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“I was quite surprised when I heard you’d become the hero, Alim.

A smile bloomed on Manet’s beautiful face. She had already stopped poking my cheeks.

“The toys you created sell like crazy. Of course, I expected that.”

Oh, is that why she showed that delighted smile just now?

However, she immediately turned serious again.

“Alim… This is just something I heard, but is it true that you will be distributing high grade potions for the war on top of selling the king a large number of Great Potions?”

Like I thought before, information has been leaked from somewhere. Can’t the people in this castle keep their mouths shut?

At any rate, it’s probably better if I don’t try to deny it in front of this woman. That’s what my gut tells me.

“Y-yes, I sold them, and I’ll hand out potions to everyone who participates in the war. In fact, the distributed potions are made so they will vanish, once the war ends.”
“I see… Hearing this eases my concerns a bit. …But there’s still your sale to king, right? …Say, did you know that thanks to that the value of potions has dropped quite a bit?”

Eeeeek!?
Scary, the way she glares at me… Those are the eyes of someone who made it through several close calls.

She looks really scary…

“Y-yes… I’m very sorry…”
“It’s fine, you know, please don’t apologize. That way, you made a show of your power, my dear. Still, you better learn from it. Some people are in trouble since they can’t sell their potions. Us, for example… seeing our share is 60% of all the potions in Anazumu.”

Wow~…

I should probably think long and hard before I manufacture something again. Usually until now, I focused on business with people who asked me to create something, didn’t I? I never thought it would affect people other than that.

I need to reflect on this and show her I’m sorry.

“That’s… I’m really, really sorry…”

Once more, I apologized to her, and this time she smiled amicably.
Going back and forth between angry and smiling, her facial muscles must work overtime.

“It’s fine, you see! Or, if you can think about new products in exchange, once the war is over, it’ll be. For us, at least.”¹　

Did she maybe only make me feel guilty since she wanted me to develop new products?

“Yes… well, I’ll do my best.”
“Heh-heh, we’ll rake it in, won’t we? Oh, that’s right. Arkin and Grape asked me to tell you a few words.”

Mr. Arkin and Mr. Grape?
Why wouldn’t they just send me a message?

But well, rather than saying it by message, asking someone to convey it directly carries more weight, doesn’t it?

“First Arkin. He said, ‘Alim, it’s probably challenging to become the hero, but if you think about money and stay calm, the demon god surely won’t be anything to fear’. I strongly share his sentiment on this.”

Mr. Arkin… He probably wanted to encourage me, but I don’t think I’ll be giving any thought to money while I’m facing the demon god.

“Then, Grape. He said, ‘Hm, Alim! I wouldn’t even have dreamed that you’d end up fighting the demon god. Please win the war and think up some new products, and then let’s do some business again’.”

What the hell, can’t these people stop talking about money in between encouraging me? It’s probably their method of cheering me on, but…

Well, merchants will be merchants.

“That’s all.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Heh-heh, it’s all good, you know. Then, please do your best, won’t you? I’m sure you’ll be fine, my dear. This is what my long-life intuition as an Elf tells me.” she said, and then disappeared somewhere into the crowd of people.

I, once again, greeted and dealt with various people for some time. Incidentally, it looked like Karua had gone back to the king’s side while I was talking with acquaintances.

Anyway, there really were all kinds of people.

For example, the chairman of a merchant association other than Medial. They started to talk about business at first, but soon realized I was on good terms with Medial, so they gave up halfway.

After that, the president of the so-called Horse Driver’s Association². This person was apparently the head of a group of people driving horse-drawn wagons. Their love for horses was incredible.

Then, the prince of another country.
He was trying with all his might to appeal to me.

Still, I’m a man. It’s unfortunate, isn’t it?

Maybe me not treating him seriously, since I have no interest in the opposite sex, made him miserable, and his retreating figure when he walked away looked terribly sorrowful.

Well, he tried to talk to me, and his personality wasn’t bad, but in the end Mr. Tuhl’s wealth, social standing and face are better, aren’t they?³

Still, his behavior was quite good; among them, there were some nobles who threw their weight around, a duke who boasted needlessly and a young lady who acted weirdly competitive towards me.

Especially awful was Prince Pervert⁴. He appeared to be from a different country than the prince from before and, right as we were meeting for the first time, he groped my butt.

Well, once I shot him a glare filled with all my killing intent, his face turned white, and he fled. He was just like that Faust a̲sshole back then.

Naturally, there were also good people who didn’t act unreasonably.

Well, I’ve been talking to various bigshots for about an hour since I came to the throne room.

I finished the conversation at a good stopping point, and, while I was making my way towards the king, the three SSS-Rankers called out to me.

TL notes:
Manet first showed up in chapter 120 and was since then only mentioned. Looks like the consequences of some of Alim’s actions have caught up with him. I wonder how big Anazumu is, if one company can be responsible for 60% of all potions sales.

1. This sentence is a bit weird. I think she says it’s fine and then adds the second part as the condition for it to be fine.
2. The original is 馬御者通行会 (Horse Driver Traffic Association). I decided to shorten it a bit.
3. Alim probably should spend more time as Ayumu, if he starts to think like that already.
4. In the original it’s “Sexual Harassment Prince”. I changed it slightly to an alliterative name/insult that flows better in English.