The craftsmen and workers made decent progress over the following days and weeks. Most of them were working on the many parts necessary to create gateways and portals for the auction, none of them, other than Tora and Yui themselves knowing what it would really look like, or where it would be located at.
A few were working on a sky ship, but it would still take more time for it to be completed, as it was quite a big project.
Tora meanwhile was creating some higher quality treasures out of the rare materials they would occasionally find. Something that was rare in their dimensional locations was a hardly ever seen treasure everywhere else and the quality of these finished items would be exceptional as well.
Handling the shop was mostly done by Yui herself during the normal business hours, sometimes Ryoma would help with being shopkeeper, but most of the time he was busy taking care of all the administrative tasks, like managing salaries, keeping track of everyone's work and various other necessities like accounting, bookkeeping and the like.
During the evenings, Yui was teaching some of the younger people cultivation and ways to defend themselves, while Rinomi did her best to keep everyone safe.
"Once we have the auction ready, I think we can start making branches and outposts. As much as I doubt there will be any danger for the shop itself, most of the people working for us won't really be safe here." Yui pointed out one day.
Even though they tried their best to provide some protection for their people, it quickly became obvious that it was not enough.
As long as they didn't want to make their own army, which seemed too much work, they would have to find other ways to protect those people, especially now, that they angered a force that was on par with your regular empire.
She held a map of their southern island group in her hands, still not very clear on how big this world might be.
The island group itself was about 6500 kilometers by 3500 kilometers with perhaps 22 million square kilometers in area, if the ocean is included. Most of her calculations were based on guessing and information provided to her by Tora, as the local population did not really have a simple way of measuring such distances precisely.
In terms of climate, most of the island group was in temperate or slightly tropical climate, with lush forests covering most parts of the land, some jungle areas, some grasslands and in the few mountainous parts tundra could also be found.
Yura Kingdom was located on the south western parts on the islands among several other small kingdoms. None of all the places in their southern island group had any empires, at least other than their own Earthly Treasures Pavilion, showing the overall strength, or lack thereof, in this region of the world.
Tanawa Kingdom was along their western border, Kamiecu on the peninsula to their east while a little bit of their northern border, shared with Tanawa lead towards the Kingdom of Yuzena, the largest kingdom on the southwestern islands.
Yura's southern border was completely covered with ocean, but what surprised Yui was that they did not have any real seafaring here in this world. It seemed as if strong beasts would roam the oceans and the only safe passage across islands was a sky ship, as no one dared to brave the oceans under these conditions.
"There seem to be a few unoccupied islands in this island group. Why not just move the pavilion there and just leave a branch here?" Tora asked, pointing out the dots on the map that were not part of any state yet.
"It's not as if the pavilion is bound to any location really. Moving it shouldn't be very hard, as long as we can supply enough power for a few stable portals."
"Can we support that power drain on a permanent basis?" Yui wondered, but Tora just shrugged.
"That's exactly what the Earthly Treasures Pavilion specializes in. Giving access to various different locations. The essence of it is efficient use of dimensional energies and transportation magic as well as various ways to improve and guide the development of nature's bounties."
"It should be manageable, especially once we move on to expand the herb and spirit beast locations to earn even more."
"Easy enough to restrict access to the portals to only people who buy something. If they want to just use the portals as a quick way to move between places, then they have to pay a certain fee."
"Something like 1 spirit shard per person for every use of a portal should more than cover our costs, but we can simply have them pay 10 shards each person to make a profit and waive the fee if they are customers."
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Yui gave it some thought and had to agree. As long as the costs were not too bad, many people would be interested in fast and simple travel across huge distances, with a few spirit shards.
Peasants like farmers and workers, would rarely have the money to get their hands on spirit shards, but they were unlikely to move long distances on their own anyways. As much as Yui would feel bad about their situation and try to help them, they were not really their primary customers.
Rich merchants however, who sold luxury goods would definitely jump at a chance to cut the often month-long trade route distances down to a matter of moments. Nothing had to be said about the purchasing power of nobles or cultivators.
"We would have to work together with the other kingdoms and empires if they want to use the portals to access places other than our pavilion and return back home, but I'm sure as long as they post a guard station or the like next to the portal, they would welcome the options for trade."
