Work Text:
He can never be a good merchant.
That was all the compliments you ever got. You could never be a good merchant, because you laughed when you were under pressure and didn’t understand certain figurative language, and you certainly can’t maintain the necessary eye contact. You fidget and squirm. You don’t do well in school. None of this stops you.
Unlike what everyone says, you have a certain charm. Unlike what everyone thinks, you can understand people and read them, you can figure out their words and you always know what to say that gives you the gold and them the goods. You run away when you are 17, trying to find your way outside your strict father’s grip, you want to spread your wings and soar, you want to do something that will make your father proud, so you join the war. Katsurahama’s Dragon, you’re called.
And the war booms. With your first successful business deal, the supplies flourish, and suddenly, you’re more popular. You make friends. You manage the logistics side of the war, controlling the flow of goods. Soon you start to scam people. You start to get a profit.
It all crashes down eventually. Two years. The war drags, you get sick of killing people, sick of watching comrades die. This was the last thing you wanted when you went to war. So, you leave. You leave with the conscious that the silver-haired man will keep his promise.
You swindle an entire fleet out of the future shogun.
You build your own empire, your own company. The Kaientai. It’s soon one of the biggest trading companies originating from Japan. You work hard. You put your past behind you. Your father visits, one day, and sees how much you’ve grown. He just scoffs. How did his son do this?
You smile.
You just have a charm.