Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 3

11th Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE, 1000 Hours

Wisps of pipe smoke drifted through the air of a dimly-lit tavern in the crowded bowels of Oriculon. Liane waved a hand in front of her face.

If there was one thing that she didn’t like about places like this, it was all the stuff that the patrons smoked. Now that she had an item that conferred poison immunity, she didn’t have to be all paranoid about something like getting a lungful of Laira, but she still hated the smell and how it clung to everything. The city had been under siege for forever – how did they even get whatever they were smoking?

『It’s a good thing we got a bunch of Clean items while we were in the Empire. We’re gonna feel gross coming outta here.』

『Then why did you have to pick this place?』

『Dunno, looked promising? See, there’s a guy coming now…』

A guy who sort of looked like a Merchant came over to take the chair across from them. He ran an appraising look over Florine and Liane before he focused his attention on Liane.

“A bit out of place here aren’t ya, miss?”

“Whaddya got?”

“Food.”

“Bullshit.”

“I ain’t kiddin’!”

Several heads turned at her outburst. She reflexively dipped her head and lowered her voice.

“Ya hear about the Sorcerous Kingdom?”

“Everyone’s heard about it,” the man replied. “The Queen – bless her tiny chest – said something about them kicking out the Beastmen.”

“But ya gotta think ‘bout what the cost of their help is, yeah? They gotta make it worth their while.”

The man furrowed his brow at her words. Those nearby were surreptitiously listening in, pretending to be engaged in conversations of their own.

“So they’ve come to sell us their stuff and we got no choice but to buy it…makes sense.”

“First ships just came in this afternoon,” Liane told him. “The Sorcerous Kingdom was all set up to start before they even came. Their people moved the cargo into the palace quarter last night.”

“The palace quarter…but the Guilds never said anything ‘bout this.”

“Why’d ya think that is?” Liane asked.

Crossing his wiry arms, the man leaned back in his seat. His expression grew dark as his hand rasped over a crop of stubble that had somehow formed three hours after dawn.

“Those damn Nobles,” he grated, “they got in ahead of us! No wonder the palace quarter’s closed…but no one said anything about ships coming into port.”

“The Nobles and their ‘militia’ came in and cleared out the western harbour yesterday,” someone said. “That’s probably where they came in. I heard there was something out on the river, too.”

Whispers filled the wake of his statement. Liane examined the men at the nearby tables, getting a feel for their overall sentiment.

“But that don’t help us any,” the man said. “What’s the angle yer trying to sell?”

“Well,” Liane said, “The Queen’s told the palace staff to distribute food and supplies. I heard they’re goin’ to start sometime today. Dunno what price they’ll set things at, but I bet ya they’ll tell all their friends about it first. If ya don’t move fast you’re gonna be stuck behind hundreds of wagons.”

The man frowned, his lips moving silently for a moment before he abruptly got up and left the tavern. Several of the nearby patrons followed suit. Liane eyed the two silver coins left behind on the table.

『Two silver trade coins for that…money’s really lost value here.』

『That’s hardly surprising. I’m just trying to figure out where most of it has settled.』

『Should be the main distributors, yeah? Merchants…Fishermen, maybe? A roll of bread was like two silver…wait, does that mean he gave me a roll of bread for that information? That cheapass!』

“Hey, girl – what was that all about?”

Liane and Florine looked up to find another man standing across the table. Those who had been sitting further away had shifted to the recently-vacated seats. Liane traded a glance with her friend before smiling up at the man.

“Well…”

Seven taverns, thirty-one silver coins and three hours later, Liane walked through the streets of Oriculon with a grin. Beside her, Florine sighed.

『I understand what you’re doing, but it feels so dirty.』

『Someone’s gotta do it. Well, maybe not, but it’d be stupid not to do it. We’ll see how well it worked.』

They strolled along at a leisurely pace, watching the people of the capital go about their daily lives. This time around, they didn’t ask for a carriage and used their Invisibility cloaks to sneak out of the palace quarter. She doubted that the palace had the manpower available to chase them around the city and, so far, there wasn’t any sign of officials looking for them.

A brisk wind blew away the scents of the city as their route took them along the eastern wharves. There, shipwrights had been working day and night to restore the damaged fleets to serviceable condition. Fishermen cast their nets out from a few boats dotting the river nearby and groups of girls and women waited on the piers for their return with purses in hand and items for barter.

An hour later, their meandering path brought them to the inner city, leading them to a plaza filled with refugees from the surrounding lands. On one end was their destination: one of Oriculon’s many Merchant Guild branches. The offices closer to the wall had been abandoned since Beastmen liked to pick off clerks and the like, and the one that they entered appeared to be decently staffed. A dark-haired receptionist looked up from the front counter as they approached.

