The air in Barry, the Forest City, was always fresh.
All it took was a single breath for that cool, crisp air to flow gently down the throat, into the lungs, and then spread through the entire body, leaving a person feeling clear-headed and refreshed.
Almost every citizen living in this great city—from nobles at the top to porters at the bottom—took immense pride in that.
And to be fair, they had every reason to.
According to the annual statistics published by The Barry Exclusive Times, the average lifespan of Barry's citizens was two to three years longer than that of people in other cities.
Of course, most citizens had no interest in thinking too hard about whether that number was actually reliable, or whether there had been enough real statistical work behind it. All they knew was that they had won, and even their children got to enjoy the benefits along with them.
You could call it winning right at the starting line. Without doing anything at all, simply by living in this sacred city, they were granted longer lives than other people.
That sounded pretty wonderful.
So whenever the citizens of Barry stepped out of their homes and onto the streets, they would instinctively look toward the towering tree in the distance with a sense of gratitude.
The heart of Barry—the Mother Tree, Telashil.
It was because of Her constant purification of the air that the entire city's atmosphere remained in such extraordinary condition.
Anyone who had seen that colossal tree with their own eyes could understand why so few people ever questioned the rumors of longevity that circulated among the public.
The very existence of that giant tree was itself a miracle. Quite a few citizens even believed it might actually be a sleeping god.
And if a god bestowed blessings, wasn't that only natural?
Hailier felt the same reverence toward the Mother Tree.
After stepping out of her house, she silently bowed in the direction of the distant giant tree.
Only after that did the solemn expression on her face return to something more lively.
"Phew…"
She was in an unusually good mood.
It had already been quite a long time since she took over her family's Golden Beak Trading Company. Logically, the business should have settled into a stable rhythm by now. But the truth was, unless she completely delegated everything and became a hands-off owner, there would always be an endless stream of headaches the moment she started working.
It was only over the last two days that her mood had finally improved.
If she had to pinpoint exactly when it started, it was probably yesterday morning, when she saw the newspaper report about the labyrinth expedition southwest of Barry.
Today, she had even deliberately taken the day off.
She was going to have a meal with some childhood friends.
Though calling it a day off was not entirely accurate.
After all, the childhood friends she still kept in touch with now mostly came from families that, at the very least, had a bit of wealth in Barry.
Their family businesses also frequently dealt with the Golden Beak Trading Company.
This was what people meant by, "A banker's child grows up to be a banker."
What their parents left behind was not just visible wealth like gold coins, but also the invisible network of connections.
She boarded a carriage and rode down the main avenue.
After a while, the coachman pulled on the reins and gradually slowed the carriage.
"Miss Hailier, we've arrived at the restaurant."
"Thank you."
Before getting down, Hailier carefully adjusted her clothes, making sure everything was presentable. Only then did she step out of the carriage.
Inside the waiting hall of the upscale restaurant, Hailier immediately spotted a familiar petite figure. She decisively walked over and lightly tapped her on the shoulder.
"Mia, why are you standing outside? Aren't you going in?"
"Ah, it's you, Hailier." Mia, who had jumped in surprise at first, immediately relaxed after seeing who it was and lightly patted her chest. "It's too noisy inside. I'm not really used to that, so I came out to wander around for a bit."
Hailier simply pinched her cheek lightly, but said nothing.
She knew Mia was probably feeling a little uncomfortable.
Even though they had all once been close childhood friends, not everyone's family stood on the same level. Mia's family background was relatively ordinary. And as they grew older, the relationships that had once been simple and sincere had gradually changed.
What still held everyone together now was probably just a bit of that old friendship—however much of it remained—and the business ties mixed in with it.
"Then let's go in together."
She took Mia's hand.
Mia had always been especially close to her as a child. Otherwise, two years ago, she never would have been willing to leave home with Hailier—who had been completely captivated by the dream of becoming an adventurer—and set out on an unknown road beside her.
The two of them entered the restaurant and, led by a server, were taken into a private room.
There were already around a dozen people seated inside.
Some were men, some were women. They were all well-dressed, chatting and laughing with one another in an atmosphere that was warm and lively.
Several redwood benches were arranged around a round table in the center. Appetizer olives and cheese had already been set out, and the silverware glimmered softly in the sunlight.
"Hailier's here!"
The first to stand was a tall blonde woman named Vera, whose family owned a mid-sized dye workshop in Barry.
She quickly came over, gave Hailier a hug, then nodded to Mia as well, her smile warm without being excessive.
"You finally made it. Just now Andre was saying you pushed the price of his last batch of fabric down way too hard. He said he wanted to settle the score with you."
"I never said that! Vera, don't make things up!"
A slightly chubby young man in the corner hurriedly stood and protested.
For workshops like his, there really were not many trading companies they could work with that offered fair prices and were also trustworthy.
Without the help of a company capable of distributing their goods across multiple regions, their workshop would quickly end up with stockpiles of unsold inventory, forcing them to turn to other merchants with much lower offers.
Among the two or three trading companies his family worked with, Hailier's Golden Beak Trading Company already offered the highest prices.
