[A wagon is spotted moving through the Togo mountain pass. It seems to be Roland, the merchant. He is accompanied by an unfamiliar face. Probably a newcomer.]
Laojun got to know about Roland’s arrival promptly by the info received from surveillance system, Koushin.
[He is a merchant who supplies goods which can’t be made in Kaina village. He brings no harm, so guard him in secret.]
With that order, Land S was now secretly guarding Roland till Helme river. Of course, the person himself, Roland, wasn’t even slightly aware of this.
“Ah! The merchant uncle came!”
Seeing the girl waving at him from the bridge, Roland also waved back.
“That’s Hanna-chan. Energetic as usual.”
And when the wagon came near the bridge,
“Oho, this was made of wood before but it’s stone now. Looks sturdy.”
Saying that to himself, Roland advanced, walking his horse. Hanna ran back to the village to inform them of Roland’s arrival.
“Executive director, what is that?”
Roland looked at the direction Bothe was pointing. And his eyes opened wide.
“What in the world is that?”
It was Jin’s castle.
＊ ＊ ＊
Roland arrived late in the afternoon so he decided to talk business the next day and spend the night at mayor Gibbeck’s house, as usual.
“Ehh, Erik didn’t come?!”
Barbara exclaimed, looking disappointed.
“I am sorry, he has also been appointed with the duty of technology manager, so he has gotten quite busy. Please try to understand.”
“I… wonder if I should head out to Alban… But I also don’t want to leave this village…”
Barbara grumbled. To which Gibbeck rebuked,
“Oi oi, this is not the time for that, right?”
And then Gibbeck started talking to Roland again. He explained how Jin was the owner of this land now.
“I-I see… So Jin-san is this village’s…”
“Yes, for the next 50 years, he will be the owner.”
Gibbeck summarized and narrated Jin’s achievements.
“So something like that happened… and I didn’t hear a thing, even though I was in the capital.”
It all happened inside the royal castle, so it isn’t much of a surprise that the common merchants don’t know of it.
“And so, the building in question is Jin’s ‘castle’.”
“Castle, eh… I don’t know what I should say… It is very Jin-like.”
“If you would like to spend the night there, I could talk to the representative Butler A.”
“N-no, I will just stay here, where I am more comfortable, if that’s okay with you.”
Roland said panickedly.
After that, Roland brought up the matter that was troubling him.
“Well, you see, there’s one thing that’s bothering me.”
“Oho?”
Then Roland went on to explain how the salt was stolen and he couldn’t sell any.
“There’s no salt, eh?… That is troubling. Even at my house, the amount of salt left is very scarce. I think it is the same with other houses, as well.”
“I am truly sorry. After this, as soon as I get to the shop, I will send salt here even if I have to use horses.”
Roland said, prostrating himself.
＊ ＊ ＊
[Salt has been stolen, you say?]
Land C reported to Laojun, after tapping into Gibbeck and Roland’s conversation through the window.
“Yes, as far as I have heard.”
[I understand. I will deal with it from here. Report to me if anything else happens.]
After cutting the line, Laojun thought about the problem.
[It’s probably that Earl’s pestering. I didn’t think they would go as far as to steal the salt. I should have appointed guards to Roland-san, as well… I still have many areas to improve on. Either way, it doesn’t change how we will go about dealing this.]
And then Laojun instructed his movement system, Laozi.
Laozi went towards the Hourai island’s warehouse. They quite literally have enough salt to start a business. In fact, they were actually selling them.
“Seaweed salt will probably be no good. Let’s go with normal salt.”
The salt they had produced from the Tatsumi bay’s sea water had now crossed a 100 ton.
To protect the salt from moisture, they were divided in 100 kilograms per containers made of 24k gold. 24k gold doesn’t rust upon normal use so they are very handy for storing materials in.
He carried one of those out.
After putting the container in a leather sack made from monsters, he carried the sack on his shoulder.
And then headed for the warp-gate.
They had travelled while taking the time into consideration so it was exactly midnight at Kaina village. Everyone was sleeping.
“I have brought it.”
At Jin’s house, from the underground workshop, Laozi came out. And then Butler A and Laozi both activated stealth mode.
“The plan is as I have explained before. Where is Mr. Roland’s wagon?”
“Yes, it over here.”
Butler A stood in front and guided Laozi.
Behind Gibbeck’s house, the horse was tied inside a stable and the wagon was left beside it.
They loaded the wagon with the goods.
“Please carefully open the package.”
Laozi ordered Butler A.
“There should be an empty salt jar.”
“Yes, there is.”
Following the order, Butler A found 4 empty jars of salt.
“That’s enough. Now then, let’s transfer this salt…”
Laozi and Butler A started transferring the salt from the sack to the jars.
The guardian, Gon, was on lookout to make sure no one came near.
In about 3 minutes, they were done pouring the salt into the jars. After wrapping it up tightly, their job was over.
They decided to carry the remaining 20 kgs to Jin’s house.
“This should be enough. Now just put these jars in the back of the wagon.”
Butler A followed the instructions and pushed the jars into the back. He also paid attention as to not leave any traces of tampering.
“That’s good enough. It is a carriage so it’s only normal for the goods to be somewhat disorganized. Now, let’s withdraw.”
It was still midnight. Laozi went back to the Hourai island and Butler A went back to Jin’s house.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Haa… this is depressing.”
The wide space beside the mayor Gibbeck’s house was the store this time.
“Executive director, let’s just sell whatever we can…!!”
After saying that, Bothe went and just stood in front of the back of the wagon. Holding a jar of salt, Bothe was lost for words. Not knowing what was going on, Roland asked,
“What’s wrong, Bothe?”
“E-executive director! There-there is salt inside this jar!”
“What did you say?”
“And that’s not all! Judging from the weight, there is probably salt in the 3 other jars as well!”
“………”
Roland couldn’t comprehend the situation.
Out of the 50 jars he had brought, he sold 23 at Sharuru city, 17 at Gohoho city, 5 at Toga village and out of the 5 remaining jars, 4 were bought by some soldiers.
It was clearly written in his account book. These jars were the ones he had acquired that day to sell to Kaina village but the salt was stolen.
“Where did these come from…?”
“Executive director, does that matter at this point? With this, we will be able to fulfil our duty to the people of this village!”
Bothe said,optimistic and carefree. Well, he does have a point but Roland couldn’t help but think it was absurd how Bothe didn’t even think about the income and expenditure, being a merchant.
“Executive, either way, it’s time for business!”
Bothe urged him on. And the villagers came, gathering sparsely.
Roland too decided that he would worry about it later and changed gears to sell the goods and started preparing.