It took over an hour until the expert came. Rather miffed to be called so early into the job his gray beard looks slightly less groomed as he would like.
“So you called for a specific expert? Hope you do not waste my time.”
Rather annoyed he walks over to the table and scrutinizes the produce. Noticing the higher than normal Mana inside he got serious and looks at it professionally. Different kind of instruments were used, showing his rather meager magical abilities but alchemical prowess.
“High purity Mana with strong interweaving of elemental water. Exceedingly rare find. This must have been grown in a pure Mana well with no disturbance over months at least. Where did you find it?”
“It was grown in the Field of a specific Lord, which Name would want to stay anonymous and would not even ring a bell if I said him.”
“Nonsense! If this is cultivated, it should be in a known Field with high Mana, and most will be used for precious herbs! This is produce, and not even worth that much.”
“Last time I got one large gold per Kilo. Do you say it is worth way less?”
That shut him up for a second.
“Where did you sell it to?”
“Kilt. The expert was from Kindek and put their Mercenaries on my trail to rob me.”
“Over there? Yeah, that makes sense, they are looking for someone recently, might be you. I am Rendlar, Vice President of the branch in Halk. If you want to sell it, you might get that price for a unique species, but you just said it was not unique, as you already sold this kind of plant. I would still buy it for five Gold per Kilo of both root and rice and even make a contract with you.”
Not what I hoped for, but it is logical. Uniqueness makes something valuable, but if it is just rare, it will drop in price.
“Eight Gold should be fine, and what about the contract?”
“Six Gold, as the contract will give you direct selling of this kind of produce right to us without appraisal and we will keep our mouths shut about your involvement, this means we will send it to Meldek directly and from there it will be sold to further hide your tracks.”
“Why would I want to keep my tracks hidden? Seven and five silver.”
“No, Six is fine, as you definitely do not want to be known, otherwise you would have told us openly where it came from, without hiding the true origin. We still have the risk of you sending us fakes or more we can handle. If we set it too high, you will break our budget.”
“What makes you think that.”
“You mentioned fields, not experimental garden. This is definitely a produce in large quantity… right?”
Damn, I got caught!
“...OK, six Gold. How much can you stomach?”
“A hundred Kilo per Month combined should be a start. The Magistrate does need many mana intense food products for their Mages to supply them, but this produce is not known for now. Also we need to show it to the Markets in other countries to see how they would like a high Mana food product. Anything else you would like to sell? We take this here serious now.”
“Not at the moment. But if we have something new, we will send it in a sample size.”
“This will be doable. If you do need anything more, we would like you to just ask and we waive the wholesale fee for the search. With whom do I have made a deal right now, dear Lord?”
“Why the sudden Lord? I am just the messenger.”
“No, you are the Lord, as no messenger would have the authority to just accept a deal like this without asking back.”
Am I stupid? I did not even notice him wringing me out for Information! Vice President is a true merchant it seems.
“My Name is Lord Null. If I am incognito I go with the Name Ava for now.”
“Lord Null… You are right, your Name is not known to me. I will still remember it. Please come to my office, we will make this official with a writ and give a special sign for directly bypassing the counter next time. By the way, this contract is only valid inside our branch. Albeit we are the same Franchise, all of us are working on their own highest revenue. If you ever go to our main branch you might tell them you are an acquaintance of Rendlar in Halk, it might help you to get to the right connection for a direct sell there, but otherwise other Peddler Kings will not know enough.”
While we are walking to his office he told me the whole limitations and how I can at least sell in Meldek if needed. I did not know there is even infighting between branches. I thought it was more of a huge corporation holding the reigns tight.
The ‘contract’ was just a small understanding for both of us to have the right to buy/sell my produce for the told money, if I sell them fakes like no magical versions, they will stop buying and if I think I do not need them anymore I can also just stop selling. It is more a verbal promise in that way, but held in faith for profit on both sides. Complicated contracts do not exist it seems, but they might stop buying if I do not regularly sell or they lose money.
