I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 130 - Are You a Heretic (5)
Chapter 130 – Are You a Heretic? (5)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Then you are not saying success is impossible?”
“That is correct. House Palladio is in a decent location, and merchant groups pass through often enough.”
“For all that, not so many merchant groups actually passed through before.”
“Most likely, until now, there was simply no reason for them to stop in Palladio territory, so they probably preferred to go a little out of their way and visit other nearby domains instead.”
“Because of specialty goods?”
“Yes. Frankly, the surrounding territories do each have things that can be called specialty products.”
Alexion answered without hesitation.
Inside,
Alon found himself impressed.
This is exactly why work ought to be done by someone with business talent.
Seeing Alexion grasp the situation of the territory more sharply than he himself did,
Alon nodded without meaning to.
…Well,
strictly speaking,
it was also true that Alon had not previously paid much attention to the development of the territory.
In any case,
Alexion’s business ability was undeniably excellent.
Should I invest?
When Alon first learned that the owner of the auction house was Alexion,
he had thought it might be necessary to reconsider any investment.
When he had seen Alexion through Radan,
the man had behaved quietly enough,
but Alon knew how terrible Alexion’s original disposition could be.
And yet,
once they actually began talking,
Alexion seemed more normal than expected.
No,
more than normal,
he even seemed very intelligent.
Was Appraiser Alexion originally normal too, and then did something happen to him before the player arrived in Laxas? …No, I think I heard that his original personality was like that from the start.
It was strange,
but,
Well, he seems fine enough right now.
Having made that judgment,
Alon asked,
“If the territory is developed in the direction I described, how much do you think would be required?”
“Hm. It will cost quite a lot in several areas.”
“Will it?”
“Yes. First, establishing the foundation itself will consume a great deal of money. Building facilities will require heavy initial capital, and after that it will also take funds to attract merchant groups.”
“I am willing to invest a fair amount, naturally. In you as well.”
Alon intended to invest heavily in this project.
Above all,
he wanted a way to earn money that did not depend on exploiting the residents.
“So I would like you to speak frankly if possible… What exactly are you looking at like that?”
Alexion was acting oddly.
Ever since the conversation became serious,
he had been glancing not at Alon,
but somewhere behind him.
Alon turned his head along Alexion’s line of sight.
A tree?
He saw only an ordinary tree.
“Ah, it is nothing. I have a habit of resting my eyes on empty space when I think. I apologize for the discourtesy.”
“If that is all, then fine.”
Everyone has habits.
Just as Alon nodded,
Alexion forced a smile and kept watching the projected image held by the woman behind Alon’s back.
There,
Radan was moving his lips.
If. You. Get. Caught. Doing. That-
I. Will. Show. You. The. World. Beneath. The. Sea.
At the sight of Radan enunciating each syllable kindly and clearly,
in case Alexion might fail to understand,
Alexion had to restrain a scream.
Because he knew.
Radan was exactly the sort of man who really could do it.
If he wanted to survive,
he had to behave properly.
Maintaining as much of a poker face as he could,
Alexion began offering realistic advice.
Ordinarily,
he would have nudged his advice in the direction of leaving himself a little more personal profit,
but with Radan watching,
that plan had already failed.
He had no desire to die over one misplaced sentence.
“To plan the scale of business you are envisioning, this much money will be required as a first step.”
“…That is quite a lot.”
“It cannot be helped. Constructing the buildings will require heavy initial investment, and afterward money will still be needed to attract merchant groups. On top of that-”
“On top of that?”
“The key is to make merchant groups feel that stopping here is more important than stopping in territories that already have specialty goods. To do that, we would need to offer them various benefits, and that too will cost money.”
“…If it is run that way, then when those benefits are removed, might the merchant groups not stop coming?”
“No. Once we gather the merchant groups, activate the auction house and the surrounding tourism industry, and make the auction house itself into a major source of value, they will not be able to remove Palladio territory from their trade routes so easily.”
“Then what if-”
They spoke for a very long time.
At some point,
“So, in the end, I think we would need about two hundred fifty percent of the amount you originally proposed-”
Alexion was about to continue,
when he stopped.
Because outside the window,
Radan was staring at him and shaking his head.
“-but if I work very hard, then perhaps it could be done with two hundred percent-”
Feeling the murderous gaze even from a distance,
Alexion smoothly changed his words.
But then,
Radan shook his head again.
“It may even be possible to lower it to one hundred eighty percent-”
Alexion reduced it again,
with a faint sense of injustice.
But,
seeing Radan still shaking his head,
very slowly this time,
“-though, in truth, perhaps even one hundred fifty percent may be possible…”
he said,
while screaming inwardly in a voice full of grievance.
To be honest,
he had indeed tried to leave the figure a little high near the end because he had not quite let go of his greed,
but even so,
it was not as though great profit would have remained.
And yet,
despite that,
the devil outside the window kept shaking his head.
Alexion’s smiling face stiffened.
Is this not too much?
Even a rat bites the cat when cornered.
At that point,
Alexion’s face filled with dark resentment.
I did everything you asked. Everything!
When he was told to come to the pirate peninsula,
he had gone quietly.
When he was told not to touch underworld work,
he stepped away from illegal business.
When he was told to come to the marquisate,
he came without complaint.
And he had already brought the proposed investment plan down from around two hundred percent to one hundred fifty.
He had done everything,
and still that was not enough?
The piled-up memories of humiliation and coercion sharpened the resentment inside him further.
