Dream Life Vol II Chapter 74.2: “Three Years Later: Part Two”

　McLeod’s guild, on the other hand, was able to respond quickly because its employees had the simple accounting knowledge that I had taught them. Furthermore, after signing an exclusive contract with the Adventurers’ Guild, they hired many young employees through the Merchant Guild, and apparently imparted accounting knowledge to them as well.

　Pericritor, where the Adventurers’ Guild is headquartered, is now considering the introduction of the same system, and McLeod Trading Company has been named as the exclusive contractor for this purpose. Furthermore, they have created a similar loan system within the guild of commerce and are providing loans to small and medium-sized businesses. The McLeod Trading Company are emerging as a financial institution not only in Doctus, but also in Pericritor.

　I was not going to accept any compensation from McLeod Trading Company, in this regard.

　The reason why I did not accept the reward was that I did not trust McLeod enough, although I did not think it was a waste of money. If he had committed any wrongdoing, I could have been held responsible if I had accepted the reward. Furthermore, I honestly did not expect him to be so successful.

　Even though I had told McLeod that I was willing to accept no compensation, he brought some jewelry to me after the success of the business, saying it was his reward. When I had them appraised, the total value was 50,000 Crona, or about 50 million yen.

　This was not just because he was “good-natured”. The shrewd McLeod was trying to get more ideas out of me, and to keep me from giving them to other merchants.

　And his shrewdness was that he brought the jewelry. He wanted me to give them to Liddy and the others, and he brought five different kinds of gems with him.

　emerald for Liddy to match her eye color, topaz for Beatrice to match her hair color and tail color, ruby for Mel to match her hair color, and sapphire for Sharon to match her eye color.

　Incidentally, I brought the same jewelry for Dan. McLeod seems to recognize Dan as one of my “mistresses”. I looked at the jewel – a diamond – and sighed.

(I sighed as I looked at the gem – a diamond – and wondered if it also meant “purity”. I don’t know if that’s what it means in this world, but it’s not something you give to a mistress of the same sex. Or was he being sarcastic?) (Zack)

　I glanced at him and tried to clear up McLeod’s misunderstanding. But Liddy interrupted me from the side and said, “You should take it,” and Mcleod seemed convinced that Dan, being my “boy-toy”, was true.

　After he left, I complained to Liddy. She told me “It’s okay, he said he’d give it to me,” and I told her “I don’t care.” She added, “And if we let him misunderstand, he’ll bring me Dan’s share every time. That way you’ll gain more.”

　When I told him that was not the point, she said, “That’s fine. We won’t be here that long.”

　As usual, I can’t keep up with Liddy’s thinking, but it’s true that I plan to leave this town upon graduation, so I probably don’t need to worry about what they say.

　Thinking so, I didn’t dare deny it, but as expected of Mcleod, he manages his information properly, and no particularly strange rumors spread.

(Thinking about it, McLeod, who is trying to win me over, would never do anything to spoil my good mood. He is indeed a smart guy.) (Zack)

　And the gems, they were all just stones. They were just extraneous stones that had been cut and otherwise processed.

　When I asked them what kind of accessories they would like, all four of them except Dan answered immediately that they would like rings. This may have been McLeod’s strategy as well. Dan, by the way, replied that he will just keep the jewel. Secretly relieved, I wondered what I would have done if they had said a ring.

　But I digress…on the other Sai Furman. I’m currently under a long-term contract with him. Through him, I have regular access to the information that flows through the city of Doctus.

　I also introduced him to Chairman Wagman – who was a Councilor at the time.

　At the time, Wagman was considering parting ways with Councilor Isherwood and wanted to improve his own intelligence-gathering capabilities. Knowing this, I passed on my intelligence-gathering and analytical abilities to Wagman.

　Of course, there were reasons for this.

　The most important reason was Sai’s support. I would only be in Doctus until graduation. I wanted him to continue to be active after that, so I had him establish a connection with the most powerful person in the city, the chairman of the council. Of course, connections with the powerful are not always a good thing. I have made this arrangement because I believe that Sai will be able to make good use of this double-edged blade.

　The second reason is to get information about Wagman through Sai. Of course, Sai does not know everything about Wagman, but he can still be a useful source of information.

　The third reason was to suggest to Wagman that I had information about him, or the ability to do so. In short, I wanted to use the Sai to keep Wagman in check.

　The reason I went through all this trouble is that I still don’t trust Chairman Wagman.

　You may think I am paranoid about McLeod and Wagman, but I will do my best to protect myself and the people I care for. To that end, I want to insure my worries as much as possible.

　Of course, it’s not that he has made any moves against me, or that there have been any indications of such moves. But if I look at my value objectively, there is no guarantee that the shrewd Wagman will not try to “set me up” on some occasion.

　I told Liddy and others, but they said that I was overthinking this, but it would be very difficult for me if he gets a hold of me through some kind of weakness.

　Wagman has a tendency to overestimate my political side.

　So far, there are no clear political opponents of his. However, it is possible that he sees me as a potential enemy. And when a new political opponent appears, he may try to use me to eliminate him. I decided to send Sai to put pressure on him to avoid such troublesome situations.

　Of course, I was honest with Sai about this and asked him to cooperate. For him, the connection with the chairman is a unique opportunity for the future. It is significant for an adventurer to have a connection with the Chairman of the Magicians’ Guild, even if it is unofficial. He seems to have understood this and decided to cooperate with me.

　He now has regular work from the Magicians’ Guild, and he has formed a team of adventurers who had to retire due to similar physical problems, and they are gathering information on a variety of topics.

　I’m helping him analyze the information, before I recommended him.

　I still have a better grasp of commerce and politics than he does, but Sai has recently become quite knowledgeable in these areas, and soon he will no longer need my help.

　He has also heard that the Merchant Guild is interested in buying information from him, and in time, his team may set up an intelligence company.

　The most helpful thing about this whole thing is that I’ve been able to get a lot of information about my home village of Rathmore.

　Without the information from Sai, the Lockhart family would have been in a very difficult position. And his information had an unexpectedly large impact on international politics.