Chapter 112: Monster Trade
The Northern Situation had changed something in the atmosphere of Eldoris in a way, not severe enough to affect the daily routines, but enough for Tanaka to notice. The patrols of Raizen’s Star Wolves were now extending their routes to longer than before. Mana-birds flew across the sky continuously, delivering messages between the central settlement and the outlaying sentries. The guards took more interest into who passed through the gates. Despite this, the market seemed busy enough. Tanaka bounced through it, with Sora close by his side.
A merchant from Valeria was just putting down some bags of salt, a Goblin was carrying bundles of finished work from Gorim’s workshop, an Orc hunter was selling some smoked meat along with several monster hides, and a group of Moonhares had set out some medicinal herbs. Tanaka paused as he noticed something.
The merchant from Valeria was purchasing some dried herbs. He noted how the Moonhare selling them had taken the offered price without negotiation. Tanaka watched the trade take place before he turned his attention to the salt. The reason why the merchant had brought the salt into Eldoris should be obvious, Tanaka noted, the problem was what the merchant would do with the salt now that they had it. They had no knowledge of where else to sell it. The same problem applied to the Moonhare, who had no knowledge where else to buy. They had met in the market by chance.
Tanaka bounced slightly. "Sora." "Yes?" "Who usually keeps track of this?" Sora glanced around. "Probably someone." "Who?" Tanaka watched as Sora hesitated. "I don’t know." This response made Tanaka pause. He looked around the market again. Tanaka knew about trade; it was hardly something difficult to understand, before his death his life had been very much like a game and one of the aspects he had learned was that resources could be gathered, processed, transported, exchanged, and refined into something more valuable.
A nation with an abundant supply of a certain resource could suffer from poor logistics and still find itself losing money, a group of warriors could produce weapons and armors throughout the day, but that would not stop them from going hungry if no one purchased their wares, and a settlement could find itself in desperate need of certain goods despite another having more than enough of it and not knowing it, but it was the market that could bridge these gaps and fulfill these needs. Eldoris already had most of the necessary components to form such a system, which was making it difficult to figure out where the person responsible for connecting them all was. Tanaka turned towards the nearest road. "Let’s find out."
The pair did not spend the afternoon investigating random merchants. Tanaka knew where to look first. The materials that Gorim’s workshop did not need were stored away until they did, so it was not difficult to find the Goblin smith where Tanaka expected him to be. Tanaka found the man inside his workshop, the latter already having a hammer in hand. "Lord Tanaka." "What do you do with materials you do not need?" Gorim indicated a storage room. "We keep them there." "Until?" "Until I need them." Tanaka peered into the room, seeing stacks of ore, metal, monster claws, teeth, and several crates of processed materials.
"How do you know what you have?" "I keep track of my workshop." "Not Eldoris?" Gorim give him a strange look. "I’m a blacksmith." Tanaka bounced lightly. "Fair enough." Tanaka departed, and Drakar was not much more cooperative. The Wyrmkin could tell him where the materials were gathered, but the records were focused more on collection and distribution to the workshops than anything else. Eldrin was in charge of the Goblin workforce and supplies, the hunters were aware of what they gathered, the healers were aware of what they needed, none of them were supposed to know the larger picture.
Tanaka returned to the market, examining it with new eyes. A merchant had brought some salt into Eldoris due to the fact that the Moonhares and other residents needed it, but another merchant further down the market was trying to sell some heavily priced preserved meat that required a greater amount of salt than they had recently acquired. Tanaka observed two other merchants trying to outbid one another for a particular herb while another nearby trader was trying to sell something that Eldoris had only recently started to run low on.
No one had taken notice of what was happening. Not the problem, but the opportunity. It wasn’t the trade that was an issue; it was the information. Eldoris had plenty of production, but no one was collecting any of the numbers. How much meat was coming into the settlement per week and how much of it was being eaten?
How many healing herbs were being produced and how many of them were being used by the workshops and the healers? How much ore was in storage and how much of it could be sold without risking the supply for the workshops? What foreign merchants were attempting to acquire specific materials? What materials required refinement before being sold? Tanaka knew the answers and he knew they were important, but that did not change the fact that he did not have them. "That’s ridiculous."
