Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Zach noticed Nora taking exceptional care of him after he sent Yanael and Soara into the world. It was only natural. With Alzara also busy with her tasks, he had no one else to take care of him, not that he desperately needed it.
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But Zach would have been a fool not to realize the difference in the way his childhood friend and maid's eyes. Nora was going through something and seemed to seek some kind of escape by taking care of Zach and training her martial arts.

He knew she would clam up as soon as he mentioned anything, so Zach stayed silent about it and let her drown herself in menial tasks and mind-numbing training. There would come a day when he could do something about it. There would come a day when Nora would finish this transformation and achieve growth.

Zach believed in her. It was difficult for Nora, whatever it was she was going through. But he was confident she would handle it and make it out on the other side a stronger person.

The best he could do right now was support her silently and let her know that she wasn't alone.

The fact that she didn't point out how cheesy he was being was proof enough of her mind being far away.

She even thanked him honestly when he shared the medicines and supplements from Alzara with her. They weren't as powerful as the ones he got since he could purify any build-up of toxins and clear out hidden injuries with his world essence energy. But it helped her train and see more results from her training sooner.

In return, Nora put her all into cooking the most delicious and nourishing food possible for Zach, who was constantly hungry. The drugs helped his body build and condense muscle among other things, but he still needed fuel for his training sessions. The drugs also needed something to build with. He had to eat massive amounts if he wanted his training to give results.

If Zach hadn't made a fortune through his alchemy side business, he would have run out of funds just because of food costs.

Zach was grateful to Derot. All he had to do was supply the potions, and that was handled by his familiar. Derot did everything else. He distributed, checked the market, talked with alchemists about recruitment, sold, purchased ingredients, fought off other guilds and merchants, and collected the money in the Imperial Bank.

All Zach had to do was take it easy and wait for the money to roll in. It was like a dream. He had even helped Derot lose weight and turn into a handsome young man. The only problem was that Derot didn't stop losing weight. If he continued like this, he would turn into a skeleton sooner or later.

Zach had asked if there was anything he could do, but Derot was worried Zach would only cause a bigger mess, so he politely begged Zach to focus on his studies. He would handle the other merchants and their alliances as they targeted the ingredients the alchemists needed, raised prices, cut supplies, or sabotaged their merchants.

Several of the big shots had stepped in and put huge walls around Zach's guild and Derot's merchants, preventing their continued growth. That in turn made it difficult to handle the smaller and mid-sized merchants since there was an upper limit to the money and people Derot could circulate and use.

Unless they could break through those walls, they would be stuck in a trench war with the other merchants, fighting for a share of the market. It was so bad that not even setting a name and establishing a brand and reputation would help.

The only thing that would help would be to use Zach's family. The Evandiels held overwhelming influence in the Empire, and while their influence wasn't on the same level as the Systines in the merchant world, they were only a step behind them.

The Systines brought treasures and food from the sea to the rest of the Empire, and they handled the pirates, which made the transport routes along the coast and up the rivers much safer.

But the Evandiels mined treasures from the Jira Labyrinth and disseminated them into the Empire by using the hands of the merchants. The kind of treasure that came from the Jira Labyrinth was usually more special and rare than the kind that came from the sea to the south.

The things from the Jira Labyrinth were either magic tools or inspiration for magic tools. The treasure could be powerful and enchanted pieces of armor or weapons. Rare gems and minerals. Martial arts manuals. Spell books. Monster materials from monsters that didn't exist anywhere else in the world.

The Evandiels themselves, who usually fished up treasure from as deep as possible in the Labyrinth, often sold those treasures into the Empire if they didn't find a use for them.

The Evandiels didn't need the money, but if the treasure wasn't dangerous or necessary, there was no need for them to let it sit in their storage and collect dust. It was better if it could travel the Empire until it found its rightful owner, someone who would be delighted to use it.

Naturally, the merchants, the middlemen in all of the Evandiels' transactions, took hefty fees for their services. Cooperating with the Evandiels meant loads of money straight into their pockets.

If Zach used his family name to protect his guild and the merchants, he would have no trouble expanding.

But there were two problems with that.

The guild would no longer be

his

. It would become his family's. Since they loved him and were rich on their own, his family wouldn't bother him about sharing the profits, which Zach wouldn't have minded doing. But it was the principle. He wanted to succeed on his own without his family's influence for once.

The second problem was that Derot was affiliated with the South and the Systines. Technically, it was his family, the Gaville House. He had used some of his connections from the House to get started, but right now, he was also working without his family's support.

That was why he could work in the capital without his family or the capital's merchants bothering him. He was the same as an ordinary merchant without the backing of a big house.

As soon as Zach's family was dragged into it, Derot's family would be, and Derot would no longer be able to work for Zach. Not only was he working in the capital, outside their family's sphere of influence, but he was also working with the East.

As a member of the Gaville House, he couldn't do that.

Expanding the business meant cutting loose Derot.

Zach would not do that.

But it looked like he would have to spend another break away from home.