Tonio laughed and said, “I might be able to start up my own trading company soon with all of this.” I nodded enthusiastically, thinking that I would very much like him to do that, and he said with a mischievous smile, “I can look forward to receiving your business, then.”
I put the ruffian adventurers I’d contracted to work as convoys guarding our purchases, and we all returned to Beast Woods. That was the start of yet another hectic period.
I dropped by each of the villages we’d visited on the way to Whitesails, giving them a further round of medical treatment and having Anna help me organize religious festivals. With help from Tonio, I lent out draft animals and various kinds of tools in exchange for providing us shelter; I also allowed the villagers to buy them from us and pay in installments.
When there were reports of demons or beasts, I had Reystov and some of the other adventurers form a party and go out to hunt them. Reystov in particular was incredibly skilled; by and large, the corpses of the beasts he brought back had been penetrated straight through their most vulnerable spots, just as his nickname boasted.
Just out of curiosity, I asked him, “Can you do that to a wyvern?” and he replied gruffly, “If it’s within sword’s reach.”
That wasn’t all. When there were disputes between the villages, I mediated them. When there were crimes in a village, I asked for the help of the priests and we held trials for those involved, so the matter would be solved as fairly as possible. I hadn’t originally been planning to do so much, but Tom, the elder of the village I’d first helped when a dispute arose, asked me if I’d help him out again since I’d done it once before. I couldn’t say no. And as my reputation spread, other villages also started to request my help to handle disputes that were getting out of hand, and I found myself with more and more to do. That’s how I ended up I traveling all over the place, doing all kinds of work.
When I heard about a village I hadn’t come into contact with, I got someone from the village we were currently in to introduce us and forge a connection, and then I’d do the same thing there. Bee really came in handy for making friendly first contact with unknown villages and whenever we had some message we needed spread around. I got the feeling I was paying for that with all the embellished stories she was also spreading about me. Maybe I needed to think of it as the cost of doing business.
Of course, if I kept on doing this kind of thing, I’d quickly find myself in debt in the literal sense. But while that was true, the livestock and agricultural tools that I’d lent out and sold off to the villages hadn’t gone anywhere; they remained in the village as valuable community property, and were visibly accelerating the villages’ development and production. These villages were essentially nothing more than places where vagrants had gathered together, so for many of them, just a plow, an iron axe, and a hoe would be tremendously valuable additions. And if we made that a plow and a horse to go with it, and threw in a ten-piece set of metal farming implements and other tools, work efficiency would jump up dramatically. If that improved, there would be more fields giving greater yields. With greater yields, the people would be able to repay their debts to us, and they’d become able to afford to purchase goods.
In parallel, I and the adventurers would be clearing Beast Woods of the dangerous demons and beasts, making the area safer. As the area became safer, merchants would be able to go to and from the villages without the need for heavy escorting, which would lead to a burst of commercial activity. The Fertile Kingdom’s authority didn’t extend here anyway, so it wasn’t like there was going to be a toll for them to pay. They could do business here freely. And with more merchants coming in and out, the villagers could buy things with currency. Their improved production capacity should lead to them obtaining all kinds of things with money. Before long, an increasing number of those places would start dabbling in commercial crops in their desire for cash, anticipating demand for them from the city. And once money and goods started changing hands, neighboring areas would naturally become more interconnected for the sake of commerce. Access and transportation would improve. This was what Gus lovingly called “living money,” money that moved around and made itself useful.
“And then one day, perhaps we can climb back out of the red,” Tonio said, while doing some estimates on his abacus. “That is, if you and I are both still alive.” That was definitely something I was aiming for, living at least long enough to get back out of the red.
Of course, we had only just gotten the ball rolling, and not everything was going according to plan. Often, people would try to engineer things so they’d keep all the profit for themselves, or intentionally default on everything they’d borrowed. I tried to contain situations like that as much as I could. Usually, this was by getting help from Anna and the other priests, who knew about law and how to persuade people, but some of the scarier-looking adventurers were also effective deterrents. Fortunately, in the short span of time that we were involved, there wasn’t anyone dangerous enough to try something too disruptive. Even if a person like that was lurking somewhere, it was probably natural that they hadn’t tried, in a way. If you did something like that in place like this, you’d find yourself surrounded and beaten until you became tree food.
Mary had once told me, “The greatest trap one can fall into when trying to do something good is to make the mistake of thinking that because you are acting with a good goal in mind, you are bound to get results.” Even if you decide to do something good, the people around you won’t lend you their help unconditionally, nor will the gods bless you with protection. Results come only by setting a reasonable goal and using appropriate methods to achieve it. And so, Mary had told me, the most important thing is to be practical and realistic. I took advice from everything Gus had taught me about money and regularly consulted with Menel, Bee, Tonio, Reystov, Anna, and the elders of villages all over, all of whom were very familiar with this world and its customs.
And together, we moved things forward. We went all over Beast Woods, back and forth, and as the winter transitioned into spring, I started to get the feeling that I was seeing more smiles in the villages. I felt as if there were now slightly fewer people who had no idea what tomorrow would even bring, who would wear gloomy or expressionless faces, or who would lose it completely and go off the rails. Perhaps that was what triggered the memory of something that Gus had once lectured me on.
— If you want something done, you don’t have to use magic. You just buy the tools you need or hire some people. Reshaping the terrain is a powerful piece of magic, but if you’ve got money, you can just hire laborers and workmen to do construction for you instead. Make no mistake, the ability to earn money and make it work for you is just as important as magic!
“Yeah...” I finally understood what Gus had been getting at—and he was right. Even when he said something that made you twist your head, Gus’s lessons were always right. Making people smile and giving them hope... It felt like magic greater than magic itself.
Under a canopy set up in a vacant lot I’d rented from one of the villages, I was giving Pale Moon an inspection, checking that the neck of the blade and the metal collar were in good shape. As I idly wondered whether summer might start to make itself felt soon, a gruff voice called out to catch my attention. I looked up as Reystov came over.