The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

Thinking about it, the guilds in this world were very different from 21st-century companies.
Since the concept of division of labor didn’t even exist yet, a guild was basically just a group of people who said, “If it makes money, we’ll do anything!”
From that perspective, Mary Guild was a bit unusual from the start.

“We are salt! We will only deal with salt! We will gather all the salt scattered across the continent, stockpile it here, and when the price rises, we’ll sell it!”
“You won’t handle leather, oil, or spices?”
“We only buy salt!”

“Beeswax or honey...?”
“Only salt!”
“Fabrics...?”

“Salt!”
For several years, Marigold was obsessed with the keyword ‘salt’ and insisted on nothing else.
When later asked why,

“I once crossed the grasslands without any salt while on a trading trip... ugh...”
...
Marigold shivered as if recalling a trauma. It was probably that simple reason, as expected.

Of course, Ransell did not stop her judgment. Since this loop was meant to be a vacation, he didn’t want to interfere too much.
Coincidentally, around this time, the value of salt was about to skyrocket.
The root cause was the war that would grow increasingly heated.

‘Salt is the most necessary thing in war.’
Where many humans gather, much salt is needed. An army running out of salted food has morale so low it can’t fight.
Ransell already knew well, from past experience, how devastated an army could become just because they couldn’t taste that salty flavor.
The moment even a pinch of salt entered his mouth, Ransell would feel a dizzying sensation, blood rushing to his head, and a surge of life swelling inside him. He had never experienced anything like that in the blessed 21st century.

Perhaps the reason he had once been so obsessed with the sea and seafood was because he had spent most early loops on battlefields.
‘The kid couldn’t live without salt.’
Salt.

In just three more years, a special tax would be imposed on salt. The royal family wouldn’t allow any humans outside themselves to freely buy and sell that precious salt.
==========
—Market Alert!!! The price of purchased salt has risen 7.5 times! Rumors spread that Mary Guild’s granaries are piled high with salt!
※There are suspicious buyers offering up to 10 times the price! Shall we secretly sell and pocket the money?

And as expected, the price of salt soared.
There was no need to personally resell it. Merchants who heard the rumors came pulling carts and flooded Marquis Dante’s territory.
“Ha ha ha! From today, tell all our farmers to stop working the fields! Hurry up and come beat the rock salt!”

“Eek!”
Watching Marquis Dante lose his dignity before gold, dancing with Marigold on his shoulder, Ransell chuckled silently.
Guildmaster Marigold.

She had hit the jackpot.
“I will revive the Dante family!”
Around then, Marigold’s arrogance skyrocketed. Her eccentric behavior began exactly at this time.

“Hey.”
Ransell found 21-year-old Marigold hiding under the blankets.
 
Lying down absentmindedly, Ransell sensed something strange. He felt a clingy presence and lifted the covers.

Marigold, eyes closed, had snuck into his bed. Breathing steadily like asleep, she quietly cuddled up to him.
Ransell narrowed his eyes at the heat from her body.
“Are you asleep?”

“...”
Ah, that’s the act?
Ransell reached for the table, picked up a quill pen, and lightly brushed the feather part against Marigold’s ear.

“Eek! Hii!”
She flinched in surprise, curling up.
But it was only brief. Marigold soon resumed her pretend sleep.

“...Asleep?”
“...”
Once more.

“Grrrk!”
Though an extremely intense reaction, Marigold stubbornly kept up the sleeping act.
Ransell finally put down the quill and covered her nose. When her mouth hurried to open, he sealed it with his hand.

“...”
She’s holding out a long time.
At 30 seconds, 50 seconds, 60 seconds, Marigold’s face flushed red and she started struggling.

“Puff!”
Gasping harshly, Marigold raised her upper body.
“Ah, um, Benefactor, why are you here...?”

“Because this is my room.”
“Ah, ahh! I must have mistaken the room!”
Her excuse sounded awkward.

“Since it’s a bother to go back, can I just sleep next to you? Sleep well, Benefactor.”
“It’s only a short walk, no hassle at all.”
Marigold sprawled next to Ransell with a brazen attitude.

This strange behavior had been noticeable for a while.
Ransell already had a guess.
———————————

Charm 75
Morality 19
Grace 58
Sensitivity 63
Sex Appeal 152
Magic Power 1
Strength 38
Stamina 33
Faith 21
Condition 77
———————————
‘Why on earth?’
Why those numbers were so high on just the merchant route was a mystery even to Ransell.

One thing was certain: she was now a beast. Yes, a beast constantly eyeing something of his.
“You must be tired, so get some sleep, Benefactor. I’ll sleep a bit too.”
“Take your hand away.”

“...Nowhere else to put it...”
A hand slithered like a snake toward his leg.
Ransell finally picked her up and carried her to his room.