“Welcome to the Merchant Guild,” he lowered his head in greeting. “How may we help you?”

Liane reached into her Infinite Haversack, producing a missive from the royal court. Despite their youth, the Nobles in the palace staff were all stuffy traditionalists who held themselves above dealings with Merchants and common artisans. Seeing this, Liane and Florine volunteered to help coordinate things with the Guilds. As short-staffed as she was, Queen Oriculus happily accepted their help.

She placed the sealed scroll of paper on the counter.

“From the palace,” Liane said.

The man picked up the scroll, examining its red wax seal.

“Just one moment, please,” he said.

The receptionist turned and brought the missive into the office behind him. Several other clerks gathered around, speaking in low voices. One left the group and returned with an older man in a slightly fancier uniform. He came over to address Liane and Florine.

“We’ll distribute the information to our members,” he told them in a toneless voice. “Thank you for letting us know.”

“I figured there’d be a bit more excitement over this,” Liane said.

“It’s old news,” the man told her. “Our members caught wind of this over an hour ago.”

“I see. Welp, I still gotta deliver the rest of these missives so I guess I’ll do that.”

They left the Merchant Guild branch, making their way to the next office marked on their map of the city. The clear, scorching weather had given way to a dull overcast and the scent of rain drifted on the wind. She looked down at her light and breezy outfit, wondering what it would look like if they got caught in the rain.

“They run things pretty tight around here.”

“They do,” Florine agreed. “I was shocked when he said they just heard about it.”

“Yeah, I figured that Chef from yesterday would’ve blabbed to someone else and it’d be all over the place by now.”

Critical market information usually spread like wildfire amongst Merchants. Everyone knew someone and maintaining good relationships with other Merchants involved sharing information that might be relevant to other parties. Developing a sense of solidarity within information networks was fundamental. It wasn’t all guaranteed to be trustworthy, timely or useful, of course, but successfully filtering out and leveraging information was a skill in itself that garnered the respect of others.

“Is Chef Remlay under those Nobles’ thumbs, or is it some custom for businesses in the palace quarter?”

“Hmm…good question,” Liane said. “Even if it came from us, he might have treated it as a perk of the connection he had with those guys and kept it to his own people. It’s a bit weird though – someone usually says something, especially if it’s something big.”

“No leaks from the palace,” Florine said, “no leaks from Dragon’s Roost. Those newly-recruited militia either haven’t heard or haven’t said anything…”

Either way, it was uncanny. Those that felt they had something valuable to say usually just went out and said it whenever they had the opportunity to. A few were shrewd enough to get paid for it. She couldn’t imagine that random men recruited from the common citizenry would have any discipline whatsoever when it came to that sort of thing.

“I guess we were the only leak,” Liane heaved a sigh. “What do we do, Florine? We’ve stepped onto a dark path. Ludmila will be waiting at the end of it with her stabber.”

“Don’t you try and drag me into this,” Florine said. “Any stabbings that come your way will be for you and you alone.”

“What?! But you’re my best friend! Friends get stabbed together!”

“I’ll abstain in this case. The gods know how much trouble you always get us into.”

『Speaking of the gods…』

They walked by a wagon loaded with barrels, which was parked in front of a temple with unfamiliar symbology. A woman in scant, lacy vestments that could in a word be described as ‘suggestive’ was casting Purify Food and Drink on them.

『That’s a Priestess, right? Her outfit’s pretty crazy. What faith is that?』

『Don’t look at her, Liane! Your lewdness will bring her this way.』

『My lewdness? Says the Minister of the Department of Lewdness.』

Florine grabbed her elbow, dragging her off as she picked up her pace.

“Excuse me!” A woman’s voice called out from behind them, “Excuse me? Young miss over there!”

『See?!』

『How is this my fault?』

『Don’t you get it, Liane? Everyone’s been looking at you, not me!』

『Well, I admit that’s been pretty nice, but it’s not like I’m doing anything to get their attention.』

The sound of hurried steps came closer.

“Excuse me!”

『Holy crap, she’s chasing us! A-am I really that lewd?』

A hand tugged on her blouse. Liane turned around.

“Is there something we can do for–wah!”

Liane froze as the Priestess grabbed her by the shoulders. The woman’s head rose and fell, going from side to side as she scrutinised her with uncomfortable intensity. Her face drew close to Liane’s navel. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Did you just–”

“Perfect!” The Priestess cried out joyously, “You must come with me, Miss Merchant!”

