Chapter 83 Mercantile

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"Whew. That was exhausting." Lily sighed as she exited the castle with Lhorne and Alith in tow.

"I was sweating there. I thought we would be beaten down by those central nobles." Alith replied.

"Lily!!" Nora hugged her, "Good work! I was scared back there."

"I need to take on Lord's curriculum too later. My skills are not on par if I were to fight those central lords," Lhorne sighed as he reviewed his notes on our meeting.

"Ugh! One thousand armor gone." Lily moaned. So far, we only had one and a half thousand armor sets, and they requested a thousand. We must ramp up the wood workshop a bit more to cover our remaining troops. The thousand troops we sent out weren't the only ones we needed to equip. We also needed to provide another two thousand to guard our region in case of human attacks.

"Well, look at the bright side. We have the trade with the dwarves. And in the future, once we have our new farms up and running, we may not even need help to trade food with the dwarves anymore." I tried to soothe her.

"Let's go home! We have no further need to be in Hoeth!" Lily replied in a bad mood. Those central lords are grating on our nerves. I wonder why they behave like that? Even Resse didn't outright accuse us like that. Was it an inferiority complex? Or maybe their skills degraded during their indolent attitude in Hoeth?

A week later, Jack finally returned from Verundra. As he carried his carriage around, another cart was pulled behind him filled with second-hand cheap swords, shields, and iron goods such as pots and kettles.

"So, Jack, how are you?" Lily greeted our returning hero with a smile. She gave Jack over a thousand gold and hoped Jack would return with some good news.

"Well, not good. They are amassing their troops in Verundra." Jack replied. "Sorry, but I don't know how many of them yet. I just know that there were a lot of soldiers strolling around in the city."

"Maybe because we burned the lord's mansion to the ground?" Lily asked.

"Well, you guys are actually less famous than you think. The Lord spread the news that Silvester was killed in a heroic battle against thousands of elves trying to thwart elven surprise attacks. Silvester was named a hero of Verundra, and his giant statue was erected in the middle of the city."

"Hahaha! Well, I kinda expected that." Mattheus laughed at Albert's actions.

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"Good job entering the city and getting out. No one suspected you? What's your backstory?" Lhorne asked curiously.

"Just a traveling merchant traveling here, and The soldier will let you in."

"They didn't even ask where you got your wares? Wait, do they even check it?"

"Oh, they checked all of it. Almost got robbed of your expensive teacup sets. But, when I said I was traveling from Valusta, they didn't try to rob me." Jack replied.

"Ahh, are elven goods okay there? I chose the teacup with fewer decorations. But the elves are the only ones who put them on their goods, are they?"

"Ahh, they let it slide. Many traders even outright approached me to ask where I got them. I think we could open a trade route to humans from here."

"That would be a no. We could not invite humans here. They must not know the correct path in the forest." Lhorne gave a clear answer. Everyone nodded.

"Excellent! That means I hold the monopoly of elven goods. We could sell them to everyone and have a lot of money!!" Jack smiled broadly as her eyes seemed like they had turned into gold coins.

"So, where are the profits?" Lily asked, "I am sorry to say, but the profits are not yours. It belongs to the region."

"Well, currently, you guys are on iron deficits, right? So instead of coins, I chose iron wares instead. We could melt them back into iron bars and sell them!" Jack tried to explain his business strategy. We all nodded in understanding.

"Alright. I'll leave it to you. I shall write a letter to Lord Ghander about your findings. When will you travel back to Verundra?"

"Hmm… I am considering returning to Valusta and meeting my brothers and father. I wonder about them. They are still my family, after all."

"Even though they cast you aside like it was nothing?" Mattheus snickered. He seemed allergic when hearing a noble's name, like Jack's father.

"Yes…. I still wanted to meet them." He replied.

"Alright. Tell me the result of your work there too. I doubt Valusta will work with Verundra, but there is a good chance they will work together." Lily said.

"Yeah, they will try to surround and sneak attack us," Mattheus replied.

"They have a conflict of interest, so they might either sabotage the other or race to conquer us." jack put in his advice. Thank you for your permit. I will leave for my hometown tomorrow. Wish me luck, everyone."

"So soon?" Mattheus asked

"He might be missing his family," Nora smirked, which was replied by a bashful smile from him.

"So, Lisey, Lhorne. How much profit are these iron wares?"

"Including the cost of melting them, I'd say we have a profit of about a thousand gold?"

"That would barely put a dent in my debt, wouldn't it?"

"Other merchants would cheer for such a profit, though," Mattheus replied. "What a crazy debt you got into. Even the debt that put me through banditry was barely worth twenty thousand gold."

"Yeah, Mattheus would clear his debt in twenty trips or less than a year if they work hard with that kind of profits…." Nora commented.

"Ugh…. I know. I should be grateful! But I couldn't help but whine." Lily said dejectedly.

A week later, another letter of summons came from Ghander. We were invited to another meeting in Hoeth.

"They sure love calling us back and forth, aren't they?" Lily sighed. "I barely do anything here."

"They must have wanted to ask for information about humans. It is important for Northlandgard Liberation force."

"Let's go then."

We then went on to another high council meeting at Hoeth.