Gold Rush
Stefan poured out his impassioned speech and only afterward gulped down the breath he had been holding.
Sweat soaked his face; droplets fell steadily from the fists he still clenched.
Herman fixed him with a silent stare.
This was Herman Pascal, the tyrant who had once whipped him for a single mistake on an exam and drilled into him that one must never let tension slip when facing numbers.
When he finally spoke again, he said only this:
“Then do it that way.”
“……What?”
Stefan blinked like an idiot.
He had armed himself and prepared for battle, only for the other side to declare surrender out of nowhere.
“Wait a moment, Father. A-are we really ending it this anticlimactically?”
“Anticlimactic or not, what more do you expect me to do for you?”
“Doesn’t it feel strange that you’re letting it go so easily? If you’re planning some scheme behind my back—”
“I’m just an old man in the back room, like you said. What could an old man like me even do? I told you to do as you please.”
“Until just now you looked ready to devour me if I didn’t wash my hands of it. Why are you allowing it now?”
Herman regarded him with a look of pure exasperation.
“Back then, you asked, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“So I told you to wash your hands of it. That was all.”
“How is this any different?”
“Back then you asked as an employee seeking a decision. Now you’re informing me as the master of this place.”
Herman turned away.
“If the master says he doesn’t want it, what am I supposed to do about that?”
With those words, Herman vanished.
The heavy air stabbed deep into Stefan’s lungs once more.
“Ha.”
Everything felt hollow.
It was as if a massive bomb had detonated nearby and left his eardrums ringing; his mind was in complete disarray.
“Master……”
Stefan chewed over his father’s words.
Then his gaze fell on the objects sitting on his desk.
Two apples that had rolled off when he slammed the surface.
Two things he needed to grasp.
Yet only one hand with which to hold them.
“Haha……”
A foolish thought suddenly struck him.
No—it wasn’t foolish at all.
It was the wisest, most brilliant idea the tightly constrained Stefan had never been able to think of before.
He picked up both apples with both hands.
“My hands…… were two to begin with.”
And he set the apples back on his fruit tray.
Everything that had been crushing him disappeared.
Stefan smiled in pure, weightless relief.
Herman left headquarters and climbed into his carriage.
Inside sat a muscular man who looked easily twice Herman’s size.
It was Merchit Pascal.
Herman looked at him and said,
“Home.”
“Yes.”
Merchit signaled the driver, and the carriage began to move.
Noticing that Herman was not his usual self, he asked,
“Did the talk with the little brother go well?”
Herman nodded.
“I don’t like it, but I’m satisfied.”
“Oh-ho. So Stefan’s going to be chairman now?”
“We’ll watch a little longer. Hand it over too casually and he’ll grow soft.”
“Haha! Never thought I’d live to see that brat earn Father’s recognition.”
Merchit laughed with genuine delight while Herman clicked his tongue.
“Watching him talk back so fiercely makes me feel like I’m looking at you when your delayed puberty finally hit. Unpleasant.”
“Not puberty—I’ve always had a temper. Isn’t that true of every Pascal?”
“So you’re fine with it?”
The question was whether Merchit truly accepted handing the Pascal Merchant Guild over to his younger brother.
Family businesses usually went to the eldest son; the situation could easily have been awkward.
Yet Merchit waved it off with a hearty laugh.
“The mercenary company is more than enough for me. I’m not the type who can make numbers dance. I’m the body; Stefan’s the brain. If he does the calculating for me, my head hurts a lot less, doesn’t it?”
“Is that so?”
“Doesn’t mean I have zero ambition. Looking at my boy, he seems to take after his mother—head works pretty well. Give him proper heir training and I’ll snatch the whole thing back through him eventually.”
“So you plan to sabotage him so thoroughly he can never even get married?”
“Kwahaha! I wish there was sabotage to do! The kid has no eye for women and zero courage—it’s pitiful! His mother is already whispering to every young lady from a good family, begging them to take a look at our little brother.”
Whether he wanted to steal from his brother or give something to him was impossible to tell.
“Still, that cheeky brat needs to clear a path so the rest of us can live. Father, can’t you do something?”
Herman shrugged.
“You’ll have to discuss it with the master. What do you expect to get out of talking to me?”
“Ha. Looking at the way the kid’s been scheming lately, even browbeating won’t work. Guess I’ll just have to raise my own boy smart enough to snatch it clean.”
Herman gave a short snort of laughter.
One way or another, the Pascal succession struggle was finished.
The carriage rolled on toward the manor.
“Did you hear the news?”
“Judging by the look of you, you’ve come about the Dandolo Merchant Guild.”
“Exactly. Who in the world would have guessed the Dandolo Guild would fall into someone else’s hands?”
“Rico Dandolo dies and Henri Dandolo simply abandons everything—there’s nothing stranger.”
“And the one who received it is that fellow Ferda from the Far East, isn’t it? He must have pulled some kind of trick.”
“Suspicion is natural, but Henri was always known for disliking the work. Once the chain called ‘Father’ broke, he simply let the guild go.”
“Even so, he gave up far too much, didn’t he? Why abandon money that would have let him live in leisure for the rest of his life?”
