Compat was the newly appointed president of the Pharmacist Association.
Normally, he would never have had a chance to take office. The position had long been monopolized by a few families, who took turns holding it and enjoyed every minute.
But after the embezzlement of the Association's funds came to light, it turned out that the masterminds were two families who had been sharing control of the presidency. They had left the third family out so they could keep all the profits for themselves.
When the third family found out, they wanted to cut ties with the Association and withdraw. The other two families, having pushed a scapegoat forward, firmly opposed their departure.
Then several committee members who didn't belong to those families threatened to leave as well. After a heated struggle, none of them could get the others to back down, so they decided to settle the matter by voting for the next president.
Compat was born in the City of Apprentices. Both his parents had been pharmacists in the Pharmacist Association, and thanks to their devotion to the organization, he inherited his father's seat on the committee.
In fact, he had no talent for spiritual power. He wasn't an apprentice and couldn't brew potions. When the election for president came around, he absentmindedly wrote down his own name.
Then, for some reason, when the votes were finally read out and his name had received the most, he didn't even react at first. The entire committee stared at him in surprise, as if none of them had expected him to win.
Life after becoming president wasn't exactly pleasant. Everyone knew the Association was doomed sooner or later, so after a friend's advice, he decided to skim a little off the top and get out.
It had to be said, his appointment did have a ripple effect. No one had any faith in him, and two academies' pharmacists promptly broke away.
With his friend's guidance, he proposed a series of measures to manage the supply of Energy Potions. After taking everyone's interests into account, the proposal finally passed.
As it happened, this year's apprentice examinations offered more places, making quite a few Advanced Apprentices eager to compete.
Even after the price increase, Energy Potions remained in short supply, and the Association's future began to look bright.
Energy Potions were so popular that the Association seemed to be rising from the dead.
That night, he thought it over for a long time and finally decided to help the Pharmacist Association make it through. That way, his own value as president would rise along with it.
But what happened next made him understand why the Association had fallen into such a state.
First, he tried to increase Energy Potion production and had already reached an agreement with the pharmacists, but something went wrong when they coordinated with the suppliers.
The person sent to deal with the suppliers couldn't account for the money. The funds set aside to buy ingredients had simply vanished.
The furious suppliers announced they would no longer work with them, leaving the Pharmacist Association's future uncertain.
At that point, there really didn't seem to be any hope. Their supply of ingredients had been cut off, and even if they turned every ingredient they had into potions, they would still have to find new suppliers afterward.
That was what he thought, too. He'd already started pocketing as much as he could, but it turned out the people below him were even better at it. Someone stole ingredients during transport, and someone else stole the potions when they were brought back.
He had no choice but to sort things out. If this kept up, there'd be no money left in the Association. What would he skim then?
Then, just in the past few days, something unbelievable happened.
Nearly two hundred bottles of Energy Potion appeared at the Apprentice Market. It was absurd—almost as many as the total output from all the pharmacists they had under their employ.
Those potions took a huge bite out of the Energy Potion market. They were being sold for less than the Association's, and the Association's stock began to sit unsold.
Basically all medicinal herbs brought into the City of Apprentices had to be registered by the Association, and that had been the case this year as well.
After comparing the ingredients with the finished potions, he found that the ratio was better than one bottle for every three batches.
Could everyone over at the market be a potion-making genius, each one better than the pharmacists the Association employed?
In the end, he could only conclude that perhaps the people at the market had struck a deal with the suppliers and gotten another shipment of ingredients, which would explain how they had produced so many potions.
Today was the last day he would serve as president of the Pharmacist Association, and the Association's last day in existence. After today, it would be no more.
He lay in the nearly emptied president's office, looking out the window. His greatest regret was that the Energy Potions had been so hard to sell, and the money he'd managed to pocket was far below his expectations.
He heard a series of knocks and thought someone was at the door. When he turned, he saw the person knocking on the wall. The door had long since been taken away and sold for its decorative value.
"Hey, Compat. How does it feel to be president?"
"Not great, my friend. Dealing with those people has been torturous. None of the orders I give ever get carried out, and making money has worn me out."
"Don't say that. It's something every businessman has to go through if he wants to grow his wealth."
"I don't want to anymore. I'm going to take a break."
"Fine. There's one more thing I need your help with, Mr. President."
Compat took several documents and skimmed through them. They were applications to develop a plot of land for the Pharmacist Association. The money for the foundation had already been paid.
It was unlikely there'd be any more money coming in afterward, though. The Association no longer existed, so where would the money come from?
"That's easy. Just stamp it."
"Great, thanks for the help, my friend."
It was no skin off his back. He could approve it with the authority of his office. Even if they later found two bodies buried underneath, they couldn't pin the blame on him.
Of course, if one of them turned out to be an Advanced Apprentice or someone like that, there might be trouble. There might not even be any apprentices buried there, though. Apprentices who had joined a school were quite valuable.
If anything like that happened, his friend wouldn't get away either. They'd both be taken in for a thorough interrogation.
Richter walked into his residence, looking utterly exhausted. Still, he couldn't hide his delight. He had made it back alive from the examination.
He wasn't good at dealing with people, which had left him "isolated and helpless" during the examination. Everyone had wanted to kick him while he was down.
But thanks to hard work and a bit of luck, he had placed forty-sixth in the examination and obtained something quite interesting.
"You've taken care of everything I asked you to, right?"
The apprentice in his workshop nodded and said,
"I checked. The Pharmacist Association did requisition that plot of land, and two people from the Construct School have received orders to start work there tomorrow."
"Good. Did that apprentice receive the item?"
The apprentice nodded again, then hesitated before speaking.
"Boss, you only sent her a letter. Will she really go there like you said?"
"I wrote, 'I know the secret behind the sudden change in you. Come find me at XXX.' I'm sixty percent sure she'll go. If you got a letter like that, wouldn't you want to go and see what it was about?"
"Of course, if she's cautious enough, then we'll have to go find her ourselves."