Subscriber of the Gods

In the market within Whiskers’ territory.

“Ahem.”

Thanks to the Lightweight Workshop, Whiskers’ territory developed rapidly. The underdeveloped areas were finally renovated, and neglected places began to be developed.

As the floating population increased dramatically, the market was experiencing an unprecedented boom.

A man in ordinary clothes was wandering around that market.

It was Count Whiskers, the lord of Whiskers’ territory.

He had a dream that he had held since long ago.

Today, he came to the market for that dream.

‘Dressed so ordinarily like this, no one will recognize me.’

His dream was to disguise himself like this, go on a secret inspection, and hear about the situation in his territory.

From the position of a lord, one cannot hear the raw voices.

Because everything is filtered and screened from below when relaying the stories of the territory’s people, it’s impossible to know what they want or if they are satisfied with the current situation in the territory.

‘I’ve always thought that way. That the people of the territory are satisfied. But you never know if they’re really satisfied.’

That’s why he wanted to hear and see for himself.

Count Whiskers first cleared his throat a couple of times and then entered a shop that dealt with various ingredients.

“Welcome! What are you looking for?”

“Um, I’m looking for some medicinal herbs.”

“Ah, the medicinal herbs are over here! If you want a wider variety of herbs, there’s an alchemy workshop right next door!”

“No, I see what I’m looking for here. By the way, the territory seems to be more lively than before.”

“That’s right, sir. The Whiskers territory is developing tremendously right now!”

The merchant said with a big smile.

“Isn’t it a bit noisy? It seems like it’s getting too stirred up.”

“What are you saying? You shouldn’t say such things. Thanks to this, my two sons were able to enter an academy that’s too good for them, even if it’s not that prestigious academy over there. That’s how well money is being made.”

The merchant said cheerfully.

“Hahaha, this is all thanks to the lord.”

“Come on, what has the lord done? It seems it’s just because the Lightweight Workshop is doing well.”

“No, you shouldn’t say it like that. No matter how great the Lightweight Workshop is, I hear that the lord has been rejecting various proposals and working solely for the territory. Tsk, be careful!”

Count Whiskers smiled slightly and unnecessarily spoke once more.

“Then it’s thanks to Young Master Ethan? The lord just has the benefit of having a good son, that’s all.”

“You old man! What are you saying?”

The merchant shouted loudly. There was strong anger mixed in his voice.

The count just blinked his eyes at the merchant’s gesture, which seemed like he might even raise his hand.

“How dare you insult the lord who is like heaven to us!? Are you crazy!? I let it slide once, but now you have no respect!”

“Ah, no!”

Count Whiskers was flustered.

“Watch your mouth! The current success of Whiskers territory is thanks to Count Whiskers and his son, Young Master Ethan! Geez!”

Count Whiskers knew that better than anyone.

With an embarrassed expression, Count Whiskers, unsure whether to be happy or not, tried to back away.

At that moment.

“What are you doing, Father?”

“Uh, oh.”

The count looked at Ethan as if he had been caught doing something wrong.

He should not have been recognizable with his disguise.

“Isn’t it Young Master Ethan!”

The merchant recognized Ethan and then, doubting his ears for a moment, looked at the person he had just yelled at.

It seemed like he just called him father.

“You’ve got the wrong person!”

The count quickly fled outside.

***

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“How did you know?”

Count Whiskers asked with an embarrassed expression.

“I, uh, have good eyes, Father.”

It was natural since he had the Eye of Horus.

“No, more than that, what brings you here without notice?”

Ethan had Wind Cloud, so there was no need to contact him. He could arrive at the territory even before the contact reached.

“I came to prepare for a new business. But what on earth were you doing?”

Even as he asked, he had a rough idea.

Count Whiskers sighed and honestly told him everything.

After hearing it all, Scarlet almost laughed without realizing it but managed to control her expression.

“As expected, you’re truly a lord, Count!”

Schudlen seemed quite impressed.

“…So did you confirm it for sure?”

“I almost got slapped if I made a wrong move. I also got yelled at once. Ahem, I confirmed that the people of the territory think very highly of me.”

Although the situation became a bit embarrassing, the count was relieved as he achieved his modest goal.

Of course, the territory’s people were following him in a more extreme direction than he had thought, but upon reflection, he felt quite good about it.

“The loyalty of the territory’s people is certain. Far from complaints, they like me too much.”

Count Whiskers laughed loudly, “Wahaha.”

“So, what kind of new business preparation is it, Ethan? While you were away, we’ve been expanding the scale of the Lightweight Workshop and continuing the territory’s development. The Lightweight Workshop brings in so much money that there’s plenty left even after spending.”

“I’m thinking of building another workshop next to the Lightweight Workshop. You know the existing lightweighting and attribute bestowal, right?”

“Quite a lot of customers are looking for attribute bestowal too. It seems that the subscription-based sales you mentioned are working quite well.”

People who had a taste of attribute bestowal or lightweighting for a short period through the subscription system always revisited Whiskers territory.

“Because of that, quite a lot of people have moved to our territory. Especially mages. These mages purchase various materials from the market, creating a continuous virtuous cycle.”

Count Whiskers was very proud of Ethan for creating and establishing such a cycle.

“Well done, Ethan.”

“It’s you, Father, who nurtured it so well while I was away.”

“Hmm.”

Count Whiskers proudly rubbed his nose with his index finger.

“Your way with words has improved since you’ve been gone.”

