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Of course, it wasn't that the merchant was exceptionally generous.
The merchant brushed off the swapped weight as a mistake, but it was likely a shallow trick.
The Sage of Girgaya handed out severe punishments, such as canceling business licenses, to those who traded using tricks.
It was clear he gave the extra saffron because he feared the merchant group might run to the Sage's house and report him immediately.
Of course, Nicholas didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that saffron, worth a lump of gold per bag, was now in his hands.
“Wow, we made a killing today too!”
Nicholas laughed cheerfully, clinking bronze beer mugs with his colleagues.
Every time this happened, he thought he had made the right choice in quitting the sluggish mercenary work to start trading.
Even if the profit from the saffron wasn't an enormous amount when split, it would be enough to buy his wife a nice dress and still have some left over.
Nicholas's colleagues were also full of smiles. The journey of transporting flour without letting it get damp was grueling, but it was rewarding.
“For the Atheist Guild!”
“Cheers!”
The Atheist Guild. It was the name of the trading company Nicholas created after quitting his mercenary work.
A small group consisting of six former mercenary colleagues and one blind man—it was hard to even call it a trading company—but Nicholas's dreams were big.
Perhaps because of the name, the merchants of Til Nebe Cedric liked them quite a bit.
“Ah, this is great.”
Beer from Foldenbach was quite expensive in Til Nebe Cedric. The storage conditions were poor, so most of it tasted sour, sometimes feeling like drinking vinegar.
But nothing was as welcome as the beer of his hometown when drunk in this mood.
“Adem. Thanks to you, we earned well today too!”
The one who played the biggest role in today's trade was the blind man, Adem.
Adem didn't like alcohol, but they couldn't leave him out on a day like this.
Nicholas slapped Adem's shoulder vigorously. Adem, who had been sitting with his beer, flinched and smiled.
“What do you mean 'thanks to me.' It's thanks to Nicholas's foresight.”
Wheat from Foldenbach was much softer than rye, the staple of Til Nebe Cedric.
It was only recently that the unbelievers, who had initially shunned it, gradually developed a taste for Foldenbach wheat.
Nicholas, observing the gradual rise in wheat prices, had suggested, ‘Let's only load wheat on the ship this time,’ and it had paid off.
“Oh, what are you talking about. If anything, it was Adem who brought us to Til Nebe Cedric and let us make money!”
Adem.
Two years ago, he was a man Nicholas and his colleagues had accidentally picked up after being stranded on a coast by a terrifying summer typhoon.
Washed ashore, he surprisingly didn't have a single scratch on his body. His brother was with him, as he had been unconscious.
According to the story, he had thrown himself off a cliff intending to die, but he survived because the Saintess happened to reappear in the Arnsberg region at that moment.
Fortunately, he lived thanks to his brother, who had rushed over after seeing him jump.
Nicholas's mercenary group also knew about the reappearance of the Saintess, who spread healing power across the continent. Everyone's injuries had been healed thanks to that Saintess.
But to think that even a guy who threw himself off a cliff to die was healed—it was hard to tell if he was lucky or unlucky.
Anyway, his brother gave Nicholas all the money he had and earnestly asked him to look after Adem.
He said he had to leave quickly. Hearing that the story was pitiful, and above all, because the money was not a small amount, Nicholas accepted Adem.
‘The fact that I was penniless at the time played a part too.’
Tsk. While he was smacking his lips, someone put an arm around Adem's shoulder and asked subtly. It was Yanic, one of the colleagues.
“Hey, Adem. You took care of that girl earlier on purpose, didn't you?”
“Huh? What girl?”
“Don't play dumb, man. That girl looked like she hadn't eaten for three days.”
At those words, Adem laughed awkwardly, “Haha.”
“I really didn't know. I just heard a child's breathing... I thought she was the merchant's daughter.”
“This guy, really.”
Yanic laughed as if it were absurd. But he didn't press further. Everyone knew that Adem had a subtly affectionate personality.
Of course, at first, everyone was afraid of Adem. When Adem regained consciousness a week after being left with Nicholas, it was because his eyes were red.
‘W-where... where am I?’
‘Yikes! It's a demon!’
At the time, immediately after the reappearance of the Saintess, apocalyptic theories were prevalent among the people, so it was understandable that they were terrified.
