Prologue

It was some time after we'd run a certain troublesome merchant out of Yok Village. Between massively lowering my purchase price for frostbite bat fangs and the number of bats in the cave decreasing, the economic bubble that we'd been experiencing in the village had started to subside.

There had been some gatherers who'd complained, but once I had explained that I was doing it to protect the bat population in order to preserve them as a resource for future years, pretty much all of them had backed down without a fuss.

Most had already made good money, and there wasn't much for them to spend it on in this village beyond some slightly expensive alcohol anyway. In the end, they had been able to save up a bit, with their living expenses covered for the time being.

"It still feels like I did a lot of work for little reward, though," I said, shaking my head in dismay as I thought back on all my recent troubles.

Lorea-chan cocked her head to the side and blinked repeatedly. "Really?" she asked. "You didn't make it look that tough..."

"Huh? You think so?"

Despite being an alchemist, I'd had to go hunting in a cave, go back and forth to South Strag for meetings, negotiate with the merchant... It was a decent amount of work, okay?

I looked to Iris-san and Kate-san for support, but they nodded in agreement with Lorea-chan.

"I'm not going to deny that you did a lot, Shopkeeper-dono, but you made a considerable profit, right?"

"You don't have much cash left on hand, Shopkeeper-san, but you've become quite the little loan shark...erm, I mean investor, haven't you?"

"Well, yes, that's all true, but..."

My profits from speculating in the frostbite fang market had largely gone into a joint venture with Leonora-san to buy up the debt of all the alchemists ensnared by that unscrupulous merchant, Yoku Bahru. We'd been able to buy that debt for fairly cheap because he'd needed fast cash, but it wasn't an investment that was going to be profitable immediately...

"It's going to be some time before I see any profit from that. In fact, I'm actually worried whether I'll be able to collect at all. Those alchemists weren't exactly business savvy in the first place."

Normally, even if an alchemist was a little bad at business, they could take the slow and steady approach, build capital through repetitive, boring labor, and never have to worry about being plunged into debt.

And yet here I am, acting as their new creditor.

Leonora-san had looked into each of their situations, saying, "Due diligence is important!" But from what she'd told me...they ran the gamut, from people I had to genuinely feel bad for to those who just exasperated me. Because of that, the plan was for Leonora-san to handle the collection, being harsh to the ones who were just hopeless and easier on those who weren't.

Distance is kind of an issue, so I have to leave it totally up to her.

"Still, Sarasa-san, I'm amazed you lent money to people like that."

"Well, I bought their debt, so it's a little different from loaning them money..."

She told me the inspections will be harsh and frequent for anybody who's "just exasperating," so I'd like to think it will work out. Because, while the investment is a bit speculative, it was made with money I worked hard to earn and all.

And these are people who managed to become licensed alchemists, so if they work diligently, they should be able to turn a profit.

"Well, even if I get burned a little on the investment, I got a lot of materials, so maybe it's not such a problem? I ought to be able to focus on alchemy for a while, thankfully."

The massive hoard of frostbite bat fangs that I had bought off of Yoku Bahru at the end had obviously been more than I could ever use myself, so I had used Master's connections to trade them for all sorts of other materials.

Thanks to those materials, my progress through the Complete Alchemy Works had gone from intermittent to constant. That alone was enough to make all of my hard work worth it.

And Yoku Bahru spent lots of money here, so it was a plus for the whole village too.

"Is the thing you're making now part of that, Shopkeeper-dono?" asked Iris-san.

"This is an artifact called a Shared Sound Box. But the materials for it came from Leonora-san."

"Oh? How does it work?"

"Just a moment. It's almost done... There, all finished."

The completed product was a wooden box that fit in my palm.

It may look like just a box, but there's obviously more to it.

"I put my hand on it like this and... Testing, testing. Leonora-san, can you hear me?"

"I hear you. It's a success. Feel free to get in touch any time you need me."

Iris-san's and the others' eyes widened at the sudden voice from the box.

"It's a success. Okay, thanks. Talk to you later. And that's how it works."

"You use it...to talk to people in distant towns?"

"Yes. But it eats an awful lot of magical power, so it's hard to use it for lengthy, long-distance calls."

Iris-san was staring intently at the box, so I passed it to her. "Oh, it's light," she remarked.

"You can do that with such a little box... Wow. You'd think they'd be more ubiquitous, though..." Kate-san remarked.

"Yeah, it's a really impressive artifact," Lorea-chan agreed. "Even if it just looks like an ordinary wooden box."

They passed the Shared Sound Box around, each of them curiously turning it around and examining it.

"It's a bit expensive, just so you know. The standard retail price is five hundred thousand rhea."

"Huh?! Wh-Whaaa!"

Hearing this, Lorea-chan started shaking. The box slipped from her hands.

"Look out!" Iris-san shouted, acting fast.

Sliding across the floor, she caught the box, holding it tight to her chest. It was saved from the drop.

"Oh my gosh... I-I'm so sorry!" Lorea-chan blubbered, crouching down next to her.

"No, it's fine. I caught it," Iris-san reassured her with a handsome smile, offering Lorea-chan a hand and helping her to her feet. But...

"There was no need to worry. It's not going to break from an ordinary drop. Not unless you get extraordinarily unlucky."

"Which means if we get unlucky, it could, right?" Kate-san noted. "Shopkeeper-san, if you're handing someone something valuable, you need to do it in a way that conveys that. Or you'll startle them."

"Oh, that makes sense. Gotcha."

I still don't know how to do it, though. I mean, if I'd gotten all antsy every time I handled something a little pricey, I could never have worked at Master's place. It's actually more dangerous if you do know, I think.

"Also, the other reason they aren't more commonplace is that they're a bit hard for ordinary people to use."

The Shared Sound Box was low-energy compared to the transporter, but most people weren't able to use it unless they spent magic crystals, and even those who had some magic capacity would struggle with distances as close as the next town over.

That meant if they wanted to use a Shared Sound Box, there was either the cost of preparing magic crystals for it, or of having someone handy who was able to supply a lot of magic power.

With the high cost of purchase and usage, it was perhaps inevitable that the artifact hadn't seen wide adoption.

A large part of why I had made one came down to it being a necessary step for me to level up, and using it with Leonora-san cost so little I could more or less ignore it. In light of that, the Shared Sound Box was a fairly useful item for maintaining our current system of cooperation. When Leonora-san had provided the materials and suggested I create one, she didn't have to ask me twice.

"There are reasons it hasn't taken off, then," Iris-san concluded. "By the way, Shopkeeper-dono. There was something that I was hoping to consult with you about. Would you mind?"

"Sure, that's fine with me. What is it?"

Seeing how hesitant Iris-san looked with her eyes lowered, I gave her an encouraging smile and nodded. With some trepidation, she continued.

"Well... We're done with collecting frostbite bat fangs now, right? So I wanted to ask, are there any materials you could recommend gathering that would be an effective use of our time, even if they aren't quite as profitable as the fangs?"

"We're still indebted to you, Shopkeeper-san," Kate-san added. "So if there are any materials you'd specifically like to acquire and we can get them for you efficiently, then it would be good to know. I do feel bad for always relying on you like this, though."

"You're looking for something that would be efficient for you to gather? Let's see..."

There wasn't any need for them to be in a rush to pay me back, but I could understand why the two of them would want to hurry.

It's hard to feel relaxed when...