The Price of Greed and the Dawn of Justice
“Even so, this is far too little! The number of high-ranking folks looking for sable has increased exponentially this year!”
Jenkin didn’t soften his hardened expression as he glared at the man who had brought the furs, his tongue clicking incessantly against the roof of his mouth.
“The sable sold last year is starting to show signs of becoming a trend, so what are you playing at, telling me there’s a shortage!”
“But, sir. You know how it is, don’t you? Because of this ‘trade permit’ thing or whatever, it’s become incredibly difficult to conduct business properly in the North. I barely managed to get even this much!”
As the broker continued to whine, Jenkin let out a sharp, loud *tsk* of annoyance, pulled a pouch from his robes, and tossed it onto the floor.
Clink!
“Oh, my! This precious thing! Hehe.”
The broker, missing his front teeth, quickly snatched up the pouch, snuck a peek inside, and then, with a foolish grin, tucked it into his sleeve.
“Still, since we have a history of doing business together, it’s not like there’s absolutely no way, sir.”
“You have stock?”
“To be precise, it’s stock that already has an owner, but—”
“Stock with an owner?”
“You know, the honey pot that was raided recently?”
“You mean the unregistered villages.”
“Yes, yes.”
The broker rubbed his palms together and lowered his voice.
“The other guys couldn’t possibly digest all the stock from the villages that were under your influence all at once, could they?”
“That’s true. They wouldn’t have dared to think they could touch my territory.”
Jenkin’s expression softened slightly at the broker’s words, which subtly inflated his own competence.
Before the new administrative officer had arrived, the Jenkin Trading Company had been sweeping up nearly half of all fur trade in the North. If any other merchant guild tried to covet Jenkin’s share, he would handle them without a shred of mercy. After all, the North was a stage outside the Central region’s interest, and it was far easier to run into wild beasts than people, so who would suspect anything if an accident occurred?
Because of this, it reached a point where other merchants wouldn’t even dream of visiting the villages that traded with Jenkin, and Jenkin would squeeze those villages to their absolute limit, reaping massive profits.
“Other guilds did push their way into your territory with those permits this time, but is that volume something they can handle?”
“Get to the point. Just the conclusion.”
“Those guilds haven’t been able to pay the balance yet.”
“What?”
“Perhaps the volume was larger than expected; they emptied their reserves and still couldn’t pay for it all, so they signed a contract to come back and pay the rest soon.”
“Aha!”
Jenkin stomped his foot in delight without realizing it.
‘Of course, it was such a sudden influx of goods; it would be hard for those mediocre fools to swallow it all…!’
He had heard that the merchants who had bent their pride to that young, green administrative officer to get trade permits had to offer much higher purchase prices. Because of that, their profit margins were supposedly very low. It was only natural that a merchant guild that had brought payment for the usual volume of fur trade would find it impossible to pay for the increased quantity and the higher prices.
“The unregistered villages must be harboring complaints, then?”
“Yes. They were already at their breaking point because they had to pay for food with money since there wasn’t enough grain.”
“Kekeke. I bet. They’re on the verge of starving to death without a handful of rye, so what good is shoving silver coins in their faces?”
“If we had just left them alone a little longer, they would have ignored the contracts and everything else to come looking for you, but since the Lord’s Castle opened a market just in time, those vermin didn’t all starve to death. It would have been a fitting end for those who betrayed your grace, sir. Hehe.”
“No, no. If those wretches are gone, where would I get the sable pelts?”
“Ah! As expected, you are wise.”
The two corrupt merchants, singing each other’s praises while spinning their sophistry.
“Since you mentioned an alternative, that means there’s a way, right?”
“Of course, Jenkin. However…”
The broker smiled gloomily and rubbed his hands repeatedly.
‘Damn it.’
He knew exactly what that meant. He didn’t want to part with the money, but he couldn’t afford to be stingy either. The Northerners were barbaric and ignorant, making it impossible to trade without a broker like this. Especially the unregistered villages that had been Jenkin’s territory; their isolation was so deep that a broker’s help wasn’t an option—it was a necessity.
