Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
Rick was now a member of the merchant department of Crown, ‘Lila Amamiya’.
He had turned over all of his previous peddling tasks to someone he trusted.
It was a big decision for Rick, but he did not regret it.
One of the main reasons was that the person in charge of the merchant department was Schmidt, whom he knew through his peddling connections.
Schmidt had personally asked him to join.
Before, Rick had been on the verge of losing his job.
To be more precise, the food department that he had been in charge of was going to get merged with Kennelsen’s six princes when they joined the company.
Rick had thought that the entire department would be transferred to them, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
While others were being assigned to the new location one after another, he hadn’t received any orders for a long time.
He had no choice but to go to the purchase counter and guess what products were needed.
Of course, it was to keep him from rotting away, doing nothing each day.
While working one day, Rick was finally asked to join the project.
He went to the designated location to confirm his participation.
It was Schmidt’s office.
The merchant department was now much more organized than it had been since its inception, and Rick, who was close to the bottom, rarely saw Schmidt during business hours.
There were only a few times when he was invited to Schmidt’s office.
Of course, their daily interactions were different.
When he entered the office, he saw two other people besides Schmidt.
One of them was Gazeran, the head of Crown’s adventurer division.
The other was Zasan, an adventurer that Rick had become acquainted with since he had started working under Crown.
Aside from Gazeran, Zasan was an active adventurer.
Moreover, he was supposed to be one of the best in the world at conquering Tower Floors.
Rick could not understand why he was here, let alone if he was just wandering around town on vacation.
“Hey Rick, glad you could make it. There’s a job I’d really like you to do for me.”
“A job, huh? It has something to do with the fact that Zasan-san is here, right?”
This was not a question, but rather a confirmation.
If it wasn’t related, there was no need for him to be there after all.
“You can’t ask me that, okay? I don’t really know what’s going on. I’m only here because Gazeran dragged me here, too.”
Gazeran seemed to be unaffected by the way Zasan spoke, and Schmidt chuckled.
From the way Schmidt was looking at him, it must be true.
“Yep. It’s a job offer. As for the content, rather than explaining it verbally, I have a document that summarizes it, so please read it first.”
Schmidt handed a sheet of paper. One each to Rick and Zasan.
It was not uncommon in this world for people to be illiterate, but both Rick and Zasan were literate.
As they read the document, Rick’s face grew serious and Zasan’s expression turned pale.
The content of the document was about peddling from one city to another.
It was a peddling operation, but the scale of the operation was completely beyond peddling. It was more like establishing a peddling group.
As far as Rick knew, he had never heard of a peddling group of this scale being formed.
“Well… You’re not calling this a merchant corps?”
“I guess we can call it that. I’d like you to lead it, Rick-san.”
Rick almost reflexively said that it was impossible, but he swallowed his words mid-sentence.
He looked over the document again and started checking. This time, with eyes of a merchant to see if it was really impossible.
Beside him, Zasan was asking Gazeran the same question.
“Hey. I don’t suppose you’re saying I’ve been called to…?”
“Oh. I was hoping you could be the leader of the escort group for this merchant corps.”
Gazeran stated to Zasan with a look that made it seem obvious.
When Zasan caught sight of his expression, he looked as if he had just chewed a bitter bug.
Zasan and Rick had an expression that reflected the insane size of this merchant corps.
First, the number of wagons used to carry the cargo was unbelievable.
There were more than twenty of them.
Not only in the Central Continent, where there was always the danger of monster attacks, but also in other continents, there was no merchant corps on such a scale.
At least, Rick had never heard of such a thing.
If there were many wagons, then naturally, there would be many goods they would be carrying.
In other words, it would make it easier to be attacked.
The size of the escorting adventurers was also unheard of.
The route took them from Kennelsen in the northwest of the continent to the towns to the north.
Some baggage would be separated from the wagons in the towns along the way.
After properly scrutinizing the contents, Rick turned to Schmidt again.
“I’m not saying it’s absolutely impossible, but isn’t it still a bit of a challenge?”