At last,
with his emotions reaching the limit,
Alexion said,
“…One hundred percent.”
“What?”
“…I will make it work with the exact investment amount you originally proposed.”
At last,
he dropped his face,
swallowing tears of blood.
…No matter what,
he did not want to die.
Outside the window,
Radan nodded in satisfaction.
Alexion’s face was filled only with misery.
Meanwhile,
Alon,
who had been standing there the whole time,
could only become puzzled.
…In truth,
the real negotiation had not even begun,
and yet Alexion had somehow started it by himself and ended it by himself as well.
After standing blankly for a moment,
Alon finally opened his mouth.
“…Let us proceed at one hundred fifty percent.”
“Pardon?”
“By your own explanation, it sounds as though that much investment would be necessary.”
A calm voice.
And yet,
Alexion’s eyes went wide.
Of course,
even one hundred fifty percent was still insufficient.
But everything was relative.
Having just watched Radan ruthlessly drag the figure downward,
to hear the marquis calmly offer fifty percent more
made Alexion feel as though tears were about to stream from both eyes.
The marquis is a good man…!
Objectively,
that was not necessarily true at all,
but to Alexion,
who had suffered from Radan more than enough,
it felt absolutely true.
“Thank you…! Truly, thank you!”
He lowered his head deeply,
holding back genuine tears.
Watching Alexion’s emotions rise and fall all on their own,
Alon found one reasonable doubt bloom in his heart.
…Could this be male menopause?
####
Karmakses III,
the king of Colony,
had recently been freer than the other kings of the Allied Kingdoms.
This was because the desert kingdom of Colony had suffered no direct damage in the recent artificial Outer God crisis.
So after the first conference,
he had not been especially burdened by the larger incident.
Instead,
“Another Time Gate appeared?”
“Yes. Mammanna territory suffered fairly heavily this time.”
“Hm.”
Karmakses III had turned his attention to the recent Time Gate incidents.
“Which number is this now?”
“The fifth.”
“Strange. What are the mages saying?”
“It seems mages from the tower have gone out to investigate, but they still have not identified the cause.”
And no wonder.
Time Gate incidents,
which usually appeared only around towers full of mages,
had recently been occurring all over the place.
“Hm.”
After thinking for a short while,
Karmakses set the matter aside.
The territories were suffering damage,
but not yet to an excessive extent.
Instead,
“…What is Karsem doing these days?”
he asked about the second prince,
who had lately become a matter of interest.
“He is studying magic again today.”
“Again today?”
“Yes.”
“And they say he has talent?”
“Yes. Quite a bit, apparently. He has already reached the first circle.”
“Already?”
“Yes. They say he has talent, and that he is also making remarkable effort.”
The aide continued.
“Recently, the second prince’s evaluation within the palace has risen greatly. Most people say that since that incident, he has developed real dignity.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Some even say that lately he carries himself with more dignity than the first prince.”
“…That much?”
“Part of that is surely due to contrast with the second prince’s previous behavior, but even in my view, he has changed a great deal.”
It was the aide’s personal judgment.
“They say he even rescued a maid who nearly fell while cleaning a railing.”
“…Karsem did?”
“Yes. I heard that he said, ‘Marquis Palladio would have done the same.'”
“…That is rather embarrassing to hear.”
“I agree. But it does seem true that his temperament has softened.”
At that evaluation,
Karmakses III unconsciously stroked his chin.
In truth,
the second prince had never been a son to whom he gave much attention.
He loved his family,
certainly,
but he had judged the second prince to be unfit to inherit the throne.
Of course,
that did not mean the first prince satisfied him completely either,
but compared to the second,
he had seemed much better,
and so Karmakses had marked him as successor.
Recently,
however,
the first prince had been steadily slipping from Karmakses’s estimation.
Though he had been trained as successor from childhood,
he had nevertheless continued to cause one hidden trouble after another.
Not as badly as the second prince once had,
but still too often.
The first prince appeared to think he had concealed it all,
but Karmakses knew everything.
There was nowhere in that palace his ears did not reach.
And so,
What exactly is Marquis Palladio?
Karmakses III felt admiration toward the marquis,
who had reformed the wastrel Karsem in a single stroke,
but,
Karsem… Karsem…
as he repeated the second prince’s name in his mind,
his gaze sank.
It was not the gaze of a father looking at family,
but the gaze of a king weighing a person.
It was a gaze that almost seemed to foretell a struggle that ought not to occur.
####
Another month passed.
When winter had fully lifted,
and warm spring days arrived,
“Marquis, have you been well?”
“It has been a while.”
Alon received one of the regular reports he got every few months from Duke Xenonia.
And then,
“Come to think of it, I heard you recently established an auction house in your territory, Marquis.”
“Yes. I have decided to manage the territory a little more seriously.”
“Then shall I offer a bit of help?”
“I will not go so far as to refuse.”
That had been all.
Only that much,
spoken as a short exchange after the report.
…And yet,
“Marquis. What do you think of exclusive auction rights for the premium specialty goods from our territory!?”
“Marquis- if you would establish a regular relationship with our merchant group-”
“Greetings, Marquis Palladio. I am the head of the Salman merchant group in the Kingdom of Ashtalon-”
“…”
How in the world had it become like this?
“Evan.”
“Yes.”
“…How many more people are waiting to see me?”
“Roughly seventy-four.”
How is this, in any way, a little help…?
Alon pressed at his aching head.