The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

“A contractor like Elliot, the Prophet of Blood, deserves to be called a one-man enterprise.”

Cromwell was dressed impeccably in a suit and a tightly knotted tie. It wasn’t that he was usually messy, but he was particularly formal today.

“His reputation acts as credit, and if a contract falls through, it’s the client who loses, so it’s rare for him to be cheated out of his pay. As for gathering information about a request, he can just use his personal connections. I ask you. What would such a person think of a broker?”

“He’d probably see them as a manager who provides convenience.”

“You got it right. Elliot’s broker can also be said to be a manager who exclusively handles his requests.”

“Well, it’s good to talk about the industry, but what does that have to do with me?”

Is he nagging me to become like that quickly? It would be more comfortable to manage one person than to deal with dozens. Besides, I wasn’t a particularly picky person, so even more so. But it was still too early to talk about exclusive contracts or anything like that.

“They say Elliot’s manager’s performance has been poor lately. There are complaints from clients about why he’s not reachable.”

Well, he was cooped up in District 2, drinking. As long as he wasn’t working, his broker’s performance couldn’t be good.

“But that Elliot came to my place of business with you. Not a few people saw it.”

“Are you saying you’ve benefited from the false rumor that you’re brokering Elliot’s requests?”

“Exactly.”

I had wondered why he was so dressed up today. Was that the reason?

“I had a few meetings with clients. Since I was associated with a big shot who had made a name for himself in the industry early on, even those with heavy bottoms came to see me. I don’t need to flatter them, but I don’t need to look shabby either.”

As if he had noticed where my gaze was directed, Cromwell explained. He was right. Unlike a contractor who just had to do what he was told, a broker was closer to a salesperson.

According to my memory, Cromwell was a capable broker whose name would have circulated among the upper class even without me. That’s why I had chosen him as a partner. He would have handled himself without any mistakes.

“While I was at it, I also looked into whether there were any requests that met your conditions. Are you planning to do something in District 17 this time?”

Cromwell smoothly transitioned the topic from small talk to business.

“Something like that. So, what happened?”

To go to District 17 and investigate just to find out the origin of the pendant. It was simply inefficient. It was no different from trying to catch a flea in a thatched house. In the first place, if it was something that could be found that way, Elliot wouldn’t have needed to request it from me.

It would be best to proceed by linking it with my business, as I had done so far. I was planning to set fire to the thatched house to catch the flea. But by using the money and power of others. If their own house was burning, something would pop out, wouldn’t it?

“First of all, requests related to District 17 are quite rare.”

Cromwell tapped the corkboard with the back of his hand. Each time he tapped, the map of District 17, pinned with a thumbtack, fluttered.

“It’s an industrial zone.”

“That’s different from my common sense. When companies fight with contractors, don’t they usually go after the factories first?”

“It’s a weapons factory.”

A weapons factory. The weight of the word I rolled in my mouth was different. A weapons factory would be a place related to the military. No matter how complicated the interests between companies were and how rampant tricks, including armed conflicts, were, that was a competition that was established because the Public Security Bureau was turning a blind eye.

“I see. If you mess with the military, the Public Security Bureau will intervene.”

“……I think I know what you’re imagining. It’s not that there are no disputes in the sense of being a military supplier or something like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Gangs, black market dealers specializing in illegal weapons, former soldiers… those are the types who have a stake in the factory.”

“So they were businesses of the underworld, not the open world.”

It seemed I had been mistaken. It was a stereotype I had because I was from South Korea, where the use of firearms by civilians was prohibited. Although they were better than the Public Security Bureau, it didn’t mean they were easy.

In Gellerg City, where illegality and circumvention of the law were rampant, the businesses of the underworld boasted a scale as large as those of the open world. The influence of the Brotherhood, its representative, was not limited to the city but spanned the continent.

There was no need for a typical company to take on the burden of getting involved in their power struggles. They weren’t competitors anyway. It was more profitable for a company to turn a blind eye or cooperate.

“It’s not that the businesses of the underworld don’t use the help of contractors, but… the fact that the landscape has changed greatly recently has had a negative effect.”

It meant that guys like the Race Lizard gang, who had unified District 16, had also appeared in District 17.

“What kind of guys are they?”

“That’s the strange thing, we can’t seem to catch their tail.”

Cromwell drew a crooked line on the map. And he filled in one side of the line with diagonal lines.

“It’s certain that they’ve taken over this entire area, but we can’t figure out what kind of guys they are, or what they do.”

“If they’re incompetent, fire Jack and find a new partner.”

“It’s not just us who are barking up the wrong tree. If it were an existing organization, we could have inferred which side had made a move by the movement of goods, the dispatch of members, and so on, but there were no such traces. They are literally guys who seem to have fallen from the sky and sprung from the ground.”

“Since the top management of the factory must have changed, can’t you just dig into their background?”

“Surprisingly, the list of officials who have a stake in the factory is the same.”

“……You mean they all obediently bowed their heads and pledged their loyalty?”

The purge of the existing forces after a conquest is a step that should not be skipped. Even if you show mercy, since a relationship of resentment has already been formed, they can betray you at any time. If they had embraced all the existing forces instead of cutting off the ones to be cut off and receiving only the ones to be received, it was a crazy act beyond boldness.

“So it’s a strange thing. It’s a miracle that they expanded their power so quickly and secretly without any noise. It’s not something that can be done just by crushing them with strong force.”

The officials who had a stake in the factory had all pledged their loyalty to the new ruler with one heart and one mind. There was no need to talk at length about how strange this was.

“It would make more sense if they were all brainwashed.”

“In fact, there are those who speculate so. It’s a theory that a kind of religious group, a cult, was involved.”

