The Smell of Money
“It would be better to give up on military weapons.”
“Huh? Why?”
“The Empire strictly prohibits the leakage of weapons used within the military. Even in peacetime, but especially now due to political situations. Well, it may not matter even if I say this… In short, it’s simple. The recent Empire army is very sensitive to weapons leaking out.”
“Ah…”
He mentioned that an incident had occurred. It seemed that the central command was controlling weapons because the warlords might strike at any moment.
“What are you trying to buy? Even if it’s ordinary firearms, it would be better to look into weapons companies rather than the army. Buying a battleship would be difficult, but trading up to frigate level is becoming common. On this planet, simple weapons that are usable are sold by Marinus Corporation.”
He pulled out a piece of paper from his large bag and scribbled something on it, then handed it over. It looked like an introduction letter when I read it.
“When trading with that company, hand this over. There won’t be any loss in the transaction.”
“Thank you.”
An introduction letter. Would it work? Maybe it’s a purchase order. This guy and Marinus Corporation might not even know each other. In other words, it’s likely a scam to gain an advantage in the transaction.
But one thing was clear: having even this purchase order was better than having none. Whether his name would work or not, at least the fact that he knew one imperial noble would make it hard for the weapons company to cheat him.
“Mil, is it okay to take this?”
“Yes. I’ll immediately prepare the natives and move them to the ship.”
“I’ll pay in gold. You can buy weapons with that gold. Please take care.”
“Yes.”
After a while, many natives came out from the village and moved the wheat to the ship, and received an enormous amount of 525 ducats in gold coins from the ship.
Through my watch, Verata, I found out that they were giving me about 50% more than the market price of ordinary wheat.
I received about 30% more from Martinez, and 50% more from the noble just now. But considering the lack of productivity, 50% is not enough. I need to double it. Eventually, after branding, I need to compete the price of wheat with competition among buyers.
While thinking about making money, I returned to the village. Hildegard was in the village.
“It seems like you were doing business.”
“Yes. It seems I misjudged. They were coming to do business in the first place.”
“You weren’t looking for me?”
“Yes. You didn’t ask anything about Hildegard at all.”
“Hmmm, are the trackers thinking that I’m dead, or is Duke Alium doing a good job? I need to find out the situation soon.”
Hildegard muttered something incomprehensible.
“By the way, Hildegard, as I said earlier.”
“Huh?”
“Pretend you know nothing.”
“Got it.”
“By any chance, is Hildegard an incredibly important person?”
Just from Hildegard’s tone, it seemed like saying that I knew of her existence might mean my death.
If she’s that high and important… handing her over might be a suicide act.
Just because I might have heard something from her, there’s a possibility that I could be eliminated without a trace.
Not just me, but the entire tribe that interacted with her.
“Enough.”
She stopped me.
“Even if you’ve noticed something, don’t try to find out my identity. The more you do that, the more dangerous it becomes for you. If I get caught by the trackers, it’s enough that I die. You knew nothing. I didn’t tell you anything. Understood?”
“…”
From the answer just now, I was certain.
She was really a high-ranking person.
The reason she didn’t say anything about her identity or family was to protect us.
If she was caught, we would definitely be killed if we knew something, but if we knew nothing, there was a 0.1% chance that they would let us live, saying ‘what do these primitives know?’
Haah…
I had already eaten Hildegard’s secret.
Not just yesterday or today, but from the moment she fell to this planet. Sihyun and I were supposed to be a fateful community.
Since it’s come to this, I have no choice but to go all the way.
With her.
No matter where the destination is.
Meanwhile, on the Empire’s warship Nemesis.
The Nemesis was in a festive mood due to an untimely event.
“What is this bread? It’s really delicious!”
“It seems the Baron spent his own money to buy it from the primitive planet. The soldiers are in a festive mood because of this.”
“Huh? The commander spent his own money to buy military rations?”
From what I heard, military supplies are strictly managed in the army. Taking or adding military supplies without permission would be a violation of orders, right?