The woman took her wrist and headed back towards the temple. She stopped when Liane reached the limit of her stretchiness.

“Guh! I’m not a damn wagon hitch! Lemme go!”

Florine released her other hand.

“No, not you! Save meeeee!”

A set of sinister claws emerged from Liane’s shadow.

『That’s not what I meant!』

The claws receded. Liane looked at the bare back of the Priestess.

“Erm, why are you dragging me off? What do you want? Who are you, even?”

They stopped in front of the steps of the temple. The Priestess turned back around. She folded her hands and cast a pleading look at Liane.

“You need to help our kingdom!”

Uh, I’m already doing that…

“What sort of ‘help’?” Florine asked.

“Shouldn’t it be obvious?” The Priestess said, “A crisis is upon us! Miss Merchant here will be the perfect model to lead us back to prosperity!”

『Hey, maybe she’s not crazy after all.』

Florine came up to stand beside Liane again.

“How exactly would she help you?”

“By joining us and making babies, of course!” The Priestess smiled an outrageously pure smile.

“Hah?”

“She’s perfect, don’t you think? Her youthful figure is brimming with vitality! Of course, she doesn’t hold a candle to our glorious Queen, but…hm?”

The woman furrowed her brow. She reached up and grabbed Liane’s boobs.

Liane gasped and jumped back, shifting her boobs back into place. The woman gasped and cast a mournful expression her way.

“Why…why would you do such a thing?”

That’s my line!

“W-well sorry for that!” Liane cried, “Look, I’m not as ‘perfect’ as you think, so we’ll just be on our way–”

“But you are!” The Priestess said, “Those…those things are ruining your beauty! Why are you hiding your figure? Ah~ I can only envy one who is so deliciously flat!”

『Florine, this woman is hurting me. The Ring of Mental Fortitude doesn’t help.』

The Priestess made sobbing noises, going back and forth while making various gestures. Liane took a step back and the woman’s hand shot out to grab her again.

“Come, dear sweet Merchant,” she said, “let us enter the sanctum and praise the Mistress of Bounty for her blessings!”

Liane wasn’t sure she wanted to know what that involved. She dug in her heels and the Priestess jerked to a stop again.

“Wha–so strong! Normal people usually can’t stop a Priest…this just gets better and better…are you some sort of Merchant Hero?”

“As interesting as that sounds,” Liane said, “most likely not.”

“I still don’t understand what’s going on here,” Florine said. “Why are you so desperate to…to…”

“Because these are desperate times!” The Priestess said, “Don’t you see? Well, perhaps you don’t since it’s a bit overcrowded in the city, but we’ve lost so many people! Even if the Beastmen are driven off, the lands will lie fallow and the forges cold – we must make babies to repopulate our country.”

Technically, she wasn’t wrong, but she also sounded like a madwoman.

“So, what…you want me to, uh…advertise for you?”

“I understand that you’re a Merchant,” the Priestess said, “but let’s not put it in such crass terms. You will be a role model for the people; once your belly begins to swell, you will be a saint!”

Liane stared at the woman for a good, long moment.

“W-we should go,” she turned around and grabbed Florine’s arm. “My father told me to never talk to strange strangers.”

“There’s no need to be shy,” the Priestess called after them. “Our temple staff will be more than happy to help you with–”

“No thanks!”

“But you’re more than old enough to bear children…ah, if you’re ashamed over not being able to conceive, we have fertility treatments for both men and women!”

Her steps slowed.

“Really?”

『Liane!』

『You know it took my father like five years to get me – we don’t have that long!』

『That was all just speculation, but…what about the thing Ludmila talked about?』

『Maybe that’ll happen, but don’t you want a Human baby?』

『Mmh…』

Liane turned around. The woman brightened.

“What sort of treatment is this?” Liane asked.

“So you’re interested in–”

“I’m not saying I want to become your mascot or anything, I just want to know about the other thing. Is it like a potion or salve?”

“They can be applied in various ways,” the Priestess nodded, “Our apothecaries can…well, no, they’ve been eaten, but we have some left over in storage.”

“Then we’ll take those.”

The woman’s eyes went from Liane to Florine and back again.

“Since they’re no longer being produced, they are expensive…but if you agree to work with us, we can give you a discount–”

“Just shut up and take my money!”

Another couple of hours passed before they decided to stop looking around and made their way back to the royal plaza. The first sign of her ploy’s effectiveness was a line of wagons appearing long before they reached the main gate to the palace quarter.

