Chapter 25
Rudick walked into the reception room with so jerky in hand, only to flinch when he saw Yuria.
This was the first ti he had ever seen her in person, though he had heard about her before.
His face clearly showed his bewildernt at seeing soone who looked exactly like my forr wife.
So even that shaless guy could get flustered, huh.
“What’s this supposed to be?”
“What do you an, what? It’s jerky. Can’t you tell by looking?”
“Do you think I asked because I don’t know that?”
I wasn’t the only one feeling awkward.
After handing over the jerky in a rush, Rudick quickly left the reception room, leaving Yuria staring at his retreating back.
She then glanced at the jerky on the table and let out a sigh.
I had built up her expectations as if I were about to bring out sothing amazing, so when it turned out to be re jerky, she looked utterly disappointed.
“Just try it before you say anything.”
“Hmph. Depending on how this tastes, my evaluation of you might drop a few levels, you know.”
“Good grief. You really have a sharp tongue, don’t you? Don’t tell you can’t eat at?”
I urged Yuria again, who still looked unconvinced.
With a pouty face, she carefully picked up a piece of jerky and put it in her mouth.
—Churai~ churai~
For so reason, Black Rabbit was excited, tap-dancing on the table right next to the Horned Rabbit jerky.
The sight was so ridiculous that I almost burst into laughter.
Damn rabbit.
I clenched my fist tightly to keep myself from laughing.
“…This is.”
“Well? How is it?”
“What is this? How can it taste like this?”
“Do you like it?”
“What is this? Where in the world did you…?”
Yuria’s expression shifted in real ti.
Her face, which had been doubtful because it was so different from her expectations, gradually turned into one of astonishnt.
As I thought, Horned Rabbit jerky worked even for a lady with refined tastes.
“I’ve had all kinds of at in my life. But this…”
“It’s a bit different, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s definitely different. What kind of at is this?”
“Horned Rabbit. It’s a magical beast native to the area around the territory. We succeeded in breeding it recently.”
“My goodness. You an it’s livestock? Then that ans it can be mass-produced?”
“Not just as jerky. If we can solve the transport problem, we can handle it as fresh at too. Of course, it would have to be frozen, but it’ll still be good enough to eat. I’d say it’s even better than jerky that way—since the cooking thods beco much more diverse.”
“Heavens.”
Hearing that Horned Rabbits were being raised on a large scale, Yuria was utterly shocked.
Being a rchant, she imdiately recognized their comrcial value.
But that reaction didn’t last long.
Her expression slowly darkened, as though sothing was bothering her.
“Is there a problem? We’re planning to set the price at a reasonable level.”
“There’s no problem with the product. No, the problem is that there’s too little wrong with it.”
“What do you an?”
“If this enters the market, the entire at industry will change.”
“Eh, surely not to that extent…”
That sounded a bit exaggerated.
Was it really so different from other ats?
In Johnson Territory, sure, at was rare, but here?
at was abundant.
I thought pigs or cattle would be decent rivals to Horned Rabbits.
But in matters of trade, this woman was the expert, not .
So if she said so, it was probably true.
Still, would that really be a problem?
The more popular it was, the more it would benefit Yuria, since she’d be the one handling it.
“If sothing like this gets distributed in bulk, the cartel won’t stay quiet. In fact, at that doesn’t go through the cartel can’t even circulate in this region.”
“Cartel? Ah, I see.”
“There are several rchant groups running massive ranches. Actually, think of it like this: all the big ones run them. They monopolize the at industry here. They’ve even got the lords in their pockets, so dealing with them from the outside is extrely difficult.”
“That’s troubleso. So what you’re saying is, if we try to sell this, problems will arise?”
“A few heads wouldn’t matter. But since you’ve built a whole ranch…”
“Right. If it were just a small amount, I wouldn’t have co to you like this.”
So, it was basically collusion between politics and comrce, a monopoly cartel.
People really did think the sa everywhere.
‘But to be fair, I’d probably do the sa.’
Wanting greater profit was human instinct.
And in trade, the surest way to maximize profit was through monopoly, collusion, and political connections.
From their perspective, they obviously wouldn’t want an ecological disruptor like the Horned Rabbit to throw the market into chaos.
If I were running a ranch and part of a cartel, I wouldn’t let a new competitor in either.
‘Wait a minute, isn’t the Level rchant Group one of the biggest around here?’
Yet this woman was the one bringing this up now.
“Is the Level rchant Group not part of that cartel? Maybe you don’t deal with at?”
“…That’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t deal with it personally.”
“Ah, so it’s handled by the other side, then?”
No wonder she seed so hesitant.
at wasn’t sothing Yuria herself could deal with.
If I traded Horned Rabbit with the Level rchant Group, it wouldn’t go through her—it would pass to the other faction.
I didn’t know the internal workings of the Level rchant Group, but judging from Yuria’s reluctance, she clearly wasn’t keen on seeing Horned Rabbit under their control.
“Don’t misunderstand. The sa would happen no matter which group you went to. The rchant groups of Levelium are so intertwined that none of them will let a single one get ahead. Even the Level rchant Group would struggle if the others united against it.”
“So they keep the benefits to themselves, but solo play is forbidden?”
