Dieta, the Snake That Swallows Gold.

A woman who had fled her ducal house with just one knight as her escort and become Cambria’s greatest merchant in a mere five years.

Impressive though her achievements were, people outside Cambria had shown little interest in her or her trading company. She certainly wielded considerable influence within the city, but that influence did not extend beyond it.

That had been the case until just a year ago.

Now, a year later, the story was rather different.

Over the past year, the Dieta Trading Company had grown explosively. It had established a distribution network beyond Cambria and even set up a base in the heart of the Empire. On top of that, it had drawn public attention by flaunting its association with the famous Najin.

The spotlight. Countless watching eyes and keen interest.

Even the slightest mistake now could render everything she had built worthless. Caution would have been understandable, but the Snake That Swallows Gold was a merchant to her bones. High risks brought high returns. That was common sense to a merchant.

She had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away.

With the whole world watching her company, Dieta stepped boldly onto the stage.

“Buy it all.”

The materials harvested from the slain white dragon and red dragon.

Dieta had secured first-priority bidding rights to those materials in advance. For this moment, she had kept her gold tied up even at a loss. Now she released all of it at once. A wave of gold coins swept through the auction house.

She poured everything into bidding for the materials: the debts the Central Guild owed her, and all the leverage and debts she had accumulated against countless trading companies. Dieta succeeded in acquiring nearly ninety percent of the red and white dragons’ materials.

Enough stock to call it a monopoly.

Dieta had monopolized the dragon materials.

The financial outlay had been enormous, but in her judgment, those materials were worth it.

What were dragon materials? Goods used in practically everything, from alchemy and magical engineering to forging armor, weapons, and other equipment, and even research. Their commercial worth had long since been proven. The only reason they had not been sold was that none were available.

Now, for the first time in decades, they had come onto the market.

And these were materials from the red and white dragons associated with the legend of King Arthur. Beyond their practical value, they were also highly valuable as luxury goods.

‘But that’s not all.’

Dieta rolled a platinum coin across her palm.

These dragon materials were special. The red dragon Najin had slain was an unusual specimen affected by the Witch of Camlann, with scales that could withstand even a Sword Seeker’s sword aura.

Dragon materials were already exorbitantly expensive. With such exceptional qualities added to them, the price was whatever Dieta named.

Countless trading companies, workshops, mage towers... buyers from every imaginable quarter expressed interest. But Dieta did not accept. Merchants did not trade solely in tangible goods. She knew that sometimes the things one could neither see nor touch were worth more than those one could.

If a merchant’s virtue lay in selling goods for the highest possible price, Dieta was an excellent merchant.

“The Red Tower has promised to supply its goods to us at reduced prices. We also stipulated that our company receive first priority for its products.”

She smiled at the merchants who had come to see her.

“Dofker Smithy has promised to supply our company with the products it makes from the materials, and furthermore, to enter into a partnership with us. And it isn’t just Dofker Smithy, you know. Roens Workshop, the Bendelin Alchemy Tower, and Wolhite Smithy have sent similar proposals.”

“What terms have you brought us?”

Bring her terms.

Otherwise, there would be no deal.

She pitted those scrambling for the first dragon materials in decades against one another, prompting them to offer better terms. As competition among the merchants intensified, Dieta maintained her silence.

She sold her goods to no one.

The customer she wanted had yet to appear.

This was only bait. Bait to draw a bigger fish into the game. Dieta watched the great fish swimming leisurely beneath the surface. You must want these goods too. But you won’t want to enter the fray yourself.

‘You’ll feel it’s beneath you.’

Trading companies that did business with you. Merchants with connections to you. Your plan must be to acquire the goods through them. But what a pity.

‘I have no intention of selling.’

If you want them, come yourself.

Only then will I agree to a deal. After all, I have made the stage this grand for you, reluctant as you are to step onto it out of concern for your dignity. Surely this is enough?

Then came a ripple.

“Company Head.”

At last, the great fish surfaced.

“A visitor has arrived from the Platinum Tower.”

It had taken the bait. Dieta flicked the platinum coin she had been rolling in her hand. Watching it spin in the air, she smiled.

The Platinum Tower.

The largest mage tower in the Empire.

At its summit stood the prey Dieta was after: the tower’s master, Cypria Gachevska. An archmage who produced nearly forty percent of the artifacts circulating in the Empire, and one of the Five Pillars of the Empire.

Cypria Gachevska, the Ever-Radiant Point.

She was the prey Dieta sought.

The Snake That Swallows Gold looked toward the Platinum Tower.

Establish a connection with the tower. Create a channel for doing business with it. That was the purpose of this entire plan. To establish herself successfully in the imperial capital, she needed a dependable trading partner.

The fish had taken the bait.

All that remained was to sweet-talk her catch. And that was Dieta’s specialty.

