Step-.After walking for quite a while, Ciel and I stopped in front of a certain building.Panopticon’s Western Branch, so grand it wouldn’t lose even compared to any city hall.She narrowed her eyes beneath the mask as she looked up at the tall building."Panopticon… I’d heard about it in reports, but I didn’t expect it to be on this scale."I shrugged and answered."It’s the source of the intel that let Sheika and me make our contract. Now we’re business partners."I’d known from in-game knowledge that several merchant guilds colluded to manipulate the Lombard Guild’s stock.But it was thanks to the Underworld’s help that I could investigate in detail, solidify the information, and make a contract with Sheika."Business partners… I doubt it was like that from the beginning."Ciel swept her eyes over the guards in black plate armor posted around the building and asked,"Don’t tell me you came here alone and conducted negotiations."Her tone reproached me for coming to such a dangerous place by myself. I lifted a shoulder."Strictly speaking, I wasn’t alone."Because Rize had been with me.In terms of combat power she was no help at all, but coming with a harmless-looking girl did reduce the other side’s wariness a bit."Let’s go in."When I went up the steps first, Ciel followed behind me.Perhaps my visit had been pre-reported to the guards, because we were able to enter without much hindrance.Creak-.The great door adorned with gargoyle statues opened, and a red carpet welcomed us.At the end of that carpet stood the dignified elderly gentleman, Alfredo. He gave me a light bow."Welcome. It’s been a while, Lord Loen. And nice to meet you, Lady Ciel."Beside the dapperly dressed Alfredo, a bright-faced girl greeted me."Ah, Lord Loen!"Rize—her hair neatly tied and wearing a pretty dress, unlike her previously shabby appearance.She ran up in a single step and stood before me.Ciel briefly showed signs of wariness at Rize darting toward me, but soon saw no hostility and stepped aside.Then, taking in the navy-haired girl looking up at me with sparkling eyes, she asked,"This girl is…?""This is Rize. You could say she’s a talent I discovered. She’s currently running a magical-tool shop under Panopticon’s protection.""Ah. So you’re like a patron?""Rather than a patron… right, a contractor."I had gotten her a job with Panopticon, but I hadn’t been supporting her financially afterward."Have you been well?""Yes! Thanks to you, Lord Loen, I’ve been doing great. Everyone’s kind and treats me well."Rize chattered away excitedly about everything that had happened—the fact she had her own shop now, that she had a private tutor and was learning all sorts of things, and so on."Good."I smiled as I patted Rize’s head.I’d been worried about her basic education, but it seemed they’d handled it well on their own. When she came of age, she’d be able to enroll in the Union too.Her spirited, bright appearance was very pleasant to see.While I was exchanging a few words with Rize, Alfredo pointed down the inner corridor."It’s good to reunite, but we don’t have much time. Let’s talk inside."***The receiving room we reached after following Alfredo. It was the same place where I’d traded with Rebecca before."You must have heard the situation from Gretel."I nodded."Right. I heard Professor Zimmer entered the Underworld with two guards.""Yes, he is currently staying for a short while at a high-class inn on Blackstar Village’s 2nd Street. When the time comes, he’ll come out to the location we passed on to him. Time remaining: about three hours.""The negotiation goods?""It was difficult, but we obtained it."With those words, Alfredo set what looked like a black jewel box on the table.Judging from how it was firmly sealed both physically and magically, it was clearly a top-grade treasure.From beyond the case wafted such baleful energy that I could easily guess its identity.Click-.I opened the lid of the jewel box and checked its contents.A violet shard wrapped in a soft red velvet lining. It kept throbbing as if it were alive.'Mad Dragon Kalbador’s Heart.'Though it wasn’t the whole thing—merely one of the fragments—even so, it was undoubtedly a tremendous item.At first I’d considered not using it as a bargaining chip with Zimmer and instead consuming it myself, but greed soon leads to disaster.A Mad Dragon’s Heart, brimming with ferocity, inherently carried the risk of mana runaways.'With my Mana Heart and circuits already weakened by Gu-eum Jeolmaek, the Mad Dragon’s Heart would put a tremendous burden on them.'Considering I’d only recently coughed blood after ingesting Bell’s Mana Orb, it wasn’t an easy option to choose.'