate them by force.

Elch and the others failed to realize just how wicked the measures their partner in peace had prepared were.

As a result, Elch’s ship had been attacked and torched. As for survivors…

“………”

How long had she been out for? Before she realized what was happening, the girl lost in the darkness found that her consciousness had returned to the light. As she woke, blood and ego rushed back through her body, and she slowly opened her eyes.

“Hey, Li’l Roo. You’re up.”

There, she saw the young man who was both her savior and her teacher looking back at her with a relieved expression.

“…Uh…wh…?”

The girl—Roo—was confused.

How had she ended up lying down? Why was Masato watching over her?

She didn’t know.

The last thing she remembered was…

“ !”

Roo’s mind turned, and the memories came flooding back. All at once, she recalled what had happened before everything went dark.

It had looked like the pirate was going to cut her down. Right before he did, though, Elch had come rushing through the flames and tackled him. With the pirate thrown off-balance, Elch wrested his sword from him and turned it on its owner.

Unfortunately, the respite that bought them only lasted a moment.

No sooner had Roo been saved than the pirate ship turned its cannons on the vessel from Elm, and the deck collapsed.

Elch had immediately grabbed Roo tight, but the floorboards were done for. The two were plunged into the sea, and the impact from the fall had struck Roo unconscious.

“T-Teacher…! A-agh…”

“There’s no need to push yourself. It’s nothing serious, but you’re still bruised all over. You should just take it easy for now.”

Hearing that calm, collected voice made Roo realize that Masato wasn’t the only one looking down at her. There was a young man with mismatched eyes, as well—Tsukasa Mikogami.

After Roo was knocked out, Masato and the others hadn’t just nursed her back to health. They had brought her all the way back to Dulleskoff.

“We caught the fleeing pirates, so we have a pretty good handle on what happened. Your ship was attacked by a group of mercenaries under the employ of Mint Director Heinrich von Rosenlink,” Tsukasa explained.

“Is…everyone okay?” Roo asked.

“Thanks to Merchant’s quick thinking, the Ministry of Finance made it out without any casualties. They’re all awake and recovering.”

Then Tsukasa broke the news to the poor girl—seven of the sailors on their ship didn’t make it. In all likelihood, they’d died trying to stop the raiders from boarding.

“And what about the papers?! What about the contract for the shinies?!”

Tsukasa shook his head. “…I’m sorry.”

That contract was the physical embodiment of all their hard work. Elch had tried to protect it, but it had ended up going missing when he fell into the water.

Ringo Oohoshi’s military satellites were good, but not even they could pick out a single scrap of parchment bobbing around the entire ocean.

Without the contract to prove that the deal had been made, the Azure companies would never give them that gold.

Naturally, the remaining staffers had immediately rushed to Azure to try to explain the situation. But when they tried to get the contract reissued…they were utterly unsuccessful. Sergei flipped on them, claiming that he didn’t remember ever having signed anything of the sort. Curiously, he’d looked quite afraid as he made the statement.

Imperial spies must have gotten to him while Elch and the others were beset upon at sea.

Once Roo finished listening to the whole story, fat tears began pouring from her big, catlike eyes. “Waaaah… Hic, waaaah… I’m sorry, Teacher…”

“Hey, Li’l Roo, you don’t have anything to apologize for. That bastard from the empire is to blame here, not you.”

“Exactly. That man will get what’s coming to him; we’ll make sure of that. You can rest easy.”

As Roo sobbed, Masato and Tsukasa gently tried to comfort her.

Going to negotiate with Sergei had been Roo’s idea. Even so, she was hardly to blame for Rosenlink’s debased actions.

However, Roo violently shook her head at their consolations. “If Roo had just thought a little more, none of this would have happened. If she’d used her head, nobody would have died…”

“ !”

The words gave Tsukasa an insight into Roo’s wisdom, momentarily startling him. She wasn’t just sad, nor did she merely feel guilty. Roo knew what she should have done and understood that she’d fallen short of that mark. That was what she was sorry about.

It had tormented the young girl the whole time they’d been talking, ever since she first woke up. And if that was the case…then comforting her would be meaningless.

Masato knew precisely what he needed to say.

And so—

“That’s right.”

—he affirmed Roo’s regrets.

“You were too focused on getting the gold, and you got complacent the moment you figured out how to. The scope of our enemies’ plot shoulda told you how far they’d go to protect it. But you never even considered that Freyjagard might predict another betrayal. Not once did you think they might be watching the other two to see if we made contact, and you didn’t realize that they’d take such extreme measures. All those regrets you feel, that’s stuff you shoulda been able to see coming.”

“…Yeah.”

“There was a predictable threat, and you ran right into it. You screwed up.”

“……Uh-huh.”

“Great. Now reflect on that. What happens next time?”

Roo briskly wiped away her tears with her bandaged arms, then looked straight at Masato with a fire burning in her eyes.

“Roo’s…not gonna mess it up…”

“That’s my girl.”

Introspection wasn’t about wallowing in self-pity. It wasn’t something you did with your head hung down. You were supposed to look straight ahead and etch an unwillingness to ever make the same mistake again into your soul.

Satisfied that Roo understood that, Masato smiled and tousled her red hair. “You think on that long and hard while you’re cooped up in here, ’kay? But once you’re better, your days as a handmaid are over. From now on, I’m putting you to work as my personal assistant.”

“…! ’Kay!”

With that, Masato and Tsukasa left Roo’s hospital room. As they headed toward their respective offices, Masato gave Tsukasa a shrug. “…You hear that? The kid’s reflecting on what she did.”

“Yeah, that was quite a surprise…”

“Man, when I was her age, I was a piece of shit. I wouldn’t know I’d done somethin’ wrong until my parents started shouting at me. And hell, even when I apologized, it was only ever to get ’em off my case. I never actually got that what I’d done was bad.”

“I was similar. Between that and the fact that Roo unraveled the three-nation siege, she’s shaping up to be quite a terrifying young lady.”

“Tell me about it. I bagged myself one hell of a student.”

Roo’s piercing discernment allowed her to identify what was important in any given situation quickly. It was a rare talent.

There were plenty of examples where it had served her well. The way she’d spotted the weak point in their enemies’ alliance was one such instance. Another was when she’d noticed how consignment trading allowed Masato to secure goods and labor at the same time. Most important of all was that Roo had found Masato Sanada in the first place.

However…her ability extended only to the present and the past. She couldn’t see anything beyond that. Foresight, or the ability to predict future events, was something you gained through hard-won experience.

“Li’l Roo can take a scrambled-up puzzle and put it back together in no time, but if you hand her a puzzle that’s missing a piece, she doesn’t know how to picture what’s on it yet. If I leave her to her own devices, her talent’s gonna eat her alive… After that scare, I’m gonna have to keep a closer eye on her for a little while.”

As Masato’s mouth curled into a pained smile, Tsukasa came to a sudden stop beside him. Masato looked back, confused. “I’m sorry,” Tsukasa apologized. “This was all my fault. I shouldn’t have been so insistent about us handing our duties over to the locals.”

A dejected expression worked across Masato as he shot Tsukasa’s apology down. “Come off it, man, we both know that ain’t true. They chose to fight to protect their country of their own free will. You tryin’ to apologize for that is like spittin’ in their faces.

“’Sides, if you wanna talk about who the biggest dumbass was, it wasn’t Li’l Roo for not seein’ the attack comin’, and it wasn’t you for wanting ’em to step up to the plate. Nah, it was the guy who couldn’t deliver when master politician Tsukasa Mikogami put him in charge of the Ministry of Finance. I’m to blame here.”

As he spat out the words, Masato turned to hide his expression from Tsukasa. “I talk a good game about being able to read people, but I misjudged Li’l Roo’s talents. I knew her greed made her strong, but I figured she was still just a kid. Never expected she’d be able to come up with the idea of leveling false accusations against her enemies to throw off their step. Pathetic, right? At the end of the day, even I’m just a slave to my biases and preconceived notions.”

As Masato laid bare his failure, his tone grew more pained. Much like Masato himself had said, foresight was something that came from the accumulation of one’s experiences. He’d recognized Roo’s talents, but in all his life as a merchant, he’d never once encountered anyone with skills surpassing his own. As a result, his main point of comparison for Roo was what he was like at her age.

Masato couldn’t help it, but that was what made him deny it.

For a second, the possibility had floated through his mind, but he’d written it off as expecting too much from her. Doing so had been a bitter mistake. No amount of regret would get the guilt out of his system now.

So what could he do?

There was only one answer.

“This is my mess. I gotta clean it up.”

“Merchant…”

“Don’t try to stop me.”

Tsukasa tried to say something from behind Masato, but the Prodigy businessman shut him down cold.

“Y’know, Tsukasa, I’m pretty self-aware about the kind of power I’ve got. That’s why I can usually just laugh it off when people swipe my money, steal my women, or when my business partners screw me over. But this time, that imperial bastard laid a hand on my employees. He fucked with my family. And you don’t just get away with that. From here on out, I’m handling things my way.”

He looked back over his shoulder and turned his bloodshot, rage-filled eyes toward Tsukasa.

Upon seeing them—

“Fine.”

—Tsukasa agreed to let Masato take care of everything related to the new currency project.

Tsukasa knew there was only one thing that could make his usually levelheaded friend go berserk: having his employees get hurt.

To Masato, his subordinates were the most important thing in the world. Far more so than laws or morality. So whenever anyone wronged them, Masato didn’t show them a shred of mercy. He wouldn’t rest until he stripped the offender of everything they had.

In all likelihood, that was probably part of the reason he’d devoted himself so wholeheartedly to the world of finance. Tsukasa suspected that Masato’s obsession stemmed from his father’s suicide, but whatever the reason, nothing could stop him once he got like that.

Considering the relationship between Elm and Freyjagard, Tsukasa hoped that Masato would avoid taking things too far. Still, he knew that if he tried lecturing Masato, there was a danger that the two of them would end up fighting.

Understanding that, Tsukasa nodded and settled for a gentle reminder. “Just make sure that this doesn’t come back to bite us, okay?”

To that, Masato merely scoffed. “Dead men don’t do a lot of biting.” Ending things there, Masato headed back to the Ministry of Finance on his own.

As Tsukasa watched his friend go, he let out a sigh. If he left Masato to his own devices, the young man was liable to end up crippling the Freyjagard Empire’s economy just to get at Rosenlink.

When such disasters occurred, it was always society’s weakest who took the brunt of the blow. The strong used the weak as shields. If you wanted to cut down the mighty, you needed to be willing to trample over the corpses of the weak to do so.

That was doubtless what Masato intended to do.

Tsukasa respected his friend’s feelings but couldn’t allow that to happen.

…Looks like I’ll need to get involved after all.

So he decided to work out a plan to prevent that. He refused to let Masato’s rampage harm Freyjagard’s innocents. In a sense, Tsukasa had to clean up after Masato’s mess.

However, he didn’t find that fact annoying.

On the contrary, he rather enjoyed it.

He appreciated how Masato’s pure, unadulterated rage allowed him to abandon his own profits and interests for the people he cared about.

Tsukasa knew that he could never be like that.

To him, Masato’s fury was a thing of beauty.

Which means it’s my job…to make sure it finds its way to the right people.

After splitting off from Tsukasa, Masato headed directly for the Ministry of Finance.

The young Devil of Finance already knew of two possible ways to break the deadlock.

The first…would be to use Ringo’s technological prowess to excavate and process a large amount of raw gold from a vein in Elm. During Bearabbit’s geological survey, he discovered a massive, untouched deposit in Buchwald, so that would be easy enough to pull off.

However, that plan had one significant drawback—the deposit was simply too big. Based on their initial calculations, it contained about ten times the gold that currently resided within Elm’s borders. If its existence became public, their neighbors wouldn’t just sit quietly by.

With that much precious metal at stake, a war would almost certainly break out.

Because of that, Tsukasa had chosen to keep the deposit’s presence a secret. At the moment, only the Seven High School Prodigies knew about it. However, that problem only existed if the people from this world got involved.

If the Prodigies had Ringo excavate in secret, they could get their hands on the gold just fine. They could then claim it was one of God Akatsuki’s divine miracles, and people would probably believe them.

Through this method, Elm could fulfill the currency exchange agreement while releasing only the bare minimum amount of gold they needed into the world, avoid causing any unnecessary damage to the economy, and most importantly, avoid provoking their neighbors’ greed. It was assuredly the cleaner method of the two.

Unfortunately, Masato had no intentions of taking it.

