However, Respected Lord Shen Mu didn't pay much attention to the internal workplace struggles of the Blue Star Humans in Deherim.
What he cared about most right now was making money.
The food problem had been resolved, and the troop strength issue was also largely settled. Furthermore, Deherim didn't require extensive expansion at the moment.
For him, how to acquire more dinar had once again become the most crucial matter on his mind.
It was just one word.
Money.
What Shen Mu wanted most right now was to make money.
After everyone had left the conference room, he remained seated at the head of the table, reaching up to pinch his temples, his expression quite complex.
“I really need to consider how to earn more dinar,” Shen Mu said, feeling quite helpless.
There was no other way, as his current methods of acquiring dinar were limited to the commercial activities conducted by these two trade caravans for him.
Although the dinar brought by the trade caravans was quite useful—for instance, a round trip to the White Tower region currently yielded an estimated 10,000 dinar.
And this would take two weeks.
This meant that Torres's trade caravan could earn 10,000 dinar per round trip to the White Tower region, and with two round trips a month, he could earn 20,000 dinar per month.
This was a very good income.
However, the transition period for this income was a bit long. After all, Shen Mu was undergoing immense changes every day, and he couldn't wait for the dinar earned from two trips a month.
After all, there were many places that needed money, waiting for Shen Mu to invest in them.
But there was also another trade caravan, which smuggled iron products to Calradia approximately once a week.
“I wonder if this trade caravan can bring me more surprises,” Shen Mu thought, remembering Nalot, the bankrupt merchant who used to be a Bandit.
After all, he had already brought back over 2,000 dinar previously, which was quite good.
And since only a few days had passed, he didn't need to rush if he wanted to speed up time.
After all, 1,000 Faith Power could speed up time by one day.
For Nalot, who could complete a round trip in 7 days, this was quite easy. After all, Shen Mu estimated that Nalot would return to Deherim in just one day.
“Then let's speed up time by one day,” Shen Mu's thoughts connected with the system.
“Ding! You have consumed 1,000 Faith Power to accelerate the round trip time of your Narot Trade Caravan.”
“Congratulations! Your Narot Trade Caravan, dispatched to Calradia for smuggling, has successfully returned!”
As soon as Shen Mu used Faith Power to accelerate the trade caravan's return time, a dialogue box immediately appeared before his eyes, and the content inside was precisely the news of the Narot Trade Caravan's return from its smuggling trip to Calradia.
“Perfect,” Shen Mu nodded in satisfaction, as the trade caravan's return was a great start.
At the very least, it would bring him some crucial dinar.
“Convey my order for Nalot to quickly put away the goods and then come here to see me,” Shen Mu instructed the Swadian Light Infantry who served as his attendant.
The Swadian Light Infantry nodded, then turned and left the Noble Residence.
After about 10 more minutes, he returned.
This time, accompanying him was Nalot, with a proud smile on his face, holding a bulging sheepskin pouch.
It looked heavy, feeling weighty in his hand.
“Lord Shen Mu, Mr. Nalot has arrived,” the Swadian Light Infantry said.
“Greetings to you, Respected Lord Shen Mu, your loyal merchant Nalot has returned,” Nalot said, following behind the Swadian Light Infantry, respectfully bowing with his hand over his chest.
“Hmm, good, come and sit down,” Shen Mu gestured for the Swadian Light Infantry to leave, then motioned for Nalot to sit.
He was quite satisfied with Nalot, especially when he saw Nalot proactively present the bulging, heavy money bag to him, a smile playing on his lips.
“Lord Shen Mu, this is the total profit from this smuggling trip, a total of 5,000 dinar,” Nalot said modestly. “Thanks to the fighting between the Kingdom of Swadia and the Kingdom of Vigia, the demand for iron products within Swadia has reached its peak, so the iron products we transported were highly sought after.”
Only demand can create profit.
Nalot recalled how, when he transported those iron products back into the Kingdom of Swadia, merchants who were already short on iron products due to the war immediately began to scramble for them.
Although most of the iron products Nalot transported were crude, low-quality weapons forged by the Abyssal Demons.
However, once the smiths of Calradia re-melted all those demon weapons in their furnaces and with their hammers, casting them into iron ingots, they became top-grade iron products again.
They could be forged into various armors, weapons, or even farm tools.
Swadia's metallurgy capabilities were also the strongest in all of Calradia, making Swadian smiths the most experienced.
They simply melted down those obvious battlefield spoils into molten iron, then poured them into molds to form new ingots, which were then distributed to various towns and castles in Swadia.
Local smiths would then forge them into the desired shapes.
Everything was very convenient.
“So, Lord Shen Mu, those demanding clients in the Kingdom of Swadia are all sending me messages, hoping to procure more iron products,” Nalot said, a smile appearing on his lips as he thought of how complimentary those clients had been towards him.
Moreover, Nalot understood very well that these clients were not actually commercial guilds or smithing guilds.
They were precisely the lords, the masters of those towns and castles.
After the Kingdom of Swadia had its iron product exports restricted by the Kingdom of Vigia, it immediately entered a state of iron scarcity. The cruel and prolonged fighting directly caused the wear and tear of weapons and armor to reach its peak.
If they didn't want too many losses on the battlefield, they could only grit their teeth and have the smithing guilds and market guilds in their territories, serving as logistics bases, transport all necessary supplies to the front lines.
