FSTR - Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty Two - Chain Reaction.

"Salmon River Kingdom. You can travel there for 100 Bronze Coins!"

"Wagon for Salmon River Kingdom here. Only 120 Bronze Coins people."

"My Wagon has The finest quality with the price cheaper than ever. Travel to Salmon River Kingdom today."

"Salmon River Kingdom, highest quality Wagon, only 200 Bronze Coins."

Shouted One Merchant after the other, as if they were in the town square's market, trying their best to sell their finest fish. That Merchant hired by "Z" formed this plan together rather well. It has only been several days since Z and this special merchant met, yet you see one merchant after the other yelling about the amazing travel prices. Prices cut more than in half.

"Sir Dalerus, this turned out to be more profitable than we thought." Approached a Merchant with a big smile. It almost seemed like gold appeared on his eyes out of joy. "I've seen at least 10 families depart for Salmon River Kingdom just this morning."

"Yes indeed." Replied Dalerus, the exact merchant who got this entire plan together with "Z"s financial influence of course. "Apart from making at least 400 Bronze Coins per Transport, we are killing the competition for future business."

But with 50 Gold Coins as a reward after 3 months, what does he need to continue working for? Well, he is a Merchant. He isn't going to pile up his gold, and most certainly won't put it into waste. He wants to invest it, especially in the transport business which he has a few years of experience on.

"Yes! A glorious move. All thanks to you and your "employer"." Air poked the Merchant talking to Delarus with his fingers high in front of his own face and gave out a small playful laugh as he patted Dalerus' shoulder.

"Yes yes. The "Employer", you shouldn't be speaking so openly about." Gave Dalerus a firm stare towards this merchant, which killed his humour in a split second.

Trying to calm Dalerus down, the merchant replied "Relax man. Nobody will hear us in this busy crowd." Although he said that to not break relations with Dalerus and loose those wonderful Bronze Coins, he did have a point.

Families have flocked the Area right in front of the Kingdom's main Gates where Wagons were lined up one after the other to transfer families towards Salmon River Kingdom. Their conversation would only be like a drop of water on an Ocean.

Worth noting that there were also other Merchants in front of the main Gates, who weren't aware of this propaganda. They didn't know about this plan. Seeing the other Merchants drop prices so greatly got them no doubt confused. Propaganda coming from Salmon River Kingdom wasn't of course their first thought.

Their first thought was a business based propaganda coming from a group of Merchants who want less competition in the near future. They thought that these group of Merchants were dropping prices like crazy in aims to put other Merchants out of business, and hopefully push them away from the Kingdom, getting more coins for themselves.

While Merchants who apart from transporting people, also delivered Cargo weren't financially affected too much. People who simply make a living by only transporting people, felt like they were being cheated out of their profit. But of course, going back to Salmon River Kingdom or any other domain, without a paying traveller, would cut into their profit even harder.

So they started lowering their prices to as low as 200 Bronze Coins. That way they can at least break even with a little profit pocketed instead of going home empty handed. It was especially hard for them, because they charged each person instead of a group of people.

So if a family of 5 walks by, paying 200 Bronze Coins each, it would of course cost 1,000 Bronze Coins (One doesn't just come around 10 Silver Coins). Why pay that when they can pay 100 Bronze Coins for a family of 5 to travel? It is simply an amazing deal, and no one doesn't seem to think that it is abductive.

But even though these specific Wagon Owners didn't attract families, they did attract single travellers who would pay those 200 Bronze Coins for more privacy. Because they hold themselves on a "higher standard." Some Wagon owners being female, attracted males right away and started their journey before they lost that one passenger which are indeed scarce.

These single passengers were often males who hoped for a special treat(or more) along the way. Some males even willing to get that special treat by force (Which would be a very stupid move.).

In a Kingdom where slave rape isn't punishable, those men weren't rare either since it got in their system already. However the case might be, a lot of Merchants that weren't even hired by Dalerus (Due to a variety of reasons.), were forced to lower their prices.

"This plan is more than a big success." Smiled Dalerus in satisfaction, but his face was forced straight as soon as he thought about "Z", remembering that he has more work to do, no matter how much he wanted to view this bursting business. "As much as I love to see the downfall of our competitors, I have some business to attend too."

"Of course of course. You have words to exchange with your "employer"." Joked around the Merchant once more about that sensitive topic. Which made Dalerus think twice about hiring him.

"No, that's not the case." This was a lie of course. He can't simply reveal too much information to this Merchant. Especially since he can't keep his mouth shut. "I've asked around about Ships as you might of heard, but each Merchant has different price guesses. But I have to ask you as well."

Explained Dalerus as he glanced upon the crowd of people walking in front of him, feeling more and more satisfied, proud of his work. "How much do you think it would cost for a Ship to get here from Salmon River Kingdom and back?"

"That could honestly vary from the ship's speed, size and overall quality." Replied the Merchant. It isn't an answer that Dalerus didn't hear before. But at least this one gave this answer first instead of a wild guess.

"Can you elaborate on that?" Feeling a bit intrigued by this reply who no doubt stood out a bit from the rest of the answers he had today, the thirst to know more increased.

"Since Salmon River Kingdom doesn't have a big professional port, there are only a few ships you can choose from. But considering that each Ship needs a crew to handle everything, and the distance being approximately 1,000 - 1,500 Kilometers long. It would take around 2 weeks for the ship to come here, and 2 weeks to go back. Meaning you will need to pay a month's worth of salary for the entire crew and of course a bonus for the trouble to the Captain and or business owner."

Hearing out this whole information, Dalerus felt dumbfounded. It is extremely rare for him not to understand a business flow. But at this point, he was lost. Of course he tried his best to hide the fact that he was less informed than a miner on the shipping business. "You are very well informed on this topic. Do you have any experience with ships?"

It felt like an appropriate question for Dalerus to ask. This fool who joked around with sensitive topics, as if he switched a lewer, started spitting firm facts as if he owned 30 ships.

"Well not exactly. I just wanted to do big time cargo transport, but found out that it is too costly." He replied with an abnormally long smile.

"The foolness returned" thought Delrus, but of course didn't say that. Instead he started yelling. "By the 3 Gods man! This means that you could have simply told me average prices!"

"Yes. But you need to understand different circumstances in order to form a more stable guess before you depart."

"This means that this fool observed a bit too much. How could he figure out that Z lives here." A lot of thoughts went through his mind.

He felt like he needs to be more careful around this man. He is very perceptive even though what he mostly says, is jesterish. Trying to avoid suspicion, ge replied. "How much did it cost when you wanted to hire a cargo ship?"

"5 Gold Coins." Raised the Merchant his hand high in front of his own face.

"What! Outrageous!" Yelled out Merchant Delarus. Which captured rather a few people's attention. But once he noticed the attention he grabbed, he simply cooled down and acted calm and normal.

"Well it was a medium sized ship holding a crew of 30 people." Explained the Merchant once he noticed Dalerus calm down.

"How many people can a medium sized ship transport?" Well this was another bad move from Dalerus. This merchant is very perceptive yet Dalerus is talking about human transport.

The merchant instantly patched another piece of the puzzle once he heard that sentence but acted calm, as if he didn't notice anything. "Judging from the size I saw, I would say around 200 at max. It won't be comfortable for them though."

"Thank you for all of this information. I will talk to my employer for you to achieve a bonus." Bonus? The Merchant smiled at the thought. But he knew it was just bribe coins. He tried to close this Man's mouth with Coins.