Chapter 17. The Needed Talent

〈As you can see from this, the land in that area belongs to our family! Therefore, you must pay us the amount and draft the documents accordingly!〉

They thrust documents at them, written in a script where you couldn’t tell the top from the bottom, claiming the land was theirs.

Nisha, along with Ino and other Ash Merchant Guild employees, are generally proficient in foreign languages. However, ancient languages were a different matter.

It was a language almost extinct on the continent, used only in two or three of the northernmost ancient kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Denertum. Even those kingdoms now primarily use the continental common language, with ancient languages being secondary.

Thus, from the Ash Merchant Guild’s perspective, learning other languages was far more beneficial than learning ancient languages. The same went for Callon. Among the twelve languages he could speak fluently, ancient language was not one of them.

‘I never thought I’d need it like this.’

With the nobles bringing ancient documents and causing a fuss to verify them, they had to be reviewed. The problem was that the documents they brought were written in the most atrocious script of ancient languages.

The faces of the nobles who presented the documents showed arrogance, as if saying, “Can you even verify this?”

Indeed, the Ash Merchant Guild’s only available ancient language expert shook their head as soon as they saw the documents.

The documents brought by the nobles were written in the most extreme script among ancient documents, with unnecessary embellishments praising the family’s achievements and sentences so twisted that the reader had to infer the meaning.

The Ash Merchant Guild urgently sought a more capable ancient language expert.

However, they only found that those who could decipher such documents were nobles who received high-level education from a young age, and even among nobles, their number was very few.

Moreover, since it involved the land of noble families, the professors at Denertum Academy flatly refused the Ash Merchant Guild’s request for consultation, as if they didn’t want to get involved at all.

Their refusal was mixed with the sentiment of not wanting to get into a difficult relationship with the families they knew and the indignation of whether commoners from the Empire dared to think they could hire them, noble professors, with money.

‘But we can’t give up on finding one.’

So, Deputy Ino was out every day searching for an ancient language expert.

“But… if it’s a tea party for noble ladies, we won’t find anyone we need there.”

Denertum is a place that only allows minimal education for noble women. So, among those present today, there wouldn’t be an ancient language expert to the extent they wanted.

“Ino will come back crying.”

“When he returns, embrace him with a broad chest.”

Nisha chuckled and handed another document to Callon.

“And what’s this?”

“It’s the list of game winners from the puzzles we distributed in newspapers and magazines recently.”

“Ah.”

Another sigh escaped Callon’s lips.

Even though he was staying here, he couldn’t ignore the issues at branches in the Empire and other kingdoms.

Among them, the problem with the southern island nations was the most troubling for Callon.

Though called island nations, the size of those islands was comparable to that of sizable kingdoms, and with over ten such islands, it was practically another continent.

The problem was that the flames of war were rekindling among those kingdoms.

‘If war breaks out, there will be too many problems using the sea routes there.’

Recently, southern products had emerged as key trading items for the Ash Merchant Guild. Even the sugar that Ino detested came from there.

The Ash Merchant Guild was almost monopolizing the sugar trade, but if war broke out, some kingdoms would definitely divert the sugar contracted elsewhere under the pretext of military build-up.

Sugar is just the beginning. Until the war ends, or even for several years after, the price of all goods on the continent will fluctuate. Most importantly, people won’t be safe when war breaks out.

‘We must stop it.’

While war is tough, it is also a golden opportunity for the guild to expand its business. The unique situation of war makes deals possible that would be unthinkable in normal times.

But that’s not the way the Ash Merchant Guild wants to operate.

Even if the Emperor hadn’t sought cooperation for the stability of the continent, Callon would have wanted to prevent the southern war. He had lost much to war himself in his childhood.

However, merely hoping it doesn’t happen won’t prevent war.

Therefore, the Ash Merchant Guild was actively intervening in the southern situation.

In this situation, the talent that was absolutely necessary was someone skilled in cryptography.

‘The South still doesn’t have a successor with power equal to the Emperor.’

Therefore, the Empire still holds the hegemony of the continent.

The current Emperor is the strongest heir of the Golden Rule, and much of what might seem like prophetic insight to others was based on his power.

Anyway, the South, where heirs of the Golden Rule are rare, used ordinary methods for confidential communication. Which was encryption.

Each country used such complex and different encryption methods that the Ash Merchant Guild had to employ a lot of manpower to decode each country’s codes.

But there was still a shortage of manpower for decoding.

In fact, they had already brought in all the talent they could from the Empire and the South.

So Callon decided to look for talent in Denertum while he was here.

Of course, he couldn’t just shout, “We’re looking for codebreakers!”

So they transformed several commonly used encryption methods into puzzles and advertised them in newspapers and magazines, offering a big prize to anyone who could solve them.

The advertisement that you could make money by solving puzzles aroused people’s curiosity.

Thanks to that, those who could read or do arithmetic all jumped into solving the puzzles, hoping for a big pocket money.

The enthusiasm was so great that even the nobles tried it for fun.

What Nisha handed over was the list of winners from last week’s puzzle advertisement.

“Even if they can get the right answers, if they’re slow, it’s no use…”

Decoding is a race against time. Even if you can solve it, if it takes a year, it’s useless.

So they needed to call these people in, give them another problem, and check how long it took them to solve it.

“It’s one thing after another.”

Callon covered his face with the list Nisha handed him.

“What can we do? Is there anything harder than finding someone useful?”

“Right. At this point, I think I could beg anyone with ancient language or codebreaking skills to marry me. I’d pledge to be their slave for life, just please stay by my side.”

Nisha let out a bizarre laugh at Callon’s words.

“How many people are you planning to marry?”

“You never know. Maybe someone who’s good at ancient languages is also good at breaking codes.”

“Get real. Where in the world is there such a person? And it’s the first time I’ve heard you mention marriage, Callon.”

“It shows how desperate I am.”

Callon was someone who got along well with everyone.

Of course, he was precise in his dealings and truly frightening when angry, but he was basically easy to like and kind.

But Nisha knew. That he had never shown personal deep interest in anyone.

To the extent that Ino would mutter nonsense to Nisha like, “It’s not like he seems to prefer men. If he did, he’d surely have targeted me.”

For such a person to even mention marriage… It made Nisha realize anew how much they were suffering from a manpower shortage.

“Anyway, we should pray.”

“For what?”

“What else?”

Nisha shrugged her shoulders.

“To see you clinging to your partner’s clothes, begging them not to leave after you get married.”

* * *

“Welcome, Miss Aelfrieda. Thank you so much for attending despite the sudden invitation.”

Ael slightly bent her knees and greeted Riena, who was smiling brightly.

How could she not come? They even sent a carriage so she couldn’t escape.

Ael looked up and observed Riena. A very brief moment of embarrassment flashed by, but Riena quickly hid it and guided Ael inside.

As befits a wealthy great noble, everything in the marquis’s house was clean and beautiful.

There was not a speck of dust on the window frames, and there was no trace of moss on the stone pillars either.

What’s most enviable to Ael were the books in the reception rooms she saw while passing through the mansion.

The marquis family was relatively moderate towards the Empire among the great nobles. Perhaps because of this, there were quite a few imperial books that she had seen in the library in the reception rooms.

To have new books all over the house like this… that means she could read anytime, anywhere.

Imagining spending an afternoon in a sun-filled garden reading a newly arrived book, Ael briefly forgot that she was in a place where she should be tense, and her expression turned blank.

But her imagination was short-lived. The moment she was guided to the garden where the tea party was set up, Ael froze.

There, women with eyes full of curious hostility were waiting for her.