The Archmage Won’t Be Discouraged!

A small fox looked at me with teary eyes full of gratitude and emotion, and spoke.

-Th-this great one will make sure that this little one gets to be connected with the continent’s most beautiful woman!

“Who are you calling ‘little one’ when you’re smaller than me?”

In my childhood, more than the fact that a fox could speak, I was annoyed by the creature’s way of calling me ‘little one’ despite me being bigger than it. With a sullen face, I cleared away the debris covering the old, small fox den.

-This is a promise on my name! In the name of the Fox God of Fertility and Abundance! A promise to the little one who saved me!

The small fox, as if proudly proclaiming its name, climbed onto my shoulder and wrapped its body around my neck, as if protecting me.

Indeed…

Looking back, the encounter with the self-proclaimed god, that small fox, was truly lighthearted and absurd.

Now, steeped in the life of a merchant and having lost the innocence of my childhood, the small fox was no longer visible. But the warm, soft sensation of its fur around my neck remained vivid.

After dreaming of my old childhood for the first time in a long while, seeing the small fox again, whose image was now faintly fading into fragments of memory, I caressed my neck where a lingering warmth remained.

“Is this what the fox promised…”

A contract lay before my eyes.

It was a contract that exuded pure luxury, its borders unnecessarily adorned with expensive gold thread, difficult to acquire.

The owner of the contract was none other than the leader of the empire, who had recently unified three kingdoms and declared a single empire.

She, known as the Golden Empress for her endless wealth and immense resourcefulness, had sent me this contract bearing her personal signature.

A quick glance at the contract’s contents revealed it was an agreement to entrust all trade and commercial affairs of the empire to the merchant guild I led.

And the price for this astonishing contract was just one thing.

-To revive this empire under my name to such an extent that it would be eternally recorded in the continent’s history.

“She’s bolder than I imagined when it comes to money. She truly lives up to her title as the Golden Empress.”

Not to boast, but my merchant guild, protected by the Fox God who symbolizes fertility and abundance, held considerable renown, enough to exert influence across the continent.

While it was a somewhat bold move for the Empress herself to contract out all imperial trade and commerce, it wasn’t strange considering the renown of our merchant guild.

It was an offer so safe and sweet that there was no need to deliberate, but I pretended to ponder, tapping the table with my fingertips as I gazed at the contract.

At the very bottom of the contract, there was one condition that bothered me.

-However, should the merchant guild’s assets fall below 10% of their value at the time of this contract, all agreements will be voided due to doubt regarding the guild’s capabilities and qualifications.

Was it a minimal safety measure, added for formality?

Indeed. As befitting the Golden Empress, she wouldn’t entrust all imperial transactions to a single merchant guild without any safeguards.

Even if I abandoned the guild’s operations and lived a dissolute life steeped in alcohol and women, it would take at least ten years for my guild’s assets to fall below 10%.

Ignoring the contract condition, which I judged to be of no particular concern, I closed my eyes for a moment.

Then, the promise the Fox God had made to me in my childhood, which had been recalled in last night’s dream, vividly came to mind.

Was the continent’s most beautiful woman referring to the Empress?

Certainly, power and wealth could enhance one’s appearance.

With her immense power as Empress and enormous wealth befitting her epithet ‘Golden,’ she met the Fox God’s condition of being the continent’s most beautiful woman.

Through this contract, I would be able to personally meet the Empress, whom I had only seen as a faint silhouette from afar, and exchange discussions with her about the empire’s revival.

If, as the Fox God promised, a connection were formed with the Empress, the continent’s most beautiful woman, by accumulating affection both large and small…

“Ahem.”

As I pondered with my eyes closed for too long, the general who had personally brought the Empress’s contract cleared his throat lightly.

“Ah. My apologies. It’s such an important contract that I was considering various aspects.”

Feeling as though my hidden desire for the Empress had been exposed, I offered a small apology, stopped tapping the table, and lifted my pen as if to sign immediately.

Assuming that the moment I signed this contract, the Fox God’s childhood promise would be fulfilled, I wouldn’t just be a mere merchant, but the Empress’s man. In other words, I would be walking the path to becoming Emperor.

Imagining a magnificent imperial life, I struggled to suppress the corners of my mouth that were involuntarily turning up. With an extremely serious expression, I slowly wrote my signature on the contract.

At the end of my elegantly scrawled name, to express gratitude to the Fox God who had led me this far, I added two adorable fox ears as a charming touch, completing my signature.

The general, who had watched me sign with a solemn face and nodded, picked up the signed contract and gestured slightly to the soldier behind him.

And as if he’d done it more than once or twice, he began rubbing the edge of the contract I had just signed with his fingertips.

Then, the contract, which had clearly been a single sheet, split into two.

“W-wait… what is that?”

Perplexed by the absurd magic show unfolding before my eyes, I rose from my seat, intending to stop the general’s actions.

But as if conversing with me was trivial and worthless, he tossed one of the two separated contracts, the one that had been behind, to me with a thud, turned his back, and strode out, shouting, “Execute it!”

Unlike when he had first entered, politely knocking and bowing, the general kicked the door open roughly as he left. The other contract he had thrown fluttered and fell before me.

That contract contained only a single, very short sentence.

-The Empire may confiscate up to 95% of the merchant guild’s assets, depending on circumstances or necessity.

What he had presented to me was not a contract for me to become Emperor.

It was a double contract.

In other words, it was a fraudulent contract.

“W-what is this…”

And so, my merchant guild, which had gained fame across the continent under the protection of the Fox God, vanished overnight.