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Book 3: Chapter 41: Farewell and Merchant Empire

Soph scooped up the big wolf-sized fox who\'d appeared at her with some effort and replied, "She\'s fine. She\'s still unconscious but her mana organs are working normally. I think she\'ll wake up tomorrow."

"That\'s good news," Lone said as he reached over and rubbed Kyuubi\'s chin to which she yawned slightly.

"So, things didn\'t go well with the war leader?" Soph asked the most important question.

Lone sighed. "Sadly not. I did gain a level in Aura Pressure Resistance and I learned a bit more about the matriarch when we were walking to War Leader Clari\'s home, but yeah, she didn\'t agree to train with me."

"Well, Kyuubi is here to help you with your Cuteness Resistance and I can help with everything else!" Soph happily responded.

Lone smiled. "Sure, when I get back. I\'m off to say bye to Rodorick and his family. I doubt I\'ll take the time to visit them since I\'ll be busy bouncing between here and Golden Pass City for training with you for the foreseeable future. Wanna come with? I will be making that special offer to them we talked about during the journey here."

Soph shook her head. "I\'m not close enough to them and that\'s your pet idea, not mine. I\'d rather stay here. They\'re close enough that I can reach you in a moment if I need too though!"

Lone nodded at that. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss before scratching Kyuubi\'s chin again. "Well then, seeya in an hour or two."

"What?! You\'re saying bye now?!" Little Rinrin shouted, tears in her eyes.

Lone smiled wryly. "I\'ve got a lot of stuff planned and I\'ve arranged accommodations for myself here to do said planned stuff. I am sad to say goodbye, but hey, I\'ll be here for a while so if you ever need more help figuring out your world skill, just get your mum and dad to do more merchant business with the Crimson Foxkin Clan. How does that sound?"

Rodorick didn\'t look very pleased by that attempt at calming his daughter but his wife, Mistress Fenlo, didn\'t seem to mind and had an amused smile on her face.

"I\'ll make sure of it!" Little Rinrin bobbed her head up and down.

"Now, do you mind if I talk to your parents in private for a moment, Rinrin? I have boring business stuff to discuss with them," Lone requested in a soft tone.

The seven-year-old frowned. "My skill knows you\'re being truthful. Fine! But you better be here when Daddy and Mummy take me back here! If not, you\'re stupid!"

The young girl dashed into her room, leaving Lone with her parents in the living room of their assigned floor of the very pagoda he, himself, had been staying in until this afternoon.

"I\'ll be frank," Lone stated, "I have some farewell gifts and an opportunity offer for you two."

Rodorick seemed sceptical while Mistress Fenlo held her cheek in her palm with curious interest.

"Gifts first?" Mistress Fenlo suggested. "My lovely husband might be more willing to hear about your opportunity if he\'s been sufficiently buttered up."

"Hey! I would have listened no matter w-"

"Dear," the dominant one of the two interrupted, causing Rodorick to clam up, clearly not seeing any point in arguing with his wife when he\'d surely lose.

\'Whatever works to keep the marriage of two immortal beings sustainable, I guess,\' Lone thought as he pretended to reach into his dimensional storage and pulled out a longsword, a tea set, and a book.

"The sword\'s for you, Rodorick. I created it myself and even though it is only made of steel, it doesn\'t pale in comparison to those made by a master weaponsmith," Lone explained.

Rodorick took the sword carefully and examined it closely. "... A fine piece. Its value is quite extr-"

"Dear, it was a gift, one that you will not be selling," Mistress Fenlo warned.

Rodorick\'s wolf ears flopped down in defeat. "I wasn\'t going to sell it. Thank you, Lone. I... I appreciate this."

"Thought you might," Lone smiled before he turned to Mistress Fenlo. "The tea set was also created by me and it is quite unique in that it is modelled after a famous eastern tea set of my home world."

Both of the wolfkin looked confused. "Home world? Are you-"

"I\'ll explain in a second. It relates to my opportunity. This book is one I\'ve written myself. It goes into as much detail as I could possible think of to help Rinrin master her world skill," Lone interrupted.