“……”

A religious group, a cult. The story that Cromwell had told as a joke somehow bothered me. I fiddled with the pendant that Elliot had given me in my bosom.

‘Come to think of it, doesn’t the time when Greenwood went into hiding and Elliot stopped his activities overlap with the time when the situation in District 17 began to be sorted out?’

Elliot, who had been acting like a cultist, the crest of the pendant he had asked me to find the origin of, and the trace he had said he had found in District 17. Was all of this a coincidence?

“I understand the situation for now.”

I buried the question in my heart and said.

“In the end, there are no suitable requests in District 17, right?”

Putting aside all the complicated content and just talking about the conclusion, it would take time to find a request that met my conditions, right?

“Then I’ll have to set up a new board myself.”

After hearing the story from Cromwell, a picture of how to intervene was drawn in my head. A weapons factory, the peculiarity that a company of the open world couldn’t get involved because it was related to the underworld, and the mysterious new force that had suddenly appeared there.

Where should I start…

“It seems you’re planning to make a big move this time too. But don’t be too hasty.”

Cromwell made a call somewhere. Then, the sound of footsteps was heard from upstairs. It was the floor where the conference room I had used with Elliot was located.

“It wasn’t an excuse, it was a background explanation. It may not have been my intention, but you gave me a gift, so I’m not so shameless as to say something disappointing.”

A person came down the stairs.

“I heard you were looking for a request in the District 17 area.”

It was a familiar face.

“As it happens, the director was also interested in District 17.”

Milina Allquire. The exclusive secretary of Claire Sylvester, who had established herself as the heir of Sylvester.

“Let’s go and talk together.”

***

“I’m planning to expand my business to District 17.”

Claire displayed a map on a large monitor. It was a map so elaborate that it was ridiculous to compare it with Cromwell’s. Was this the information power of a megacorp?

On the enlarged map, all the businesses were marked by district. Their capital power, trading partners, and even the personal details of their executives.

“I know it’s out of the blue. And that the weapons industry market is currently in a slump.”

“It’s the aftermath of the successful conclusion of the negotiations between Percival and the city government.”

“Yes, it’s the result we achieved together.”

Many companies had bet on a war breaking out and had invested in the weapons industry. However, I had shattered the black mage’s conspiracy, and Claire had played the role of a catalyst in the negotiation process, so the war was called off. The weapons that had been produced in advance became inventory, and there were many companies that went bankrupt because they couldn’t pay the price.

“My judgment is that the slump in the weapons industry market is temporary. Even without a boom due to war, the demand for weapons in this city is as stable as that for daily necessities. Over time, the market slump will naturally be overcome. So now is the perfect opportunity to expand the business. We’ll be able to take a piece of the market pie with a small investment.”

A city of upheaval where security is unstable, contractors are rampant, and disputes constantly arise. In such an environment, the judgment was that although there could be a temporary recession in the weapons industry market, it would not go bankrupt.

Anyone can say words, but it was a judgment that could only be made by looking at the situation very long and wide. I knew that it would actually turn out that way, so I nodded my head.

“You said Director Berman had invested in a military company and had suffered a loss, right? It’s a good opportunity.”

“That’s right.”

Director Berman, who was competing with Claire for the position of the next chairman of Sylvester, had invested in a military company. It was a decision that was contrary to the company’s decision to fully cooperate in the negotiations between the cities. If the negotiations between the cities had broken down, it would have been evaluated as a conviction or a foresight.

However, the war did not break out, and Berman’s actions became a betrayal of the company. The fact that she had deliberately decided on the weapons industry as the next business expansion field must have been influenced by such political reasons.

“It will be a picture of me making up for Director Berman’s failure. And if I can take a significant portion of the existing market pie while I’m at it, it would be even better. Everyone will know who is the better business person between me and Director Berman.”

By then, the long race for the position of the next chairman would be over. In the first place, Claire, who had the clear advantage of being the bloodline of the company’s founder, would be able to establish herself as the unshakable heir of Sylvester.

“In that sense, the current situation in District 17 is a god-given opportunity. We don’t have to consider the complicated interests of the underworld businesses, we just have to get rid of one.”

The messy power structure of District 17 was also a bastion that prevented the entry of companies from the open world. Now, it had been narrowed down to almost one force. Of course, the capabilities of the force that had unified the illegal weapons industry market would not be at a level that could be ignored.

But the opponent was the megacorp Sylvester. There was no way for human power to withstand a natural disaster.

“Sylvester must have other risks to consider.”

I did not add any comments to her judgment. It was because the board I was trying to set up to intervene in District 17 was exactly the same as Claire’s plan. Instead, I pointed out a blind spot that she might have overlooked.

“District 16 was a land with no business potential, but District 17 is not. What are you going to do about the checks from hostile companies?”

The headache for Sylvester in expanding its business is not the natives of District 17. The rival megacorp. The existing industries that do not welcome Sylvester’s entry into the weapons industry. The opponents that Claire had to be wary of were them.

“What do you take me for? I’m not an amateur who recklessly starts things without even thinking about such basic matters.”

Claire met my expectations.

“Since I’ve made a connection with a city councilor, I have to use it properly. The Public Security Bureau will block any trivial interference.”

“The Public Security Bureau… did you negotiate to supply them with products?”

“You’re quick on the uptake.”

The weapons industry in District 17 is a private market that is not related to the military. As an underworld company, there was no tax to be collected, and no products to be delivered to the military. It must have been annoying, even if it wasn’t enough to go after them directly.

Sylvester had offered to fix this themselves. The military would have welcomed it.

“Good, then let’s hear the details.”

All the obstacles were gone. It was a board where there was no reason for me not to get involved.

(End of Chapter)