"Isn't this what you wanted to achieve with the auction anyways? Convince them of the convenience of portals and access to easy resources?" Tora smirked.
"As if I would have come up with that idea myself!" Yui rolled her eyes at her sister.
"Who would have thought that old man Shin would be smiling at me in such a silly way even though he probably wants to kill us all. I'd never have thought to use this to our benefit."
"Hey, don't blame me, I'm just used to making the most of a situation. You already spoiled my fun by preventing me from killing those fools who tried to break into the pavilion. Using this Grey Order to hook the other empires just seemed like a good plan to take revenge on them."
"How are the new locations coming along? Can we open them to the public?"
"Should be ready. Even the surrounding kingdoms have been informed. While catching the interest of some far away empires was a lot harder, grabbing the attention of the surrounding kingdoms was rather easy. I'm sure we will see some representative of all of them at the auction, along with many rich people from Yura."
-
The guards in front of the palace in Satsumita, capital of the Kingdom of Tanawa stared at the young man who stood next to his very unusual mount. They had seen a variety of beasts and mounts before, but never had they seen such a tamed beast.
It was easy enough to see spirit horses among the nobles, but never had they seen such a wild and ferocious looking spirit tiger as a mount.
The young man himself wore a scholar's robe of excellent material, the style typical for cultivators, colored in deep red and black with the symbol of a mountain and tree inside of a circle, giving him the appearance of someone with high standing, even though he looked rather young.
His strength was hidden somehow, as if a misty cloud was hiding his power, leaving the guards clueless as to his real cultivation stage.
While the guards looked at Senji in awe, the young man was rather nervous on the inside. Lady Tai sent him and Kirano among a few others, towards different kingdoms as messengers.
It was obvious that she had various other means of communication, but sending the young people she trained herself, seemed like a task that was given to them in order to have them see the world and adapt to their new standing as cultivators.
Behaving like a cultivator and changing their mindset about no longer acting like a regular worker was not easy, but with the task and responsibility given to them and without anyone else to support them directly, they had to overcome their own insecurities and do their best.
None of them wanted to disappoint Yui, who always treated them well and Senji told himself that he would not disappoint her either.
"Young master, may I know your name and the reason of your visit to the royal palace?" one of the guards asked.
"I'm Senji, a disciple of Empress Tai Yui of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion. I've come here to give a message and invitation to your royal family."
Senji now held various titles, as did his fellow disciples. None of them had been given any real land to rule over yet, but with the quick expansion of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion, as well as their access to dimensional realms, it was just a matter of time.
He was now a Baron, as well as Yui's direct disciple. He also held the position of a herald, though once again, Yui used titles and positions in a strange way and it was hard to tell the rank or exact specifications of his rights and responsibilities as no one took the time to write them down or explain them.
In the end, using his wits, it was easy enough to tell who held power. At the top were Yui and her sister Tora, with Ryoma and Miyuki basically counting as their direct family. Besides those four, Lady Rin held the most influence.
All of his fellow disciples were smart enough not to argue with any of them when they issued a command. Well, except perhaps for Princess Miyuki if she wanted something outrageous or dangerous.
It was also a wise choice to listen to the advice of the various craft masters and leaders of the groups who were gathering resources. While people like boss Mitsuaki 'Old Rock' were not really their superiors anymore, they were still working for lady Yui and would usually not ask anything of them without a good reason.
If they wanted something done and needed their help, it was pretty much the same as if lady Yui wanted it done. Not helping was the same as making things hard on their lady.
"I will announce your arrival immediately. Please wait a moment." The guard answered respectfully.
The guards were trained enough to know about the basics of rank and status. While it was hard to tell the exact status of the young man in front of him, being the disciple of an Empress gave the guard enough of an idea that this was way beyond his paygrade.
"No need." Senji told him and handed over a message crystal. "Just give this to your rulers. I will be on my way again, as I still have other places to visit."
"I see, then I wish you a good journey my lord."
With the guard receiving the crystal, Senji's work was basically done here at the palace, he still had to bring the invitation to other rich or powerful people in this country though. They did not simply want to invite the royal families after all.