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Chapter 49: The Fateful Cream Puff
The registration of my alternate identity, which I had asked Sakakibara to arrange, was completed around the same time the Red Potion was finished.
On a thin metal plate about the size of a business card made from a material resembling aluminum, information was engraved using a special technique. On the reverse side was the crest of the Cainliese royal family.
"Merchant · Special 1 · HAKUBA ISSEI"
"What is this?"
"Well... I figured that if we were going to register an alias, it might as well be Issei-kun's name."
Ŵе̃b̆ ňо vе̄ l Е nûm̀а̂
Along with delivering a progress report on the Red Potion, I once again visited Enfive Magic Academy. Just like before, I was shown to a reception room in the Lion Dormitory.
When I entered, Sakakibara was already waiting with her usual dignified bearing. After offering an elaborate greeting appropriate for royalty, the two of us were left alone in the room.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Lately, there had apparently been rumors that the famous Princess Chris was secretly meeting a lover. The truth, however, was completely different, which made the rumors all the more amusing.
On the long reception table sat a guild card whose color was different from the dull gray merchant guild card I carried. This was the alternate-identity guild card she had prepared.
After receiving Sakakibara's permission, I picked it up and examined it.
"...Well, I guess this is fine, but what's with the 'Special 1' part?"
Еnū m̊а̃.і̃ d̈
The merchant guild card under the name Allen that I currently possessed was a dull gray card, issued to merchants who had been registered for less than three years or had yet to achieve any noteworthy accomplishments.
It was still a legitimate guild card and perfectly valid for contracts and official transactions. However, the gray color also identified the holder as an inexperienced newcomer, making it difficult to secure major contracts or do business with large trading companies.
Guild cards could be promoted or demoted based on achievements. For adventurers, that meant things like defeating powerful monsters or conquering unexplored dungeons.
For merchants, rankings were apparently determined by factors such as the scale of their businesses and the amount of taxes paid to the kingdom and guild. Because of this, high-ranking merchant guild cards were considered even rarer than those held by adventurers.
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For both adventurers and merchants, guild cards normally progressed through the ranks of:
Iron → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Platinum
Ẁ е̂b ñ о̌ v̂е́l̃ Е̄ n u m̌ӓ
The Copen Trading Company, which had recently signed a contract with the Brigade, was a typical Silver-ranked merchant company in the royal capital.
As for Zen, the acquaintance who ran a bar in Erakton, he was a Bronze-ranked merchant.
The guild card Sakakibara had just handed me, however, belonged to none of those categories. It was a beautiful deep reddish-purple card—the color of fine wine.
While it bore the name Hakuba Issei, a character from Wonder Stage whom Sakakibara happened to be a fan of, that much wasn't entirely surprising given her personality.
What truly puzzled me was the card itself. I'd never heard of a guild rank above Platinum during the introductory guild lectures. The inscription "Special 1" beside the merchant symbol also bothered me.
Seeing my confusion, Sakakibara answered with a somewhat troubled expression.
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"When I asked my father in this world for help, he got strangely enthusiastic about it... I was originally planning to arrange a Silver-rank guild card, but somehow he ended up preparing a special royal-approved one instead..."
"Royal approved?"
"Mm. A Special 1 card is what the heads of the Marcus Company and the Zoa Peddlers' Union carry."
"What?!"
The Marcus Company was one of the largest trading companies in the Kingdom of Cainliese.
While it wasn't quite on the level of the globally influential Saioji Group, operating branches across numerous cities in Asphial—where transportation and communication were far more limited than on Earth—was vastly more difficult.
Е̊ n u m̌_å
If memory served, Marcus Company's headquarters was located in the western metropolis of Saresa, not the royal capital, but it maintained branches in multiple cities, including the capital itself.
There wasn't one in a small town like Erakton, but I had personally seen Marcus merchant caravans several times.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
In other words, even a country bumpkin like me knew the name. That's how famous they were.
The Zoa Peddlers' Union was somewhat smaller in scale than Marcus Company, but among rural villagers and frontier settlers, it was arguably even more well-known.
Its structure resembled a guild. Goods were distributed from headquarters in major cities, and union-affiliated Zoa merchants traveled throughout the kingdom selling them. Because of this system, the union could reach remote villages that ordinary merchants rarely visited.
Marcus Company might have been larger in terms of size, but the Zoa Peddlers' Union was often regarded as contributing more to the kingdom as a whole.
Ŵ ěbňo v́ е̃ ľ E ñ u mа
Though different in character, both organizations shared one thing in common. They were major commercial institutions that supported the Kingdom of Cainliese.
That raised an obvious question. Hadn't Sakakibara's father, the king himself, gone a bit too far by giving me a guild card on the same level as theirs?
"W-Well, with this card, acquiring land will be easy. And the guild will allow unlimited loans without requiring collateral, so isn't it a good thing?"
"I mean, you're not wrong..."
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When I purchased the elf, I would inevitably be bringing a Red Potion, a potion type that had become exceedingly rare due to the dwindling number recovered from dungeons, into the public eye.
The acquisition of an elf slave alone would already attract enormous attention, but the special guild card Sakakibara had handed me had the potential to completely overshadow even that.
Е n ù.mа́
"...Actually, maybe this works in our favor. Considering what we'll be selling, something this flashy makes things easier."
According to Sakakibara, she'd originally intended to prepare an ordinary Silver-rank guild card. For reasons unknown, however, her father had instead issued one comparable to those granted to the kingdom's most prestigious commercial organizations. Even Sakakibara clearly hadn't anticipated that.
In fact, I was the one asking for the favor. While I'd need to adjust my plans somewhat, there was no denying the immense publicity value of such a card.
In a sense, it was an opportunity. If I handled it properly, I might accomplish even more than originally planned.
Seeing Sakakibara looking oddly apologetic, I sincerely thanked her. The situation was indeed unexpected, but it certainly wasn't a bad development.
"Ah, maybe it's because I gave Father one of the cream puffs you brought me as a souvenir the other day?"
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"That's definitely the reason for this guild card, isn't it!?"
As a gesture of appreciation for becoming a supporter of the Brigade, I had been periodically giving Sakakibara various sweets.
The cream puffs she'd mentioned were, like the fruit tart before them, a top-tier confection highly recommended by Akira-san. Some of them required waiting months to obtain. I had gone through considerable effort and numerous connections to acquire them. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined those cream puffs would end up on the king's table.
In this kingdom, presenting high-quality sweets was considered a reflection of one's character and capability. Just as famous figures like Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi had valued tea ceremony utensils and tea culture during Japan's Warring States period, the nobles of this kingdom devoted significant attention to confectionery.
It wasn't merely about enjoying sweets. They were tools of politics.
"Well, if you serve Earth-made luxury pastries to a king, of course he's going to get the wrong idea..."
Еṅu m а
In a world where baked goods such as biscuits and cookies were the norm, cream puffs might well have been a revolutionary invention.
I had no idea what the king thought after trying them through Sakakibara. Judging from recent events, however, I had a feeling his opinion was extremely favorable.
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The absurdly high rank of the alternate-identity guild card was proof enough. When I asked for more details, Sakakibara explained that she had also given the cream puffs to the queen and her younger sisters.
...After hearing that, I couldn't shake the feeling that the royal family as a whole might be harboring a spectacular misunderstanding about me.