He had at first, though. Masato had been fully ready to wrap up the whole situation with a little bow. Unfortunately…his enemy, Rosenlink, had done the unthinkable. By endangering the lives of Masato’s people, he had taken a step he couldn’t rescind.

Now, Masato had no reason to show the imperial any mercy. Without a moment’s hesitation, he settled on plan B. He wanted to burn Rosenlink to the ground.

…Hmph. I knew it from the get-go, but this “public servant” stuff doesn’t suit me one bit.

As Masato derided himself for using his government status to satisfy a personal grudge, he opened the door to the Ministry of Finance.

The atmosphere inside was dark and gloomy. Everyone’s shoulders were slumped with exhaustion and dejection.

“Masato…”

Elch caught sight of the high schooler and looked up with apology plain in his eyes.

“Yo, what’s with all the long faces in here?” asked Masato.

“I’m sorry… We couldn’t get it done without you…”

Masato responded—

“Hoof!”

—by giving Elch a light kick to the groin.

“Hurnbglsrbguxl?!?!”

Even though it was light, the stiff leather of Masato’s boot crashing into Elch’s balls caused the young man to collapse to the floor in agony.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he shouted in protest. “Wh-what the hell was that for?!”

“It’d be one thing if you were a pretty lady, but I ain’t interested in hearing a grown-ass man whimper and moan. Besides, it’s not like apologizing to me is gonna change what needs to get done.”

“…!”

“You still got something you need to do, don’cha?”

Masato’s words made Elch and the rest of the staff look up with a start.

Masato was right. They were the Elm Ministry of Finance. In other words, they carried the weighty responsibility of managing all the republic’s monetary affairs. They could screw up or apologize all they liked. That responsibility wasn’t going anywhere. Nobody was coming to replace them.

This was something that only those assembled here could do. They had to finish what they started.

However…

“Yeah, you’re right. We still have obligations to uphold. But there’s only a week left before the currency exchange, and we can’t fulfill our responsibilities on our own.”

As such, it was clear what they needed to do. Elch looked Masato straight in the eye—

“Masato, please, lend us a hand…!”

—and, in his capacity as vice director, decided to ask the Devil of Finance for help. That was the only way they could do what was required.

Masato nodded in satisfaction and thumped Elch’s back hard enough to sting.

“Yeah. I got this.”

Jaccoy spoke up, still uneasy. “B-but, Masato, the situation is dire! Sergei of Azure keeps insisting that he never sold us that gold. Is it even possible for us to prepare the coins we need before the deadline?!”

Surprisingly, Masato’s expression didn’t darken in the slightest as he offered his outrageous answer. “Oh yeah, no sweat. Hell, we could make ten times that amount with room to spare.”

“““T-ten times?!”””

The staffers began clamoring in disbelief. Even for an angel, was that even possible? Was he going to spin gold out of nothing, as they had with gunpowder?

Such a miracle wasn’t at all part of Masato’s scheme, though.

Perhaps Ringo Oohoshi could have pulled off something along those lines. But while all they could picture were ways to come up with more gold, the plan Masato had in mind went beyond their wildest imaginations. It was a nasty, full-on attack, but it was guaranteed to bring reliable results.

Masato began giving orders. “Listen up, if this is gonna work, I need you all to move fast. Jaccoy! Take the Findolph team and go buy me the items on this list! Chop-chop!”

When Jaccoy scanned the order form Masato handed him, he tilted his head in confusion. “I-I’m afraid I don’t follow… Are you planning on opening a clothing store?”

“There’s no time to explain, but you’ll find out soon enough. Just go and get ’em.”

“O-of course!”

“Elch! Take the Buchwald and Gustav teams with you to Azure and dig up everything you can on Sergei Pavlovich’s economic situation!”

“You mean, like…his personal finances?”

Masato nodded. “Yup. And I’m gonna need to be able to get in touch with you from across the sea, so make sure you keep your damn phone charged.”

“Y-yeah, got it… But what’s all this gonna do?”

“Answer me this. Have you ever known me to do anything pointless?” Masato gave Elch a fearless smile. The grin helped Elch remember.

“Never…!”

Masato was a guy who repeatedly pulled impossible stunts like they were nothing and beamed all the while.

“Archride team, you’re with me. We’re takin’ a trip down to Freyjagard to see Shenmei Li. Assuming she’s got the skills to back up that track record of hers, she should listen to reason. But it’s like Elch pointed out: We’re short on time! From here on out, there’s no breaks till the finish line. If you think you’re sleeping this week, think again!”

“““Yes sir!!!!”””

With a new course charted, the Elm Ministry of Finance whirred back to life under Masato Sanada’s leadership. There were only seven days left until the currency exchange. Squads rushed off to Elm, Freyjagard, Azure, and Lakan, everyone doing their best to get the job done.

Five days had passed since Masato took direct control of the ministry.

The deadline was a mere forty-eight hours away now.

As the Elm Ministry of Finance scrambled, Sergei Pavlovich’s mansion in Azure had a visitor. Between his well-groomed, almost feminine blond hair and the rose he was toying with, it was all but impossible to mistake his identity.

It was the director of Freyjagard’s Imperial Mint, Duke Heinrich von Rosenlink.

He leaned back in the visitor’s sofa and crossed his long legs as he spoke to Sergei, who was sitting across from him. “I see you chose not to reissue the contract, Mr. Pavlovich. I’m glad you took our warning to heart.”

Sweat beaded on Sergei’s forehead as he vehemently denied the claims. “D-don’t get me wrong, Azure and Elm never made any secret arrangement in the first place! When those fools came to me talking nonsense, I threw them out and told them that if they came back, I’d stuff them and hang them on my wall! Whatever your useless lackeys told you, they got it all wrong!” he bellowed, pointing at the men standing behind Rosenlink, the ones who’d been stationed in Azure to monitor Sergei’s actions.

They also organized the mercenary attack on Elm’s ship after Sergei met with Elch. While the boat burned in the sea, they came to Sergei, told him what had happened, and warned him not to reissue the agreement when Elm invariably came asking him to.

A scornful smile played at Rosenlink’s lips. “Oh? How odd. They tell me you made no efforts to keep your voice down when you were shouting about how Freyjagard betrayed you first.”

“I—I have no idea what you’re talking about! I never said anything of the sort! Besides, what proof do you have, labeling me a traitor?! This is slander! These baseless accusations make my patience wear thin! If you don’t have any business with me, then get out!”

Sergei rose off his couch and pounded on the table between them as he blustered. Rosenlink gazed at him with eyes full of disdain. The only way Sergei knew how to negotiate was by intimidating his opponents into submission.

How limited. How inelegant. What a useless man.

In contrast to the scorn Rosenlink felt for the man before him, though, his smile was the very picture of friendliness. “Okay, okay. Then we’ll just call it a misunderstanding and leave it at that.”

“It’s true, though!”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say. You valiantly turned down Elm’s shameless demands and set them on the straight and narrow. How splendid. Truly, we of the empire are fortunate to be blessed with such a good friend.”

“Hmph…!”

Right when Sergei settled back down on his sofa, however, Rosenlink’s tone grew sterner. “But even though things ended without incident thanks to your resolute decision-making, the fact does remain that these proceedings have exposed a potential hole in our alliance. Such gaps must be patched, and that’s the reason I came to your fair country today.”

“Patched? How do you mean?” Sergei inquired.

“Oh, it’s simple, really. We just need you to leave your gold in our custody. If you don’t have it on hand, then you won’t be tempted to sell it.”

“Y-you condescending punk! Treating me like a child…!”

Rosenlink’s plan was no different than a parent putting the nice china out of their child’s reach. Sergei’s anger was entirely reasonable.

“All right, all right, calm down,” Rosenlink replied. “Do let me finish. Azure wouldn’t be the only one doing it. Freyjagard would be in the exact same boat.”

“What?”

“In exchange for letting us take custody of your gold bullion, the Freyjagard Empire will entrust the Azure Kingdom with an equal amount of its own.”

“Huh…?”

Rosenlink’s plan was basically to have them swap gold bullion one-to-one.

Sergei tilted his head to the side, unable to comprehend the meaning of such an exchange.

“What would that even accomplish?”

“The important part is that it isn’t a trade but a temporary lease of an identical sum on either side. When you lease something, you have a duty to return it. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I sold it,’ and expect that to slide. No, no. If either of us fails to return the borrowed gold, there would be considerable penalties involved.”

“So that’s it…!” At that point, Sergei finally understood what Rosenlink was getting at.

By temporarily exchanging ownership rights of their gold and setting up contractual obligations to return it after the date of Elm’s currency exchange, Rosenlink was making it impossible to sell the stuff during that time frame.

“We’ll set the return date as the day after the currency exchange. That way, we can prevent any more unfortunate misunderstandings from taking place.”

“H-hmm…”

When Rosenlink finished talking, Sergei pretended to consider the other man’s proposal carefully. Rosenlink was keen enough to understand that was just for show, however. Sergei wasn’t intelligent enough to carefully contemplate anything.

Right now, the only thing he was pondering was the meaningless reluctance he felt at the prospect of readily agreeing to Rosenlink’s plan. Nothing more.

All it would take was a little push to get him to do exactly what Rosenlink wanted.

“By the way, it was actually Ms. Shenmei who came up with this plan originally. She and I already signed a similar lease agreement. Azure is the only one left. What do you say? Unless you’re planning on doing something underhanded, I don’t see any reason to refuse.”

And sure enough, Rosenlink’s assertion that “everyone else had already done it” was enough to get Sergei to agree. “…Hmph. Fine. I’ll go along with this scheme of yours. I was never planning on betraying you in the first place, and I can’t say I enjoy being the subject of unfounded suspicion.”

“Much appreciated, Mr. Pavlovich. With this, our alliance is truly unbreakable.”

And at that moment, the final method Elm could use to secure the gold they needed by the deadline disappeared for good.

With his meeting with Sergei finished, Rosenlink and his lackeys left the room and headed down the long marble hallway to leave the mansion.

As they walked, one of the lackeys angrily cursed Sergei’s name. “Damn that brazen oaf! First, he gets tricked by Elm’s cajolery, and now he lies to our faces about it?!”

It would have been one thing if Sergei had just played dumb, but what really ground the man’s gears was how Sergei had lied and called him useless.

His master shrugged as he walked beside him. “Oh, settle down. Thanks to your hard work, things ended without incident, so let’s just be happy with that.”

“Without incident… Milord, surely you don’t mean to let that man off the hook?!”

“That was the plan. Is there some problem?”

“M-Milord, I must object! That man, that traitor, tried to betray the glorious Freyjagard Empire! Why should he get to enjoy the fruits of our scheme without having to suffer for that slight? Why, he might even get carried away and claim our achievement for his own!”

Rosenlink agreed. Knowing Sergei, he probably would.

There was a good chance that he’d even end up going to his king and tell him that he was the one who came up with the three-nation plot to entrap Elm.

However, Rosenlink had known that all along. “Good. Let him.”

“What?”

“I see no issue with allowing a shallow simpleton with no talents beyond ranting and raving to get ahead in the world. It’s in our empire’s interests, no? I’d love nothing more than for him to amass more power and influence still. Each time he advances his stature in life, the Azure Kingdom grows that much weaker.”

“………!”

“Besides, his debt will come due in time. Freyjagard will bring Azure to its knees someday, and his incompetence will be an invaluable asset in facilitating that.”

When people in other countries rose to positions of authority they were ill-equipped to handle, it was something to be celebrated.

Rosenlink had no reservations about helping such a man succeed.

After all, what better ambush could there be than a person who was stupid and industrious situated in the enemy’s own ranks?

Rosenlink understood that full well. That was why he was letting Sergei’s betrayal slide. He knew the day would eventually come when he took everything Sergei held dear.

However…

“But that’s still a ways off. For now, our focus lies with Elm. By trading ownership rights of the gold, we successfully removed it from play. No matter how Elm struggles, there’s simply no way for them to get what they need for the currency exchange meeting in Laurier in two days. When they fail, public trust in their nation will plummet. They’ll have no choice but to accept whatever scraps we offer them.” Rosenlink chuckled to himself as he reached for the door at the end of the hallway.

Through it, there was a reception area for people waiting for an audience with the minister. It was the quickest way to get to the mansion’s front entrance.

When Rosenlink opened the door, he was greeted by a most unexpected face.

“Hmm?”

“Oh?”

Two people were sitting on the sofa in the reception area.

One of them was a tall young man with black combed-back hair.

He was one of the angels who’d founded the Republic of Elm, as well as the mediator from the trade conference in Laurier a short while back—Masato Sanada.

The other was the byuma boy who’d attended that same conference as Elm’s representative, Elch.

