Kingdom Of The Weak

"Nice ship!" Remian complimented, looking over it.

Charlie grimaced. "Not as nice as I would have liked, but it"s all ours. You have a 40% share."

Now Remian grimaced. "How much do I owe?"

"Eight million." Charlie didn"t pull any punches. He showed Remian the bill and the loan receipt. "Bank interest rates are 10% per year."

Remian felt the blood drain from his face. 800,000 Lir in interest payments every year…! He suddenly felt like throwing up.

"Relax. You"ve already made hundreds of thousands in a couple of weeks. At the rate we"ve been going…"

Remian handed him a wooden box. Charlie sneaked a glance inside. "More mana potions? How many of these things do you have?"

"That"s the last of it. There should be forty in there." Remian told him frankly.

"400,000 Lir." Charlie whistled. "That"s 5% of your total debt right there. Twenty more weeks like this and you could have your share fully paid off."

"I hope so. I hate being in debt. Especially with a 10% interest rate."

Charlie shrugged helplessly. "What could I do? We"re not exactly a proven ent.i.ty. The bank wants the loan paid back fast. I think they"ll cut the rates if we pay back quicker."

"Well, we have something to sell now." Remian gestured. Desert Moon workers brought six crates. "This is jade from the early prospecting of the second mine, and these five are Fire Copper ores. This should be the only time I"m willing to ship raw Fire Copper ores. You did bring the smelter equipment, didn"t you?"

"Yes, I did." Charlie nodded to his workers and they started unloading. "Where are we going to set up the smelter?"

"Right there." Remian pointed a little farther to the west.

"Not at the mines? It could save you the trouble of shipping ores back to town."

"There"s not that much ore left in the KarGoth mines. We"re also going to be bringing ores from other mines, farther away, and changing sites every so often. Meanwhile, the airport will be here, the road will be built from here, the Iron Legion is stationed here, and all my workers. This is where the town will be re-built. This is and always has been the gateway to the Wildlands."

"Even if spies are calling Beast Waves down on it?"

"They"ll be calling Waves on us no matter where we go. Best to keep them under our noses."

"We"ll have to deal with them eventually. We really can"t let them stay here like this forever."

"Agreed. On that point, there"s no use moving around. This place is as good a spot for a gateway town as it gets." Remian glanced around. "We may as well build up this airport properly."

"The foundations here aren"t good." Charlie shook his head. "The north side of the town ruins is still the best. There"s already a lot of ground work done there. Let"s just use it."

50,000 Lir for the crate of jade. 100,000 for the five crates of Fire Copper ore. 50,000 more for two chunks of raw blue mana crystal. 90% of all that belonged to Remian. 360,000 Lir from the mines, 400,000 from the potions… Remian"s total revenue for this trip was 760,000 Lir. Not bad for a first week.

But of course, it would only get harder from now on. More than half that amount came from the potions and the potions had all been sold.

Mindy came up next and started selling her scrolls. She had become George"s biggest customer since Kairos was busy building a new church at the workers" settlement with the other priests these days. Light, fire and wind scrolls exchanged hands; thousands of Lir went into hers.

Then George started selling stuff. Apparently, the Rainbow Jellyfish, freed from the terror of natural predators and fed with painstaking efforts, were doing much, much, much better than expected. They weren"t hard to milk either; just pulling them out of the water was enough to incite a flood of defensive fluids. Some good gloves made of Tier 4 leather was enough for George to harvest a bounty every day. He didn"t even have to kill them.

Remian wondered what George would do if the Rainbow Jellyfish one day realized it was not in danger when taken out of the water and stopped dripping defensive fluids. But that was a problem for George to figure out.

Tim actually brought coin to buy cheese.

"Where did you get so much money?" Remian stared.

"Do you really want to know?" Tim asked furtively.

Remian hesitated. "On second thoughts, no. I don"t want to know."

Suffice to say, he was satisfied that the espionage department had managed to secure its own funding. Remian considered keeping an eye on what and how much they stole, then try to control them, but what would he say if someone asked him about it? Best to be able to truthfully say he didn"t know.

