‘This must be the end of the money I had left.’

The remaining money I have will be gone after paying for the carriage fare to the library.

For other matters, I would have walked, but I couldn’t do that today. I need to finish what I’m trying to do and return home as quickly as possible, before my parents or Elize wake up.

However, contrary to Ael’s anxious feelings, as they approached the central square, the road was so congested that it was difficult for carriages to pass through.

“Miss, it seems that ships from the Ash Company have arrived at the port. It’s going to be a bit crowded, isn’t it?”

The coachman spoke as if the congestion wasn’t his fault.

At those words, Ael looked towards the port.

As the carriage moved a little further and entered the center of the square, eight long boulevards stretching out came into view. Ael looked at the eastern boulevard that connected to the port.

“Wow!”

The moment the port came into sight, an exclamation burst from Ael’s lips.

She wasn’t the only one to react this way.

Everyone passing through the square couldn’t close their mouths at the sight of the massive sailing ships docked at the port.

Children ran cheering, and even dignified gentlemen stopped in their tracks, unable to take their eyes off the ships with looks of amazement.

“Amazing…”

Ael too looked at the ships while pressing down on her pounding heart.

The names of each ship were written on their bows. Unlike the ships of the Kingdom of Denertum, which always used women’s names for their vessels, the ships of the Ash Company from the Empire all borrowed names from legendary heroes.

And below where each ship’s name was written, another name was engraved, and in that position, all ships had the same name written.

The name of the company’s owner.

“Kalon Ash…”

Kalon Ash.

The owner of the Ash Company, which is said to have the largest number of branches among the companies on the continent and an overwhelming volume of transactions.

People whispered that his wealth would surpass that of the Empire’s emperor. As proof, didn’t they say that even the notoriously arrogant emperor of the Empire would stop his work and welcome him whenever he visited?

But people didn’t know how old he was, where he was from, or much else about him.

Even though the name sounded male, people weren’t sure if he was a man or a woman. This was because no one had ever seen him in person.

Centered in the Empire, he only met with a very small number of people directly and had never appeared in any official settings.

Because of this, people often speculated that Kalon Ash must be a middle-aged man of at least 50 years old, recalling that the Ash Company had started to stand out about 25 years ago.

Ael looked at the ships with envious eyes.

She truly envied Kalon Ash.

While his enormous wealth, owning all those ships, was impressive, what Ael truly envied was something else.

‘That person must be able to go anywhere they want.’

He would be able to board any of those many ships and sail the seas to anywhere in the world. Like the wind.

As Ael was staring blankly at the ships, envying someone whose face she didn’t even know, she heard the voices of people passing by the carriage.

“Kalon Ash is coming to this country?”

What?

At this unexpected sound, Ael momentarily held her breath and listened intently to the conversation.

She wasn’t the only one surprised.

“What? What do you mean?”

“Shh! Shh! Lower your voice! Someone might hear!”

The person who spoke up grabbed his companion’s shoulder and spoke hastily. As he feared, Ael, who was already eavesdropping, held her breath even more.

“Is Kalon Ash really coming to Denertum? Before that, is it really the real Kalon Ash? Are you sure you didn’t hear some strange false rumor somewhere?”

“No, it’s true. I worked at the Ash Company warehouse yesterday, remember? I was so tired that I was resting behind some boxes when the company managers came. I quickly hid, thinking I’d get an earful if they saw me.”

“So you were slacking off after all?”

“No, that’s not the important part now. Anyway, they must have thought no one was around because they were whispering to each other. One of them was even the deputy branch manager of the Ash Company in Denertum.”

“Oh, that man? Does he have no pride? The branch manager is a woman, isn’t it? Why doesn’t he just quit instead of working under a woman and saying ‘yes’ all the time?”

“The Empire gives high positions to women too, you know. Anyway, he was saying that Lord Kalon would be coming soon and asked if the preparations were going well. The moment I heard that, it suddenly made sense why the Ash Company people have been so on edge lately. I had been wondering what was going on, but it was because Kalon Ash himself was coming!”

“I see. There was a reason.”

“Moreover, you know about that mansion on the hill in the northeast of the capital, right? The Ash Company acquired it. If they bought such an expensive property and are renovating it, Kalon Ash isn’t just staying for a short while, but probably for at least a year…!”

“Hey, lower your voice. Everyone will hear.”

Despite telling him to be quiet, the speaker’s voice rose again as he got excited while talking. Because of this, his friend who was listening had to caution the talkative one instead.

The two seemed to realize there were many people around and hurriedly left the area.

“Haah…”

Ael couldn’t hide her disappointment as she sighed, wishing she could have heard more of their conversation.

‘Is Kalon Ash really coming to our country?’

Ael’s country, Denertum, is located in the northeastern corner of the continent.

It’s a country that takes its greatest pride in being one of the five ancient kingdoms with the longest history on the continent.

Just as a person who only boasts about their age isn’t much to look at, the same goes for kingdoms.

While other kingdoms boast of their fertile granaries, inexhaustible gold mines, rapidly developing technologies, or ever-increasing trade volumes, Denertum has yet to create any other point of pride besides its long history.

It was so bad that about 50 years ago, when Karanden, who called themselves an empire, was expanding through wars,

There was even a taunt that the only reason Denertum wasn’t absorbed by the Empire was because it was tucked away in the corner of the continent without any presence.

Two years ago, an imperial delegation arrived in this Denertum.

They told the Denertum royal family that they hoped to establish good relations in the future, and as a start, they asked if Denertum would accept merchants from the Empire.

The royal family, while high in pride, was not foolish.

After all, countries other than Denertum were already trying to deepen their ties with the Empire and adopt their advanced technologies. And now the Empire was reaching out first.

The royal family had no reason to refuse. Of course, they didn’t accept easily. Centered around the first prince, known for his old-fashioned nature, there were loud voices saying it was a ploy by the Empire and should be rejected.

But in the end, anxiety about the future won out.

The second prince with his open personality and the nobles knew this was their last chance.

Already, nearby kingdoms in similar situations were accepting the Empire’s technology and growing frighteningly fast.

The royal family granted permission for trade, and as if they had been waiting, imperial merchant ships flocked to the port of Denertum’s capital. Among them, the Ash Company sent the most ships.

It wasn’t anything special. After all, the Ash Company was the largest trading company not just in the Empire but across the entire continent.

After obtaining freedom of activity from the royal family, the Ash Company then secured permission to use part of the port and quickly completed port reinforcement works with overwhelming technology, manpower, and financial resources.

From then on, massive sailing ships that people had never seen before began to constantly come and go at the port of Denertum’s capital.

Now, two years later, the capital of Denertum has seen many changes.

First, advanced technology from the Empire came in through the Ash Company. And fruits people had never seen before in their lives, as well as much higher quality goods, appeared before people’s eyes.

The Ash Company didn’t just release all these things recklessly.

They seemed experienced in expanding into such closed-off kingdoms, expanding their business gradually and appropriately while minimizing social disruption.

Thanks to this, Denertum accepted the Empire’s culture without major shock or confusion.

Simple farming tools as well as factory machines were replaced, giving people more leisure time.

The people who disliked this change the most were the nobles. As some commoners gained wealth and leisure, they emerged as a new class threatening the nobles’ positions.

Ael’s father also hated the commoners who made money through trade with the Empire. He went further and cursed the imperial merchants.

He boasted that if imperial merchants appeared before him, he would severely humiliate them and drive them away.

But Ael knew. The reason her father cursed and hated the imperial merchants so much was because his poorly conceived business proposal to them had been rejected.