Chapter 40
Light novel: Episode 40
Manhwa: Chapter 17
All matters of the Lumen Merchant Guild proceed only with Duke Sieri’s approval.
There are rare instances where the vice-captain makes decisions independently, but selling potions in conjunction with the grand temple of the Sun God is no ordinary business.
This matter undoubtedly bears the hand of Lute Sieri.
How could they have not known until now that Lute Sieri had made contact with the Sun God’s side?
“Carmen, what’s going on?”
At that moment, someone entered the room.
Unlike Carmen, who wore a lavish dress, the man was dressed neatly in saintly robes.
With deep blue hair and sky-blue eyes, opposite of Carmen, he was Dominic Aria, the saint of the Grand Temple of the Great Sea God and Carmen’s older brother.
“Those leech-like Sun God bastards are still alive.”
Carmen spat venomously.
Dominic’s eyes widened.
“…What did you say?”
“Not only that, they’ve even started a potion business and it’s the Lumen Merchant Guild that’s distributing it!”
Dominic’s face froze over.
His gentle expression hardened, turning far more ferocious than Carmen’s.
The oppressive aura radiated by the temple’s strongest saint and saintess made the priest’s legs begin to tremble.
“That’s odd. The letter says they started sales over two weeks ago. How could we not have known until now?”
Taking the crumpled letter from Carmen and reading it, Dominic questioned the priest.
His voice was calm, but the pressure he exuded was anything but.
“You’re not exactly lacking in informants, are you? So how could we not have known about this until now?”
“S-Saint, well, that is…”
“To think we entrusted such an important business to someone so incompetent.”
“Saint! I-I’m deeply sorry!”
The senior priest turned pale and dropped to his knees with a thud.
However, he was not given a second chance.
“Take him away. Replace the person in charge of the potion business today.”
At Carmen’s command, the holy knights who had been on standby began dragging the senior priest away.
“Saint! Saintess! I was wrong! Please, give me one more chance…! Consider the effort I’ve put into growing the business until now…!”
He cried out desperately, but Carmen and Dominic had already turned their backs on him.
As if they had long forgotten someone like him even existed.
In the end, he was dragged away to an unknown location with his mouth forcibly covered by the holy knights.
“Ha! This is seriously driving me crazy.”
Inside the now-quiet room after everyone had left.
Carmen raked her fingers through her hair and slumped back onto the sofa.
“Those damn bastards. I’m so sick of them.”
It had been quite a while since she last thought about the Sun God, but to think they’d crawl out alive?
“This was the perfect chance for the Great Sea God to become the sole supreme deity!”
This was the reason why they were hostile toward the Sun God.
Long ago, three supreme gods had been worshiped across the continent.
However, as time passed, the status of the three gods began to change rapidly.
The Sun God, who once stood at the peak of power among the three, suddenly began to plummet.
As people gradually forgot the Sun God’s existence, they naturally turned more toward the Great Sea God, whose influence continued to rise.
Eventually, the Great Sea God stood tall as the most revered god on the continent.
The other remaining deity among the three had no interest in expanding influence, so if things had continued just a little longer, the Great Sea God would have become the only god.
But now, of all times, word had spread that those damned Sun God bastards not only survived but had even resurfaced!
“And they dare to start a potion business? Weren’t they supposed to be on the brink of collapse? How the hell did they manage it? And how did they get Duke Sieri on their side!”
Lute Sieri was a capricious man.
He didn’t believe in any god, so when he came to the grand temple of the Great Sea God, they thought he was finally going to become a follower, but he suddenly left, laughing scornfully.
So why the hell is he now joining hands with those damned Sun God bastards and even doing business with them? Just what do they have that they don’t?!
“What should we do?”
Carmen looked at Dominic with an anxious expression.
He was far more composed by nature than she was, so perhaps he might come up with a clever plan.
“…The god hasn’t given any revelation, right?”
Dominic, who had been silently contemplating, asked.
Carmen let out a small exclamation.
“That’s right.”
When something important happens, the Great Sea God often delivers a divine message or a revelation to the grand temple.
But until they learned of this incident belatedly, not a single word had been spoken.
“He didn’t even so much as glance in my direction.”
