“Tek here, I remember one of my teaches saying, ‘When you leave school, and enter the real world, remember to make connections.’. It may have sounded silly to a teenager, but when in the workforce, it is a vital skill to make connections.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Chevalier Felspar. My name is Ogusho, I am in charge of most of the trades between the Royal Capital and Labyrinth City.”

 

“Ogusho doesn’t only deal in luxury goods, but also books and magazines. If you want books, or ingredients, you can ask this man.” Viscount Shimen introduces me to several of his noble friends, and some of the merchants that he often utilized, during the banquet.

 

The hired merchants are boasting, full of confidence, that they can even handle the most urgent of missions because they have multiple employees who have the Item Box Skill and golem carriages.

 

From what I have seen at the Duchy Capital, there are two types of golem carriages. The first has golem horses pulling a normal carriage, the second is a carriage that is a golem--Ogusho’s are the second type.

 

Apparently, the core of the current golems are constructed during the era of Ancestor King Yamato, so they are expensive. Only the nobles and wealthy use them.

 

It was lucky that I learned this. Because I was planning to have Living Armours guard the mansion, and that would have lead to a commotion…thieves would constantly bug us.

 

They told me that there were so few cores because they only recovered them from ruins--ruins that were very rarely discovered, only two had been found in the last 50 years. Well, I found one deep under the sea, and I wasn’t planning on sharing the knowledge unless necessary.

 

***

The banquet ended without any issues.

 

But, just as I was called by the butler when I was going to get into my carriage, to return to the mansion. I followed him to the Viscount Shimen’s parlour.

 

I feel sorry for Lulu, who will have to wait in the carriage for a while longer.

 

“Chevalier Felspar, I’m sorry for calling you back.” The Viscount apologizes, before getting to the reason he called me here, “Are you acquainted with the Viceroy of Selbira?”

 

“Yeah, but we had a bit of a disagreement when I met him in the Trade City.”

 

“Well, he was originally the heir of a Baronage that was the branch family of Marquis Ashinen’s house--”

 

It seems that the Viceroy had succeeded as the Marquis by marrying the Marchioness. However, since she outranked him, she didn’t allow him to get any other wives or concubines--though she didn’t have other husbands either…which was very rare for nobility.

 

Thus, he turned towards males, and drowned in alcohol and gambling. His recent favourite seems to be wagers in the underground arena of the Trade City. It looks like he is making people kill each other illegally, in matches meant to end in knockouts. He even prepares special stage directors, and announcers to enliven the events.

 

As such, Marquis Ashinen is always starved for the money to do as he pleases. The one who provides the cash for him, is his follower, Baronet Dyukeri.

 

As for the compensation for the monetary support, Marquis Ashinen allows Baronet Dyukeri to have monopoly on the sale of Magic Potions and Magic Tools. This doesn’t include those done by the Adventurer’s Guild of course.

 

He can’t restrict people from bringing them in from the outside, since it’s under the Imperial Command of the King. But, since you need the Viceroy’s permission to open Magic or Alchemy Shops, he can shut out all business rivals. He can’t restrict small scale sales from stalls, but if the stall start to have outstanding sales, his wannabe Adventurer subordinates to come and shut them down by force.

 

It looks like he is doing whatever he pleases because he has the Marquise’s backing.

 

Soon after Viscount Shimen’s information, and warning, I leave his house--after promising to meet again at the Spring Kingdom Conference.

 

I was surprised when I saw that there was a man at the carriage talking to Lulu, since she wasn’t usually good at talking to others. It turns out that he is Miteruna’s older brother, and he was asking as to how his sister was doing.

 

***

“Oh? Countermeasures for the Baronet?”

 

“Yeah, he’s a person who will likely get us rolled up in some troublesome events.”

 

“Well, I think we can just leave such an underling alone, though?”

 

I was laying on the bed and consulting with Arisa.

 

All the the girls shared one bed with me. While the girls technically had their own rooms, we all slept on one oversized bed in the master bedroom.

 

Pochi and Tama were clinging to Lulu with tears in the corner of their eyes, they had come back and hoped for her to make hamburgers, but she wasn’t there--they had to make do with Miteruna’s much more simplistic food.

 

I had explained to Arisa the content of my conversation with Viscount Shimen.

 

“Hmm? He’s the person who’s controlling the Potions and Magic Tools?”

“Yes.”

“That person has the worst reputation among the reputation, you know?”

 

I would imagine so--he’s the reason that it’s so difficult to get Magic Potions, which are the lifelines of most Adventurers.

 

“Why don’t you set up a merchant persona, and sell Magic Potions and Magic Tools? You’d destroy him if you sell those Absurdly good Magic Tools and Potions, right?” Arisa spoke with a dark grin.

 

It might be a good idea to disguise myself, using the name Kuro, and open a Magic Tool shop. Or get someone else to run the shop, and I manufacture the goods in my spare time; I could get some of the girls here to run a shop for me.

 

While laying on the bed, thanking Arisa for her idea, and stroking her hair, I make a new memo.

 

***

It’s early afternoon, and I’ve arrived at Marquis Ashinen’s mansion so as to attend the tea party.

 

Everyone, other than Lulu who is acting as my carriage driver, are currently power-leveling Iruna and Gena in the Labyrinth.

 

The Marchioness is of course of on the members of the tea party, and there is also the wife of the younger brother of Earl Haku, as well as the wives and daughters of the nobles. Most of them are married, only the two daughters of the Marchioness, and the daughter of Viscount Gohat, are unmarried. The Marchioness’s daughters are quite overweight, they look like they would need the help of quite a few servants to get them into their carriage.

 

The food Lulu cooks is incredibly popular.

 

This tea party was much more boring, and less enjoyable, than I expected…