Chapter 12

Chapter 12. Merchant Sabina (2)

“If you take the weapons back with you, they’ll rust during the long voyage, and you’ll have to repair them before selling them anyway. In that case, you might as well hand them over to us.”

“What kind of nonsense is that? Who does that?”

Sabina crossed her arms as if dumbfounded and glared at him.

“You only need to avoid selling the weapons to us, right? Then you can say you only delivered them.”

“Delivered them?”

“We’ll say we ordered them directly from the Batu tribe guild that made the weapons. Sabina’s merchant company only shipped them by the crate and didn’t know what was inside.”

“Ah......”

Only then did Sabina let out a small sound of understanding. In other words, they would agree that Jacques had dealt directly with the Batu tribe who made the weapons, and Sabina’s merchant company had only acted as the delivery agent.

“We’ll pay the merchant company only the delivery fee, and we’ll write the payment for the goods to the Batu tribe guild as a promissory note.”

In public, Sabina would hand over the weapons as though she had only handled the delivery, and Jacques would write a promissory note to the Batu tribe guild as payment for the goods. Aslaf was suggesting that they use the form of a triangular transaction, with Sabina taking the promissory note and using it when dealing with the Batu tribe.

“Hmm......”

Sabina licked her lips, tempted by the proposal.

It was a far better choice than loading the weapons back up and returning with them. Even if Marquis Sigrid found out later, she could show the promissory note and insist that Jacques had traded with the Batu tribe and that they knew nothing about it.

“Then please write a promissory note paying the Batu tribe guild.”

She intended to leave firm evidence that Jacques had bought and sold with the Batu tribe, then settle accounts with the Batu tribe later.

“Of course. Let’s go make the contract.”

Aslaf led her to Jacques’s arms shop.

When Jacques saw her and the goods she had brought, he was so shocked that his jaw nearly dropped.

“Miss Sabina? How are you here......?”

When the gleaming crates of weapons were set down in the shop, Jacques was so moved that he could not continue speaking.

“Ohh, Batangkara’s famous sword.”

After acquiring the finest weapons for the first time in fifteen years, Jacques grew so excited that tears even welled in his eyes as he stroked the sword.

“It has truly been so long. To think I would hold such a fine sword again.”

After hearing Aslaf’s explanation of the transaction method, Jacques thanked Sabina.

“Thank you for understanding my circumstances.”

“In the future, if there are weapons you need, please write an order to the Batu tribe and send it to me. Then I’ll handle only the purchasing agency and delivery.”

They wrote the promissory note, stamped it with a seal, and shook hands.

“But how did you decide so readily to trade with us when this is the first time we’ve met? You said your father told you not to.”

At Jacques’s question, Sabina hesitated, then answered with a gentle smile.

“My father sometimes talks about Alexei I, and he says that contrary to what people say, he was a good man. If you were Alexei I’s arms dealer, I thought you could be trusted.”

She waved her hand and awkwardly trailed off.

“Ah, right. Father told me not to talk about Alexei I anywhere. But it should be all right with you, Master Jacques, right?”

There were people everywhere who had good memories of Alexei I. However, all of them hid their feelings and lived while turning away from one another. Taking the side of Alexei I, who had already been branded a traitor who colluded with barbarians and killed, would not only be useless, but would clearly invite persecution from Georg and Sigrid.

“Thank you. I will not forget this favor.”

Jacques repeatedly thanked Sabina.

And after she returned, he called Aslaf over and praised him.

“How did you manage to accomplish such a difficult transaction? To bring in goods from a famous merchant company so easily. I’ll separately pay you ten percent of the sales profit from the goods you procure as a performance bonus.”

Jacques patted Aslaf’s shoulder with satisfaction.

He contacted long-time regular customers and introduced and sold the weapons he had purchased from Sabina. Since they had not traded for a long time, the customers hesitated at first, but once they actually came and saw the weapons, they bought them, saying they liked them very much.

“Your eye hasn’t grown rusty. It’s not easy to find such a fine spear at this price.”

