Chapter 44 – Business Negotiations II

“I apologize for making you come all the way here.” (Almis)

“No, please. There’s no way I could make a prominent clan of the Rosyth Kingdom go out of their way.” Ains says cheerfully.

He purposely came all the way here after I sent him a letter telling him I’ll be inquiring about things I wanted to buy a week later.

“It’s getting late so please stay the night. We’ll be having a great feast, country-style!” (Almis)

“Then I shall take you up on your offer. We leave the negotiations for tomorrow.” (Ains)

At this night’s dinner…

I first introduced everyone by seating order. First is me at the seat of honor, at the second seat is Tetra, and at the third seat is Ains.

It’s normally the guest who should sit at the seat of honor but it’s one of those things that tend to happen if one is the feudal lord.

The next seats are occupied by Ron, Roswald, Gram, Soyon, and then Lulu. There’s really no deep meaning in the order.

And lastly would be Bolus, is what I wanted to say but he’s currently at a border fort under a new assignment. So, this time he’s absent.

Now, for the very important dinner menu!

First is the staple, white bread. I dare say this is the most delicious bread in this world today. We also prepared salt and honey, though I think everyone would probably go for the honey.

Next, are the appetizers which will start with the salad. We have vegetables from the Ars Territory, vegetables and mushrooms from the mountains and some olive. It’s supplemented with fish caught from the river and snail boiled in salt water. Though I won’t be eating any of it.

Next is the main course. We will have a fat pig we slaughtered just for the occasion. It’s a pig meat dish.

They eat a lot of pigs in this region. I was told the teats and womb of a virgin female pig were particularly exquisite. Although they say that, it doesn’t sound particularly delicious to me.

I guess it’s just a matter of taste around these parts.

Next is dessert – fruits, particularly grapes and such. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to prepare sugar so I couldn’t make some pudding. I wanted to wow everyone after all.

Last is the most important – drinks. Specifically, the spirits.

I feel bad for Ains but I’m gonna have him taste test it for me. Will it be well received as expected?

“Cough…cough…Ah, I apologize. This liquor…is quite strong, yes? Though, it looks just like wine…” (Ains)

“They’re called spirits. How are they?” (Almis)

Ains answers as he slowly drinks the liquor.

“If you could have known it beforehand that it would be strong then…Haahh, this throat burning-like sensation might become a habit. Just that…it seems like you could get drunk immediately even though you’ve only drank a few. I’ll have to take note of this… By the way, this one would be…?” (Ains)

“Although I can’t reserve that much, if it’s just a little then you can go and sell them. Let’s talk about it tomorrow.” (Almis)

Ains lowers his head as an apology as I said so.

“By the way, has the Dragon Damascus Sword proven useful?” (Ains)

“Hmm…well…” (Almis)

I haven’t been able to use it that much…I primarily use a spear after all. I guess the only time I used it was when I cut King Ferrum’s head off, huh? I’m the type who believes some things are better left unsaid so…

“By the way, what kind of place is the Cretian Peninsula? If you don’t mind, could you please tell me about it?” (Almis)

I forcibly change the topic a little. But it’s true that I’m interested. We spent who knows how many years secluded in the forest after all so we’re a little uninformed about the area.

“The Cretian Peninsula, is it? Well, the climate is about the same as the Adernia Peninsula. The number of city-states in the peninsula exceed a hundred and each of them repeatedly make and break war and alliances with each other.” (Ains)

I see. It’s pretty much the same as the Adernia Peninsula.

“Well, yes, for the most part. The difference is each city-state is enclosed and protected by stone walls. Furthermore, should an external enemy invade the peninsula, each city-state would immediately cease all hostilities with each other and unite to repel the enemy.” (Ains)

“It’s been a hundred years since the northern part of the Adernia Peninsula was dominated by the Gauls. Despite that, the southern states have remained in constant state of war.” (Almis)

There’s a place called Gaul further up north the Adernia Peninsula. The Rozel Kingdom, a Kingdom of the Gauls, has begun its invasion of the Adernia Peninsula.

