For now, things were moving relatively smoothly.
True to the prestige of his position, Ka'Lahr made quick work of the list I provided him with, taking mere four hours to not only order everything but somehow made it all start trickling down, wagon after wagon, into the desolate part of the town.
'I wonder how long it will take him to realize that those orders are just as nonsensical as the ones I gave to his junior,' I thought, watching how the man discussed something with the driver of a carriage. He then looked down and marked some stuff on a clipboard-like tablet, sculpting out short and straight lines into what I believed to be a hardened mixture of wax and some further additions.
'Quite the clever way of writing in a world where paper is an expensive novelty,' I admitted to myself.
But this realization only made me fall deeper into the thoughts.
While this world was obviously founded with my four novels as a basis… the AI that created it clearly dipped its toes into the global web to fill the gaps in the world-building details that I've never had the patience to write about myself.
Ka'Lahr took a few more moments to inspect his own writing before turning around and quickly making his way over to my side.
"Those orders…" he started, lowering his eyes at his tablet once again, checking its content just to make sure he wasn't missing anything. Then, as he raised his eyes back to my face, his expression tensed up a bit. "They are all bogus, aren't they?"
My lips trembled a little as I tried my best to stop a smile from forming on them.
"Didn't I tell you that I'm dealing with new inventions?" I asked, casually trying to keep up my ruse going, even if only for one more moment.
"New inventions usually build up on something that already exists," Ka'Lahr countered while shaking his head. "Sir, listen, I don't mean to pry…"
"But?" I interrupted the man, filling in the magic word that I could tell he was about to use.
Ka'Lahr sighed heavily, lowering his tablet to his side and glancing over at the carriage now taken over by the ship's crew as they started to move its content to the actual boat we were going to use.
"But I can't really cooperate with you if I don't know what is my actual role."
'Or rather, I'm not going to take the risk of accepting this mission if I'm not sure I'm not your target,' I thought, translating the clerk's official and polite statement into what he likely really had in mind.
"Fine, you got me," I shook my head, easily giving up on the ruse.
In the end, it was only sand I hoped to throw into the eyes of anyone who would investigate this transaction, not something I hoped to fool a veteran merchant like this high-ranking clerk.
"Only two parts of my orders are genuine. Food and fodder are one of the true requests. Can you guess what is the other one?" I asked, quite curious whether the man would be able to see through my intents.
Ka'Lahr squinted his eyes a little before raising the tablet back to his eyes and taking a long, careful look at the list of things he wrote. Then, he raised his eyes back to my face and asked, "Mana Crystals?"
By going with the modern world analogy, mana crystals were nothing more but a simple ore that people would procure in the very few mines that existed across the known world.
On their own, mana crystals were pretty much worthless as their form made them lack any real use.
But contrary to that fact, their price only continued to grow over time, making them speculative goods like the gold of the real world.
And once again, contrary to the gold that hardly had any use outside of extremely high technology, the worth of the mana crystals came from what they could be processed into.
The final product that started with mana crystals was the mana dust that I was extremely familiar with. After all, being the man I was, I could hardly forget about something that could create such a pretty and powerful explosion as the one I witnessed during the last moments of the tournament!
"That's right. Can you guess why?" I asked another question, digging even deeper into the merchant's understanding of my plot.
"Because you can sell them off without Imperial Express's knowledge?"
At this point, Ka'Lahr tuned himself into my mindset, easily solving the mental exercises I was providing him with.
"That's right," I confirmed the man's guess while nodding my head. Yet, rather than posing yet another question, I simply turned silent, waiting to see if the man would raise a specific topic.
"Asking a low-ranking clerk to procure those items would be a challenge, so I understand why you didn't use my junior for it," Ka'Lahr pointed out before covering the waxed side of his tablet with a small piece of a stretchy cloth and then securing it behind his belt. "So, what do you actually need me for?"
My lips trembled again. This time, however, I didn't fight them to stop my smile from appearing.
"The simple answer is, you are the one whom your junior recommended," I replied with a grin.
I didn't lie. Ka'Lahr was someone whom the first clerk that Nay employed recommended for us.
But he only did so after I specifically asked for a clerk that not only would be willing to go with us for the journey but also boasted a high ranking within the local branch.
"And the hard one?"
Hearing this question, I pursed my lips before moving a few paces forward, approaching the end of the walkway by the side of the shore. With just a single step, I would plunge into the cold depths of the port below.
"What's the greatest danger on the lake?" I asked, seemingly changing the topic.
"Now that it's drying out, we no longer need to fear rouge waves or unpredictable events of natural sort…" Ka'Lahr thought out loud for a moment. He even raised his hand to brush his chin, something I saw when I glanced over my shoulder.
Then, the merchant's eyes flashed up as he raised his face and looked at me with a look of surprise, disbelief… but also a hint of awe.
"You paid for all that stuff just to get me to raise my flag?!"
I allowed myself a small chuckle.
"The greatest threat on this lake are all those who were pushed into poverty by how quickly it dries out. Villages that this country once settled by the shore are now stranded deep into the land of the barbarians, now that the waters have greatly receded. And while this duchy can allow losing a few pioneering villages…"
"Those who lived in them, having no other choice, have mostly turned to piracy to make a damn living…" Ka'Lahr finished the story for me, as he finally realized why I was willing to spend too much just to have him on board.