“I haven’t felt the presence of god in quite some time either.”
The fact that the Great Sea God, who always showed up when something happened, even if not often, was now silent could only mean one thing.
“It means the Sun God’s grand temple hasn’t been revived to a threatening degree.”
It was a fairly convincing conclusion.
No one knew better than the siblings who served closest to the Great Sea God just how greedy the Great Sea God could be.
“So let’s leave it be for now. If Duke Sieri is helping with the business anyway, there’s nothing we can do to interfere.”
It was infuriating, but she was right.
Even if the Great Sea God’s grand temple was the most powerful among the temples, it still wasn’t enough to go against the Duke Sieri household.
Especially when the ducal house had strong ties with the imperial family.
If they weren’t careful, they might end up turning the entire empire into an enemy, so interfering with the duke’s business was simply not an option.
However—
“We still need to gather some information to grasp the situation to some extent, so let’s send an informant to the Sun God’s grand temple.”
It would be difficult to target and touch Lute Sieri directly, but the Sun God’s temple was a different matter.
“Good. I like that.”
Carmen smiled in satisfaction at Dominic’s decision.
She would have been frustrated to death if she had to just sit around and twiddle her thumbs, not doing anything, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
Carmen’s lips curled up as she thought of the informant they had carefully cultivated within the grand temple.
She was quite looking forward to the information he would bring back from the Sun God’s side.
* * *
Kyaaah!
A scream burst out of me before I could stop it, and I hurriedly covered my mouth.
I glanced around nervously, but fortunately, no one frowned at the sound of my scream.
That was because the people around me were already half out of their minds.
“Uh… uhh… what? Hic…!”
“…Is, is this… real?”
Airek asked me on Seth’s behalf, as he was too stunned to speak.
I lowered the hand covering my mouth and nodded.
“Yes, it’s real. This is our potion sales report!”
What we were now looking over together was none other than the potion sales report sent by Jun Rudmin, the vice-captain of the Lumen Merchant Guild.
When we heard that all five hundred prototype bottles had sold out in just ten days, we couldn’t hold back our screams.
And to think, we even received a flood of reservation inquiries.
Thanks to Jun Rudmin’s keen judgment in collecting down payments, the profits that landed in our hands far exceeded expectations.
Even I hadn’t anticipated it would be this much of a huge success right from the start.
“It’s such a great start that it’s honestly a little scary.”
“H-How… how is this even possible?”
It was only after gulping down several glasses of cold water that Seth could finally speak.
I began to explain about the frequent price hikes in alchemy potions.
“To put it simply, we got the timing right. I mean, if there’s a better-performing potion at a similar price, wouldn’t anyone choose ours?”
Our potion was mid-grade in terms of ranking. To be honest, its price was a bit high for its stats and effectiveness.
However, ours contain divine power.
The fact that commoners could now purchase potions infused with divine power, something only nobles had used, naturally stirred up a strong desire to buy.
“How on earth did you know this would work, Saintess?”
Seth looked at me with shining eyes as he asked.
I wanted to say it was because I’m a genius… but this time, the credit wasn’t mine.
“It’s all thanks to Monica. She did the market research.”
Monica, who had conducted the research, had shouted that now was the perfect time, that we absolutely had to push forward right now.
It was because of her that we pushed to the limits the potion production team and the healing-power shuttles to mass-produce them.
Thanks to her, the potion business firmly took root and was very successful.
“And of course, the Lumen Merchant Guild’s name played a big role too.”
If the Lumen Merchant Guild hadn’t taken charge of distribution, we would still be anxiously biting our nails, unable to sell all the potions.
Thanks to them, even though people were unfamiliar with Sun God’s potions, they had no hesitation in buying them up.
Getting Lute involved in the business had clearly been the right move.
“From here on out, the potion-making team and the divine power-handling priests will have to work even harder.”
I smiled as I looked at Airek. Seth glanced at Airek with pity and let out a small sigh.
There was only one reason for our behavior.
“Hang in there, High Priest.”
This is because one of the healing-power shuttles responsible for infusing the potions with divine power was none other than Airek himself.
As the representative of the shuttles, he was fervently grinding himself down and working hard more than anyone.
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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