Log Horizon - ep08

Now with Shiroe's plan in motion, they explain how Minori and Touya ended up at Hamelin. It turns that in the being they only had each other while trying to adapt to this new world that they found themselves in. Although when they finally venture outside the city walls to explore, things didn't go very well for them. Since shortly after they left the safety of Akihabara, they were Pked by the party that tried to take down Shiroe in the beginning of the series. This result in them losing most of all their items when they were Pked, that they were just left with what little they left in the bank. Then in their dire situation they would have taken help from anyone that could save them. It just their misfortune that Hamelin was the ones that lent their assistance.

This leads to the greater issue at hand, in dealing with Hamelin by forming an alliance with the other guilds. It seems that marketing of their food wasn't to really gain money but attention of the other guilds. Then under the guise of further expansion, Shiroe has Marie meet with three of the largest merchant guilds. The first being Shopping Street 8 who is leaded by Karashin who is an old friend of Marie. That she gets him to join by buying their resources from him at a discount, and in return he will be able to join in on the meeting that they are having with the other two major merchant guilds.

That it is through this meeting of these other guilds we see the true intent behind Shiroe's desire to gather five million, because he is using it for the foundation of their alliance. Although his action through Marie is misleading because he wants them to believe by have each of them invest 1.5 million that they are embarking on an even larger quest, where their return will far exceed what the invested. While also gaining the Cresent Moon Alliance secret cooking recipes, that they see the profit from that would be endless. However this is just setting the stage for the next phase of Shiroe's plan by having a meeting with the major Guilds in Akihabara. What it seems like is that Shiroe is trying to lay the foundation of a government to return order to the lawless that has fallen upon Akihabara. That this will free the people from the prison that they find themselves in. Although it's a bit unclear how this will free his two friends from Hamelin and leaded to exiling them from Akihabara.