“The armor fits me perfectly. It’s very comfortable.”

Thanks to customers who trusted Jacques’s eye, the arms shop gradually saw its sales rise and slowly began to regain some of its old bustle.

After that, whenever Sabina came, she supplied them with the Batu tribe’s finest weapons.

Aslaf also received a ten-percent performance bonus from the profits on the weapons procured from Sabina, as well as his regular wage, so he was able to save money fairly quickly.

The year changed, and Aslaf turned sixteen.

“Miss Sabina, thank you for bringing the goods I asked for. So I secured something in advance that you’ll like.”

When goods Sabina would like arrived in Pordis, Aslaf investigated them in advance and told her.

Sabina’s merchant company sailed along the port cities on the southern coast of the Empire, loading goods in one place and going to another to sell them. Pordis was one of those ports of call.

What she bought in Pordis were carpets woven from native sheep’s wool raised by the Yeon tribe and water buffalo horns used as material for bows. Aslaf checked the market prices several days before she arrived, wrote them down, and handed them to her so she could choose good goods. Thanks to that, Sabina could quickly bargain for and buy fine goods.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I bought a wonderful carpet again. You have an eye for works of art.”

Sabina praised the carpet Aslaf had picked out, saying that thanks to him, she had bought one with colors and patterns she liked.

“As expected, the Gypsy tribe really does have a special eye for goods.”

It was praise, but it was also a remark that pointed out his gypsy blood. Even though Aslaf merely shrugged and said nothing in particular, Sabina realized her slip of the tongue, blushed, and quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry. I meant it as thanks... I don’t feel very good either when someone says I’m good at calculation because I’m Shan.”

Most merchants who lived in the southern cities of the Empire were Shan. In the Empire, though they were a wealthy minority group, they tended to be looked down on as greedy traders.

The prevailing view was that the Shan were blue-eyed and intelligent, but cold-blooded and selfish. Of course, just like the belief that the Gypsy tribe constantly stole and lied, that was prejudice. Nevertheless, deep-rooted prejudice was fixed in people’s minds.

As the war dragged on and life became harsher, racial discrimination grew even more rampant. The public needed a target on which to vent their anger and resentment toward an unsatisfactory reality, and the nobles spread prejudice and rumors, turning the arrows toward minorities within the Empire such as the Gypsy tribe, the Shan, and the Yeon tribe.

“Well, it’s all right.”

Aslaf laughed it off because he knew Sabina did not discriminate against him. If she discriminated against the Gypsy tribe, she would never have opened a transaction with Aslaf in the first place.

Rather, Sabina looked favorably at Aslaf, who went ahead and handled things she had not even thought of, such as checking market prices and handing them to her.

Whenever she came to Pordis, she always called Aslaf and took him around with her, asking him to help choose goods. Even though she had done the work alone before, she specifically called him and walked around with him.

“Thank you. Oh, I have a gift for you.”

When he helped load the goods she had bought onto the ship, Sabina brought a small box from the cabin and held it out to him. She often gave him fruit from southern islands that could not be tasted in Pordis, or sweets made in other cities.

“You don’t have to take care of me like this every time. I’m only helping since I’m here.”

Aslaf declined and did not readily reach out his hand. Since Sabina kept showering him with gifts like this, continuing to accept them felt burdensome. But giving her gifts in return was awkward too. Though she was Shan and a commoner, Sabina was the daughter of a wealthy merchant family. She was not someone a gypsy like him could casually give gifts to. It was better not to do anything that might cause needless misunderstandings.

“Why? Do you dislike receiving gifts from me?”

Sabina pouted as if hurt.

“No. Of course not.”

Aslaf shook his head and accepted the gift from her.

Through Sabina, who transported goods to many cities, it seemed he could earn money by buying and selling goods other than weapons as well.

However, the problem was his status. Since he was a gypsy and young besides, not many people would readily trust him and open transactions. Even Sabina, who was favorably disposed toward him, was conscious of his gypsy blood. Ordinary people would look down on his bloodline even more and refuse to deal with him. Even if he wanted to trade, he needed to raise his status.

