Published: August 10, 2026
At the southernmost edge of Dirts Kingdom, there was a port town in the Granado duchy.
It had been a long time since I'd come here. The sea breeze felt pleasant, and beyond the townscape I could see the sails of ships filling with wind.
"Oh, if it isn't the boss of the granado trading company!"
The moment I entered the town, the owner of a fisherman's inn called out to me.
"Welcome to the port. Here on business?"
"Yeah. I'm here to buy goods. I'm taking merchandise from the warehouse by the docks to the royal capital."
"Then you're not setting sail, just taking a room, huh? We've got a good one open!"
The innkeeper shouted while dangling fish from both hands, and I waved him off.
"No, I've already reserved a guesthouse on the outskirts of town. I won't have much time to relax this time, so I'd prefer somewhere I can keep the horses."
"That's a shame. Maybe next time. Oh, right—boss, didn't you have a kid?"
"Yeah, she just turned one. The other day, she even said 'Papa.'"
"Ohhh, that's wonderful! Take this with you!"
The innkeeper tossed the fish he was holding at me. Apparently it was a gift for the birth. I laughed and caught it, then handed it to Wolfgang behind me. The butler made a very displeased face for an instant.
"Don't make that face. It's a fine gift. This time of year, it won't spoil just from carrying it around."
"...My hands will smell fishy."
Wolfgang sighed and went to put the fish in the carriage. I found his reaction amusing and laughed.
"This always happens when I come to this town. Maybe I should start carrying a bag with me."
The people of Dilz were said to be shy, stoic, and unfriendly by nature. But in this port town, it was always like this. They knew I was the head of the Granado Family, but even so, they treated me like an ordinary young man. Probably because when I was little, I lived here with my mother under an assumed identity and relied on the townspeople's help.
My mother, Ruifeng, wife of Duke Alfred, had once been a traveling performer in Ipsandros. Life in a dress, being waited on by the maids in the mansion, must have felt terribly confining to her. Sometimes she would put on shabby clothes, pretend to be a commoner, and enjoy wandering around eating hearty lower-town food. I loved those times too.
To be honest, even now I still don't really feel like I'm a duke, a great lord among the high nobility second only to the royal family. Dukes don't actually have that much to do. The territory is far too large for one head of the family to govern alone, so lesser nobles are placed as local lords. Unless something truly serious happens, hardly any reports ever reach me.
And the duchy—no, this Dirts Kingdom—was in an era of peace. Nothing that serious was likely to happen, so I continued my days as a merchant, just as I always had.
That was a blessing for me.
...The atmosphere of high society is uncomfortable.
I prefer the rough, rude, cheerful people here in this port town and in Ips. I want to spend my whole life as a trading merchant. And once my daughter grows a little older, I'll take her to Ipsandros too...
While thinking such things, I arrived at the granado trading company's warehouse.
Then I sensed something was off. The familiar sight somehow looked different—there were too many empty spaces on the shelves. Was the stock running low?
After checking the ledger, I called out to the warehouse keeper who was working nearby.
"Why is the inventory so low? According to the ledger, you've only managed to procure about half of last time."
"Y-Yes... I'm sorry. Our recent procurement hasn't been going well."
The warehouse keeper answered apologetically.
"Why not? Where's the bottleneck?"
"The merchants in Ips are being stingy with their sales. And even the orders we placed with the artisans weren't delivered; they said they couldn't get everything we requested together, so they had no choice but to return with only half the hold filled."
Behind me, Wolfgang muttered,
"...With only half a ship's hold filled, even if everything sells, the profit would be about the same as labor and transport costs. It would barely be in the black."