Chapter 315 Theft (2/2)

“Father…”

Her voice seemed somewhat down.

“Mm, what happened, Reiko?”

“Just a while before, you said that it would be better for her to play with human friends, didn’t you…”

Jin immediately understood what Reiko was concerned about. When it comes to topics like this, Reiko becomes insecure.

“Ahh, for that child, I meant.”

“…What about father?”

She said in a further lower voice. Jin came closer, hugged Reiko and said,

“Reiko, you are my daughter, I told you that before, right? You can be proud. You are the only girl in this world who has two Magi craft meister as her parents.”

“Father, I am not a girl, I am an automata.”

“Hmm, but, I don’t think of you as just an automata. And so you are my daughter and I think of you as a person.”

“…Thank you very much.”

The gloom in Reiko’s voice was gone. Jin was also relieved.

“Alright then, I will go to sleep now.”

“Yes, I will be awake all throughout the night, so please rest assured.”

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“It declined…”

“It did, didn’t it, executive director…”

Raglan company’s perimeter business in charge, Roland, was greatly perplexed on seeing the Kaina village in front of him.

They had no salt.

It all began with the highway road closure. It was because of the landslide in front of Doppa village.

That was on the 5th.

They had gone back to Sharuru city for the time being but as they were merchants, they didn’t waste their time there and went to the neighboring Gohoho city.

They sold out their products there and also bought some.

And then, after confirming the situation, when they had returned to Sharuru city, they saw that the road was cleared.

Trust is most important for a merchant. On top of that, Kaina village was the village which had made it possible for the Raglan company to progress significantly.

“We messed up. We must hurry.”

Roland hurried his wagon to Kaina village. Going very fast, they had passed through Sharuru city and reached Doppa on the 7th.

And yesterday, at Toka village, for some reason, salt had been sold quite a lot. At 3 times the price too.

An unknown soldier came and because he bought a large amount of salt right away, they had a shortage of salt.

Who knows where they heard this from but unfamiliar merchants had also come and sold about a 100 kgs of salt, that too at 3 times the price.

Those merchants probably made a huge profit.

And as for Roland, he also must carry salt to Kaina village. And for that, he could secure the bare minimum, a 20 kg jar of salt.

“With this, we will have to make them endure a bit and come back again after a month.”

Roland was also considering bringing just salt, with a horse rather than a wagon in half a month, as it was his responsibility as a merchant.

But the jar he had disappeared.

Last night, they surely had the jar of salt while resting at the rest place between Kaina village and Toka village.

Salt is a daily necessity. The salt he had secured to deliver to Kaina village had disappeared all of a sudden.

No, to put it bluntly, Roland was considering the possibility of a robbery.

The price wasn’t the factor. They were carrying far more valuable products in the wagon and Roland’s wallet was also filled with all the profits he had made.

“It declined…”

Actually, this time, Roland’s son, Erik, was not accompanying him. He was busy in charge of technology at Alban.

Roland brought along the newcomer Bothe this time.

Roland was also not going to be doing the perimeters all the time. His promotion to inner works was also confirmed. That’s why he had brought the newcomer to show him the ropes.

“For this to happen on possibly the last trade with Kaina village for me, with which we had built a good relation…”

In the first place, since this highway is close to the Inado mine, there are many soldiers stationed nearby so the public order is comparatively better. Roland didn’t know about the breakout the other day.

Roland was depressed, as he didn’t even think the salt would get stolen.

“Either way, we need to go to Kaina village and inform them about the situation directly…”

“Right, executive director.”

Roland’s wagon, which was going at an incredible pace just yesterday, was now sluggishly climbing up the ridge.