Is Money Being Copied? (1)
The rumor that the 'Northern Tobacco Corporation' would be listed on the soon-to-open stock market hit the North like a tidal wave.
It wasn't just the wealthy with money to spare; even ordinary households were buzzing.
— "A business run by the Lord himself?"
— "Doesn't that mean there's no risk of it going under?"
— "Let's see... how much spare cash do we have at home?"
Rumor had it that every tavern was packed with people boasting, "Just let the stock market open! I'm going to bring every coin I have and invest it all!"
They were burning with ambition.
"Everyone is waiting with bated breath. Hehe. This is a business that simply cannot fail!"
"First, make sure you're prepared to stock the shelves before we even list on the market."
It was a situation where the mere anticipation could trigger a series of limit-up price surges.
However, Aiden wanted the residents of the North to see the physical goods before investing. Even though the final decision to invest was an individual one, he was wary of the North's overall stock market trend shifting from investment toward pure speculation.
While the main product, cigars, would be difficult to sell immediately, fortunately, selling leaf tobacco and snuff first wouldn't be a problem, so the profit margins themselves should be decent. All things considered, it wasn't a bad choice for the North's first 'national stock'.
"The official notice has also been sent out stating that tobacco cannot be sold individually without going through the Northern Tobacco Corporation."
"Did the merchants accept it?"
"There were only two merchants dealing in tobacco leaves to begin with, so there wasn't much of an issue. Besides, we bought up all their remaining stock at a fair price, so that was settled as well."
He had suddenly monopolized the trade of a specific item, effectively blocking free private commerce, but it seemed there was no particular backlash.
'Things like this are certainly convenient.'
In a world where the Lord's word is law in every region. He had learned later that there were actually very few regions where free trade of alcohol, magic tools, or monster byproducts could occur without going through the Lord's castle.
"Any other problems?"
"There's some dissatisfaction regarding the name, but other than that, expectations are high."
"The name?"
"'Northern Tobacco Corporation' is, well, a bit lacking in romance."
"Romance, my foot. Ugh."
It seemed that to the delicate sensibilities of the Northerners, who would name even a simple inn something like 'Silence in the Storm', 'Northern Tobacco Corporation' was far too literal.
Nevertheless, Aiden had no intention of changing the name.
'It’s important that a public enterprise tells you exactly what it does just by hearing the name. To hell with romance.'
It was a thought typical of Aiden, who always prioritized efficiency.
"How is the cigar production coming along?"
"Ah-. The manual you wrote for us, Administrative Officer, was so detailed. We should have a prototype by tomorrow."
"Is that so?"
Faster than he expected.
Even though he had provided a rough manufacturing method with drawings, it was originally intended for tourist experience products, so the depth should have been severely lacking.
'...Is this actually being done properly?'
Worry began to creep in, but he decided to hold off for now. Since the prototype would be ready by tomorrow, there was no reason to storm the factory now and bother the busy workers.
"Well then, shall we call it a day?"
As he closed the final report and placed it in the box marked 'Completed', Jamie asked, struggling to suppress a grin.
"Wow, leaving work before the sun has even fully set. Administrative Officer, if I go home today, it’ll be the first time in ten days! I’m so moved...!"
"Is it even a home if you only go there once every ten days? Don't do that, just sell it like I told you. There are plenty of spare rooms in the Lord's castle. You can just keep using that room you spend nine out of ten days in. I even had the wallpaper redone."
"...You evil boss."
Jamie pouted, but he diligently packed his bag. For today, Aiden didn't intend to create extra work for him either.
'He has been through a lot lately.'
He didn't know what Roland was up to, as he was out in the field traveling across the North to run the night schools. Certainly, the dark circles under Jamie and Kalisa's eyes had reached a dangerous level lately.
"You'll have a hard time starting tomorrow, so let's call it a day."
It was a historic day of leaving work on time.
***
The next day.
At the crack of dawn, the technicians hired by the Northern Tobacco Corporation arrived at the Lord's castle carrying a large box.
"So, is this what you call a cigar?"
"They say it's made of tobacco leaves... are you telling me this is really made from plant leaves? Sniff, sniff-! Oh, it does smell like tobacco!"
Kalisa picked up one of the dozens of cigars in the box—all different in color, length, and thickness—and stared at it with curious eyes, while Jamie immediately grew suspicious and began sniffing it.
"It couldn't have been easy to shape these. You've worked hard."
Aiden also picked one up, inspected it, and nodded with a very satisfied expression.
As far as craftsmanship went, this was an instant pass.
He wasn't a cigar connoisseur, but he had experience handling high-end products while seeking advice from cigar import companies. Experts might see the flaws, but to the eyes of a non-expert like Aiden, this was more than enough.
"Aren't tobacco leaves and medicinal herb leaves all just grass leaves in the end? I come from a long line of herb gatherers who have dealt with medicinal herbs since my father's father's time. Processing something like this is no problem at all!"
The technician from the Northern Tobacco Corporation, beaming with pride, was a face familiar to Aiden. He was the very same herb gatherer who had told him about the mine being used as a labor camp for prisoners.