“Well, that’s human nature.”
“Not wrong. So, if the Level rchant Group handled this, the others wouldn’t just sit back?”
So in the end, Horned Rabbit at was such a powerful weapon that it was actually hard to distribute?
That was a factor I hadn’t considered.
—This looks troubleso, doesn’t it?
‘It is. But I get it. It’s a weapon strong enough to shake up the entire at industry, but not one worth staking the entire rchant group over.’
—Sounds complicated.
‘Well, that’s how the world works. What should we do?’
Since the cartel was linked to the lords, even direct trade with them would be difficult.
In this region, the rchant groups had unusually strong influence, and even the lords had to be mindful of them.
Maybe the best option was to split the supply and distribute it across all the big groups handling at?
If no single side gained too much, everyone could profit.
‘Do I have to negotiate directly with the at cartel? For just selling so at, things sure got complicated.’
If I were a local, I’d push through negotiations and secure a trade route, but we were outsiders.
Once the trade was done, we had to leave.
We couldn’t spend days stuck dealing with this one issue. What a damn ss.
“I get the general situation. I’ll look into the rest myself.”
“Alright, then. Ah, and about that jerky—make sure to include so in our future trade. It suits my taste perfectly.”
“Is that so? I’ll keep it in mind.”
I only gained one thing here: the certainty that Horned Rabbit at was a product far more marketable than I had expected.
To the point that even Yuria McBane personally requested a trade.
‘I’ll have to look around the market myself to get a clearer picture.’
First, I needed to hear directly from the rchants.
“Huh, so she’s really a different person? Wow, that’s amazing.”
“Enough of that, just co with for a bit.”
“Where are we going now?”
“The market. I need to et so rchants.”
“Did the trade not go well?”
“There’s a problem.”
“Hmm, then let’s go.”
Dragging along Rudick, who still couldn’t stop sighing in awe every ti he thought about Yuria, I wandered around the marketplace.
She had been right.
Every shop in the area received its at through a specific rchant group, and when I asked if they might be interested in buying so, every one of them shook their head.
They said that standing out would make it impossible to do business in this region.
It really did seem like the cartel had the entire market under its thumb.
‘The sa must be true for nearby territories as well. With six such territories, no wonder there’s so much money involved. And the real profits for the rchant groups co from sending caravans to other lands, too.’
I walked around the area, turning over the problem in my head.
Frustrated, I stepped outside the castle for a while.
My feet carried northward, until I ended up near a massive ranch.
In the distance, I could see pigs bustling inside the huge fenced enclosure.
“Pigs, huh. Well, in a place like this, raising pigs makes sense.”
“Aren’t pigs considered luxury stock?”
“More or less. Pigs eat almost the sa things humans do, and they can only be raised for food. That’s why they’re so delicious.”
“Hmm, still, Horned Rabbits are the best.”
Talking about pigs, we arrived near the ranch.
And there, I spotted so familiar friends.
‘…That’s.’
—Master, Rabbit Tribe.
‘Exactly. Rabbit Tribe.’
It was the Rabbit Tribe.
I had heard that so had migrated out of the Forest of Illusions—apparently, those Rabbit
Tribe mbers had settled here.
But sothing about them seed strange.
They didn’t feel quite like the Rabbit Tribe I knew.
“They don’t look very lively, do they?”
“You’re right. They feel completely different from our friends back in the territory…”
Normally, the Rabbit Tribe were incredibly energetic.
In Johnson Territory, they worked a staggering twelve hours a day without complaint.
They were the kind of folk who seed born to work.
If I tried to limit their hours because they worked too much, they actually beca uneasy instead.
The only thing I could really do for them was provide better food—so I made sure to serve plenty of Horned Rabbit, their favorite.
That only made them work harder, creating a vicious cycle.
That’s what the Rabbit Tribe were like—endless energy, like living batteries.
But here?
They looked utterly drained.
Ordinarily, nothing could put the Rabbit Tribe in such a state.
Just what had these humans done to them?
—They seem to be oppressed.
‘Oppressed?’
—Otherwise, the Rabbit Tribe would never look like this. This is a crisis.
‘Ugh, and what exactly am I supposed to do about it right now?’
I said that, but honestly, I felt uneasy as well.
It was true that I had beco the guide of the Rabbit Tribe, and thanks to Black Rabbit’s efforts, running the Horned Rabbit ranch had gone much more smoothly.
On top of that, for so reason, even my Diary was influenced by Bestia.
The truth was, I owed them quite a lot.
‘Of course, for all that, the Diary never warned about this.’
Did it know this was coming and simply not bother telling ?
Another mystery.
‘First, information.’
I needed to figure out what was going on.
So I asked around—who owned this pig ranch, and since when had the Rabbit Tribe been working there?
And I found sothing very interesting.
“So, that ranch is operated by the Level rchant Group.”
A ranch very likely managed by the faction opposing Yuria.
Since Yuria didn’t handle livestock, it had to be them.
“Things are getting interesting.”
I hadn’t paid much attention since it wasn’t directly my problem, but it seed I needed to learn more about how the Level rchant Group operated.
What had begun as a trip to Levelium for Horned Rabbit distribution was now entering an entirely different phase.
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