Rosenlink was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovered and greeted them as if they were old friends. “Well, well, well! If it isn’t an angel of the Seven Luminaries and Elm’s vice minister of finance! What a strange coincidence, meeting you two here! I must say, I imagine it’s been a rough few days for you all. Who’d have imagined that the price of gold would explode right when you needed it to mint your new coins? The market can be a harsh mistress.”

Masato shot the imperial a sarcastic smile. “Yeah. Thanks to you.”

“Oh? What do you mean by that? As I’ve explained to your people time and time again, the gold price increase was all the work of individual companies. My government and I had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Although, heh, given that an angel had to come here himself, I take it the uneducated band of peasants wasn’t up to the task of running a country?”

“…!”

“Nah, we never expected them to be perfect from the get-go. Me bein’ here was well within expectations… Though I am kicking myself for not gettin’ involved before you pulled your little stunt.”

“Hmm? And what stunt might that be?”

As Rosenlink continued playing dumb, Masato dropped his voice an octave and bared his quiet fury. “You did a real number on my people out on the sea the other day.”

Rosenlink responded with an expression that seemed almost amused and an affected tilt of the head. “Dear me. Are you talking about the tragic pirate attack that took place between Elm and Azure a few days ago? As I’ve already made quite plain, Freyjagard had nothing to do with that, either.”

“You know we have full confessions from the perpetrators, right?” pressed Masato.

“All baseless nonsense, I’m sure. People like that will tell you whatever they think you want to hear,” countered Rosenlink, maintaining his facade.

“Piracy in and of itself is a capital offense. Between that and the casualties, those raiders are getting the death sentence. You’re telling me you don’t feel even a shred of guilt about that?”

“Why are you so insistent that I was pulling their strings?” Rosenlink sighed and gave his shoulders an exaggerated slump. “I must say: It’s really quite rude. Are you saying you trust the word of brigands spewing baseless garbage to escape punishment over Freyjagard’s official statement? That’s low, my friend. It’s a slight I’m afraid I can’t overlook. You would accuse me—a man grieving for your fallen sailors and working night and day to enforce the law and public order atop the waves—of allying himself with pirates?! Why, I’ve never been so insulted in all my life! If you’re going that far, then I must insist that you produce proof that I was the one who gave them their orders. And definitive proof, mind you!”

As Rosenlink demanded that Masato provide evidence of his culpability, he strode up to Masato so close he could feel Rosenlink’s breath.

“You do have a method of validating your accusations, don’t you? I mean, you would have to. Saying all that without a shred of information to back it up, well. The international community won’t look kindly on an uncouth upstart nation casting baseless aspersions of piracy against a lauded Imperial Duke.”

“………”

“Where’s this proof of yours? Come on, let’s see it. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!”

“………………”

As Rosenlink challenged the charge leveled at him, his tone grew increasingly spiteful and mocking.

Masato just stood there silently. What else could he do? He had no proof firm enough to pin down a man who shrugged off confessions by the perpetrators themselves.

Silence was his only resort, his only option.

Upon seeing that—

“…Bwah, bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!”

—Rosenlink let out a maniacal cackle.

“Nothing, then?! How utterly pathetic! And I’m to believe this waste of space is an angel?! Ah-ha-ha-ha! It’s perfectly laughable!”

“M-Milord?!”

Watching their master drop his usual affectation and reveal his true self sent Rosenlink’s lackeys into a panic.

Rosenlink paid them no heed, however, instead choosing to prod Masato in the chest with his index finger repeatedly. “Cat got your tongue, hmm? ‘Our government had nothing to do with the gold price spike.’ ‘The pirate attack was just a sad stroke of misfortune.’ Ah-ha-ha-ha! What idiot would believe that farce?! Please, that many coincidences in a row, all benefitting us? Obviously, it was all our doing!”

“Milord, listen to what you’re saying!”

Rosenlink’s underlings went pale as sheets and tried to get him to shut up.

“Oh, it’s fine.” Rosenlink waved them off unconcernedly, then looked at Masato with contempt in his eyes. “Even dullard commoners could figure out that we were the masterminds behind all of this. But even so, they lack the proof to accuse us of anything! That’s why he’s just standing there with his mouth clamped shut! Why, I can stand here and confess to everything, and not a word of it will stand as evidence! ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ I’ll just say! ‘I’m afraid you must be mistaken’!”

Rosenlink’s utter lack of shame was enough to make Elch snap. “You lying son of a—huh?!” However, just as he was about to grab Rosenlink by the collar, Masato reached out his arm to stop him. “Why?!” Elch protested, but Masato kept his hand raised.

“Heh, at least you aren’t as ignorant as your little mutt, ‘angel.’ He’s right—everything I’m saying is a complete and utter fabrication. But planning and scheming to let your falsehoods go unquestioned is precisely what diplomacy—why, history itself—is all about!”

History was written by the winners, no matter how ugly and cruel the actual reality was. That was just as much the case here as it had been on Earth. Museums proudly displayed works of art their nations pillaged in war. Leaders would extol the values of peace atop land they stole from their enemies with violence and slaughter. Society was quick to condone such actions and leave things like truth and justice as mere afterthoughts, cheap trinkets that the victors could repaint and change to their tastes. In essence, victory was the truth. And as such, nothing they pinned to Rosenlink would stick.

Masato knew that. The longer he stayed silent, the more elated Rosenlink grew.

“I imagine you came here today to try to swindle that dimwit Sergei again, but you’re a day late and a rook short. With the key to his treasury safely in my hands, he couldn’t betray us if he wanted to! And Lakan is no different. Struggle all you like, that gold is forever beyond your reach! What are you going to do, angel? Where are your miracles now?! Ah-ha-ha-ha!” Confident of his victory, Rosenlink cackled with glee.

Masato’s answer was swift.

“AAAAAACHOO!!”

“………”

With a mighty sneeze, he launched a fat, point-blank payload of mucus-rich saliva directly into Rosenlink’s face.

“Whew! Ah, my bad. I’ve been working like a madman these past few weeks, and I think it’s makin’ me come down with something. But hey, you’re the one who got all up in my face, so you only have yourself to blame.”

“Wh-why, you little shit!!” shrieked Rosenlink.

“M-Milord! You mustn’t!”

Rosenlink’s face flushed red with rage, and his lackeys had to quickly run over and stop him before he could swing his raised fist at Masato. “Unhand me! This rat dared to sneeze in my noble face!”

“Milord, please, calm down! You can’t strike a foreign leader!”

“Your pal’s got a point there,” Masato said as he grinned. “Plus, all your yapping’s drawn quite a crowd. Dunno if you’d be able to keep this many people quiet, y’know?”

“…!”

The words brought Rosenlink back to his senses. He looked around. As was to be expected from the clamor he was making, many of the mansion’s maids were staring at him with troubled expressions. Rosenlink awkwardly cleared his throat, now understanding that he’d gotten carried away.

Upon seeing that, Masato gave him a pacifying smile in the most condescending way he could. “Besides, there’s no need to get all worked up. Our deadline’s just around the corner one way or the other. Gotta save some of that energy for the big day, am I right?”

“Oh yes, I’m looking forward to the settlement date quite a bit. Until then, enjoy your futile struggle!” Anger flashed across Rosenlink’s face, but he merely spat out one last threatening remark before heading for the entranceway and exiting the reception area. The double doors slammed behind him as he left.

Filled with anger and left with nowhere to direct it, Elch slammed his fist into the table. “Dammit! That bastard showed his true colors…!”

When he did, the table shook, knocking Elch’s LCD phone onto the floor.

The moment it did, Elch turned to Masato as though something had just dawned on him. “H-hey, you can set it so these things remember conversations that happen around them, right?! Did you piss him off on purpose so you could record his confession?!”

Masato was a shrewd guy. Maybe that was why he’d let Rosenlink go off like that. However, Masato just tilted his head in confusion. “Huh? Why would I do that?”

“Wh-why…? To prove all that evil stuff he did, why else?!” Elch insisted.

“That wouldn’t prove squat. This world doesn’t have audio recording tech, so if we tried to use it to pin the blame on Rosenlink, he’d be able to weasel his way out of it for sure. Plus, even if we did get the bastard to confess, it wouldn’t amount to much.”

“It wouldn’t?”

“Nah. He’d just give some bullshit apology and pay some reparations to Elm and the dead sailors’ families. And the money wouldn’t even come out of his own pocket. He’d get off scot-free.”

In Masato’s eyes, that was utterly unacceptable.

“…He’s not escaping that easy. Not by a long shot.”

“M-Masato…” When he saw the dark flames smoldering in Masato’s eyes, Elch gasped.

Masato responded with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, just watch. We’re gonna take that long-haired prick and make his blood run cold.”

“Sir, you have some merchants from the Berkutsk Trading Company asking for an audience.”

After Rosenlink had left, Felix the majordomo passed along the information he got from the maid working in reception.

Sergei tilted his head. “Berkutsk? Never heard of them. What do they want?”

“They say they’re here about the Dmitri Glass Atelier’s overdue payments for some wholesale silica.”

Sergei clicked his tongue. “…Tch.” So that was it.

It happened three years ago.

Even though Sergei knew nothing about fine art, one of his noble friends had gotten him hooked on crafting. Back then, he’d decided to sponsor a glass workshop in exchange for them putting some of his original works up for sale. Unfortunately, the world wasn’t ready for Sergei’s genius, and he ended the whole venture firmly in the red.

Not only did Sergei fail to turn a profit, but he also hadn’t even come close to recouping his costs. As a result, he was saddled with a tremendous due that he’d yet to pay off. And that wasn’t the only place he owed money, either.

Thanks to his personal excesses and several similarly failed business ventures, Sergei was up to his eyeballs in debt. Surprisingly, he generally didn’t spare that fact much thought, however. After all, he was a powerful cabinet minister of the Azure Kingdom. No bill collector could possibly threaten him. As such, Sergei saw little reason to repay his obligations at all.

To him, other people’s coffers were bottomless piggy banks he could draw from as he liked. But now, his next visitor was committing the outrageous act of demanding repayment.

How dare they. Absurd, egotistical anger welled up in Sergei’s heart. “Those lowly traders think they can demand money from me? Azure’s minister of foreign affairs? The nerve.”

“Shall I turn them away, sir?” asked Felix.

Sergei shook his head. “No, let them in. I want to give them a piece of my mind.”

Wasting no time, Sergei got to pondering what he should make these upstart money lenders do. Kneel before him? That went without saying. It was only reasonable, given the grave offense they were guilty of. Then he would grind his boots into their heads. That would brighten his mood back up for sure.

Much to Sergei’s surprise, the ones who appeared before him as he indulged in his egotistical daydreams—

“Yo. It’s been a couple weeks, Minister.”

—were none other than Masato Sanada and Elch from the Republic of Elm.

Sergei’s eyes went wide. He bellowed at the butler who’d escorted them there. “Wha—?! Y-you two…from Elm?! Felix! What’s the meaning of this?!”

“I-I’m dreadfully sorry, sir… I’m afraid I didn’t know…”

“C’mon, man, we both know you’d never have let us in if we told ’em we were comin’ to get you to reissue the gold sale agreement.”

As Masato nonchalantly barged into the room, Sergei rose from his sofa in rage. “Silence! I never made any such deal! In fact, I have no idea what you’re even talking about! Felix, throw these fraudsters out this moment!”

“A-at once, sir!”

Felix did as instructed and grabbed Masato by the shoulder. However…

“You sure that’s a good idea, bud?”

“?!”

“You were there when they signed the papers, so you know who’s tellin’ the truth here. When that fact comes to light…you sure you wanna be the guy who has to take responsibility for throwing a foreign representative out on his ass under false pretenses?”

“I—I…”

Felix shrank back at Masato’s threat.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Felix’s heartless master continued roaring. “Get him out of here!”

Sweat beaded up on the majordomo’s forehead. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

His ray of salvation came when Masato finally spoke. “Eh, whatever. If you wanna stick that badly to your story that the deal never happened, then have it your way.”

Upon hearing him nullify their agreement, Sergei’s eyes went wide, too. “What was that…?” He wanted to make sure he hadn’t misheard.

Masato’s second answer was the same as his first. “I’m saying it’s fine. You win. Azure never agreed to sell gold bullion to Elm… After all, it’s not like the deal was ever that legit to begin with. We got you to sign it by flashing you a counterfeit contract, so you’re well within your rights to cancel it.”

Sergei tilted his head to the side.

Why was Masato confessing to this? He was intentionally putting himself at a disadvantage.