“There was clearly some deal struck among the high and mighty.”
“You can’t ignore the goodwill either. Every single executive agreed unanimously—so he must have handed it over to a suitable person.”
“I’d support Regent Ferda myself. He’s already riding high after discovering western ore veins and rare earths, and now he can even claim Magic Engineering—the rising star of the age.”
“So the name Dandolo stays?”
“Hardly. They’re changing it, I hear. To the Hestia Merchant Guild.”
“Not Baldrova?”
“People believe keeping that terrifying evil dragon’s name brings a curse. How could they keep using it? They’re naming it after the village they’re building.”
“The village is called Hestia? Sounds like a girl’s name.”
“That’s exactly why it’s good, heh.”
“But with so many people and so much money flooding into the Grand Duchy’s domain, the Empire is just sitting still?”
“They have the pretext of the Far East campaign. Iorga issued a declaration of support, and they announced they would build a village to house adventurers.”
“Adventurers? What are they planning to do in that Far East?”
“From the look of things, the Adventurers’ Guild intends to begin a full-scale exploration of the Land of Evil.”
“What?! They actually have the strength to enter the Land of Evil?!”
“Apparently they possess some means of resisting the Magi.”
“Then that means we now have a way to dig up the mysteries of the East!”
“There are countless strange things in alchemy and magic that we’ve only ever heard of in legends. We’ll be able to see them with our own eyes.”
“Grrr…… This won’t do! I have to change the destination of this trading trip!”
“Heading to the Far East?”
“Where people gather, money gathers! How could I not go? I’ll sell food and whetstones there!”
“Oh! Then let’s go together!”
“Big brother, save a spot for me too! I’m coming along!”
A wind called the gold rush was blowing through Hestia.
It pulled people in and set even the stagnant winter moving so it could claim its place.
As crowds poured in, the streets came alive.
“Come one, come all! Only thirty today! Only thirty servings of the western specialty—grilled flat catfish! Only thirty!”
“Bracelets that bring fortune for sale! Wear this bracelet and enjoy health and long life! Everything goes smoothly! And that’s not all! In just a hundred days, vast wealth will come rolling in!”
Empty spaces filled solid with street stalls.
Where there were stalls there were jobs; where there were jobs people gathered; where people gathered money moved.
Street vendors who had been frozen out of the great cities claimed spots one by one and made tidy profits, so everyone and their brother started a stall of their own.
Refugees who had money but nowhere useful to spend it could finally improve their quality of life a little at those stalls.
“Quite a crowd is pouring in.”
Isabella watched from a distance and spoke.
She was judging with her own eyes rather than relying solely on documents.
“Expand the streets a little more and restrain the peddlers.”
“Yes.”
“And don’t forget to collect stall fees properly. While nothing has solidified yet, don’t get greedy for no reason.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The meaning was clear: do not take bribes under the guise of stall fees.
An ordinary administrator might have snorted and ignored the order, but the other party was a Dragon Spawn.
Her meticulousness was enough to make one stick out one’s tongue, and her martial prowess was formidable; no one had the courage to fill his own belly while slipping past those eyes.
The tax collectors moved out. A man in armor stopped in front of her.
He wore half-plate, and on his shoulder was a pauldron marked “Security Chief.”
It was William, the knight cadet who had led the refugee group.
“Administrator. Security Chief William reporting from patrol. Aside from three cases of theft, nothing of note.”
“You’ve worked hard, Chief. With so many people flooding in I expected trouble, yet nothing serious has occurred.”
“Yes. I’ve ordered the security force to manage traffic so the crowds don’t cause problems. Nothing major should arise.”
“Well done. Then I have no further orders.”
William fell into step beside Isabella and asked,
“Um…… Administrator Isabella……”
“What is it?”
“Is it truly all right for me to serve as Security Chief?”
Isabella pushed her glasses up and answered.
“I imagine you feel the position is lower than knight cadet and that you have many complaints, but the Regent has said he will consider a knighthood for you later, so there is no need to worry overmuch.”
“No, that isn’t what I meant……”
It was an awkward matter for William.
Knight cadet, the brilliant service under Duke Uray—all of that had become a discarded past.
He had come to Hestia resolved to live as a refugee.
And now Security Chief……
What was a Security Chief?
It was essentially the second-highest power after the administrator.
He commanded the security force and, when necessary, could legally exercise force within the village.
Because of that responsibility and privilege, the post could not be filled by mere ordinary trust.
“The Regent appointed you personally, so the only authority I have over you is the power of dismissal. Even so, I myself find your work satisfactory and have no complaints. And……”
“And?”
“If you quit, I will send you straight back to Duke Uray, so do not even dream of it.”
“Urgh…… such a heartless thing to say……”
The words turned his face pale, yet they did not feel entirely unpleasant.
Coming from Isabella, who was called a cold-blooded witch, it meant she needed him. The thought was almost embarrassing.
“Then I will go write the report. Excuse me.”
“Yes. Well done.”
With the security force established, the village was stabilizing.
Yet if only good things happened, how wonderful life would be.