“Ah, Lieutenant Colonel is from the central command, so you probably don’t know. In the frontier, this is a natural thing. Since we can’t send military supplies from the center to the frontier, we just give money and let them buy it themselves. So, depending on the baron’s own character, we might eat better food than usual or cheap food. In short, it’s like the atmosphere of noble soldiers.”
“Really?”
Lieutenant Colonel Neghira took another bite of the bread. The flavor was amazing. It was much better than the famous Maker’s bread from the capital.
“From now on, we’ll be able to eat this every day.”
To eat high-quality bread that’s hard to get even in the center. He nodded in admiration. All that was left was waiting for meal time.
The rumor of the ‘delicious bread’ suddenly found by the Rittenberg army spread quickly to the surroundings.
The soldiers told their families or friends that the bread bought by the baron was extremely delicious, and it became a rumor and spread quickly to the neighboring star systems.
Sihyun’s planet was becoming famous without him knowing.
Many planets in the vicinity were trying to obtain Sihyun’s wheat.
But the fortunate thing was that there was no civilized planet around BK-201 where Sihyun was, and there were many primitive planets, so there weren’t many people coming to buy wheat from Sihyun.
Sihyun had become, so to speak, a ‘legendary wheat seller whose whereabouts are unknown.’
However…
“Found it! Damn it! I found it, you bastards!”
A man with a bushy beard was running around inside the ship making a fuss.
“Shut up, you idiot!”
Then, the protests from his sleeping colleagues.
“You guys! Do you think it’s okay to say that to me right now? Do you know what I found?”
“Found a legendary treasure planet? Otherwise, shut up!”
“I found it. The treasure planet.”
The man ran to the computer, brought up the star map, entered coordinates, and enlarged one planet. It was a primitive planet.
“What is this planet? Is it really a legendary treasure planet? Or a planet made of machines that only rumors say?”
“How do you find that, you idiot. Recently, that noisy wheat.”
“Ah, the wheat that Baron Rittenberg bought?”
“I found the seller of that wheat. A friend I served with in the military is now working as a bodyguard in a small guild, and that guy said he bought wheat on that legendary planet!”
“Oh, thank you, God.”
“Damn it!”
The colleagues each spat out curses and looked for gods. It was shock, but clearly a sign of joy.
“So, I begged and begged to just taste that wheat once, and he sent the coordinates. That’s this planet!”
“What? You begged and he sent it? Does your friend not know your job?”
“Of course, you fool! I told him I was a space merchant.”
“Merchant is a merchant. Sometimes they buy and sell things.”
The colleagues laughed.
“So? Are you going to buy it?”
“To buy? You idiots, think about it. That primitive planet, how many times has he sold wheat? He must have at least hundreds to thousands of ducats, right? Just stealing that…”
“Money will pile up like a mountain.”
“Yeah, guys. That’s exactly it. I found a bunch of bastards who piled money like a mountain. Even if it’s noisy, is it?”
“No, it’s not noisy!”
“I thought it was classic music or something?”
“Then, helmsman! You found a bunch of bastards who piled money like a mountain, so turn the ship’s bow right now, or not?”
The helmsman looked at the captain, and the captain nodded quickly. Then the helmsman started resetting the course with a lazy gaze.
“Understood~ BK-201, right?”
“Yeah, buddy. BK-201. There might be others who smell the same as us, so maximum speed.”
With that, the route was decided, and the ship began to move at high speed.
“You bastards, all rise! The Plake Pirates are deploying! We’ll properly rob the primitive bastards and live happily ever after with that money!”
“Ooooooooo!!!”
The reason pirates do pirate things.
It’s because there’s a hope that someday we can live happily ever after with the money earned here.
The captain cleverly stimulated that part, and thanks to the captain’s encouragement, the pirate crew could move as one.
However, for Sihyun and the Zakum tribe, it was a crisis of a lifetime.
Because they had to fight a proper battle at a time when they hadn’t properly formed an army yet.