Leon: "..."
Jeanne, Laurier, and Aura had just returned from a big shopping run at the Free Market, and the first thing they saw was Leon sprawled commandingly across the couch, lost in his own thoughts and cycling through a wild parade of expressions.
The sight of him instantly cracked all three of them up.
"Huh? What is it you're writing there?"
The three swapped their snow boots for fuzzy cotton slippers at the entryway, each carrying their backpacks as they walked into the sitting room. Sharp-eyed Laurier immediately noticed several sheets of parchment scattered across the tea table, densely covered with the Familia's financial accounting figures. One look... and as a poor student with zero affinity for numbers, she felt a wave of dizziness.
Jeanne set her Wonder Pack down in the corner and idly picked up a sheet of parchment to read closely. When she noticed the staggering sums the Familia had spent recently, her gaze turned visibly grave.
She drew a sharp breath through her teeth.
"We just upgraded a batch of equipment, and it cost this much money?"
"And this gear is only barely good enough, it doesn't even count as decent..."
Leon set down his teacup, slumped fully into the couch, and let out a long sigh.
"Orario really is too urbanized."
Jeanne was momentarily at a loss for words.
She didn't quite understand what exactly he meant, but instinct told her it was definitely nothing good.
"Looks like once the Christmas Festival is over, we'll have to ramp up our Dungeon exploration."
Jeanne's hand tightened around the parchment as she spoke contemplatively.
"On paper, our finances are still reasonably healthy, but measured against how fast we're growing... by the time everyone becomes First-Class Adventurers, if our income stays at its current level, we probably won't even be able to afford to switch over to first-class equipment by then."
Laurier and Aura, who were in the middle of hanging up their coats, twitched at the words, both turning their heads at once, faces full of shock.
"Huh?"
"Is it really that bad?"
Jeanne shook her head lightly.
"With how tense things are in Orario right now, the market for combat-related equipment has been climbing the whole time. Mm, from what Tsubaki let slip when we were chatting, compared to before the Dark Age, everything from standard gear forged by a Lv. 1 smith up to custom equipment crafted by high-ranking smiths with the smithing Development Ability now carries a steep markup across the board. And the higher the tier, the more shocking the markup gets."
"Take this batch Tsubaki forged for us as an example. If we'd bought it at current market price, the average per piece would run around 13 to 15 million Valis. It was precisely because we ordered in bulk, supplied the crafting materials ourselves, and on top of that have the personal connection with Hephaestus, that she gave us a friendship price of just over 10 million per piece."
"And that's only the entry-level model in second-class equipment. If you swap it for the first-class equipment used by Lv. 5 and above adventurers, that price... would probably have to multiply by dozens of times before you could land it."
"Now you understand just how enormous an expense that is, right?"
Laurier and Aura listened, stunned and dumbstruck, scalps prickling.
They'd known custom high-grade equipment didn't come cheap, but they'd never imagined... it could be expensive to this degree.
Prices casually running into the hundreds of millions were completely beyond what they could picture.
"Good god! That, that's hundreds of millions in Valis!"
"That many gold coins wouldn't even fit in a single carriage!"
"No wonder Goddess Demeter always says... Goddess Hephaestus is the undisputed wealthiest goddess in Orario. Even that Goddess of Beauty perched at the very top of Babel has to concede defeat when it comes to sheer spending power!"
"So forging equipment is this profitable!"
As she said it, Laurier suddenly froze, and then her eyes lit up. She quickly scrambled onto the couch, knelt beside Leon, grabbed his arm, and shook it excitedly.
"Leon, Leon, Leon! Since forging equipment is this profitable, then the Wonder Pack you make must be worth a fortune too, right? That's a magic backpack with nearly five times the capacity of an ordinary one!"
Just then, Aura, off to the side, let her gaze drift thoughtfully and added in a soft voice.
"An item like the Wonder Pack should be classified as a magic item, shouldn't it? If that's really the case, then the Wonder Pack's value would only be higher! And on top of that, Mr. Leon is probably the only person in the entire world who holds the technique to make it..."
At that thought, Aura felt that the Familia's hope of buying a new base in the future had suddenly increased enormously.
A beautiful blueprint began to surface in her mind unbidden.
If we really do move to a bigger base someday, could I suggest... building a spacious, round, multi-story library? Ideally one that blends right in with the natural scenery. Mm... and if every Mage could have an independent magic research room entirely their own, that would be even more perfect!
Naturally, Leon had no idea that this usually cool, aloof girl had, somehow... already started daydreaming about the future.
At the moment he was watching Jeanne, the worry gradually clearing from her face, and gestured helplessly at the thoroughly excited Laurier beside him.
"Come on, Laurier, stop shaking already, you're about to make yourself dizzy."
"Hmph, then tell me... can the Wonder Pack actually sell for a big price or not?"
At that, Leon's expression paused, and then he broke into a meaningful smile, his tone airy.
"Can it sell for a big price? Mm... more or less, yeah."
"That said, now isn't the best time to make our move. Once the city resolves the threat from Evilus and the major Familias throw their energy back into conquering the Dungeon, that'll be the perfect moment to play this trump card of ours!"
The moment he said it, the others understood the deeper meaning.
Going deep into the Dungeon, aside from weapons, equipment, and intel, what's the one most indispensable thing?
A large backpack to carry supplies, elixirs, odds and ends, and spoils, of course!
And the deeper the floor being explored, the more urgent the need for a sturdy, durable backpack with ample capacity.
Take Loki Familia as an example. They clearly have the chance to bring back more precious materials and Drop Items from the deep floors, so why is the haul they return with after every Expedition always less than satisfying?
Is it that they don't want to?
Obviously not.
It's because backpack capacity is limited, so they can only prioritize the spoils that are easy to carry and have higher value per unit.
It's precisely this reality that lands many exploration-focused Familias... especially large ones like Loki Familia, in the awkward predicament of constantly spending more than they bring in on operating funds.
But the moment they have a Wonder Pack, this predicament gets completely turned around.
Leon understood this all too well, which was exactly why he'd always kept the Wonder Pack firmly in his own Familia's hands and kept it under wraps.
A strategic-grade piece of equipment capable of changing the very survival state of exploration-type Familias had to be experienced to the fullest and put to full value by his own people first, before he'd even consider outsiders.
"Heh heh..."
"It's not that we won't sell. It's that we'll sell slow, sell at a measured pace, in batches, with rhythm."
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