Of course, in return, they had to reserve their best batch of cloth for Golden Beak first, so it could be sold as a mid- to high-end product. And Golden Beak's representatives would occasionally come to inspect the production process and acceptance standards to ensure quality.
It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
He had indeed made a couple of small complaints about Hailier just now, but he certainly had not meant to offend her to her face.
For some reason, ever since Hailier took over, her family's Golden Beak Trading Company had been showing clear signs of growing bigger and stronger. In a situation like that, as one of their stable partners, he wanted even less for anything to go wrong.
"All right, all right. Let's just say you didn't," Vera said with a dismissive wave.
Where there were people, there were factions. Even in a little circle of childhood friends, several camps had naturally formed.
Hailier smiled faintly and sat down in one of the two remaining empty seats.
Once everyone had arrived, the main courses were soon brought out.
Naturally, conversation at the table drifted toward recent major events around Barry.
And when it came to recent events, nothing was more worth talking about than the Timber Labyrinth.
The man who first brought up the subject, Aaron, was clearly prepared.
Aaron also came from the wealthiest family among the dozen or so people there. His family ran an old, mid-sized trading company that did business not just around Barry, but also in several neighboring cities.
Rumor had it they were even planning to expand into the provincial capital, Falrim.
Although he was only the second son in the family and had just begun handling a small portion of the business under the guidance of his elders, the sheer scale of his family's operations still gave him a natural air of superiority in front of these childhood friends.
He genuinely enjoyed occasions like this. Ever since he started officially getting involved in family business, he had gradually come to understand why his father always loved reconnecting with old friends and maintaining relationships.
There was something intoxicating about basking in status.
"Speaking of the labyrinth, Aaron, I heard you just landed a huge deal?" a blonde woman beside him asked in an exaggerated tone.
"It's nothing much," Aaron said, taking a sip of wine and forcing a calm tone. "I just negotiated a partnership with the Ironhand Brotherhood, one of the adventurer groups exploring the labyrinth. They're willing to bundle the goods they harvest there and sell them to our family's trading company. I just got lucky and became acquainted with their Commander at a gathering once."
He sounded modest, but if one looked closely, the pride he was trying to suppress was plain on his face.
In truth, he had had absolutely nothing to do with making that deal happen. It was the result of family elders pulling strings through connections.
But there was no way the friends around him would know the inside story, so he was more than happy to inflate his "achievement" a little.
"You're too modest, Aaron. That's the Ironhand Brotherhood. They're one of the top adventurer groups in this whole labyrinth expedition, aren't they? For a group like that, we probably wouldn't even have a chance to meet their core members, let alone their Commander. You really are something," one of the people beside him chimed in right on cue.
Aaron felt himself growing even more smug. He was starting to half-believe he really could call a major adventurer Commander his brother.
"Actually, the Ironhand Brotherhood isn't even the most impressive group. The real main force in this labyrinth expedition has to be that Red Dragon Adventure Company."
"I heard they were the ones who led the way through the fourth and fifth floors, and even opened the sixth."
"I won't pretend to know more than I do here—Hailier, you should know them pretty well, right?" Aaron looked toward Hailier on the other side of the table, wearing a smile that was not quite a smile.
There had always been a bit of friction between him and Hailier. On one hand, both of their families ran trading companies. On the other, as the Golden Beak Trading Company expanded and the two businesses overlapped more and more in their main lines, that invisible tension had only intensified in recent years—especially over the last year.
It had been a long time since he and Hailier had seen each other in a public setting.
"Didn't I hear that you know Gauss, the Commander of the Red Dragon Company, Hailier? Haha."
"Why don't you tell us about your story with him?"
When Hailier continued eating in silence instead of taking the bait, Aaron spoke up again.
In his eyes, this was nothing more than Hailier trying to wrap herself in someone else's prestige.
Small and mid-sized trading companies always needed some strong adventurer Company to back their name.
But in Aaron's opinion, Hailier had handled it clumsily—because the target she picked was simply too ridiculous.
Everyone knew the Red Dragon Adventure Company was a newly rising powerhouse based out of Falrim. There was no possible connection between them and the small-scale Golden Beak Trading Company in Barry.
And as for Hailier personally knowing the leader of a group like that—some genius figure like Gauss?
Any normal person with a functioning brain knew the odds of that were zero.
If she had claimed to know one of the Red Dragon Company's important members, maybe it would at least have sounded a little plausible.
But sadly, in her vanity, this woman had apparently thrown away her brains along with her pride.
And Aaron's view, clearly, was shared by many people at the table.
Though they did not know why such an absurd rumor had spread in the first place, deep down they all believed it was false.
After all, people said the Red Dragon Company's Commander was a figure comparable to a transcendent-class powerhouse. A transcendent expert stood at the very top of Barry's social pyramid.
Faced with Aaron's increasingly blatant provocation, Mia and Bell, who sat beside Hailier, both wanted to speak up. But before they could, Hailier raised a hand to stop them.
"Aaron, I didn't realize you cared so much about my affairs."
"But whether I know him or not really has nothing to do with you, does it?"
The embarrassment and awkwardness Aaron had clearly hoped to see on her face never appeared. On the contrary, Hailier looked perfectly calm and composed.
