[Suggestion]
It was one of the many skills automatically granted by his Merchant class. It wasn't overt mind manipulation or magical brainwashing; it was simply a subtle, psychological "nudge." If someone was hesitant, he could weave his cursed energy into his voice and whisper a few carefully calculated words to forcibly tilt their decision in his favor.
He had just used it on Captain Meld.
There was absolutely no logical reason Meld should have allowed a newly summoned teenager to immediately walk out of the heavily guarded castle to freely tour the capital city with a bag of treasury gold. Yet, under the influence of Suggestion and Suzuki's irrefutable necessity reasoning, Meld had eagerly handed over the money and the permission slip.
Merchant.
In typical fantasy settings, the Merchant class was exceedingly rare and almost entirely non-combatant. Those who awakened to it usually lacked the raw physical strength of a swordsman, but they inevitably became part of the 1%—the untouchable elite who dictated the global economy from the shadows.
The warriors and front-line combatants might have been physically powerful. To the young, romantically charged teenagers in his class, getting a combat job made them feel like they were the main characters in a grand MMORPG. They would grind their stats, level up, suffer through agonizing battles, sacrifice their blood, and eventually face the Demon King.
But what happens after the Demon King is dead?
When the apocalyptic crisis vanishes, their story ends. The "Heroes" are usually forgotten by history, forced to return to mundane lives or fading into obscurity because a peaceful world doesn't need living weapons.
But a Merchant? The economy never sleeps.
Normally, a basic Merchant class granted two fundamental skills: Appraisal and Inventory. Even in their weakest forms, those two skills were enough for a shrewd individual to amass a massive fortune.
But because Suzuki was a summoned "Hero" from a higher dimension, his baseline skills had aggressively mutated.
His Appraisal wasn't just a simple stat-checker. It had evolved into [Deep Appraisal]. It allowed him to instantly verify the exact monetary value, structural integrity, and hidden properties of absolutely any item. No one in this medieval backwater could ever scam him. Furthermore, he could appraise people. He could see their exact stamina reserves, hidden mana capacities, and most importantly, their current emotional state.
It was an incredible advantage in negotiations. But it paled in comparison to his inventory.
His basic inventory had mutated into [Absolute Storage]. It completely halted the flow of time for anything placed inside, and it possessed absolutely zero weight or spatial limits.
In other words, Suzuki didn't just hold his own luggage. He could hold an entire kingdom's supply chain.
While the other students were busy risking their lives fighting horrifying monsters in muddy dungeons, they would inevitably have to rely on Suzuki to safely store their loot, preserve their rare monster meats, and supply their potions. He would become the unavoidable, central banking hub of the entire Hero party.
Yes, his job guaranteed a safe, highly profitable position entirely removed from the front lines.
But was that all?
No way.
Suzuki stood alone in a quiet, secluded hallway of the castle, out of sight from the other students, and pulled out his Status Plate.
Name: Suzuki Tanaka
Age: 18
Class: [Merchant]
Level: 1
Strength: 12
Vitality / Stamina: 85 (Anomaly Detected: Past-life marathon conditioning applied)
Magic / Mana: 15
Skills: [Absolute Storage] [Deep Appraisal] [Logistics Calculation] [Language Comprehension] [Suggestion] [Aggro Redirection] [Mental Audit] [Loan Shark] [Online Shopping] [Subspace Penthouse] [Absolute Contract] [Hostile Takeover]
"...."
Suzuki stared at the glowing blue text.
Was he really just a side character?
As he read down the list of aggressively mutated, corporate-warfare skills, the Manager AI rapidly cross-referenced and confirmed the terrifying potential of each one.
[Absolute Contract]: Any deal verbally or physically struck with the user becomes magically binding upon the soul.
[Hostile Takeover]: Allows the user to legally claim ownership of any dungeon, territory, or asset if they hold the majority of the current owner's debt.
Suzuki let out a dark, breathless chuckle.
He knew perfectly well that with this specific arsenal, he could accomplish things that Kouki, Nagumo, the human King, the Pope, the Demon King, and even the arrogant god Ehit could never achieve.
The edge lords could have their dark magic, and the Heroes could have their holy swords. Suzuki was going to beat them all with the suffocating, inescapable power of unregulated capitalism.
"Are you absolutely sure you want to go out right now, Suzuki?"
Shizuku's voice pulled him out of his dark thoughts. She and Kaori had tracked him down to the castle's entrance hall.
Suzuki tossed a single, heavy gold coin in his palm.
Yes, he had secured funding, but the Kingdom wasn't nearly as generous as the students assumed. The King was providing basic housing, terrible medieval food, and basic combat training. Everything else? The students were expected to pay for it themselves. They were expected to dive into dungeons, hunt monsters, and sell the materials just to upgrade their own weapons and afford a decent standard of living.
Kouki would be fine; as the Hero, the Kingdom would likely sponsor him heavily. But the rest of the students? Suzuki knew they were going to suffer immensely once they realized how uncomfortable and brutally expensive a medieval fantasy world truly was.
While the rest of the class nervously huddled together, blindly following the Kingdom's strict training schedule, Suzuki was immediately breaking formation to establish his dominance over the local economy.
"Yeah. I need to do this alone," Suzuki replied, pocketing the gold coin.
"Then I will come with you!" Shizuku insisted, stepping forward, her dark eyes filled with genuine worry.
Kaori, practically glued to Shizuku's side, nodded vigorously. "Me too! You're the only one we really trust right now, Tanaka-kun!"
"No. Don't follow me. Stay here with the others," Suzuki commanded, his voice firm.
"Why?!" Kaori pouted.
