Translator: Nox

Chapter 26

The moment I stepped out into the space beyond, my entire body was enveloped in a dazzling light.

The light was coming from my bag—the one from Lady Peruvia that I'd been holding over my head to shield from falling debris.

What is this?

Bewildered, I opened the bag.

Amid the bills, coins, and miscellaneous items, one object was emitting a brilliant glow.

A piece of wood. The wood sample I'd barely obtained after dumping 100 million on those nuisance Elf Cult fanatics. Something was off about it.

'What?'

I squinted and pulled out the wood piece.

At that instant, the glow spread everywhere like a laser show. At the same time, the earthquake stopped.

"......?"

A humming sound came from somewhere.

It transformed into a sound like a mother softly humming to her baby, soon becoming a song.

Not some cult Elf nonsense, but a beautiful, mystical song that true elves might sing.

The melody painted a scene before my eyes.

An ancient forest with sunlight pouring through moss-covered trees. Within it, the wood piece in my hand began to slowly change.

"Hm?"

Startled, I looked down at it.

The smooth surface of the processed walnut maple wood writhed. Intricate, delicate vine patterns emerged, too exquisite for human craftsmanship.

Everything intertwined organically, gathering toward the center. Accordingly, the glow from the wood piece was drawn inward.

Eventually, only a slender slit remained in the center where everything converged... and that slit flashed open.

Then, a clear, transparent emerald appeared, opening wide like a pupil.

At that moment, a phrase from the song in an incomprehensible language suddenly flowed into my ears with meaning.

「The contract passed down from ancient times......」

Thud.

A powerful vibration swallowed the song, and the faintly trembling ground came to a complete halt.

What?

I finally came to my senses.

The strangely altered space had returned to normal.

"Lady Peruvia!"

I shouted, but there was no reply.

"Are you alright? Lady Peruvia!"

Clutching the wood piece, I hurriedly ran down the corridor. Then I spotted someone standing tall in the annex hall.

It wasn't Lady Peruvia. It was a white-haired elderly man.

Hm?

As I approached, his face looked familiar, and sure enough, I was shocked upon seeing it.

"Old man?"

The stubborn owner of the lumber shop. The old man I'd haggled with over the contract without a doubt.

Why was he here?

"Hahaha......"

The old man looked at me and threw his head back in laughter.

Something appeared behind him. An illusory wall like a bank of surveillance camera screens.

Each screen showed people collapsed throughout the annex.

They were the S-rank merchant leaders and A- and B-rank ones participating in this competition.

I was aghast.

"Did you kill them?"

"Indeed."

The old man replied.

But the very next moment, he changed his tune.

"Just kidding!"

"Pardon?"

"What an imaginative duchess. Those participants just fainted on their own. That one forged a contract after I refused to sell and stole the wood anyway. That one disguised other wood as walnut maple. Self-inflicted wounds, you could say."

I stared blankly at the old man.

I could instinctively tell. He wasn't the mastermind who killed everyone, but he wasn't an ordinary lumber merchant either.

Based on my experience hopping jobs and dealing with all sorts, this vibe, this speech, this expression was definitely...

"A CEO disguised as a regular customer to evaluate the store."

My intuition told me so.

"That's your true identity, right, old man?"

"Haha. Close enough."

"What's your position?"

"Well, Great Spirit."

...Pardon?

My jaw dropped at his casual reply.

What did you say?

"Duchess, surprised?"

Lady Peruvia, whom I'd been desperately searching for, emerged from behind the self-proclaimed Great Spirit, chuckling.

"You look like you wouldn't bleed even if pricked with a needle, yet you searched so hard for me—unexpected. Sorry for fooling such a duchess."

"You fooled me, meaning..."

"Truth is, the bit about finding a merchant group to sell my music boxes was a lie. We did all this to find a new contractor for the Great Spirit."

"Pardon?"

"I was originally the contractor, but at seventy, I'm not what I used to be. Worried I might endanger the Crown Prince brothers, we hurriedly set up this test."

"What?"

I just parroted back like a parrot.

The words entered my ears clearly, but I couldn't comprehend a thing. Like my brain was overloaded.

"Sit down. I'll explain step by step."

The Great Spirit and Lady Peruvia grabbed the dazed me from both sides and sat me in a chair.

"You know about the curse afflicting those who inherit dragon bloodlines. The founding emperor exhausted every means to prepare countermeasures, one of which is 'that'."

"We call it by many names to maintain secrecy, but its true name is the World Tree's Lullaby."