『Hmm…not bad. We got the city’s Merchants all riled up, plus we got some weird baby sauce.』

『I hope you don’t plan on using that potion right away.』

『It’s not like I’m gonna dump it on my head and jump the first guy I see. Some of the palace staff seem pretty promising though…』

『We barely know them! Ludmila said something about the age of twenty so we still have a few years to make a proper choice.』

『I guess…』

Liane smiled to herself as they examined their handiwork. The anticipation of the Merchants had grown to the point where more than a few companies were sending people out, offering to pay others for their positions in the line. Hundreds of Wagons were already waiting in the streets, however, and no one would give up their spots. They walked by a couple of the men that had joined them at the Dragon’s Roost the previous evening, who looked more than a bit helpless as they frantically tried to manage the queue.

『The Merchants here have a lot more clout than back home.』

『Sure do. They’re walking all over Carillo and Oras over there.』

It was more that the noblemen were being flat-out ignored, but it amounted to the same thing. The Merchants appeared to be running things their own way and the Noblemen were effectively powerless to do anything about it. This behaviour was pretty much suicidal from a business perspective – and sometimes literally – for all but the most powerful Merchants in the north, especially if one went up against the Noble presiding over the territory that they were in.

『Maybe it’s ‘cuz the cities here all belong to the Queen. The Nobles here only have as much legal power as whatever their job is in the city. Everything else would be entirely dependent on how much influence they have. If a Merchant doesn’t have any ties to their territory or whatever else the Noble has going on, they can safely treat them like any other guy.』

『That might be it. Carillo said that the Noble factions here remain ‘provincial’, so the Merchants don’t have to worry about the wider consequences of crossing any single Noble house.』

『Yeah. All the Nobles around this duchy got nommed so the citizens don’t even have to think twice about local problems. Hmm…so the landed aristocracy is all eaten up and whatever new ones that come in’ll basically have to rebuild their power and influence from scratch. They’re gonna be at the mercy of the Guilds for a long time.』

『Is that something that we want?』

『I don’t care either way, but we should bring this up with Clara.』

They went past the gate to the palace quarter, going around to the cordoned-off western harbour. Now that the first shipment of cargo was offloaded and their barges were on their way back north, the area was filled with people tearing down the warehouses and other buildings in the section that would be leased to the Sorcerous Kingdom.

Liane and Florine didn’t stop to watch their work, instead going straight into the palace quarter through a small western gate that led into the back of the district. They followed the wall to the front gate where their cargo containers were arranged along the main thoroughfare. They found Lady Delerose and several members of the palace staff staring at the closed gate.

“Ready to do business?” Liane grinned.

The men and women turned at her voice.

“Countess Wagner,” Lady Delerose hugged her clipboard to her breast and lowered her head in greeting. “I’m not sure if we are. I didn’t think our missive would generate this much of a response. Did you see the sheer number of wagons waiting outside?”

“Some of it, Lady Delerose,” Liane replied. “Looks like the Royal Treasury will have a lot to work with after this.”

“And we’re very thankful for that,” the interim Royal Treasurer nodded. “The way that you’ve facilitated things on your end is a godsend.

The military aid; the logistical preparations and all the goods; how you’ve helped to finance everything…I’ve never heard or read of a plan even a quarter as comprehensive as this. You’ve also saved us the trouble of dealing with the Guilds.”

“I say we raise the rates,” a woman in a flowing Maid uniform said. “These Merchants are all fattened up from the gold they’ve sucked out of the people.”

Liane frowned internally at her suggestion. The scions working in the palace staff were supposed to be excellent up-and-coming members of aristocratic society. Yet, in the statement following her suggestion, she had unknowingly pointed out the problem with the suggestion.

“Ulutin,” Lady Delerose fixed the Maid with a stern look, “that won’t do us any good. These rates are in line with what we’re paying the citizens for their restoration efforts. If we charge more for these goods, the Merchants will pass on those costs to the citizens and then we’ll have to raise wages to match.”

The Maid furrowed her brow at the Royal Treasurer’s explanation. Was it that hard to understand?

Due to the long siege of the capital, the steadily dwindling supplies within the city rose in price with a select few as the main distributors. The stores of food and other goods were exchanged for coin. Thus, most of the money in the capital had pooled in the hands of the Merchant class. This wasn’t out of any inherent desire to hoard wealth – it was simply because there was no way for the Merchants to use that money to import more goods.

Thus, a liquidity problem had developed in the capital. The Merchants had all of the money and everyone else – including the government – had next to none. Simply showing up and selling food to those Merchants didn’t do anything since the people they were selling to had no money. On the same note, Merchants would try to haggle down the price to avoid taking a colossal loss. Waiting for the economy to get going again ‘naturally’ would be painfully slow and riddled with issues.

