The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

The purple-haired Draconian girl.

No, the dragon Bahamut was startled upon hearing her name, and her pupils elongated like snakes’.

Likewise, at the mention of a dragon, my companions were surprised and looked at her.

“Please come inside. But is that information sheet all you brought? I also subscribed to the newspaper.”

At my brazen question, Bahamut looked at me with an intrigued expression and handed me the evening newspaper.

“Here it is.”

“Thank you. Ah, I couldn’t use my name when buying merchant ship investment rights certificates, so I used yours. Is that okay?”

Jade let out a small sigh seeing me ask if it was okay after already doing it.

“Please tell me before using it next time.”

He seemed more concerned about Bahamut’s presence than me using his name as I pleased.

“What? You don’t want to read the magic book anymore?”

“No, it seems you misheard me saying you can use it freely anytime. Shall I clean your ears?”

As Jade wittily retorted to my joke, I snickered and guided Bahamut to the table.

It wasn’t spacious, but renting a suite room allowed us to have space to receive a guest.

My companions were all on high alert.

“Silua, could you take out the Zillian series and prepare some tea? Do you have a preferred tea?”

Bahamut sat on the sofa, crossed her legs, and answered,

“Coffee would be nice. I’ve recently developed a taste for it.”

“Coffee, please.”

Silua silently took out Zillian Original with tension, and Zillian Original immediately boiled water with a magic kettle.

Bahamut looked at me amusingly and spoke,

“If your name isn’t Jade, start with a self-introduction, human spirit arts user.”

Bahamut, befitting a dragon, noticed the spirits clinging to and hiding in my body.

“My name is Yuan. Nice to meet you.”

“I was originally going to introduce myself as Baal, but I’m Bahamut.”

She savored the coffee Zillian Original served and looked over me and my companions.

“Interesting. A transcendent, a mage close to a sage, a perfect magical lifeform, an extremely rare human spirit arts user, and an ordinary human.”

She meant Precia, Jade, Silua, me, and Gilbert respectively.

I thought I would be the most ordinary here, but it seems not in the dragon’s eyes.

I’m worthless except for handling spirits.

To the point I’m confident my neck would be sliced in less than 3 seconds in a one-on-one fight with Gilbert, making me the weakest.

“So, Yuan. How did you know I was lightly playing around?”

The play Bahamut mentioned was the so-called stock manipulation.

What she did was simple.

Among the countless merchant ships, she selected a few carrying goods that wouldn’t rot or spoil, made them unable to return on time due to monsters, drifting, etc., causing the rights certificate prices to plummet.

Or she would buy up goods, sink merchant ships with natural disasters to increase the scarcity of certain trade items.

At her question, I grinned.

“I didn’t know you were playing around.”

Of course, that’s a lie.

“Oho, you knew my name but didn’t know it was me?”

“I only figured out your identity upon seeing you. I merely noticed the fact that a dragon or a being on par with one was playing around.”

In fact, while dragons are indeed very powerful beings, this world is teeming with monsters rivaling dragons.

The most representative of them are the Ten Heavenly Swords and the Eight Sages of Magic.

Those monsters are each fierce beasts rivaling decent dragons.

“A Draconian with purple hair isn’t a common existence, right? If you had hidden your horns, I might have been unsure.”

Of course, that’s a lie too. Even if she had hidden her horns, I would have said her name.

“Oho, it seems you knew quite a bit about me.”

“I tend to keep an ear out for various rumors.”

The Purple Mist Dragon Bahamut was one of the most famous dragons among the dragons of this continent.

No matter what anyone says, she is the Dragon Lord representing the dragons of the continent.

Of course, the number of dragons doesn’t exceed fifty even including hatchlings.

As I grinned, she looked at me with even more intrigue.

“Then how did you know a being like me was playing around?”

“It’s simple. Records on paper don’t lie. If you examine the documents, you’re bound to see certain patterns. It’s even more noticeable if it’s someone who consistently made large profits.”

At my words, Bahamut looked at me as if interrogating.

Her intense gaze stimulated the survival instinct deeply rooted in my subconscious.

It felt like being a prey standing before a predator.

“So you spread it out under many names?”

I closed my eyes for a moment to suppress my raging survival instinct, then opened them again and showed a bright smile.

Compared to the fighting spirit Demiway unleashed to test me, this mere gaze was at the level of aegyo.

No matter how much Bahamut tries, she won’t do anything that would lead to a battle in the middle of the city with Precia and Jade present.

She has that much common sense, which is why she became the representative of dragons.

“Yes, you were quite meticulous. Even though you could have swept up the rights certificates, you didn’t to avoid any potential attention. But it was excessively patterned. As if obligatorily doing it under one person’s command.”

I confirmed that fact while purchasing the rights certificates.

At my answer, Bahamut nodded as if realizing.

“Hmm, I suppose I’ve become too complacent. I should be more careful.”

Then she showed a mischievous smile as if having fun.

“Noticing a being like me playing around through documents… It was definitely a blind spot. I always thought my identity would never be revealed as I hypnotized the clerk in charge whenever trading.”

She probably never imagined there would be a lunatic who would dig through all the documents related to those scrap papers.

In fact, even I didn’t laboriously examine all the documents, in the novel, she wasn’t exposed in this way either.