Sora bounced beside him. "You sound offended." "I am." Tanaka turned towards the market. "We’re basically an economy with everyone using their own notebook." Sora wobbled slightly. "That sounds like something that should be fixed." "It does." Tanaka looked around. "And I know exactly who I need." Sora tilted towards him. "Who?"
Tanaka turned towards a small merchant stall near the edge of the market, a Greater Kobold was standing there, running over bundles of herbs with a stick against a wooden tablet. Tanaka had seen this woman before, more than once in fact, she had been at the same stall during his previous visits to the market, always going through the goods before they were taken to the actual seller. Tanaka had never bothered to ask who she was because she reminded him of the other assistants at the market, but he watched her for a little longer now.
A merchant came up to the stall with three bundles of herbs, the Kobold looked over the items before indicating two of them. "These two can go to the Moonhare healers." She moved them to one side. "The third is too dry." The merchant frowned. "It’s still good." "It’s usable, but not for healing." The Kobold pointed towards another shelf. "Sell it for food preparation instead, you’ll get more than you would trying to pass it off as medicinal stock." The merchant hesitated before nodding. Tanaka bounced slightly closer. The Kobold took notice of him. "Lord Tanaka." "You’ve been doing that all day?" She glanced at the herbs. "Everyday." "Who do you work for?" "Nobody." She tapped herself. "I’m Kessa."
Tanaka stared at her for a moment, and Sora gave a small bounce beside him. "You never asked her name before." "I know." Kessa gave a smile. "My family used to trade between settlements before we joined Eldoris, I started helping out with the market when the foreign merchants began arriving." Tanaka looked at the tablet in her hands. "What are you recording?" "Quantities." She showed him, while the markings were simple enough, they were also very helpful; quantities received, quantities sold, quantities rejected and redirected along with the names of buyers and suppliers. Tanaka’s eyes widened.
"You’re already doing it." Kessa blinked. "Doing what?" "The job I was looking for." She looked confused, but Tanaka continued. "Not selling the goods, tracking the movement of the goods." Tanaka pointed around the market. "You know what comes in, you know who buys, you know what becomes scarce, you know when something is being sold for the wrong purpose." Kessa lowered the tablet. "I just thought it was useful." "It is." Tanaka bounced closer. "Very useful."
Tanaka told her what he wanted, not a merchant, not a shopkeeper, but a trade representative for Eldoris, someone who would keep a record of what the Dominion produced, consumed, could afford to sell, what the foreign merchants wanted and what goods were worth refining before selling. Someone who would talk to the hunters, the workshops, the healers, the resource teams, and the foreign merchants and bring the information together. Kessa listened, and when Tanaka finished, she looked around the market. "That’s much bigger than what I’m doing." "That’s why I’m asking you." She looked back at him.
"Why me?" Tanaka bounced lightly. "Because you were already doing the small version, without anyone asking you to." Kessa was silent for a moment, then she smiled. "I’ll do it." Tanaka bounced so hard he nearly knocked Sora over. "Really?" "Really." Sora wobbled. "You found your trade representative." Tanaka turned to look at the market, he had expected to find something valuable that Eldoris could sell, but what he should have been looking for was something else entirely, the Dominion did not need someone to inform the populace of trade, it needed someone to understand it.
Tanaka’s gaze turned towards the road that led outside the settlement, salt was coming in from allied nations, herbs were going out, weapons were being produced in Gorim’s workshop, materials were coming in from the hunters, the dungeon had plenty of resources, all of these things had value, and sooner rather than later, Eldoris was going to have to determine exactly how much.
Tanaka turned to Kessa. "Starting from tomorrow, I want a record of every major resource entering and exiting Eldoris." Kessa raised her tablet. "I’ll need people." "You’ll get them." "I’ll need access into the workshops." "Granted." "I’ll need the hunters to report what they bring back." Tanaka bounced. "Granted." Kessa nodded.
"Then I’ll start." Tanaka turned to look at Sora. "That was easier than I thought." Sora bounced. "You spent half the day looking for the right person." "Exactly." They began their walk towards the council hall, for the first time since the Northern Situation had begun, Tanaka was no longer thinking of the enemy.