I get a piece of leather with the seal of the vice President seared in and the selling amount written down. Also it has a sign for a kind of VIP on it, telling assistants to directly bring them to a more tight lipped assistant. It will not hold all rumors from circulating, but will stop the knowledge of valuable transports happening from leaking to bandits. I appreciate that, and need to find a way to transport a hundred Kilos for the sixty large Gold next time.
“For now I can bring the first large batch in two weeks. I need some things in that time frame though.”
“And what would that be, Lord Null?”
“Various cloths, pots, pans, cups, bowls, cauldrons, farming equipment, Books to learn reading, processed leather, clothing in different sizes for Farmers, lamps and lamp oil, lots of bandages without healing moss and some with healing moss applied.”
“Are you building a town? No, I do not want to know. I would suggest some nails too and string will always be a necessity.”
“Alright those too. As we can not transport much at first it should not be over 200 kilos of traveling goods.”
“This should be no problem, I will see to give the most needed things in a starting Village most attention. Do not worry, Lord.”
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Well he is shrewd. Albeit I did not say it, he just suspects me of building a Village or Town. Well I do, but as he did not really ask, we have each other deniability if any of it gets leaked, as no one ever said something truly about it. The only thing is to remember to never trust a Merchant, as they always look for their own wallet first. Peddler King is mostly honest, but that does not mean anything in the hindsight of profit.
…
While hurrying up through the food shacks Robert and I buy as much food as we can carry and start our journey right inside the town. Some members of their distant families seem to live here and have other jobs.
While talking to the people the whole ‘family’ part is no real help to convince them in coming with us to a not mentioned village. Trust is never high even between cousins, but a mason with his two daughters and Wife have agreed to come with us, as Blue Ice uses their own to renovate the Fort in the middle of the town and see the writings on the wall, that they might be pushed out later.
We even explained the dangers, and that the place has some demerits, but not what kind of. The Parents were rather pushy in the way, that they want to go before they have to ‘sell’ their daughters. They do not want to give them away in wedding, as the ones who want them are rather old people with multiple wives already.
Understanding their plight, I take them with me after they packed their belongings and we go out of town.
…
“And you say, we will have work, food and shelter just by going with you? That is too good to be true, even a child would not fall for it!”
“There are problems with the Land, and going back would be for the time impossible, so take those as the catch.”
“That sounds way too dangerous.”
The discussion between Robert and the Farmers is rather heated. As I already said, trust is hard to come by.
“And where should this place be?”
“My Lord, made me promise not to tell the full location for now, but it is further into the Forest.”
“The DARK Forest? Are you insane!”
“No, there is a hidden valley, where things can grow and is protected against most Monsters. Some snakes are there, but get culled by Sn… the senior residents.”
I would not believe him either. Maybe Robert was the wrong kind of person to take?
…
Five Families took our offer. They were more lucky with the raids, but lost some Sons by fighting back and all their livestock. Most had the common sense to hide their women and just gave them their food and belongings but would fight to the death if the Bandits go too far.
Even if they have nothing of value, they at least have more than the last ones. Most of the Food was distributed to the Farmers, the Families who came with us got more, but the rest was given to the staying farmers as a little help for a better future. This helped at least to numb the voices to the families I took to reconsider this dangerous gamble, and they just wished them luck.
Traveling with such a large group made it hard, and complains were heard of how deep we already are in the most scary place, they never really wanted to go.
…
In the night there were a few monsters lurking, but after seeing flying lightning blades they rather looked elsewhere for a meal. Right at that moment the complains were also silenced and no one even dared to look me in the eye again. Ava is not even a mage, but just using tools made them think of me as a kind of being higher above them in any way. While the people in Telk are worked to the bone, the awe and propaganda seems rather over the top. Well there is the freedom in what they want to do and the rather low slavery rate only seen in very few Mage castes.
