Chapter 13
#13. Corrupt Merchant Guilds Are Permanently Barred from Entry
The private villa of the Third Imperial Princess, Luluen von Valdemar.
In the reception room, filled with the powerful scent of fruit, Günter, the head of the 'Golden Scales Merchant Guild,' kept bowing deeply.
His guild mainly supplied construction materials to the North.
Thanks to Winterwald's ongoing urban development project, Günter's coffers were swelling to the point of bursting.
But he had not risen this far through his skill as a merchant.
He was a corrupt merchant who had long been in collusion with the Third Imperial Princess, gaining access to valuable information ahead of everyone else and raking in dirty money.
"Your Highness, did you summon me?"
"Yes, Günter. I hear material deliveries to the North have been going very well."
"Yes! It's all thanks to Your Highness looking out for me."
The Third Imperial Princess smiled elegantly.
"Then, it's time to raise the price of the materials. Starting tomorrow, raise the price of every material shipped into the North by 50%."
"Yes...? Fifty percent?"
Günter jerked his head up in shock.
"Your Highness! Th-that is impossible! What kind of person is the Grand Duke of the North!? The Monster Grand Duke! Isn't he a Sword Master? If I play games with material prices, my head will be sent flying in the icy wind before long!"
In fact, there were even bizarre rumors that the enormous wall protecting the North was filled with the heads of corrupt nobles.
"Oh my, don't be so dramatic. No matter how exalted his status, the Grand Duke of the North cannot simply execute a guildmaster while violating imperial law."
"What do you mean...?"
Luluen folded her fan and whispered.
"This morning, at the imperial council, the sandworm outbreak across the Lavien Plains was designated a national disaster."
The Lavien Plains were indeed home to one of the trade routes linking the Central Continent and the North.
"You know the Empire's Merchant Protection Act well, don't you?"
There was indeed a clause stating that if a merchant guild suffered losses because of a monster wave, war, or natural disaster, it could legally raise its delivery prices.
But a 50% increase was absurd.
Besides, the Golden Scales Merchant Guild had already secured a detour and had not suffered even the slightest loss.
‘Right... Now that I think about it, disaster damage investigations are led by inspectors dispatched from the central imperial court, not the North. And aren't all those inspectors the Third Princess's dogs anyway!’
All he had to do was insist, 'Our wagons were destroyed by sandworms while we were hauling materials, and we suffered massive losses!'
Günter had actually received easy money through similar tricks before.
"Think about it, Günter. I've heard that in the North, they're doing business by extorting vast sums from merchants for buildings that haven't even been built. But if construction materials are cut off, what do you think will happen to those savages' city?"
"Th-that's certainly true..."
The Third Princess continued subtly prodding him.
That the North would be able to pay for the materials now that it had grown rich.
That the North was prospering because he was bringing it construction materials.
That he ought to be allowed to make a little profit.
Günter felt his head might explode as he weighed the profits against the risks.
‘Right... If I fall out of Her Highness's favor, there'll be nowhere for me in the Central Continent!’
Günter decided to look on the bright side. Even if he could not raise the price by 50%, how much would his profits swell if he raised it by just 10%?
"How dare that lowly bastard... If he was sold off to the North, he should have quietly frozen to death. He's my brother, but he really doesn't know his place."
Günter was too busy happily calculating his profits to hear the Third Princess's jealous slander.
"I'll keep that in mind, Your Highness! I'll make absolutely sure to plunder the North's coffers. Hahaha!"
A few days later.
"Damn it! What did I tell you! Didn't I say a 50% increase was ridiculous?!"
The Golden Scales Merchant Guild's conference room.
Günter slumped over the desk, his face pale.
A dispatch from the North was clutched in his limp hand.
[The Golden Scales Merchant Guild and every guild under its authority are permanently barred from entering the North. - Kylan Winterwald]
"We've already borrowed money and brought in a huge load of goods—what are we supposed to do with all of it!"
"W-wait! Construction can't be completed with materials brought in from the South alone. First, we should bow to the Grand Duke of the North and negotiate a deal, even at normal prices..."
BANG!!
The guildmasters who had been profiting thanks to Günter slammed their fists on the table, grabbed him by the collar, and cursed him out.
"You still haven't come to your senses. We're all as good as dead now. Do you think that Monster Grand Duke will let us off?"
"I-I have nothing to do with this! Don't drag our guild into it!"
Günter wanted to persuade the merchants, but he could not bring himself to mention the Third Princess.
In the end, he was left alone in the conference room.
The situation was now spiraling beyond his control.
***
While the Golden Scales Merchant Guild was busy self-destructing, the Grand Duke of the North, Kylan, moved swiftly.
‘If we don't have construction materials, we can just mine them ourselves.’
Knights and adventurers entered a cavern where pools of water bubbled violently.
At the front were the Grand Duke of the North, Kylan, and Guildmaster Walter.
"All units, advance! His Grace the Grand Duke is with us!"
"Woooooooo!"
One of the North's unexplored regions was the 'Silent Glacier Cave.'
During the North's corrupt past, it had been one of the monster dens left abandoned because even holding back monster waves had been too much for them.
But things were different now.
Thanks to the Winterwald Guild's advanced welfare policies, there was now an oversupply of adventurers in the North.
There was so little work available that they got into fistfights in front of the guild bulletin board every day, and whenever a monster wave arrived, they cheered and rushed out to meet it.
