The Black Merchant, Part Two
Maybe it was the habit left over from my years at a trading company, but letting my body go through the motions while I sat idle never sat right with me.
Hunting for anything that might turn a profit had long since become second nature, and the hunt had brought me here.
Clang! Bang! Bang! Bang-bang-bang-bang!
A racket of metal shook the shop floor. Men in grease-stained T-shirts poured molten iron, drawn off a blazing furnace, into the molds, and the seething metal threw sparks as it ran down into the cavities.
A steel-processing plant on the outskirts of Cairo. A prefab office off to one side of the factory floor. I sat there across from the plant's owner.
"These are the drawings for the products I want."
The owner studied the sketches, then looked back up at my face.
"This is a sword, isn't it?"
"Yes. A blade, to be precise. And the one beside it is a spearhead, meant to be fitted to a shaft."
"And you want five hundred of each?"
"That's right."
"Match the length and width to the drawings, and I'd like this made separately as well. High-strength steel, if you would."
What I set before him was a shield—a tower shield large enough to cover a man from head to toe. I meant to give it to Maximus. That brute was going to have to stand as my wall.
"Hold on. What are you even planning to use these for?"
"I'll be passing them on as props for a film shoot."
"Props? But didn't you ask me to put an edge on them?"
"The client wants them realistic. Sharpening them isn't difficult, is it?"
Hone each one by hand on a whetstone the way they did on Gaia, and it would eat a considerable amount of time. On Earth there was a convenient little thing called a grinder. With that, I could put a razor edge on a blade in a matter of minutes.
"Some movie this must be. Anyway, fine. I'll make them the way you want. How do you mean to pay?"
"You take dollars, I assume?"
"Of course."
"Then dollars it is."
I had gone to a metalworking shop and commissioned sword blades and spearheads. Drail Kingdom was preparing for war, so a rise in demand for swords and spears was only natural.
From what I had learned in the markets before leaving Gaia, a well-honed longsword went for roughly ten to twenty silver. Sell a thousand longswords and spears outright, and I figured on about a hundred gold—five thousand grams of the metal. In won, that was more than five hundred and fifty million. Stamp the same pieces out on a press back on Earth, and the cost would come to only a few million won at most. There was no way I was going to miss a wartime boom like this.
While I was at it, I stopped by a woodworking shop and ordered sword grips and spear shafts as well.
Around the time I had handed the work off, word came from a broker.
"They say they want to see the goods before they'll deal."
The bait had been taken. I agreed, and we set a time and a place. Cash would change hands on the day itself. The date was fixed for one month out, on the outskirts of Cairo.
While I waited, I bought up the things I would need on Gaia. Production took five days, and the finished goods were delivered to a warehouse I had secured on the outskirts.
Blades and spearheads bound in cord filled every packing box. Each stacked box weighed several dozen kilograms, and there were dozens of them piled high—but with Strength magic, hauling them inside was no great trouble. The spear shafts and sword grips arrived in much the same way.
The point of the warehouse was that it connected to the rear of the goblin cave on the outskirts of Lorenzo. The rifles, the ammunition, the RPGs, and the rest of what I had brought had all been moved into that cave long since. This way, even if someone later cleaned the warehouse out, there would be no incident.
I packed the delivered sword and spear components neatly into the emptied magic pouch, finished the work, and locked the warehouse behind me. Then I got back in the car and headed for Cairo Airport.
Back in Damascus, I went to see the doctor who had performed the surgery the last time. From him I bought painkillers, fever reducers, and antibiotics in bulk, and I stocked up as well on ointment and disinfectant for wounds that were torn, punctured, or cut.
In a developing country, medicine was the one thing that came expensive. Buying all I would need for the plans ahead, I paid twelve thousand dollars in drug costs alone. Nearly through my emergency funds. Next time, I'll have to turn some of this into cash.
And so the magic pouch filled with enough medicine to treat several hundred people, with room to spare. Once the last of it was bought, I returned to the motel, reunited with the slaves who had been waiting, and got back in the truck to head northeast.
Along the way I was stopped at checkpoints. Fortunately I had left a few boxes of medicine in the cargo bed, and they waved me through. I drove on until I reached the transit point on the outskirts of Drail, parked the truck again, and camouflaged it under a tent I had bought along the way. Then I crossed the gate once more.
Back on Gaia, I sought out the royal palace again. The kingdom's court steward, meeting me once more, regarded me with open suspicion.
"So. How much did you say this was?"
