Chapter 18

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***

In the morning, the three of us reconvened on the ground floor of the inn. While we were waiting for breakfast, our new acquaintance surprised the two of us with a request.

- Do you want to come with us? - Not that her request seemed abnormal, but rather unexpected. - Look, we just want to start trading with a small caravan. You don't need to go back and forth between kingdoms with us all the time. Especially,' I emphasise the last point. - We're not going to do it all the time, not until we've earned something better.

- Yeah, suddenly you want to be a peddler instead of a bard? - Detmold added, tapping his finger impatiently on the table as he waited for food.

- No, it has nothing to do with trade. I will sing! - Galanthea blurted out expressively. She complemented the conversation with her movements with a musical instrument in her hands, having risen in advance from the two-seater bench where she had been sitting next to me before. - And playing the rebeka. It will be better that way, a caravan with music will be more interesting, won't it? And I have nowhere to go, but I'll try to be useful,' she said almost in a whisper, as if she was trying to convince herself, not to make our decision on the positive side.

- All right, we'll take you with us,' I felt a little sorry for Galanthea. A young girl, a teenager by the standards of my world, all alone, having lost her only friend in the person of her bard mentor, trying to find herself, trying to 'attach' to other people. That's how I saw her, so I didn't mind helping her, especially since it wouldn't make us feel any worse. Honestly speaking, the belongings I got from their troupe paid off not only for my help with the Ghouls, but also for our co-operation with her. - Keep making music, it might be better than travelling without a bard.

- Well, I don't care if you want to come with us, it's no problem. I just want to hear you sing, can you sing, hmm? - Detmold apparently decided to diversify the upcoming breakfast with music, I don't think he really cared whether she could sing or not, it would be enough to play a musical instrument.

- I can sing,' she replies confidently. - I can sing and play at the same time.

- Show me a master class,' I nod at her questioning glance in my direction. She picks up the ribs and sits back down next to me, propping one knee up for comfort, and then puts the bow to the strings, filling the room with a pleasant sound.

As she had said earlier, she did not sing, but only hummed in a pleasant voice to the melody playing. It would be an exaggeration to say that what I heard was something unforgettable. Not at all. It's hard to interest a twenty-first-century person in something like that, who hasn't had time to listen to anything else in her life. But I will not belittle her merits, I rather liked it, but Detmold, who was not tempted by more complex and advanced music, immediately expressed his enthusiasm.

- He was not only happy about Galanthea's playing, but we finally got an order for three. - What do you think, Eren?

- It's nice to hear, but you need something... I don't know, maybe a lute? What other musical instruments are there? - I didn't know many of them, especially ones that could be in this time, only the lute and the flute come to mind, but you can't sing with the second one.

- Er, do I look like a bard? You're the one to ask,' he started to eat his breakfast, eating hot porridge, forgetting about us.

- Why? - The question came from Galantea.

- It's your kid, isn't it? He's not really suited to a lonely bard, I reckon. I don't know much about music myself, it's just that when I look at the bards I meet, it's either a lute if they're singing or a flute if they're not singing. I've never heard a whole troupe, maybe it's different there.

- It's different,' Galantea confirms my thoughts. - My tutor taught me to play the lute, I can play it.

- It's up to you, I just told you about my observations, - I decide to eat.

At lunchtime, after taking their things from their rooms, we all went to the city, it was time to get down to business. That is, it was time to execute my and Detmold's (more my) plan. With the initial plans wanted to be dealt with as soon as possible, it was decided to split up. I travelled with Galantea towards the main market, the initial place to look at prices and goods. Later, we would visit more specialised shops, one of which would be the place to purchase a lute. While we were exploring the market, the third member of our group, Detmold, would go to the crafts district to look for a cart. Of course we wanted to buy a ready-made one right away, but we took into account the fact that there might not be one, so we would have to order one.