No matter the angel’s reasons, Sergei was more than happy to have that accord vanish. He agreed without a moment’s delay. “Th-that’s right. I’m glad to hear you’re willing to see reason. That agreement is null and void!”

“Yup, that’s fine… But not honoring your legitimate contracts, now that’s a whole other can of worms.” A chilling smile spread across Masato’s face as he sat down on the sofa across from Sergei’s. “When we told the maid at reception why we’re here, that was God Akatsuki’s honest truth. Your debts are coming due, friend. We’re here to collect every last celis we lent you.” Masato pulled dozens of parchment sheets out of his bag and slid them across the table to Sergei.

“Huh?” Sergei replied, not entirely understanding what was happening. It was a natural reaction. After all, he had never once borrowed Masato’s money. Why was he making such an absurd claim? “What nonsense are you going on about…? Whaaaaat?!?!”

When Sergei reflexively glanced down at the forms, however, his eyes went wide with shock. Each sheet was one of the promissory notes he himself had written for formality’s sake when he went out and ripped off an Azure Kingdom company.

“Why do you have those?!”

Masato’s answer was simple. “We bought ’em.”

“Y-you…what?”

“That’s right. As Elm Trading Company, we went around to Berkutsk and all the other companies you owe money to and paid them for the rights to your debt.”

“Y-you can’t just go and do that…!”

“Sure we can. A credit is a creditor’s asset—they can do whatever they want with ’em. Don’t worry. We’ve got letters of intent to transfer obligations from them, too. Legally, we’re all squared away.”

To demonstrate, Masato flashed him the signed documents detailing how Sergei’s former creditors had transferred the rights to his dues over to Elm Trading Company.

“Heh… Y’know, it’s funny. All of ’em sold us the rights for a song, and they thanked us while they signed the papers. After all, you’re a pretty big deal in the Azure Kingdom. They can’t turn you down when you ask for money, and they can’t wring it out of you when payments are expected. I mean, you wanna talk about nonperforming loans? All these bad boys were over a year out of date. They were happy to get anything out of ’em. But that power of yours stops at Azure’s borders. A foreign firm like Elm Trading, see, we don’t have to put up with your bullshit. So it’s time to pay the piper. With interest, that’s seventy million celis of debt you’re looking at.”

“ !”

In terms of gold, that was a mind-boggling sum of seventy thousand coins. Even if Sergei sold off every asset he owned, it wouldn’t cover even half that amount.

Naturally, collecting on the debt had never been Masato’s true goal. He merely wanted to gather up and inflate Sergei’s bills so that the man would give him the floor. It was similar to becoming a major shareholder in a joint-stock company.

In the world of business, this was a reasonable, legitimate tool used all the time. Unfortunately, therein lay the problem.

“Why the hell should I have to pay money to the likes of you…?! That debt is void, all of it!” Sergei was not the sort of man who would just listen to logic. In the face of such overwhelming egotism, all those dues were little more than scraps of paper.

Masato’s actions had been like trying to have a conversation with a baboon. They simply held no common ground.

Enraged, Sergei grabbed at the promissory notes to try to rip them up.

However, Masato was the Prodigy businessman who would wheel and deal his way through the fiercest gambling dens on Earth. He knew a way to make belligerent beasts listen to reason. All you had to do was show them that you held power over their very lives.

So what was it that enabled Sergei’s rampant narcissism?

Masato saw through him like a window, and he used that knowledge to deal a decisive blow.

“If you can’t pay, then I guess we’ll just have to take these up with your king.”

Sergei’s face, which had been scarlet with fury, instantly went pale as a sheet. That one sentence had struck him right in the vitals. “Huh?! Wh-why get the king involved?! He has nothing to do with this!”

“He’s got everything to do with it. You’re one of Azure’s cabinet ministers. So when you screw up too bad, sometimes your government has to come clean up your mess. And I gotta say, it isn’t a great look having a high-ranking official massively in debt to a foreign company. Your king’ll probably want to step in, if only to save face. Compared to Azure’s national budget, what you owe is just a drop in the bucket. But chew on this…” Masato gave Sergei a cruel smile and a scornful laugh. “Wanna guess what he’ll think of you afterward?”

The foundation of Sergei’s egotism was the high status he held.

His role as minister of foreign affairs let him get away with all the things that he did. If the king ended up having to come to save him, though, his political life would be over. He’d be ruined. In other words, that was Sergei Pavlovich’s weakness.

Taking full advantage of that vulnerability, Masato spoke words that even a belligerent baboon like Sergei would understand. “C’mon, Elch. Let’s go pay the king a visit.”

“W-wait! Wait, please!!!!” At that point, Sergei’s attitude was a complete one-eighty from the aggressive stance he’d had earlier. “Please, I beg of you! Anything but that! Th-that would destroy me! I’m on my hands and knees here!”

“Then, are you gonna pay up?” Masato inquired.

“I, er, well, that’s…”

“You can’t, I know. We looked into your finances. You could sell off your furniture, your house…even your cute little granddaughter, and it wouldn’t be enough. Sad to say, you’re not leaving me a whole lot of options here. You won’t pay the money, but you don’t want me to go to the king, either. How do you think that’s supposed to play, huh?”

“I—I…I’m sure we can work something out!”

Sergei bowed his head low as he begged for mercy.

Once he’d realized that he didn’t hold the upper hand, his arrogance had vanished with surprising speed.

There was no shortage of people in the world who would dash themselves against the rocks to preserve their dignity. Masato mused that perhaps Sergei’s utter lack of pride—or to put it more generously, his flexibility—was the talent that had allowed a man of his incompetence to rise as high in the world as he had. One way or another, though, seeing the Azure official prostrated brought Masato little joy. “Here’s the deal. You meet my demands, and I might be willing to write off the debt.”

Now Masato was finally getting to the true reason he’d come there.

“…Right now, your job is to shut up and listen. As you might guess, I’m here about the currency exchange.”

“It pains me to say this, but if you want me to sell you our gold…I’m afraid I can’t. It’s the ownership rights, you see, I…”

“Handed ’em over to Freyjagard, right?”

“Wh—?! You knew about that already?”

“I took a detour down to Freyjagard before coming here and had a little chat with the nice Lakan lady. She told me all about it, how you were each leasing out gold from the others so none of you could sell it before the exchange date. Secret contracts aren’t worth jack, but there’s no need to keep it secret this time around. It’s a little weird, sure, but I’m sure you could come up with some bullshit excuse why you all needed to lease gold from one another. And since it’s on the level, that means it’s legally binding. Not a bad plan… But don’t worry. I’m not here for your gold.”

“Y-you aren’t? Even though the deadline is just two days away?”

“Yup. And if you let me talk, I might even be able to explain why.”

“In that case…please, go ahead. The floor is yours.”

Now that Sergei was finally ready to listen, Masato laid out everything to him. He detailed how the sudden spike in raw gold’s price had sent the Republic of Elm into a crisis. He also revealed the all-or-nothing plan they were going to use to get out of it.

“W-wait, hold on a minute, have you lost your mind?! That’s utterly preposterous… There’s no way it will work…!”

The scheme sounded like little more than a bad joke. It was ridiculous enough to make anyone from this world break out into laughter.

Two days had passed since Masato and Elch’s meeting with Sergei.

Now all the members who attended the trade conference were once more gathered in the Gustav domain’s Port Town Laurier. The deadline was upon them. Elm was finally going to put their newly issued goss up for exchange. Freyjagard’s representative, Rosenlink, was naturally in attendance.

“It’s finally time, Duke Rosenlink!”

A horse-drawn carriage with the Freyjagard imperial crest emblazoned on its side leisurely made its way through Laurier.

Inside, one of the merchants accompanying Rosenlink spoke with an elated expression. “We haven’t received a single report about the Elm government successfully acquiring any gold. It seems clear that they’ve failed to provide the promised currency.”

“I should certainly think so.” Rosenlink smiled knowingly. “Our efforts made sure of that.”

Everything was proceeding in exact accordance with his plan. That angel had certainly talked big about needing to save some energy for the momentous day, but in the end, Elm had failed to accomplish anything.

“The Republic of Elm boasts of being a legitimate nation, but they failed to honor even the simplest of contracts and mint their currency,” Rosenlink stated. “Surely, that will be enough to show the world how dangerous it is to allow such an immature country to introduce a new money into the marketplace freely. Monitoring from a more…established nation is essential to prevent things from descending into madness. Of course, such a role would no doubt demand compensation.”

“So you’re saying…we won’t just cause the value of Elm’s currency to fall, but we’ll be able to observe their minting process and bleed them dry off the labor costs?”

“I must say, Lord Duke, your shrewdness sends shivers down my spine,” said one of Rosenlink’s adherents.

“But will Elm really allow us to meddle like that?” wondered another.

“If they refuse, all the better,” Rosenlink replied to his fellow carriage passenger’s concern. “That would allow us to brand them as malicious actors, harming economic stability across the continent and in our three nations. We could impose heavy sanctions against them…and nullify the peace treaty that spineless Blue Grandmaster signed.”

“Ah, I see…!” exclaimed the one who’d asked the question.

“Truly, your brilliance knows no bounds,” complimented a different underling.

“I should think not. My veins run rich with superior, well-pedigreed blood. For people, pedigree really is everything. How else would my family have held such distinguished titles across so many generations if not for the excellence of our lineage? If our nation weren’t in the hands of that nobody of a Blue Grandmaster, we would never have had our land plundered by a band of peasants, and we similarly would never have signed that laughingstock of a nonaggression pact. I’m sure our nation’s first kaiser, Emperor Gottfried, is rolling in his grave.”

“You’re absolutely right.”

“If you highborn Bluebloods had been in charge, the empire would never have been bested by that common trash.”

“Of course not. And as imperial nobles of the great Freyjagard Empire, we Bluebloods have a solemn duty to set our nation back on the path of righteousness in Emperor Gottfried’s illustrious name. The task before us is simple. We have to oust the Four Grandmasters…and off that idiot warmonger who handed them our country’s reins in the first place.”

“““……!”””

The merchants all gawked at Rosenlink in wordless shock. It was a natural reaction. After all, he had just alluded to having the emperor killed. Such a statement was unforgivable, even for a prestigious aristocrat such as Rosenlink.

However, the merchants’ silence didn’t seem to faze Rosenlink in the slightest. “Once we’ve dealt with him, we can deliver our leader and the late emperor’s nephew, Archduke Weltenbruger, to his rightful place at the throne, and he’ll return the Freyjagard Empire to the way it should be. Doesn’t that just sound wonderful?” As Rosenlink continued toying with the rose in his hand, he laid out the Bluebloods’ actual plan.

They weren’t just a group dedicated to opposing the Four Grandmasters, whose questionable origins hadn’t stopped them from stealing the seats that imperial nobles had monopolized for generations. No, they were a radical organization seeking to overthrow the emperor who put them there and take Freyjagard for themselves. In a nation that revered its emperor as the untouchable apex of humanity, their way of thinking was in complete defiance of its laws.

The merchants went pale, though that only lasted for a moment. After a short silence, the oldest of the group steeled himself and spoke up. “…If I may be so bold, Emperor Lindworm’s war-loving ways are a blight on our nation. The taxes we merchants have suffered to support his campaign are downright crippling.”

After the first stone had been tossed, the other traders all voiced their support of the Bluebloods’ cause one after another.

“That barbarian Lindworm stamped out his own family when he took the throne. By any reasonable metric, you Bluebloods are the true inheritors of the empire’s will.”

“If you ever need our help, we’d be happy to answer the call.”

Rosenlink had expected nothing less. The nobles and wealthy merchants of Freyjagard had been closely linked for generations. If the aristocrats were a great tree, then the traders were like parasitic mistletoe sponging off of it. They didn’t much care who filled the emperor’s throne. Without the nobles, though, they’d never have been able to enjoy the stability they’d had up until then. And they understood as much quite well.

It was only a matter of course that they would side with the highborn over their tax-guzzling, warmongering emperor.

“I’ll be counting on it.” Rosenlink nodded in satisfaction. “But before we worry about the kaiser, we have those Elm pests to crush.” He opened the carriage door. Beyond the aperture was his destination: Laurier City Hall.

After alighting from the carriage, Rosenlink and his entourage made their way to the building’s courtyard. The Elm, Azure, and Lakan Archipelago delegations were all waiting for them inside.

“Hello there, everyone! Ever so sorry for the wait,” Rosenlink greeted them.

The dark-haired byuma Shenmei Li shot him a reproachful comment. “You certainly took your sweet time.”

“If you insist on pointing fingers, blame Elm,” Rosenlink shamelessly replied. “Their roads are in such poor shape that one of my carriage’s wheels came off on the ride up here. It took a while to get it back on.”

