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Chapter 143: Inquisition (1)

The popularity of dyeing magic soared faster than Ethan had anticipated.

“Are there no other colors?”

“Can’t you make the color a bit more vibrant?”

The demand for dyeing was truly explosive.

The biggest advantage of the dyeing workshop was its variety of colors.

With enough colors to satisfy the different desires of consumers, everyone who purchased dyeing magic left satisfied.

“Is this a subscription system like the Lightweight Workshop?”

“Can you mix colors to create different ones?”

Amidst the explosive response, Scarlet busily explained about dyeing magic.

But now it was different. Many people were interested in her magic.

Ethan watched this with admiration.

He knew it would succeed, but he hadn’t thought it would happen this quickly.

‘I thought it would be fast since the Lightweight Workshop was already established, but this fast?’

It was the result of Scarlet’s excellent dyeing magic being added to the existing customer base of the Lightweight Workshop.

After a few more days, Scarlet was selling dyeing magic scrolls almost in tears.

Happy, tired, and busy.

Her face was a mix of various emotions. Still, the predominant emotion was joy. Ethan was quite satisfied with Scarlet’s appearance as well.

‘I was thinking of creating and operating the merchant guild myself.’

The territory’s development speed exceeded Ethan’s expectations. It was thanks to the excellent capabilities of Count Whiskers and the Steward.

‘Actually, I didn’t know the skills of these two people well.’

Ethan didn’t know the extent of Count Whiskers’ abilities. That was because Count Whiskers was someone he had barely encountered during his time playing MePan.

‘If I work with the Steward, creating a merchant guild won’t be a problem.’

If they create the Whiskers Merchant Guild and have that merchant guild sell the Lightweight Workshop, Attribute Bestowal Workshop, and even the Dyeing Workshop as their main products, they could quickly grow in size.

Ethan immediately started creating the merchant guild.

Launching a merchant guild was very simple. You just need to hire merchants and workers to handle miscellaneous tasks.

Since it’s the territory’s merchant guild, they can use the territory’s knights as escort knights.

‘And the building.’

Ethan decided on a building of suitable size among the ones being continuously built as the merchant guild headquarters.

Ding-!

-You have achieved an achievement!

-You have acquired likes for achieving the achievement [Became a Merchant Guild Owner].

-You have gained ‘1’ like!

After securing the Merchant Guild Owner achievement, Ethan immediately went to find the count.

The count was extremely busy. Since the start of dyeing magic sales, the floating population had increased even more, and with various construction projects starting, there was a mountain of work to handle.

Especially the Steward, he heard, hadn’t slept for three days already.

“Father, Steward.”

Ethan handed them both a decoction.

“Please drink while you work.”

“Ethan, you’re here.”

“Young master, you’ve come.”

“It’s a potion that’s good for your body. Your fatigue will recover quickly.”

At Ethan’s words, both of them gulped down the decoction simultaneously.

“And please relax your body for a moment.”

Ethan then used Heo’s Acupuncture. Heo’s Acupuncture, which had reached master level proficiency, was now applied so quickly and accurately that even the stinging sensation was gone.

Tap tap tap-!

Instantly, the expressions of the two who were hit by the needles brightened.

‘The effect is better than I thought.’

Heo’s Acupuncture at its peak was surprisingly effective.

‘It’s excellent for fatigue recovery.’

It had become just right for Ethan, who had a body that quickly became tired.

‘It was worth mastering it.’

“Just a moment ago, it felt like dozens of steel blocks were on my shoulders.”

“My body feels light as if it could fly away.”

Alertness returned to the eyes of the count and Steward as their fatigue disappeared.

“Father, Steward. I have a plan.”

If Yerica was Ethan’s business partner, these two were the ones running the business.

“I’m going to expand the market further and create a workshop street. We’ll center it around the Lightweight Workshop, with the dyeing workshop and Attribute Bestowal Workshop around it.”

The business will revolve around these three workshops.

“And through David Merchant Guild and Garnet Merchant Guild, we’ll open branches of these three workshops in other big cities. However, the branches in big cities are just a taste to attract people to the main shop. In the end, people will have to come to this Whiskers territory to buy proper goods.”

Whether it’s dyeing, lightweighting, or attribute bestowal.

The plan was to make them available for purchase only at the main shop in Whiskers territory.

Tension appeared on the count’s face as he heard Ethan’s plan.

“It will be much larger in scale than now.”

“Hasn’t it always been like that? Haven’t you always thought that our territory could never become a big city, setting a limit?”

A great lord who has grasped a big city.

Ambitious lords want to make the land they rule the best.

“The goal is to become a big city. We’re going to make this Whiskers territory into a great territory.”

At Ethan’s words, both of them couldn’t hide their tension.

In fact, even the current situation was far beyond their capabilities.

Of course, thanks to this, they were growing every day despite their considerable age, but they were worried if they could handle it well when the scale became incomparably larger than now.

Ethan looked at both of them.

“But you don’t need to succeed perfectly.”

Then he smiled.

“It’s okay to fail. We’re not hanging on the edge of a cliff right now.”

It’s okay to fail. It’s fine if there are lacking parts.

