“So the volume of orders hasn’t changed?”
“It hasn’t, sir.”
Three days following the competition, after classes had ended. The students were now hurrying to the courtyard to fulfill their secondary duties. Having no relation to social intercourse, though, I was walking in the opposite direction while discussing the orders we received over the last few days with my dear secretary Mia.
Her docile hairstyle matched her still-childish features. She was plain compared to the cheerful schoolgirls from the upper echelon of society, but she had a sweetness to her like a flower blooming in a field, and the strong will of a wildflower. She had a tendency of displaying the latter towards me, though.
The girl referring to me as “sir” was a fellow student at the Academy in the same grade as me. Apparently she referred to me as such because of our positions within the company, seeing that I joined before her. It’s not clear when exactly I was born, so she may in fact be one or two years younger than me too.
The Catholic school-style uniform she was wearing now was a huge difference from the rags she had when she was just an orphan in the village. It got to the point where my foster father was seriously worrying that some pest would latch on to her.
On that point, a peddler in town who was interested in my calculation abilities and my stories of apiculture ended up adopting me. This is a world where a boy with an unknown past could never be trusted. If I was to act in the company’s stead, I had to inherit his name.
There were also discussions of adopting Mia, but apparently that decision was being held off until I was married. I was told it’s because it seems like I’m going to be tricked by some useless woman, and she didn’t like the idea of calling such a woman her sister-in-law. Her reasoning is so indirect that I didn’t really get it, though.
“So nothing’s changed despite that happening...” I mumbled doubtfully.
“Yes. There have been no shops turning down our business. Conversely, we’ve had new customers showing interest in copper honey. Also, there haven’t been any inquiries from the noble market like we were worried about.”
My secretary was so capable that one would suspect that she had our entire account book committed to memory, so there was no mistaking her analysis.
“We’d be unable to cope with a massive amount of orders we can’t turn down, after all. Moreover, none of this would damage Dreyfan’s share in the market. Is that the reason they haven’t been putting more pressure on our current clientele?”
“But their heir did threaten you today, as per usual.”
“That he did. He’s apparently been boasting about his new connections. Seems like lately he’s been getting along with an upperclassman named Rowan or something. He went out of his way to deliver me the information himself, so I guess I should thank him.” This was something he told me just before I left the classroom.
“That would be Earl Rowan’s son. The earl himself is the vice-commander of the Second Chivalric Order. Incidentally, that girl’s father, Viscount Adel, is one of the order’s commanding officers.”
“That girl’s called Claudia, I think? Don’t say that in front of her.” I recalled the schoolgirl with a red ponytail who scowled at me during the competition.
“Don’t worry, sir. I’m not like you, going out and picking a fight with the heir of the guild’s representative right in front of the princess,” Mia said as she looked up at me with squinted eyes.
“Ahem. So his new connection is related to the military, then? All of them up until now were administration-related, so this is a new trend...”
Two kids having a squabble would inevitably lead to the parents squabbling as well. It was necessary in this world to consider the family name as a close existence to the person themselves. Using political marriage as an analogue produces a poor image, but in short, they had arrangements for inter-enterprise relations and amalgamations. Thinking of it like that, it was generally accepted that the interests of the family were more important than personal interests. We couldn’t afford to pick our business partners based on personal emotions. Only through one’s kith and kin, including one’s vassals, does the family name live on.
“He can’t possibly be thinking of crushing the Weinders using the knights’ military force, right?”
“If the Dreyfans were inclined to do so, there are far simpler means of accomplishing it,” Mia remarked.
Setting aside the reputation of the guild representative, just looking at it from a cost-effectiveness point of view it was out of the question. It was like using dynamite just to squish a single bug; nobody would do it. I, at the very least, trusted in President Dreyfan’s sense for profitability.
“In which case, it’s business related. So what’s got them diving into business with the knights?”
“Sorry, I’ve yet to find that out...”
“Oh, fair enough. Military information doesn’t leak out all that easily, I suppose.”
“However, there is one possibility. Unlike the First Chivalric Order charged with protecting the capital, the Second Order’s mission is the suppression of monster floods.”
Campaigns which required the order to march all the way to the eastern border were accompanied by costs which were on a different order of magnitude from the trade of luxury items like honey.
“Under that hypothesis, it means they don’t have time to deal with the likes of us. That means the lack of movement from the Dreyfans isn’t because the princess’s publicity had a small impact. In that case, we’re okay for now, but...”
“It’ll be a problem after they settle their more important business.”