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It couldn’t be helped. I moved to the shadow of the carriage and listened to Cain.

“So what?”
“Well, I decided to do my best to save money.”

… His point was, he saw me supporting the orphanage with various things via Triela, so he also wanted to do that.

I supported them by giving them furs, hot water bottles, and money to buy food. Seeing those supplies, Cain thought ‌he could use the money and the supplies he earned from being an adventurer to support the orphanage.

Well… that’s nice. But as long as he was in a party, he knew that the money they earned wasn’t something he could use alone, right?

And now…

“That’s why I thought I’d do my best to earn money and do various things for the orphanage.”
“Haa. Is that so? Then?”
“Eh? I mean, I will do my best from now on.”
“And?”
“Eh? And… Um…”

Even if I knew that, I had nothing to say but “So what?” Just do whatever you want.

“Er… I’ll do my best to save money, then I will buy the management rights of the orphanage…”
“I see. Well, why don’t you do as you wish?”

I didn’t think they would sell it, though. There’s no benefit to the merchant. To be honest, I already had enough money to buy the management rights. However, it’s a different story whether I could ‌buy it even if I had the money. Cain was stupid at this kind of thing… Well, in my case, I was also tied in the contract, making it even harder.

I think Cain could save enough money pretty quickly. But Cain’s mistake was not realizing that saving money and buying management right from the merchant were two different things.

Also, saying this matter to me first was even worse. He should just save the money silently and say that after ‌buying it.

“So you’ll do your best to support the orphanage, save money, and buy the management rights. Then?”
“Eh? Um, well…”

Maybe it’s that. He wanted to show that he had done his best, so he wanted me to accept his apology. But why would he say it first before doing anything? Oath sounds good in the ears, but I could only see it as him putting up appearances. Especially for Cain. It was the same when we were still in the orphanage.

He used to say what he was planning, do it, succeed, and get praised. After knowing his personality, I couldn’t even bother to care.

“No, uh… That’s it…”
“Haa…. You can just do as you wish, right? No need to tell me.”

I sighed loudly. He probably wanted me to cheer him, but I honestly didn’t care.

Actually, I was also thinking about purchasing the management right. In that case, I had to find a credible broker to mediate this negotiation, but finding a credible partner was a problem.

The next thing I was thinking about was working as an adventurer, raising my rank, increasing my credibility, and then reporting the merchant to the royal capital station.

The station at O’Neill would cover this affair up, and so would the merchant’s base. So I should say it directly in the royal capital.

However, this method was difficult without earning trust. Normally, no matter what a low-ranking adventurer said, they would be brushed off. So I had to be a high-ranking adventurer and gain credibility.

And the last choice was making connections with influential people. Actually, I was doing this right now.

To simply put it, I had to make connections with anyone more powerful than that merchant and have them pass judgment to the merchant. In my case, it was Vector.

At first, he was that annoying fly’s colleague. However, when he hid his identity and requested a sword from the blacksmith, I thought I could use him by earning his favor, so I helped him a lot.

Even if each of them were small favors, he wouldn’t be able to let them pass once it overlapped many times. I gave him a shield and cloak when I forged the magic sword, and I should’ve earned his favor in the Frost Giant’s case.

If I continued to curry favor with him, I might ‌have him get rid of the merchant soon.

However, I realized that he also wanted to make connections with me. When he gave me the Frost Giant’s magic stone, I knew that it would be hard to deal with him.

“That… I just want to say that…”
“Is that so.”

After I said that, Cain dropped his shoulders and walked towards the bonfire, somewhat depressed.

“Ren, can’t you speak ‌gentler to him?” Maricle said with a frown. But I didn’t care about Cain’s feelings.

“To be honest, it doesn’t matter. I also thought a lot about the orphanage. If Cain wants to do it, no one is stopping him, right?”
“What are you planning, Ren?”

Triela also joined in. Hmm… I explained the main points of what I was thinking about.

“Ren also did a lot of things… But then Cain’s efforts will be fruitless, huh.”
“Don’t tell him anything unnecessary.”

I didn’t want to be disturbed, and I didn’t like it if he told me he wanted to do his best with me, so I warned them first.

“Isn’t it better to do it together?”
“I’m saying this because I don’t want to do this together. If we do, he’ll immediately get ahead of himself.”
“……”

In the first place, I didn’t want to be with Cain. When I said that, Maricle was silent. He couldn’t argue with me after looking back at Cain’s past actions.

“Well, I think we can let him do whatever he wants. But there’s also the management of party assets, so ‌be strict about that. Cain said he wants to do it, so he should use his personal assets. You must discuss this with him.”

If they weren’t strict about this, I’m sure that idiot would mess with the party assets. Maricle and Triela had a complicated face and turned silent once they heard that. They also realized that it was possible.

They both intended to pay for the orphanage’s support from their personal assets. Ah, if I remember right, Triela told me ‌he also wanted to send money to the orphanage, right?

That means these two people had been thinking about this matter for a long time, and Cain mixed in there with an enthusiastic face. Probably.

After that, we finished dinner and went to bed. We moved early on the next day. I had to go back to the royal capital early and continue my blacksmithing training.