Chapter 41
Karma: my village is directly next to the Sith forest so there should not be any trouble transporting goods here. I also wish to establish a trading route. Our village can offer food, wood, stones and possibly even horse and cattle.
En: I see...alright I will establish a trade route to help you...but didn't you already pass the stage? Why are you still trying?
Karma: I don't plan to just pass the stage...I plan to be first.
En: ...
Ika: ...
Reina: ...
Karma:?
En: No, it's nothing. I will contact you tomorrow when the first batch of merchants travel to your village. Bye.
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Alright, that is settled... Now I just need a better defence...
I sigh as I look at how weak everyone here is...
Hmm...
The only one who can be considered strong here is my father Huh...
Alright, I decided.
"Father, follow me for a while."
?
We went into the forest and I toss to him a wooden sword. "Do you know how to use a sword?" I ask.
"A bit."
"Okay, first show me your stance."
He places his feet wide apart and bends a little. He then grips the sword with both hands and points it at me.
...not that bad but...
"Your legs are too wide apart, it almost looks as if you are trying to do a spilt but failed."
"Oh!! Uh, haha...umm...like this?"
He shifts his feet a little closer.
I sigh. "It's too close now."
?!
"Just stay there, let me help you."
I walk to him and shift his left leg wider and back
"Good now, try to memorize this posture and try to do this every day. You will soon get used to it and can do it any time. Anyway, try swinging your sword."
My father attempts a swing.
...
"L-Like this?"
"Your swing is not firm enough, it looks like a zig-zag instead of one straight line down," I say.
!!!
"You are impressive. I swing it at a speed that i can't even see and you were able to catch it." He says.
"That's the reason why your swing isn't straight, you are going too fast for a beginner. The momentum you built up from the top was destroyed when that zig-zag comes. Do it slowly and swing your sword down, gripping it more firmly. Try it."
My father did as I say and did a few swings. Gradually it becomes sharper and straighter.
"Good. I want you to teach this for starters to the boys and men in our village, can you do that?" I ask.
"No problem! But whos going to do all the fieldwork?" Asks my father.
"The one in charge of the housework and fieldwork will be the ladies. Trust me, they are more agile than us men and is slimmer; They can get work done more quickly. We will be in charge of their safety by strengthening the defence in our village."
"Alright."
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The next day, i contacted Ika before meeting up with En's merchants.
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Karma: Ika, what's your role in this world?
Ika: I'm the Saint of Capital at North...why?
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...A Saint huh...it suits her supporting skills... never mind then.
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Karma: Nevermind then. Here's an advice, you need to give the people hope if you truly want your reputation to raise. Make them somehow worship you as something like a goddess.
Ika: G-Goddess?!
Karma: That's right. Give them hope in the darkest times or heal a supposedly incurable disease...that is the most effective and fastest way as a Saint.
Ika: I see!!! Thank you!!
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Someone knocks on the door just as my conversation with Ika ended.
?
"Come in," I say.
Mino walks in with a few proud looking people who looks like merchants.
They are looking down on me...
"I don't know why that brat asks us to come here, saying there's some sort of treasure here to trade. Look here, all you did is just win some tournament and expose the king. Your gold is not infinite." Says the biggest one of them. He seems to be the leader and have good foresight.
Luckily, I predicted this scenario.
When they turn to leave. I say "Why go so soon? Don't you want to see what i have to offer?"
"Huh? What else do you have to offer other than gold-"
He becomes speechless once i take out a blueprint in front of them.
"What is this?"
"It's called a grenade," I say. "If I'm not wrong, it has similar power to a medium grade explosion."
!!!!!!
"Y-You are saying this is artificial magic?!?!?" He exclaims.
"Something like that but it doesn't require mana."
...
"M-My apologies sir. I was being a bit too impulsive, I am Escaldo and this two are Twuiter and Justin. But if you have this blueprint, why not tell our landlord about this?" Asks Escaldo.
"Your landlord requires money the most at the moment, things like this do not interest her. I only tell her about the gold to get her to send you here. Because I know this is something you merchants will be interested in. Of course, I can sell this to you but you must give me credit." I say.
"Ah! Yes! Of course, i will give you credit."
"Oh, and one more thing. I'm serious about the trade route. I have more of these blueprints so let's negotiate a bit."
!!!
"You have more!?" Exclaims Escaldo.
I nod.
"Alright, say your side of the deal."
"I need materials and resources, in exchange, we will buy it with rice and...wine."
"Wine?!? Rice wine you mean?"
I nod.
"It's a deal!!! We can trade resources and materials just for the wine. The blueprints will be a different negotiate." Says Escaldo.
Oh? Escaldo doesn't seem like the greedy merchant type. He is modest enough to include the blueprints in a separate trade.
"For the blueprint... let's do this. I will give it to you, you can take it, create it, sell it, and I will get 80% of the profit. How about that?" I ask.
"No problem!" Says Escaldo.
We then negotiate a little more and I ended up giving him the grenade blueprint...luckily I secretly hack into the military and accessed all their weapons blueprints before memorizing it. Phew...that saved me a lot of thinking.
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A few days have passed. The trading began and I gave En 10000 gold as an apology for tricking her. Though she seemed to forgive me even before I offered her the gold and is reluctant to take it.
I managed to construct a wine house and named the village Sith...since it's near the Sith forest...okay, i am bad at names but since the village has been around here for a long time, it is reasonable to call it the Sith village.
Buildings are now being constructed using cement, the old chief house is being replaced with a castle now. I have been training them with swords and Mino has been training the other half of the men in archery. She was into archery but didn't show it out.
For the men that aren't qualified to be a soldier, they were offered a labour job and Is building the infrastructure.
I decided to remove the tax from everyone and let every one of them save their gold and also provided free food for workers.
Some people started moving into our village as well and it rapidly turned into a town.
Those foreigners soon turned into citizens and some of them are exceptionally skilled in a certain area. They opened up several businesses around the town and each is very popular. They are even hiring people from our land and passing on the skills to them, further flourishing and creating a brighter future.
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Reputation:3260390
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Woah...my reputation tripled...i knew this was the best way to gather reputation.
Mino knocks on the door and i stopped daydreaming.
"Ah! Uh, come in!"
She opens the door with a tray of tea. She is now dressed properly unlike that ragged dress she wore in the past.
"My lord!" She smiles and walks in to pour some tea for me.
!!!!
I sensed a presence watching me from outside when she does so.
This is the 12th floor!!! An assassin?
...
"Mino, can you leave this room for a while?"
"Hmm? I don't mind...are you busy?"
"Yeah...sorry, we will talk next time."
She frowns upon hearing that and nods. "Ok."
...
She leaves the room and once she closes the door, I stood up.
"Show yourself."
!!!
Someone attacks me from behind suddenly but i deflect the dagger away and grab the figure's head before slamming it onto the floor.
"UGH!!"
The impact from that knocked him out.
...That's all? I expected a better one...who the hell is this person.