The instant Willian and the others got out to the superfice, they were met with the bright morning sun. It was the morning sun of the next day, but it felt as if Willian and the others didn´t see it. It definitely wasn´t a refreshed expression they made once they saw the sun. They were still frightened. It was only obvious they were. Death was much closer than they thought. Realizing that, they couldn´t stop trembling in their heart.(TL note:ウィリアムたちが地上に出た直後、朝日が一行の眼を焼いた ->一行の眼

“Don´t ever… don´t a.s.sociate with them ever again. I can´t win against that thing.”

Kail said to Havella while making a sour face that was as if he had eaten a bug. Havella nodded. Her face was expressionless, but it seemed it was a bit pale.

“So they cordially left us a corpse, is it? I am really grateful…”

There was a dead body of an a.s.sa.s.sin that had a similar uniform to Havella fallen by their feet. Perhaps they were telling Willian and the others to deal with the last dead body. Getting the dead body onto his shoulder, Willian turned to Kail and Havella.

“Leave the rest to me. Havella, the situation might get problematic to you, and even to Kail, so wait for the remaining heat to cool down. Just in case.”

Willian playfully winked to Kail. Kail made a wry smile.

“I will be taking some distance from you for some time.”

Hearing that, Havella was about to object. Interrupting her, Willian said.

“Of course our bounds won´t change. Only, I am someone whose master is a centurion. Moreover, I also need to get my business started. I will be busy, and I will also be committing to risks. It might have been that a slightly harsh period of time came for me, and for the two of you as well.”

Willian made a bitter smile. Havella, who would usually throw a tantrum at these times, didn´t say anything. There was no way she could. Willian and Kail fell into a big problem because of her own fault.

“It´s not like we will never meet ever again. We will just meet less frequently, and we will be able to meet often once I get free time.”

But would Willian ever stop being busy?

“Be careful. If you are at risk of dying, you must do anything you can to live. If it ever becomes like this, you can count on me. If you ever need my strength for something, I will go help you.”

Kail´s words gave Willian courage. Would there be words that were as reliable as those? The strongest person among the people he knew was his best friend.

“If there is anything I can do for you, I will do it.”

Havella was another one of Willian´s best friends. It was because of that that he had to take distance from them. Willian got himself involved too deeply into the matters of this time. In order to not lose his precious friends, it was necessary that he had them away from danger. Willian was a lump of danger involved with many risks. Beside him was somewhere he didn´t want them to be.

“So then, see you again.”

Willian turned away from them. This wasn´t his last farewell, but he didn´t feel like meeting them again for some time. It wasn´t his wish to have them caught into his personal matters any further. The problem in question this time happened because they tried to take on Willian´s revenge. Hence, it was mostly Willian´s fault.

From now on, he would need to focus on the battlefield, in his business, on his revenge, and also on his relations.h.i.+p with the ruler of the night. Those were matters that were so important to the point of requiring him every bit of his mental resources. All of these matters had danger following along. It was enough for him to shoulder those risks by himself.

But before he could accomplish all those things, there was a place Willian needed to go.

“First I need to have this dealt with properly.”

It wasn´t necessary to have them entangled with his path. Doing so is what would do bad to them. Willian didn´t even want to imagine how would it be if that was to happen. Is there any person that would wish to see their friends burn by the fault of one´s own deeds? (TL note:Not sure how to translate this line ->其処を目指す道は彼らと重なることはない。重なったのならば――それすなわち敵なのだから。<>

“Hou, medicine, is it? You´ve put your eyes onto an interesting place.”

After having finished dealing with various complications, it was only after a few days that Willian could go bring his business project to Louran.

Louran attentively looked over the project sheet Willian had written. Willian was waiting for Louran with his chest filled with pride. There was no need to be cowering in fear. There was no way Louran would barge into Willian´s affairs with the kingdom of the night. It was because Willian was confident about it that he awaited for the next moment brazenly.

“Yes, we can work with what is written here.”

The outcome was that it went through, even if a bit too easily.

This was a great leap in the life of Willian Rivius.

The military was a place to earn status and honor. However, his goals weren´t something he could achieve with just that. Money; Willian also needed a.s.sets. It is simply good just to have it. With excessive money always come new possibilities. Although he would be helpless if he only had money, he wouldn´t be able to do anything if he didn´t have money. Both were necessary to rise to prominence.

“Thank you, my lord.”

Willian deeply bowed his head.

“I have two… three questions. Can I ask you them?”

“As you wish.”

It was the confirmation that came after the decision. There was no way he could give careless answers. However, the need to be tense wasn´t existent anymore. Although there was a [part] Willian needed to fool Louran about, he could come up with as many good excuses as he wished.

“First, you´ve really done well for getting such a good supplier. It seems you thoroughly investigated about the medicinal herbs all sorts of medicine are composed of, about poisonous herbs, and even rare herbs that are considered too rare to be circulating in the market. It should have been very difficult for you to get this sort of information, and also for that kind of business circle.”

