Heirina tried to follow what Zelos had said. It made sense, after all. She couldn’t let herself look desperate while she was doing business since that would make her lose leverage. Still, that was hard when they reached the house of Rattay, and the guards readily let them enter… he knew that they were coming.
As befitting the house of a rich merchant, Rattay’s house was pretty big. It had a large and beautiful garden, and the interior of the building was adorned with curtains, sunstone candleholders, and furniture that looked brand new and high quality. While one of the guards was guiding them to Rattay’s office, Zelos saw some servants carrying some stuff like food to the dining room. While they were wearing new servant clothes, Zelos could see in their arms some harsh scars… They were slaves. He didn’t know if they were former slaves or not, but considering their current tired and emotionless expressions, he would guess that they still were slaves.
It wasn’t like he didn’t see them anymore… he could see them pretty often if he tried. Still, that didn’t mean that Zelos had to like it or get used to it. Zelos knew well that once someone starts to get used to the things that they hate or despise, it is when the person himself would begin to change for the worse.
“Ah, thank you for coming, my dear. I also offer my deepest apologies for not receiving you earlier today. My guards informed me of your intentions, but I was busy with some meetings. Please, have a seat.”
Once they arrived at Rattay’s office, they found him sitting in front of a table filled with documents. The place was pretty organized, so it didn’t seem like he had been working a lot that day.
Rattay was a man in the middle of his thirties. Despite his troublesome actions, he was a tall, fit man with a nice smile. He liked to earn money with his schemes that were still under the law, but instead of wasting away using his money, he apparently liked to use it to expand his empire.
“Thank you for welcoming us. I am Heirina, the daughter of the leader of the Hei clan. We buy your ingots from time to time.”
“Ah, yes. I will never forget one of our clients. Although Hei usually sends an underling to do business with me, I am happy to see his grown daughter that eventually will take his place. You do look like someone smart who will make your clan grow a lot more once you take it over.”
Zelos studied the man with his arms crossed. He wasn’t good at talking with others; he preferred to be alone with his thoughts, but he could tell that Rattay was pretty good at talking since that was the bread and butter of making business. He praised Heirina while also diminishing Hei a bit, which would make some people feel like they could do better than their elders, and their decisions couldn’t be wrong either. It was the perfect way to control someone’s actions.
Still, Heirina didn’t let that get to her head… she was actually annoyed that he was bashing her dead in front of her. That being said, she didn’t show that; she just stayed silent while smiling with her eyes closed, and she stayed like that for a while.
“... Well… how can I help you?”
“We want the same amount of ingots as we usually buy. One thousand of them ready as soon as possible.”
“I see… usually, I can tell to some extent how much and when my clients are going to buy more. So, this caught me off guard a bit. Hei usually buys the same amount every six months, but it has been only four months since the last time he bought from me. At the same time, some people bought from me recently, so I am a bit out of stock.”
“When exactly will you have what we need?”
“I should be able to have that much ready in a month. There are other people who asked me to send them the ingots as soon as they are ready, after all. Things will be busy for a while around here.”
One could almost see a shadow appearing on Heirina’s face. That was obviously bullshit… one wouldn’t keep their warehouse closed with a lot of guards if it was empty. In the small likelihood that he wasn’t lying, he would be nervous for not having enough manpower to produce the ingots faster. Hiring more people would be wiser instead of losing money like that.
“I understand, we came at a bad time. What should we do?”
“I don’t usually do this, but I know that the Hei clan needs the ingots. Your clan is always standing out during the battles, after all. I would hate to see you faring poorly, thanks to my business. Besides, it would be a waste to come this far and return empty-handed. I can offer you around seven hundred ingots, but since I can’t delay my deliveries to my other clients, I will have to hire more people to help. As such, I will have to sell those seven hundred by the usual value I sell the one thousand to your father. You help me, and I help you.”
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That seemed reasonable…, but since it was bullshit, Heirina felt like slamming his desk with her fists and then smashing his head on it as well. She could only accept that much disrespect… she was basically being called an idiot for assuming that she would believe that story.
“It seems that we have a problem here… our recruits this year are quite numerous, and we can’t equip all of them with only that many ingots. We don’t go cheap with the lives of those who fight with us.”