Having a smokescreen that would shield me from the eyes of my pursuers was one thing. But having an Imperial Express flag raised on the ship's mast was the only way to deter the pirates from picking us as their targets!
After all, while they could easily take over a small ship like the one I intended to use to cross those shallow waters… There would be no place in the empire and its subsidiaries that would allow them in once the news of the mistreatment of a high-ranking Imperial Express clerk was to spread!
And spread they would, that I was sure about.
"Haaa…" Ka'Lahr breathed out before shaking his head and even laughing a bit. "Then I guess you have paid not for my services, but for your lack of adequate, up-to-date information," he laughed. "It's been roughly two years since the last pirate attack on the lake. Most of them either gave up and returned under the umbrella of Imperial protection, while all the others either mingled with the tribes or joined the vagabonds."
I turned around, taken aback by the information the merchant provided.
'Two years?' I thought, struggling to keep my face calm. 'So I just threw another fifty imperials or so down the drain to protect myself from the threat that no longer exists?!'
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to hold my annoyance back.
And hold it back I did.
'This isn't a modern world where information spreads in a single instant. It's only my fault that I didn't seek to learn about the up-to-date situation and relied on the host's knowledge instead…'
There was no time for me to ponder over this topic. This wasn't a modern world where I could return the wares I purchased just because I no longer had any use for them. As such, I was stuck with quite a lot of wealth that I was pretty much going to discard, given how it wasn't a port of any kind that I picked as my destination.
"I guess I will have to ask you to try to sell as much of it off once you get to the port," I muttered, only to see the man's eyebrows raise high on his forehead.
He noticed how I constructed my sentence… but in the end, decided not to pry any further into it.
Yes. Ka'Lahr's destination was the port of Qosx to the south… but he was going to get there in the longest and least reasonable route one could take across the lake!
"Now that I think about it, you mentioned something about vagabonds," I mentioned.
The experience of just before has more than just taught me how important it was to fill the gaps in the knowledge of my host.
"Tribes I heard about, but what vagabonds did you mean?" I asked.
The tribes of the highlands were the only reason why there were still some empty spots on the map of the continent otherwise divided between an empire, four great duchies, and then the scattered princedoms. A society of extremely vicious barbarians who successfully slowed down and finally put the expansion of the frontier to a complete stop with how determined their attacks were.
But vagabonds?
"I'm sure you are aware of the stretch of highland that the Imperial highway cuts through," the merchant mentioned, suddenly turning around and looking over his shoulder as he looked in the direction of a small commotion forming at the edge of the port.
"Yeah, it's the only path south from the theocracy to the northern princedoms. Quite a nasty place, if you were to ask me," I replied, shrugging at the mere memory of crossing that hostile land.
"Apparently, after the last two wars with the remnants of the demon federation, a huge number of soldiers and mercenaries alike ended up outlawed and banished. Yet, rather than scattering through the princedoms…"
Ka'Lahr suddenly stopped, now fully turning around and looking in the direction of the growing commotion.
"What the hell is going on over there?" one of the sailors responsible for carrying the last few of the barrels from the carriages to the ship stopped and muttered, looking in the same direction everyones' attention was directed at.
"They decided to group up and form a group of vagabonds, living off the spoils they get from fighting the easternmost tribes…" Despite still going on about the topic we were talking about, Ka'Lahr's attention was now fully focused on the nearby commotion that already grew to a size even I wouldn't consider to be natural.
"I guess we will talk some more once we are on the lake," I muttered while breathing a deep sigh and stepping off the shore's edge, and moving towards the still-growing mess.
'Did we run out of time?' I thought.
In a city as focused on efficiency as Thatcham, civilian brawls of the size of what I was looking at right now shouldn't have happened. They interfered with everyone's work, bringing only loss to all the conflicted parties.
No. Whatever was happening right now, wasn't normal.
And I could think of only a single damn reason for something that uncommon to happen that close to where I was in the process of making my escape!
But what was even worse… I could feel a strange hint of compulsion to go and check it out!
'I guess it won't hurt to take a look and see whether my worries are correct,' I thought, taking a step… away from the commotion.
While I knew I couldn't resist this strange urge to check things out, I wasn't stupid enough to head right for it!
"How long till the ship's ready?" I asked before I moved too far to talk with the merchant in a normal voice.
"We should be ready in half an hour at the longest," Ka'Lahr replied after just a single look at the ship.
"Good," I nodded my head in the merchant's direction before taking another step towards the commotion. "I will go and check this mess out, just to be sure it won't interfere with us. So keep up the good work and await my return," I ordered before speeding up my steps.
Yet, before fully committing to my task, I stopped for just one more moment before turning my head over my shoulder and looking at the merchant for one last time.
"Just to be safe, tell my female friend to wait two minutes before shadowing me," I gave out my last order before messing up my clothes a little and grabbing a small yet sturdy stick, a broken part of some mechanism for sure, and hiding it in the long sleeve of the robe that Nay provided last night.
'This is the second time when I'm feeling compelled to do something,' I thought as I stepped away from the commotion, circling around the port area, slowly angling my path as I approached the still-growing mess of people shouting, arguing, and even already brawling with each other. 'I guess I really need to look into what this feeling is!'