Ch.229229. Trade (2)

After their first encounter with goblin pirates, they naturally came across various pirates and pirate-adjacent groups.

They engaged in artillery battles with dark elf pirates known for their raids along the southern continent’s coast, and once briefly faced off against a high elf privateer near Indiya before retreating.

While passing through the southern archipelago of the Jin Empire, they annihilated nearly dozens of pirate ships, and once an orc pirate ship launched a surprise ramming attack, but…

“UOOOOOOO───!! I’LL CRUSH YOU───!!”

KWAAAANG!!

The orc was helpless before Vitor, a city troll who, despite his size, acted rather innocently and was treated as the youngest among the crew, and was indeed the least experienced sailor.

No matter how much their wildness had diminished and their size reduced compared to other trolls, city trolls were still inherently born with intermediate-level qualities as a race.

Anyway, besides this, they also repelled pirates (navy) from the United Kingdom of the Yamato Archipelago, and after exterminating numerous aquatic monsters—

“We’ve arrived!!”

“Drop anchor!! Crew, follow disembarkation procedures!”

They finally reached their destination—a port in the Core Republic, a nation located on a peninsula in the eastern part of the Eastern Continent.

The Core Republic.

This nation, formed by twelve Beastman tribes uniting against the Jin Empire, selects a total of twelve Beast Lords from each tribe.

These elected Beast Lords form a kind of government cabinet, with each taking turns ruling for one year before new elections—a unique political system.

Naturally, the majority of this nation’s population consists of these twelve types of beastmen: rat, tiger, ox, rabbit, bear, horse, sheep, monkey, dog, cat, pig, and water deer.

Of course, various other races live alongside these twelve beastman tribes, and over time, these tribes have come to accept members of other races.

For example, the current Beast Lord of the rat tribe is actually a bat beastman, and sometimes even humans are elected as Beast Lords representing the water deer tribe.

It was a truly unique political system found only in this nation.

Meanwhile, the most distinctive characteristic of this Core Republic, composed of these diverse races, is that the entire nation emphasizes martial prowess and maintains a bellicose atmosphere.

The ox beastmen (not minotaurs) are muscular giants who use farming as weight training, while tiger and bear beastmen are innately born as tier 7 races.

Races with inferior physical abilities, like rat or rabbit beastmen, handle all sorts of bizarre weapons as if possessed by the souls of ruthless ranged fighters.

The beastmen of the Core Republic are particularly obsessed with gunpowder weapons—to the extent that their budget for purchasing saltpeter alone approaches the annual budget of some small nations.

So how exactly do these Core Kingdom beastmen afford so much saltpeter?

“—Whirik whirik! Kiyoot!!”

“Kiririk, kirik, kihyooot—!”

Need I say more?

They frequently raid the neighboring wealthy Jin Empire under the names of surrounding tribes, then use the proceeds to pay for saltpeter and imported goods.

But such raiding business is ultimately seasonal at best.

To steadily import saltpeter for gunpowder, they need regular income sources, so they produce and trade various export goods of their own.

Their most representative trade goods include the once-popular blue porcelain, as well as silk and processed tea leaves that are popular among high elves.

However, even the combined profits from selling all these products don’t match the true reason that brought Zodnak all this way—”the product.”

“I’ll buy it all───!!!”

“Ginseng, give me ginseng! Right now!”

As you might have guessed, it’s because of the “ginseng” herb cultivated in the Core Kingdom.

In reality, there may be debates about the efficacy of ginseng and wild ginseng, but…

In this world where polar bears can mutate into ice-breathing monsters, the specially cultivated ginseng and wild ginseng are definitely not ordinary crops.

Ginseng, a cousin of the mandrake that grows in the Western Continent and serves as an ingredient for various potions, can heal most wounds just by chewing its roots raw without any processing.

Wild ginseng, the original species found worldwide, permanently increases physical abilities or total mana when consumed, with older wild ginseng providing greater stat increases.

Additionally, red ginseng, made by processing ginseng in a special way, possesses the rare effect of mana regeneration, making it incredibly sought after…

But the real reason ginseng and red ginseng are treated as extraordinary trade goods is that they are “unbelievably” good for virility, even used as treatments for erectile dysfunction.

Zodnak himself had experienced a miracle after eating just a small root of red ginseng, and this reputation had spread across continents all the way to the New World.

Of course, it’s not that ginseng cannot be grown in other regions, but for some reason, the virility-enhancing effect only comes from peninsula-grown ginseng from the Core Republic homeland.

For middle-aged men worldwide with bowed heads, this ginseng is nothing short of a miracle—so much so that during past price surges, ginseng was exchanged for orichalcum of equal weight.

Though prices have dropped considerably now, making it somewhat obtainable in the New World, ginseng products still command high prices—in the Dawn Empire, honey-preserved red ginseng sells for thousands of gold per root for long-term preservation.

Ah, but the Dawn Empire doesn’t suffer much deficit in trade with them, as they sell various goods to the Core Republic in return.

Besides the obvious saltpeter, Zodnak filled the remaining space with spices.

Pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, star anise, cloves, saffron, vanilla, and nutmeg.

Merchants would procure these spices from Indiya or the southern archipelago and sell them to the Core Republic, where they couldn’t be grown due to extreme seasonal temperature differences.

Although not applicable to Zodnak, merchants with multiple large ships actually import large quantities of meat from their home country for sale.

While the Core Republic, where more than half the northern population lives a nomadic lifestyle, produces plenty of meat, the problem is that it’s all consumed internally before it can be properly distributed.

Therefore, the Dawn Empire approached the Core Republic, known for its love of food, and established a contract to export their surplus meat, which was abundant thanks to meat-fruit.

Though the meat needs to be frozen for long-distance transport, which relatively diminishes its taste…

Meat is meat, and as long as it’s cheap, there were no complaints.

To use a modern comparison, if you could buy a chunk of prime rib (500g) for just 5,000 won even if it’s frozen, who would reject such a valuable opportunity just because it’s frozen meat?

The people of Core, second to none in their love for beef, eagerly await the arrival of Dawn Empire ships.

Meanwhile, even after selling meat and buying lots of red ginseng, merchants typically have space left in their cargo holds, so they often purchase cheap silver from the neighboring Yamato United Kingdom.

Taking advantage of recently discovered massive silver mines that have caused silver prices to plummet, they buy this cheap silver and exchange it for gold in the Jin Empire, where silver is expensive and gold is cheap, aiming for arbitrage profits.

But Zodnak, or rather, Zodnak “commissioned by the imperial upper echelon,” decided to purchase the items requested in that commission.

While empty-headed fools might try to deceive after receiving advance payment, Zodnak, well aware of the fear inspired by Inquisitors, diligently collected “those items.”

“You’re buying this? It’s just a stone tablet with strange writing.”

“Haha… we’re just following orders, so we don’t really know either.”

“I see, understood. Then I’ll take just one gold coin.”

“…?!! Will that be enough?”

“Yes, well. It’s just taking up space if I keep it, you know.”

Though he couldn’t understand why the upper echelon had given him a specialized detector and asked him to buy stone tablets, Zodnak decided not to overthink it and made his own assumptions.

He figured these stone tablets, engraved with inverted pentagrams and inscriptions, were probably meant to be displayed as a set in some new museum.