What’s the biggest change when ‘that status’ rises?
For a gamer, it meant more variety in the clothes Marigold could wear.
Taking advantage of the warm weather after spring passed, Marigold’s indoor clothing gradually became more revealing.

“Benefactor.”
At first, she wore something that just showed her shoulders, later coming closer in outfits exposing her belly, sometimes almost see-through.
“I’m tired, Benefactor. Maybe I worked too hard today.”

“You shamelessly left the auto-hunting at the guild running all day.”
“Auto...?”
“That exists.”

Clinging to Ransell was usual.
Except when Lady Dante watched, she was almost always like this.
Unlike Marquis Dante, who cared little for bloodlines, his mother firmly believed nobles must marry nobles.

The next day,
“Hey.”
“Yes?”

Ransell caught a guild member visiting the mansion. The man carried something wrapped in silk.
He kept looking suspiciously around as if checking.
“Let me see what you’re carrying.”

“Ah, th-this is nothing, young master, just, uh, well...”
“If it’s nothing, then bring it here.”
“R-really nothing...”

Ransell ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) grabbed the man’s collar as he tried to sneak away and forcibly took the object.
“No, you can’t!”
“What is this?”

Inside the silk was a small wooden box. Opening the lid released a sweet scent from a spherical object inside, neatly formed.
‘Medicine?’
Could it be poison?

When Ransell glared sharply at the guild member, he dropped to the floor at once.
“I-it’s something the guildmaster asked for! Please! Keep it secret! I only wanted to deliver it secretly! I never thought it would end up like this...!”
“What is it, then?”

“That... that expensive medicine that noble ladies are looking for, young master.”
‘Noble ladies?’
The guild member gestured silently.

Ransell instantly understood and closed his eyes.
“...Give it to me.”
“Yes... young master, please keep it secret that I was caught...”

Ransell motioned for him to leave quickly.
Even for him, he didn’t want to meddle in Marigold’s secret private life.
‘Is this also an effect of that status?’

The next day, Marigold started to stretch out her chest and make some kind of appeal to Ransell.
“My shoulders are sore these days. Why do you think that is, Benefactor? Maybe it’s because I worked too hard. Ha, it’s strange. Don’t you have any guesses?”
“...”

“Hmm, why does it ache like this? Strange.”
Knowing the full story, Ransell tried not to react.
If he provoked her, she’d just buy and take medicine periodically. That stuff was expensive.

“I think I got scammed.”
“About what?”
“Something like that.”

Soon after, a glum Marigold wandered around the mansion, shoulders drooped.
“...It was expensive stuff.”
There were many other things, but anyway, time passed at Marquis Dante’s territory for one, two years, and finally Marigold turned twenty-three.

==========
Fame Event: Congratulations! Marigold has earned the title of ‘Wealthy’! Now you don’t have to look at price tags when buying things! (Charm, Grace, Sex Appeal UP!!)
At last, she was called wealthy.
Considering she was once a girl hustling with street shell games, it was an incredible rise. Though she was still far from being the richest on the continent she aimed for.

.
.
.
Soon, troubling news began to spread across the empire.
 
“It seems a war has broken out.”

That evening, the words came from Marquis Dante’s mouth. Everyone dining with him turned their eyes on him.
“War is always happening, isn’t it?”
When Ransell asked, Marquis Dante shook his head.

“If it’s a war with an enemy nation, yes. But the war I’m talking about is different. It’s a war happening inside the empire.”
Ah.
That was it.

Ransell briefly recalled past loops like a slideshow.
A war inside the empire.
It was also the essence of the war he had spent so much time in.

“His Majesty seems to be no longer in this world.”
“You! How can you say that with ears to hear?”
Ransell’s mother startled and asked, but Marquis Dante just brushed his face once.

“It’s a story everyone will find out anyway, so it’s okay. There was a rebellion on the eastern front due to supply problems, and that seems to have caused some issues. They say salt was in short supply.”
“Huh?”
Marigold muttered with a blank expression. Marquis Dante waved it off.

“Don’t worry. It’s not because of Lady Mary, the guildmaster. Even if we say the salt we gathered, it’s just a small part of the whole continent. The real problem is the other guilds that followed our lead and hoarded salt very stupidly.”
Anyway, since others followed Marigold, she was indeed the start. Ransell understood it that way.
“The fifth prince on the front announced the absence of His Majesty and raised troops. If that’s true, this war will... be a war to decide the next ruler of the empire.”

Civil war.
A brotherly strife.
A great war spanning the entire empire—no, the whole continent—was beginning.

‘Looks like the fifth prince started this fire.’
Though the time and cause varied, one thing was certain.
This empire would no longer be a single country.

Sooner or later, it would be split into pieces by various factions, heralding the return of a Warring States period.
—It was a return to before the empire.
A familiar voice played again in his mind.

“Then...”
Suddenly, in the silence,
Marigold began nervously.

“Shall we raise the salt price even more starting tomorrow?”
“...”