…If I ate it, I might really die.'Regrettable, but this wasn’t an item suited to me.On the other hand, a warrior like Zimmer could, with his innate toughness and trained mana circuits, suppress that feral energy to some extent.Also, the Knight Kingdom Gilbert’s Mana-Hall training method was an orthodox-line mana cultivation art.He would be able to purify the turbid energy contained in the Mad Dragon’s Heart without too much difficulty.Zimmer daring to ingest the Mad Dragon’s Heart—this must have been his calculation."Indeed, the item checks out. It’s a Mad Dragon’s Heart."Watching quietly, Ciel carefully asked me,"Lord Loen, Professor Zimmer is certainly the Basic Swordsmanship professor, correct? Temporarily taking Professor Verdandi’s class…""That’s right.""Then I fail to see the connection among him, the Mad Dragon’s Heart, and you, Lord Loen.""It’s not that complicated."I shrugged and briefly explained the current situation to Ciel.That as soon as Professor Zimmer took over for Verdandi, he expelled Garfield and raised the grading standard of that class.And that he had done so at the behest of someone who wanted me dethroned.That in return, he had received shares from merchant guilds out of the Kingdom of Gilbert who were orchestrating the stock manipulation currently unfolding in Stella; and that my contract with Sheika was to turn their plan back on them.Having heard me out, Ciel slowly nodded."So that’s how it happened. Then the role of this Mad Dragon’s Heart is…?""It’s like a wish he longs for. We’ll use it as a bargaining chip—to win him over."Ciel narrowed her eyes slightly and asked,"Is it really necessary to recruit him? If we ruin the merchant guilds he was paid with, his relationship with the instigator will be severely strained. After that, Professor Zimmer will have no need to remain hostile to you, Lord Loen. Wouldn’t that be enough?"Ciel was right.Since the shares he received as compensation would turn into mere scraps of paper… no, a mountain of debt, Zimmer would find it difficult to maintain cooperation with Jeremy."True. I had originally planned to end it there. But one more variable entered the picture. Alfredo."When I passed the thread of the conversation, Alfredo produced a dossier and spread it out."Yes. We examined the shareholder lists of those Kingdom of Gilbert merchant guilds that Professor Zimmer received from Jeremy as compensation, but his name was not on them.""Meaning…""Right. Professor Zimmer holds no actual shares in those merchant guilds. He got hit with forged certificates."Zimmer was, to the marrow, a warrior, and from the start had little knowledge of the business world.To a swordsman who had wandered battlefields all his life, stock—such money games—was neither something to understand nor something he needed to.Jeremy exploited that fact and chose Zimmer as a disposable piece to be used once and tossed.Why hand over tens of billions in cash to someone who knew his dirty secrets and had already served his purpose?It would be better to quietly remove him.And Zimmer lacked any clear backing at the moment.He had even neglected his own knightly order to come all the way to the Meteor Isles to obtain a Mad Dragon’s Heart and was doing out-of-character professor work; to Jeremy, he wasn’t worth recruiting with a fortune.Even if I hadn’t intervened, their relationship was fated to collapse sooner or later.Thus I decided to take one step further."Alfredo."When I tilted my chin, he produced another set of materials and showed them to Ciel."This is the current power map of the Kingdom of Gilbert."At present, the Knight Kingdom Gilbert was broadly split into three.First, the Royalist faction centered on the king, his eunuchs, and a powerful order of knights.Second, the Noble faction, composed of local magnates and established nobles rallying behind Jeremy, the power of the future.Lastly, the Second Prince Andrew faction, an up-and-coming force coalescing around new blood.Outwardly they weren’t in direct confrontation, but it was said the political scene was in considerable turmoil.In the midst of that, if Jeremy—hostile to me—rose to the throne, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.The entire kingdom might even become my enemy.Of the three checks on him, the Royalists were a massive force beyond my reach, so my target had to be the relatively weaker Second Prince faction.I intended to use Zimmer as a bridge in this opportunity and form a cooperative relationship with the Second Prince’s side.At any rate, due to this incident Zimmer would fall out with Jeremy, and his relationship with his own elder brother—the Captain of the Royal Guard, a henchman of the Royalists—was extremely bad.The faction he ought to join was already set: the Second Prince’s.'Zimmer is a suitable piece that has happened to land in my hand.'Anything can be medicine or poison depending on how you use it.Used well, Zimmer could become a dagger card that would stab back at the opponent in the future.When I laid out this plan, Ciel gave a small nod."That’s quite an ambitious plan. I don’t know if it will succeed, but I understand