Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 80: The Traveling Merchant’s Misfortune
After purchasing goods in the village, Marches the traveling merchant set out for the large town once more. He intended to sell the merchandise and obtain the funding the Damaski Company had promised for his new shop.
His departing figure radiated confidence in the brilliant future awaiting him.
Perhaps this was what a successful man looked like, Tauro thought as he watched him go.
Marches should return with a great deal of money and take another major step forward as a merchant based in the village.
Several days later, Marches came racing back in his wagon.
Was he really that eager to open his shop?
The thought lasted only a moment.
On closer inspection, Tauro saw that Marches was pale and frantic. The wagon still carried exactly the same goods he had purchased in the village before leaving.
Marches stopped when Tauro called out to him.
“What happened? You look terrible.”
“Tauro! Arrange a meeting with the landowner immediately!”
“Did something happen?”
“There’s no time. I’ll explain when we meet him!”
Marches was so agitated that his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked as if he had barely slept.
“Please calm down. I’ll fetch the landowner right away.”
Realizing that this was no ordinary problem, Tauro ran to find the man.
“Please… Would you return my money?”
Marches knelt and bowed his head to the ground as he pleaded directly with the landowner.
“H-hold on! We signed that contract at your own suggestion, didn’t we? Asking me to return the deposit now is completely unreasonable!”
The landowner was growing angry at Marches’s sudden reversal.
“Please! If this continues, I’ll go bankrupt!”
Something serious had clearly happened.
Marches clung desperately to the landowner.
“Your personal circumstances are none of my concern. I signed the contract you proposed. Pay the full amount by the deadline, or I’ll keep the entire deposit!”
The furious landowner walked away.
Marches tried to cling to him again, but Tauro stopped him.
“First, explain exactly what happened from the beginning.”
Tauro calmed the nearly hysterical merchant.
Crushed by despair, Marches slowly began to speak.
The head of the Damaski Company had promised to support him. But as soon as he learned that Marches had signed the property contract, he abruptly reversed his position. He refused both to buy Marches’s goods as usual and to provide the promised funding.
Because their agreement had been verbal rather than written, the company head pretended no promise had ever existed. He even declared that once Marches went bankrupt, the Damaski Company would simply take over all his business with Dansas Village.
Drunk on his apparent victory, the man had gleefully revealed everything.
He must have planned it from the beginning.
Whether he resented a young traveling merchant earning such large profits was uncertain, but his aim was clearly to trap Marches and seize those profits for himself.
Marches had fallen squarely into the trap.
At this rate, he would lose his entire fortune and go bankrupt while still burdened with unsold inventory.
The Damaski Company had purchased all the goods he wholesaled. Losing that outlet would also cause trouble for the businesses with which he held exclusive contracts.
The Damaski Company would then move into the village and pressure those businesses into agreements favorable only to itself. Its own representative had already revealed the scheme.
Tauro had no intention of allowing that.
“Marches, I’ll provide the rest of the money.”
“…What?”
Caught completely off guard, Marches failed to understand him for a moment.
“Of course, it’ll be a loan. You’ll have to repay it properly.”
“Ah, yes… Wait, that’s not the point! It’s a considerable amount of money!”
Marches remained too confused to keep up.
“Here.”
To make the offer real to him, Tauro took a leather bag filled with money from [Magic Storage] and placed it in Marches’s hands.
“Consider this an investment in you. Please keep the matter between us, though. And just to be safe, I’ll need you to sign a contract.”
“Uh… Yes, gladly!”
The reply reminded Tauro of a phrase he had often heard in taverns during his previous life. Feeling oddly nostalgic, he nodded and began discussing their next steps with Marches.