Raising Villains the Right Way

“What do you mean by that? You’re saying a chance has come to get on Marquis Palatio’s good side?”

“Just as it sounds.”

As Kun asked back with a bewildered expression, Malgam continued his explanation.

He relayed the contents of the notice announced by Alexion, the administrator of the marquisate, as of today.

Kun, who listened calmly, said,

“The Marquis… is personally meeting us?”

“That’s right. Only one person. The one who can supply him with the materials he needs at the cheapest price.”

At Malgam’s added explanation, Kun’s eyes widened.

“Is that… really true?”

“If it weren’t, do you think the atmosphere would be like this?”

Kun briefly shifted his gaze and looked at the merchants around him.

The atmosphere of the tavern was still no different than usual.

The mercenaries were loudly shouting as they drank themselves silly, and the laborers were spewing vulgar gossip and pointless dirty jokes about their superiors.

A scene that had become quite rare ever since the betrayal of Eliban, once called a hero, and the appearance of the divine-blood.

Yet despite how relaxing this familiar scene felt, the merchants, Kun included, were unable to join in that atmosphere at all.

No, to be precise, it seemed more accurate to say they were choosing not to join it.

Every single one of them wore a serious expression, deep in thought.

“What on earth is going on—”

Even the tavern owner, who normally would have shouted, ‘If you’re not drinking, get the hell out! Other people need seats!’ was cowed by the pressure the merchants were giving off and could only watch them nervously.

“That’s true.”

“Right?”

“Being able to meet the Marquis in person definitely means something different.”

In truth, if someone who wasn’t a merchant were to see this scene, they might tilt their head in confusion.

Even from their perspective, they knew Marquis Palatio was an extraordinary figure and that it was difficult to even catch a glimpse of him, but they wouldn’t understand why merchants, who lived and died by money, were acting like this.

No, even another merchant might think the same.

‘But if a merchant thinks that way, that bastard’s bound to go bankrupt soon.’

For merchants at this point in time, being able to have a private meeting with Marquis Palatio—no, even just being entrusted with transporting his goods—would be an enormous opportunity.

First of all, the mere fact of transporting the Marquis’s goods meant that, until the contract with him ended, they would effectively become the safest merchant caravan, one that no one dared to attack.

It wasn’t because Marquis Palatio would assign them guards.

Regardless of whether there were escorts or not, a caravan under contract with the Marquis became the safest caravan of all.

Why?

Because no matter how strong they were, even bandits feared anything related to the Marquis.

He was someone who had once nearly erased the very existence of bandits from the Allied Kingdom Alliance, and he possessed the power to do so again at any time.

As proof of that, the small merchant caravan run by Marquis Palatio’s administrator—that is, Alexion—had never once been attacked, no matter how many expensive artifacts or precious metals it carried during its trading runs.

Not even a single time.

In other words, from a merchant’s perspective, simply using the period in which they carried out the Marquis’s work to transport luxury goods they normally couldn’t move in bulk—would give them a chance to make a truly obscene amount of money.

And if, on top of that, they managed to leave a good impression on Marquis Palatio and secure the next contract?

And if they went even further and managed to establish a regular contractual relationship??

And if that happened—unlike with other nobles—if they could sign a contract with the Marquis, who still hadn’t properly contracted with any specific merchant caravan???

“Wow.”

He’d hit the jackpot.

Kun, who had been swimming through his imagination without realizing it, muttered to himself.

Goosebumps had risen all over his body before he knew it.

Before long, in Kun’s mind, Marquis Palatio had become a god himself.

Of course, he had always considered him a god to begin with.

As Kun’s thoughts continued, Malgam broke into a grin.

“Looks like you imagined it.”

“From now on, attacking Marquis Palatio will be considered an attack against me.”

“The other merchants will probably feel the same way.”

Kun looked around once more.

More precisely, he looked into the eyes of the merchants.

Eyes in which madness was slowly, unmistakably creeping in.

“Well, in reality, there’s only one person who can actually pull that off.”

His words were correct.

Here—no, at the moment the Marquis made this declaration—among the hundreds of lucky people in the territory, only one individual could seize that opportunity.

Just one.

Only that person could have a private meeting with Marquis Palatio and get on his good side.

“The Marquis really is something else. Just one line about meeting him in person, and he sets up a board like this.”

“I agree. And by announcing a volume that no half-baked merchant could ever hope to handle, he weeds out the riffraff from the very start.”

“I’d heard he possessed strength beyond humanity, but I never imagined his mind was this deep.”

Malgam and Kun, both considered big players even among the current merchants, expressed their deep admiration.

Of course, if Alon had heard this, his reaction would have been, ‘What? Me???’

Unfortunately, he wasn’t here.

There was no one to deny that strange misunderstanding, and with the two of them finishing their appraisal—

“……Aaaah! I don’t know anymore!”

