Chapter 11 News of the Peddler

Following the traveling merchant, Ronald entered the tent set up on the wagon, where straw and tarpaulin had already been laid out for moisture and dust protection, making it perfectly fine to sleep on.

Using the light from the fire that seeped in from outside, Ronald looked around the small space in the dimness.

The wagon was just an ordinary cargo vehicle, even the tent overhead had been added later by the owner. Beneath the two of them, one could feel neatly arranged wooden crates and sacks through touch, and barely make out some grains of crops through the gaps in the carriage.

Well...

Isn't that convenient?

Just now, while passing through farmland on the road, Ronald had seen these kinds of crops in the fields, but judging from the color of the seeds, those near the town were far from mature.

Immediately, Ronald quietly surmised Naisos's identity.

In the conversation before falling asleep, he was especially cautious, keeping his spirits entirely up to deal with this fellow.

However, it was somewhat unexpected.

The traveling merchant lying in the wagon was very talkative and didn't continue to inquire too much about Ronald's own information.

The focus of the conversation was mostly on Naisos himself.

He introduced himself as Naisos Robin, originally an ordinary person from the First Empire of Entrod. Since his childhood in a rural village, he had been unwilling to live and die as a farmer, so at the age of thirteen, he secretly followed a passing merchant and sold himself as an apprentice.

Since then, he had traveled north and south, experienced much, and was now of established age.

Although he was married with a daughter and had some savings in the bank, he never had the opportunity to settle down in a suitable shop.

The well-traveled Naisos understood the future development of the world, and retiring to buy a house in the countryside almost meant making his child give up a prosperous future.

And buying a house in the city...

The housing prices in the desired areas were rising along with the city's development.

As for a residence, it was still somewhat manageable, but to settle down in a shop was absolutely beyond his means.

And without running a business, what could he, who had been a merchant all his life, turn to?

He might find a job, but it certainly wouldn't be any comfortable work.

So, pressured by reality, he still persisted in traveling between multiple countries, engaging in buying and selling in an attempt to make a final effort.

Unfortunately, he was advanced in age.

In this era, anyone over 35 was considered absolutely elderly.

Naisos now often felt powerless in his business dealings, the variety of new things made him increasingly unfamiliar with the world, and he himself thought that perhaps it truly was time to retire.

At this point in the introduction, he even revealed his family's financial situation.

The somewhat weary merchant displayed more enthusiasm in the conversation than imagined.

Was his noble identity really so appealing?

To some extent, Ronald had even mentally prepared himself to deal with a possible rich merchant's classic daughter-marrying plot.

The tendencies in the other's words were too obvious!

Yet, an unexpected event happened again.

Tonight's interaction suddenly came to an end.

Following this, Naisos did not proceed as Ronald had expected with just a deep and exaggerated heart-to-heart talk; instead, the merchant urged Ronald to sleep using the excuse of the fatigue from traveling, and his enthusiastic tone faded very quickly.

That was probably better—

The uneventful outcome precisely matched Ronald's wishes.

Should the plot of marrying off a daughter arise now, his persona as a down-and-out noble made it really inconvenient for him to flatly refuse.

What should he do if he really agreed?

"I can't really just hit the road with this guy!"

Thus, the two of them, each with their own scheming thoughts, fell asleep on the carriage, not knowing who was outsmarting whom.

——

After the rain, the skies cleared.

Ronald and the merchant, backs against each other, awakened together in the carriage in the early morning.

After a night of heavy rain, the caravan did not delay much the next morning; they packed up the camp and set off again on muddy roads.

Although the road conditions were poor, there were no significant issues to hinder their progress.

Taking this opportunity, Ronald took a good day's rest in the carriage. By making appropriate conversations and small talk with people in the caravan, he initially integrated into the group.

The number of carriages he had seen the previous night corresponded to the composition of the merchant convoy.

Among the four carriages, besides Naisos who had negotiated with him the previous night, the other three carriages belonged to three different merchants, each with their own hired guards, who then took turns to rest.

The other three merchants were different from Naisos.

All three were adult males, one of whom, named Thomson, even had a young apprentice by his side, who looked no older than fourteen. The goods they dealt in also varied.

In the course of their journey, Ronald used his noble identity, which was eager for information from the outside world, to learn more news.

As merchants who traveled extensively, these guys were definitely well-informed.

Far more than the information obtained in his notes.

Firstly, the location of the merchant convoy, namely this empire named Gridth that had ruled this land for over 350 years, stood at the southernmost end of the Latojoya continent and was undoubtedly the world's foremost powerhouse.

Economy, politics, culture, science...

They were all at the forefront of the world.

Geographically speaking—

The small town where Ronald initially arrived belonged to Gridth's territory.

Located at the very edge of an agricultural area in the outskirts of the large city of Berenwich, it was one of the most remote and desolate areas of the Gridth Empire.

To the south of the town lay a coastal area with no good harbors, where reefs and cliffs made it a natural barrier; to the north and east lay the completely untouched Yizi Forest.

Lastly, this was the direction from which Naisos and his merchant group had come.

Speaking of which, these well-informed merchants had their own skills.

Between the southern side of Yizi Forest and the cliffs to the north of the sea, there was an ancient road destroyed by an earthquake a century ago, which was now basically unusable due to years of neglect.

These merchants risked using this 'shortcut' to bypass Yizi Forest for the purpose of quickly entering the territory to commence their business activities.

Unfortunately, this hidden trade route was probably no longer usable.

About 40 years ago, the previous queen, Dantrian I, announced the legalization of steam engines for civilian use by inventors, making it the first nation worldwide to start the Steam Revolution and thereby establishing national supremacy. Other countries also realized how powerful this rapid development was.

Across from Yizi Forest, a nation called Entrod had also embarked on this path.

Regrettably, the King of Entrod did not have the same governing ability as Dantrian I. Due to issues of profit distribution and various emerging conflicts, this nation fell into severe civil unrest six years ago.

Only recently, the largest army within Entrod barely managed to unify the domestic military forces and has now evolved into a military government named the Second Empire of Entrod.

These merchants, daring as they were, dared not engage in smuggling under the watchful eyes of bloodthirsty military merchants.

Lastly, this was the destination of these merchants.

After entering the territory of Gridth, their primary target was Berenwich.

The most modernized and bustling city in the eastern region of Gridth!