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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: A Ripple of Success
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All business of the Lumen Guild was conducted with Duke Ciel’s permission.
While the vice-captain occasionally made decisions on her own, selling potions with the Sun God’s Grand Temple was no ordinary business.
Lute Ciel must have had a hand in this.
How could she not have known until now that Lute Ciel was in contact with the Sun God’s faction!
“Carmen, what’s wrong?”
Just then, someone entered.
A man dressed in neat saintly robes, a stark contrast to Carmen’s ornate dress.
With deep blue hair and sky-blue eyes, the opposite of Carmen, he was Dominic Aria, the Saint of the Great Sea God’s Grand Temple and Carmen’s older brother.
“Those leeches from the Sun God’s temple are still alive.”
Carmen shouted venomously.
Dominic’s eyes widened.
“...What did you say?”
“And if starting a potion business wasn’t enough, the Lumen Guild is handling their distribution!”
Dominic’s face hardened into a cold mask.
His once-gentle expression turned far fiercer than Carmen’s.
The priest’s legs began to tremble uncontrollably under the heavy, oppressive aura emanating from the Grand Temple’s strongest Saintess and Saint.
“Strange. According to the letter, they started selling a fortnight ago. Why are we only just finding out about this?”
Dominic asked the priest, taking the crumpled letter from Carmen and reading it.
His voice was calm, but the aura he exuded was anything but.
“We don’t lack informants. It makes no sense that we didn’t know until now, does it?”
“S-Saint, that is…”
“To think we entrusted such an important business to someone this incompetent.”
“Saint! I am sorry!”
The high priest, pale as a sheet, dropped to his knees.
But he would not be given a second chance.
“Drag him away. Change the person in charge of the potion business today.”
At Carmen’s command, the waiting holy knights began to drag the high priest away.
“Saint! Saintess! I was wrong! Give me a chance, just one more…! Please consider my hard work in growing the business until now…!”
He cried out desperately, but Carmen and Dominic had already turned their backs.
As if they had long since forgotten his very existence.
In the end, his mouth was gagged by a holy knight, and he was dragged away to a place no one would ever know.
“Hah! This is driving me crazy.”
The room fell silent after everyone had left.
Carmen ran a hand through her hair and slumped back onto the sofa.
“Such damn persistent bastards.”
It had been so long since she’d even thought of the Sun God. To think they’d crawl back out instead of just dying off!
“This was the perfect chance for the Great Sea God to become the sole principal deity!”
This was precisely why they were hostile to the Sun God.
Long ago, three principal deities were worshipped on the continent.
But as time passed, the status of the three deities began to change drastically.
The Sun God, once the most powerful of the three, began a steep decline.
People, having forgotten even the Sun God’s existence, naturally turned more to the Great Sea God, and so, in contrast to the Sun God, the Great Sea God’s prestige grew ever higher.
To the point where the Great Sea God now stood tall as the continent’s supreme deity.
Since the third principal deity had no interest in expanding their influence, with just a little more time, the Great Sea God would have become the sole one.
But now, at this crucial moment, to hear that those damn Sun God worshippers had resurfaced instead of just fading away!
“And they dare to start a potion business? How the hell did they manage that when they were supposedly on the verge of collapse from poverty? And how did they get Duke Ciel on their side?!”
Lute Ciel was a fickle man.
He, who believed in no god, came to the Great Sea God’s Grand Temple, and she thought he was finally going to become a follower, but didn’t he just laugh in their faces and leave?
So why in the world would he join hands with those damn Sun God worshippers and even start a business with them! What did they lack that the others had!
“What should we do?”
Carmen looked at Dominic, her face anxious.
Dominic, with his much calmer disposition, might be able to come up with a decent plan.
“…The god hasn’t given you any revelations, has he?”
Dominic asked after a moment of quiet contemplation.
Carmen exclaimed, “Ah!”
“That’s right.”
The Great Sea God usually bestowed his divine word, a revelation, whenever a major event occurred at the Grand Temple.