‘It seems I have to become a noble.’

If he was officially acknowledged as Baron Lenke’s son, he would no longer be treated as a gypsy.

‘Yes. A noble. Fine, I’ll become one right now.’

Aslaf clenched his fist. Having decided to become a noble, he thought about the method.

‘But how?’

For a commoner to become a noble, the fastest path was to distinguish oneself in war. Like his father, Baron Lenke, one would win in battle with exceptional martial prowess, be recognized as a knight, and cleanse one’s status by marrying a fallen noble.

‘Is there no faster way?’

Since there was a war against the Yeon tribe, he could participate in battle, but it would be difficult for a sixteen-year-old boy all alone to achieve great military merit. Even if he volunteered, it was obvious they would make him attend to a knight or use him for errands. Another problem was that his body was not yet fully grown, so he lacked strength and could not handle a sword skillfully. And against the Yeon tribe, who rode quickly across the plains while shooting arrows, swordsmanship was not a particularly effective method of attack.

The war against the Yeon tribe had continued for sixteen years, taking the form of entering a lull and then counterattacking whenever they launched a surprise attack. Everyone was gradually growing exhausted, and hardliners who insisted on invading the Yeon tribe’s stronghold and breaking their momentum were locked in a tense confrontation with those who argued for peace negotiations.

‘If you want to catch a tiger, you have to enter the tiger’s den.’

Aslaf decided to solve the Empire’s troublesome problem and raise his status.

Since he had decided to become a noble, he put it into practice at once.

He listened closely to the conversations of the nobles and knights who came to the arms shop, watching for opportunities to join in.

The knights under Marquis Sigrid had differing opinions among themselves on how to deal with the Yeon tribe, whom they had been fighting for sixteen years.

“Even if we hold peace negotiations with the Yeon tribe, can we trust them? Their tactic is to launch a surprise attack when we let our guard down.”

“Even so, we need a ceasefire for at least a few months. Right now, everyone has gone to the battlefield, there’s no one left to farm, and the country has been devastated. We can’t live like this.”

“Still, we have to teach the Yeon tribe a lesson at least once before they stop thinking of invading. At this rate, who knows when the war will end?”

“It’s too hard for the Duchy of Gironde alone. We have to request help from the Duchy of Galleon or the emperor.”

“They say the Duchy of Galleon can’t help because of the Rong tribe.”

The Empire was being threatened simultaneously by the Rong tribe in the north and the Yeon tribe in the east.

The Rong tribe was a barbarian tribe that lived in the northern mountain region of the Empire. Whenever there was a bad harvest or it became difficult to survive, the Rong tribe plundered the northern part of the Empire. The Empire had also sent armies several times to annihilate them and burn their villages, so relations were poor.

At present, under a ceasefire with the Rong tribe, trade was permitted and things were quiet enough, but even during peaceful periods, whenever border security in the Empire grew lax and showed an opening, they would suddenly invade and sweep away wealth.

“Isn’t the Rong tribe just an excuse? The Duchy of Galleon doesn’t want to concern itself with our affairs.”

“It seems like an excuse to me too, but it’s true the Rong tribe plunders from time to time. If the Rong tribe crosses the border, it won’t take long for them to reach the Duchy of Gironde either.”

“That’s true. If the Yeon tribe draws our army deep to the east and the Rong tribe invades from the north in the meantime, our home will be completely robbed while empty.”

Aslaf quietly joined their conversation and added a solution.

“What about negotiating peace with the Rong tribe so they cannot invade, and then fighting the Yeon tribe in the meantime?”

“Negotiate peace with the Rong tribe?”

The knights looked at Aslaf. They were already somewhat used to talking with Aslaf, who had worked at the arms shop for nearly a year. Though he was a commoner, they knew he was as skilled in martial arts as a knight, and that he possessed broad knowledge not only of weapons, but also of war and politics.

“Have a special peacekeeping period with the Rong tribe.”

Aslaf solved the issue they were worrying over while steering the conversation in the direction he wanted.