She firmly caught the platinum coin she had tossed. Once a platinum coin entered her grasp, she never let it go.

2.

Najin stretched his stiff body.

Every movement brought a creak. All that time spent lying down had clearly left him stiff.

‘I really have been in bed a long time. How long has it been?’

“About a month?”

Was that all? It felt as though he had spent another eight months lying there. Tapping his creaking shoulder, Najin thought back over the past month.

For a full month after slaying the red dragon, he had been confined to bed. Even with Excalibur’s restorative power, his injuries had been that severe. The healers had shaken their heads, saying an ordinary person would have died ten times over from such wounds. Unfortunately, Najin was far from ordinary.

A Sword Seeker, two stars, and Excalibur.

His ability to recover already surpassed human limits.

The healers had said he needed at least half a year of rest, but Najin had risen from bed in just a month. The sight would have had them clutching the backs of their necks... yet to Najin himself, even that month had felt endlessly long.

“That’s probably because you’ve never rested for more than a week.”

Merlin sighed.

“Have you ever actually taken a break since leaving the underground city? You’ve swung your sword at every spare moment, as if missing a single day of training would kill you.”

‘And thanks to that, I earned stars and became a Sword Seeker in less than a year, didn’t I?’

“Oh, of course you did.”

While she shook her head as though he were beyond help, Najin changed into his outdoor clothes. Merlin sighed as she watched him take the sword from the wall and fasten it at his waist.

“Going to train again? Why not rest a little? Your wounds haven’t even fully healed. What’s the rush?”

‘I’m not going to train.’

“What?”

Najin pointed at the shelf. A fruit basket and all sorts of other snacks sat there, all left by Dieta.

[“As for today, well, all sorts of things happened in the Empire.”]

[“Najin, would you like to try some of this? It’s nothing special. I saw it on my way here and bought some. Something like this is nice once in a while, isn’t it?”]

[“I brought a few books in case you were bored. You like this sort of thing, don’t you? It’s about the hundred heroes who brought glory to the Empire...”]

Throughout the month Najin had spent bedridden, Dieta had visited him almost every day. He was grateful for that.

“She came to see me almost every day, didn’t she? I thought I might visit her for a change. She’s already busy enough. Coming all the way here must be a bother.”

“Mmm... I wonder.”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t think she sees it that way.”

“What do you mean?”

Merlin wore a peculiar expression.

Unlike Najin, whose perceptiveness in matters like these was inexplicably disastrous, Merlin was not so oblivious that she could miss a young girl’s affection.

No, to be honest, it would have been strange to miss it.

That girl practically dripped honey from her eyes when she looked at him. If their hands so much as touched, she would startle and her shoulders would tremble. The slightest thing had her blushing all the way to her ears. How could he not notice?

Merlin swallowed the words rising in her throat. For some reason, she did not want to tell him. There was a strange sense of displeasure, as though someone else were handling a treasured possession without permission. She shot Najin a sulky look.

“Why are you glaring at me like that?”

Naturally, Najin merely blinked at her blankly.

“At times like this, you really are just a greenhorn.”

“Pardon?”

What was she doing?

Merlin sighed. His growth was so rapid that she often forgot, but the boy before her was only eighteen. A greenhorn who had left the underground city and entered the wider world less than a year ago, at that.

He had formed so few normal relationships that they could be counted on one hand. Perhaps it was only natural that he did not understand romantic feelings.

“Never mind. She’ll certainly be happy if you visit.”

Merlin shrugged.

Of course, she considered time spent on trivial things like lovers and romance a waste, but she had no intention of getting in the way.

Besides, was this boy really someone who would yield to persistent advances?

Najin’s head was filled with nothing but swords, knights, and stars. Merlin simply could not picture the boy she was guiding engaging in romance. Unfortunate as it was for that brown-haired girl, she did not think Najin would fall for her.

A smile blossomed on her face.

The thought put Merlin at ease. Najin tilted his head as he watched her, having grown sulky all by herself, now smiling away.

3.

The Dieta Trading Company’s headquarters.

While countless merchants and customers stood in line waiting their turn, Najin walked past them and entered the building. Far from stopping him, the guards recognized him and greeted him with slight bows.

No one stopped him from the moment he entered until he reached the company’s top floor. Ordinarily, meeting Dieta required a somewhat complicated procedure, but that procedure did not apply to Najin.

He was welcome to visit at any time. And “any time” meant literally any time, not merely a polite formality. He was to feel free to come, and preferably as often as possible.

That was what Dieta had told him, and she had also instructed the company’s employees to send Najin straight to her whenever he arrived. Thanks to that, he reached the top floor without difficulty.

The office door was closed, with two knights standing guard outside. One was Dieta’s familiar escort, Pasion, but the other had his face concealed by a robe, leaving Najin unable to identify him.