When we finally reach the tunnel most of them were exhausted, as we did the whole travel as fast as we could to minimize the danger. I do not understand why the danger is so low right now, but maybe it is because of the winter and the Monster going inward the Forest to keep warm? Maybe something else, but I can not put my finger on it.
Coming inside fresh food for the frozen people was already started to be made, as I had told with Red of our return. Leafy was shocked to see me, as I was officially out, she did not know I could just pop back like that, but composed herself quickly to make the people start cooking some food and boil water.
The heartfelt greeting was a nice touch for the families, and notice some familiar faces around. It took a while for them to bond and ask how they were doing. After the rest and relaxing atmosphere the whole shocking truth was revealed to the new residents.
…
“We will be cursed too!?”
“I had known, there must be a horrible secret here. This is worse than I thought!”
The people were rather incensed about hearing of the Mana burn, but are already here. Calming them down was not easy, as they felt right now like a prisoner in the middle of the most dangerous place they could imagine.
“Mana burn is not as bad, as it is told. As you see we have some glowing scars, but what of it? Just put some ointment on it and wrap it. Warts are more annoying.”
“We talk about a CURSE you fool! A wart is just some skin rash going bad, but that is corrupting the Soul!”
Huh, they do not know what warts really are and the same about Mana burn… or are they right and it messes with the Soul or spirit body? Maybe I should disassemble… No, not yet, they would be wondering where one of their people just went and all will go to waste.
“There is no curse.”
I interject.
“Mana burn is happening, when someone eats or drinks things with too much Mana inside. Have you seen someone eat just one thing the whole time and suddenly smell different or start having a strange kind of look on them?”
“Well, yes. Old barney ate nearly only his own onions for a long while. He never understood why we never got too near to him, as if he could not smell it. But that is different, Lord!”
“Not really. It just looks ghastly, but has no really bad effects. Look at the people. Do you see any other ominous thing? If they did not take the bandages off, you would not even see some kind of difference.”
“And what if not?”
“Have you ever seen someone with Mana burn? It is told in scary tales, but many tales you already know are just to make children stay away from things. This is the same. If you get Mana burn you have eaten something valuable for Mages, and they hate to know you wasted something.”
That was a half lie. I suspect it is the reasoning for the scary stories about Mana burn, but I can not be sure.
“Then the things here are too valuable to eat Lord! What should we do?”
“For me they are not. Just eat the pickled and dried kinds, while putting water in container to make it less Mana intensive over time. You are now living here and have the right to be satiated.”
That was met with confusion. They did not know they have a right to food.
“Here I do not want my Residents to be hungry. You can eat enough to not feel the pain of hunger, as long as you do not destroy our own food source. We need also some of the things to sell. Later we will put in order a tax, but right now we build this place up and it would be detrimental.”
“But… The burns.”
Still not convinced?
“Belk, do they hurt?”
“No, my Lord. Just itch from time to time.”
“Robert, have you any problems?”
“My hand is still working, even if there is this scar on it. Nothing to worry about, my Lord.”
“What about you Anna?”
“Me, my Lord!? Um… There is this annoying itch, but otherwise it is nothing. I hate just, that my scar is on the back where I can barely reach to scratch.”
A few giggles were heard, when I asked Roberts daughter.
“As you see, there is no burn. It itches maybe like some Wart, but we make our own salve to take care of it. Just wrap them up and when something worse happens, I will look for a solution.”
“Lord did look out for everyone of us. No one was turned away and he encourages us even to say if there is some discomfort. He had made the salve for the itching.”
Well it was rather easy to make. We have some numbing weeds which use it in different ways to sneak seeds in fur or catch prey. Just diluting it makes it usable.
“We will not be able to go back for now, right Lord?”
“As I try to keep this place hidden from robbers and other Mages who want to take it for themselves, yes. You should know even if you do not have magical knowledge how precious this place is.”
“Yes Lord. Well we already made the deal. We will follow and live here.”
They seem to abate for now. Hopefully they do not try to run. This would be problematic later on.