Mistress Fenlo took the book and beamed from ear-to-ear. "She\'ll love this. She\'s very sad you aren\'t coming with us, but that\'s just children, isn\'t it? They do get attached quite easily. With this, she can remember you and lessen all of our worries somewhat. It\'s very thoughtful. Thank you, Lone."

"You\'re very welcome," he replied before he once more pretended to reach into his Adventurer\'s Pouch. This time, he pulled out a contract he had written up in his blood alongside a small wooden box. "Now, this is the opportunity. I want to become a sponsor for your caravan. I know you\'re in a merchant group already, but my sponsorship will come with enough money to establish your own merchant group and perhaps even an empire if things go well."

Rodorick has a sceptical and incredibly distrusting expression on his face as he said, "Let me see that."

Lone handed him the contract that still needed the signature of both Rodorick and Mistress Fenlo alongside the signature of their daughter.

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He stayed silent as the man and his wife read over the contract. Lone passed the time by recalling exactly what he had written on it with his ever so difficult to draw blood, just to make sure he hadn\'t made any mistakes, even though he\'d already checked the document several times already.

Contract of Sponsorship

Participants: Lone Immortus | The Halbundon Family: Rodorick Halbundon, Fenlo Halbundon, and Rinari Halbundon.

Terms: Lone Immortus will consider the Halbundon family and anyone employed by them to be his companions.

Lone Immortus will provide the Halbundon family with 10 ruby-gold coins per year.

Lone Immortus will supply products and ideas to be considered by the Halbundon family for integration into the business.

Lone Immortus will respond to emergency communications for help in the case of attacks via The Adventurer\'s Guild or a communication orb within an hour.

The Halbundon family will separate from the Elgoran Merchant\'s Union and create their own merchant association named \'The Immortal Emporium\' with Lone Immortus as the owner and Rodorick Halbundon and Fenlo Halbundon as directors (Head of Mobile Emporiums and Head of Stationary Emporiums respectively).

The Halbundon family are required to create three on-site stores and five caravan routes with a reliability and safety rating of over 95% (to be judged by the Deposit Auction Conglomerate once every six months post-creation), and a profit margin of 300% (For clarity, 300% of the operation costs, not 300% of the funding amount) must be established within the 5-year period of the contract.

While Lone Immortus will claim only 10% of the profits, the Halbundon family will have to accept any events he requests to be performed in his name such as auctions, showcase exhibitions, sponsored tournaments, etc.

The Halbundon family cannot consciously or subconsciously work to undermine Lone Immortus\'s part in the business, via betrayal, espionage, deceit, or any other means.

This contract will expire in 5-years and the terms must be renegotiated 2-months prior to its expiration.

Intended Contract Level: 2

Required Contract Level: 3

Signed:

Signed:

This was a little side project of Lone\'s. He wanted to see if he could create a merchant empire under his name. It could come in handy in the future and it was just interesting, if he was being honest. Sophie wasn\'t a fan of the \'one hour response\' thing since she would be responsible for transportation in such cases, but Soph was fully on board with the idea even if she felt divorced from it.

The question was, would the two wolfkin in front of him trust in his True Contract Magic and take a chance on this unbelievable opportunity that probably seemed like a scheme of some sort to Rodorick at the very least?

"D-Dear, this is all written in blood," Mistress Fenlo stuttered, her usually playful and go-with-the-flow demeanor nowhere to be seen.

Rodorick looked up from the contract to meet Lone\'s gaze very nervously. "I-Is this some kind of joke? T-These terms are impossible, and the b-blood... Are you going to murder us? Is that why you sent Little Rinrin away? You don\'t kill kids?"

