Suits Are Best for Business

Hearing the name Demon World Corporation, one might assume it is a trading group originating from the Demon Realm, but it isn't.

The company was a proud Empire-affiliated Trading Group. In fact, calling it a Trading Group felt a bit ambiguous, as it was more like a quasi-governmental organization created to manage the Demon Realm using the Empire's budget investments.

When the Demon Realm's trade embargo became so strict that it affected magic stone imports and brought cutting-edge industries to the brink of halting, a measure was created to break through by vitalizing private smuggling.

A merchant alliance is heavily influenced by the Empire.

Yet, it has a scale on the scale of a quasi-state.

Ultimately, after the conquest of the Demon Realm, it monopolized and managed rights such as the magic stone mine mining rights, so calling it a mere Trading Group felt too light a title. It was to the point where the United Kingdom would sometimes succumb to the company's pressure and dismiss reformist cabinet members.

Now that time had passed, it had attempted insubordination against the Empire a few times, gotten on its bad side, and suffered cracks in its various monopolies, but its influence and authority had remained the same.

However, having more money than the entire budget of the Sky Island was a story from its golden age. It wasn't quite at that level anymore.

No matter how much of a toothless tiger the Demon Realm's United Kingdom was, a nation was still a nation. As it made long-term investments in engineering, gradually grew in size, and began to ignore the company, the company's profits went down a path of continuous deterioration.

Although they managed to catch their breath by continuously innovating—providing safe smuggling routes to the Demon Realm and collecting commissions—it wasn't a very satisfactory result for a Merchant Alliance...