Months had passed, but the Mud Seat was still empty.
Annan looked around and found that he had moved forward another row, to the sixth row from the back—or the seventh from the front.
He saw Hami VI lift his head and search for him. When Hami VI spotted Annan, a complicated look crossed his face. He seemed pleased that Annan's potential had exceeded all expectations, yet disheartened that the gap between them had widened again.
So Hami VI merely waved and did not try to speak with him.
The lords and rulers nearby who noticed Annan, however, cried out in surprise.
"Jack?"
"Annan Potter?"
"Dracula?"
Not one of them used Annan's real name.
Surprise turned to shock. They remembered that Annan was only the lord of a city-state. How had he risen to sit among them?
"Hello, Annan. I'm Yunus Maka. There's one of your theaters in my capital."
The middle-aged man beside him held out a hand.
"I know you. The Maka Duchy, right?"
The smile that had just appeared on Annan's face turned distant.
Grand Duke Yunus Maka was an observant man. He guessed the reason at once. "I see... Someone from the duchy cheated you, didn't they?"
"You didn't know?" His tone puzzled Annan.
Grand Duke Yunus Maka sighed. "The duchy once faced a crisis. To get through it, my ancestors allowed merchants to trade in the nation's name and wrote that right into law. We protected them, and they paid their taxes... The duchy survived the crisis, but the arrangement also produced a few dishonest merchants."
"It's all right. It wasn't much," Annan said. "A few fools came asking for a batch of Fast Pants, then defaulted on several hundred gold coins."
In fact, Free City had still made money—dozens of gold coins from the