Jackson quickly carried out his plan. He began separating nobles by their political agendas and called in Ress Bidin of the Ress Merchant Group. He was now an important member of the village who took care of all the trade-related issues. Jackson wanted him to join the ranks under Joonbum.
There were also other people who Jackson had called in. There was an experienced merchant who was from the Donian Merchant Group. As the group fell from its spot of the top merchant groups in the kingdom, they did everything they could to bring their group back to its former glory. One of the ways was to send tens of merchants to the Ainos village to trade and purchase their valuable goods.
The room was now full of merchants from various groups.
“I will cut to the chase. Let me explain why I’ve summoned all of you here today.”
Jackson began to speak to the room full of merchants. He unfurled a roll of long paper with many names and their details like their statuses, personalities, and importance in the empire.
“Take a look at this report.”
The merchants who read through the paper were shocked.
“How did you get this…?”
“Isn’t this information about the empire’s nobles?”
“My…”
Merchants were shocked to see such classified information.
“It was given to me by good partner of mine. It’s very reliable.”
This information was extracted in exchange for protection and guarantee of peaceful living on their land. Jackson glanced at the merchants.
‘I knew he could notice!’
Ress, who checked on the details, seemed to be confused, as did some of the other merchants.
‘All of the nobles here are on the emperor’s side.’
All merchants were aware of the empire. It was a great country that paid extra attention to what and when, and they would do anything. It was obvious to the experienced merchants that something was wrong with this report.
“Anyone who has ties with the nobles in this report, please raise your hand.”
A few hands were raised.
‘It’s Donian…’
Most of the raised hands were in fact Donian merchants.
‘It’s as expected.’
Jackson thought to himself and continued.
“I need to ask you to do something. It’s for the survival of our village. It’s not dangerous or classified either. You just need to keep it a secret for a little while.”
Jackson stopped for a sip of water while merchants quietly listened.
“All you need to do is to make these nobles friendly towards us Khalodians.”
“Huh?”
“Friendly?”
It seemed like an absurd idea at first. Only days a few days had passed they were captured as prisoners. They were not even treated like nobles. It was obvious that those nobles would be enraged by the humiliation. The merchants looked at Jackson in shock and disbelief.
“It’s not that hard if you think it through.”
Jackson spoke as he pointed to his head. It was then that the older merchants rose up.
“Count on me, sir.”
“I’m sure we can find a way one way or another.”
Older Donian merchants took the lead on accepting the job and the younger merchants joined in. It was now their job to make imprisoned nobles become friends with their captor.
*
“How dare they feed us this trash…!”
Viscount Noeman scoffed at the sight of yellow bread and yellow corn soup. Yet he could not resist himself from grabbing the bread and eating it. After one bite, he couldn’t stop himself on gorging on the food.
‘Dammit. I hate to admit it, but this food is so good.’
The bread and soup were not like anything he had tasted. He was surprised that the commoners of this village ate this kind of food whenever they wanted to. He was just mad that he was eating the same thing that commoners ate. That was when a knock came from the door.
“Oh! Viscount Noeman, it’s been a long time.”
There was someone other than the warden. Then, he smelled something, something different other than his yellow bread. The door opened and two men walked in.
“You can go do your business for a while.”
“Yes? But-”
“It’s okay, don’t worry.”
“But this is against-”
“I brought some food just for old times sake! I’ve treated you well all this time and you can’t even let this pass?”
“Sir… but… okay. It’s just this once. Please!”
“Sure, sure. Take this.”
“What! No- no.”
“Take it and go have a drink with your fellows. This is only between you and me. You are a captain after all, you should spend some with your boys, right?”
The warden received a sack from the man and walked out of the room. Noeman’s eye gleamed as he scrutinized the man under the hood, trying to see who it was.
“Long time no see, Viscount.”
The man approached with a large basket. A smell wafted from it that made Noeman hungry even though he had just eaten his meal.
“Take these. They’re for you. I couldn’t prepare much as I didn’t have much time, but it should be enough to fill you up a bit.”
“Oh- this…!”
The basket had well-cooked Raimengo deer meat and a salad made of various vegetables and fruits. There was also warm soup and liquor in a beautiful glass bottle.
‘That must be…’
It was the famous liquor that was brought from a foreign land. The price of such liquor was unobtainable in the empire.
‘Luther! He’s Luther Berric from the Donian Merchant Group!’
That was when Noeman remembered who this man was. The viscount was a very high ranking aristocrat who did not meet up with every merchant that visited as it was usually his advisors who took care of such matters. But this man paid a hefty amount of tribute to meet with the viscount in the past.
“Luther. Luther Berric?”
“It is an honor that you remember.”
“Why are you here?”
“I heard that you were captured here yesterday, so I used all my power to visit you.”
“Have you?”
“Yes. Please enjoy the food at your will.”
Noeman watched Luther for a moment and began dabbling into the food. It was good food. It has been a while since Noeman was treated with such good special food. Luther, who had been watching him eating silently, spoke as Noeman seemed satisfied.
“But it is very troubling. I heard the son of the count is enraged at the news of duke’s two sons who tried to kidnap his mother.”
“What are you talking about?”
Noeman slowed down on eating. He seemed interested.
“I heard that he disrespects the nobles because… of two dog- I mean sons of the duke.”
“WHAT! They are already dead! Didn’t he kill them already?”
“Yes, but… you know how those two were. I know some of the noble families in the empire approve of their actions, but I think the news of them trying to harass his mother was infuriating. That’s why he is treating the other nobles in such a way.”
“HOW DARING! ARE YOU COMPARING ME TO THOSE DOGS?”
“No, not at all. I, for one, certainly don’t think so. That’s why I’m here. But the leader of this town doesn’t think so.”
“No. No way! I’m not like those dirty animals.”
“If I could just let him know that you don’t approve of their past actions…”
Noeman frowned. He knew Luther wanted something in return. It was the nature of merchants.
“What do you want? Cut to the chase, NOW.”
“It’s not much. I heard that Jackson, the second-in-charge, is very concerned about this. He must know the ways of the nobles. So, if you could just help me…”
‘This fool just wants the food supply of this village!’
Noeman felt relieved as it was a very merchant-like request. There was nothing harmful in helping him out either.
