The 13,428th Meeting of My House Tower (Not Really)
Another peaceful day in the 99th-floor Meeting Room of My House Tower!
"Alright, everyone! It's time for another fun and exciting meeting!"
"Meetings... are fun...?"
"Lady Tricia, you haven't suffered some sort of mental breakdown, have you?"
"Hey, I was just trying to crack a joke."
Tricia had tried to lighten the mood with a quick joke, but when it only made the atmosphere awkward, she quickly defended herself.
"Anyway! We do have an official agenda today, but before we get to that, does anyone have any questions or concerns they'd like to bring up first?"
Today's main agenda was to discuss how to import Earth's food into the tower through the climbers!
But before diving into the main topic, Tricia wanted to check if anyone had any complaints about living in the tower or issues regarding its operation.
Shephid was the first to raise a hand.
"Not a single climber has made it up to my floor yet!"
"Don't worry, that's just because your floor is too high up. Besides, I'm planning to open up a few of your floors as resting floors soon."
"Yay!"
Shephid beamed, grinning like a happy child.
Next, Flora raised her hand.
"Since our land has expanded so much, I've laid out a massive field. Would it be possible to import various seeds and saplings from Earth?"
"That's a great idea. We're actually going to discuss how to purchase Earth's food and goods through the climbers later, so we can just lump that in."
At that, Wangjjinppang jiggled his slime body and chimed in.
"Earth food? Oh, I absolutely must try it!"
"You're curious, right? Once you taste the real thing, it'll be much easier to recreate it perfectly."
Thanks to Tricia, Wangjjinppang had already succeeded in recreating close approximations of numerous Earth dishes.
Now that he could finally taste and study the authentic originals, he couldn't contain his excitement and jiggled wildly from side to side.
"Alright, any other business before we move on?"
At that moment, Zergos and Lilithis stood up at the same time.
"As it happens... there is indeed a matter of grave importance."
"I've been discussing it with Zergos since yesterday, so I might as well bring it up now."
Amidst the suddenly serious atmosphere, Zergos spoke first.
"It is our assessment that the prices of the items currently sold on the 12th floor—most notably the Holy Water of the Archangel—have been set excessively low when compared to Earth's market value."
"……Huh?"
Tricia stared back with a bewildered expression at Zergos's claim.
"Wait, that can't be right. Sure, they bought a ton at first, but lately, the Holy Water has barely been selling. And you're saying it's too cheap?"
Just as Tricia said, when climbers first appeared on the 12th floor, they had scraped together every single penny they had to buy the Holy Water.
Yet over the last two days, sales had plummeted to almost zero!
"Allow me to explain the reason," Lilithis offered, stepping in for Zergos.
"According to information gathered by the succubi on the 39th floor during their 'conversations' with visiting climbers, it seems an organization called the 'government'—essentially the equivalent of a kingdom or empire's central administration—is trying to intervene."
"…The government is intervening?"
Thanks to the intelligence gathered by her succubi, Lilithis had caught wind of the government's interference early on.
"Yes. It appears they are already regulating the distribution of our goods, including the Holy Water."
"Wait, that's a huge problem."
In short, the government's active market intervention had severely crippled the climbers' actual purchasing power.
"That's not all. We also have reports that the government is hoarding Tower Coins to make a massive bulk purchase of the Holy Water. In other words, they plan to monopolize our goods and resell them at exorbitant prices to pocket the profit..."
Lilithis spoke with a tinge of concern in her voice.
"If this continues, we will lose control over our own distribution, and we risk being reduced to mere tools for a single nation's profit."
If the government maintained its monopoly, a situation could arise where all future trade would depend entirely on the government's purchasing power.
Not only would they completely lose control of distribution, but securing fair profits would also become impossible.
"So... what you're saying is, the price is so ridiculously cheap that the government felt the need to step in and control it?"
"Exactly. You hit the nail on the head."
"Even so, isn't their reaction time incredibly fast?"
"That just shows how much the price of the Holy Water is disrupting the outside economy."
Tricia had simply set the price based on her superficial knowledge that cancer treatment cost roughly fifty million won.
To put it in perspective, she had priced it with the casual mindset of selling secondhand goods on a local online marketplace!
However, because the value of the Holy Water of the Archangel—which could cure even terminal illnesses with no known cure—was astronomically high, the government had intervened!
