Granville seemed to be reading his mind. “Heh-heh. I see there is no outwitting you, my good man. No, there is no point trying to assign blame for this failure. The Five Elders have been more than kind to us up to now, and I know this remains the case. We may not have been able to profit off a potential war, but so be it. As long as we remain alive, other opportunities will come.”
“Well said, Sir Damrada. I do appreciate how quickly you understand me. Let us continue to work together to block this new economic threat before it begins!”
It went without saying that Damrada’s mission was to protect his interests in the Western Nations. Maribel, Granville’s treasure, had predicted that this nation in the Forest of Jura would potentially become a financial juggernaut. If it did, that would inevitably weaken the Rozzo family’s influence on the world.
Granville would never allow cracks to open on the system of rule his ancestors spent thousands of years building up. That was why he wanted to interfere with Rimuru, to crush his ambitions—but without his status as part of the Seven Days Clergy, he could no longer use the name of the god Luminus to his advantage. Thus, no matter what it took, he needed support from Cerberus. The other Five Elders—Granville’s descendants and comrades—supported him on that, applying pressure to the Council of the West and ensuring that the postwar cleanup over on Farmus took as long as possible. They couldn’t stop that country from crowning a new king, but they could do whatever it took to delay the inevitable.
The Rozzo family still had a few aces up their sleeve, but it was too premature to use them. Better to take advantage of Cerberus instead, Granville thought.
“Ah, one moment on that…”
But Damrada wasn’t ready to agree with him. The Rozzos, and the Five Elders they controlled, were excellent business partners; he truly had no intention of doing away with their relationship. But thinking this meant Damrada was their lapdog would be a mistake. He was a merchant, motivated by money, and he had a flexible mind. Cerberus had grown fabulously rich thanks to the exclusive control it held over trade between the East and West, yes, but the arrival of a new customer to work with was nothing that hurt Cerberus. The Five Elders’s loss of influence over the Western Nations was no business of theirs.
“…I truly do desire to maintain friendly relations with you and your family. However, I’m afraid I cannot readily agree to your suggestion. After all, our organization has no reason to be hostile to Rimuru.”
“How dare you…!”
“Heh-heh-heh… As you yourself said, now that Hinata knows me, any further activity in the Western Nations is out of the picture. Instead, I will return home and provide you with someone else.”
The message Damrada gave was clear. If Granville had eliminated Hinata as promised, he could be more active right now…but that hadn’t happened.
“…”
“For now, we will continue our transactions as before. As for this incident, I suggest that we should just forgive and forget.”
Damrada stood up. Granville had misread him, and he could no longer force the point. The Cerberus group had an iron grip on the Eastern Empire’s underground. Angering Damrada, one of their bosses, enough to sever their relations for good was too much of a loss for the Rozzos to bear right now.
“…Very well. We will handle it ourselves, then, so I do hope you will at least refrain from interfering in the matter.”
“That much goes without saying,” Damrada replied with a smile. “Look back at our previous dealings. You are safe trusting us.”
With a polite bow, he left the room.
From start to finish, Damrada had been sincere in everything he said. On the surface, he was the very picture of an honest merchant. But if Hinata had been killed as planned, he would have reached out to Rimuru long ago, pitting the Rozzos against the demon lord and profiting off the eventual clash. But an impartial observer never would have suspected any of that. People called him Damrada the Gold for a reason.
But Granville was a sly old dog himself. He had a (mostly) accurate grip on Damrada’s motivations. Yes, he was unlikely to interfere—but he didn’t say anything about not courting Rimuru. He had told no lies, which was the minimum anyone would want to see from a merchant, but Granville was the leader of a family who ruled over much of the world’s business. Damrada’s attitude wasn’t something he was willing to abide.
“…I detest him so much,” Granville whispered, now alone in the room. “He thinks he can take advantage of me? Once this matter is done with, you’re next.”
The humiliation in his eyes darkened into surging rage…
“…And that was how things worked out with the Five Elders,” Damrada reported to the boy sitting comfortably in a chair.
“Ah. Well, I’m glad matters have been settled with the Rozzos the way you wanted them to. Now we can continue to use them as a point of contact for negotiation.”
Damrada was the height of arrogance while dealing with the Rozzos. With this boy, he was far more self-deprecating. It was to be expected. After all, this boy—broadly nodding his approval at Damrada’s report—was both his master and the leader of the Cerberus group.
“Quite true. But curse those rats! Pushing a monster like that on me without even informing me about it…”
“Ha-ha-ha! That must’ve been quite an adventure. But at least you were able to step back at the right time.”
“Heh. Yes, that was quite a stroke of luck. His name was…Diablo, if I recall. A fearsome demon, one who might even be the equal of Blanc over in the Empire. Rimuru