Markus loaded up Wild meat and skins. For some reason, he kept the bones.

Even people from the Secret Waves came by, loading up mysterious boxes and receiving crates in return.

Also, ten new trainees from the Iron Legion arrived, and forty more workers…

It was then that Remian noticed something odd. The forty workers in question all seemed to be women and children. "Charlie…? What…"

"Dad!" one of the older children shouted, and ran to where the Desert Moon workers were waiting anxiously. "Uncle!"

Suddenly, it was like an outbreak of voices happened all around him. People were calling names, greeting fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters…

"More from the Desert Moon and High Rock clans." Charlie summarized with a shrug. "They can work too."

Remian hesitated, looking around at all the new yet almost familiar faces. "Just how many more of those two clans are out there?"

"About half. That"s including the injured that you"ve sent back and their families. And the children of those people here who are too young to work."

Remian eyed the youngest of the new bunch and asked, "Just how young is "too young"?"

"Six, according to the Desert King"s laws. Below thirteen, according to Ashdale"s."

"I like Ashdale"s laws better."

"Didn"t you also have children working for you at one point?"

"That"s different."

"No, it"s not."

Remian hesitated, but this wasn"t the time or place to debate or to reflect. "I need to talk to the chiefs of the two clans."

Taj, chief of the Desert Moon Clan, and Aren, chief of the High Rock, brought two women with them.

"This is Nadia, my wife." Taj introduced.

"Zane." Aren introduced his. "They have come to work."

"Are you really okay with that?" Remian gestured to the newcomers. "To have your children working in the mines?"

"It is safer here, and there is water for everyone." Taj said. "Speaking for the Desert Moon, we would bring more of our people here if only there were no age limits."

"I would bring all of the High Rock clan over if I could." Aren agreed.

Remian rubbed his forehead, then made a decision on the spot. "Bring them. Bring everybody. We might not hire them for mining purposes, but they should be with their fathers. They can be citizens here. They can help dig out the mines and turn them into your homes. We"ll also need to build underground pipes and water systems… hey, why are you kneeling? Get up! You"re embarra.s.sing me!"

"You would be willing?" Nadia half-cried. "You would free us from the Desert King? Risk war with Fal"Herim for our sakes?"

"Wha…?" Remian stared. "What are you talking about?"

"Technically, he owns all the sand people." Charlie explained to Remian. "Their ancestors sold themselves to him as slaves and servants and he"s somewhat possessive of them. To hire some workers temporarily is easy. To have them emigrate and become citizens of another kingdom, even a non-existent kingdom… that"s a whole different story. She"s right. You"re risking war."

Remian wanted to slap his own big mouth. This was a lot more trouble than he"d intended to step into.

But how could he tell them it was a mistake? Looking at the wives of the clan chiefs weep, even the hope-filled faces of the chiefs themselves… how could he tell them…?

"Fine. Let"s just say I"m hiring the entire clan as a whole. We"re in no position for a war with Fal"Herim right now." Remian shook his head. "Bring them over under the pretext of hiring. We can sort out citizenship or whatever when we actually have a country to be citizens of. If we"re going to do this, we have to be careful."

"Yes! Careful! Very careful!" Taj agreed immediately. "n.o.body will know what we discussed here today! We will only be here to work. Yes, yes… to work. As for how old the workers are… our employer need not find out."

Remian scratched his head, wondering how he should feel about them technically trying to cheat him. "Just as long as don"t expect me to pay those who don"t actually work."

Taj froze. Then, "We will pay for their pa.s.sage fees from our earnings."

"No, that won"t be necessary. I do have SOME stakes here, after all, and worker efficiency should increase with your families to support and take care of your needs." Charlie cleared his throat. "I won"t charge my own workers when I"m bringing them to the workplace. That is, if my partner agrees…"

"Sounds good to me." Remian threw up his hands. "Just don"t start a war with Fal"Herim!"