In truth, in a city-state like Pelua, where merchants held sway, a Doge who commanded the military was liable to be reduced to a puppet in name only.
But Enrico was different.
He was a war hero who had once defended Pelua from the pirate alliance and the invasions of foreign nations, and a cunning politician who could mediate the endless struggles over interests between nobles and great merchants without spilling a single drop of blood.
People called him “Pelua’s Silent Scale.”
“In truth, the title of Doge itself has no role in Pelua’s internal politics.”
Strictly speaking, it was another name for a general who dealt with external forces.
However, Enrico had wielded that role with consummate skill and risen to the position of Pelua’s de facto supreme authority.
Even Pelua’s countless shrewd merchants could not move against Enrico.
With one gesture of his hand, Pelua’s laws changed; with one glance from him, the heads of chief factors who had broken the law hung beneath the guillotine.
Before that enormous power, I briefly collected myself and bowed deeply with perfect courtesy.
“It has been a long time, Your Excellency the Doge. The last time I saw you was when I followed my father to the castle to pay our respects.”
Back when Theodore Carnoble had still been alive, I had met Doge Enrico several times while accompanying my father.
Of course, at the time, I had been nothing more than an immature young master who yawned openly through tedious political discussions and let his attention wander.
“Yes. Back then, you insisted that the golden compass in my office was a toy and demanded I give it to you.”
Doge Enrico let out a faint chuckle and jerked his chin toward the leather sofa before the desk.
“Sit.”
I carefully took a seat.
The Doge lit the end of his cigar and fixed me with a sharp gaze beyond the gray smoke.
“When Theodore died and you drove the trading company into the gutter, I thought the bloodline of the great Carnoble would end there. And yet… when you returned with that hideous monster floating off Pelua’s coast, I could hardly believe my eyes.”
His gaze sharpened, as if he meant to dissect the knowledge of another world inside my head.
“A ship that crushes through the sea’s countercurrents and breaks through the windless zones of the East. I have buried my bones at sea my entire life, but I have never seen such a power beyond common sense. It is a realm even your father could not have imagined.”
“I was merely fortunate, Your Excellency. It was nothing more than a miracle born of desperation.”
When I deliberately humbled myself, Doge Enrico snorted.
“There is no need to act modest. Thanks to you, I recently concluded a very troublesome ‘negotiation.’”
“A negotiation, you say…”
“I mean Valerius.”
Valerius?
Why him?
“That old man tried to blockade Pelua’s waters with his private fleet and seize you by the throat, so I personally sent him a letter sternly warning him to withdraw his troops. I told him to step aside quietly before my navy set sail.”
“…Is this really something to call ‘thanks to me’?”
He said it calmly, but this was an immense political gust—no different from the head of state himself drawing a sword against Valerius, who controlled half of Pelua’s economy.
“At least Valerius won’t be making trouble for a while.”
After all, the Doge had warned him directly.
While I let out an inward sigh of relief, I deliberately put on a shameless, somewhat aggrieved expression so as not to be overwhelmed by this seasoned politician.
“Your Excellency. If you were going to help me anyway, I would have appreciated it if you had done so a little earlier, before I risked my life heading into that terrifying deathland of the East. I nearly ended up buried alive at sea by pirates.”
At my brazen complaint, the Doge’s thick eyebrows twitched.
Yet even as I spoke impudently, my reason was clearly tapping away at its abacus.
The fact that the Doge had used military force to stop Valerius’s physical sanctions was an insurance policy more valuable than a thousand pieces of gold.
I had no choice but to owe the Doge a political debt.
There was no such thing as a free meal in this world.
He would most certainly present me with the bill for that debt.
“Seeing you speak so insolently, you have certainly shed the skin of that foolish prodigal and become a true merchant.”
The Doge laughed low as he tapped the ash from his cigar.
But soon, his gaze sank into seriousness.
“But do not misunderstand, Elpanso. I did not stand in Valerius’s way because I find you endearing, nor because I covet your ship.”
“Then why…?”
“In the past, when Pelua fought a life-or-death naval battle against the grand pirate fleet across the sea, there was a time when our military funds ran dry and the Peluan fleet faced annihilation. The one who spent his fortune without conditions and requisitioned dozens of warships for us was your father, Theodore.”
A deep emotion of recollection passed through the Doge’s ash-gray eyes.
“I merely repaid an old debt Pelua owed your father. By removing Valerius’s club for you once, the debt between Carnoble and me has now been perfectly settled.”
Drawing the line.
The Doge had preemptively blocked me from trying to lean on this favor and suckle the sweet nectar of power.
“Originally, after you had gone completely bankrupt, I intended to take you in and settle the debt that way. It was an expensive price to pay.”
The fact that my life had been saved by my father’s legacy left one corner of my chest feeling heavy, but as a merchant, I was relieved.
