The merchant association

"Priest Reilly, you're here! Please, sit!" Ria said with a smile.

"Bishop Ria, may I ask why you summoned me this time?" Reilly asked in confusion as he sat down.

A week earlier, when he returned to Huayu Town, Yui had sent someone to tell him to visit Corona City, saying that the Bishop wanted to discuss something with him.

Ria looked at the decisive Reilly and nodded approvingly. "Priest Reilly, the Holy Church is preparing to establish its own intelligence organization. At the meeting, Archpriest Meli recommended putting you in charge. What are your thoughts? Do you have any suggestions?"

Reilly was a little startled. He had only recently joined the Holy Church and was still just a Junior Priest. Instead of entrusting such an important position to a senior Priest or a Master Priest, they were giving it to a low-ranking Priest who had only just changed classes. He could not help feeling uneasy.

"Bishop Ria, is that really appropriate? I'm only a Junior Priest!"

"There's nothing inappropriate about it! Priest Reilly, please don't apply the ninja way of doing things to the Holy Light Clerics. Although we also consider strength important, ability is indispensable too. Everyone recognizes your talent for business. Someone skilled at trade must understand the situation in each country better than we do, so I believe you'll have no trouble handling this!"

"But Bishop Ria, as you know, there's fighting in all the countries right now. Although I'm a merchant, my connections are probably only decent in the Land of Wind. I don't know much about the other countries! If we go there to trade and organize intelligence gathering, we could encounter all sorts of bandits and wandering ninja." Reilly voiced his concerns.

After listening to Reilly, Ria considered it briefly and said:

"Priest Reilly, how about this? The Holy Church will provide you with full military support. Gather the merchants you know into a large merchant association. Besides, our range of goods is growing. Along with the various magical potions useful to ninja, we'll also produce textiles, ironware, and luxury goods on a large scale!

"I guarantee the quality of these goods. They'll certainly sell well when you take them to other countries. In return, I have only a few requirements: exchange as much of the money you earn as possible for food and the materials we need, and quickly gather intelligence on every country and ninja village."

Reilly thought for a while, then nodded solemnly. "All right! Since you trust me, Bishop Ria, I'll take this on. I'll make sure it's done properly."

"Sorry for the trouble, Priest Reilly!"

"Not at all. It's my honor to serve the holy light!" Reilly stood and bowed slightly to Ria.

The next day, Reilly consulted Corona City's various administrative offices to learn about the major merchants still in the city who had sufficient capital. Then he hurried out with his assistant to visit them one by one.

Upon hearing that the Holy Church planned to establish a large merchant association in the city, the merchants all looked uneasy. But thinking of their businesses here, they hesitated at length before reluctantly agreeing.

The merchants still doing business in the city all had some measure of conscience, and most of their assets were in Corona City. As for the unscrupulous merchants, they were either doing hard labor at construction sites established by the Holy Light Clerics or had fled the city long ago.

As a merchant himself, Reilly naturally understood their concerns. To bolster their confidence, he took the merchants, each harboring his own thoughts, to visit the various light and heavy industrial factories the Holy Church had already built in the city early the next morning.

At first, these major merchants wondered what there was to see. Surely it was nothing more than a crowd of exploited refugees going about their work.

But as soon as they entered a factory, their attention was drawn to the workers' clean, matching sky-blue uniforms. They watched workers deftly operating unfamiliar machines at their stations and saw warehouses packed with goods.

The silky fabrics, exquisite porcelain, and chairs and stools that looked like works of art left every one of them astonished.

They had assumed that, like the lords before it, the Holy Church was gathering them into a merchant association to bleed them dry. No matter how beautifully Reilly spoke, they had taken it as nothing more than a prelude.

Yet they had never expected that today's tour of the factories established by the Holy Church would reveal goods pouring out in a steady stream, with quality several times better than what they had sold before. The visit had certainly been worthwhile.

If they missed this opportunity to join the merchant association, their peers would surely push them out of the trade! Competing against products made with such identical consistency would be nothing but a pipe dream.

Suddenly, a potbellied merchant asked excitedly, "Merchant Reilly, these... these products, will the Holy Church really let us sell them?"

Reilly smiled, feeling a little proud. "Of course!" He had been just as astonished when he first saw these products.

"But how will the profits from these goods be divided? And how will the merchant association operate?" a burly, bald merchant stepped forward and asked. The other merchants also stared intently at Reilly.

"Rest assured, everyone. These goods will all be supplied to us at the lowest price! And the Holy Church will only levy a ten-percent tax."

"What? Ten percent? That little?" a merchant exclaimed in surprise.