After all, the troops of these lords were essentially their own assets. If they suffered too great losses on the battlefield, then upon their return, their territories would also be precarious.
After all, a lord who lacked strength but possessed wealth and power was akin to a fat sheep.
Everyone wanted to shear some wool from him.
And thinking of the stingy and irritable King Harlaus of the Kingdom of Swadia, these lords had long been quite dissatisfied.
If it weren't for the name of the Kingdom of Swadia still binding them, they would have long refused to obey King Harlaus's orders.
Now, it was merely the inertia of the Kingdom of Swadia that continued to restrain these lords, making them reluctantly follow King Harlaus's command.
However, as King Harlaus led those lords to constantly wage war against other nations, losing elite troops batch after batch, the valuable castles, towns, and even villages they captured were stingily not distributed to the lords who had gathered to obey his orders.
A storm was beginning to gather.
As a merchant, and one who was conducting smuggling activities of iron products under Shen Mu's instructions, Nalot was not guarded against by many well-informed people.
Furthermore, Nalot himself had experience as a Bandit, and Bandits were a very loose, yet well-informed, group.
So he easily grasped the current situation.
That is, the lords and nobles of the Kingdom of Swadia were growing impatient with King Harlaus.
If the day truly came when King Harlaus was overthrown and exiled, or abdicated to another kingdom, perhaps the entire Kingdom of Swadia would become even more chaotic.
After all, it was said that Lady Isolla, who had a claim to the throne of the entire Kingdom of Swadia, had already begun openly proclaiming herself as the true heir within Swadia.
She even started to conspire with those nobles and lords, hoping that after they deposed Harlaus from the position of king, she would be crowned queen.
“Is such turmoil happening in the Kingdom of Swadia?” Shen Mu asked, his interest piqued when Nalot clearly told him some internal affairs of the Kingdom of Swadia.
After all, he understood the historical background.
He knew that behind these kingdoms in Calradia, besides the current kings, there were also ambitious individuals who sought to usurp the throne.
Lady Isolla of the Kingdom of Swadia was precisely such a person.
“If I recall correctly, Lady Isolla’s father was the previous king of the Kingdom of Swadia. Because she was his only daughter and was still very young at the time, many nobles and lords recommended Harlaus, a distant cousin of the former king, to become king,” the system explained Lady Isolla’s background story.
“That’s right, Lord Shen Mu, you are correct,” Nalot said, shrugging his shoulders with a helpless tone. “But precisely because the current King Harlaus was a king whom all nobles agreed to recommend, it’s not easy to depose him. After all, if they were to truly dismiss King Harlaus, it would mean they misjudged him, that they elected an incapable king, and that would be a great blow to their honor.”
As he spoke, Nalot leaned in conspiratorially and said to Shen Mu, “Lord Shen Mu, perhaps you don’t know, but Lady Isolla has already begun secretly recruiting a mercenary army and is also purchasing iron products to forge weapons and armor. That’s why the price of iron products within the Kingdom of Deherim is getting higher and higher.”
“Then wouldn't that mean selling iron products in the Kingdom of Swadia now would bring very high profits?” Shen Mu raised an eyebrow.
“Exactly, exactly. The profit from iron products has already been driven up to seven or eight times the original price, even higher,” Nalot nodded, and at the same time said to Shen Mu, “And I heard that if we can get more weapons and equipment for Lady Isolla, she will give a very high reward.”
“Sounds good,” Shen Mu didn’t say much at this point, just nodded, calculated in his mind, and then said again, “Nalot, I need you to continue trading in Calradia. There are still many iron products in the warehouse, all war spoils. You can transport all of these to Calradia for trade and bring back a lot of dinar.”
“Understood, I will do this well,” Nalot smiled respectfully and then said, “Now, many people in the Kingdom of Swadia know that these iron products are transported by you from another world, so the city guards and patrol teams turn a blind eye to me and won’t make things difficult for me.”
“That’s very good,” Shen Mu nodded.
As long as the armies responsible for inspecting smuggling and the patrol teams ignored Nalot, his smuggling business would be extremely profitable.
Of course, he also understood that this should be out of respect for him.
“Oh, by the way, Lord Shen Mu, there’s something else I’d like to report,” Nalot said.
“Tell me,” Shen Mu noticed Nalot’s hesitation.
“When I went to Calradia before, I met some guild masters of merchant guilds within the Kingdom of Swadia, and they all expressed an interest in recruiting me,” Nalot said concisely, directly stating his guess: “But I don’t think they wanted to recruit me; rather, they wanted to communicate with you, especially the nobles and lords behind those guild masters.”
“They want to communicate with me?” Shen Mu frowned slightly.
“Yes, because I have also noticed that they seem to be very dissatisfied with King Harlaus, and your prestige in Swadia is quite high,” Nalot said hesitantly. “And Lady Isolla also seems to want to have a good talk with you, seeking your affirmation and recognition.”
At this moment, Shen Mu slightly raised his head, and some special emotions appeared in his eyes.
He suddenly realized that the Mount & Blade World could not be entirely viewed as a mere backdrop; the people living within it surprisingly had their own thoughts.
They were all truly living, breathing individuals, or rather, real people living in a real world.
