Stray Soul

Before leaving the temple, I went to next to the crates that the plant beings had brought, and looked around for the mana contracts Rifu-san had sent me.

And after a few seconds, I found a small crate full of empty magical contracts, with 6 filled ones up on the top.

Grabbing the contracts with a branch, I brought them to my eye level, and quickly looked through them... not that I could read what was written on them, mind you, as I was still not proficient in reading imperial.

But I could still feel the magic circles on them that made these scrolls magical contracts.

Not that I could actually understand the meaning of the shapes and lines that made the circles though...

Anyways, there were 5 scrolls with a green wax at the bottom left, and one with a blue wax. As far as I know, so as far as Rifu-san has told me, the colour of the waxes doesn’t mean a lot, though the waxes themselves are necessary to “close” the magical contract as, if you do not wax the contracts with a special wax after writing the conditions on them, more conditions can be written on to them at a later date.

And if the waxes are removed after 2 parties, or more, sign the contract, the contract immediately becomes null, and the signatures on it don’t work even if the paper is remade into a magical contract, and sealed again.

So, after giving the blue one to Heinrich, and the green ones to the other party members, I’d need to quickly get the contracts back, and make sure the waxes were not tempered with while they were signing them.

And the signing part of the magical contract can be literally anything really. As long as it’s been consciously done by the signer, the contract can be signed with anything from blood to literal shit.

Checking the contracts for a few more moments, I closed the crate I took them from, and quickly left the temple and saw the adventurers and Watanabe-san waiting for me.

And the tension between the adventurers and Ishii-san seemed to be... well, tense... eh, probably nothing that concerns me. Actually, if the adventurers are threatened by him, that’s actually better for me as they won’t try to do anything funny.

Then as both parties saw me leaving the temple, they turned to me. But I first went to the adventurers and showed them the contracts.

They inspected the contracts for a few moments but signed them without a problem.

And I made sure that none of them tried to temper with the waxes, and the blue contract was signed by Heinrich, and not another member.

Taking the contracts, I quickly put them into my chest and told the adventurers to wait for me for a few more minutes, and then we could set off to the dungeon.

They didn’t like the fact that they’d have to stand around for longer, but the contract they signed also had a section in which they vowed to not try to kill me or break the dungeon core, so I was pretty safe from anything that they could do.

“Greetings, Watanabe-san, Ishii-san.” I greeted the Ents as I approached and repeated their words to Rifu-san as always for her to translate them for me.

As I simply didn’t have a way to even understand the simplest of sentences they said as I hadn’t started learning the plant being language.

“Please, call me Ryuji William-sama!” Ryuji bowed down and greeted me again enthusiastically, which Ishii-san followed with a more composed bow, but he did not allow me to call him by his first name or say anything.

Not that I minded though. As I found Ryuji’s excessive politeness towards me a bit unnecessary, so having a person that was more modest was great.

“Well then, Ryuji, mind telling me why you wished to talk with me in private? I am quite busy today you see, so I don’t have a lot of time to spend talking with you.” I said, trying to sound like I was thinking that I was better than him.

Why was I doing this? Well, to trick him of course. As far as I am aware, I am the only other deity in The All Mother’s pantheon, so even though I was quite weak, I was still quite important.

So, seeming like I was on a high horse would make him think that he’d be able to gain my favour with only a bit of boot licking, and then he’d be able to easily take advantage of me by either scamming me, or making me do favours for him.

Assuming that he doesn’t actually revere me as a proper deity or something, as, if he is not being a cunning and is not trying to take advantage of me, I’ll only end up mistreating a loyal follower for no reason.

But I’ll figure out if he’s actually fully loyal to me or if he’s just trying to take advantage of me in the next few months that we are here together.

Though, I’ll probably leave way before them as I need to deal with a small genocide up north, so I might not be able to assess his true personality.

And him being a loyal follower is not the worst outcome, as him actually being intelligent and cunning enough to see through my ruse, and him calling me out on it would be worse. But, if he is intelligent enough to see through my ruse, he is hopefully intelligent enough to play along too.

“Oh, you must’ve miss understood my desire, William-sama!” Ryuji started, which confused me as... what was there to miss understand with a businessman trying to talk to me in private?

“My only desire is to greet and talk to you William-sama! As, how could one such as my self have any wants from someone as great as you?!” He then said and... let me make this clear, I’ve been preparing myself for the eventual bootlickers that’d appear around me. But I’d never expect someone to act like this from the first time we started talking.

“Hmpf! Of course you wouldn’t dare ask me for anything! Though I still cannot help but wonder what you want to talk about if its not a want of yours? Surely, you wouldn’t take my time to talk about the weather now, would you, Ryuji?” I said, fully immersing myself in my character.

“Of course, not William-sama! I just wanted to talk to your greatness about how I may be of help to you!”

“Oho? You? Helping me? Now, colour me curious but, how could that be?”

“You see, William-sama, my caravan is the fastest in the west! And I am confident that I’d be able to delivery you any goods you seek in a mere week, or 2 at most! So, it is my belief that, if you wish to of course, we can strike a deal that is the most beneficial to you!” ...Thank god he’s just trying to scam me now instead of buttering me up further! I swear, every time I or this guy talks, I cringe a bit... but it seems I’ll have to talk a bit more, though the question is do I show some intelligence, or do I act oblivious?

“...It sounds wonderful! But what do you get out of this? Surely, you would gain more coin from continuing on your usual trade routes rather than interrupting them with deals with me, and by proxy my city that is... less developed than I would’ve liked.” I said, trying to sound a bit sceptical.