That was a barefaced lie. For someone of such elevated pedigree, being forced to wait on the riffraff would have been the height of humiliation. Out of consideration for that fact, Rosenlink had planned it out so that he would arrive at city hall well after the prescribed meeting time.

“Well, at least the seigniorage from today’s currency exchange should give Elm a tidy little windfall. Maybe they’ll have enough to finally maintain their high streets. As your neighbors, I must say, it’s a little embarrassing.”

They were big words, coming from a man who’d expended no small amount of effort obstructing that very exchange. Elch was as short-tempered as ever, and his eyebrows twitched. The first one to speak up, however, was Masato.

“I do apologize about that. Well-maintained roads are the backbone of a strong infrastructure, which is why we’re planning on completely remodeling ours over the next year. I hope you’ll forgive any of their shortcomings in the interim.” After deftly handling Rosenlink’s snide remark in a level, formal tone, he turned to the rest of the assembled group. “And thank you all for coming such a long way to be here. Today, we’ll be conducting the goss currency exchange as agreed in the previous trade conference. Before that, though, I’d like to go back over a few details about the agreement signed in the preceding conference and the exchange rates detailed within. Allow me to read the relevant parts back—”

“Oh, enough of that nonsense,” someone interrupted. Unsurprisingly, it was Rosenlink. With an expression that was the very image of boredom, he urged Masato to pick up the pace. “Come on, we all know what the contract says. And we’re all busy people here. Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?”

From Rosenlink’s perspective, it was plain as day that Elm hadn’t been able to manufacture the coins. Playing along with Masato’s long-winded introduction would be meaningless.

“It was a stroke of bad fortune that the price of gold rose so precipitously at the very moment you found yourselves in need of quite a lot of it. However, the Republic of Elm is a member of the international community whose independence was recognized by my own nation’s Blue Grandmaster. I had the utmost confidence that you could overcome whatever difficulties were lying in the path of fulfilling your obligations as an autonomous state. So come on! Let’s see this new currency of yours already!”

Even though Rosenlink had confessed just days before that he was the one behind Elm’s inability to procure gold, he now feigned innocence and spat hollow statements about how much he trusted the young country. It was a calculated ploy to drive Elm into a corner once they failed to make good on their contract. Every last word that came out of the nobleman’s mouth was steeped in malice.

Masato responded to that twisted man’s demand—

“As you wish.”

—with a concise, decisive acknowledgment. He turned to one of his men and told him to bring the money.

“Huh?”

Rosenlink’s eyes went wide. Masato’s unhesitant response threw him for a loop.

What’s going on…? Why did the angel accept the demand so readily? Rosenlink was confident that Elm had failed to obtain the necessary metal and was unable to mint their coins. As such, they obviously couldn’t carry out the exchange. They should have been trying to delay it until the bitter end.

Surprisingly, Elm agreed to go forward with it without question. And now, right before Rosenlink’s eyes, they were wheeling a large, cloth-covered cart over. Given its heft, there was unquestionably something piled up under that sheet.

Could it be…? Did they figure out some way to get their hands on gold bullion…? Rosenlink immediately discarded that notion. It was impossible. Azure and Lakan didn’t have the rights to their own gold anymore. Furthermore, Rosenlink hadn’t gotten any reports about the previous metal being moved out of their storehouses, so he knew Elm definitely couldn’t have gotten their gold from the other foreign states.

Besides that, the only way he could imagine them getting enough gold would be scooping up foreign currency from domestic Elm companies and melting it down for its raw materials.

Depending on how aggressive they were about it, getting enough gold that way wouldn’t be impossible. However, Rosenlink’s spies would have surely noticed something if Elm had tried to pull off an operation that elaborate. It was hard for Rosenlink to imagine his agents missing something like that. That being the case…

They’re just backed into a corner and making a final, desperate ploy…!

There was certainly something piled atop that cart, but odds were that they’d taken the little bit of gold they scraped together and mixed it with all kinds of inferior metals to make coins that were gold in little more than name alone. That was Rosenlink’s new theory. If he was right, then it posed no issue to him.

Rosenlink possessed enough foresight to bring along an Imperial Prime Baptist from the Imperial Mint who could check the gold’s purity. Their magic made it possible to conduct the test right then and there.

The trap he concocted was perfect. There was no way for Elm to get out of it. No such escape route even existed. After going back over his scheme one last time, Rosenlink was more certain of that than ever. Much to his astonishment, though, his confidence was wholly misplaced.

For hidden beneath the sheet and atop the cart—

“Here you have it. The Republic of Elm’s answer to gold and the rook—goss.”

—was something that defied every expectation and shred of common sense in Rosenlink’s mind.

“Huh…? Wh-what exactly are those supposed to be?!”

Masato had ripped off the sheet. When Rosenlink had seen what was stacked there, he was utterly dumbfounded. Then, a moment later, he’d let out a shocked yelp.

“They’re goss. Isn’t that obvious?” Masato replied.

Goss. The official Elm currency the delegates had examined during the trade conference.

What sat on the cart couldn’t possibly be the same money. After all…

“Th-that’s preposterous! Th-those are nothing more than scraps of paper!”

Stacks of paper had been set on the trolley instead of proper metallic coins. Each one had Akatsuki’s face printed on it.

“You expect me to believe that’s currency? Are you out of your mind?!” Rosenlink shrieked.

“I’m sorry, is there a problem?” Masato needled.

“Of course there is! Do those look like coins to you?!” the Freyjagard representative fumed.

“It’s obvious that they aren’t,” Shenmei replied. “But is there some reason they should be?”

“WHAT?!”

As Rosenlink roared in indignation, Masato tilted his head to the side as if he was unable to understand why the other man was mad. “Good grief. Weren’t you the one who said we didn’t need to go back over the contract?”

With a sigh, Masato held out the contract that Rosenlink had so rudely stopped him from reading aloud.

“This here is the agreement you all signed at the trade conference. As you can see, all it says is ‘one goss shall be traded to the Freyjagard Empire at a rate of one goss to one rook, to the Lakan Archipelago at a rate of one goss to one and one-third ira, and to the Azure Kingdom at a rate of one goss to one and one-quarter celis.’ It doesn’t make any mention whatsoever of precious metals or what form the currency must take. In other words…there’s no reason why our money should have to be coins minted out of gold.”

“““……?!?!”””

Rosenlink and all the Freyjagard merchants accompanying him stared blankly at the Republic of Elm’s absurd claim. What was the angel even talking about? It was so ridiculous that they weren’t even sure what to make of it at first. However, their confusion only lasted a moment. Before long, a different emotion rose up inside them and overtook their anger and surprise.

“““…Heh. Heh. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”””

Amusement and scorn came pouring from their mouths.

“Ah, so that’s it! You weren’t able to procure the gold bullion you needed to mint coins, so you decided to try to weasel your way out of the contract breach penalty with cheap sophistry! Ah-ha-ha-ha! What do you think of his jest, gentlemen?” invited Rosenlink.

“Good grief. There’s a time and place for childish pranks!”

“Are you mocking us?!”

“If you looked up the definition of shameless in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of the Republic of Elm!”

The merchants followed Rosenlink’s lead and mocked Elm in turn. The Lakan and Azure merchants’ reactions were much the same. None of them considered Elm’s paper money to be an acceptable currency in the slightest.

With the mood in the room serving as his tailwind, Rosenlink began pressuring Masato. “…Ah, that was a good laugh. You truly do have a unique sense of humor. I figured you might supplement your insufficient gold coins with silver or copper, but I never imagined you would sink so much lower than that. Clearly, I was giving your republic too much credit. I mean, introducing scraps into the marketplace as currency like a child? The minds of the uneducated are a terrifying sight to behold. You won’t get away with just paying the breach of contract penalty now. It’s clear that you need a more established nation overseeing your mint before you cause irreparable damage to our four nations’ economies.”

Rosenlink was poising himself to seize control of all of Elm’s finances. The Freyjagard merchants nodded in agreement, as did the merchants from the other two countries.

But despite the headwind pushing against him, Masato spoke undaunted. “Oh, that won’t be necessary.”

“What?”

“We prepared the currency by the deadline, just like the agreement stipulated. Every goss is there and accounted for. With no fault on our end, I see little reason why we should have to pay the penalty, much less have some third party come to meddle with our mint,” Masato boldly replied. He was adamant that they had done nothing wrong.

“…Come on, enough is enough,” Rosenlink shot back. His shoulders bristled, and his voice was tinged with irritation. “You don’t know when to give up, do you? That logic wouldn’t even fool an infant. At first, your joke was funny, don’t get me wrong, but it’s run its course and then some. The international community will never accept these strips of paper as currency. If you persist in this absurd farce and refuse to admit fault, then we three entities—Freyjagard, Azure, and the Lakan Archipelago Alliance—will be forced to give you a proper spanking. Isn’t that right, everyone?!” Rosenlink turned to the representatives from Lakan and Azure. Together, they could impose harsh sanctions on Elm.

At that moment, Rosenlink’s expression was full to the brim with confidence. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that his victory was at hand. And why would there be? Elm had promised to trade them gold coins. The contract may not have specified anything about the currency’s form or material, but the stunt Elm was pulling went beyond humoring.

Rosenlink wasn’t going to let it stand, nor would the other countries. There was no reason for them to acquiesce. When one considered the situation from a rational viewpoint, it was an impossibility.

But that right there was Rosenlink’s great mistake.

Logic. He himself had spoken of the nature of history’s “truth,” yet here he was clinging to something as flimsy as “logic.” Diplomacy and negotiations were places where the tides of history shifted to accommodate man’s greed. At present, they were performing the most warped act in the world. What value did something like reason have in a place like that?

If anything, the fact that Rosenlink was relying on rationale made Rosenlink the irrational one. After all, he was the one who’d pretended to be a company in order to buy up gold and hinder Elm’s attempt to issue their new currency.

In a world bound by reason, such a thing could never happen, yet it had, successfully throwing Elm into dire peril. Logic wasn’t something you let yourself be bound by. It was merely a tool you could use against others. Rosenlink knew that full well.

There was one other person there who did, too, however.

Rosenlink had failed to acknowledge that. Because he was so confident of his inherent superiority, there was something he was unable to realize until it was much too late.

There was one person present who was a greater picaro than he.

““………””

When Rosenlink turned to secure the other two countries’ assistance, all he was met with was silence.

“…? What’s wrong, you two? Why so quiet?”

Then Pavlovich gave him a very unexpected answer. “Speaking for the Azure Kingdom…we have no objections to this paper currency.”

“WH-WHAT?! What the hell do you mean by that?!”

“E-exactly what I said. He’s right. The agreement never specified gold coins, so…we see no grounds to accuse them of breach of contract.”

“ExCUSE me?!?!” Despite himself, Rosenlink let out a hysterical cry.

Suddenly, Sergei averted his gaze a little. That tic was enough to tell Rosenlink what was going on.

Th-that rotten codger! He double-crossed me again…! How indecisive can that idiot get? Exasperated, Rosenlink turned and tried his luck with Shenmei. “Ms. Shenmei! Surely you see why—…?!” Unfortunately, when he looked her way, his eyes went wide with shock.

What Shenmei was doing was simply that unfathomable. Everyone had been offered drinks while they were waiting for Rosenlink to show up, and she had just taken one of Elm’s paper bills and dunked it in her cup.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Rosenlink couldn’t help but ask.

However, Shenmei offered no response. Instead, she just stared intently at the wet bill. Then she let out a sigh of admiration. “Whew… When you told me about this, I was certain you were just promising the impossible, but it’s true—the ink doesn’t bleed, and the paper doesn’t tear, even when it’s soaked in water. This durability…could it be that it’s not paper at all, but some kind of fabric?”

“Bingo.” Masato grinned. “That’s a good eye you’ve got there. I’d expect nothing less from the merchant hailed as the pride of Lakan. As you guessed, that thousand-goss bill is made primarily from a combination of cotton and hemp. That’s why it’s sturdy enough to take a good bit of abuse without tearing.”

“I doubted you at first, but…it looks like you came through.”

“Oh, I have a rule about not lying to women. ’Specially not when they’re so pretty.”

“Heh…you got us good. Well, so be it. As promised, Lakan will side with you.”

With the two of them carrying on the conversation without him, Rosenlink got fed up and angrily cut in. “Shenmei?! Think about what you’re saying!”

“Hmm? It’s true, though. Elm’s currency really is impressive,” she replied casually.

“This is preposterous! You call those flimsy scraps money?! There’s a limit to how much a man will put up with, you know! When Elm showed us their goss at the trade conference, they were gold coins!”