I looked through the goods for a reason, it is our strategy, which is insanely simple and known to everyone: buy - where it is cheaper, sell - where it is more expensive. That is, all kingdoms have some goods that are not produced in other parts of the mainland, or are produced in small quantities, not enough to reduce the price to the lowest values on the mainland. In the same simple way we planned to trade, while saving on guards, because we could defend ourselves. And most importantly, the portals. If we can figure out the exit points of all the major cities, we will be able to move between them with amazing speed. We can say that we won't have to spend time on the road itself, add to this the saving on guards, a small but saving on the risks associated with the breakdown of the wagon on the road, we get a profitable business, from which other local merchants will bite their elbows, we should know them, but we won't tell them about it.

As for the goods themselves, it's simple, agriculture is poorly developed in Kaedwen due to the lack of arable land, and in contrast the woodworking industry thrives due to its vast and dense forests, as well as the knowledge of machining inherited by local craftsmen and their ancestors from the elves. In addition to timber, the local forests are famous for game, meaning you can find quite a bit of hides and skins. We could still sell meat when we can travel between cities using portals. With another normally developed area of the economy, metallurgy, it's hard to say for sure. On the one hand, the Blue Mountains are full of minerals, which makes the amount of ore on the local markets in abundance, on the other hand, Aedirn has the best metallurgical factories, located in a small city called Guleta, and it is cheaper to buy metals there. So, if you buy something related to mining in Kaedwen, then only ore, sell it to the factories of Guleta, and then resell it to those kingdoms in which metallurgy and mining itself is not developed. For example, such kingdoms include Redania, where the best manufactory production is undoubtedly, but there are problems with mining and processing. It is also possible to dump the surplus in Temeria, putting it in second place, after all, it is where the extraction from the Mahakam Mountains separating Temeria from Aedirn takes place.

I have pondered the possibilities of trade more than once, thus shortening my time at Ban Ard Academy. I researched the goods produced in each kingdom, doing so with the help of the few books describing the continent's economy. The rector had such books as well. Some ideas came from discussions with Detmold. If I had ideas because I lived in the developed twenty-first century, he had already been 'cooked in the cauldron' of local merchants while he was a teenager serving not the last alchemist in town.

- Have you seen enough? - We've been to all the places we planned to go with Galanthea.

- Yes, let's go back to the inn. Detmold should have managed it earlier,' she replied, before tucking the notebook into her rucksack.

- Your notes, are they just names of goods with prices?

- Not only that, I also write down the name of the kingdom and city, comparing prices. I write down the most popular items in the major cities. I write down a lot of things, so don't bother your head.

- I'm not stupid,' Galantea pouted.

- So what's your stupidity got to do with it? You don't need these numbers, you're a future bard after all.

- And you graduated from the academy! - We had a little argument on the way to our lodgings. - I've never seen such mages, travelling around the cities with goods to sell.

- Huh, how many mages have you seen in your life? How old are you, I forgot to ask?

- I've seen enough, and my age... - Galantea thought for a moment. - Fifteen winters have passed.

- If you'd seen enough, you'd know that mages often become merchants, not travelling between cities, of course, but opening their own shops. Not bad, I'll tell you, if they have brains. You can learn magic without brains, after all.

- What do you mean, no brains? - We had almost reached the inn, and Detmold could see in the distance, propping his back against the wall of the building.

- No brains, I mean. They learn how to conjure and think they're something else, but in reality,' I looked at her, slowing down a little. - In practice, they'd throw themselves off any drunkard with a dagger in a tavern if the situation arose. I've seen such people even at the academy, let alone everyone else. Let's hurry up, our wagon appraiser's waiting.

- Appraiser? That's Detmold.

- Let's just say he knows how to appraise horses, maybe he's got an eye for wagons too.

There were plenty of things to do for the day, and one of them would be sorted out in the next few hours. We'll buy a wagon, and then-- Yeah, that's where the hard part starts, trying to get contributions for our commercial project. Simply put, we'll create a pyramid scheme. But only for a while! I guess. The main thing is to start getting a normal income. At least, that's our plan, and then we'll see.