Where there is one person there is one worry; where there are a hundred there are a hundred worries.
Isabella forcibly swallowed the sigh that wanted to escape.
“Hey there, horned lady.”
An insolent voice pricked at her.
“You abandon the Magic Tower and the best you can do is clean up after humans? No—wait. You got kicked out of the Tower, so of course this is all you’re good for.”
Isabella was rational, but she was no saint who could hear a Dragon Spawn insulted and remain unmoved.
“What insolent bastard dares—!”
The moment she prepared to pour out her fury, she turned her head and the words changed.
No horns or tail were present, yet the refined features were a face Isabella knew well.
After centuries of service under her, there was no way she could fail to recognize it.
“Lady Erika?”
“Long time no see, Bella.”
Erika Iorgas raised a hand in light greeting.
Isabella looked her over from head to toe and asked,
“Are you enjoying a diversion?”
“A diversion? You make it sound like I’m just out playing.”
“You’re uncharacteristically pretending to be human, so it looks that way.”
“Unbelievable…… I don’t just play around, you know? Even if I look like this, I’m here as Eri, Platinum-rank adventurer.”
Erika showed her adventurer’s plaque—the token granted only to those who had achieved the highest feats in the Adventurers’ Guild.
“Isn’t the one called ‘Wisdom of the Twelve-Man Expedition’ ashamed to be acting like this among humans? In modern terms it’s called slaughtering commoners.”
“Anyone listening would think I’m the worst villainess on the continent. I just kept solving troublesome problems and it happened naturally.”
Despite her claim that it had been unintentional, the hand holding the plaque radiated intense pride.
Slightly embarrassed, Erika decided to change the subject.
“How have you been lately?”
“I’m doing well. After listening to those old fossils complain for so long, hearing something fresh is a welcome change.”
“Fresh? Are you calling Baldrova’s maidservants that?”
“Is there a problem?”
At Isabella’s counter-question Erika looked utterly dumbfounded.
“That child has lived for centuries too, you know?”
“She’s still younger than me, isn’t she?”
“She also has the moniker ‘Nightmare of the Frost Giants.’”
“I understand completely. That pitiful beauty is more than enough to kill a man with a single glance.”
Isabella’s expression turned rapturous as she murmured,
“Haah, if I could just pull her into a tight hug once, all this accumulated fatigue would melt away.”
Erika stared at her with an expression of pure disbelief.
Something in those words snagged oddly, and she could not let it pass.
“But you said ‘things,’ plural. Is there someone else? Another…… fresh one?”
“A child named Mori. A beautiful girl who looks as if she stepped straight out of a painting.”
“You don’t touch that girl?”
“Apparently that damned witch who resides in the castle is managing her.”
Isabella’s face filled with jealousy.
Even for Erika, who had spent centuries with her, seeing the full spectrum of human emotion appear all at once was a rare sight.
“……Does the Regent know about this side of you?”
“He seems vaguely aware, but he doesn’t appear to care.”
“Then that’s fine, I guess……”
“Anyway, let’s talk about something constructive.”
Isabella steered the conversation away from fresh things.
“Lady Erika, have you come here as an adventurer?”
“I figured I should check on the Adventurers’ Guild side as an adventurer myself. How are things looking? The adventurers who’ve come here?”
“The worst.”
Isabella sighed.
“The ones who think they have spirit are simply immature, and the ranks we actually need won’t even show their faces. It looks like they only came to play thug in the back alleys.”
“They worked like dogs to earn those ranks, so it’s understandable.”
Building merit is hard; dying takes only an instant.
Once someone has climbed high enough, pulling back is only natural.
“I’ll have to make a suggestion to the Central Guild. Those Gold-rank bastards need a little fear put back into them.”
“Won’t they push back?”
“Let them. I risked my life more times than I can count fighting to save this continent. Am I not even allowed a voice?”
Erika bit her lip and spat curses.
“Those dog-like bastards. I don’t pay them so they can park their asses and eat expensive meals.”
“Tower Master. Please maintain some dignity.”
“What are you talking about? I’m not Erika right now—I’m Eri, Platinum-rank adventurer. Dignity is optional. I can talk dirty anytime, anywhere. Want to hear Eri’s vulgar girls’ talk?”
“This is a moment that makes me truly proud I left the Magic Tower.”
Erika laughed mischievously.
“Is the Regent in?”
“He’s probably sitting in the office again today. Would you like to meet him? I’ll inquire via telepathy.”
“Showing up without an appointment is a bit awkward, but I have a few pieces of good news, so it should be fine. Can you pass that along?”
“Understood. I’ll report ahead so preparations can be made.”
Just as she was about to prepare the telepathic message—
Clang-clang-clang!
The alarm bell installed in the center of the village began to ring wildly on its own.
Everyone froze and stared toward the sound.
Erika looked up at the bell as well.
“What’s that? Why the alarm?”
“……That is the bell linked to the monster-appearance prediction device. When it detects something, it rings automatically.”
“Which means……”
“Unless it’s a malfunction, monsters have appeared.”
The bell showed no sign of stopping and continued its noisy clamor.