"Then I discovered from the intelligence that most of these dwarves had come from Calimport in Calimshan. Oh, right, these dwarves had traveled from Calimport to Amn by sea, and they seemed to have stayed in Athkatla for a while. This even caused quite a stir. After discovering this, I immediately sent people to Calimport, where I found that Solam also had enormous influence."
"In Calimport, Solam owned the city's most prosperous street. It was said to be the most profitable place in all of Calimport, and Solam earned at least fifty thousand gold coins in net income from that street every month. Not only that, the man behind the Black Claw Guild, Calimport's largest guild, was also Solam. At the same time, the owner of Calimport's largest arena had extremely close ties with Solam. Every year, Solam also purchased enormous numbers of slaves from Calimport through these people, and no one knew where those slaves ended up."
"Seeing all this reminded me of Solam's merchant association in Athkatla. In just a few years, his association had become one of the largest in all of Athkatla, and its reach had begun to spread across the entire southern continent. He also had deep connections with the Shadow Thieves. Do you know what I was thinking when I saw all this?"
"Solam was weaving a web—a gigantic web. To see just how vast that web was, I began investigating everything about Solam's past, and it turned out my guess was right! In Toussaint on the Shining Plains, Solam left behind his maidservant and established an enormous merchant association there. He even had dealings with the giants of Giant Plain. Many people in Toussaint had personally seen Solam commanding hundreds of giants."
"In the Kingdom of Silverymoon, Solam appeared to have no power