One merchant, as if having made up his mind, jumped up from his seat and ran off somewhere like a madman.

That was the signal.

The merchants began to move.

***

Up until just yesterday, Alon had been agonizing over the materials.

Naturally, it was because the cost of materials was far higher than he’d expected.

‘Alexion wasn’t exaggerating for no reason.’

Just as he’d said, the prices of materials had risen beyond imagination.

Even lumber alone had jumped to more than five times the price Alon knew.

The stone needed next was the same.

Even the additional auxiliary materials required on top of that had skyrocketed to absurd levels, to the point where he had to seriously consider postponing the territorial expansion as much as possible.

If they started the expansion project at these prices, the marquisate’s finances would be drained in an instant.

No, not just that—the prices were so murderous that they could end up completely destitute afterward.

That was why Alon had gone to sleep, resolved to tell Alexion the next day that they should reconsider the expansion.

Yes, that’s what had definitely happened.

And yet……

“Alexion.”

“Yes.”

“……Didn’t you say yesterday that all material prices had skyrocketed?”

“Yes, I certainly did say that, but…………”

“……Then what is this?”

Alon stared silently at the estimate sheets in his hands.

As soon as he started work that morning, Alexion had brought them in, as if he’d been waiting.

They were the estimates submitted by the merchants.

Alon pulled out one sheet from among dozens.

The lumber, which had been priced at more than five times its normal value just yesterday, had somehow returned to its original price.

When Alon looked at another estimate, the price of stone had normalized as well.

“Hm.”

On yet another estimate, most of the materials Alon needed were priced lower than the original prices he knew.

Some of them even said they were free.

“Did they all go crazy as a group?”

Evan muttered from beside Alon as he looked over the estimates with him.

He, too, had checked the raw material prices yesterday.

In other words, there was no way he wouldn’t know how absurd the prices in front of them were.

After staring blankly at the estimates for a while, Alon carefully opened his mouth.

“Alexion.”

“Yes.”

“Just in case I ask… these estimates………… are they real?”

“They are all genuine.”

“The probability that the estimates were falsified is……?”

“I can say this with some confidence—there isn’t any. Most of them are from quite large merchant caravans.”

“…Then did Sili do something, by any chance?”

“To my knowledge, the Saintess said she had preparations to make after yesterday’s meeting and returned to the Divine Land.”

“Then why in the world…?”

Tilting his head in confusion, Alon scanned the estimates again.

If this was real, he could expand the territory far more than planned and still have money left over.

After hesitating only briefly, Alon decided not to think too deeply about it.

“Let’s meet the merchant who offered the best conditions among these.”

Unanswered questions could be resolved once he met them anyway.

So, setting aside the lingering doubts, Alon said that to Alexion and handed over the estimates.

And after some time had passed—

“Greetings, Marquis Palatio!”

“Is it you?”

“Yes! My name is Kun, and I run ‘Singing Coin’!”

Alon was able to meet the merchant who had presented the best conditions.

The very person who had submitted an estimate Alon found hard to comprehend, offering all materials at 70% of their original price.

And—

“First of all, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity!”

—watching him bow deeply as if he’d received a great boon,

‘Opportunity?’

What opportunity……?

Alon couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

***

At that time.

An empire now split into four, possessing territory even broader than the Allied Kingdom Alliance.

Among them, within the imperial palace of the Eastern Empire, which was still holding back the invasion of the divine-bloods and radiating formidable strength.

In an audience chamber decorated in dazzling yet classical splendor, a man reported.

“The Western Empire has completely fallen.”

A calm statement.

Above him, far higher than the man, the woman seated upon a throne so ornate it was dazzling to behold let out a light hum and asked,

“Not even the small fry survived?”

“……It seems that way.”

“Tsk, it’s shameful to share the same origin.”

At the man’s reply, she openly frowned.

She shook her head several times as if thinking of someone utterly pathetic, then continued,

“So, is that the end of your report?”

“There is one more matter I must report.”

“What is it?”

“It concerns information that came in from the Allied Kingdom Alliance.”

“The Allied Kingdom Alliance? You mean those rabble?”

“Yes.”

“Hm~ So they haven’t fallen yet. Well then, what is it?”

In response to her question, the man relayed what he had heard from an intelligence agent dispatched to the Allied Kingdom Alliance.

“……Ho? Is that true?”

“Considering that the source of the rumor is the king of the Allied Kingdom Alliance himself, the likelihood of it being false does not seem very high.”

Even after failing to understand it and confirming it several times, he conveyed the information(?) that Marquis Palatio was divine-blood.

And that story finally reached—

“So it’s true.”

“Yes.”

“If that really is the case—”

—the ears of Serdea Polantisia, the Second Princess who led the Eastern Empire.

“He would be more than sufficient to become the consort who will grasp the world.”

A twisted smile settled on the lips of the princess who ruled the Eastern Empire.