“Did they?” Shenmei asked. “Sergei, do you remember that?”

“…I—I don’t know…I can’t seem to recall…”

“Quit joking around! You, from Elm! You said it yourself! How you based your coins on the empire’s gold and rook, even down to their metal ratios! That’s what you said, isn’t it?!” Rosenlink was practically screaming.

Masato shot him the most vicious smile imaginable.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m afraid you must be mistaken.”

It was a response stolen word for word from Rosenlink’s own mouth.

“Rrrrrrrrgh!!!!”

It was then that Rosenlink finally realized what was happening to him. In order to enable the ridiculous act of passing paper off as money, the young man before him had employed some sort of scheme to win over Lakan and Azure.

Rosenlink didn’t know how he’d done it. What he did know, though—

“D-do you two understand what it is you’re doing?! If you allow this, if you let them get away with not using gold, then its price will crash! The ingots we have will be no exception!”

—was that without the increased demand for gold, there would be nothing to prop up its inflated market price, and the three of them would all suffer tremendous losses.

“Stop this madness and think things over! It’s not too late to—”

“Huh? But I thought you said that your governments didn’t have anything to do with the gold shortage,” Masato quipped.

“Shut up! This has nothing to do with you!” No longer interested in keeping up appearances, Rosenlink violently shouted Masato down.

“If you say so,” Masato replied indifferently. “Well, I’m sure I have no idea what it is you’re talking about, but…if this is about the unreasonable amounts of gold that Lakan and Azure had lying around by sheer happenstance, Elm already bought it all up.” He then casually informed Rosenlink about how he made sure the other two countries’ investments weren’t going to be a problem.

“There’s no way you could have done that,” Rosenlink immediately shot back.

Each of the three countries had temporarily lent the rights to their gold over to the others. If they violated that agreement and sold the stuff, they would be subject to eye-popping penalties for breach of contract. It was an officially recognized international accord, so there was no way to get around it. In short, what Masato was claiming was impossible.

Surprisingly, Masato just gave Rosenlink’s rebuttal a small nod. “Yeah, you’re right. You know, it was the weirdest thing. When we went to try to buy their gold, we found out that for no explicable reason, both of ’em had their gold reserves all tied up until today, the day of the currency exchange.”

“Exactly! That’s why—”

“So instead, we settled for buying the rights to acquire their gold tomorrow at the price it was at the time.” Rosenlink was a little slow on the uptake, so Masato had to spell everything out for him. “Nifty, how we can do business like that even when the gold’s all locked up.”

“Wh…wh…whaaaat?!?!”

Masato had agreed to buy the precious metal at a later date but at its current price. This is what was known as a futures contract.

That was the one chink in Rosenlink’s armor. While his plan to exchange the rights to the gold was perfect for keeping Elm from getting their hands on it before the deadline, it was worthless for preventing the three involved countries from betraying one another. Rosenlink had failed to realize this. Clever though the man was, he was a noble and not a merchant. A system whereby you paid for something that didn’t exist yet and picked it up later was foreign to him. That gap in his understanding was the opening through which Masato had stabbed.

Having taken control of the room, Masato tried to begin the exchange. “Now, let’s get this show on the road, shall we? Like you said, sir, we’re all busy people here.”

Unfortunately…

“Rrgh… You won’t make a fool of me, you cheap swindler! I refuse to sit here and play along with this farce! This trade is null and void! Come on, everyone, we’re leaving!”

As Rosenlink shouted, he squared up his shoulders and turned back the way he came. His merchant posse frantically hurried along after him to question his actions.

“A-are you sure about this, Duke Rosenlink?!”

“We have a formal contract with them. Breaching it will incur a penalty!”

All concerns were met with Rosenlink’s flat indignation, however.

“A fine?! They’re the ones who changed the deal, aren’t they?! Why should we be the ones to pay the penalty?! If they dare make such a travesty of a demand, we’ll just answer it with arms! Justice is on our side! Besides, nobody will acknowledge those pathetic slips as currency. The market will never accept it! Before long, they won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on! They’re dreaming if they think they can get cold, hard Freyjagard gold for them!”

Then Rosenlink turned back toward the people in the courtyard.

“You’ll regret this; mark my words! When your ‘bills’ become worthless, I’ll show you true despair! And that goes for you two as well!! You’ll pay for trying to make a laughingstock out of me!!”

After vowing revenge on Masato, Sergei, and Shenmei, Rosenlink left Laurier City Hall.

“Aah, there he goes. What a fool.” After the Freyjagard delegation departed, Shenmei Li let out an exasperated sigh as she gazed at the closed door they went through. “Imagine throwing away your final chance of your own accord, just like that. I thought he was cleverer.”

That statement came from Shenmei’s knowledge about what was about to happen to the market. She had initially risen to prominence and made her name as a merchant, so her insight into the matter was keen. She knew precisely what the true nature of “money” was, and that was why she understood that paper money was about to turn the entire world’s economy on its head.

For that reason, when Masato came to her and asked if she would help them if he could produce a paper currency that wouldn’t bleed or tear when submerged in water, she had agreed to switch her allegiances from Freyjagard in a heartbeat.

Masato’s other ally, Sergei of Azure, had been different. Just like Rosenlink, he failed to understand what money really was. Instead, he was still stuck under the assumption that gold coins were currency because of the metal they were minted out of.

“B-but at the end of the day, will your childish prank…er, rather, your paper money, really work out? Won’t it become worthless when people refuse to use them?”

That was why, when they got to the point where Sergei had to exchange his gold coins for their printed sheets, he voiced the same concerns Rosenlink had.

Shenmei gave Sergei a confused look. “Hmm? If that’s really how you feel, then why did you side with us?”

“That’s, uh…well…that’s none of your concern.”

“Some manner of blackmail, then? You really need to learn to watch your back better.”

“Rgh… I said it’s none of your concern! The better question is: Why are you accepting the trade so readily? Aren’t you worried?”

“Hmm.” Shenmei gave Sergei’s question a moment’s thought. “Let me answer your question with one of my own, love. What makes you think the market won’t accept this paper currency—these ‘bills’?”

The question was designed to get Sergei to think about money’s true nature.

“Why? They’re just strips with ink on them. Why else?! They’re durable, I’ll give them that, but at the end of the day, paper is just paper. It’s utterly worthless…!”

“Yes, but…gold and silver are just rocks, aren’t they?”

“What?”

Sergei froze, his mouth hanging open in shock like a fool. Shenmei took a copper coin from her pocket and tossed it over to him. “Take this ten-ira coin, for example. The people of Lakan use them to do their daily shopping, but when someone uses one to buy a bag of rice, does the rice seller turn around and melt it down into pots and pans?”

“Well, no…”

“Oh? Then why would the shopkeeper give away delicious rice for a lump of metal they aren’t even going to use?”

“Because they can use that copper coin to go and buy other things; that should go without saying.”

“Then let’s say they use it to buy some fish for dinner. Why does the fishmonger take it? It’s not as though they need such material, either. It’s useless to them.”

“Obviously, it’s so they can go buy something else with it! That’s the difference between copper coins and copper ore. Everyone knows that!”

Sergei probably thought that the line of questioning was meant to mock him. Enraged, he hurled the coin back at Shenmei.

Shenmei deftly snatched it out of the air…then grinned. “And there you have it. That there is the crux of the matter.”

“Huh?”

“The vast majority of people perceive this shiny disc as ‘something that can be exchanged for other items.’ Nobody cares about the metals it’s made of. Ore, currency…they’re two different things. And if that’s the case, then why does it need to be metal at all?”

“Well, because— …Huh?” Sergei couldn’t find the words to argue back. He wanted to come up with a reason why currency had to be made of precious materials, but he couldn’t think of one. There was a simple explanation for that: No such argument existed.

“From the moment of birth, we were raised to believe that these chunks of metal had value, but when you stop and think about it, isn’t it odd? I realized the same thing back in my merchant days. What was it about those rocks that granted them power over people’s very lives?”

“T-true enough. Why do we take it for granted that coins have value?”

“I haven’t the slightest. I’m sure there was a reason at some point, but I’ve never been one for getting hung up on the past. The one thing I am certain of, though, is currency’s existence is wholly predicated on widespread acceptance of its value and a nation willing to spread that acceptance and support that system. But looking at it the other way, a monetary system that can fulfill those conditions doesn’t necessarily have to be metal… Isn’t that right, Masato dear?”

Masato replied in a casual tone. “You hit the nail on the head there, miss. Hell, you could take that same idea even further and say that as long as people acknowledge it has value, a currency doesn’t even have to be physical objects. That said, I don’t think this world is quite ready for that yet.”

On Earth, a world whose culture had developed far beyond this one’s, a formless type of currency called “points” was widely used and accepted. This was made possible thanks to two facts: First, that there was a system by which people could trade bills or points for goods, and second, people used that system. So long as you had users and a framework, literally anything could be treated as currency.

“Plus, the bill itself is proof of how unparalleled Elm’s technology is. The material’s one thing, but the ‘relief printing’ technique we use doesn’t exist anywhere else. Once we get these babies out into circulation, people’ll be scrambling over one another to get their hands on ’em. Some of ’em will try to buy our tech, some of ’em will try to learn it, but as long as they’re doing business with the Republic of Elm, they’re gonna need our currency. That’ll be enough to get everyone in and out of Elm to see our bills as worth something, and at that point, they’ll have no reason not to use em.”

After hearing Shenmei’s and Masato’s explanations, Sergei nodded in understanding. “Okay, so I get it now that something doesn’t have to be metal to be money.” Even after acknowledging that, though, he still had doubts. “B-but…even if a country collapses, gold and silver still hold some value. But with paper currency, doesn’t it become totally worthless?”

Sergei’s two merchant counterparts reacted to his question with surprise.

“Oh, so you do have an eye for detail. Perhaps I misjudged you.”

“What a funny coincidence, miss. I was just thinkin’ the same thing.”

“Rrr…” Sergei nearly blew his lid over Masato and Shenmei clearly making fun of him, but he managed to restrain himself. Rather than getting angry, he was more interested in hearing Masato’s answer to his question.

Masato, impressed by the uncharacteristically intellectual display, complimented Sergei on his insight. “The fact that a metal’s value can survive a country’s destruction is definitely one of its strengths, yeah. And you’re right, if the country that issued ’em falls, bills become worthless. That’s one of the hard downsides to shake when you’re dealing with paper money. But you only get half credit for just noticing the downside. Y’see, our money has big upsides from being made of paper, too.”

“There’s upsides…?”

“For one, it’s way cheaper to make than metal coins, so you get way more seigniorage. For another, you don’t have to worry about metal content varying year after year as you do with coins, so people are more confident that ‘one goss’ always means the same thing. And as for the big one…does the former merchant mademoiselle want to take a stab at it?”

Shenmei’s reply was immediate. “Easy. Weight.”

“What do you mean?” pressed Sergei.

“Merchants like me often have to deal with large sums, and the weight of the coinage involved is no laughing matter. It’s simply not feasible to travel around with that many coins. There are security concerns, too. If you get attacked by bandits, coins weigh too much to easily flee with. You’ve got no choice but to leave them behind. Highwaymen know that, and it emboldens them.”

“That does sound inconvenient…and dangerous.”

“Doesn’t it? That’s why most merchants just use ‘promissory notes.’ For instance, if I were going from Lakan to Azure to buy some pelts from a company there, I wouldn’t actually bring the gold along. Instead, I’d bring my money to a broker in Lakan and exchange it for a promissory note verifying how much I paid them. Then I’d take that across the sea with me and complete my trade with the company by giving them the note to prove I’d paid.” That way, Shenmei wouldn’t need to bring any coins along with her.

“But promissory notes have downsides just like paper money does,” continued Shenmei. “To get one, you have to pay exorbitant taxes and commission. It’s a basic rule of business—more middlemen, more pointless expenses. In terms of raw profit, taking the gold and silver all the way over is a better deal.”

In that regard, bills had all the convenience of promissory notes with all the low overhead of coins. What Shenmei pointed out was the unvarnished truth. Initially, using paper as money sounded like a childish prank, but in fact, it was a groundbreaking invention that was going to change the course of history.

“The market will have no trouble accepting bills. And in fifty years…no, twenty. Twenty years from now, it will be paper money, not metal coins, that make up the world economy’s backbone. You’ll want to get your hands on Elm’s printing techniques while the getting’s still good,” concluded Shenmei.

And sure enough…things played out exactly the way she and Masato described.