It already seized the northern half of the peninsula and is continuing its advance southwards. Furthermore, the three kingdoms being pressured by the Rozel Kingdom – the De Morgal Kingdom, the Gillbed Kingdom, and the Fardam Kingdom are forced to move southwards. And in the south, is our Rosyth Kingdom meaning my territory is also under threat.

It’s a collision course, huh.

Should the various countries of South Adernia cooperate, then they would probably be able to push the Rozel Kingdom back. Well, it’s probably impossible.

“By the way, Lord Almis, where did you learn the Cretian language?” (Ains)

“From Tetra. She’s half-Cretian after all.” (Almis) Although before that, I relied on the divine protection.

“Really?…May I inquire the name of your mother?” (Ains)

Tetra assents to Ains’ inquiry.

“She’s goes by the name Helena. I was told it was love at first sight with my father when she traveled here to the Ars Territory.” (Tetra)

“Madame Helena, is it…?” (Ains)

Ains drinks liquor as he mutters Helena, Helena.

“All I can imagine, when I hear about Cretia, is a very advanced country…but does it currently have a foreign enemy?” (Almis)

Cretian city walls are all made of stone. Only a few countries could achieve that in the Adernia peninsula.

Even though they have that much technological strength, I wonder if they would still have anything like external enemies?

“Yes, of course. There’s a lot aiming their sights on very wealthy Cretia. Most notable of them all are the Persis Empire and Povenia.” (Ains)

“Persis Empire? Povenia?”

I’ve never heard of them, huh. More importantly, where are they located?”

I can’t imagine it as anything but located even farther than Cretia.

“Povenia is just a stone’s throw away from the Adernia Peninsula. Do you know that there’s an island called Trisqueria a little south of the peninsula? Povenia is just a little farther south of that island.” (Ains)

Ains drinks more liquor.

“They’ve been doing international maritime trade in the Tethys Sea since long ago. They haven’t been very pleased with us Cretians taking away that trading. We’re always at war, you know? Well, we’re in the process of making the Tethys Sea our sea right now, anyway.” (Ains)

The liquor seems to have made Ains drunk as he continued to bad mouth Povenia.

“How about the Persis Empire?” (Almis)

“The Persis Empire is…a huge country to the east of Cretia. These fellows are a really greedy bunch, you see. They invaded Cretia twice, you know. The first with 200,000 men, the second with around 300,000. Well, they’re just numbers anyway.” (Ains)

200,000 and 300,000…

The Rosyth Kingdom can’t even compare in scale.

Naturally, that’s probably not even the whole army. They should have 10,000 men-strong divisions stationed somewhere their vast border regions. The whole army would probably number around 400,000, no?

Even if all the tribes of the Rosyth Kingdom cooperate, we won’t be able to assemble anything more than 50,000 personnel. You can’t win no matter how hard you try.

But it’s a country even farther than the Cretian Peninsula so there probably won’t be any chances that we’ll be affected. Keep calm, keep calm.

“But it’s amazing, yes? How did you win against a 300,000-strong great army?” (Almis)

“Hahaha, We Cretians have the God of War on our side after all!” (Ains)

Ains’ mood got better as he told more stories about the Cretian-Persis Wars. He’s completely drunk. He kept on drinking until he passed out at the banquet.

“Ugh…my head…” (Ains)

“Are you all right? Shall I bring you water?” (Almis)

“Please……Hahhah, I apologize. I’ve drunk too much…” (Ains)

Ains smiles bitterly.

“Then, about the spirits…” (Ains)

“I can’t guarantee a lot of them but I can probably have you sell just a few.” (Almis)

For the meantime, we are discussing about the price and the transaction volume. With this, the amount of ways I can secure foreign goods have increased by one.

“Then let’s move on, what were the goods that you would like to request?” (Ains)

“Horses. I want about 300 of them.” (Almis)

“300 horses, yes?…That would be…no…I would be able to prepare them. It’s just…”

Ains seems to hesitate.

“300 horses would be about 1200 gold coins. Would you be able to prepare such a big amount of money? Plus, if you consider the maintenance costs…” (Ains)

If you think about it a gold coin will intuitively be worth around a 1,000,000 yen. Therefore, that would be around 1,200,000,000 yen worth of goods from a Japanese person’s perspective.