the intent. Then how much did you pay for this item?"Ciel looked at the independently pulsing Mad Dragon’s Heart.Even if it was just a fragment, it was a Dragon Heart.At minimum it would fetch tens of billions, and depending on condition and terms, the price would rise exponentially.But this was a Mad Dragon’s Heart with a risk of runaway, and a fragment at that, so comparatively cheaper."I heard one hundred and forty billion.""Pardon? Where did you get such a fortune…""Of course I didn’t spend my money. In other words, it was free."When I grinned, Alfredo followed up,"We paid the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) price for it. In exchange, we put our spoon on this plan as well."Swish-.Alfredo pushed a stack of documents across the table and spread them out.They were records of background checks on the movements of the merchant guilds involved in this week’s stock manipulation, and a list of the Kingdom of Gilbert merchant guilds entangled in this matter.By joining hands with Sheika and taking part in this plan, they would strip those merchants’ pockets—that was the payment instead.Given the Underworld’s capital, they would likely earn profits incomparable to my investment on this matter.It would be a business that left tens of times more even after paying off the Mad Dragon’s Heart.And the reason we could currently lock up most of the Lombard Guild’s shares in alliance with Sheika was the Underworld’s capital.'…Sheika and the Underworld’s current holdings amount to about 91 percent of the total float, counting the call options soon to be exercised.'Meanwhile, the total amount of Lombard shares that the opposing merchant guilds had shorted already exceeded 20 percent and was still growing.Because they kept borrowing shares through an anonymous broker.In short, they had taken on a debt they could never repay.If, next Monday, this situation were disclosed at Stella Harbor, a bloodstorm would sweep through the Meteor Isles stock market.'And I would finally be sitting on a mountain of money…'I was about to twist my lips into a lewd smile when I realized Rize was watching me, and I immediately smoothed my expression.Such an unpleasant face was bad for a child’s education."Let’s get ready."Click-.Ciel and I finished our talk, put on our masks, and rose from our seats.Time to go make money.***A quiet clearing on the outskirts of Blackstar Village.Professor Zimmer, escorted by guards, checked his wristwatch as he waited for his negotiation counterpart.Step-.Several figures appeared from around the far corner.Judging by the mana and presence they exuded, there was no particular hostility."Precise."Arriving with not even a one-second error.Confirming the time, Zimmer raised his head again and looked at them.The shadows screening them receded, and their figures slowly emerged under the streetlamp.An elderly man with a splendid beard.The firm physique visible beneath his suit and the aura he gave off were definitely that of a warrior.From personal inquiry, he would be Alfredo, the man overseeing Panopticon’s Western Branch.Behind him, a considerable number of guards in black heavy armor stood in formation.Zimmer asked Alfredo,"You’re the one who has what I want?"When he cut straight to the point, Alfredo smirked and said,"How overbearing. Aren’t you afraid?"Alfredo motioned with his eyes to the dozens of guards behind him, but Zimmer showed no particular reaction."…Not really."Afraid?He had left everything behind and come all the way to the Meteor Isles to surpass his elder brother.And he was in a situation where he was cleaning up after a brat and handling dirty work besides.So long as he could obtain the item, no price would be too great.And even if a fight broke out, Zimmer was confident.He had brought two trusted subordinates who had weathered hellish battlefields with him.And he did not think Panopticon—so renowned in the Underworld—would resort to vile tricks.At the very least, they should be someone one could talk to.After finishing his thoughts, Zimmer opened his mouth."Skip the introductions and pleasantries. All I want is the deal. Are you the one in charge of this negotiation?""No. The person who will negotiate with you is this gentleman."When Alfredo took a step back, a silhouette emerged from beyond the darkness.Step-.The length of his stride, the way his body moved, the peculiar mana he gave off, and the subdued, shadowy air.It felt like something he had definitely seen somewhere before…Zimmer was frowning and searching his memory for the matching information when—"Good to see you again, Professor Zimmer.""…!"The moment that voice struck his eardrums, something flashed across Zimmer’s mind.Click-.He then took off the mask he had been wearing and smiled faintly."Since we’ve met before, there’s no need for introductions, is there?"

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