"Yes, this should be the cove. Follow me," I said as I looked toward the workers behind me. Eight empty carts, made of Vitality-reinforced wood, were able to carry several tons easily.
"Yes, sir," one of the workers said in a respectful tone, and the workers moved toward a cave not too far away from the shore, one that had been hidden under a conveniently thick layer of tree branches to make sure it wouldn't be noticed by a flying military patrol, filled with huge sacks.
The workers loaded the goods into the carts with great ease, the Strength stat making it an easy job. More importantly, they were clever enough not to ask any inconvenient questions like exactly what was inside of the large sacks that we were taking from the cave, and why the ship that delivered it didn't use Oniphia — the only port city in the region — to deliver the goods like usual.
As far as they cared, we were supplied by an enterprising businessman who didn't want to bother the busy officials with some extra paperwork … and nothing else.
Soon, the carts were filled to the brim with the carcasses of twelve Lord Beasts, enough to fulfill the consumption needs of Zolast and the smithery for at least a month … hopefully. "Job's done, sir," one of the workers called as he placed the last sack inside.
"Good. Let's move," I called as I climbed on my horse, ignoring the actions of the guards around us as they moved back and forth, dealing with the beasts that attacked us constantly. After all, I was supposed to be a rich, snobby merchant.
Not the kind of man that would go around dirtying his hands with menial work.
With that, our small group — eight workers to load and drive the carts, twelve guards to keep us safe from the beasts and any possible bandits — started to move. The carts moved far quicker than I had gotten used to during my lengthy stay with the refugees.
Even in a world that was supposed to disdain money, it solved a lot of problems.
"How long before we meet up with the main caravan?" I asked the guard captain, who was busy watching the surroundings.
"They should be just departing the city. We will wait for them at the nearest crossroad, and they should meet us there in about fifteen minutes."
"Good," I said before I started looking around, feeling nostalgic as I was once again a part of a smuggling operation. It reminded me of the first criminal business I set up for myself rather than following the orders of someone else.
The memories of that time were interesting despite all the problems I had to deal with — late delivery, a sudden ambush, the client changing his mind about the price at the last second.
Or maybe, the memories were fun because of them. After all, once I finished said mission, I remembered thinking that, if I was able to complete that first delivery despite all the problems, I could handle anything.
Which turned out to be true … even though the definition of everything expanded further than I had expected.
How time flew.
Soon, we arrived at the crossroad in question and started waiting. In the distance, there was the port city of Oniphia.
One of the two locations I didn't dare go to, the other being the military bulwark against corruption.
According to Zolast, Oniphia was a poor city by the standards of this world, barely even counting as one. When I first heard that description, I imagined a dusty old place with a few poorly maintained ports, with maybe a few patrols.
Some kind of Wild West town.
Forgetting that we were living in a magical world where complete towns could be built in a few days.
Oniphia had stood far longer than a few days, and it showed.
The first thing I noticed was its walls. Tall and intimidating, built in three layers, separating the city into three half-circles. The outer walls were the shortest, but even they were taller than a hundred feet, creating an intimidating sight, especially when adding the towers into the mixture, each three hundred feet tall, armed with catapults and ballistas that were five times the size of ours.
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The second and third layers of walls were the taller and thicker versions of the outer wall, the innermost wall and its towers almost double the size of the outer walls, with three layers cascading beautifully.
Even without magic, sieging such a place would have been a nightmare. Worse, the magical nature of the place was never in doubt.
The walls were made from a reddish stone that I didn't recognize, but even from a distance, I could sense the mana that had been embedded into their nature. The presence wasn't as intense as a magic weapon, but the sheer scale of the walls made it impossible to miss.
To top it all off, there was the blue dome that covered all three walls, making an approach from the sky impossible as well.
It was an intimidating, yet impressive sight, enough to occupy me while we waited for the main trade caravan to arrive.
Thanks to my Perception, I noticed them the moment they appeared at the gate, but their departure took a long while. The guards checked the identity of every single one of my employees and went through the contents of the cart with equal care.
Not exactly a trivial target to infiltrate. Luckily, their obsession to prevent smuggling was limited to controlling what went in and out to the city, and not along the shores.
The reason wasn't hard for me to comprehend. The sea was dangerous the same way they had been during the World Wars back on Earth. Filled with underwater threats ready to take down weak targets.
However, in this world, there was no peace treaty to keep the Lord Beasts from bursting from the depths to ambush unsuspecting forces.
Ironically, despite the great differences in technology, culture, and political landscape, the solution they had come up with was the same.
Convoys.
Any trade ship could pay a fee to join the convoy, which was escorted by the military ships of the kingdom to keep them safe even at the deepest parts of the sea.
Most of the time.
Those convoys had been a topic of our discussions with Zolast several times, along with all the rules and regulations pertaining to the process. Mostly, it was about creating a potential emergency escape route. Not an easy challenge, especially considering we might end up having to evacuate tens of thousands of people.
Unfortunately, according to Zolast, those convoys were managed very strictly, which surprised me at first with the apparent feudal management of the world.
This turned out to have a financial reason. Convoys were under the exclusive direct control of the kingdom, and the fees paid by the merchants were their biggest source of income. Albeit, the last part was not from Zolast, who had been under the impression that several dungeons and the land that was managed by the kingdom were their biggest source, while the convoys only created a supplementary part of it.
That, I found suspicious. After all, according to some of the other tales, the kingdom seemed to be very determined to keep the convoys as an exclusive royal enterprise. Said determination was so unrelenting that every single city that was a part of the service — like Oniphia — was under the direct control of a mayor assigned by the royal family, often a relative of the royal family.
Why bother going through all that trouble if it was not that important? Especially when the military implications of naval superiority over a monster-filled sea were limited in a world with flying castles and surprisingly effective shock troops.
The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple.
One of the more underrated skills for any godfather was the ability to quickly approximate the economic potential of any region or any enterprise. In turn, that information was used to decide on many details, from determining fair – or at least sustainable – protection fees to determining appropriate cuts from the smuggling operations.
Of course, such a calculation, even in its roughest form, required a lot of information.
I had Zolast.
During our discussions, I took about five hours,questioning Zolast about the general economic facts of his world. His life as a part of his Church, working on every level, had been very useful.
With his Wisdom fully accessible once more, he was able to remember a lot of inconsequential details: the prices of the ordinary commodities and precious skill stones, the approximate number and distribution of the military forces, average attrition rates against monsters, the frequency of conflicts between the stronger nobles and the kingdom, prices of certain luxury items.
Some of that information was no better than rough guesses, but it still helped me to build a simple financial model that drew a very interesting picture.
The income from the port cities and the convoys was the only reason the royal family hadn't gone bankrupt with the constant cost of their political challenges.
The conclusion had shocked Zolast when we first reached it, and he asked me to go through the calculations three times just to be sure.
Another win for the power of trade and finance, a fact that the nobles seemed to keep ignoring. I would have loved to brag about that fact more, but considering that exact same phenomenon caused the collapse of many glorious empires across the history of Earth, it would be rather unfair.
Those thoughts continued to flow through my mind as I continued examining the city in front of me; one of the most important cornerstones of the kingdom's financial health. For the moment, it was just an idle observation.
Maybe it would change in the future. Maybe, Oniphia would turn into a lever I could use against the kingdom to bargain with them…
But for the moment, that was an idle dream, and Oniphia was still a city I was afraid of stepping in.
Like a common criminal.
Soon the main caravan arrived, separating me from my thoughts. "We're ready to move," the guard captain declared. I nodded as I prodded my horse, leaving my complicated thoughts and future dreams behind.
I had an important delivery to complete.