Naturally, you won’t be able to prepare this amount of money with just the income of the Ars Territory. The pasture is full of clovers so I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.

“Sir Ains, I know I was just the chief of a small village not too long ago. However, what am I right now?” (Almis)

“…You are now the lord of a big clan contesting the first or second place in the Rosyth Kingdom.” (Ains)

That’s right.

Success like mine doesn’t come as fast like mine even at a global scale.

“At present, my territory is in the process of promoting a system of mass producing paper. Soon, we’ll be able to produce immense quantities of paper. “ (Almis)

“……What are you trying to say?” (Ains)

“I would like to know if we could pay by loan payments, as opposed to lump-sum.”

Ains crosses his arms, seemingly troubled as he heard my question.

“150 gold coins per year. If you pay me that for 25 years then I will accept.” (Ains)

That would be about 2550 gold in interest, huh…That’s about twice the principal loan.

That’s stupid.

You might say, but I really need the horses as soon as possible. There’s no other way.

“Do you have a place to keep them?” (Ains)

“Yes, somewhat.” (Almis)

From the start, the Norfolk Four Course System won’t work without the animals.

“By the way, what would you be using them for?” (Ains)

“Plowing farm lands, transporting luggage, organizing the knights… A lot of things.” (Almis)

I’m thinking of adopting a system of loaning horses to the farmers. Of course, it’ll cost everytime I lend one. You could say that it’ll be a kind of tax.

Generally, I’ll trouble the farmers around the palace. In exchange, I’ll give them preferential right to utilize the horses.

Furthermore, when the horse gives birth, the first foal would have to be returned to the Ars Clan while they could keep the succeeding foals.

The baby horses the Ars Clan received will then be looked after until they grow to a certain extent after which they’ll be entrusted to another farmer.

It’s a plan to slowly introduce the Norfolk Four Course system as well as propagate horses. Just like that, they’ll probably grow several times.

Naturally, you can also gather up and use them as cavalry or cart horses in emergencies.

“Would you also need caretaker slaves? I’ll sell them for cheap, if you buy them together.” (Ains)

“No, I’ll make do with Lia.” (Almis)

Come to think of it, Lia has already served her purpose. Soyon has mastered how to raise up horses after all. There should be no problems if I make that girl oversee the horse rearing. That’s why I don’t need slaves anymore.

Lia ended up taking care of Roswald after she completed her job and got freed from slavery. She’s completely become a housewife. A child would come sometime soon too.

“But since I want to form a cavalry corps…I want people who can ride horses. Doesn’t matter if they’re mercenaries or battle slaves. I need about 50.” (Almis)

At present, there are only thirty people who can decently ride horses. Plus there won’t be problems with assembling about 20 promising and experienced people in Bolus’ group.

If I need to make about 100 cavalry then I’ll need 50 more. I need to compensate for the difference somehow.

“Hmmm, Mercenaries are rigid, yes? I can introduce you to some, but I don’t know If they would be willing to go to the Adernia Peninsula…As expected, battle slaves would be preferable. Actually, we had a skirmish against the Germanis people a month ago and some slaves who could ride horses got listed in the market.” (Ains)

“Then I’ll be taking battle slaves, yes?”

Battle slaves are easy to manage.

It’s pricy in itself, but once you buy them, you won’t have to pay them any more wages.

“Understood. Then it would be 50 battle slaves…It would be 75 gold coins. Shall I add them to the 25-year contract?” (Ains)

“No, I’ll pay for them lump-sum.” (Almis)

Adding 75 gold coins to the loan contract would be somewhat…

“Then I’ll be excusing myself.” (Ains)

Ains lowers his head then exits the room.

As he leaves, he turns his back and says:

“Should you need weapons, please don’t hesitate to call for me immediately.”

Always the businessman, huh.

Author’s Note:

For some reason, I felt like it’s fine not to change “Garia” (Gaul)… the Latin term “Garria” (Gallia) kinda sounds lame.