Apparently the person who wanted to see me was the man with the glasses. The same man who bought all of my and Gustaf's commodities.

He was one of the executives of the merchant union in this city. If I'm not mistaken, this man was named Ernest Helium.

Ernest, along with a tall, well-dressed man, smiled at me. I smiled back with a small, forced smile.

He then placed some papers on the table.

"There are some other executive members who object to your appointment. But I did my best to convince them that you are really needed for the merchants' union."

This merchants' union is actually not a very large one. There were about 9 executives including myself and hundreds of middle-class merchants. But since it was a place where the agreement between members was respected as well as a trusted information network, there was no harm in cooperating with them.

Moreover, the concept of regulation is quite sweet and far from barbarism. Who has survived the age of destruction other than me, I am very grateful to you for maintaining a fair business culture even if it is only a little.

In the eyes of merchants, peace, economic and political stability are the prerequisites for investing in a city or country. No matter how valuable a country's natural resources are, if it is involved in war and instability, who would be the fool to invest in such a place except the mafia or terrorists.

But even though this city was promising, it seemed like the human resources problem was not easy to overcome because even a merchant like Ernest who had stayed longer than me had the same problem. Lack of competent employees, that was also the reason why he did some troublesome work with his own two hands.

"I am very grateful for your goodwill, Mr. Ernest."

"No problem Miss White. I was a good friend of Mr. Gustaf, there's no harm in helping the family of my best friend when he passed away."

Smiling once more, Ernest took back the document of my acceptance as an executive and replaced it with another document.

This time, a larger document was placed on the table.

I thought it was obviously much heavier than a few thin sheets of paper, which showed that Ernest's real purpose in coming to me was related to all these documents. He then continued in an increasingly friendly manner.

"The supply chain from the east, west and north is sometimes attacked by some monsters and bandits. Then there Mr. Gustaf plays an important role to help the executive members of the merchant guild with his services to protect the caravans."

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"Yes."

"Mr. Gustaf always argues that those places are always fraught with danger. I understand that, and since I think this is an important issue for the merchant guild, I try to help Mr. Gustaf's work by becoming one of the shareholders."

"That's good."

"What I want to tell you, Miss White, is really only one, I hope that you will continue Mr. Gustaf's work."

"I understand."

This person-

Looking to the side, Ernest with a look in his eyes made the neatly dressed man nearby then start taking notes. After finishing, the man grabbed eight papers from the documents piled up on the table and slid them right under my face.

"Since Miss seems to be having financial problems. What if I help you? I want to buy all of Mr. Gustaf's properties. Since you are his family, you have all the rights to all the assets."

I then grabbed the document and read through it. Part of the document actually contained the amount owed by Mr. Gustaf, I couldn't be sure if Ernest might have changed some of the numbers in it or not, one small change like a zero could change the face value. But all in all, the amount of debt that Mr. Gustaf owed the merchant guild was in the tens of thousands of gold coins.

With slightly lazy eyes that were partially covered by short white hair, I then nodded to Ernest who was currently probably trying to trick me.

"I will sell all of Mr. Gustaf's assets. How much will you pay me."

"481 gold coins. How about it, are you interested?"

"Isn't that too low?"

"Should I explain it one more time?"

"No, that's enough."

"Thank you."

He's trying to force me, it's a bit interesting but annoying.

Buying all my commodities, guaranteeing that I was Mr. Gustaf's family and making me the executive of the merchant guild.

I'm sure that Ernest doesn't even care if I'm Mr. Gustaf's family or not, as long as he gets all of Gustaf's property and makes me his successor in the merchant guild, it's enough for him to make a sweet profit.

The competition within the merchant guild seems to be very fierce. Once again, this really sucks. It sucks because I don't have enough power and can't find a way to fight back.

....

I agreed to everything, I signed the transfer of assets and let Ernest take what he wanted.

In my eyes, this was an insult, how could a primitive primate like him demean me to that extent. But I couldn't let my emotions eat away at my thoughts, it was the same as tarnishing the logic and rationality I had built up so far.

Taking a breath, I then looked up at the sky where the blue clouds of winter partially obscured the sunlight. Beside me now, my subordinates Roland and Ernest who was shorter than me were standing while looking at the large group passing through the city streets.

All the townspeople filled both sides of the highway. There were many smiles on display, especially from the young women.

"The second prince of six brothers, Prince William Rian Gunter. His highness was sent to the southern city to serve as governor-general, from what I heard, the nobles and the king deliberately kept Prince William away so that his military support base would no longer be concentrated around the capital. But lower-ranking nobles and merchants like us tried to take advantage of the prince's exile. Obviously, because no matter what, he's still a prince."

Ernest said that in a low tone of voice but enough to be able to reach my ears. This person deliberately said that so that all the information could be heard by me.

"The palace is planning to hold a ball to welcome the prince. All the executives of the merchant guild received formal invitations including you."

Ernest continued to say what he said, but my attention was still focused on the prince.

There was a good reason why the women in town were screaming so loudly, it was because the prince had what a woman dreamed of. Power, money, influence, strength and even a charming face.

His porcelain-white skin, ideal posture, his piercing eyes were filled with an aura of masculinity and might. All the ambience made people think that he was the realization of a man loved by God.

The prince sat on a horse and waved. At the same time, every time the prince smiled, all the women had bright red faces.

With all this excitement, I could only hear a few words spoken by Ernest.

"Miss white, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"The prince."

"Yes, he's a handsome man."

When I said that, Ernest nodded in agreement but on the other hand there was an unexpected reaction from my subordinates. Roland and his companion shrugged slightly in surprise.

He then commented in a very low voice, but he didn't notice that I heard what he said.

"Poor prince, he will definitely have nightmares tonight."

Hey—

Truly, Roland is a barbarian who knows no manners.