But he had said nothing before they belatedly learned of this fact.
“He hasn’t even looked in on me at all.”
“It’s been quite a while since I felt the god’s presence, too.”
There was only one meaning behind the silence of the Great Sea God, who, though he didn’t visit often, always came when something happened.
“It means the Sun God’s Grand Temple isn’t a threat great enough to warrant a revival.”
It sounded quite plausible.
After all, the siblings who served him most closely knew best how ambitious the Great Sea God was.
“So let’s leave them be for now. If Duke Ciel is helping with the business, we can’t interfere anyway.”
It was infuriating, but he was right.
Even if the Great Sea God’s Grand Temple was the strongest of the temples, it was not yet powerful enough to oppose the ducal House of Ciel.
Especially since the ducal family was on good terms with the imperial family.
Interfering with the Duke’s business was impossible, as it could turn the entire empire against them.
However.
“But we do need to get a grasp of the situation, so let’s send an informant to the Sun God’s Grand Temple.”
It was difficult to touch Lute Ciel directly, but the Sun God’s Grand Temple was fair game, wasn’t it?
“Good. I like it.”
Carmen smiled, satisfied with Dominic’s decision.
She would have died of frustration if she’d had to just sit back and do nothing, so this was a real relief.
Carmen’s lips curled into a smile as she thought of the informant the Grand Temple had painstakingly trained.
She greatly anticipated the information he would bring back from the Sun God’s Grand Temple.
* * *
Aack!
I quickly clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that had escaped me.
I glanced around, but thankfully, no one seemed annoyed by my shriek.
That was because the others were already half-stunned themselves.
“Uh, uhhh… Huh? Hah…”
“…Is this, is this real?”
Airic asked me on behalf of a speechless Seth.
I removed the hand covering my mouth and nodded.
“Yes, it’s real. This is our potion sales report!”
In other words, what we were all huddled around looking at was none other than the potion sales report sent by June Ludmin, the vice-captain of the Lumen Guild.
We couldn’t help but cry out at the news that the five hundred bottles we made as a prototype had all sold out in just ten days.
And there was even a flood of inquiries for pre-orders.
Thanks to the sharp-witted June Ludmin, who collected deposits for the pre-orders, we had earned far more than we could have ever imagined.
I hadn’t expected such a massive success right from the start.
“This is such a good start, it’s almost scary.”
“H-H-How is this possible?”
Seth finally managed to speak after downing several glasses of cold water.
I told him about the frequent price hikes for alchemy potions.
“So, in other words, we timed it perfectly. Honestly, if there’s a potion with better effects for a similar price, wouldn’t they obviously buy ours?”
Our potions were about mid-grade. To be honest, the price was a little high for their potency.
But ours were potions infused with divine power.
It was only natural that commoners would be eager to buy divine power potions, which were previously only available to nobles.
“Saintess, how on earth did you know all this?”
Seth asked, his eyes sparkling.
I wanted to say it was all because I’m a genius… but this, at least, wasn’t my doing.
“It’s thanks to Monica. She was the one who did the market research.”
After her research, Monica had insisted that now was the perfect time, that we absolutely had to proceed now.
That was why we pushed the potion-making team and the healing power shuttles to their limits for mass production.
Thanks to that, the potion business got off to a very strong start.
“Plus, the Lumen Guild’s reputation played a big part.”
If the Lumen Guild hadn’t handled the distribution, we’d probably still be anxiously biting our nails, unable to sell all the potions.
Thanks to them, people bought every last bottle without any hesitation, even though Sun God potions must have been completely unfamiliar.
Getting Lute involved in the business was definitely the right choice.
“It looks like the potion-making team and the priests in charge of divine power will have to work hard from now on.”
I smiled and looked at Airic. Seth groaned and gave Airic a pitying look.
There was one reason for our reactions.
“Keep up the good work, High Priest.”
Because one of the healing power shuttles who infused the potions with divine power was none other than Airic.
As the lead shuttle, he was working himself to the bone more enthusiastically than anyone else.