In the novel, it was the impetus for Jade to search for a drifting merchant ship at the request of a missing sailor’s family.

Bahamut’s stock manipulation was exposed as Jade discovered something odd.

She uncrossed her legs and placed her feet on the table.

“So what do you want? Seeing as you deliberately made it noticeable to dip your spoon in my play, you wanted me to come find you, right? Are you going to tell me to stop playing around?”

Such stock manipulation couldn’t possibly be legal, but surprisingly, there were no related laws here.

Originally, laws are the epitome of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

If an incident doesn’t occur, the necessity isn’t felt. The law is the bare minimum of morality.

In fact, even if there’s no law, if this fact became known, the kingdom would immediately mobilize the army to stop Bahamut.

Although she’s regulating it, the flow of logistics is clearly being delayed and there’s a risk of distorting the market economy.

If she doesn’t stop, regardless of being the Dragon Lord, the kingdom’s monsters like Horizon, Demiway, and Viscount Wiesel would pour out to subjugate her.

Perhaps a coalition would be formed beyond the national level.

There’s no way she’s doing this only here.

“Of course not. I didn’t spend a huge sum of money just to invite you. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”

There would be people who suffered great losses from her play too.

But conversely, that means there are also people who greatly benefited.

This time, I will be the beneficiary.

“You have no intention of stopping me from doing something almost criminal?”

“Where in the world is there an individual who would rant about overcoming natural disasters? Stopping a natural disaster like you is the nation’s job, not the job of a powerless individual like me. Individuals merely read the disaster and ride the tide.”

She could aptly be called a natural disaster.

What I’m doing is equivalent to surfing on a tsunami.

It was none other than backstabbing and exploiting a dragon.

This could touch her pride if I made a misstep.

In fact, if I didn’t have Precia and Jade to protect me, I wouldn’t attempt this either.

Ah, of course, I would have still used Bahamut’s information to make money.

I’m just saying I would have discreetly processed it to amass funds without her noticing.

At my answer, Bahamut, who had been meaninglessly putting on airs, couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“Puhahaha! Ahahaha! To think you’ll exploit me, what a villain! You won’t become a hero!”

A villain, that’s too much. Who’s the one kidnapping and making merchant ships drift without anyone knowing?

“A hero, that would be a big deal.”

I had no intention of becoming an absolute good character.

If I were righteous, I wouldn’t have dealt with Twilight Trading.

Twilight Trading was clearly a cancerous existence in society, evading taxes.

“I’m of the belief to exploit everything I can exploit.”

Bahamut looked at me with a grin as if she liked me.

“I like you.”

I knew it would be like this.

Dragons who live excessively long are usually one of two things.

Crazy or bored.

Bahamut loves beings who can provide a moment of fun amidst long boredom.

Since I, like a passing ant, suddenly went against her expectations, she can’t help but like me.

“Well, since I’ve been caught, I’ll stop playing around like this here. It’s quite a shame as the earnings were quite good. The money I earned from playing around for 15 years was far more than what I earned in the past thousand years.”

Bahamut decided to withdraw from the investment game like someone caught by “it” in hide-and-seek.

It was the same reaction as in the novel.

Since her goal was amusement rather than money, she showed regret but no lingering attachment.

She had many other businesses besides this, and she had earned enough, befitting her.

“Ah, don’t worry. The drifting merchant ships won’t sink and will gradually return.”

“That’s a relief. I won’t suffer a loss then.”

Not a loss, but an enormous profit.

“So I didn’t get an answer to what you want. If you deliberately left traces noticeable to me, no, to a being like me, to make me come find you, you must want something.”

Bahamut looked at me with expectant eyes.

It was an attitude of unquestioningly believing I would make an interesting proposal.

“Let me correct one thing. I expected you, the Purple Mist Dragon Bahamut, to come, not a being like you.”

“Oho, does that mean you specified me among beings like me?”

“I wasn’t certain, but other dragons are either too far away, too young, or wouldn’t come up with this idea. Of course, I left open the possibility it might not be you and thought of countermeasures for that too.”

Having said that, I put down the now empty coffee cup and answered her curiosity.

“I did have a few reasons for wanting to meet you, but the biggest reason is that I want to become friends with you.”

At my answer, Bahamut made a surprised face, then burst into laughter again.

“Ahahaha! What an impudent human! You want to become friends with me, the Purple Mist Dragon? A mere human?”

“Well, it’s not impossible. Don’t you occasionally see people becoming friends with dragons in history books? Ah! I don’t mean I want to become something like a Dragon Knight, so I hope there’s no misunderstanding.”

I refuse to become a Dragon Knight on my end.

If I made a soul contract with Bahamut, I could immediately and easily borrow her power, but the price would also be immense.

At my words, Bahamut clicked her tongue regretfully.

“Hmm, I thought you wouldn’t be bad as my Dragon Knight.”

Goodness, you’re saying dangerous things.

Do you think I’m crazy enough to spend my life with dragons and such?

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“Hohoho, it’s not entirely something I don’t mean. Well, your body is quite lacking, but that’s the case for most humans, so I don’t mind.”

For a moment, I got goosebumps at her gaze.

“But do you know the meaning of wanting to be friends with me?”

I nodded at Bahamut’s question.

“Let’s have a match between you and me.”

To become her friend, I had to win a match against her.