Clink!
Another money pouch fell to the floor.
‘This bastard, he could just hand it over, but he always has to throw it on the ground like a jerk.’
The broker cursed inwardly, but he bowed his head obsequiously, thinking there was no other client like this.
‘With this much, even after I slip a little to the village militia captain…’
He would probably be able to keep the rest for himself.
“Please, follow me. I shall guide you.”
Even in the North, there exist humans who live by preying on their neighbors.
“Trust the Lord’s Castle? Do you know how vicious those people are! And why change anything? We were living just fine! What’s this about family registration now? They’ll just hit us with taxes under all sorts of pretenses!”
“But after registering, we were able to trade with merchants officially. They even gave us much better prices than Jenkin!”
“Better prices, my foot! They just gave you a pittance as a down payment and left, that’s all.”
“Still…”
“Stop your whining and just create the village atmosphere as you were told. They said they’d find us good land once we open trade with Jenkin, so we can just move there.”
“But brother, if we do that, our village will suffer a loss!”
As the militia captain, who was supposed to be the agitator, kept trembling like a scared puppy, the broker’s anger soared to the heavens.
“Are you trying to back out now? If your neighbors find out that you and your family have been clinging to Jenkin and eating wheat bread and meat stew, do you think they’ll just let it slide!”
“B-brother!”
The militia captain bit his lip. He had joined hands with this man because they had gotten to know each other while hunting during the hard times. He knew that the pelts and furs his neighbors had collected while suffering from frostbite were being sold for pennies, but he had lived by comforting himself with the thought that at least no one in their village was starving to death thanks to him arranging the Jenkin trade.
‘W-what have I done…!’
But this spring, the village atmosphere began to change under the orders of the new administrative officer. Although they had to pay taxes after registering, trading with an official merchant guild that held a ‘trade permit’ was so advantageous that the few coins in taxes felt like nothing.
‘The grain I bought at the market with the few coins they gave as a down payment was far more than what I’d gotten from trading with Jenkin all this time.’
He had become this prosperous with just a down payment, and in ten days, the merchant guild that had signed the contract would return to pay the balance.
‘And I have to stop that with my own hands?’
Glint.
The brass ring on his thick finger caught the sunlight and sparkled. It was his most prized possession, made by his late father, who had said he was proud of the son who protected the village.
“Brother.”
“Yeah, have you made up your mind?”
“…Yes.”
The militia captain nodded heavily.
“Right, right. You thought well. You can’t have your neighbors pointing fingers at you in the village you’ve lived in your whole life. Hahahaha!”
The broker laughed heartily and handed him a pouch. It was one-fifth of what Jenkin had given him.
‘This is enough.’
He thought, *What would a guy like him spend more on anyway?*
The militia captain stared at the pouch in his hand for a long time.
“Well then, let’s go. You can do the job by tomorrow, right? What good is dragging it out, don’t you think…”
Thwack!
A thick hand-edge struck the neck of the broker who had been wagging his snake-like tongue.
“Ugh!”
The broker collapsed in an instant.
“Brother, I’m sorry.”
“……”
The militia captain hoisted the unresponsive ‘brother’ onto his shoulder and headed toward the village with heavy steps. It was time to confess his sins.
A few days later.
“Administrative Officer, Administrative Officer!”
“Why are you in such a rush from the morning?”
“That is, right now outside…!”
Jamie ran into the office, pointing his finger toward the outside repeatedly.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“The militia from Bramwood has arrived, saying they’ve caught a merchant who violated the rights to trade!”
“Bramwood? Ah. One of the villages that registered recently?”
“Yes. But the merchant they brought in…”
“The merchant?”
“Jenkin, that damn bastard!”
Aiden remembered the name immediately.
‘If it’s Jenkin…’
The guy who had given him a measly twenty silver coins as a bribe.
“That penny-pincher!”
“Yes! That scoundrel was caught trying to secretly siphon off trade goods from a village that had already finished its contract with a guild that officially held the trade permit!”
“By whom?”