With the Grand Duke of the North himself leading the expedition, who would pass up the chance to participate?
"Ggururuk! Glug, glug!"
Slimes the size of wolves emerged from all over the cave, trailing slime as they went.
They were monsters with almost complete immunity to swords and axes.
But the adventurers, who had been briefed beforehand, did not panic in the slightest.
Kylan knew from the information in the novel where every kind of monster in the North lived.
"Mage unit! Prepare!"
At Knight Commander Cedric's command, the mages stationed in the rear began chanting in unison.
Fwoosh!
The arrowheads of the archer adventurers, who had formed ranks, began to glow red with fire.
"Fire!!"
Fwoooosh! KABOOM!
The fire arrows, accelerated by enchantments, pierced the slimes' soft bodies, which were vulnerable to heat, and struck the cores at their centers with pinpoint accuracy.
Rick, a veteran adventurer from the Southern Continent, grinned broadly as he drew his bowstring.
"Hehe! Big brother! A whole bunch of rare slime magic stones have dropped. If we sell just these, we won't have to worry about housing costs, will we?"
Gale also laughed heartily as he pierced the slimes' cores with supernatural skill.
A monster's core was its magic stone.
Killing a slime inevitably meant damaging its magic stone, but they were still highly valuable.
"Archery is what we Southern adventurers specialize in!!"
"Hahaha! Compared to hitting those harpy wenches flying around the coast, these slowpokes are nothing but targets. Hooray for the mages!"
In the rear, Viscount Argen bared his teeth in a grin as he gathered up the slimes' mucus.
"Hahaha! Your Grace! With this much slime mucus, even the lime mortar supplied from the South will be enough! We might build even sturdier buildings, in fact!"
"Did you hear that! Porters, gather every last bit of slime mucus!!"
Kylan laughed heartily atop his black horse, but inside, he was burning with fury.
‘How dare they make my wife cry?!’
- It seems the North has suffered a great deal because of me.
- What on earth are you talking about?
- It's just that...
Eleanor spoke for the first time about the dark period she had not wanted to reveal, slowly telling him about her past of being ignored by the imperial family, one painful detail at a time...
She also knew that the guildmaster named Günter—or was it Gunter?—was the Third Princess's source of funds.
The fact that the half-sister who had tormented her was now tormenting even the North where she lived brought tears to her eyes.
- Heh heh. I thought it was something serious.
- Pardon?
- Why are you worrying all by yourself over something so trivial? I'll solve the material problem at once. From now on, consult me about anything.
- Your Grace...! My love...! I will follow you for the rest of my life.
The army advanced through the cave with overwhelming momentum, but stopped in front of an enormous lake at its deepest point.
Rumble...
The lake's surface began to whirl, and slimes as large as houses rose from it.
Before long, they merged into a single monster so enormous it reached the cave ceiling.
"Gggrrraaaak!!"
The adventurers faltered before its overwhelming size and the cold pouring from it.
"Fire!!"
Dozens of arrows flew through the air, but the instant they touched the King Slime's body, they went out with a hissing sound.
With a body that large, there was no way to pierce its core with an aura-infused sword.
Even the Expert-class knights, including Cedric, could barely fend off the tentacles.
"Urgh! It won't work, Your Grace! Its body is too thick for us to cut through the tentacles!"
Kylan stepped forward as though he had anticipated this.
"I'll do it, Your Grace!"
"You?"
A woman who had been following under the knights' protection threw off her robe.
It was the Fourth Imperial Princess, Eleanor.
‘Damn merchant bastards, I'll never forgive them. How dare they try to ruin the project my wife oversaw!? She must have suffered terribly to insist on following us all the way here! Sob…!’
Contrary to Kylan's thoughts,
Whatever had changed in her, there was not a trace of cloudiness in her clear blue eyes.
"O radiance of the sun…!"
Fwoooooosh!!
The sun that illuminated the darkness of the cave began to blaze as it shone down on the King Slime.
It was on an entirely different level from the gentle illumination flare that normally lit the construction site and melted the ground.
Sunlight charged with murderous intent—extreme rays that forcibly evaporated moisture—blasted toward the King Slime.
"Kikikikik!!"
The surface of the King Slime, hit directly by the sun's rays, began to boil, and it started shrinking as it belched out steam.
Even so, it remained terrifyingly huge...
"Your Grace! Now!"
Just as the King Slime tried to flee from Eleanor's magic, Kylan leaped forward, blue aura exploding around him.
"You did well!"
Shaaak!
Frost Fang slammed into the top of the King Slime's head.
The cold-infused aura froze and shattered the slime's elastic body as it drove straight toward the core.
The weakened King Slime sprayed acid and thrashed in desperation, but it could not even scratch the aura of the Grand Duke of the North, whose fighting spirit was burning at 200% from his love for his wife.
Crack! KABOOM!!
The house-sized core split apart, and the enormous mass of slime collapsed as it lost its strength.
All of this was money.
"Gather the spoils! Scoop up the magic stones and slime!! It's our victory!!"
"Woooooooo!!"
"Long live His Grace the Grand Duke! Long live Her Highness the Princess!!"
The cheers of victory shook the cave.
Leaving the cheering adventurers behind, Kylan approached Eleanor, who was staggering from expending so much mana, and swept her into his arms.
"You've been through a lot too, Eleanor."
"Your Grace... Sob."
Perhaps because her tension had finally eased, Eleanor buried her face in Kylan's chest and burst into bitter sobs.