“How do you view the attribute bestowal, Father?”

At Ethan’s words, Count Whiskers answered immediately as if there was nothing to consider.

“It seems we could expand its scale. Apart from everything else, it has style.”

Ethan smiled at those words.

If a nobleman of Count Whiskers’ caliber recognized its style, it seemed they could expand the business scale even more.

‘In fact, it’s the nobles who care about appearances that want attribute bestowal the most.’

Especially nobles who are particularly concerned about style don’t care about things like money.

“Actually, I did it too.”

Count Whiskers drew the sword at his waist.

As the sword was drawn from its scabbard, flames and frost simultaneously coated the blade, emitting a brilliant light.

“Wow…”

Scarlet and Schudlen gazed at the sword in admiration.

The aura emanating from the sword was reminiscent of a legendary blade.

But there was no effect.

It just radiated an aura and nothing more.

However, Count Whiskers looked at Scarlet and Schudlen, who were admiring the sword, with a pleased expression.

‘That’s exactly the reaction.’

This is why people get attribute bestowal. That’s the style people want.

‘Their skills have improved a lot.’

At this level, their skills seemed good enough to start a separate business independently.

“Now that word of mouth has spread quite a bit, we’ll be able to bring in some of the stubborn mages.”

He had already instructed David Merchant Guild, which was connected with various Magic Towers, to consistently recruit mages.

‘Once the special golem business is firmly established on Etting’s side, I’ll need to create a new merchant guild.’

Ethan had no intention of ending his business by simply consigning goods to sell through a large merchant guild.

He was only doing consignment sales now because there were many shortages.

‘Doing everything directly yields the highest profit.’

He planned to directly establish a Merchant Guild and merge Etting’s David Merchant Guild, Yuna’s Garnet Merchant Guild, and the new Merchant Guild Ethan would create.

‘Make the three Merchant Guilds move as if they were essentially one Merchant Guild.’

If he became the owner of that huge Merchant Guild, he could also greatly increase his reputation.

‘It’s the most difficult method, but if it can be executed, there’s nothing else that can raise reputation this much.’

“Are you thinking of creating a merchant guild, Ethan?”

“Yes, I’ll put the Lightweight Workshop and Attribute Bestowal Workshop at the forefront. And there’s an even bigger business item than these two combined.”

“An even bigger business item?”

At that moment, Scarlet’s body noticeably stiffened.

“It’s dyeing magic, Father.”

“Oh!”

Count Whiskers’ eyes widened at those words.

He could anticipate how Ethan would make this business big.

“Does it produce colors like the clothes the mage here is wearing?”

“It’s not just one color. We’ll be able to dye equipment in countless different colors. Precisely the color the customer wants.”

With such a vast range of colors, there wouldn’t be any overlapping patterns.

“This… I wonder if our territory can handle it. It’s already packed as it is.”

“That’s why I’m thinking of expanding the territory.”

“You mean you’re going to reinvest all the money we’ve earned.”

“Yes.”

Ambition gleamed in Count Whiskers’ eyes.

“Then I’ll do my best to help. Go ahead with the business without worry. At least this father won’t hold you back.”

***

[Dyeing Magic Begins!]

A large sign was newly attached to the Lightweight Workshop.

“Dyeing magic?”

“What’s that?”

Customers who came to the workshop for lightweighting and attribute bestowal looked intrigued by the phrase “dyeing magic.”

Recently, as more people started subscribing to both services combined, some picky customers had become hesitant to visit the workshop.

That was because what they wanted was originality, not something anyone could imitate.

With everyone getting attribute bestowal and lightweighting, it seemed like they were following trends rather than leading them, which these customers didn’t like.

“Hmm.”

In this situation, the newly offered dyeing magic was enough to pique their interest.

“What is dyeing magic?”

Customers asked with sparkling eyes.

“It, it’s a dyeing magic I created. On this scroll, there are numbers and color names written…”

Scarlet explained about the dyeing magic with a rather nervous face.

The customers looked around with shining eyes and chose the colors they wanted.

“Oh, then I’ll take number 7, fluorescent pink, please.”

“An excellent choice.”

As the dyeing magic scroll was sold, Scarlet smiled brightly.

It was the moment her magic was first given value.

Marakan, the mage in charge of the fire attribute bestowal magic, Fire Illusion, was watching Scarlet with a pleased expression.

Marakan understood Scarlet’s feelings better than anyone. He, too, had cried a lot when his attribute bestowal magic was first sold.

So he quietly cheered for Scarlet.

A week at the Lightweight Workshop…

“Give me scroll number 3!”

“I want scroll number 2!”

“I said I wanted to buy scroll number 7, fluorescent pink, is it not ready yet!?”

“Please sell me a dyeing magic scroll!”

“I’ll pay double, no, triple, so please sell me scroll number 3!”

The response to the dyeing magic began to explode.

“How, how is this possible.”

Scarlet felt like she could fly with the customers’ rave reviews.

But that was only for a moment; Scarlet began to panic more and more. The demand was so high that they had already run out of prepared scrolls.

Bang-!

At that moment, Ethan came in through the back door.

“I’ve brought materials and scrolls.”

“Sir Ethan!”

“I told you, didn’t I? That it would succeed.”

“I, I didn’t expect it to succeed this quickly…”

“You remember what you said then, right?”

Ethan said with a grin.

“It’s a 100-year contract, Miss Scarlet.”

Author's Thoughts

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