A mere twenty silver coins.
In truth, twenty silver coins would have been like a lottery ticket falling from the sky for an ordinary family in the north, but...
‘Still, this is supposed to run a whole region, pathetic as it is. There’s no way I can do anything with twenty coins.’
There was something ordinary people neither knew nor needed to know.
The local budgets executed by civil servants were far larger than one might expect.
They could burn as much as three billion won on a local festival so featureless, barren, and devoid of attractions that one naturally wondered, ‘Does anyone even go to that?’ Or they could allocate a budget of more than eight billion won under the pretext of increasing the youth residential rate and revitalizing the local commercial district.
There was a reason people said public money was blind money.
Still, one truth remained.
Whether for a person or a local administration, having no money made one miserable.
‘I wish I at least had a budget to waste.’
Aiden smacked his lips.
No matter how hard he racked his brain, he could not think of any suitable method to naturally incorporate the wild folk outside the system into the system with their current lack of resources.
“Let’s eat lunch first, at least.”
“I’ll just have a sandwich....”
“If you keep chewing on dry bread every day like that, your stomach will go on strike first, Administrator!”
Jamie’s expression was strangely desperate.
What was wrong with sandwiches?
Aiden did not particularly care about fine food, but if his only aide collapsed from this, that would be troublesome, so he nodded for now.
Clatter, clatter.
As he approached the dining hall on the first floor, he heard the sounds of a meal being prepared.
It was the dull sound of wooden tableware.
Even so, Aiden’s meals had at least been served on one of the few porcelain dishes, but after he said there was no need to do that, everything had been unified as wooden tableware.
“Please sit.”
Brikal, the head cook, displayed his skills for the first time in a while.
Aiden always asked him to bring sandwiches, so Brikal had quietly been wondering whether his cooking was not to Aiden’s taste. When he received word that Aiden was coming down to the dining hall, his fighting spirit had burned in its own way.
So today, instead of the smoked bear meat they ate every time, he had made up his mind and slaughtered a chicken.
Sizzle.
“Eat it while it is warm.”
Brikal poured an unknown sauce filled generously with root vegetables over the chicken dish he had grilled on a heated cast-iron plate.
Gulp.
As though his salivary glands had broken, Jamie kept swallowing while unable to take his eyes off the head cook’s hands.
“I’ll enjoy it.”
Though the arrangement lacked any foundation, with the main dish appearing immediately without soup, salad, or appetizers, Aiden thought there was no greater luxury.
‘Compared to the cafeteria, this is a fairy. A fairy.’
There were already six dishes laid out before his eyes alone.
It was fine now because the number of people working inside the lord’s castle was bleakly small, but if the number of people increased, the dishes to wash would be no joke.
“Should I help you with the dishes later?”
“Goodness, Administrator. You must not say such dangerous things.”
At Aiden’s casual remark, Brikal nearly jumped.
“Still.”
He was acting lord, but he was not a lord.
He was an administrator, but he was also not a noble.
Because of that, Aiden did not particularly possess any sense of authority.
However, it seemed others did not think the same way.
Trying to ease the awkward atmosphere, Aiden spoke to the head cook again.
“Wooden dishes take more work than porcelain, don’t they?”
“They do. They stain easily, and after washing, they have to be dried well. Even then, they often warp.”
“Then do you have to buy new ones every time?”
“Haha! Why would anyone pay money for wooden dishes like these? You just find a random piece of wood lying around and carve it yourself.”
“You know how to make dishes too? That’s impressive. Jamie, do you know how to make them?”
“I can’t. Axes are easy to handle, but small things like carving knives never quite fit my hand.”
“Then what do you do at home when a dish breaks?”
“I either ask someone who makes them well, like the head cook, or just keep using whatever I have. Heh heh.”
“Well, there isn’t a separate market, after all.”
“Yes.”
But he could not create a market right away.
A market was not something where merchants and customers would drop from the sky just because one roughly put together the outward form and opened it.
There was a reason most markets arose naturally from the people rather than from public office.
‘Still, I do need to solve the chronic logistics shortage somehow.’
Aiden fell into thought again in the middle of the meal.
Brikal grew anxious.
This had been his decisive dish.
If that cooled down, the flavor would fall considerably!
“Aide, I have plenty of dishes I’ve made, so I’ll give you ten or twenty of them. Stop worrying and eat already!”
“Oh, Head Cook, really?”
“I said so, didn’t I? I made dozens while trying out different shapes, so take whichever ones you want.”
Jamie rejoiced, saying he could finally throw away the old dishes at home.
“...You have dozens of dishes stacked up at home?”
Aiden received a lightning-bolt revelation.
The north, where goods were in absolute shortage.
But in any case, this was still a place where people lived. And if there were quite a few households like Brikal’s, with piles of certain items stocked up like that?
‘No. There’s a very high chance that’s the case!’
In the north, it was difficult to find even a market, let alone a proper shop.
There were numerous villages, but they were also closed-off places where people lived so far apart that they did not even properly know one another.
Everyone was poor, so there was almost no trade or exchange between villages.
Nevertheless, people had to live, and for people to live, they needed many things.
To procure the goods necessary for life without trade, the method was self-sufficiency.
‘I knew that much.’
But Aiden realized it.
Until now, he had not properly understood what self-sufficiency meant.
In truth, for someone who had lived in a world where all sorts of goods were delivered right to one’s door with a few taps, it would have been stranger if he had properly understood self-sufficiency.
‘Right. Even if people make things themselves to use, they don’t stop after making exactly only what they need.’
Of course, there were people who had no desire for possessions in the first place, but if the opposite existed, that meant...
‘There are surplus goods in the north too.’
