Aalis brought a chest full of gold coins to Alva…
Before we departed for our duty, I needed to meet Geri about Alva's duty with her…I walked to the back of the tavern to meet her with Alva…There, Geri was just lying down. In front of her, I told her,
"You have a thing to do with Alva…"
Geri asked, "What do I need to do with her?"
"It's for convenience for this stuff."
"What do I need to do then?"
"You and Alva need to go the county city to buy some supplies…Is your appearance a problem to show in there?"
"Quite a bit…but I will manage it…"
Alva beside me suddenly said, "She means she will shrink herself to size of puppy."…"
I saw Geri a little bit irritated by Alva's words, I said, "I think that's it; if you can manage it, sure, I will trust you... and you two can depart right now; I don't want the others know the truth about you two, so you depart separately with the others…"
Geri stood up and lowered her upper body for Alva to hop in. After Alva was above Geri, they immediately departed from the tavern to the county city…I went back inside the tavern, to start the duty with everyone else…
Everyone was surprised; there was no Alva beside me, Louis asked,
"Where is Alva?"
"She already departed to the city with Geri... Now let's get to work!"
…
I, Louis, Cail, and Aldea went around the village to survey. The village had two entrances; the crowdiest entrance was the entrance from the east, where a lot of people or some people who came from another village or city passed the east entrance. The west entrance was the entrance connecting to the woods, where Alva lived, so the west entrance was more quiet. After looking on the spot of both entrances, I asked to Cail,
"Which entrance shall have this board?"
"The east?"
"Both of them…" I said.
…
We went to the centre of the village, or the village square. There were some tents and stalls, but the villagers seemed not to be eager to buy anything from them. It was so strange in my eyes; there must be something with the stalls or with the price. I ordered Cail to check the stalls and their products... While waiting for Cail to check the stalls and the price, I stood up and looking around the square…The place was an empty place; there was no activity in here, not like in the fantasy world I knew. Where kids were running around, some people showed their skill to entertain others, and anything else. In the middle of the square, there was a sort of angel statue, There were a lot of benches in the square, but they were empty, except for the bench where we were sitting.
I looked at our bench and saw Cail was already there…Immediately I went there, hope Cail found something, I wanted to know…I asked him,
"What have you found, Cail?"
Cail said, "The market is a messed one, your highness.."
"What do you mean by that?"
"All of these people are not from this village; they came from the county city, so... There is some chances or possibilities; they are in here…"
"What are those possibilities?"
"This village doesn't have any rule of trading…all of these stalls easily raise their prices without any consent…And they don't have any permits to set up stalls or tents, and permits to sell something in this village."
The government should establish the price for their people, where the price should be affordable for the people, so all the companies should obey this price. Sometimes the merchants get heated with the government about this situation. Without any way out, reconciliation and an agreement were made between them about which price was most profitable for the companies and prosperous for the people. That was what my government did in my previous world; should I use that method in this one?
I asked Cail,
"What will you do about this situation?"
"This village lacks a merchant guild and connections between other merchant guilds in other areas; we need to establish one to monitor and control the price and goods in this village.
So in this world, merchant guild were the ones who controlled price and goods, not the nobles or the government…It meant it was controlled by private companies.
I asked Cail about the concept of my government,
"What happened if myself tried to meddle in this price and goods and put the price where people could afford it??"
"What do you mean by that, your highness?"
"As you can see, I want…to control the price of the goods…not fully control, but I want to know that the price of the goods is affordable to the people or not; if it's not, I want the price being lower, so the people could afford it…what do you think about that?"
"That's bold one…in my opinion, your highness…even the royal family doesn't meddle in this price and good…"
"Because they don't care…In the future, I will take your advise, but…if this mechant guild wants to play dirty…I will meddle in the price and good…" I turned my face to Louis and asked him, "Do you know a carpenter or blacksmith around here?"
Louis answered, "There is one closer to our inn."
"Great…For all the boards, I want them to be put at the two entrances of the village: two at the village square, one in front of the tavern, and one in the crossroads…so we need six information boards…"
We left the village square and headed to the carpenter or blacksmith place. Louis led us to the place. It was at the corner of the street from the tavern. There was no sign of the place being a blacksmith or a carpenter, like I saw in the capital city, where there was an anvil sign for a blacksmith. Louis knocked the door while we were waiting in front of the house…
An old man came to the door and met with Louis. I saw both of them having a conversation, A few seconds later, the old man opened wide the door, and Louis waved his hand to us and indicated to come over… He led us inside his home. After passing the living room, we finally reached the room where there was a forger, a smithy, and any tools.
Suddenly, a young boy appeared with a stool in both of his hands; he brought the stool for me. I looked at him; his age and height were the same as Cail. The old man said to me,
"Please, take a seat... I don't want a noble like you, who is just standing around in here…"
I took a seat on the stool.
The old man asked to us,
"What brings a noble like you to this place? Is this about the production of weapons?"
I answered, "No.I don't need weapon for right now…I want…you make me some boards…"
"Boards??? What's the purpose of this boards?'
"These boards are information boards, so the purpose is to give information to the people.."
"Do you have the drawings of these boards?"
At the moment, I didn't have any designs, so I asked Cail for a piece of paper and a pen. So I drew the board design, which I usually see at the office, on the paper…In a few seconds, I handed the paper to the old man.
The old man looked closer of my drawing and asked me,
"Your drawing shows that this board only used single board of wood on the centre of it…that's literally impossible…we don't have this giant board of wood…"
I drew again on that piece of paper, where small boards of wood were arranged next to each other to make a big board.
I said, "You can arrange small boards for each other, like this…"
"You want me to cut this precisely?"
"I don't care about the precise cut; just make the board as wide as the drawing."
I heard and learned that the metric system was invented by the French back in 1795. I didn't know how this world measured something; surely they would not use the metric system, or maybe they used the imperial system.
I asked him, "So can you make this board or not?"
"Surely I can…and how many do you need?"
"Six boards…with the same size as each other…"
"Precisely same size maybe possible, but don't expect it so much…"
Hearing that, I realised this world was blind about measuring system…even the blacksmith couldn't make the same size of these boards. Honestly, I wanted to use foam on these boards so people didn't need to nail with a hammer to put a piece of information on the board, but could foam be made in this world?
"Great…How long do you need to finish all of these?"
"A week…"
So we excused ourselves from the blacksmith…because there was nothing to do for us, we went to the others who oversee the crop rotation plantation.