"Enough, Second Brother. Don't talk about Moribach like that. Third Brother was only thinking about the future of the trading company when he did what he did. Now that it's happened, we should figure out how to solve the problem, not sit here endlessly complaining." The one who spoke was the always-silent First Young Master Selykham. Having won the competition against his Third Brother and been designated as the trading company's successor by Chairman Chicked had left him quite satisfied, and he usually kept his words measured and maintained a humble, even-keeled attitude. But now was as good a time as any to display his brotherly affection and magnanimity.
"Father, Uncles — actually, what Second Brother says makes a lot of sense. If we really fight Count
The First Young Master was clearly siding with the Second Young Master, but no one could fault him for it. Second Young Master Saboyev had already clearly spelled out the consequences of continuing with the Northern Strategy. Pursuing profit was a merchant's nature, but if the cost exceeded the gains, then it warranted careful reconsideration.
Chairman Chicked also hesitated: "The reason we set our sights on Shilovas Island is precisely because the trading company dominates the seas, and making an island our territory is the ideal choice. But there are no suitable islands in the Southern Seas, and we can't very well acquire such vast territories along the coast…"
Indeed, the Commercial Alliance was about to implement the peerage system. The seven chairmen who controlled the Alliance's power would all be granted the title of Duke, which meant each needed a Grand Duchy as their domain. The other six future dukes already had their targets, but the very island their trading company had set its eyes on — Shilovas Island — had run into complications. A Grand Duchy was important, but bankrupting the entire trading company over it would be quite the poor deal.
First Young Master Selykham gave a light cough and prepared to speak. Like Second Young Master Saboyev, he didn't think much of the trading company's Northern Strategy or of making Shilovas Island the family domain. To him, this strategy had two major drawbacks. First, Shilovas Island was too far from
Second, this so-called Northern Strategy was being executed by Third Young Master Moribach — the brother he despised the most. Father was playing favorites. If he'd designated me as the trading company's successor, then why entrust such important responsibilities to Third Brother? Not only was Moribach still in charge of the Northern trade route, but even the Northern Strategy — something that determined the trading company's future — was handed to him. And now look what happened. A massive disaster. How could Selykham pass up this chance to put his arrogant, ambition-driven brother in his place?
In terms of raw talent, First Young Master Selykham didn't possess Second Young Master Saboyev's extraordinary martial aptitude — at less than thirty-five, Saboyev had already reached the Gold One-Star rank of combat force. The trading company's Second-rank Great Swordmaster, Udi, had praised him highly, believing he could very likely break through to First-rank Great Swordmaster before the age of fifty, and would one day become the trading company's martial pillar.
Compared to Third Young Master Moribach, Selykham also lacked the cunning and scheming ability to move heaven and earth with a flip of his hand. When Third Young Master had traveled to the Shayislan Kingdom to handle the spice trade dispute, it had been truly nerve-wracking — he'd actually made that little king who'd been resisting the trading company's spice monopoly die of sudden illness. It was the first time the trading company had intervened in a kingdom's royal affairs. One had to admit, for all Third Young Master Moribach's recklessness, the result had been nothing short of perfect.
Compared to his two brothers, First Young Master Selykham was rather mediocre. Raised in the trading company's shadow from childhood, he could at best be called a standard merchant — buy low, sell high, seize every opportunity. In spotting business opportunities, he surpassed both his brothers. And that was precisely what the trading company's leadership valued most. Nothing was more important than bringing in profits for the company, and as its successor, that was enough.
However, once news arrived that the Commercial Alliance would implement the peerage system and his father would be granted the title of Grand Duke, Selykham had developed plans of his own. After all, once his father passed on, the dukedom would fall to his shoulders, so the location of the family domain warranted careful deliberation.
The territory Selykham had his eye on was the Ulubaha Duchy. Located south of the Forde Commercial Alliance, it could be described as the starting point of the Southern Seas' Golden Coastline. South of the Mana Hill Plains where Morant City sat lay the Christo Hills, and further south beyond the hills were the Titanini Mountains where the Dwarven Kingdom was situated. At the southern terminus of the Titanini Mountains lay the Ulubaha Duchy.
To put it nicely, Ulubaha's terrain was "mountains at its back and sea at its feet." To put it bluntly, it was a godforsaken backwater with a fierce, unruly population that produced mercenaries and bandit pirates in abundance. Of the pirates roving the Sunlight Sea — seemingly impossible to fully eradicate — half were impoverished fishermen from Ulubaha's coastal regions. They banded together in groups, caring nothing for whether you were a major trading company or a large fleet. Whenever the chance arose to grab something and run, they took it, and one careless moment could inflict serious losses on the trading company.
The duchy's coastline was rocky with few sandy beaches and little arable land. Its most notable feature was the Ulubaha Underground Caverns — recognized across the continent as one of the seven great danger zones. Legend had it that the caverns led to a mysterious subterranean world, and of those who ventured inside to explore, nine out of ten never returned. But this wasn't a concern for the First Young Master. He was a merchant, not a mercenary or an adventurer. He might even be able to use the caverns' fearsome reputation to lure adventurers in for expeditions and make a tidy profit off them — as for whether those adventurers lived or died, that was none of his concern.