She didn’t even want to think about the insanity that would come with hundreds of thousands of unregulated, unofficial loans. Transactions would be woefully unfair and they would be looked back upon with resentment. Slavery was not illegal in the Draconic Kingdom, so people would sell themselves to survive. It wasn’t a pretty picture and far from the Sorcerous Kingdom’s goal of having a stable, healthy neighbour that would happily join hands with them.

Rather than leaving things as they were and having the country go through all those woes, a plan had been drawn up to get everything going at once. The government started a wide-scale effort to restore the damage to the city, fix the ships in the harbour and prepare for the spring planting. Over a hundred thousand people were employed with the cooperation of the businesses around the city and the government promised that payment would be delivered by the end of the week.

The citizens worked under the assumption that it was a normal course of action after the siege of the city had been broken. Efforts to get the fleets afloat and for the people to ready themselves for seasonal activities were also seen as a matter of course. Little did the people know that they were also being used to forcefully get money circulating through the economy again. Not that they would care.

Merchants would come and purchase goods from the crown, the crown would pay wages owed using the proceeds and the people would then purchase goods from wherever they popped out in the supply chain. Seizing control of both the supply of goods and the supply of coin essentially allowed the Draconic Kingdom’s government to keep the price of everything relatively stable.

The lease of land for the Sorcerous Kingdom’s exclave funded this effort, as well as the taxes from trade. The Draconic Kingdom would be able to regulate the capital’s economy for about as long as it took for its primary industries to see a return to regular operations. At that point, the economy would be too large to control anyway and the crown would release its hold on the markets, which would go back to the way that they usually functioned.

After sending Miss Ulutin away, Lady Delerose turned to them with an apologetic look.

“We’re about to begin, my ladies,” she said. “An office has been set up on the second floor of the gatehouse. Shall we continue our discussion there?”

They followed the Royal Treasurer to what was usually the office of a watch captain. A set of simple chairs had been placed at a small desk, but they went over to one of the arrow slits that overlooked the road below.

“Lady Delerose,” Florine asked, “Is there some reason why Miss Ulutin made that suggestion?”

“You have my most sincere apologies for that, my ladies,” Lady Delerose said. “Ulutin’s area of expertise lies elsewhere.”

“That was a pretty basic mistake for a Noble to make,” Liane said.

“Basic…I suppose that may be the case for Nobles with your backgrounds. I’m afraid more than a few of the palace staff consider the revenues we’ll be collecting here along the same lines as taxes or crop shares. The fact that we’re using a lease to finance everything makes them act like it’s pure profit.”

“But they should be familiar with bits and pieces of their territories being ransacked, yeah?”

“That’s true, but at the same time, it’s just that: bits and pieces. This is just too big. It’s at a scale that the crown usually handles and I don’t think we’ve ever been in a situation where money just freezes.”

Were they expecting too much out of the scions in the palace staff? Clara grasped the domestic challenges facing the Draconic Kingdom the moment Chief Venomscale delivered his maps. That same evening, they were already devising solutions and reconstructing her plans for the Draconic Kingdom. It only took one reading of her first draft for Liane and Florine to understand what the problems were and what needed to be done.

According to Clara, when the plan was delivered to Prime Minister Albedo for review the following morning, the Prime Minister – and Momon, somehow – instantly recognised that part of her proposal as a type of ‘liquidity package’. After they explored several additional options on the administrative and financial end of things, the Prime Minister approved the entire proposal.

Queen Oriculus also understood most of what Clara proposed: she simply didn’t have the means to do what needed to be done.

“You say that it’s at a scale that the crown usually handles, Lady Delerose,” Florine said, “but it handles things out of each city through its provincial administrators, yes?”

“That’s true, Lady Gagnier,” Lady Delerose admitted, “but all we had to do was carry out the missives delivered to us by the Royal Court. All of that knowledge and expertise rested with Her Majesty’s ministers and their veteran department staff. I’m sure that we ourselves would have learned once we advanced to the ministries. Now, it feels as if the knowledge of our predecessors has been lost.”

“Well, I guess you have no choice but to learn quickly,” Liane said. “There are probably eight different kinds of catastrophe waiting for your attention out there.”

Lady Delerose let out a weak laugh, combing her fingers back through her hair.

“Never mind any of that,” she replied, “I was still trying to figure out how to deal with all of the concerns surrounding goods from a nation full of the Undead. Given the line outside, I suppose it was a needless worry – they seem more worried about their competitors than anything else.”

“Yup,” Liane smirked. “All ya gotta do is point ‘em at the right problem. The rest takes care of itself.”

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