“Oh, that is not true at all William-sama! Well... while it is true that this city has a... unique fragrance—” I am definitely remembering him calling this village smelly for later. “—the simple presence of someone as great as you makes any weight loss my pockets may experience unimportant! Afterall, doing as you will is a greater reward than any amount of coin!”

“Hmpf. Of course, accomplishing my will is a greater reward in and of itself than anything else! But you can probably understand that I cannot not pay you, lest others bad mouth my name by saying that I treat those loyal to me badly. So, speak. Tell me how you would like to be paid.” I said, bringing back the topic to money and payment.

I was hoping that I’d be able to pay him for his services in the future with the items I got from the dungeon, as that was the only source of... anything, this village had.

If he wanted a percentage of all the loot from the dungeon, I’d just honestly tell him to fuck right off. Or if he wanted me to sell him some goblins.

Those 2 were just not negotiable. But while he may know about the dungeon, he probably doesn’t know about what the dungeon is built upon, so there is a chance that he will just want to be the first person to be sold the loot from the dungeon, or monopolise some industries related to dungeon delving, or the land near the dungeon.

“If it is your wish to pay me William-sama, I am willing to accept anything of value! From coin to raw resources, to magical artefacts, to the clothes you no longer need! Though... I’ve heard a few tales of a dungeon in your domain, so I would be content with being sold the loot from it instead of other valuables too!

“Though, as you can imagine William-sama, the speed of my caravan comes at a heavy cost to me, so I would be grateful to your greatness if you could sell me the loot from the dungeon at a lower price. But, of course, that is only if your greatness wishes to!” He finished and... that was okay... for now. As the dungeon got further explored, at first by the adventurers and later by goblins and the future residents of the city, the loot that would come out of it would surely be worth revising our deal, but for now, this small of a concession would be okay... especially with the fact that his caravan is the only caravan we know of, and we are kind of dependent on his trade...

“Hmpf! Of course, I’d be willing to do such a small thing for a loyal follower! But do tell, how much would this price reduction be? 10%, 20%, or 30%?” I asked, honestly quite curious as to how much he would actually want.

“Oh, nothing much your greatness... only a 50-60% price reduction for the loot from the dungeon!” Ryuji then said with a bright smile, acting like a whopping 60% reduction wasn’t that much.

And, from the sheer surprise I felt at the audacity this guy had while scamming me so clearly, I was left with my mouth open for a few moments, and I could even feel the surprise in Rifu-san’s voice as she translated what Ryuji said to me.

And, probably realising that I was flabbergasted, Ryuji started talking, trying to make it seem like he wasn’t scamming me... that much.

“I understand that you may feel that this price reduction isn’t justified William-sama! But your greatness must understand that I am willing to buy anything that comes out of that dungeon! Even the things that I know won’t sell good back in The Mother’s domain!

“So, I plea to you to accept this price reduction as... I simply won’t be able to do business with you if I don’t get this price reduction!” He said, and for a moment I thought back to him saying that his pockets getting lighter wasn’t a problem. Though, I knew then that he was definitely going to try to scam me. And here he goes, proving me correct!

...Though... can I even reject him?

“...Of course! Afterall, I’d do anything for my loyal follower! So, I assume most goods will be sold at a mere 50% reduction, right?”

“Yes William-sama! That is right!”

“And, to justify this reduction, you will bring every delivery in a mere week, right?”

“Yes William-sama! You can trust my caravan to be there when you need us the most!”

“Great! So, how will I be able to connect with you, and order deliveries?”

“Don’t worry about it William-sama! I will be giving you an artefact that will allow you to communicate with a similar artefact I have in my caravan from a few hundred kilometres away! Free of charge, of course!”

“Great! I want you to give me 2.”

“T-that is—”

“I said I want you to give me 2 of them, they are free of charge, yes?”

“O-of course William-sama! Don’t worry about it! I’ll bring them out of the caravan and hand them over to you whenever you want!”

“Sweet! Then I’ll head out with the adventurers over there, and I won’t be back for around a week, so you won’t be able to contact me.”

“No problem, William-sama! We will wait here for you return!” Ryuji said and I turned around and started walking towards the adventurers, but after a few steps, I turned my head around to tell him something else.

“Oh my, I nearly forgot a really important thing. Oh, silly me!” I said aloud.

“Don’t worry William-sama! Any thing your greatness forgets is probably not important enough to remember anyways! But if your greatness wishes to tell me about it, I’ll etch each word into my mind and accomplish your wish as quickly as possible!”

“Well, the thing is... I will be going out a few weeks or a month after I come back from the dungeon.”

“Is that so William-sama? No need to worry your greatness! I’ll keep up with any deliveries that need to be made without a problem! You can trust this follower of yours!”

“Great! Then, I’ll be sure to rely on your deliveries in my travels!”

“Of cour—what?”

“You said you’d only take a week or two at most for your deliveries, right? So, I’ll be relying on your deliveries in my travels! After all, if the places I go to are within the communication radius of the artefact you give me, it should be in the range of your caravan too, yes?”

“T-that is—” Ryuji started saying something, but I cut him off immediately.

“Ah, what am I talking about! Of course it would be in your travel range! Afterall, how would you justify the price cuts I am giving you without being able to do this at the least! Oh, silly me!” I said and started walking towards the adventurers and yelled one last thing at Ryuji.

“I’ll be expecting you to accomplish my will, my loyal follower!”