At Rick’s words, Schmidt’s smile deepened.
As he had expected, [Rick is a peddler by trade after all.]
“If you think about it normally. Well, if under normal circumstances, even I wouldn’t think of trying this.”
Rick and Zasan nodded their heads at Schmidt’s answer.
Seeing the two of them, Schmidt took out an object from his office desk.
Rick could tell at first glance that it was a magic tool, but he couldn’t tell what kind of magic tool it was.
“What’s that?”
“A grimoire that increases the speed of a wagon, so they say. In terms of the speed of the wagons, they say that, on average, they can make it twice as fast.”
Rick’s eyes widened at Schmidt’s answer.
If that was true, it would be something to drool over if one was a peddler.
Before Rick could ask a question, Schmidt spoke up. He already knew what Rick was pondering over.
“You can’t use this for personal peddling. To put it bluntly, it’s not profitable.”
From that statement alone, Rick knew what Schmidt meant.
In other words, the size of this merchant corps was chosen as the only means to make it profitable.
“So that’s what you’re saying.”
“Of course, it’s not only that, it’s also to advertise Crown, but I don’t have to tell you about that, do I?”
“Well, I understand, but… By the way, have you tried to use that magic tool?”
If he was given something that was in the experimental stage, and it turned out to be a failure, he wouldn’t dare touch it.
“Ah. No need to worry about that.”
“The wagons are fine, but what about us?”
Zasan, seeing that Rick’s questions had been answered, looked at Gazeran.
“Don’t worry. Of course, we’ll have a few people ferrying you. We’re also going to have a few carriages available entirely for the escorts. It’s a bit like an army.”
Rick’s eyes widened at Gazeran’s words.
Zasan asked. “Hey, hey, does the cost even match?”
“Don’t you worry. That part has been properly calculated.”
Rick was the one who answered.
He knew exactly what was going on based on what he read in the document.
He had even calculated how many days of delay would make it unprofitable.
And it was calculated with a lot more leeway than normal plans.
“But if the speed is doubled, won’t the monster raids be less likely to occur?”
Zasan poked a nail into Rick’s naïve thoughts.
“That’s naïve. Even a fast horse can be attacked. Even if you doubled the speed, the peddlers would still be perfect bait for monsters.”
At Zasan’s words, Rick lowered his head.
“My apologies for this.”
Zasan took a liking to Rick’s attitude.
Many peddlers were too concerned with profit to listen to advice from adventurers, who were professionals in dealing with monsters, not money.
In that sense, he judged Rick to be a good potential partner.
“So? Will you take care of this business?”
“Of course.”
“Oh. It’s going to be interesting.”
Schmidt looked relieved at Rick and Zasan’s answer.
“If this succeeds, we’ll have merchant corps as large as this move in all eight different directions. I’d really like to see it succeed.”
“When you say eight directions, you don’t mean…”
At Schmidt’s words, Rick immediately thought of the routes.
If they centered on the city, where the transfer gate was located, and proceeded in different directions, they would cross paths with merchant troops coming from different cities in the east, west, south, and north.
If all those routes succeed, they could expect to make quite a profit.
“I think it’s just as you imagined. I’d like to see it succeed if possible. If the merchant corps is successful, I’m going to put Rick in a position to lead those merchant corps.”
Schmidt’s words made Rick feel even more enthusiastic.
This merchant fleet was expected to be extremely profitable.
If it was enough to cover eight cardinal directions, it would bring in profits that he couldn’t even imagine when he was peddling alone.
Being able to lead such a team was one of his dreams when he was a peddler.
In the end, both Rick and Zasan decided to accept the request.
The result was a great success.
Although they were attacked by monsters several times, they were still able to deliver their respective packages to their target cities without losing most of them.
Upon this success, Crown began transporting a large merchant fleet from the city with the transfer gate to the eight directions as planned.
Rick, as Schmidt had declared, was made in charge of the large merchant fleet, fulfilling one of his dreams.
Zasan was also involved in training adventurers, who specialize in guarding those from Crown.