“Shall we depart at once?”
“Let’s.”
The cart began to move with a rattle—.
Each time the iron frame trembled, it felt as though it were warning me of something.
I instinctively looked up at the sky once.
Tap, tap, tap.
Just then, a guard carrying a spear came sprinting at full speed from the direction of the guard post.
‘What…? The direction he’s running from….’
Like a thief whose own feet had given him away, I hurriedly opened my mouth to Garen.
“Garen, speed up—”
But before I could even finish speaking, the guard shouted.
“Orc raid! Everyone get inside!”
“……What?”
“Didn’t you hear me? Hide, now!”
The guard immediately ran back and shouted again.
“The north gate’s been breached! All guard-post personnel, assemble!”
Behind him, several guards grabbed their weapons and ran toward the north gate.
“Arrows! Bring the arrows!”
“Form ranks! Those bastards are already climbing over the fence!”
Every house boarded up its windows and locked its doors. The children playing by the roadside were hurriedly called inside by their parents as well.
“Harry! Get inside right now!”
At the same moment.
WHOOOOOSH—!
A red flash burst overhead through the pitch-black darkness.
A blazing meteor drew an arc above us and skimmed past.
‘A fireball…? Magic, no, sorcery?’
Damn it. That was power on par with 4th Circle magic.
“Garen, get down!”
“Yes!”
BOOOOOOM!!
A civilian house less than fifty paces away was smashed apart.
In an instant, it turned to ashes.
A guard who had been running over collapsed to the ground.
“How many times has this been just this year already....? The Orc Priest has appeared again.”
An Orc Priest.
Then this probably was not a simple raid.
Fortune or misfortune, I could not tell.
This untimely raid had instead become my chance to escape.
‘Should I help…?’
My hand naturally moved toward the hilt of my sword.
But the thought soon vanished.
‘No.’
If I had intended to solve everything with force, I would have gone back and knocked on the military’s door long ago.
I gripped the mule’s reins tightly.
“Garen, don’t look back. Just get us out.”
“Yes!”
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
The cartwheels turned, and the metallic clatter began again.
Much faster this time.
As we passed the village entrance, a BOOM— rang out behind us. I clenched my teeth and kept going forward.
We pressed on while cutting down our sleep.
One day passed, and then another.
Our bodies grew heavy, but we could not stop.
We traveled day and night, and only at dawn on the second day did we see lights.
NEIGH— NEIGH, NEIGH.
The mule’s breathing grew ragged.
By the time the dirt stuck to the wheels had dried hard—
“Whew… we finally arrived.”
“You worked hard, Merchant Company Head.”
Far in the distance, the plains of Marcella faintly came into view.
***
The Empire is vast.
Even if Heindel Village lies toward the western edge of the southern region, a distance that takes twenty days to Marcella is by no means short.
When the distance is far, the rumors that reach you grow faint as well.
The past me, when I was sixteen, had thought attacks by the demonic races—in other words, orcs—were just one common incident among many.
“Merchant Company Head! Is that smoke?”
“It seems… so.”
But after the Orc Priest’s attack two days ago, as we headed toward the center of Marcella, I soon realized it.
‘This isn’t a simple raid.’
The villages lining the road into the central district were already covered in flames and smoke.
People and buildings alike had been reduced to wasteland.
The vineyards had been destroyed until not a single cluster remained, leaving only vines and stakes swaying in the wind.
“The damage is worse than I expected….”
“It certainly is.”
As we walked, a man entered my view.
In the middle of a field, a middle-aged farmer stood in front of ash-gray vines, his face blank with despair.
“I held on my whole life trusting this one field… and it still isn’t over....”
When I heard that, I unconsciously pulled on the mule’s reins.
Of course, not because of his lament, but because of what came after it.
‘The raid still isn’t over?’
I approached the farmer.
“Excuse me. By any chance… is the raid not over yet?”
“What? Are you trying to pick a fight?”
“No, of course not. We’re transporting relief supplies. If there’s still danger—”
“Ha, so you were merchants. Don’t talk to me. Get the hell out!”
“……Understood.”
I did not blame him.
He was a man who had lost the foundation of his life.
I turned my back on him and headed toward the city.
“You see that flag over there?! Go that way!”
The farmer’s voice came from behind me.
