I was sitting in a mostly dark room, lit by various candles. A collection of merchants sat in front of me while my retainers stood behind me. There was a table between me and the merchants.

Honestly, even after my parents told me about the increase in merchants, I didn't expect there to be so many of them here. It wasn't just the number of merchants in Blitzburg. More of them bothered showing up than I expected to.

Well, I suppose I should have expected it, considering how I'm a Saint AND the son of this city's lord. But the room was packed to the brim with merchants. It was a bit overwhelming.

One of the merchants bowed to me.

"Saint Gustav," he said. "We heard that you had a proposal for us?"

I nodded.

"That's right. It's related to the Kingdom of Motteburh," I explained.

A swarm of murmurs came from the crowd of merchants. I felt concern cross over my body as I looked at their faces. Many of the merchants seemed incredibly worried.

"Motteburh?" one of them spoke up. "What would we want with them?"

"They hate commoners over there, and there aren't any noble merchants," another added.

"I still remember all the 'extra taxes' one of their lords made me pay! I wasn't even trading in his lands! He had no right to tax me by Motteburh's laws, but none of the Motteburh nobles cared! And their commoners just told me to shut up and accept it!" a third said. "His Majesty, King Eduard the Defenestrator, would never tolerate a noble acting like that!"

By the gods! This was perfect! These guys hated Motteburh's guts! I could easily get them to help me! It was a struggle to hide the growing smile on my face.

"That is exactly why I called you all here today. I have a plan to force Motteburh to make internal reforms, and you are all going to play a key role in it," I stated.

The merchants looked amongst themselves. Some of them seemed skeptical. Others were eager. A few rolled their eyes. Still, unlike before, none of them raised any objections.

"Of course, I don't expect you to help me for free or for matters as simple as revenge against the Motteburh nobles. My plan involves you all making a profit in the process," I explained.

One of the merchants spoke up.

"And what's in it for you, my Lord?" he asked.

"There are a few things, many of which are information above your pay grade," I answered. "But I will tell you what I can. First, I detest how Motteburh treats its commoners, its bastard children, and other such people. Second, one of my retainers..."

I gestured to Astrid, who weakly waved.

"...is from Motteburh, and she was treated so badly that she left and eventually swore fealty to me. As her lord, I cannot allow her mistreatment to go unanswered," I explained.

Recalling what happened to Astrid, rage slowly built up in my body. However, I forced myself to stay calm.

"And third, I intend to connect the continent in a trade network for the benefit of all the people there, including my own family. The merchants from Blitzberg can attest to my earliest measures towards this, and the rest of you are here because of my other efforts. The Motteburh nobles are standing in the way of that," I finished.

Many more of the merchants started nodding their heads in ascent. Even if they didn't trust me because I'm a noble, they would at least believe motives involving self-interest.

"What is your plan, my Lord?" one of the merchants spoke up.

"Through my connections as a saint, I have obtained knowledge of the future from the gods," I explained.

"Really? Knowledge of the future?" Dʰéǵʰom questioned.

I wanted to nod in ascent but stopped because that would look weird to the people who couldn't hear him.

"If someone agrees to do something and they haven't done it yet, that is technically knowledge of the future," I thought.

"Fair enough," Dʰéǵʰom replied.

I continued to address the merchants.

"Motteburh will soon suffer from its emus. Their population will boom, and the farmers of Motteburh will have their crops devoured by the birds."

Now, came the key moment. The merchants will be tempted to heavily increase the prices of food to take advantage of this. I needed to get them to sell food in Motteburh with only a slight increase in price. Of course, I'd send someone along to make sure they kept to this agreement, but I'd rather not force them if I can use persuasion.

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"What I need you all to do is buy up a lot of food and sell it in Motteburh to make sure its people don't starve," I explained. "The key to this is that you must sell them only slightly more than you would usually."

Confusion crossed the faces of the various merchants in the room. Some of them crossed their arms. Others seemed a bit intrigued by what I was planning.

"And why is that, my Lord?" one merchant asked.

"Because the only other sources of food that the commoners of Motteburh will have after the emus eat their crops are their own food stores, the food stored by their lords, and the Motteburh merchants' food stores. The ones in Motteburh will get sold out fairly quickly," I explained. "They would normally get more from the famers, whose crops are going to get eaten by emus, after all."

I then let myself smile, hopefully reassuring the merchants of my confidence in my plan.

"The Motteburh lords will most likely give food to their people but at a steep price. Therefore, if merchants from Greenrivers sell food at a lower price on behalf of a Greenrivers' lord, it will make the Motteburh peasants favor me," I declared.

Yes, I did consider using my family's resources to send the food over ourselves. However, we do not have enough money. And I doubted His Majesty would spend a piece of copper to save foreigners who were part of an enemy kingdom from starvation.

One of the merchants spoke up.