However, after Nicholas entered and explained Adem's story, everyone sympathized with Adem.
‘I heard Jeochi was branded a demon by the priests because of those eyes. That’s why he jumped off a cliff.’
‘What?’
‘That man who called himself his brother mentioned it first. But think about it. If he were a demon, wouldn’t he have died when the Saintess descended?’
Everyone present was convinced. Of course, this was only possible because none of the members of Nicholas’s mercenary group held any goodwill toward the Church of Eridrahan.
‘Good grief. Those priests were acting up again.’
‘Seriously, those bastards. They do nothing but persecute others. Their eyes only turn red for money.’
The circumstances of those who became mercenaries were usually similar. Most were people who, lacking money, took up the sword and volunteered to become butchers.
Consequently, they had all experienced something—ranging from being humiliated to losing someone precious—at the hands of the priests of the Church of Eridrahan.
Nicholas himself was a man who had lost his daughter to the botched treatment of a corrupt priest.
It was no wonder he would act out, shouting, “You can’t pass through here!” whenever he saw a priest on the road.
Anyway, the man, having regained consciousness, could not see properly. No one knew why.
‘Maybe he’s just pretending.’
Nicholas didn’t feel the need to interfere.
Because he knew that Adem, who always wore a kind smile, actually spent every night tossing and turning, unable to sleep even after recovering.
Not only that, he had occasionally seen him curled up in a corner of the ship, unable to breathe.
However, Nicholas and the colleagues of the Atheist Guild all pretended not to notice.
No one is without a story. For them, it was largely because such things were familiar.
Of course, if Adem had been a hindrance to them, they would have cut ties long ago, but his movements were remarkably agile for someone who had suddenly gone blind.
‘He seems to have been a strong lad before he tried to kill himself. Maybe that’s why.’
Had he known that the man was previously a knight of the Grand Duke, he would have understood immediately. Knights are extremely sensitive to sensing others' presence or fighting spirit.
But there was no way for Nicholas to know that. He simply figured the man had been some kind of expert.
“Ah, come to think of it, did you hear that the Church of Eridrahan is pushing its way in here again?”
Someone who was tilting their glass spoke up. Nicholas frowned.
“Damn it. Are they really doing that?”
“Yeah. It seems the new Emperor intends to turn Girgaya into a complete nest for Eridrahan.”
It had been two years since the new Emperor of Foldenbach had put the Saintess at the forefront and leaned on the prestige of the Church of Eridrahan.
Since Grand Duke Lacheize, the new Emperor's rival, had been the one to establish the first temple in Girgaya, rumors had circulated that the Emperor would eventually do something about Girgaya, and it seemed those rumors were becoming a reality.
“Well, there goes our business. Tsk.”
“Hmph, they say it took two years just to cross Religious in the past. It’ll probably take another year.”
“Ugh, forget about one or two years. Just thinking about it brings bad luck. I shudder just looking at priests.”
Saying this, Nicholas nudged Adem.
“Hey, Adem. Any good ideas? Where should we go?”
It was Adem who had suggested to Nicholas—who had struggled to make a living solely through mercenary work—that they try trading in Til Nebe Cedric.
Adem had cautiously suggested they go together, saying he had a rough idea of the situation there because a friend had visited Til Nebe Cedric.
And in two years, he had built the ‘Atheist Guild,’ which had started with no capital, up to its current state.
Nicholas’s wife and daughter, who had lived in a hut in a small village, now lived in a decent stone house in a large city. All of that was thanks to Adem.
Adem gave a soft smile.
“I’m not sure. All I know is Til Nebe Cedric. Do you have any good ideas, Nicholas?”
“Gosh, I don’t either. Should we head north? I heard the snowfields of the Norwich March have all melted.”
Seeing his colleagues frown, Nicholas burst into a boisterous laugh.
“You bastards! No need to make those faces! I hate the cold too! I was joking!”
“Good grief, I thought you’d finally gone crazy.”
“I like Til Nebe Cedric, where I can get by with a single set of clothes. I hate the north.”
Laughter and teasing intersected.
Meanwhile, Adem silently touched the wound at the corner of his mouth while maintaining his smile.
It was then.
“Captain! We have a problem!”
One of the colleagues came rushing in, breathless.
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