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Ethan took the three students to a high-end restaurant within the Marquis Rond territory.

Of course, the two escorts also accompanied them. The two escorts took separate seats at a table behind Ethan.

“It’s thanks to me that you’ve come here today. I did a good job protecting Ethan not too long ago.”

“Really? As expected of Lady Yerica. Thanks to you, we get to eat meat.”

Schudlen said this while not taking his eyes off the meat.

“Please go ahead and eat first.”

“Then I’ll start eating.”

He looked like someone who had been starving for days. However, Schudlen had been eating his fill of meat ever since becoming Ethan’s dedicated escort.

“Eat in moderation. I worked hard to get this meat, so leave some for me.”

“Oh, come on.”

Yerica shook her head disapprovingly.

“Well, in the knight order, meat didn’t come around often.”

Schudlen explained awkwardly.

“Ever since becoming Lord Ethan’s dedicated escort, I’ve really been eating well.”

“Of course, the same goes for me too.”

Yerica was also living a completely different life after leaving her fugitive existence behind.

She could leisurely perform her duties as an escort and had enough time for training.

Day by day, she practiced the magic left behind by Hecate, pondering how she could be of help to Ethan.

Schudlen was probably doing the same.

“No, leave some for me.”

“Shouldn’t we order one more?”

“I’ll report to Ethan to deduct it from Schudlen’s pay.”

Even as she said this, Yerica remained vigilant, scanning her surroundings.

Ever since coming to the academy, Ethan had been rapidly accumulating achievements day by day. As a result, he had gained quite a reputation and had now become rather famous even within the Marquis territory.

“Ethan’s fame has been spreading more and more lately. We need to be more cautious.”

“Yes, I understand. Evil ones may try to harm him, so I’ll be more vigilant.”

Leaving Yerica and Schudlen to focus on their escort duties, Ethan looked at the three students with a stern expression.

“I’m glad the situation has unfolded as I expected, teacher. I was observing quietly, and there were definitely some with different looks in their eyes.”

“I noticed it too. There were several students taking notes at that event.”

“As expected of our teacher.”

Just as Ethan had predicted, Ron and Yuna were greatly surprised when the Interdepartmental Exchange Event ended.

Mason also looked slightly excited as he gazed at Ethan.

Mason had not been able to shine much in this exchange event.

He could have felt disappointed about that.

However, Ethan’s plan was to hold Mason back.

“I was able to keep you in reserve, Mason. The other academies probably don’t know how much you’ve changed. You’re now our academy’s secret weapon.”

“Secret weapon…”

Mason muttered those words and trembled slightly.

He was delighted that Ethan valued him highly, but more than anything, he was overjoyed to have expectations placed on him again like before.

The reason Mason didn’t participate this time was to firmly conceal his abilities.

In the previous departmental representative selection, it was conducted privately, excluding major figures, so information could be blocked. But that wasn’t the case for the Interdepartmental Exchange Event.

There were many eyes watching. And among those watching, there were informants leaking information to other academies.

Therefore, Ethan had no intention of fielding Mason.

‘If one of the two were to lose, then I would have had no choice but to bring out Mason. But in that case, I would have tried to disrupt the information as much as possible through Yuna’s connections.’

The primary goal was to win the Interdepartmental Exchange Event with just Yuna and Ron.

That way, at the end-of-year academy exchange event, he could bring out Mason, whose true abilities no one knew about.

‘There are six months left. In six months, I can make Mason grow explosively.’

He could greatly enhance Mason’s swordsmanship and provide him with real combat experience.

‘I’ve laid the foundation.’

Having successfully concealed Mason, all that remained was to facilitate his growth.

‘Winning the academy exchange event. That will make me a master.’

His plan was to gain even greater fame by becoming a master in the shortest time possible.

“Eat up. So, what did you all plan to do during the vacation?”

“Ah, I was going to focus a bit on Merchant Guild work. That way, I can concentrate on the academy during the second semester.”

“I’ll return to my hometown for a short while. But of course, I’ll be back soon to train, teacher.”

“There’s a family gathering.”

Yuna, Ron, and Mason each had their own schedules.

“I’ll give you all a vacation assignment.”

Ethan grinned as he spoke.

“If you complete the assignments properly, I’ll teach each of you a deadly technique.”

Of course, these deadly techniques were the swordsmanship skills they would eventually awaken to in the future.

‘Since their growth rate is faster than usual, it won’t hurt to teach them in advance.’

At the mention of being taught deadly techniques, the three students’ eyes instantly shone intensely.

“Give us as many as you want!”

“I’ll definitely complete them all.”

As expected, a clear reward was needed to motivate them.

After some minor celebrations, Ethan called Yuna aside separately.

“Do you have a special assignment just for me? I did stay away for quite a while.”

“I wanted to discuss business with you, Yuna.”

Currently, Ethan had two business ventures.

One was the Lightweight workshop, and the other was the special golem that would be launched in collaboration with the David Merchant Guild.

But there was one more.

Ethan was planning to seriously kick his business into gear.

In fact, those two ventures were merely for securing funds, not for earning money.

“I want to work with the Garnet Merchant Guild, Yuna.”

“…Huh?”

Yuna asked in a surprised tone, seemingly caught off guard by the sudden business talk.