He asked it while holding a prototype I had made on Earth. I had brought the components over and set the slaves to assembling them. Heating the metal and driving it onto a wooden haft had not been difficult, and even the ones whose bodies were ailing I put to work with whatever arms and legs they still had sound. If they refused to listen, there was no need to starve them. The Submission Collar would choke them of its own accord, and nothing could have been more convenient.
"Prices have been rising lately. A longsword usually runs about twenty silver these days, and spears are much the same. If the kingdom buys the entire lot, the volume is large, so I'll discount ten percent a piece and let them go at eighteen silver."
"And the total quantity, you said?"
"Five hundred swords and five hundred spears."
"Five hundred. A thousand pieces in all, at eighteen silver each, comes to a hundred and eighty gold. Hmm. Whether we need quite that many..."
He was backing off.
"You're levying slaves to send to the front, aren't you? You can't send them out empty-handed. In the end you'll have to put something in their grip, won't you?"
"That's true enough. But the kingdom already has stores in the armory. I imagine those would serve just as well."
So this is a court steward, is it. He clearly understood that in a haggle, the side in a hurry is the one that loses, and he made a show of taking his time.
"I'm sure they would. But the weapons kept in the royal armory have to be held back against an emergency, don't they? Hand the stockpiles out for battle and send the men off, and you'll have to fill those racks again. Isn't that so?"
I hadn't come in ignorant. When you negotiate, thorough advance work is essential, and I had already studied this world through Hans. It was true that every kingdom kept a reserve of weapons—but those reserves had to stay stocked so they could be used at any moment. You couldn't simply spend them and leave the racks empty.
"That may be. Even so, I don't see why we need to buy all thousand..."
As expected, a straight sale isn't going to work. But I haven't even started yet. The real negotiation began now, and in an arms deal it would be a shame if a kickback didn't find its way into the right hands.
"Then let's settle it at eighteen silver. In return, one silver a piece—I'll see that it comes back to you separately, Steward. How does that sound?"
"Ahem. I—I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about."
"Don't worry. I'll handle it cleanly, with no loose ends. And this is only a thousand pieces for now. Increase the order, and I have the capacity to supply as many more as you like. Just give me the chance."
The salary of a court steward in a small kingdom like Drail was easy enough to guess. Ten gold for processing a delivery of a thousand pieces amounted to a full year's pay for a palace steward. The steward glanced around, then gave a quiet nod.
"Let me think it over. Well. If it's cheaper than the going rate, it doesn't seem like a bad price, I'll grant you that."
"Hahaha. Of course. I'm sure His Majesty will be pleased as well, to have acquired the goods so cheaply."
With the day war would begin not far off, the answer did not take long. In the end I signed a supply contract with the palace and delivered a thousand pieces in all—five hundred longswords and five hundred spears.
Eighteen silver apiece, a higher price than I had expected. Minus the kickback, seventeen thousand silver; paid in gold, I received a hundred and seventy gold. A hundred and seventy gold—eight thousand five hundred grams of it. In Korean won, nine hundred and thirty million.
Another world. Money really is easy to make here. Heh heh heh heh.
Two weeks passed, and Drail Kingdom's muster order came down.
The mercenary companies that received it gathered at the assembly ground outside the city of Drail. Bands under flags of every color came into view, and with them the kingdom's own knight order and its light infantry. Behind them stood slaves in shabby clothes, with nothing more than scraps of cloth thrown on—just enough to tell friend from foe. The force assembled numbered roughly four thousand. Of those, the slaves were about eight hundred.
Pa-pa-ra-pam~~~!!!
A magnificent fanfare rang out, amplified by magic, perhaps, and a young man whose face was still plainly boyish rode a white horse out to the front. Because I was moving with Marcus's mercenary company, Hans, standing beside me, filled me in.
"Third prince of Drail. Figure he's the card they're willing to throw away."
Hmm. So that's how it is.
The youth shouted in a voice strained with effort, his delivery thick with the look of rehearsal.
In answer, mounted signalers posted between the units cried out.
"All forces, advance~~~!!"
"All forces, advance~~~!!"
Pa-pa-ra-pang~~~~~!
The army of four thousand slowly began to move. I eased the Humvee in among the mercenaries and started forward with them, and from the slightly higher seat of the vehicle I took in the sight of the marching host.
Well now. I'd been a little disappointed when I heard four thousand. Seeing it in person, there's more force to this than I expected.
Holding expectation and tension in equal measure, I advanced toward the north.