Aaron shot her a dark look.
To him, Hailier's shamelessness had reached a new level.
He and most people there knew perfectly well that she was lying about her connection to that man, yet she could still keep a straight face and dodge the subject so casually.
Still, his goal had been achieved. At the very least, by poking holes in her lie in public and forcing her not to answer directly, everyone around them now knew the truth about her.
Only Mia and Bell looked openly indignant, and when they looked at Hailier, their eyes held a trace of confusion as well.
They did not understand why Hailier did not just say it outright—that the four of them had once partied with Gauss before.
The two of them could testify for her.
But from Hailier's point of view, the whole thing was pointless.
She knew that no matter how much she explained, mere words would never be enough to overturn people's preconceived notions. Better not waste her breath. Let them gossip in private if they wanted to. It was not as though it would actually cost her anything.
Besides, deep down, she felt the same way: Gauss was no longer the same person he had once been. The possibility of their paths crossing again had become smaller and smaller. It was better not to use him as a tool in petty rivalry.
Once Aaron and Hailier had openly fallen out, the dinner atmosphere—which had at least been superficially harmonious—suddenly turned awkward.
Especially for those friends whose families did business with both Aaron's trading company and Hailier's, the tension was unbearable. If they could, they did not want to offend either side.
Just as the atmosphere in the room was about to freeze completely, the door suddenly opened and a woman hurried in. She was Aaron's assistant. She leaned over and whispered a few words in his ear, and instantly Aaron's face lit up with excitement.
"Sorry, everyone. I need to step out for a bit."
"Several senior members of the Ironhand Brotherhood have also just arrived at this restaurant. I'm going to go have a few drinks with them. To make up for it, dinner's on me."
Aaron stood and announced this loudly, looking even more self-satisfied when his eyes flicked toward Hailier.
Hailier's grand name-dropping was destined to remain empty talk, while his family's partnership with the Ironhand Brotherhood was the real thing.
At a moment like this, in his mind, it was nothing less than a crushing blow to Hailier.
It brought him a sharp, private thrill.
"It's fine, Aaron, go ahead."
"We'll wait for you to come back."
Amid his companions' friendly farewells, Aaron stood up like a victorious general.
Once the door closed behind him, the room grew awkward all over again.
Everyone seemed to recall the exchange from earlier, and the way they looked at Hailier became a little strange.
Soon enough, the room fell into quiet as people focused on their meals.
Time slowly passed.
After quite a while, the door opened again.
Aaron walked back in with a dark face, every step heavy, his expression like a man returning from a crushing defeat.
That immediately stopped the few friends who had been about to greet him.
No one present was stupid. Anyone could see that his mood was terrible.
They just could not guess what exactly had happened. Had he gotten humiliated at the drinking Company just now?
That was about as far as their imagination could take them.
Under their curious gazes, Aaron looked at Hailier and forced out a smile uglier than crying.
"Hailier… I didn't expect you really did know that Gauss."
"Huh?"
This time it was Hailier who looked genuinely puzzled.
Of course she knew Gauss. What she could not imagine was why Aaron's attitude had suddenly flipped completely.
And where had he even heard about it?
Just then, a knock sounded at the door.
Several people wearing armor insignias on their sleeves entered the room with polite smiles.
"This would be Miss Hailier, president of the Golden Beak Trading Company, yes?"
One of the women stepped forward and greeted Hailier warmly, her tone friendly and respectful.
"We're members of the Ironhand Brotherhood's External Trade Department."
"Lord Gauss of the Red Dragon Company recommended your company to us through our Commander. We didn't expect to run into you here of all places. A pleasure, truly."
"We look forward to working with you in the future."
"Hello."
Hailier stood and shook her hand, and only then did it slowly dawn on her what was happening. A look of surprise crossed her face.
She truly had not expected Gauss to recommend the Golden Beak Trading Company to other adventurer groups.
And judging by the attitude of the Ironhand Brotherhood members in front of her, his recommendation had carried enormous weight. Their trade executives had clearly taken it very seriously.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Aaron, rigid in the corner, and suddenly understood why his face looked so awful.
Most likely, the deal his family had already secured had suddenly changed. The Ironhand Brotherhood was planning to move that business over to Golden Beak instead.
The expressions around the room at that moment were incredible to behold.
Aaron looked utterly devastated. Everyone else looked frightened and stunned, mixed with disbelief. Mia and Bell looked openly proud. Thanks to that absurdly dramatic turn of events, every emotion was written clearly across their faces.
As she spoke with the woman from the Ironhand Brotherhood, Hailier could not help feeling a little dazed.
Gauss had become so successful that he did not even need to be present. Just a single word from him was enough to change the decisions of so many people.
Congratulations, Gauss… before I knew it, you really did become the great adventurer you always dreamed of being.
Hailier offered the blessing silently in her heart, sincerely happy for her former teammate.
Her thoughts drifted further and further away…
Back to that day when the four of them had been sitting in a carriage, preparing to set out for the village, talking about their dreams…
Now the memory was already a little blurred. All she really remembered was that the sky had been a brilliant blue that day, and the wind had been wonderfully clear.
~~~
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