After the Myo tribe built a village nearby, he had happily resumed herb gathering. After Lapisha settled in the North, he had begged to be taken on as her apprentice, starting with menial tasks before transitioning into a healer.
He heard from Lapisha later that he was hopeless at healing, but his skill in handling herbs was so incredible that he mastered pharmaceutical methods in the blink of an eye. Then, when spicy flavors became a trend, he underwent another 'transcendent evolution' into a merchant running a spice shop. Lapisha hadn't stopped him because she already knew the man himself was deeply interested in plants.
It meant that Aiden calling him in as the right person for the Northern Tobacco Corporation was no coincidence.
— "Leave it to me! That is exactly the kind of work I wanted to do, Administrative Officer!"
As soon as herb gatherer John heard the proposal, his eyes sparkled, and without a second thought, he handed over his thriving shop to someone else that very day.
"I fully understood the manufacturing method you sent, Administrative Officer, but since the length and thickness weren't clearly defined, I experimented with various shapes."
As he said, the cigars in the box were all cylindrical, but their lengths and thicknesses varied slightly.
"The factory staff and I tasted the samples and pondered it, but it wasn't a problem we could decide on our own... I would be grateful if you could make the decision, Administrative Officer."
"What would I know, not being a smoker myself."
Aiden shrugged and cast an affectionate gaze at his two adjutants, excluding Roland who was out in the field.
"Go on, smoke."
"......Excuse me?"
"Surely, you don't mean all of these?"
For a moment, Jamie and Kalisa felt like they understood the plight of a mage's lab rat. No matter how much of a smoker one might be, the sheer volume was obvious at a glance. If they smoked all of these, they would undoubtedly be unable to speak for a while due to a sore throat.
"Administrative Officer."
"What."
"You let us leave on time yesterday just for this, didn't you?"
"You have to compare them, don't you?"
"You could just have people share them! Do you know how many smokers there are just within the Lord's castle alone!"
Jamie stood his ground.
"If you share them, you can't compare them properly."
However, Aiden had no intention of retracting his order. That’s how experiments work. Variables must be controlled as much as possible. Since everyone has different tastes and different sensitivities to scent and flavor, distributing dozens of samples to many people and recording the differences would lead to inconsistent standards, making the results unreliable.
"So, you two will taste them all first, and based on your records, I plan to call in the smokers within the Lord's castle for a second tasting session."
"......We really are lab rats."
"People in high positions are supposed to do the dirty work."
At Aiden's words, Jamie sighed deeply and examined the survey questions.
"By the way, how do you smoke these?"
Kalisa picked up a cigar from the far left of the box and tried to light it.
"You have to cut it first."
Cigars do not use finely shredded tobacco leaves. They are made by tearing well-dried tobacco leaves in half, layering them to create a filler, and then wrapping them tightly with leaves of excellent shape and color. Therefore, if you light it without cutting the end, the wrapper leaf might burn first, so cutting is essential.
Click-clack.
Aiden pulled out a dedicated cutter he had ordered Aimhand to make, took a cigar from Kalisa, and clipped it with a snap.
"There, now go ahead and perform your comparative analysis."
"But aren't you going to do it, Administrative Officer?"
"I'm trying to quit."
"......"
"Right. Don't smoke in here. It creates smoke. Go outside."
Secondhand smoke is, you know, terrible for you.
***
Jamie and Kalisa's first tasting session came to a successful close.
The cigars from John—the herb gatherer, pharmacist, spice expert, and now the world's first cigar developer—were nothing short of a shock to the people of this world, who had little tolerance for intense scents. It was a feast of explosive aromas that would have made even a 21st-century modern person accustomed to artificial fragrances turn their head in surprise.
"There were so many applicants for the second tasting session that we selected people sensitive to scent and taste."
Jamie, with a hollowed-out face, brought the results report for the second tasting session.
"Uh, well... you've worked hard."
"...Yes."
Since the results of the first test were so detailed, it was obvious that the second tasting session would also end without a hitch. It was something obtained by sacrificing the lung health of Jamie and Kalisa, so it had to be handled with care.
'Still, it was work that someone had to do.'
Even if he felt a little sorry for the two of them, whose faces had become gaunt overnight—perhaps due to the awakening effect or something else—Aiden believed that since it was work that had to be done by someone, it was right for his adjutants, who were closest to the decision-making power, to do it. In his North, if rights are great, duties must be just as great.
"How is the stock market reaction?"
The official opening was still a long way off. However, movies have trailers, and idol comebacks have previews, don't they? Since he was introducing something that didn't exist in this world, he didn't know what results would occur, so he had granted priority investment rights to a limited number of people to identify and adjust for any potential side effects in advance.
Because the North's economic scale was still not very large, there were fewer than ten businesses hoping to register on the stock market. Nevertheless,
"I was just about to tell you, but I think we need some restrictions on this, Administrative Officer."
Kalisa handed him a document containing the projected stock trading volume with a look of utter exhaustion.