If left unchecked, the resources produced in Tricia's home would be thoroughly exploited as a cash cow for the state.
But what if they suddenly jacked up the prices now?
As the saying goes, it hurts far more to have something taken away than to have never received it at all!
A sudden price hike would not only trigger a massive backlash from the climbers who had been buying the goods cheaply, but it was also highly likely to cause severe friction with the government.
Naturally, Tricia found the entire situation incredibly frustrating.
"I'm just selling my own stuff for cheap! Why is the government sticking its nose in!"
"I believe the issue lies in the price being far too low relative to its miraculous efficacy."
"But we sold it even cheaper back in Eriel..."
Back in Eriel, resurrection and healing magic were already commonplace, so distributing Tricia's Holy Water at a dirt-cheap price hadn't caused any major economic disruptions.
Of course, the fact that the people of Eriel practically deified and worshipped Tricia also played a part...
Regardless, they needed to come up with a countermeasure immediately.
Zergos stepped forward and pulled a thick stack of documents from his coat.
"Fear not. I have already drafted a suitable countermeasure."
"Oh? Really?"
Tricia took the documents from Zergos and quickly scanned through them.
To summarize, the proposal suggested imposing a sort of 'tariff' whenever trading goods with the government.
Since they had a precedent of levying tariffs based on distance and demand when trading with other kingdoms back in Eriel, it was a highly realistic and reasonable solution.
"Wait, under the Holy Water trade section, it says 'A minimum tariff of 500% shall be imposed on general transactions where no specific purpose is declared'?"
The problem was that because the base price was so absurdly low, the tariff rate had to be scaled up drastically.
"Yes. In truth, even that is still remarkably cheap... but the central administration known as the government will likely find this price difficult to accept."
"Then doesn't that defeat the purpose?"
"Which is why I have introduced exemption clauses. For instance, I have included a benevolent policy that drastically reduces the tariff for purchases intended for 'the treatment of terminal patients.'"
"So if they buy it to cure terminal illnesses, the tariff is almost zero? Well, if that's the reason, I'm more than happy to sell it cheap."
Tricia figured that if they could properly enforce these tariffs, they could wrest back control of distribution from the government.
But reality was a bit more complicated.
"However, as we are unable to leave the tower... we have no means of verifying how the items are actually utilized once they leave our hands."
"Exactly," Lilithis agreed. "Even if I gather intel through the succubi, it's impossible to completely prevent corruption or embezzlement beforehand."
As long as Tricia and her companions couldn't step outside the tower, they had no way of directly verifying if the buyers were keeping their word.
If left like this, the government would simply lie about the intended use to keep buying the Holy Water at the lowest price.
They needed a fundamental solution to secure absolute control over distribution!
"This is a real headache. Anyone else have any ideas?"
Racking her brain alone wouldn't yield any answers, so Tricia turned to her reliable companions for input.
Leukki was the first to raise his hand.
"Why don't we just jack up the price of the Holy Water tenfold and kill anyone who complains?"
"Rejected!"
"I mean, they're the ones who need the Holy Water, not us, right?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
Surprisingly, Leukki's suggestion was actually half-reasonable.
However, the potential fallout was far too massive, so they decided to table it for now.
Next, Yurining raised her hand.
"Then... why don't we just refuse to trade with this 'government' place altogether?"
"Even if we wanted to do that, I doubt the government would give up so easily."
A government would undoubtedly find some way to apply pressure and demand trade.
Third, Shephid raised her hand.
"Can't we just beat them all into submission with raw power?"
"Hmm, should we?"
As Tricia eagerly chimed in as if it were a brilliant idea, Lilithis immediately shut her down.
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"Well, if we try hard enough, we could probably blast a hole through the tower. Though it'd be bad if we accidentally triggered a [Tower Collapse]... Still, maybe it's worth a shot?"
"Absolutely not."
"Yes, ma'am..."
Several other suggestions were thrown around, but none of them were particularly viable.
As the meeting dragged on in frustrating circles, Ju Jiye, who had been listening half-heartedly with her chin resting on her hand, finally spoke up.
"We're going to apply the tariff contract anyway, right?"
"Yeah, we're planning to apply the tariffs for now..."
"Then let's just place an unbreakable curse on all our merchandise. If they violate the terms of the contract, they get hit with a Divine Punishment."
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