“The reason I’ve been doing business and making money until now is precisely for that. Money is opportunity. There’s opportunity even if we fail.”

“…You’ve grown up, my son.”

“You’ve grown up splendidly, young master.”

“Of course, if you fail, my view of you, Father, might change a bit. I might unintentionally mention what happened in the market earlier.”

Ethan said with an even deeper smile. The count flinched at that.

“Of course, my view of you, Steward, might change a bit too, but even if you fail, this is the only risk.”

“…Young master, your skill in handling people is extraordinary.”

“Maybe it’s because I worked as a teacher at the academy.”

To the two who felt much less burdened now, Ethan continued to explain about the business.

***

“Then, I entrust the Whiskers Merchant Guild to you.”

“I’ll use money so boldly that it will surprise you.”

Leaving Count Whiskers’ words behind, Ethan wrapped up all his remaining business in the territory.

“Schudlen, train for a while.”

“Yes, Young Master. I’ll be training.”

Schudlen needed more personal training time.

‘He won’t want to fall behind Yerica, after all.’

“I’ll give you this, Schudlen.”

So Ethan gave Schudlen a special golem with 50 swordsmanship techniques built-in.

The next place he headed was the Lightweight Workshop.

The workshop, which had entered a major expansion construction, was overflowing with people today as well.

“Don’t push!”

“Please manage this area!”

Ethan quickly entered the workshop, pushing through the crowd.

There, Scarlet was selling scrolls with a smile.

Timing it right, Ethan approached Scarlet and said,

“Keep up the good work, Miss Scarlet.”

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I-I’ll work hard. As much as you’ve trusted me.”

After greeting Scarlet, Ethan immediately returned to Marquis Rond’s territory.

‘It should be about time for the materials I ordered through Garnet Merchant Guild to arrive.’

Ethan planned to purchase S-grade materials and master Heo’s Decoction.

‘After mastering Heo Jun’s techniques, I should definitely master the Hero’s Breathing techniques too.’

While it was good to keep increasing skills, it was also important to raise the proficiency of previously learned skills.

‘I understand now that I’ve mastered Heo’s Acupuncture. How much the effect increases when mastered, I mean.’

The mastered Heo’s Acupuncture now boasted such excellent effects that it could finally be recognized as Heo Jun’s technique.

Ethan immediately used Wind Cloud to move to Marquis Rond’s territory.

“Hmm.”

Arriving at his office in the academy, Ethan could check the items purchased from Garnet Merchant Guild.

“As expected of Garnet Merchant Guild.”

True to its reputation as a Grand Merchant Guild, it had an incredible variety of items in stock.

“These are things that are hard to obtain even if you have a lot of money.”

Ethan checked the condition of the herbs by smelling them. Seeing that they all retained their unique scents, the quality seemed quite good.

The herbs purchased from Garnet Merchant Guild totaled ten types.

All of them were S-grade herbs, with a price approaching 100 million gold.

It was an enormous sum, but Ethan didn’t mind.

Just like during his donation admission, and now too, money was merely a material for better growth.

‘There’s no need to skimp.’

Ethan immediately organized the herbs. He was thinking of making them into a decoction right away.

“Hm?”

At that moment, he noticed a parchment that had fallen to the ground, which he hadn’t seen before.

[I found this Interdepartmental Exchange Event extremely impressive. If it’s not too presumptuous…]

“Seems like they’re in a hurry.”

The letter was sent by Sky Swordmage Jeryd.

***

“Hello, Sir Jeryd. So you hadn’t left yet.”

At a coffee house in Marquis Rond’s territory.

Sky Swordmage Jeryd, who was already seated, greeted Ethan with a friendly smile.

“You’ve come, Teacher Ethan! Please, sit here. I used to frequent this place once. So I knew a place with good taste. The tea here is no joke.”

“I come here often too. Teacher Claudie said he frequents it as well.”

“So it really is a good restaurant. To even satisfy the tastes of such great teachers.”

Ethan, seated, drank the tea Jeryd had ordered.

It was black tea boasting a unique flavor.

“May I ask why you wanted to see me?”

“I found the Interdepartmental Exchange Event truly impressive. How well you taught the students. If there had been a teacher like you when I was attending the academy, I could have become much stronger than I am now.”

Jeryd praised Ethan for a while, then lowered his voice.

“Actually. I didn’t come to the academy just to judge the Interdepartmental Exchange Event.”

As Ethan had anticipated, Jeryd hadn’t come to the academy just for judging.

‘Talent recruitment.’

He must be thinking of recruiting talent suitable for the Inquisition and having them work temporarily at the Inquisition.

‘It’s like a kind of linked internship.’

“I guess you found a student you liked among my students.”

It was natural, given their impressive performance.

“I really wanted to see student Mason Yeld’s swordsmanship. It’s a shame I couldn’t, but still, Ron and Yuna who appeared earlier were extremely impressive.”

“They’re both good kids.”

“But it’s not those students I want to recruit this time.”

Jeryd made his expression even more serious and slowly continued speaking.

“Teacher Ethan Whiskers, could you become a short-term instructor for our Inquisition?”

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