Following their explanation, an illusion appeared before my eyes. A baby dragon sleeping peacefully with its head against a massive world tree.

'A gold dragon?'

Its big eyes tightly shut, breathing softly in deep slumber—it looked adorable and serene.

As twilight gently spread over its golden scales, a beautiful song echoed. The elf song from earlier.

"No wonder it sounded like a mother humming to her baby—it really was a lullaby."

I said, looking at the old man.

"And you're the Great Spirit of the World Tree."

"That's right."

The Great Spirit nodded with a smile.

"At the founding emperor's request to help maintain world peace, I permitted the heirs of the dragon bloodline to have the mystical substance called the World Tree's Lullaby."

He raised one hand, and a round, transparent emerald formed in his palm. Like watching sap harden on a tree in real time.

'Similar to what appeared on my wood sample?'

As I alternated glances in wonder, the Great Spirit lightly waved his hand.

"This is just an illusion. The World Tree's Lullaby must be harvested from mines connected to the world tree's roots, as the name implies. Direct trades between spirits and dragons are forbidden by law; a human must act as intermediary."

"The problem is that most contractors tasked with this duty have fallen to corruption. Falling in love with transcendent beings and scheming to possess them, or manipulating them for power. Hiding such dark ambitions to claim the contractor role, only to bring disaster in the end."

The Great Spirit nodded at Lady Peruvia's words.

"After many trials and collecting various cases, I finally reached a conclusion. What kind of human can best perform this duty for the longest? It is precisely..."

He declared solemnly.

"Not those seeking to bond with transcendent beings or seize power through the contract... but those who coldly crunch the numbers solely for stable profit—pure, unadulterated money-grubbers themselves!"

The Great Spirit's finger pointed at me.

In other words, that's me...? Is this a compliment or an insult?

"Statistics show exactly those humans fulfilled the contractor's duty to the end. Lady Peruvia here is an excellent example."

"That's right."

Lady Peruvia chimed in.

"Decades ago, I passed the exact same test. Preliminary, main, and final rounds. Duchess, you ignored the imperial ball, brushed off Prince Zikren whom we set up as a distraction, spotted the excellent business prospects I slipped into the pamphlet, and applied—passing the preliminary with ease."

"Then you found me, the Great Spirit, and triumphed in our confrontation where I eliminated other candidates with flimsy excuses."

The Great Spirit smiled faintly.

"For the record, I wasn't acting then. I was genuinely furious. A lumber merchant might hate the Elf Cult, but a Great Spirit despises them even more. How dare they use my name!"

"Ah, sorry."

"No need. What matters is you won."

Lady Peruvia waved it off.

"After passing the main round that way, you safely awakened the world tree fragment for the final round too. You were already safely evacuated, yet you risked danger to come out and save another! Your choice pleased us so much that the deeply slumbering world tree piece snapped its eyes open."

I'd just tried to save my precious interviewer.

"Perfect!"

"Absolutely perfect!"

The Great Spirit and Lady Peruvia high-fived in the air joyfully.

'I got perfectly fooled.'

I thought blankly. Things were finally starting to make sense.

"So all the hardships I faced were obstacles from the organizers, and I overcame them all single-mindedly to secure the business... Wait, hold on."

Recapping the explanation in reverse, I caught on one part.

"You said you selected a money-grubber soaked in pure monetary greed, not seeking transcendent bonds or power through the contract..."

I looked at the Great Spirit and Lady Peruvia.

"So you're acknowledging it? That I had no desire to get close to Crown Prince and purely wanted the business. Could you testify to that before my father or Crown Prince?"

"Testify?"

They echoed in disbelief.

"Why testify?"

"Ah, is that inconvenient? I got too eager and..."

"No testimony needed! That's the first thing I filter out. If you had ambitions like dreaming of becoming Crown Princess, you wouldn't have even seen me. Plenty of merchant leaders came to my shop last night but left without spotting me."

The Great Spirit chuckled.

"But you spotted me just fine, entered, confronted me, and now we're chatting like this? No testimony required—this itself is proof. That you desire no ties with any member of the imperial family..."

At that exact moment.

The sound of someone sprinting down the corridor outside, as if to shatter the floor, echoed.

"What? Who's the final passer?"

With a panicked voice, the hall door burst open.

Aldensis and Zikren. The two stood there rigidly.

Facing me in conversation with the Great Spirit, they froze, speechless.

"......?"

They wore expressions of utter disbelief at what their eyes showed.