With over forty guards accompanying the convoy, four carts rumbled into the clearing, their bells jingling as they came to a stop one after another amidst the cheers of children.
The leader of the caravan, sitting in the first cart, jumped down.
His name was Angry Wind, a man in his early thirties with a rugged beard below his nose. He had a solid build, but his back was slightly hunched, giving him a somewhat humble appearance.
Despite his sharp name, Angry Wind always wore a broad smile. "Treat others with sincerity" was his first rule in business. He never allowed himself to lower his smile, regardless of whether the tribe he visited was small or poor.
Many tribes knew that Angry Wind's second rule was, "You never know when Lady Luck will favor a worm in the gutter."
His smile often brought unexpected rewards, such as building an unforgettable bond with a widow from a tribe or receiving a rare northern beast tooth worth over a thousand gold coins from an aging hunter.
His followers began unloading the goods from the carts. The merchants of eight tribes started introducing the wares for trade to the gathered crowd.
The performance by the bards would take place in the evening; for now, it was time for trading.
What was unloaded were all items meant for trade: barrels of ale, which taverns loved to stock; modest sewing kits, which nearly all the native tribes would trade; corn from the highlands, a rare commodity in the Hunter's Spear territory; as well as tea, tools, and two rolls of linen. The most valuable items on the cart were a box of materials for enchanting and two pieces of magical parchment with yellow edges, intended as gifts for special occasions.
Parchment was already valuable, often used by tribe elders to record important events or prophecies. The magical parchment, however, was worth as much as gold. A sheet as large as a page of paper could fetch one general-use coin.
The reason for its high value lay in the intricate, fine lines etched into its surface. These allowed magical ink—made from the blood of magical beasts—to penetrate the parchment more deeply, preserving the magic for a longer period of time.
Of course, to an ordinary person, it was impossible to see anything special about it.
Angry Wind's gaze fell on the massive city walls.
As soon as he entered the valley, he noticed a significant change in the territory. The city walls before him were no longer the old, dilapidated red iron walls but a new, towering structure. He had never seen such grand walls in any other tribe's territory. He heard that the new lord was the heir to a powerful royal family from the highlands, and the walls were certainly a testament to that ambition.
Besides the awe-inspiring walls, as he entered the city gate, he also saw the words "Hunter's Spear Red Star Giant Tavern" with a strange star emblem above it.
Though it looked odd, there was something about it that made it impossible to forget after just one glance.
There were no noisy natives or scattered goods awaiting him; just an old gray-bearded man, who, if he recalled correctly, was a local from the Hunter's Spear Valley. The man and his companions wore matching armor with a bright red emblem on their chests, the same as the strange star on the wall.
Angry Wind casually glanced at the towering city walls, guessing at the reasoning behind their design. His eyes swept over the worthless materials laid out on the ground. There was nothing new, but on the open space ahead, there was something odd and a basket.
The gray-bearded man began introducing the goods for trade, and the two of them slowly walked toward the basket. Angry Wind's eyes briefly scanned its contents.
Then, he froze. His smile vanished.
...
On the city walls, Kent watched the caravan leader with great interest.
Trade in the Red Earth continent was extremely outdated, a simple cycle of buying low and selling high. If only the trade routes for travel caravans were improved, they could easily bring about exponential increases in profits.
If a caravan line passed through ten different trading points, with varied collection and distribution demands at each stop, there could be hundreds of different route designs—not just a simple loop. So how could trade routes be arranged to form the lowest-cost, highest-profit plan?
If profit maximization was the goal, the length of the journey was no longer the primary concern.
This issue had been studied by mathematicians worldwide for many years, and eventually, British scientists discovered that the behavior of bees when collecting nectar could easily solve this problem.
For example, if a bunch of fake flowers was placed around some real ones, no matter how the positions of the real flowers were changed, the bees would always find the shortest path between flowers, achieving maximum efficiency in their nectar gathering.
And that was for a single caravan. What if five or ten caravans followed different routes?
Even larger ships could be built to form a cross-continent trading corporation.
Kent could easily create profits a thousand times greater.
From a distance, four pairs of eyes were also intently focused on the actions of the caravan leader.
"It's close, it's close, we're almost there..." Skinny Stick whispered urgently, following Angry Wind's steps.
"Shh! Be quiet!" Udo tapped Skinny Stick's head with a finger.
"He's seen it! He's seen it!" Fatty Bull shouted in excitement, inadvertently dropping a piece of dried meat from his mouth. He quickly grabbed it and said, "One, two, three, four, five!"
"I win!" Udo suppressed a laugh, her eyebrows twitching. "Five seconds! He paused for five whole seconds! I told you, the parchment would catch his attention!" She eagerly extended her hand to the three boys, "Here, each of you gets an arrowhead, no excuses, and no rust."
Since forming the Young Leader's Guard in a gossip meeting, the boys' admiration for Kent had far surpassed anyone else's, even more so than the cave people who worshipped Kent as a divine figure.
No matter what, Udo was determined in her heart that Kent had a grand background, which meant he could lead the Hunter's Spear Valley to a more glorious future. If that happened, her dream of becoming the greatest female hunter in the tribe would be much closer.
Becoming the leader of Kent's guard would surely mean her father would no longer prevent her from becoming a hunter.
So, they were determined to protect Kent at all costs.
At first, this thought had only spread in Udo's mind.
But one day, Fatty Bull came back with a pale face, saying he had seen Kent using magical parchment by the stream, heading into the thicket with a basket.
"What happened next?" Udo and Skinny Stick asked in unison, while Knife, who had been silently sharpening his blade, also paused.
"Well... I... I..." Fatty Bull swallowed nervously, stuttering, "I went to... confirm."
"Confirm what?" Udo asked impatiently.
"Well... well... Kent... he used the magical parchment to... to..." He clenched his teeth, his eyes wide, "Wipe... wipe his... his backside!"
The others gasped.
This was impossible, right? Such a valuable item...?
It was parchment!
Alchemy-grade magical parchment!
A piece of parchment that many people would never see in their lifetime!
Rumor had it that in the highland tribes, people had to pay gold coins to buy parchment!
And Kent had used it for that purpose?!
"Definitely, definitely, absolutely..." they all said in unison.
"An important... person..."
From that moment on, Kent's guard had truly planted roots in the hearts of the four.
Well, at least in the hearts of the other three.
As for Udo? Forget roots. A towering tree had already grown in her heart.
On the open space in front of the city walls, beside the caravan.
"Is this... parchment?" Angry Wind asked, his hand trembling as he pointed at the stack of papers carelessly piled in the basket.
He normally wouldn't lose his composure. After years of trade, his greatest achievement had been cultivating a skin of indifference, which allowed him to remain calm and unruffled even in the presence of powerful nobles from super tribes.
But this scene was too much.
Such valuable parchment, and yet it was carelessly thrown in a basket?
And so much of it?
Not just one sheet, but a stack!!
His cart had only had two sheets!!!
"No, no, it's not parchment." The gray-bearded man chuckled.
Not parchment...
Angry Wind's heart sank in relief, but that was quickly replaced by disappointment.
It was all for nothing. He thought the second business rule might have finally shone, but...
But then the gray-bearded man's next words sent him into an endless abyss.
"It's even better than parchment."
The gray-bearded man paused for effect.
"Star Pattern Paper."