"My Lord, what if the nobles of Motteburh ban us selling food to the commoners or just push extra taxes on us?" he asked.

"They will be too afraid of Cinnamon to do that," I answered. "Take him with you. Make sure he goes to any negotiations with Motteburh lords."

"And what if the commoners flee from him?"

Thankfully, I thought of that problem too. I suspected that the merchants had a solution to it. They were likely testing me. And, as a lord, I had to match up to their tests.

"Send some people to Motteburh ahead of time, announcing that you have a wild dragon as your bodyguard. If you make that clear, you could have more customers. People might come from far and wide to see a wild dragon," I said.

Most people had seen at least one dragon flying overhead in their lives. And everyone who lives in a major city has seen the sort of dragon people fly on. But I doubted most people have seen kaiju-sized wild dragons.

Looking at the merchants, I saw many of them nod in ascent. My plan was working! Soon, a load of food will come into Motteburh with Greenrivers merchants sent by a Greenrivers noble bringing it.

Now that I had at least most of the merchants on board, I pulled out a stack of papers.

"Anyone who wants to go ahead with this plan should sign one of these contracts," I said. "In return for complying with the price ceiling I set in the contract, I guarantee that I will pay for any damages done by Motteburh nobles and their servants to your property, should it occur during this expedition in the event that Cinnamon is unwilling or unable to."

Yes, I would have Cinnamon keep an eye on the merchants, but it's always good to have extra assurances. And I am certain the merchants think the same thing.

Besides, without these contracts, I wouldn't be able to legally enforce the merchants keeping their prices reasonable. It would be a gentleman's agreement and nothing more.

"This contract will be fully enforceable in Greenrivers, Weltai, and Vandalland. This goes for both parties," I said. "Go ahead and inspect the contracts. I've already signed them. I just need your signatures."

Various merchants took the contracts. They scanned them with as much care as they could. Then, one of the merchants spoke up.

"We will need to have a spellcaster examine these contracts, an outside party, to make sure you didn't use magic to put invisible words on them," he stated.

I nodded.

"That is perfectly acceptable. If I am not in Blitzburg when you call that spellcaster in, bring the contracts to Dr. Asterios Minos or my parents. Any one of those three will be able to finalize them," I said.

Soon after, I was outside of the building with my retainers. Specifically, we were in a courtyard in Castle Blitzburg. Astrid looked nervous.

"Are you sure that your plan will help Motteburh?" she asked.

"I can't be 100% certain, but this was the best I could come up with," I answered.

Astrid sighed.

"You are terrible at reassuring people," she said.

Then, the girl looked perplexed.

"It's weird. I shouldn't care about Motteburh. Everyone I liked who lived there is dead, but I at least don't want the people there to suffer," Astrid commented.

"That just means you're a good person," I replied. "Don't worry about it too much."

"And about your plan possibly failing?"

"Worry about that all you want. If you can come up with a better plan, please tell me. I want it to succeed too."

Johannes placed a hand on Astrid's shoulder.

"Most of Gustav's plans have succeeded so far, even if there were hiccups along the way. I'm sure he'll find some way to pull through this time too," he said.

"Thank you for your confidence," I said. "But it's really fine. I don't blame anyone for having doubts about me. I should have more about myself. I know my plans might make me seem like a mad genius sometimes, but my IQ's only 138."

Now, everyone looked at me with expressions of confusion on their faces. I heard Dʰéǵʰom chuckling.

"Oh, right, Medieval society. Never mind IQs for now. It won't be important for a while. I took the IQ test in my last life, but I don't know how to design these tests myself," I said.

Joanna sighed.

"Even if you aren't a genius, you are certainly mad, Gustav," she commented. "But not in a bad way."

"I'm not mad. I'm perfectly normal," I stated.

Dʰéǵʰom groaned.

"Gustav, an IQ of 138 is not nor..." there was a pause before the god spoke again. "Why am I complaining? This is the first time you've shown enough self-awareness to say how a lot of people think of you. It's slow, but it's progress."

"I am perfectly self-aware," I thought.

Then, I addressed my retainers.

"We'll need to leave Blitzburg soon. Except you, Dr. Minos. Help my parents are best as you can. And make sure to deliver my instructions to Cinnamon when he returns," I instructed.

The minotaur saluted me before walking off. Joanna gave me a sympathetic look.

"It is a shame that we can't stay longer," she said.

"Yeah, it is," I replied. "But I doubt His Majesty will appreciate being made to wait too long. And time is of the essence. The faster we act, the more of an advantage we'll maintain. Make no mistake, we are playing a very dangerous game. Speed is the best weapon we have."

The second best weapon we have is the fact that Vandalland and Greenrivers are teaming up against Motteburh. As for the third...it's probably Dr. Minos' beautiful singing voice.

Just kidding. It's probably the fact that Astrid is from Motteburh and knows its internal politics better than I do.