Had she hired another knight?

Yet there was something oddly familiar about him.

Najin narrowed his eyes. Noticing his gaze, the knight drew back his robe with a faint smile.

“We meet again.”

“... Sir Klaus?”

Klaus Aten of the Blue Wing Cavalry.

The Order had gained leverage over him and forced him to attack Najin, but now he was Najin’s ally. It was a welcome face, but why was he here? In response to Najin’s questioning look, Klaus pointed to the closed office door.

“The young lady hired me. A kindness I’m grateful for.”

“Dieta did?”

“Yes. Officially, we’re dead, so we had neither suitable identities nor anywhere suitable to stay... and wouldn’t you know it, she arranged everything for us. Thanks to her, we’ve been living comfortably.”

Those who had promised to become Najin’s allies.

Dieta had told him to leave their arrangements to her and focus on what he needed to do. She had been true to her word. Najin was inwardly astonished.

Securing identities and lodgings for so many people—and doing so in secret—could not have been easy.

He pictured Dieta flicking a gold coin and murmuring, “Money makes anything possible.” Najin chuckled and nodded.

“That’s good to hear.”

“It’s all thanks to you. Oh, and my name now is Romanov. A mercenary with the Dieta Trading Company. I intend to live under that name until you turn your sword against the Order.”

“Shall I call you Sir Romanov, then?”

“‘Sir’ is more than I deserve. Just call me Romanov. Save the title for when I can fly the Blue Wing Cavalry’s banner again.”

“As you wish.”

Najin and Klaus smiled at one another.

Then a question occurred to Najin.

“Does that mean not just you, Romanov, but everyone from that day belongs to the Dieta Trading Company now?”

“More or less.”

Najin made a quick mental tally.

Klaus Aten of the Blue Wing Cavalry.

The demon hunter, Jerold Oton.

Basaus Malek, who had served as a soldier on the front lines.

In addition to those three Sword Seeker-level fighters, numerous Sword Experts had promised to cooperate with Najin that day. If all of them had become mercenaries with the Dieta Trading Company... Najin let out an incredulous laugh.

“Well.”

A trading company employing three Sword Seeker-level fighters as mercenaries, unofficial though it might be. Considering that it also sponsored another Sword Seeker... this was not the sort of military strength a mere trading company ought to possess.

Najin glanced at Pasion.

His expression was much the same as Najin’s.

“How do you think I feel, suddenly having three Sword Seeker-level fighters under my command?”

Pasion’s joke was not entirely a joke.

“So, what brings you here? Have you come to see my lady?”

“Yes. I thought I should visit her for a change.”

“She’ll be pleased.”

He smiled.

“This is her afternoon nap time, so ordinarily I shouldn’t admit any visitors...”

He opened the door and stepped back.

“But you’re an exception, Najin.”

“Should I come back another time?”

“What are you talking about? If I told my lady you’d come and left without seeing her, I can’t even imagine what she’d say to me.”

So he urged Najin to go on in.

Najin walked past Pasion and entered the office. As soon as he was inside, the door closed soundlessly behind him. It was Pasion’s way of being considerate.

Najin looked around.

By the window, in a spot that caught plenty of sunlight, Dieta was asleep, leaning against the sofa. Her brown hair glimmered in the sun. She must have been very tired; even when Najin approached, she showed no sign of waking.

All he could hear was her soft, steady breathing.

After watching Dieta for a moment, Najin settled onto the chair opposite her. He considered waking her, but it felt wrong to disturb someone sleeping so soundly.

He sat there waiting for fifteen minutes.

The alarm clock beside the sofa began ringing noisily. The instant she heard it, Dieta brought her hand down on it with something very nearly a punch.

BANG

The alarm fell silent.

“Mmmgh.”

Groaning into the sofa as though she did not want to get up, Dieta eventually pushed herself upright.

“Yaaawn...?”

Still half asleep and in the middle of a long yawn, Dieta met Najin’s eyes as he watched her. She froze mid-yawn and blinked. Several times, her long lashes covered her eyes like curtains, then drew back.

She gasped.

Realizing what was happening, Dieta caught her breath and whipped her head away. In a tiny voice, she said,

“U-um, Najin? Could you look at the wall for a moment?”

When Najin turned toward the wall, Dieta rushed to the full-length mirror in a corner of the office. She quickly straightened her clothes, smoothed her tousled hair, and touched up her makeup. Then, as though nothing had happened, she returned to the sofa and sat demurely.

“You can turn around now.”

Inwardly cursing Pasion for failing to wake her, Dieta adopted a composed expression. A merchant never lost her composure, no matter the situation. Befitting a great merchant who currently commanded the attention of the entire continent, her performance was flawless.

... Her facial performance was flawless.

The problem, if there was one, was that her bright red ears and fidgeting fingers ruined the whole perfect act.