“The militia captain of the village that had been bribed caught the accomplice and Jenkin himself. And he’s asking for judgment for his own crimes, too. Apparently, he had been acting as a shill behind the scenes, taking bribes to ensure the Jenkin Trading Company had a monopoly on the village’s trade?”
So, he had confessed out of conscience.
‘That couldn’t have been easy.’
It might be easier to avoid temptation from the start. But it’s not easy for someone who has already fallen into temptation and boarded the same ship to feel the pangs of conscience and get off that ship alone. And he didn’t just get off; he caught the captain and burned the ship before leaving?
‘I think they gave some leniency for things like this even in the 21st century.’
Aiden tilted his head. He was an administrative official, not a judge, so he didn’t know much about criminal law. At best, he only knew administrative law on a superficial level.
“First, we’ll have to send him to trial.”
“Yes. Shall I set the trial date right away?”
“Huh?”
“Yes?”
“…Is that my job, too?”
“What kind of obvious question is that?”
…Ah, right. He had forgotten.
‘There’s no way a separation of powers exists in this place, right.’
Aiden, who ended up playing the role of a judge, a task not in his destiny.
‘Wait, no?’
Isn’t it a good thing, actually?
“Huu.”
I’ll show them what an administratively convenient trial looks like.
“Jenkin.”
Two days later, at the trial held publicly in the vacant lot in front of the Lord’s Castle.
Aiden opened his mouth in a dry voice toward Jenkin, who was wrapped in ropes at the makeshift judge’s bench.
“It has been revealed that you have been taking unfair profits by exploiting the situation of unregistered villages. Furthermore, the crime of attempting illegal trade while ignoring the trade permit system newly established this year cannot be forgiven. In addition to this, you used bribes and intimidation to intercept goods that had already been officially contracted. There will be no more chances.”
The Northerners who had come to watch shouted immediately.
“Hang him!”
“Hang him upside down!”
They really are people who love hanging things, aren’t they.
“Confiscation of all assets. Ten years of forced labor in the dungeon.”
“You can’t do this…! Ugh!”
“Where does a criminal dare to open his mouth in a sacred courtroom?”
He seemed to want to struggle, but it looked like he had been knocked out by Jamie’s signature head-thumping skill.
‘It’s not a place where you can expect the defendant’s right to self-defense, anyway. Yeah.’
Aiden shrugged his shoulders.
“And Yuheim.”
The militia captain, also tied in ropes and calmly awaiting his verdict, nodded slightly.
“The act you committed is by no means light. Handing over the fruits of the villagers’ blood and sweat to a corrupt merchant for years is a crime of deceiving your neighbors.”
“…I will accept the punishment.”
It wasn’t a voice of despair. It was just an attitude of repenting for his sins.
Northerners aren’t fools, either.
“Even if it was hateful, it would have been profitable to call in a merchant even at a cheap price if it was an unregistered village.”
“I heard that Jenkin, that damn bastard, was squeezing the purchase price so hard that he tried to attract other merchants?”
“Well, they said it ended in failure.”
“If that corrupt merchant was harassing other guilds like that, what else could he have done?”
In fact, since every Northerner knew well about the tyranny of merchants, a sympathetic public opinion had formed. A sentiment of, *what else could he have done?*
“Yuheim. Three years of forced labor.”
“Oh my.”
“It can’t be helped.”
“Ehey.”
Therefore, when Aiden’s verdict was delivered, the onlookers sighed deeply without realizing it. Because they were thinking about what those families would do now that the head of the household was being dragged off to forced labor.
But, at that moment.
Aiden’s mouth opened again.
“However, considering that you confessed your crime and sought forgiveness, and that your neighbors have also petitioned several times to save the militia captain, and lastly, that you made a great contribution to capturing the corrupt merchant Jenkin, you will be awarded a bounty.”
A buzz of confusion erupted in an instant.
“A bounty?”
“No, what does that mean?”
“So, they give you money if you catch a criminal?”
“Really?”
The eyes of the Northerners began to gleam.
It was the signal flare that the Farm Income Improvement Project had begun to flow in a strange direction.