“I understand that,”
“With that in mind, I wonder if we will be able to participate in the next conflict. Moving out and defending other territories is something that we can do with ease, but not unarmed and unarmored. It seems that we might focus this time on protecting our lands or perhaps attacking the enemies’ territory while they are busy somewhere else. The last time, they attacked close to our territory and Captain Lua’s. Thanks to that, they ended up losing a lot of people killed and being captured despite their good tactics. They are smart, so I wonder where they will attack next.”
“... I am not a military man… but I believe that an attack where the enemy is the weakest is the best option.”
“Indeed… it seems that the territory between our clan and the natives seems like the best option. After that, they will try to establish their foothold by going north against us or going south toward this territory here. The villages will go down easily, but this town will last for a while.”
The smile began to disappear from Rattay’s face. It made a lot of sense. Heading further into the country’s territory wouldn’t be wise since the enemies would eventually find themselves surrounded. The south would be the best target since the natives can’t be controlled, and the north has the Hei clan as its core. All the population will fight alongside them to support Hei since he was a good leader. All in all, the chances of Rattay losing the town that he had invested in to make his fortune would be lost and pretty much all of his resources as well… that was the price for him deciding to become the richest man there instead of diversifying the location of his resources.
“That doesn’t seem like a good outcome for me… I don’t think that you are doing that, but I need to ask: are you threatening me, Heirina?”
“Not at all. I am just telling you what could happen if we fail or other clans fail to get ready for the next confrontation. You should know that it is coming faster than anyone predicted. This isn’t good for anyone. We who fight at the front lines don’t ask people to support us for free, but we don’t like when our lives are taken lightly. When push comes to the shove, we all only have the real obligation to protect our territories. We fight the common enemy when we agree about the dangers of the common enemy.”
Rattay studied Heirina in silence for a while. At the same time, the others had a hard time preventing the smile from appearing on their faces. Heirina was hot-blooded, but she wasn’t stupid. If she manages to learn how to use that side of hers, perhaps Rattay’s words wouldn’t be far from off the mark, despite his intentions of just flattering her.
“... I will see what I can do about this. Tomorrow, I will send a message to the inn where you are staying.”
“Thank you very much, and I am sorry for taking too much of your time.”
In the end, they received what they came to buy the next morning.
“I am impressed, Captain. I am very ashamed to say that I never saw that one coming.”
“You wouldn’t find anyone that knows her that wouldn’t find that very weird coming from her.”
“Shut up, Zelos. Well, I can say that you have a point. I don’t show my intellect often. Regardless, I do have my moments like everyone else.”
“It has been raining a lot lately, so it makes sense.”
Heirina grunted in annoyance at the fact that Zelos didn’t waste a single chance to get on her nerves. Regardless, she soon improved her mood since they crossed the gates of the city a little afternoon after they had their lunch. Her plan had worked and now they could return home with some extra time.
In the middle of the morning, some guards guided them from the inn to the warehouse where they stacked the ingots on the wagon of the group. They actually sold things for them with a bit of extra discount, but Heirina refused and told the guards to pass the message that they were all allies, and there was no need to be fearful of each other. She felt pretty good at coming out of that mess as the biggest person.
In any case, once the group left the town, they raised their guard since they didn’t hear anything about the prisoner being captured. The feeling only got tenser the next day when they arrived at the next territory. It was unlikely that the situation there would have improved much, and now they had valuable cargo with them. While coins were more valuable in times of peace, ingots like that were more valuable in times of war.
“Our speed dropped considerably thanks to the ingots. Captain, I think that we should slow down a bit in order not to hurt the horses.”
“Makes sense… hurting them would make our traveling speed get much worse. We are fine taking one extra day to return home, after all.”
Since that was the case, Zelos thought that it would be fine to do some training in the wagon. There was some space on the back, but soon, he decided to stop when he heard a small crack after a few swings under his feet. The wagon was reinforced with iron below, but the wood above still could be damaged.
After sighing, Zelos saw Kaitrine looking at him. She had been pretty silent since they left the town, but it was better than her usual self. It felt like no one was going to ask her what was going on, so Zelos thought for a second about asking that, but it seemed too troublesome.
In the end, Zelos decided to walk to strengthen his legs. That was a good exercise with the weight of the club on his back and the iron marbles on his waist. Before long, his stamina began to drop. Then he slowly used his magic.