SWNOVELXO Chapter 66
Driven by his enthusiasm, Diero came directly to me for advice. After giving him some tips despite my lack of expertise, I received a thank-you letter from him, which left me in a good mood. But soon after, more people started coming to me, just like Diero had.
“…”
“I am a member of a merchant guild that has been established in the capital for five generations. We now conduct business with several noble families…”
On the first floor of the team house of the Akatsuki Brigade, I found myself sitting in the reception room with a young, well-dressed male merchant. He was going on and on about his career history.
“Allen-kun, there’s another guest here for you,” a fellow brigade member said softly as the door to the reception room opened.
“I’m sorry, could you ask them to wait? I’ll attend to them later,” I replied, trying not to let my frustration show as I addressed the female brigade member.
She responded with a casual “Got it~,” sounding completely unfazed. By now, this was the fifth group of people that had come to see me just in the morning alone.
“…So, as I was saying, I have been requested by my clients to secure packs of Crossworld cards. I am willing to pay ten thousand gold per pack. I’d appreciate it if you could sell me as many as you have in stock,” the merchant explained.
I had a feeling this would happen, judging from the trends of my previous visitors. Once again, someone was trying to purchase trading cards, and I was growing weary of it.
“I understand your request, but I regret to inform you that I’m currently not accepting orders of that nature.”
“…Several noble families are involved in this matter, as I’m sure you know,” the merchant subtly hinted, trying to pressure me without outright saying it.
What a typical merchant, I thought. It was almost impressive how naturally he turned to veiled threats.
“But if I sell to one party, it might upset the heir of the Castiano family,” I replied, playing my own card.
“The Castiano family!?”
Since he was trying to hint that a noble family was backing him, I casually mentioned the name of the Castiano family, which supported me. The Castiano family, Ray’s house, was one of the three most powerful magical aristocratic families, with the high rank of marquis, and Ray Castiano himself was highly esteemed.
Only the Kainriese royal family or the Duke Lev family, who ruled the eastern part of the kingdom, could claim higher status than the Castianos.
There was little chance that the noble family backing this merchant outranked the Castianos, and the moment I mentioned them, the conversation was effectively over.
I wasn’t particularly thrilled about borrowing Ray’s influence, like a fox borrowing the power of a tiger, but if I had allowed these merchants to monopolize the trading cards using their noble connections, many others would have surely been displeased.
The merchant in front of me couldn’t push back anymore.
And so, I threw him a bone.
“However, I will be selling the desired items at tomorrow’s street market. There will be purchasing limits, but you’ll have the opportunity to buy a few.”
“…Understood.”
With that, our business negotiations concluded.
—
Even after that, more merchants continued to visit the team house throughout the day. I gave each of them the same explanation, and by the time I finally returned home, the sun was already setting.
Mentally exhausted from dealing with all the visitors, I headed straight for the new house I had recently purchased.
“Welcome back, Allen-san.”
“Welcome back!”
As I opened the front door, the delicious aroma of food wafted from the kitchen. I took off my shoes and walked in to find Eurua preparing dinner in the kitchen, while Aria sat at the large table in the center of the living room, surrounded by small paper packets scattered everywhere.
“Thanks for making dinner, Eurua… Aria, what’s all this?” I asked.
Since Aria couldn’t leave the house, she had developed a strong interest in the trading cards I brought from Japan. To pass the time during the day, she helped me repackage the cards, and I gave her a few card packs as a reward.
It seemed like she had been working on this project just before I returned. The table was covered in card packs, and the brown paper packets were adorned with intricate designs.
Curious about what she was doing, I asked as I sat down on a chair, watching her use a brush to draw something.
“I’m inscribing anti-theft and anti-scrying magic on them. Was this unnecessary?” Aria said.
“Anti-theft… No, that’s very helpful.”
While I wasn’t too concerned about theft, the mention of anti-scrying magic caught me off guard.
(So, magic like that exists in this world…?)
I thanked her sincerely, and Aria blushed slightly in embarrassment as she continued to inscribe the magic protections.
It was only then that I realized I had been living in this fantasy world for quite a while but had never really engaged with magic. I still held onto some of my Japanese sensibilities.
“…What other methods could someone use to cheat?” I asked.
Aria paused, thinking for a moment before replying.
“If they used a spell like ‘Wish Upon a Star,’ they could manipulate fate itself to cheat. But I doubt there’s anyone alive today who can cast that spell.”
“So that spell exists…”
It sounded like something out of a fairy tale, but according to Aria, there was indeed an ancient spell called “Wish Upon a Star” that had been lost to time. It was a powerful magic originally created by the High Elves that consumed an immense amount of mana and life force to bring about favorable outcomes for the caster.
“If a human were to use it, the caster would die. No one would go that far just to get a trading card,” Aria said.
Apparently, “Wish Upon a Star” was a spell that only High Elves could cast. If anyone else tried to use it, they would die in the process.
“Humans once stole this spell from the High Elves and sacrificed beastmen and slaves to use it. It was an evil practice, but there shouldn’t be anyone alive today who remembers it.”
“…”
Of course, a spell that granted wishes wouldn’t come without risks, but the idea of someone using such a spell just for a trading card was terrifying.
“For now, it seems like we’re safe,” I said.
“Indeed.”
Given the example of “Wish Upon a Star,” it seemed that there was no way to cheat the system, at least not by today’s standards. I concluded that everything should be fine.