But it wasn’t just the business talk that shocked her. It was Ethan’s confident words that greatly surprised her.

“I just told you that I handled things well.”

“Saying you handled things well means you firmly took control of the Garnet Merchant Guild, Yuna. If not, you wouldn’t have said you handled it well.”

At Ethan’s words, Yuna found herself grinning without realizing it.

As expected, he was different.

If someone else had said that, she might have thought it was just empty flattery to impress her.

But when Ethan said it, she felt it was a sober assessment.

And for Yuna, that was a source of joy in many ways. Thus, she couldn’t hide her reddening ears.

“That’s true.”

“Then we can proceed with a business through the Garnet Merchant Guild.”

“Yes, we could. But our Garnet Merchant Guild is bigger than you might think. Of course, if you have a good business idea, teacher, I can definitely push it through!”

The scale of the Garnet Merchant Guild was among the largest on the continent.

So if Yuna was determined to support Ethan’s business idea, even an ordinary item could be grown significantly.

“Of course, it would be difficult to continue if the results aren’t good. What kind of help would you like from me?”

She was clearly a seasoned merchant.

But in front of Ethan, it was hard for her to flaunt that experience. So without realizing it, she ended up saying she could do anything.

“I’m currently dealing with the David Merchant Guild.”

“The David Merchant Guild?”

For a moment, Yuna looked at Ethan, wondering if she had heard incorrectly.

“Yes, the David Merchant Guild.”

Ethan explained his current business situation.

As he talked about the two ventures, Yuna looked genuinely surprised, as if she had no idea.

“Wow…”

Yuna couldn’t help but be amazed.

In fact, she had thought Ethan’s claim of having a lot of money was partly a joke.

“So you didn’t believe me.”

“I thought you were someone detached from money.”

“The more money, the better.”

At those words, Yuna looked at Ethan with fresh amazement.

“That’s true, though.”

After hearing the full story, Yuna was even more in awe of Ethan.

It was a well-known fact that Ethan was a local nobleman. Local nobles generally had little power. So no matter how good an item they found, it was highly likely to be taken away.

There was even a saying that with such business ideas, the first to take it becomes the owner.

“A good item alone can’t make a good business flourish, but as expected of Teacher Ethan. You’re able to protect your business ideas from greedy power holders, and on top of that, you have real authority when dealing with the David Merchant Guild.”

In business, one had to be wary of everyone except oneself.

Especially if one lacked the power to protect the business itself.

“I was too focused on the academy. I didn’t even notice something this big.”

Yuna shook her head disapprovingly.

“So, are you saying you want me to help with that David Merchant Guild business simultaneously? Certainly, if our Garnet lends its power, we could grow the Lightweight workshop business or the special golem business bigger than they are now.”

“No.”

Ethan shook his head.

“I need the Garnet Merchant Guild’s power, including that. I’m planning to do something impossible with just the David Merchant Guild’s power.”

Those words immediately pleased Yuna.

“Certainly, the David Merchant Guild is a good one, but there’s a big difference compared to our Garnet.”

“I plan to go to the Magic Association and register a magic.”

“So that’s the center of the business.”

Yuna’s eyes sparkled.

The Magic Association was an officially authorized imperial institution that registered magic.

Registering magic meant officially recognizing the origin of a magic.

Once certified by the Magic Association, one would officially own the rights to that magic.

‘But magic certification is tricky. There are already countless existing magics, and plenty of derived variant magics from those.’

Even for an original magic, getting the certification mark was quite difficult. From the Magic Association’s perspective, carelessly certifying magic could cause chaos if problems arose.

‘If it was just a matter of being difficult, there would be no need to borrow the Garnet Merchant Guild’s power.’

Yerica’s magic was excellent. The tedious certification mark from the strict Magic Association could be obtained without too much trouble.

The real problem was that the Magic Association itself was not a very fair group.

‘It’s full of trash. The Magic Association is a perfect example of what happens when stubborn, arrogant mages reach the top by being twisted up.’

So power was needed to prevent the Magic Association’s mischief.

But they wouldn’t submit to ordinary power.

‘They have tremendous pride in their magic. Their philosophy is that mages must not submit to anything and must be free.’

That’s why Ethan had always clashed with the Magic Association whenever he played. There were times when he had outright destroyed it.

‘But completely destroying it is not the answer.’

There was a much better way than physically destroying it.

‘Putting a leash on it.’

Ethan planned to use the Garnet Merchant Guild’s power to put that leash on them.

The Garnet Merchant Guild was a merchant guild that periodically supplied various materials to the Magic Association.

‘It’s not just a matter of supplying them. There are materials they have an exclusive supply of. If the Garnet Merchant Guild takes a dislike to them, the supply of those materials could be cut off.’

That’s how tremendous the Garnet Merchant Guild’s influence was.

‘Of course, it’s supposed to be a mutually cooperative relationship.’

But it was clear that having the backing of the Garnet Merchant Guild would make magic registration much smoother.

‘They can’t just arbitrarily mess with someone as powerful as Garnet.’

“Certainly, since you are skilled in magic, Teacher Ethan. Is this perhaps a business related to potions?”

“No.”

Ethan shook his head.

“Then what is it?”

“A business using laundry magic.”

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