In the capital’s main street stood a magnificent four-story stone building, rivaling any structure alongside it in size. Sunlight poured through its windows into a room where Firth Vick sat at a large desk. He looked up from the documents in front of him as another man came in.
“Working hard, eh, lad?”
“I asked you to stop calling me ‘lad,’ Manager.”
“But a lad is what you are. You’re the young heir to the Vick Merchant House.”
“I’m merely one of the candidates to be heir.” Firth let out a long, disgruntled sigh, then stretched where he sat in his chair.
The other man came up to the other side of the desk. Now in his middle years, he served as the manager of the Vick Merchant House’s main Werther Duchy branch, and had been serving them well since Firth’s grandfather was in charge.
“I looked into this Kett,” the man said. “It’s true that he’s a wanted man in the Yupiter Empire.”
“As we thought... What else?”
“Nothing else. No incidents worthy of the guard’s attention, no heinous crimes that would put the border garrison on alert. He’d have a hard time living in the Yupiter Empire with a wanted notice on his head, but that’s all.”
“In short, it’s not impossible that he committed a crime, but at the very least he’s not dangerous.”
The manager just shrugged. He liked a bit of banter; it had made him well-liked among both customers and the Vick Merchant House’s inner circle. But it never worked on Firth.
“Anyway,” the manager said, “about this proposal from the Golding Merchant House. Do we have leave to get things going?”
“Yes, of course. With all possible haste. Use our workshop on the outskirts of the capital and take care that no information is leaked.”
“Very well,” the manager said, though his face belied his words. These were quite the instructions coming from a man young enough to be his son.
“Good. I’d like a prototype ready in a month’s time.”
“I under— Wait, one month?!”
“Well, yes. I did say with all possible haste, didn’t I?”
The manager laughed nervously. “You must be joking, lad. For one thing, the workshop will be busy with another development project until the end of next month. We can begin building a prototype after that, but getting hold of an inventor won’t be—”
“Manager,” Firth said, raising a hand to cut off his rambling. “When I said ‘all possible haste,’ I wasn’t exaggerating. Speed is of the essence. Ask them to put all other work on hold.”
“I can’t do that! Look, you may be a candidate to be heir to the Vick Merchant House, but some things just can’t be—”
“I see. In that case, I’ll handle it myself.”
“Eh?”
“The Vick Merchant House won’t be involved.”
“H-Hold on, that’s not...”
The manager was caught off-balance. He had in fact been told by the current head of the Vick Merchant House himself to do everything in his power to help the man’s sons. It was a Vick tradition—the managers of the various branches stopped the young Vicks from pursuing dubious or unreasonable ventures but otherwise encouraged them in whatever they set their minds on. Whichever one produced the best results would be the next head of the house.
“Lad, I’m giving you my opinion as manager of the Vick’s main Werther branch. I know you’re responsible for the whole duchy, but you’ll give me leave to speak up when I must. Throwing money after an idea with no business prospects...”
“I’m saying you needn’t worry about it.”
“Come now, lad,” the manager said, not backing down.
Firth sighed. “Very well. I won’t be by this store for a while so that I can be sure not to get in your way. Oh, and I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but not a word of this leaves this room.”
“W-Wait, I wasn’t saying that you’re in the way, lad... Lad?!”
Firth rose from his chair, collected his papers, then left. The manager came after him but Firth ignored him, walking out of the store and heading back to the inn where he’d taken a room simply as “Firth.” He’d paid for it with money he’d earned himself as a merchant so it was hardly a flashy hotel, but lots of merchants stayed there so it was at least clean.
Firth laid out his documents on a table about a fifth the size of the last one.
“That man...” he said, shaking his head. “He’s a good manager when it’s business as usual, but he’s got no head for bold plans for the future...”
One of the documents before him was Astrid’s design plans. Clare had decided to reemploy Kett, and Firth had no intention of saying anything about it. On the contrary, it was what he’d expected to happen. He could see that they were both entirely hung up on each other.