Ulubaha was a poor country, but to a merchant, that simply meant mismanagement. Swap in the right person and things would change. Selykham believed he was that person. Setting everything else aside, the dense primeval forests within the duchy's borders were a prime source of quality timber — the only problem was that the current Grand Duke was too stingy to invest in road construction, missing out on this lucrative resource. Moreover, the duchy bordered the Titanini Mountains. If he could establish connections with the Dwarven Kingdom, reselling dwarf products alone would earn a fortune. On top of that, he could survey mineral veins and invest in mining. Selykham had plenty more money-making ideas like these.
The greatest benefit was that once the Ulubaha Duchy became their territory, the duchy's pirates could be conscripted into service. This would not only reduce the cost of suppressing piracy but also bolster the trading company's fleet. For a minimal investment, those fishermen — so poor that all they had left was their lives — could be turned into sailors and crew, easing the burden of personnel wages.
From Morant City to the Ulubaha Duchy, a mere three to four days' sail. With such convenient access, once the trading company seized the duchy, it could establish its headquarters there. As the starting point of the Golden Coastline, it would be far easier to dominate the Southern sea trade routes.
However, seizing the Ulubaha Duchy was not without difficulty — the difficulties were immense. First, the current Grand Duke of Ulubaha was a famous old stubborn. A Third-rank Great Swordmaster, though he'd long since lost any hope of breaking through to Sword Saint — he was in his seventies or eighties, but still hale and hardy, far from easy to deal with. Second, the Grand Duke commanded two elite corps, each roughly twenty-four thousand strong. These were both the foundation of the duchy's sovereignty and the Grand Duke's primary source of income.
Don't doubt how such a poor duchy could afford to maintain these two corps. Though small in scale, their upkeep was substantial. In truth, these two corps were leased out as whole units. Each time one corps was rented out, upon completion of its contract it would return and the other would be sent out, alternating back and forth, earning the Grand Duke of Ulubaha vast sums of blood-soaked wealth.
But First Young Master Selykham believed that if the trading company could seize the Ulubaha Duchy as its territory, absorbing these two corps would compensate for the company's weakness on land. He would never lease these corps out to fight and die for others again. He was confident that once the soldiers learned of this, they would quickly swear their loyalty to the trading company.
Third, the Grand Duke of Ulubaha was also a cousin of the Two-Headed Dragon Trading Company's chairman. This was the greatest obstacle Selykham faced. Targeting the Ulubaha Duchy might infuriate the Two-Headed Dragon chairman, triggering a conflict between two of the Commercial Alliance's giants and reshaping the Alliance's balance of power. This was also the primary reason the Chicked Trading Company's leadership had never turned its gaze toward Ulubaha.
Selykham disagreed with this thinking. The Two-Headed Dragon chairman was a merchant too, and everything had a price for a merchant. If the deal was right, it could be struck. If the price the Chicked Trading Company offered was tempting enough, the biggest obstacle could be resolved with ease.
For Selykham, the difficulties ahead weren't the real problem. The biggest challenge was convincing the trading company's leadership. Even if the Ulubaha Duchy smoothly became the company's territory, it would still require an investment of no less than several million Gold Forde in public infrastructure, improving people's livelihoods and winning hearts. Though this would greatly benefit the company's hold on power and eventually bring in a steady stream of returns, for merchants, the results were too slow and the timeline too long. It really wasn't a great deal.
Well-versed in merchant psychology, Selykham felt now was the perfect opportunity. While the leadership was wavering, presenting his proposal would give it a good chance of passing. Rather than pouring funds into a death match with Count Norton, directing them toward the Ulubaha Duchy at least offered the hope of getting returns.
Unfortunately, Selykham was a step too late, because Second Young Master Saboyev stood up and said, "I have a solution…"
Second Young Master Saboyev hung an enormous sea chart on the wall — one the leadership was quite familiar with. It was a map of the Sunlight Sea, dotted with nearly a thousand islands and reefs of various sizes.
Surely not? The largest island in the Sunlight Sea could barely fit a small village. Many of the islands were nothing but steep rocky mountains where building a settlement was completely impossible. How could this place serve as the trading company's territory? But Saboyev soon showed them what it meant to think outside the box.
The islands rose from the water, most of them connected to one another.
"If we connect these twenty-seven islands in the middle with red lines, and fill in all the shallow sea between them, we would obtain an island territory even larger than Shilovas Island. No one would dispute this territory either. Our trading company could use this land reclaimed from the sea to gradually control the entire Sunlight Sea, clear out the pirates, and make this place the thousand-year foundation of our company and family…"
Saboyev rattled on enthusiastically, while Selykham clutched his forehead in dismay. This was truly a teammate from hell! Second Brother was actually pitching his absurd theory of land reclamation at a time like this, never mind that such a project would cost a fortune, take ages, yield returns at a snail's pace, and require committing most of the trading company's military forces to eliminate the pirates roving among the Sunlight Sea's nearly thousand islands. Was this something Father and the others would want to do? They were merchants — they wanted fast results and high returns!
