Chapter 593: The Rumor"s Purpose
Having unexpectedly learned some valuable information from Khanna, we returned to Sheftent and met up with Lovren.
There, we also gave him the information we had received from Khanna.
「The Merchant a.s.sociation has ties to the Kingdom of Raidos? It’s kinda hard to believe…」
Lovren was also quite surprised. He said that the Mesther Merchant a.s.sociation, which was selling the Scarlet Waterweed medicine, was a very old merchant a.s.sociation with a high reputation in this country.
「We’ll need to double-check that first」
「Nn. But, Lovren didn’t notice it? That the disease wasn’t really an epidemic」
Indeed. That was what we were most curious about. Anyone who did a little research would know that the epidemic was false information, but was anyone else in the country aware of it?
「Well, yeah. In the first place, we don’t have anyone who’d investigated such things」
「Why?」
「Because there’s no one in trouble」
Although it was said that there was a shortage of Scarlet Waterweed medicine, it didn’t mean that there was no distribution at all. There was always a certain amount of it available in the country. But still, it was thought that there was not enough for everyone…
「Actually, even if the disease was not endemic, I’m sure it would have been properly distributed to all patients. So, no one would be making a fuss about the shortage」
「Nn」
「And its price was still the same as in the previous years」
Furthermore, the distribution was being handled by the Mesther Merchant a.s.sociation, a relatively big merchant a.s.sociation. If the source of the rumor was the Mesther Merchant a.s.sociation, no one could point out anything strange about the distribution.
After all, although it was being said that there is a “shortage of scarlet water pills,” not many people had been affected by this. The only people who had suffered were the adventurers near the lake, who had to collect more Scarlet Waterweed than usual.
「But why would they spread such rumors?」
「Well. I could understand if they wanted to raise the price of Scarlet Waterweed medicine by spreading false rumors that the disease that was not actually an epidemic had become an epidemic… But if that was not their aim, maybe they were actually aiming at the Scarlet Waterweed medicine itself」
「What do you mean?」
「They could disguise it as a domestic sale and s.h.i.+p it elsewhere. Like the Kingdom of Raidos for example. But I don’t know what their purpose is though」
In other words, there was a high possibility that their objective was to obtain the medicine.
「How should we investigate it then?」
「Well, I guess our best bet would be to ask around to the people in the merchant a.s.sociation」
Well, he was right. I would also like to hear from their top bra.s.s if possible.
「Where is the merchant a.s.sociation?」
「Its headquarters is in the Commercial Fleet」
It seemed that both the atelier and the headquarters of the merchant a.s.sociation were located in the Commercial Fleet.
「The problem is that we can’t just barge in without an appointment and expect them to listen to us」
「Don’t worry」
「You got a secret plan?」
「Just give them Weena Rhyn’s name」
Both Fran and I already witnessed the tremendous influence Weena Rhyn had in this country.
I didn’t think there was anyone who would dare to defy us with Weena Rhyn’s name. We were already at Komon-sama level, weren’t we?
(Note Trivia (skip this if you’re not interested in these details as it is quite long XD): Mito Komon (Tokugawa Mitsukuni), was a j.a.panese Daimyo (feudal lord) that lived in the 17th century. During the latter half of the Edo period and the Meiji period, a kōdan (narrative tale) named “Mito Mitsukuni Man’yūki” fictionalized the travels of Tokugawa Mitsukuni. This tradition of dramatizing his life continued with a novel and, in 1951, the first television series to portray him as a wanderer, masquerading as a commoner, who castigated evil in every corner of the nation. The most memorable phrase of the series is 「この紋所が目に入らぬか!!」 (Kono mon dokoro ga me ni hairanuka!!) “Don’t you know whose family seal is this!?” while his escort shows up with the Tokugawa family’s emblem. Well, you should get the idea about the references already)
(Another Trivia: In the light novel Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku, the main protagonist quotes Mito Komon frequently)
Moreover, she gave us a valuable but frightening a.s.surance that she would cover things up for us.
I have no intention of abusing it, but it was times like this that we needed to use that power.
「Hahaha. Now that you mentioned it, you’re on a mission for Weena Rhyn-sama, aren’t you? Let’s go with that strategy then」
「Nn」
We had planned to head to the Commercial Fleet by boat at first but decided to ride on Urus.h.i.+ instead. It was much faster that way.
If we didn’t get lost, that was.
This lake was the size of a small country. If we ever lost our direction, we could get lost. In fact, it was said that several s.h.i.+ps a year fail to return because of it.
This time, however, the Commercial Fleet was relatively close to sh.o.r.e, and we had a guide to lead the way. Well, there was no need to worry about getting lost, since Lovren was familiar with the route.
「I see it」
「Haha! So fast! Amazing!」
「Woof woof!」
About three hours after we left Sheftent, we had managed to find the Commercial Fleet.
Lovren seemed to be in high spirits. He seemed to like the experience of riding the flying Urus.h.i.+ more than he thought he would.
His praises also put Urus.h.i.+ in a good mood.
「The s.h.i.+p is a little behind that one in the center. Can you go down there first?」
「Okay, Urus.h.i.+」
「Woof!」
It was hard to tell from above, but it seems to be the s.h.i.+p of the Adventurer’s Guild. The Adventurers on deck were surprised to see Urus.h.i.+ descending from the sky.
Some of them even raised their weapons, but the commotion quickly died down when they saw Lovren on his back.
It was a good thing we had come down here. If it had been any other s.h.i.+p, we might have caused a commotion.
「Well, let’s head to the Mesther Merchant a.s.sociation first」
From here, the Commercial Fleet was apparently much more organized than I had thought. The Commercial Fleet seemed to look like a mess of s.h.i.+ps, but in fact, the specific placement of each s.h.i.+p was carefully regulated.
Therefore, it seemed that those who were familiar with it already knew where some things were.
「Which s.h.i.+p?」
「That one. The s.h.i.+p with the red flag」
It looked surprisingly close, but we had to take quite a detour to get there. Well, we had to move from s.h.i.+p to s.h.i.+p. Sometimes we crossed a simple suspension bridge that connected the s.h.i.+ps and even had to move from s.h.i.+p to s.h.i.+p in a small boat.
「Can’t we just ride on Urus.h.i.+?」
「We can’t. It would only cause a fuss here」
Well, it couldn’t be helped. The Commercial Fleet was just like a town after all. Flying over it on Urus.h.i.+ was just like running around the town on Urus.h.i.+.