Having thrown off the Freyjagard Empire’s oppressive yoke, the Republic of Elm minted a fresh currency as a symbol of their newly won freedom and dignity—goss.

It came in four denominations: one- and ten-goss coins made of copper, and hundred- and thousand-goss bills made of paper. Between its symbolic meaning and the absolute faith the Elm people had in the Seven Luminaries who issued it, goss spread across the republic with little incident. It quickly supplanted its gold and rook predecessors from the era of oppression.

Its advance didn’t stop at Elm’s borders, either. Between the wealthy foreign merchants who wanted access to Elm’s unrivaled technology and the young, idealistic merchants who felt that Elm’s stance on open trade free of exploitation was the wave of the future, goss rapidly exploded in popularity. That desirability brought a corresponding explosion in price. Rates that had started at one goss to one rook rose to one goss to one and two-thirds rook.

However, there was another reason for that spike beyond the massive demand for Elm’s new money. Namely, the price of raw gold had cratered.

Rosenlink and the others had forced up the stuff’s value to interfere with Elm’s efforts to mint its new currency. Unfortunately for them, their plan had been for Elm’s large purchase to prop up the inflated price. Elm was creating its money from wholly different materials, though, so the demand that Rosenlink was expecting never came to be.

Unable to withstand the pressure from all the gold Elm and Freyjagard were offloading, the bottom fell out. The market descended into pandemonium with people desperate to sell off their gold, and it started to affect the value of gold-based coinage. When that happened, the only countries with massive gold surpluses were Elm and Freyjagard.

Goss’s excellent performance allowed Elm to offset their losses and ultimately turn a tidy profit, but Freyjagard’s situation was best summarized as a catastrophe.

The empire was saddled with a tremendous amount of gold bullion that it couldn’t get rid of for anything near the purchase price. What’s more, Freyjagard had walked out on the goss exchange, denying the nation its chance to profit off its tremendous demand. No matter what sort of advantages they held in the international market beforehand, they now found themselves a few steps behind.

In the end, the four-nation trade conference went down as a historic defeat for the Freyjagard Empire. And whose fault was that? Nobody in the imperial government dared say it, but they all knew who shouldered the blame. The man himself undoubtedly felt the weight of that silent pressure.

With each day that passed in Drachen’s Imperial Mint, Rosenlink’s face grew paler, his body withered away, and his lack of combing caused his previously well-tended, nigh-feminine hair to grow more and more disheveled.

“U-um, milord…our exchange rate against the goss grew worse again today…”

“And what of it?!” Rosenlink roared at the mint employee who reported on market conditions. “That has nothing to do with us! Don’t waste my time with reports on trivialities!”

“B-but, milord, if we don’t come up with a plan, they’re going to capture the entire share of the international market we maintained for so long!”

“If they grow fat and content, then all the better! That just means more meat for us to strip from their bones when we slay them! Am I wrong?!”

“………”

Rosenlink’s tone was practically a threat. Between that and his dry, bloodshot eyes, his attendant realized something. None of the wisdom that man once possessed yet remained.

Rosenlink wasn’t a fool. Or he hadn’t been, at any rate. To some degree, he’d anticipated the tremendous demand there would be when Elm released their new currency. Unfortunately, he’d had one hang-up—a single, fatal flaw.

He hadn’t been able to disabuse himself of the notion that money had to be forged of metal. That had led to his crushing defeat, and the humiliation from that loss had caused damage to his soul that could never be repaired.

With Rosenlink looking like he was on the verge of burning away, another messenger rushed in. “Director, we have a problem! The Elm government is demanding three hundred million in reparations! And not in Freyjagard gold—in goss!”

Rosenlink rose from his chair, furious at the claim. He roared at his men, “Th-three hundred million…?! Just ignore it! They’re the ones who pulled that bullshit stunt. Why are they trying to make us out to be the villains?! That’s wrong, I tell you, wrong! I see no reason to play along with their nonsense!”

However, his men insisted that such a course of action wasn’t possible. “This isn’t a penalty for violating the currency exchange agreement, though! These are the remunerations Grandmaster Neuro promised Elm in the cease-fire pact!”

“Rrgh…!” Rosenlink let out a groan. That was an accord that the man entrusted by the emperor to manage the empire had affixed the Great Seal of State to. If nothing else, that meant it was something that Rosenlink didn’t have the power to ignore on his own authority.

As a member of the Freyjagard Empire, Rosenlink had a duty to make sure those reparations got paid. The trouble was, between the empire’s numerous wars, their development project in the New World, and most recently, their massive gold speculation losses, Freyjagard’s coffers were dry. Their ability to come up with that sum was nonexistent.

What to do, then? Rosenlink plucked hysterically at his hair as he thought.

“D-Director, shouldn’t we just go tell the grandmasters that we screwed up and have them arrange some diplomatic assistance for us?”

“You want me to go make a fool of myself in front of those upstarts?! Me, an exalted, imperial noble?! Nonsense! Listen here and listen well—under no circumstances are you to breathe a word of our money shortages to them!”

“B-but we’ll never be able to raise that much capital!”

“Wh-what should we do, Director?!”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, dammit!!!!”

With his underlings begging him for instruction, Rosenlink slammed his fists down on his desk.

“Besides, what’s your problem?! All of you just sitting there quietly, asking the same question day in and day out!! ‘What do we do? What do we do?’ Try figuring it out yourselves for a change, you useless apes!!!!” Rosenlink hurled his nearby pen holder at his underlings in a rage.

“L-Lord Duke…”

“…What? What’s with that look?! You think I’m at fault here?! If that fucker Neuro hadn’t agreed to pay those reparations, we wouldn’t be in this mess!!”

“Y-you’re absolutely right, milord! B-but…for generations, the Rosenlink family head has determined the empire’s economic policy, and that’s you, Duke Heinrich! If you don’t lead us, then…we’re lost…!”

“Rrrr!!!!”

Rosenlink’s subordinates were demanding that he fulfill his responsibilities. At that moment, the final thread holding Rosenlink together finally snapped.

“…Is that so,” he muttered. Suddenly, he looked up. A twitchy smile was plastered across his pallid face. “Hee-hee… Fine. Very well. If it’s a plan you want, then as director of the mint, it’s a plan I’ll damn well give you! You! Send word to the foundry chief at once! Tell him that we’re minting an extra six hundred thousand ten-gold coins!”

“Y-you’re going to increase the money supply?!”

“Exactly. Right now, one goss is worth about two rook! That means three hundred million goss is six hundred million rook! We have all that useless raw gold rotting away in our storehouses; time to put it to good use!”

“H-hold on just a minute!” With a face just as pale as Rosenlink’s, one of his attending bureaucrats made an impassioned plea. “Please, Lord Duke, calm down and think this through rationally! The value of our currency is down as it is because of the gold crash. If we produce that much more out of nowhere, our exchange rate will grow even worse! We had to perform quantitative easing just last month to finance the New World Colonization Project. Think about the chaos that would ensue if we did it again…!”

“And what of it?” Rosenlink laughed scornfully at his subordinate’s sound argument. “I don’t see how that’s my problem. Petty matters like that are for the common trash to worry about, not pure-blooded nobles like me.”

“………”

“Those lowlifes probably thought they were driving me into a corner, but they were oh so very mistaken. It’s time to teach them that their grubby hands can never reach the lofty, elevated heights that we Bluebloods live in!” By now, the light of reason had wholly vanished from Rosenlink’s eyes. Now he was simply lashing out.

When things were good, the powerful were all too happy to boast about the tremendous obligations they shouldered. However…when the going got tough, they rarely rose to the occasion.

Their sole concern was only ever their own profits. Never once did they take responsibility for their actions. Whenever their failures brought about losses, it was always the powerless who bore ensuing burdens.

The mighty were able to escape unscathed by using the weak as shields. Then they feasted to their hearts’ content while they waited for the heat to die down. That was no different here than it had been on Earth. It was a fundamental mechanic of skewed power dynamics.

And that was why—

“What are you waiting for?! Go deliver my order at once!”

—a certain someone had taken steps to prevent that from happening.

“Good heavens, what a sorry sight. You’re doing exactly what he predicted you would, right down to the letter. This goes beyond aggravating—it’s downright pathetic.”

A voice dripping with contempt had cut through Rosenlink’s raving. Rosenlink looked to see who it belonged to—

“B-Blue Grandmaster?!”

—and saw Neuro ul Levias standing at the room’s entrance.

It had all started a few days ago when Tsukasa Mikogami of the Seven Luminaries asked Neuro for a meeting out of the blue and came down to the imperial capital with a minimal protective escort.

After thanking Neuro for honoring his abrupt request, Tsukasa got down to business. He explained to Neuro all the unfortunate incidents that had occurred between Elm and Freyjagard regarding Elm’s new currency, as well as the fact that Freyjagard was on track to suffer catastrophic losses because of it all.

Then he laid out how the cratering price of gold and the exploding cost of goss were putting Rosenlink in a desperate position. Tsukasa wanted Neuro to stop him before he did anything reckless.

“So imagine my surprise when I come over to check up on things, and you’re in this sorry state. Quite the deplorable show you’re putting on.”

Neuro shrugged in exasperation.

Upon realizing he was being mocked, Rosenlink’s eyebrows rose. “All of this is because of those inane reparations you promised them! Do you have any idea the damage you’ve dealt to our great nation’s reputation—the reputation we emperors and nobles have built up over generations?!”

“If we’d continued our war against Elm, ten million gold wouldn’t have begun to cover our expenses. Considering that, I feel that the choice I made was the rational one. In any case, though, there’s no need to perform such drastic, quantitative easing.”

“Hmm…? What do you mean?” Rosenlink asked.

Neuro elaborated. At the emergency meeting, Tsukasa had offered to trade goss to Freyjagard at the originally agreed-upon rate, as well as to revisit the number of reparations to be paid out of consideration for the losses the empire suffered on their gold investment.

“He offered all that, of his own volition…?”

“That he did. The Republic of Elm espouses the values of equality for all. Tsukasa claimed that he didn’t want to see the masses suffer, even in other countries. As such, there’s no need to rush off and mint gold by the cartload. That’s what I came here today to tell you.”

After Neuro told Rosenlink about the concessions Tsukasa made, Rosenlink went silent for a moment. Then he burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. “Ha…ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha!”

“That’s amusing to you?”

“How could it not be?! I had an inkling when I first heard the words equality for all, but goodness, what a sappy bunch! Ha-ha-ha, what a riot!”

Elm had abandoned their own advantage to help a foreign nation’s people. To a man who held no such sympathy for those living in his homeland, the very notion seemed downright absurd.

“If you aren’t willing to crush your foes, what business do you have running a country?!” Rosenlink spat.

“Oh, is that how you see it?” asked Neuro.

“Of course it is! How could it not be?! Only an utter fool would show mercy to his enemies. What, Grandmaster, don’t tell me you disagree?”

Rosenlink sought assent from Neuro, but the reply he received wasn’t quite what he was expecting.

“I do, actually.” Neuro knew something that Rosenlink didn’t. “In fact, I think it’s an entirely reasonable concession to make.

“After all, we have a proud Blueblood of the glorious Freyjagard Empire here. The director of its very mint…

“…is ready and willing to atone for his mistake with his life.”

Neuro knew that Tsukasa Mikogami wasn’t as soft as Rosenlink assumed. Tsukasa was cold, sharp, and determined to make sure that the right people took responsibility.

“…Huh?”

“““L-Lord Grandmaster?!”””

Neuro calmly pointed his staff at Rosenlink.

The assembled bureaucrats stirred in shock, and Rosenlink’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “Have you gone mad?! You would turn your staff on an ally—and a noble, no less?!”

As Rosenlink panicked over the sudden display of hostility, Neuro let out a long sigh. “…You still don’t understand what’s going on? You aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed, are you? The fact of the matter is, all manners of sabotage and interference plagued this business about Elm’s new currency. You being the ringleader behind those plots, Heinrich von Rosenlink, the empire was offered reconciliation for the meager price of your head.”

That was the move Tsukasa had played. He had given up all the advantages Masato had won, but in exchange, he went to Neuro, the empire’s greatest authority in the emperor’s absence, and demanded that he make the right person pay the price for the empire’s conspiracies and failure. After accepting Tsukasa’s offer, Neuro had come to make good on his end of the bargain.

Neuro’s staff glowed with a bluish-white light. The glow brimmed with malice as its hue intensified. Upon seeing that, Rosenlink collapsed backward with his face twitching. “You bastard, you sold out a priceless Imperial Duke to those lowlife peasants?!”

“I did indeed. What purpose did I have to refuse? The only reason we’re in this mess is because of your needless meddling. Only reasonable that the man responsible take responsibility, right?”