Where he pointed, the Empire’s relief flag was fluttering in the distance.
“Thank you!”
I shouted loudly and drove the cart toward the flag.
MURMUR, MURMUR—
The closer we got, the louder the noise became. Fatigue and anger were mixed on the people’s faces.
“This is not right!”
“I staked my entire fortune to come all the way here!”
“You expect me to go back trusting this one miserable sheet of paper?!”
One sheet of paper? Trust what?
The shouts were so tangled together that they were difficult to understand.
I quickened my steps to find out what was going on.
A peddler was sitting by the roadside.
His face was blank with despair.
Step, step.
“Did something happen?”
“…….”
He did not answer.
His lips only twitched a few times.
It could not be helped. Just when I thought I would have to deal with this directly—
A man who appeared to be a junior official of the Empire approached us.
He was a neat-looking young man, his hair combed tidily down to the last strand.
“Are you peddlers?”
“Yes. We came from Heindel Village… and we’re here to sell food supplies.”
“As you can see from the atmosphere, we are currently in a quasi-wartime situation. Direct transactions by individual merchants are entirely prohibited.”
They were blocking trade?
My heart dropped.
“What? Then what are merchants like us supposed to….”
He cut me off.
Briefly and firmly.
“Instead, the Empire will purchase everything in bulk.”
“Then what about the prices?”
“We have set prices by item. They should be posted on the board.”
Simply put, it meant the state had fixed purchase prices and would buy supplies at those prices.
It would spare us the trouble of selling, but the problem lay elsewhere.
“…The purchase prices have been set appropriately, correct?”
“Ha ha, you’re quite full of worries for a young merchant. I understand the situation, but should we not prevent people from making excessive profits off refugees?”
“Understood… We brought things like wheat and jerky. Where should we sell them, then?”
“Check the prices written here, then go over there and exchange them.”
‘Exchange them for what?’
On the wooden board he guided me to, a “Purchase Unit Price List” was hanging.
◈━━━━ Purchase Unit Price List ━━━━◈
▸ 1 sack of wheat 56 silver coins
▸ 1 sack of barley 48 silver coins
▸ 1 sack of oats 52 silver coins
▸ 1 sack of jerky 136 silver coins
▸ 1 sack of salt 72 silver coins
▸ 1 box of dried fruit 88 silver coins
(Omitted)
Issued as: Imperial Commerce Bureau Promissory Note
Payment Due Date: After the restoration project ends
◈━━━━━━━━━━━ ◈
“……!”
I was surprised twice.
Once by the fact that the Empire had priced them so generously, and once more by the words “Imperial Commerce Bureau Promissory Note.”
‘So this is why the merchants were raising such an uproar earlier.’
I could not remember exactly, but it was probably around this time.
The Empire first began issuing promissory notes.
Since this was a system being implemented for the first time, even the payment due date had not been specified properly.
When I looked around, merchants were gripping promissory notes and watching one another’s reactions.
“They really will exchange these, right…?”
“I heard this is the first time. Can we trust this?”
“What if it becomes just a scrap of paper…?”
Suspicion was everywhere I looked.
But I know. Not a single promissory note from this period defaulted.
‘Let’s see, the food supplies I brought are….’
Thirty sacks of wheat, nineteen sacks of barley, fourteen sacks of oats, and fifteen sacks of jerky.
If I exchanged these for promissory notes, it would easily exceed fifty gold coins.
‘Fifty-three gold coins and sixty silver coins, to be exact.’
First, I should dispose of these and exchange the promissory note at the Southern Commerce Bureau.
As for the twenty-five gold coins Father gave me… well, I could think about that later.
Once my mind was made up, I felt much more at ease.
I turned back toward the junior official.
“When can we exchange the promissory notes for silver coins?”
“…Well. This is our first time implementing this policy as well, so we don’t know when we will be able to exchange them for you.”
He smiled awkwardly.
“Does that mean the Empire already has no gold co—”
I hurriedly swallowed my words.
The way I spoke in my previous life had nearly slipped out.
Had I let my guard down because I was in front of an official?
“Ha ha, it’s all right.”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know the details either, but our Commerce Bureau is in a state of emergency right now.”
He stepped a little closer to me, covered his mouth, and whispered.
“The military is demanding an absurd amount of supplies from us.”