"This world is fundamentally different from modern Japan," Suzuki explained coldly, his pragmatism bleeding through. "It is a medieval, feudal society. Do you have any idea what the most dangerous, legal commodity in a world like this is?"
"...What?" Shizuku asked, her brow furrowing.
"Slavery."
"..."
Shizuku and Kaori's eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing shock.
"You two are incredibly beautiful young women," Suzuki stated bluntly, stating it as a simple, objective fact. "You are relatively safe inside these castle walls because you are 'Heroes.' But if you follow me into the unprotected slums of the lower city with zero combat experience? You will instantly attract the greedy, lustful gazes of every desperate mercenary and corrupt slaver. You would be targeted, kidnapped, forced into collars, or worse. And if we crossed paths with a twisted, untouchable noble? Well... I assume you both paid attention in history class, right?"
History was written by the victors, and the unwritten margins were filled with unspeakable cruelty. Suzuki knew that naivety in a world like this was a fatal disease.
The blunt, horrifying reality of his words left the two girls completely speechless. They suddenly felt very small and incredibly vulnerable.
But Kaori, desperate to keep him safe, quickly fired back. "But... what about you?! You're out there alone! And you're... you know... really handsome too!"
"...." Suzuki blinked, entirely thrown off by Kaori's sudden, blurted compliment.
"Y-Yeah!" Shizuku's face suddenly paled as her overactive imagination took over.
The image of her handsome, stoic boyfriend being cornered in a dark alley by a group of wealthy, perverted, domineering noblewomen—forced to succumb to their aggressive, lustful advances because his Merchant class lacked physical combat strength—sent a violent shudder down her spine. A sharp, burning tightness gripped her chest.
"I-I absolutely cannot let you go alone! It's way too dangerous!" Shizuku demanded, grabbing his sleeve tightly.
"Shizuku."
Suzuki's voice dropped, becoming incredibly deep and firm, immediately silencing her panic. "There is absolutely no safe place in this world. I have to go out and see the reality of the market with my own eyes. Wait for me here. Stay with the group; there is safety in numbers right now. As for me? Do not worry."
He reached into his Absolute Storage and effortlessly pulled out a heavily worn, deeply hooded traveler's cloak, swinging it over his broad shoulders. The dark fabric completely obscured his face and his pristine school uniform.
"I am a Merchant," Suzuki said, adjusting the cowl. "If I don't lay the financial groundwork right now, I won't be able to protect you later. So please... trust me."
"...Okay."
Shizuku sighed helplessly. She knew that tone. When Suzuki made up his mind, it was an immovable law of physics. Yet, as she looked up into his shadowed, determined eyes, she couldn't help but feel a sudden, intense flutter in her stomach. The danger and the dark cloak only seemed to amplify his raw, magnetic masculinity.
She stepped closer, her hands sliding up his chest to grip his lapels. "I'll let you go... but only if you kiss me first."
"..."
Suzuki raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk playing on his lips.
"Shizuku!" Kaori gasped, her face instantly turning a violent shade of crimson at her best friend's bold, shameless demand in the middle of a castle hallway.
Suzuki didn't hesitate. He smoothly pulled Shizuku into the shadow of an alcove, gently but firmly pressing her back against the cool stone wall. He ignored Kaori's squeak of surprise and leaned down.
Mmm...
It wasn't a quick, reassuring peck. It was a deep, heated, and incredibly possessive kiss. Shizuku's hands tangled fiercely in his hair, pulling him closer as she practically melted against his solid chest, desperately needing the intense, physical stimulus to anchor her frayed nerves. Suzuki effortlessly took control, his tongue exploring her warmth, leaving her breathless and entirely pliant against the wall.
When he finally pulled back, a thin, silver thread of saliva connected them for a brief second before snapping.
He glanced over his shoulder. Kaori had turned around, her hands covering her bright red face, but she was very clearly peeking at them through the wide gaps between her fingers.
"Ecchi!" Kaori squeaked, her voice trembling.
"...Your best friend is the ecchi one," Suzuki whispered, his thumb gently wiping a smudge of moisture from Shizuku's swollen lips.
"You are too, Suzuki-kun!" Kaori shot back, her heart pounding furiously against her ribs.
Kaori couldn't help but feel a strange, dizzying tightness in her own chest. Watching the usually cool, untouchable Shizuku turn so soft, needy, and shamelessly naughty under Suzuki's expert touch... it stirred something incredibly confusing and intensely tempting deep within Kaori's own stomach.
Hn...
Kaori clamped a hand over her racing heart and quickly looked down at the floor, completely overwhelmed by the heavy, erotic tension radiating from the couple.
"Alright. I'll be back before sundown," Suzuki said, his voice slightly rougher than usual. He gave Shizuku one last, lingering caress on the cheek, pulled his hood down low over his eyes, and turned toward the massive oak doors of the castle.
"Be careful," Shizuku breathed, her eyes heavily lidded and entirely captivated.
"Please come back safe!" Kaori added, still refusing to look at him directly.
As the two girls watched his broad, cloaked back disappear into the bustling, foreign city, they felt a profound sense of worry mixed with a deep, blushing comfort.
But they had absolutely no idea what he was actually thinking.
As soon as Suzuki crossed the castle threshold, the gentle, reassuring warmth completely vanished from his face. His expression twisted into a cold, terrifyingly sharp sneer.
He hadn't come out here to make friends. He hadn't come out here to play the supportive boyfriend or the helpful merchant.
He had come out here for revenge.
He was going to violently take over this entire world. He was going to legally shackle every single arrogant king, useless noble, and false god who had dared to ruin his perfect future, and he was going to force them to work in his factories for absolute minimum wage until they begged for the sweet release of death.