Lone held his forehead and sighed. \'That\'s the normal reaction. The dwarven assassin and Zel didn\'t bat an eye at the blood, Sheelda was out of options so couldn\'t complain, Hamish knew how weird I am, and the kids didn\'t know any better. This is what a normal person would feel when offered such a crazy contract from a dude they hired to guard them half a month ago.\'

He leaned back in his chair and said, "You both know I fought with an X-ranker yesterday and didn\'t die. If I wanted to kill you, you\'d be dead. I guess I could always be some weird psychopath, but I\'m not. What I said about my \'home world\'? I\'m a summoned hero. That contract? It\'s made via a unique skill. It\'s more powerful and binding than normal contract magic. It cannot be broken or evaded unless a loophole has been intentionally written into it. You\'re people of business, you tell me if there are loopholes in there."

"As-Assuming it\'s real... No, I don\'t see any. it is vague, but no, no obvious loopholes... But ten ruby-gold coins a year for five years-"

Lone opened the box he\'d brought out alongside the contract. It glimmered with a red and golden sheen. "I\'d be paying you the full amount when you sign the contract. I am obscenely rich. You can use whatever skills you have to see if these are real, but I can assure you, they are."

Both of the wolfkin looked visibly nervous but some excitement could be seen hiding behind all of the fears and well-placed anxiety. Mistress Fenlo gingerly reached over and pulled out a single coin, first looking to Lone for permission to do so which he granted with a nod of the head.

She brought it up to her eye and invoked, "Merchant Sense."

\'On, that\'s an interesting sounding skill,\' Lone thought.

"It... Dear... It\'s real. I- Can... Can I check them all?" Mistress Fenlo requested.

Lone nodded again. "If you have the resources to use that skill another 49 times, go for it."

"I can use it on the box itself... if you\'ll allow me to hold it," she replied.

Of course, he consented so both Lone and Rodorick watched in silence as she picked up the box as if it were the most fragile thing on Altros. She then put it up to her eye and invoked, "Merchant Sense."

Rodorick caught his wife as she almost fainted. "What\'s wrong?!"

"Real... They\'re all real... I\'m holding a kingdom. This, I-"

"Calm down," Lone ordered, actively trying to force his Persuasion skill onto the woman. It worked a little bit as she visibly relaxed. "I want you to make a merchant empire for me, so of course it has to be that much money. Sign the contract, get Rinrin to do it too, all in blood, and then we\'ll be on our way. I\'ll give you a few communication orbs I bought in the Farwinds. All of the sisters orbs are with me. I\'ll also personally outfit and train your new permanent guards up until you move on from the clan in a few days or however long that takes, just like I did when we were travelling."

"The emergency clause. How could that be possible? An hour?" The scepticism in Rodorick\'s tone was more than justified.

"Sofia, my lover. She\'s also a summoned hero. She can teleport vast distances in an instant. You need only tell us where you are during the emergency and we\'ll come," Lone answered honestly.

He felt is was wiser than trying to deceive them or be vague with such a massive flaw being pointed out. A straight answer was for the best here.

A distant look entered Mistress Fenlo\'s eyes before they rapidly brightened with numerous ideas flitting across her mind. "We\'ll need to spend some of this on training courses, to sharpen our skills. We\'ll have to go to the Hil\'ul\'ah Federation as our base of operations too. It\'s safe there and merchant heavy. A saturated market, sure, but room to grow and the ability to do so legally despite our species and lack of nobility or power. With this much capital, it shouldn\'t be too hard. We can easily buy a mansion there with enough security to keep Rinrin protected while we focus on the business."

"This is stupid. He wants to kill us. He definitely wants to kill us..." Rodorick mumbled as a shaky hand covered his sweating face. "My wife has clearly accepted in her mind, and I don\'t see what choice we have. I don\'t exactly feel comfortable getting our daughter to sign this in blood, however."

"It\'s needed. It\'s for her safety, if it\'s any consolation. She needs to be included. By the way, as a little deal under the table, any merchant skills you have or will earn that can be used on things or people, would you mind using on me? In exchange, I\'ll be your insurance to keep you immortal should you even accidentally awaken," Lone claimed. "if you need proof of my ability to do that, well, you saw the guildmaster yesterday and if you see the matriarch before you leave, you\'ll notice she looks about 30 years younger by human standards than she did this morning. You can do that the next time we meet though, not now. I don\'t exactly need merchant skills right now."

"... This is insane," Rodorick whispered.