“You think a mere upstart like you can get away with laying your hands on a purebred noble like me?! The Bluebloods keep order in this empire, and they won’t stand for this!”

“Ha!” A snicker escaped Neuro’s lips as he listened to Rosenlink’s belligerent raving. “You want to talk about order? With the same tongue you used to plot the emperor’s death and plan a coup d’état?”

“ ?!”

“Your expression is telling me you’re curious how I know. Please, Rosey, you have to give me more credit than that. It’s no secret that you Bluebloods resent us grandmasters for usurping your authority. And it’s plain as day that you’re cooking up schemes to take that power back for yourselves. Heavens, what a pathetic lot you are.

“You, your Blueblood friends, and your naked Emperor Lindworm. From our perspective, all you people in this world are primitives, barely better than chimps, yet you scramble all the same to rule over your puny little hills.”

“Y-you’re insulting the kaiser, too…?! Aren’t you supposed to be his loyal retainer?!”

Neuro’s words had rung with contempt for all of humanity, and that filled Rosenlink with confusion.

Neuro’s scornful smile deepened as he replied. “As if. The one we serve is far superior—a veritable god, from the perspective of you apes. Soon my master will be released to descend upon this world once more. We need the Key Maiden for that, but…we have a good idea of where she is.

“With that out of the way, all that’s left is to return those pesky Seven Heroes to their original world, and everything will fall into place. Unfortunately, an era of discord does us no good, I’m afraid. And any actors who refuse to stick to the script…need to be swiftly escorted off the stage.”

With that, a beam of light shot from the tip of Neuro’s staff toward Rosenlink’s feet.

It was aimed at his shadow. When the light penetrated it, Rosenlink’s shadow immediately began frothing, and a pack of black dogs burst forth from within it and sank their teeth into his limbs and throat.

“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!”

After dragging the man onto the ground, they began eating him whole with their uneven, yellowed teeth.

Unpleasant crunching and cracking sounds filled the air. As the dogs chewed Rosenlink up, they slowly dragged his body down into the shadow. Rosenlink flailed about to try to resist, but that didn’t last long. Suddenly, the dog chomping down on his windpipe snapped his neck.

The screaming stopped, and Rosenlink’s body vanished into the darkness. The only sign he had even fallen there was a mussed-up patch of carpet. Not even a drop of blood remained.

Rosenlink was dead at the hands of Neuro’s magic. The grandmaster nodded in satisfaction at his tidy handiwork. The room wasn’t the slightest bit soiled.

“Now, then,” Neuro said, turning to the mint officials who were looking on in horror. “You heard all that, I suppose?”

The next moment, ebony hounds burst forth from their shadows as well.

Officially, the massacre at the Imperial Mint was passed off as Rosenlink committing suicide and a series of corresponding personnel revisions. When the Republic of Elm heard the news, they responded by offering their condolences about Rosenlink and making good on their promise.

In the end, the currency exchange went down between the two countries the way it had initially been supposed to, and the empire successfully paid their reparations. The value of gold finally bottomed out, too. From there, it began slowly creeping back up to its original price.

With that, the Republic of Elm finally closed the book on their biggest ordeal since the nation’s founding. They had successfully issued their money.

“And you all lived happily ever after, eh?”

After summing up the whole sequence of events from start to finish, Lakan Archipelago Alliance vice chief, Shenmei Li, spoke once more to Masato as he sat across from her.

“To be honest, I’m a little surprised… Given the expression you were wearing back when you came and visited me in our Freyjagard embassy, I was worried that just killing the duke wouldn’t be enough to quell your rage. You looked ready to destroy the whole empire. It was a scary sight to behold.”

Masato took a sip from his white Lakan-made clay teacup, then gave her a pained smile. “Well, I’ve got a pretty good handle on what kind of person I am. I just made sure to talk to the right guy to confirm it wouldn’t come to that; that’s all.”

Back then, Masato knew that the rage burning inside him was beyond his ability to stop. And given his methods, his revenge was liable to have adverse effects on innocent people’s lives. That was why Masato had made sure to show Tsukasa how dangerous he was so Tsukasa would start to take measures of his own.

All the powerful cared about were their profits. They dodged consequences at every turn. Masato knew that that was something Tsukasa refused to abide. That much had been true since Tsukasa’s days shrewdly exercising his talents as Japan’s prime minister.

As Tsukasa had worked to revitalize Japan’s flagging finances and public order, he’d had another project that he’d treated with just as much importance. It was a communal website that listed which bills each member of the Diet supported, which ones they opposed, and what promises they’d made to the people. It was laid out so intuitively that anyone could flip through it with ease. Thanks to that site, information that had previously only been accessible to political enthusiasts became approachable for everyone.

In this way, nobody—Tsukasa included—could escape their responsibilities.

That was the kind of person Tsukasa was. Understanding that, Masato had been confident that Tsukasa would find some way to go after Rosenlink that wouldn’t let him use the empire’s people as shields. Sure enough, Tsukasa had done precisely that, blocking off Rosenlink’s flight at every turn.

“It sounds like your friend has a good head on his shoulders.”

“Yeah, I’m lucky to have him.” Masato nodded at Shenmei’s praise. “We owe some of it to you, too. For dumping Goldilocks and shackin’ up with me, I mean.”

Masato put down his teacup.

“Given your mercantile track record, I was pretty sure you’d see how useful paper money is, but I never imagined you’d get on board with my plan that easily. A little birdie told me that you and the duke were pretty hot and heavy with each other.”

Masato was pretty sure of that intel. It had come from the most reliable source, Shinobu Sarutobi. She was currently deep in the empire under the guise of being an exchange student. Because of that, Masato had considered the possibility that Shenmei would turn him down for personal reasons. In practice, though, Shenmei had chosen Masato and the profit he represented so quickly that it was almost anticlimactic.

“Oh, I didn’t do anything worth thanking me for,” she replied. “I just weighed the profits you two represented against each other and switched ships when Rosenlink’s side came up lacking.”

“What, so it was never about love in the first place?”

“Please. A woman’s love doesn’t come cheap.”

“As a guy, I can’t say I love hearin’ that.”

“What, you think there’s something wrong with a woman using her feminine charm to get ahead in the world?”

“Oh, not at all. Hell, I prefer a lady who’s got a little bite to her.”

“You’ve got a smooth tongue, for an angel.”

“What’re you talking about? You hear stories about angels comin’ down to chase a little tail all the time. Course, those stories tend to end with God getting pissed and sending down floods, mind you.”

“Goodness me. Wouldn’t want that happening, now, would we?” Shenmei chuckled elegantly at Masato’s banter.

Honestly, Masato felt a little let down. After the dust finished settling, Shenmei had called for him personally. When he came, he was expecting her to shake him down for compensation for her betrayal. However, it didn’t seem like she was planning on demanding a reward. But if that was the case…

“…So if it’s not my gratitude you’re after, then why’d you call for me?” Masato inquired.

Shenmei took another sip of her imported Lakan tea, then licked her lips. “Oh, I’m not here to talk about money or politics. There was just this one niggling question I had for you that I couldn’t get off my mind.”

She narrowed her eyes, then asked her question so bluntly it was downright disrespectful.

“So how long are you planning on playing along with this ‘equality for all’ bullshit?”

“ !”

“I don’t know what you really are. You could be an angel, a devil, a regular old human; I haven’t the faintest. But there’s one thing I do know—you’re a damn fine merchant. And no merchant worth their salt would ever buy into that nonsense. Why, trying to get more than others is basic mercantile sense.

“That’s why we run all over creation, why we buy and sell, why we build connections, and why we remake the world’s rules into forms that better suit us. We sweat and bleed to get a leg up on the competition. And sometimes it even costs us our lives. But the reason we keep living that dangerous lifestyle is that we want to have more than others. Why would people like us ever go along with a system where everyone is the same?”

Shenmei had a point.

People were born different from one another. They had different sexes, races, and talents. That was natural. In a sense, people were only equal in their inequality.

“Assets, wealth, power… People know greed because there are things they don’t have. And that’s why they work—so they can obtain them. That’s what gives life its meaning. Any world where that isn’t true, where people are made equal, is a world I don’t want to live in… And you’re the same way.”

It was impossible for someone without that sort of fight to be successful in the world of business.

“I’m sure you’ve realized it by now. There’s no place for you in this country. And there’s nothing you can do here. You do know that, don’t you?” Shenmei’s question was piercing, and given her tone, she was sure of her assessment.

Masato gave her a shrug and a wry smile. “I could say no, but it looks like you wouldn’t believe me if I did.”

“Not even a little. The only place tigers try to get along with bunnies is in children’s stories.”

“Heh. I could name a couple of people here who aren’t exactly cute enough to be called bunnies… But hey, let’s say I agreed with you. What then?”

Shenmei gave Masato a broad grin. “Look, I’m not trying to give you ideas, but…” She extended her hand toward him.

“…You should come with me. Together, we’ll buy up the whole world.”

Masato could tell that this was the real reason Shenmei had sought an audience with him. To put it bluntly, she wanted to make him her pawn. Of course, Masato wasn’t going to accept. He had no reason to. After all, he was going to leave this world behind before long. Attaining fame and status here was of little interest to him. Accepting Shenmei’s invitation would be meaningless.

…And yet…

No place for me here, huh?

Masato didn’t give his refusal immediately. Shenmei’s questioning had touched on a truth he knew. The whole situation involving Elm’s new currency had proven it to him. He wasn’t cut out to help lead a democracy.

The reason for that was simple—Masato was a full-fledged one-man army. His style was to drag everyone else along with his overwhelming talent and charisma. If anything, a monarchy like Freyjagard suited him far better. Understanding this aspect of himself, Masato had intentionally hung back during this most recent escapade.

Doing so, however, had left him with fierce regrets. Masato wished he had gone in from the get-go. He cursed himself for not doing it all himself. If he had, no one would’ve gotten hurt, and nobody would’ve died. Knowing that ate at him.

Masato’s logic seemed considerate at first, but in reality, it was the height of self-righteousness. Someone who was eventually going to leave this world and could not take responsibility for its populace’s future had no right to rob the people of an opportunity to grow.

And like, I get that, but…

To his own chagrin, Masato had no confidence that he’d be able to sit back and watch if a situation like the currency crisis ever reared its head again. At that point, he was nothing but a hindrance to the Republic of Elm. It was just as Shenmei said—there was nothing for him to do there.

But if that’s the case, what I can do…what I should do is…

“………”

Masato gazed down at his reflection in the dark-brown tea, then let out a murmur. “Y’know, back in my world, there’s this idea called a universal basic income.”

“What’s this, now?”

“I just wanna get your thoughts on something. Thing is, we don’t really know each other yet. Before I can decide whether I wanna team up with you or give you the cold shoulder, I wanna see for myself just what kind of merchant Shenmei Li is.”

“…Well, I’m afraid I haven’t heard of this universe thing.”

“Universal basic income is a system where the government provides each of its citizens just enough money to get by, no strings attached.”

“So basically, people don’t have to work to survive?”

“Yup… What’s your take on that?”

“My take? Well, for one, how in the world does such a system support itself? Where does the money come from?”

“A reasonable question. The government takes it from deep-pocketed folks like you and me and divvies it out among the population. That way, they’re able to give everyone enough for them to get by even without working, so that nobody has to live in poverty. The idea is to make a world where nobody ever has to starve.”

After listening to his explanation, Shenmei’s expression contorted in unconcealed revulsion. “…That’s out of the question. Why should we have to give over our hard-earned cash to a bunch of strangers? If I heard anyone trying to enact that horseshit, I’d crush them by any means necessary.”

Masato gave Shenmei’s determined answer a nod. He felt the exact same way. While he wouldn’t go so far as to call the idea horseshit, it certainly wasn’t compatible with the way people like Shenmei and him lived their lives. The two sides were mutually exclusive. And because they couldn’t coexist, one of them would have to get stamped out. There was no future where such polar opposites could live together in harmony.

“Figures. Y’know, unlike a certain buddy of mine and me, you and I might actually make a good team.”

“Wonderful! Then—”

“But I’m still gonna have to pass on your offer.”

“!”

“You said we could buy ‘the world,’ but…for now, it’s a product that ain’t worth my time.” Masato gulped down the last bit of tea in his white clay cup, then stood. It was his way of showing that there was nothing left to discuss.

Even after being shot down, Shenmei smiled all the same. She had gotten a nibble; she could feel it. “Fair enough. You said ‘for now,’ so I’ll just wait until that changes. Patience is an invaluable skill for any good merchant to have.”