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Chapter 46
“Well, of course.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“If there really existed a potion so powerful that it could surpass guiding, then why would guides even be needed in this world?”
“Then what use would it have…?”
“Oh, come on. You know exactly what I mean.”
No haggling. Not accepting it. Not happening.
“Not every ability user can easily find a guide like you can, you know.”
“…”
Alukas couldn’t refute my words.
It wasn’t just because he’d personally experienced its undeniable effects.
He’s probably thinking about his mercenary guild, ‘Arcai’.
Most members of Arcai are ability users.
In other words—potential customers!
If we make a huge concession and look only at Alukas personally, maybe he could argue that the sedative potion wasn’t that useful for him.
But for the sake of his subordinates, it was absolutely necessary.
Especially when running dungeons.
I might have voluntarily accompanied them this time for material-gathering reasons, but the vast majority of guides—with their low combat abilities—avoid dungeon expeditions.
The risk of dying inside is bad enough, but the real problem is…
You can never be sure how ability users might treat you.
In the dangerous, isolated space of a dungeon, basic human rights get trampled without hesitation.
All the more so if the person in question is a weaker one who can’t guarantee their own safety.
…This is exactly why Adrien hates ability users.
And also why Return of the Sky Ghost became a revenge story.
In the early days, some ability users, finding guides convenient because they couldn’t refuse them, would drag them into dungeons by force.
A lucky few guides managed to raise their level and strengthen their bodies… but the overwhelming majority died young, perishing in the field.
When guides are scarce, the ones who suffer are the ability users.
Eventually, an unspoken rule formed: don’t take guides into dangerous places like dungeons or rifts.
Sure, that meant countless ability users, deprived of guiding, would get injured, lose control, and die—but that was written off as an individual problem of ability or talent.
So what if a potion appeared that could temporarily calm the side effects of ability users?
It would sell like hotcakes. I grinned wickedly.
I’ll become a chaebol heiress.
No more being the weak, pitiful ex-slave guide!
In truth, this plan had been in place ever since Anella kneeled before me.
Buying up the nearly bankrupt Duros Trading Company and forming friendly ties with its key members, including Anella, had all been part of it.
They’ll be working for me, so at the very least, I can’t have them holding grudges, right?
They might deny it for now, but ability users will never be able to refuse the sedative.
The times will force it upon them.
Thus, the age of the Sedative Monopoly has dawned.
“Well then, my dear customer.”
I flashed a sweet smile at the mercenary king who couldn’t hide his expression.
“Shall we start by discussing the down payment?”
I’ll strip him down to his soul.
“…So.”
After hearing me out, Harris asked:
“Why did you even do all that?”
“What do you mean, why?!”
The deal had gone through.
Originally, I was supposed to trade with Duke Aindelta, the strongest assassin, but it ended up being the mercenary king, Alukas instead—an even better outcome.
Duke wouldn’t touch Anella just because the situation seemed interesting to him anyway.
First, I won over the former duke’s heart.
Then came the Unknown Dungeon expedition, which secured the inheritance rights.
And now I’ve opened a brand-new market with the sedative.
If I were Duke, I’d be curious and looking forward to my next move too.
It’s like a thrilling live show.
Well, even if he didn’t think so, it didn’t matter.
Our mercenary king, Alukas, will protect us!
For the sake of a stable and ongoing deal, Alukas has no choice but to protect the Rodus Trading Company.
Any backlash or attacks that arise over the new sedative market will be fended off by his mercenaries.
We’re partners now~
And the Rodus bankruptcy problem? Solved with the advance payment I just wrung out of him.
There were some small deviations, but overall, everything had gone according to plan.
“I made a ton of money. I’m rich now!”
Sure, the cash isn’t in my hands just yet, but I’ll be a millionaire soon enough.
I even made a dummy account!
Heh, Plan B is also moving along nicely.
Thinking about my soon-to-be swelling bank balance, I made a V under my chin and grinned widely.
“Hehe, just wait. Soon I’ll treat you to—”
“You’ve always been rich.”
“…Excuse me??”
“Yeah, don’t give me that. Don’t you remember?”
Harris leaned on his hand and narrowed his eyes.
“I gave it to you.”
“…!”
I remembered.
Back when Harris had officially started staying in the East Wing, the former duke had handed over his late mother’s inheritance to him.
That list was insane…
Even I, someone unfamiliar with this world’s economics, was shocked. A princess’s fortune was no joke.