Aiden hurriedly shoved the chicken into his mouth.
“It’s delicious! And thank you. Please make dinner a sandwich!”
“Pardon?”
Aiden rushed back toward his office as though struck by lightning.
Watching his back, Brikal somehow grew a little dejected.
***
“I’m going to open a flea market.”
“...What kind of market?”
“A flea market.”
“You said it was still too early for us to have a market in the north.”
Jamie, who had followed him, tilted his head.
“I did. We don’t have the economic scale for a permanent market yet.”
“But it seems there must be a reason you suddenly changed your mind.”
“I told you. I’m not saying I’ll create a permanent market. I’m saying I’ll create a flea market.”
“Are they different?”
“Very much.”
Jamie still looked uncertain.
“A flea market doesn’t need professional merchants. Ah, it’d be good if they were there, but I mean it doesn’t matter even if they aren’t.”
“......?”
“Because the residents themselves will become the merchants.”
Bringing out things one did not need and selling them to someone who did.
It was the most basic form of commerce.
And this basic, fundamental transaction did not have to be done by professional merchants.
Aiden began drafting a plan in a frenzy.
“The empty lot in front of the lord’s castle should be good for the location. Let’s not waste money setting up tents or anything. Just place one table each.”
Venue secured.
“Send an official notice to every village. Tell them residents who apply for a table in advance won’t have to pay a participation fee. The goods can be whatever they want. Things they made are fine, and surplus items are fine too. Someone will need them.”
Participants and goods selected.
“Quickly send fast-footed soldiers after the merchant companies that left for fur trading. Tell them there will be a market where almost every village in the north will participate, so if they have anything left over, they should come sell it. Ah, and tell them that while there will be a slight commission fee, we’ll provide most conveniences.”
Merchants secured.
“Lastly.... Hiss. I wonder if there’s a traveling troupe somewhere.”
“Should I catch one?”
“Are you an official or a bandit? Sometimes I really get confused.”
“Heh heh.”
“And even if you went around with your eyes blazing trying to catch a troupe that doesn’t exist, you wouldn’t see one.”
“That’s true too. Even a traveling troupe wouldn’t come all the way to the north.”
Who would listen to music and throw coins in a place that did not even have a proper inn?
“Still, it feels empty if there’s no guest singer at a neighborhood event.”
Even at a local event, one had to call in at least a few trot singers to draw a crowd.
In this otherworld, where amusement and spectacle were even more lacking, such an event was all the more necessary.
“Should I sing a little?”
“Are you good at singing?”
“No.”
“......”
This aide of his always had more enthusiasm than ability.
“...But it might be all right.”
“Pardon? Should I prepare a song?”
“You do the work I assigned you. Why is the expected fur trade profit table I mentioned yesterday still not on my desk?”
“T-That will be ready by tomorrow....”
“Tsk.”
Jamie drooped his shoulders and returned to his seat.
Not that his broad shoulders shrank even an inch.
***
“What brings you here again, sir...? Please sit this way.”
“No, no. I have to go straight to the next village.”
The village closest to the lord’s castle.
The village chief warmly welcomed the soldier who had come bearing the order of the newly appointed administrator.
“Even so, drink this down first. You have a long road ahead, so your body should be warm.”
He warmed fermented sheep’s milk liquor and served it together with jerky made from dried rabbit meat.
Though it looked like nothing much, it was a rather sincere welcome.
“Oh, you didn’t have to go this far.”
The soldier cleared his throat and drained a cup of warm liquor in one breath.
“Keuh!”
His throat burned.
“Thanks to the Lord taking those merchants in hand, we secured so much food this year! These days, at every mealtime, smoke rises from every house. Truly, I don’t know how to express my gratitude...!”
The village chief held the soldier’s hand as his eyes reddened.
Every year around this time, it was normal for the sound of weeping to never cease.
Food ran out, children screamed, and old people, their tears dried up, spent their days staring only into empty air.
But this year was different.
“This sable pelt was caught in a trap, so it has too many flaws. At one-fifth of the original price....”
“Do you want your trade permit revoked?”
“....”
When the soldier from the lord’s castle waved some paper and shouted them down, the merchants who had always been so arrogant drew in their necks like soft-shelled turtles and paid more than five times the usual price.
It was even said that the village’s best hunter had received more than ten times what he had earned last year.
“Those damned bastards...! They’ve been beating down the price that much all this time?”
Some grew angry, but...
“Oh, thank you, my Lord! Thank you!”
Some women, their faces covered in tears, fell flat onto the dirt ground and prayed again and again toward the lord’s castle.
In truth, he was not the lord but the acting lord, but that was not a matter common people cared about much.
He had made it possible to put soft, fluffy bread made from wheat on the table that very evening. What did it matter whether he was acting lord or the acting lord’s grandfather?
“If every day were like these days, I would have nothing more to wish for.”
The village chief’s wrinkled eyes curved beautifully, free of any worry.
“But what brings you here this time...?”
“Ah. Your welcome nearly made me forget what I came to do. Haha!”
Chewing on rabbit jerky, the soldier took a document from his breast.
“In ten days, the Northern Flea Market will be held in the empty lot before the lord’s castle.”
“A flea market?”
“The administrator said that the problem in the north is not that goods are lacking, but that the necessary amounts of necessary goods do not exist where they are needed.”
“Ooh.”
“Even a wooden stick or a lump of stone is fine, so if you have much of something, bring it out and sell it to someone who needs it, or exchange it for something you need. Have a look.”
“I shall do so, sir!”
The village chief thought this.
This was something the Lord, who had filled their bellies within a month of coming to this tear-soaked land, wished to do. If they took part, surely something good would come of it.