"But I must make this clear: tax evasion is absolutely forbidden. If you're caught, you all know that the Judgment Hall shows no leniency in enforcing the law," Reilly said, looking sternly at the astonished merchants.

"Rest assured, Merchant Reilly. If we evade taxes this low, we'll have nothing to say for ourselves when the Judgment Hall catches us," a merchant immediately promised.

"Good! You'll also need to use your connections to help the Holy Church obtain the materials and food it needs, as well as intelligence on the various countries!" Reilly continued.

"Well..." Some merchants immediately looked troubled.

"Merchant Reilly, you must understand that we're only traders. We don't have any standing in those countries!"

"I know. But you must also understand that once the association is established, your interests will be tied to the Holy Church. Its victories will be your victories. We're all merchants-we should know that making money takes courage! Besides, the Holy Church doesn't need you to actively spy on enemy countries. You only need to gather and compile intelligence through your employees and businesses." Reilly surveyed the assembled merchants, waiting for their answers.

The merchants fell into thought. Then they considered that simply gathering intelligence would not pose much risk. Besides, as Reilly had said, this was a business guaranteed to make money. If there were no risks at all, they would actually feel a little uneasy.

"I agree!" The bald merchant stepped out of the crowd and answered.

"So do I!"

"Yes! If that's all, there's no problem!"

Seeing that others had made their decisions, the remaining merchants quickly followed suit.

Reilly looked at the merchants, who had all agreed, and smiled. "Excellent. You truly are successful merchants with courage. Here's to a fruitful partnership."

"To a fruitful partnership!"

"Then let's head to the teahouse and sign the agreement!" Reilly said with a smile, gesturing for them to proceed.

Wearing satisfied smiles, the merchants followed Reilly to the teahouse.

In Konoha, in the Land of Fire, the Third Hokage smoked as he read the intelligence delivered by the Anbu.

"Are you certain they're just an ordinary merchant association?" the Third asked calmly.

"Yes, Lord Hokage. It's just that the things they sell are rather unusual!" an Anbu ninja answered, kneeling on one knee.

"Oh? How are they unusual?" the Third asked curiously.

"Compared with similar products, the Dawn Merchant Association's goods are cheaper and more finely made. The villagers loved them as soon as they arrived, and they're selling extremely well."

"Hmm. Have you identified the person in charge?" the Third continued, tapping his pipe.

"Yes. It's the merchant Fuli."

"Oh! The Land of Rain..." The Third frowned slightly. "Keep watching them!"

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

Knock, knock!

"Come in!"

"Hiruzen, there's something wrong with this Dawn Merchant Association. Leave this matter to me!"

"Danzo, let's leave things as they are for now! The fighting with the Land of Wind is growing more intense. We don't have much energy left to focus on the Land of Rain," the Third said, taking a deep pull on his pipe.

"What influence could a mere small country have? Just leave this to me, and I'll obtain the methods they use to manufacture those goods. That will help ease the village's financial strain too," Danzo said, his eyes cold and vicious.

The Third kept puffing on his pipe, frowning as he sank into thought. Danzo's words had struck him right where he was vulnerable. The war had lasted three years already. Because of it, the village's economy was growing increasingly depressed, and funding from the Daimyo's residence was dwindling.

"Hiruzen, what are you still hesitating for?" Danzo demanded in exasperation.

Hiruzen, who had still been thinking, felt irritation surge at Danzo's shout. "Enough, Danzo! We'll leave it at that! What we need to do now is end the war as soon as possible, not stir up trouble everywhere. What you're proposing would damage the village's reputation. Merchants might never dare come here to trade again!"

"Hiruzen, you'll regret this!" Danzo roared when he heard Hiruzen once again choose his cautious approach.

"Danzo, I am the Hokage!" the Third snapped, slamming his hand on the desk.

Hearing those words yet again, Danzo seethed. He abruptly turned and left, casting one last vicious glance at Hiruzen. When he saw that Hiruzen had gone back to smoking and was ignoring him, he slammed the door shut to show his extreme displeasure.

After leaving the Hokage's office building and returning to Root, Danzo's face twisted. Why wasn't I the one who became Hokage back then?

"Hmph! Damn it, damn it, Hiruzen!" He pounded his cane against the floor several times.

"Aburame!"

"Here, Lord Danzo!"

"Go to the Land of Rain immediately and deliver the intelligence we've gathered to Hanzō. Heh, the Church of the Holy Light-a mere cult doesn't deserve to possess such fine things!" Danzo said viciously.

"Yes, Lord Danzo!"