He’d spoken to Astrid once since then. She’d turned her eyes away from him and mumbled something like, “I’m sorry.” Firth hadn’t known what to make of that. His attention had been drawn to the recording device that she’d brought with her.
“I’ve made some small tweaks...but I’d appreciate it if you’d buy it back from me,” she’d said.
Astrid’s improvements had made the device capable of picking up and recording even the smallest sounds—anything but what you’d call a “small tweak.” Firth had to acknowledge that she was a truly first-rate inventor. He paid her exactly the sum that Nina had paid him and got her consent to show it to the Vick Merchant House’s inventors for them to study it.
It was an absurdly good deal. Even considering all the efforts he’d made on Nina and the others’ behalf, he’d more than gotten his money’s worth. Then, Firth was once more confronted with Astrid’s excellence as she showed him her design plans: a magical chill box designed by Astrid based on Nina’s idea. Incidentally, Kett had the originals. This was a copy he had drawn up.
“It’s perfect...” Firth said to himself. “This is going to revolutionize trade.”
Everything was accounted for to just the right degree and simple enough that anyone who looked at the plans would immediately know how to build it. The simplicity was a shock to Firth, who’d assumed that plans were plans no matter who drew them up. Even an amateur like him felt like he could build the contraption by himself.
It was easy to explain difficult things in a difficult way. The real challenge was to explain them simply. In that regard, these plans had achieved quite the feat.
Just like Clare, he also saw the value in the plans. After changing the world of trade and distribution, this idea of single-use items might even change the whole concept of magic items.
Firth had explained all this, but the manager hadn’t understood it. Perhaps it was a hard sell for merchants like him who weren’t all that familiar with magic items.
“I need to hurry...” Firth muttered impatiently.
This was, he thought, a race against time. He needed to procure large quantities of wetland frog skins, but buying them up would lead to rumors, and canny merchants would catch on to what he was doing. In that sense, it was better that he hadn’t gotten the Vick Merchant House involved. The other large merchant houses watched the Vicks’ every move like hawks, but they wouldn’t pay much mind to Firth on his own.
The next question was one of people. The only ones who had seen the plans were Clare, Kett, and himself. Anticipating that things might turn out this way, he hadn’t shown them to the manager. If they hired new inventors, he would have to show them the plans. You couldn’t stop people from talking, so he’d need to find ones who knew how to keep a secret.
“But first,” he said to himself, “I’d better find us a workshop. After all, it’ll take time to find inventors to hire. If Kett goes on working at the Golding Merchant House, that Rondat deputy manager will definitely come sniffing around again.”
Since the events of the other night, the deputy manager had kept his head low and begun little by little to pay Clare compensation for damages. Still, who knew what he was thinking. Apart from him, the Nuuk Merchant House was also hostile to the Goldings. They wouldn’t miss a chance to interfere, even if their releasing the same products ahead of the Goldings had turned out to be mere coincidence. It was all a massive pain in the neck—but that was the nature of business rivalries. If Firth were in their position, he’d do the same.
“We’ll need a building suited to being used as a workshop in an out-of-the-way place... Yes, in that case it might be best to establish a new merchant house. Clare and I will manage it together and employ Kett, then split what profits it accrues.” He made a note of this idea. “But it won’t do to put ‘Clare’ or ‘Firth’ in the name. What to call it...” He thought for a moment then wrote another note. “That should do nicely.”
His note read the Asnina Merchant House.
The magical chill boxes produced by the Asnina Merchant House would enable fresh meat and seafood to be transported long distances at low prices, changing the lives of common folk throughout the land—but that was a little way off yet. As was the rampage of the giant monsters that lived in the lake following the overhunting of wetland frogs.
Firth looked down at his papers and noticed among them a page he didn’t recognize.
“Hm...?”
It appeared to be a handwritten memo of information gathered by the main branch. Firth picked it up, thinking he’d return it later—then one of the notes caught his eye.
Duke Werther issued order to search for maid from Crecente Kingdom. Goes by name “Nina.” Reward offered for her discovery and safe delivery to the duke.