“I see. But is it all right for you to tell me that?”
“These days, things are so grim that it isn’t even much of a secret… but you can let it go in one ear and out the other. Ha ha.”
“…….”
I quietly nodded.
‘The Empire has already begun preparing for war.’
They lacked cash now, so they were circulating promissory notes. During a war, that was the fastest way to procure supplies.
But in order to maintain the credibility of the promissory notes, they had minted gold coins like mad.
Once war began, price levels meant nothing. In any case, that was a problem for later.
“I’ll sell. Please exchange all of it for promissory notes.”
“Understood! Runi, count these merchants’ food supplies and issue them a promissory note!”
In the distance, a man in uniform raised his head.
“Yes! This way, please.”
With an expressionless face, he counted our food supplies one by one. The pen nib moved swiftly in his hand.
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
[ Imperial Commerce Bureau Promissory Note ]
Recipient: Mikael
Affiliated Merchant Company: None
Payment Amount: 53 gold coins, 60 silver coins
Payment Due Date: After the restoration project ends
This promissory note guarantees payment for the purchase of wartime supplies.
< National Seal of His Majesty the Emperor ⚜ >
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
‘If I had received this money now….’
That was the first thought that entered my mind.
After all, this amount was certainly generous.
“Thank you. Oh, right. I have one thing to ask.”
I called Runi to a stop as he turned away.
“Yes?”
His expression carried the annoyance of someone wondering, “Aren’t we done here?”
“Are the orc raids completely over?”
“Who knows… For now, since we drove them all out, there has been no particular movement.”
After leaving those words behind, he went back into the tent.
“I’ll exchange mine too.”
“Me too.”
Behind me, I heard more people exchanging their goods for promissory notes one after another. Sighs mixed with resignation continued several times over.
“Ahem!”
Damn it, that startled me. He had been so quiet that I had forgotten Garen was right beside me.
He had been standing there blankly when he opened his mouth.
“To think this mere piece of paper is worth fifty gold coins. The world has gone mad. Heh heh.”
Instead of answering, I looked down at the promissory note.
One thin sheet of paper.
But the amount written on it was by no means small.
“Then we’ve finished our business here, so we can head back now, correct?”
“One moment.”
When I thought about it calmly, returning to Heindel would take a full twenty days again.
It was also not exactly suitable to buy supplies in this war-torn land and conduct two-way trade.
Most of all, not being able to receive cash immediately was more inconvenient than I had expected.
Garen tilted his head.
“Why? Did we miss something?”
“……No, I’m just thinking.”
In that case?
The merchants gathered here were no different. They had all likely been issued promissory notes, but what they truly needed was gold coins.
Then the thing whose value had fallen the most here and now was—
This single sheet of paper.
The promissory note.
“I have something to do.”
“…Pardon?”
“We’re going to set up a tent. A little away from here.”
Garen raised his eyebrows.
“A tent? What are you scheming this time?”
“Heh heh. Everyone is holding nothing but paper. Then there should be at least one shop that converts paper into money.”
He paused for a moment, then smiled.
“If it is you, Merchant Company Head, then I’m sure you have a plan. Ha ha, so all I need to do is put my hands to work!”
“Good. Then let’s move at once.”
“Yes! Merchant Company Head.”
We moved toward an alley a little away from the relief flag.
People were scattered about, but if I listened closely, they were all talking about the same thing.
“You, did you exchange yours for a promissory note too?”
“Uh… what am I supposed to do when I go home now? How can I face my family with nothing but this one lousy piece of paper?”
“I thought I would make a great profit because of the war. But this is just….”
Some were smoking, and some stood there blankly, gripping the crumpled paper in their hands.
It was at that very moment.
Garen’s eyes and mine met at the same time.
“Let’s do it here.”
“Yes! Understood.”
THUNK. THUNK.
Once the stake was driven halfway in, Garen pressed it down the rest of the way with his hammer. It was a shabby space of two rough tents, too pathetic to even call a temporary market.
FLAP.
My hastily written words had spread messily across the cloth.
〔 Wartime Promissory Note Purchase Counter — Cash Paid Immediately 〕
“I’m buying all promissory notes at 50% of face value!”
A passing merchant stopped in his tracks.
“……Really?”
I answered with a smile.
“Yes. I’ll pay you in money.”