But Harris, the actual heir, had skimmed over it and then just handed it to me like it was nothing.
“You take it.”
And I… just took the list and enjoyed looking at it…
“Wait, that was giving it to me?!”
I thought he just meant I could look at it! Sure, my eyes had a feast, but…
“No, seriously, how was I supposed to take an inheritance like that?!”
“Just take it.”
“…”
“I gave it to you, so it’s yours now.”
“B-but that inheritance—”
“Stop saying pointless things and just accept it.”
My jaw dropped.
In the blink of an eye, I’d gone from soon-to-be millionaire to instant billionaire.
What in the world—this feels criminal!
Rumble—Boom!
It was a stormy night, with thunder and rain pounding down.
Alukas lay in the cozy bedroom of a luxury inn.
“Captain, why did you do that?”
His aide, Luken, asked with a look of genuine bafflement.
Like Alukas, he was a desert nomad and an ability user.
And like most ability users, Luken followed an ability-centered value system:
The strong can do whatever they want.
The weak must obey no matter what.
A classic law of the jungle—strong rule, weak submit.
From Luken’s perspective, Alukas’s decision made no sense.
“Why did you just sign the contract like that?”
Of course, Luken also had some curiosity about the guide girl Alukas had shown interest in—Jade.
Well, she’s pretty, for one.
Her cheeks looked soft like peaches, her pink curls cascading down in abundance.
Her round, clear blue eyes were large and beautiful, and her plump lips looked like they were holding flower petals.
Probably part elf.
That bloodline produced an unusual number of beauties, with their distinctive hair, mystical aura, and dreamlike presence… Though in her case, she still had a cute-girl look.
Seeing her chattering beside Alukas had been like watching a little canary.
Pretty, lovable, and harmless—something whose wings you could easily snap.
“Why sign the contract? Luken, you understand the importance of the sedative potion, don’t you? So—”
“Then just take it.”
Luken tilted his head, as if wondering what the problem was.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“…”
Alukas looked up at the ceiling.
It almost sounded like he muttered, I must have raised him wrong…
But Luken only tilted his head more.
Since when have you cared about human life?
Luken was a mercenary.
And mercenaries, at their core, were armed criminal groups.
If the pay was right, they’d take any job.
If it wasn’t worth it, they’d leave even if their client died.
Trash that lived purely by money and power—justice, morality, and honor had nothing to do with them.
Alukas’s Arcai Mercenary Corps was no exception.
If anything, we were worse.
Arcai’s founding members were desert nomads.
In the Ramthes Empire, being a foreigner was synonymous with being a sucker slave no one would help.
Getting stiffed on payment was routine.
Sometimes they’d be used as bait during war, nearly wiping them out.
They’d been framed and almost executed countless times.
They’d been betrayed so many times, in so many creative ways, that they couldn’t even remember them all. Many comrades had died along the way.
And yet, their leader, Alukas, had brought Arcai to the top—and been crowned king of mercenaries.
Only now can we even pretend to be human in this Empire.
Luken smirked bitterly.
Even so, the deep-seated malice toward Imperial citizens never went away.
Arcai became the strongest—and worst—mercenary corps by applying exactly what they’d learned from the Empire.
If you have strength, wait.
If you don’t, take it. Crush them, subjugate them, break them in until they obey.
And the Rodus Trading Company fit the second category perfectly.
On the brink of bankruptcy, with a dishonored former leader dead, replaced in a rush by a bottom-born woman the existing executives refused to follow…
Perfect. Just take what we need.
Kidnap, threaten, and slowly break them in.
Having experienced the potion’s effects firsthand after Alukas, Luken thought that was the natural approach.
But then—
“Alright, let’s make a deal.”
…?!
The captain suddenly started acting gentlemanly.
What, did he eat something weird? Or… is he trying to impress that guide?
No way.
Their captain was the kind of bastard who’d act like he’d give a woman the moon and stars—and then take everything from her.
So why is he pulling out a proper, normal contract?
When he had no intention of keeping it… oh, maybe he’s just pretending to play along while planning to rewrite it later.
Yeah, that’s possible.
Maybe he liked her guiding.
Luken had felt a hint of her resonance himself while on lookout outside the terrace, and it had been impressive.
A guide who’s his type and does good guiding? No way he’d pass that up.
Sure, he could play nice for now. It’d make timing a kidnapping easier.
Luken naturally started preparing to secure Anella for leverage.