Louran was indirectly asking Willian how he was able to find all that information. It wasn´t necessary for Willian to lie here.

“I became good friends with a smuggler, so I was able to learn from him with the condition that I would include him in our distribution channels. There is nothing better than to profit from your sales without holding high risks. It was because of that that allowing him to make use of the channels is part of the plan.”

Louran looked at the project sheet. There was one point Louran was curious about.

“I see. The supplier is this person called [Martin], right? But that is quite the big budget. I have no complaints to his gross profit. As for what kind of person he is… Let´s not ask about that. Although the danger of letting him through our routes is a problem, if we can properly go right [in between], we will be able to make money.”

The man named Martin. It was the merchant that would sell various kinds of “remedies” at the kingdom of the night. In order for Willian to start his business, he first needed to obtain the necessary [information]. The man that had the necessary information was Martin, a resident of the night.

Receiving, he exploited everything from Martin in one night. Because of that, he was able to get this information that could literally be translated to money. This was who Willian´s “supplier” was.

“I understood the conditions of the supplier. Now my next question: There are many other companies that deal with products related to medicine. As for the bigger ones, there are also major companies that have connections with the royalty. How are we supposed to win against them?”

The compet.i.tion between companies. They obviously exist. But how to win against them? That was Louran´s question.

“I do not have the intention to contest against them for the time being. We will be dealing mainly with rare materials and dangerous goods; things they do not have the qualifications to deal with, much less the means for knowing about. The price of those are considerably high, so even if they put considerable effort to try to compete with us, they will be fighting in a field they cannot contest.”

Louran nodded in satisfaction to Willian´s answer. You don´t fight opponents you can´t win. The method of fighting in business and in war are the same. Whether you are fighting with swords or with money: that´s all there is of difference to it.

“I see. Then, one last thing… How will you deal with the labor force? There is no way you would be able deal with lords of distant countries by yourself all the time, right?”(TL note:->離れる君

The question regarding the prerequisite for doing business. In either case, Willian´s project sheet was one that had convincing power, and its project would definitely earn them money. There was no way Louran, a businessman, would refuse the offer.

“We will borrow some of the people from Frank´s and Ignats´ companies. Employees of companies under the Teirah family are not allowed to do their job poorly, and since they have experience in doing business, the amount of things we need to teach them will be less.”

“In that case, I can approve your project. I will be counting on you, chairman Willian.”

Willian received a firm handshake from Louran. The coldness of his hands or the heat of his eyes; it wasn´t necessary to think to know which of those he needed to pay heed to.

“Please, leave it to me, my lord. I will not fail you.”

The foothold for Willian´s rise. Although he was still inexperienced, Willian finally obtained both a weapon and the control of a company.

“Ah, ga, aaah, ga.”

It was underground room where water from the sewers were oozing out, having a stinking smell wafting around. Inside this dark room that not the slightest ray of sunlight could get in, there was only one light. Every time the fire trembled, the man raised his groaning voice.

“What, so you got broken?”

The one that appeared at the room was a man wearing a cheaply made mask used for comedy plays and a red wig that one could see it was cheap to buy with one glance. That red haired man brought the fire closer to the groaning man. At that instant….

“Agiiiiiiiiii. Agyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Kuku, it´s because you wouldn´t open your mouth that you became like that. Since you were going to speak up after all, you might as well had done so while you were still a human.”

The name of the man that ceased to be a human was Martin. It was very miserable how this was the end of the man that had built up a position in the kingdom of night. He was the authority that supervised all the smugglers of the guild of darkness. However, to the man the ruler of night fell in love at first sight, he was nothing more than a tool.

“Well, I must give you my thanks, my dear friend Martin. Your information has saved my life and the life of my friends. And so, I give you my grat.i.tude. You should be grateful too; for having been chosen as my stepping stone.”

The red haired man gently broke the neck of the thing that used to be Martin with his hand. It was such a quick death to the point that makes one wonder what was all the unceasing pain Martin had been given until now.

“I will leave you to get rid of him, Bai Long. Tell me the bill for the cleaning job.”

“Don´t use me so leisurely. For once, I have a high position here.”

“Kuku, I know that. Now then, give my best regards to the ruler of the night. Tell her: “Let´s both of us make profit together”.”

Without saying any words, Bai Long left the red haired man´s side. The cleaning was probably going to be done once the man left the place. With that said, there was no way Bai Long would be the one doing it. To buy mochi, you go to the mochi shop. Bai Long would leave it to the cleaning people, the specialists in that business. Without having any interest about that in particular, the man left the place.

“While I have new in business, but as for the battlefield, from now on I will be controlling a hundred-man squad. Ah, I´m iching to put it to test.”

The man took away the red wig and the funny-looking mask and threw them away while he was for the future. The one who showed up was a beautiful figure of a pure white hair that would be seen on the aged. Showing a smile that would make one´s heart excited, it looked as if he became younger somehow.

Like that, the man disappeared into the city of night.