“If the debt has been settled, that means from now on we can become equal business partners, dealing strictly by ability and profit.”
I straightened my posture and nodded politely.
“I understand. My father’s arrangements have saved me. From now on, I will contribute to Pelua by my own strength and establish a new relationship with Your Excellency.”
“Good. A very wise answer.”
The Doge seemed satisfied as he ground out his cigar.
But just as I thought the conversation had come to an end and was about to rise from my seat—
“Then, since the debt has been settled, I must now make a personal request of you as Doge.”
The Doge’s voice suddenly sank, heavy and secretive.
“A request, you say… Might it be to install my steam engines on Your Excellency’s fleet?”
Inwardly, I shouted for joy.
The military industry.
Supplying my engines to the state fleet would be a source of money more certain than any monopoly, and a symbol of power besides.
“Steam engine, is that what you call it?”
But the Doge shook his head.
“No. We shall take our time discussing that lump of iron later. Right now, there is someone you must meet immediately.”
“Someone I must meet? Is there someone in Pelua more important than Your Excellency the Doge?”
The Doge slowly rose from his seat and pointed to another door, a firmly closed inner chamber within the office.
“Someone from the capital has come to Pelua in utmost secrecy. The only person who holds a single ray of hope amid the deepening darkness of this world.”
The word that flowed from between the Doge’s lips struck my reason-bound mind with perfect force.
“The Saintess has come all the way to this land of merchants to see you in person.”
“…What did you say?”
As I asked back, doubting my ears—
Creeeeak—
The inner chamber door the Doge had indicated opened, and a woman dressed in dazzling white priestly robes stepped out with a bloodless, pale face.
The sole seeker of salvation in a world whose sun was splitting and falling into ruin.
It was the moment the Saintess of the Holy Empire revealed herself before the owner of the steel monster, who was nothing more than a mere merchant.
*
“Saintess.”
Rolling that word around in my head, I subtly furrowed my brow.
Of course, I, too, knew that the world was gradually sinking into the mire of destruction.
Sinister rumors that the sun hanging in the sky had cracked with an ominous splitting sound, that the temperature of the continent was falling, and that monsters beyond the barrier were running rampant.
As someone who had once held an information network as a grand chief factor, there was no way I would not know of such signs of a massive calamity.
But to be honest, I had never thought all that seriously about that destruction.
More precisely, I had dealt with the situation strictly through a “merchant’s calculator.”
If the wheat harvest in the north had dropped by forty percent?
Reduce the proportion of grain trade heading north and invest in preserved food.
If monsters were appearing more frequently on the eastern border?
Raise the escort rates of mercenaries and sell armor and iron ore at a high price.
To me, the end of the world was merely a “high-risk market variable.”
That was because I believed saving the world and repairing the cracks in the sun were not jobs for a merchant like me, but “religious and heroic duties” that the Pope of the Holy Empire or the legendary heroes over there ought to take care of on their own.
And yet, the Saintess, the most precious symbol of that Holy Empire, had secretly come all the way to a back room of Pelua, this commercial city?
“Strange.”
The gears of my reason turned rapidly.
In the Holy Empire, the Saintess was nothing more than a “symbol” who bestowed miracles through divine power.
The actual authority of the state and political decisions all belonged to the Pope and the cardinals.
Such a symbolic existence had secretly come to meet the Doge of Pelua, a place overflowing with heretical goods and reeking of money, and had specifically asked to meet a “mere merchant” like me?
I struggled to suppress my doubts and bowed my head lightly in accordance with etiquette.
“I greet Your Highness the Saintess, proxy of the Light. I am Elpanso, chief factor of the Carnoble Trading Company.”
The Saintess raised her deathly pale face and stared straight at me.
Silver hair gleaming like threads of silver, and eyes that should have been flawlessly clear were rippling strangely.
In a deliberately polite voice, I asked,
“His Excellency the Doge told me that Your Highness specifically named me and summoned me here. Why would the most noble person, who must be busy saving the world, wish to meet a sullied merchant such as myself?”
Above all, merchants were discriminated against in this world.
Those who wrestled over money were a breed that faced discrimination in every age and every place.
And yet, they were necessary.
“Could she want to meet me for business?”
All sorts of thoughts flashed through my mind.
What sort of cooperative relationship exists between Pelua and the Holy Empire? Of course there is an existing relationship, but is there a reason it must be expanded further?
Did she hear rumors of my steam engine and invite me because of that?
However, the answer that flowed from between her red lips missed my expectations completely—and grotesquely.
“Because…”
The corners of the Saintess’s lips rose in an arc, as if tearing open.
It was not the benevolent smile of one who saved all people.
It was the chillingly greedy smile a beast starved with desire wore when it discovered its prey.
“I thought you seemed like you would be quite ‘useful.’”
“…Pardon?”