It was over. Even if he now proposed targeting the Ulubaha Duchy, no one would listen. With Second Brother's "brilliant" idea presented first, it would be nearly impossible to persuade Father and the leadership to adopt his proposal. Selykham sighed inwardly — he'd have to find another opportunity. He truly couldn't understand what his Second Brother was thinking. He'd told him long ago that the idea was impossible, yet he remained so stubborn. One more exasperating brother than the next.
Sure enough, the mocking laughter of Third Young Master Moribach rang out abruptly, cutting off Saboyev's speech.
Second Young Master Saboyev snapped, "What are you laughing at?"
Third Young Master Moribach had finally seized this chance for sweet revenge — how could he be intimidated? He stepped forward and fired off a rapid string of questions: "My dear Second Brother, your proposal is truly wonderful. Owning such a vast territory in the Sunlight Sea is truly exciting. But have you calculated how much manpower and resources it would take to fill in this sea? How much capital would need to be invested? How long would it take before the trading company could actually claim this territory?"
"Uh…" Saboyev was caught off guard. "I haven't worked out the details yet, but the trading company could have someone calculate…"
"No need — I've already done the calculations for you. To fill in this sea, the trading company would need to invest at least two to three million Gold Forde annually, plus nearly a thousand transport vessels for hauling earth and stone, and a full ten years to reclaim just one-third of the area inside your red lines."
Moribach looked at Saboyev as though he were staring at a fool. "My dear Second Brother, do you know how much our trading company earns in a year? Less than two million Gold Forde in revenue, and after dividends and various expenses, less than four hundred thousand makes it into the treasury. Why has the company always refused your request to establish another armed fleet? Because we can't afford it. Do you know how much your pirate suppression efforts cost each year? Five hundred thousand Gold Forde — nearly the entire annual profit of the Northern Fleet goes right into that…"
"I truly don't understand how you could so casually propose such a brainless idea. Filling in the Sunlight Sea — I can't believe you even thought of that. Is this something one trading company should be doing? This would require an entire empire to accomplish, and it would take decades. Our father, as chairman of the Chicked Trading Company, even if granted a title, would only be a Grand Duke. Turning the Sunlight Sea's archipelago into territory through land reclamation — are you trying to make our father the biggest joke in Galentea's entire history?"
"Why should other Grand Dukes be able to seize others' territories while we can't? In just a few more months, the Commercial Alliance will implement the peerage system. By then, the other six trading companies will all have their territories, but we won't. How are we supposed to establish ourselves among the seven giants? Tell everyone we're reclaiming land from the sea and to check back in ten years for a glimpse of progress?"
"No matter how you oppose it, Second Brother, you can't deny that at this stage, apart from Shilovas Island, there's no territory more suitable for our trading company. Is military aristocratic lineage really that impressive? Is a Third-rank Great Swordmaster really so terrifying? He's still just one man. As long as he hasn't become a Sword Saint, we have plenty of ways to deal with him."
"Because of carelessness and insufficient intelligence, our trading company has suffered heavy losses. But I believe that with our strength, we can still deal with this enemy. Now that we know Count Norton's background, with further detailed investigation and meticulous planning, we will surely achieve victory!"
"You — you have no idea how terrifying a Third-rank Great Swordmaster is! Especially one as young as this Count Norton. He could very well become a Sword Saint in the future! You're irresponsibly pushing the trading company into the abyss!" Saboyev accused angrily.
"A Third-rank Great Swordmaster may be formidable, but can he fight off ten or twenty Second-rank Great Swordmasters at once? He has a family, territory, and subjects — he has too many things to worry about. Even if we can't kill him, we can keep him occupied. Cut off his income and wear him down, and his family might just fall apart and collapse. Then your worries won't matter anymore…"
"You…" Saboyev was rendered speechless by the rebuttal, and in his frustration, he rolled up his sleeves and moved to strike.
"Enough! Saboyev, stand down!" Chairman Chicked glared at his second son. His land reclamation scheme was the real joke. Just now, Third Son Moribach's words had struck precisely the right chord. Indeed, Shilovas Island was the easiest territory to seize — all they had to do was eliminate Count Norton, the Great Swordmaster.
"Second Uncle, what's your take?" Chairman Chicked asked Great Swordmaster Udi beside him.
The Chicked Trading Company was not a family enterprise. Originally named the Sword & Barrel Trading Company, it had been founded by several friends pooling their resources. Later, the Chicked ancestor became chairman and grew the company into one of the Commercial Alliance's seven giants, acquiring seventy percent of the shares and renaming it the Chicked Trading Company. The position of chairman was then passed down through the Chicked family from generation to generation.
The families that had originally held shares continued to depend on the company for their livelihood. Those without capability lived comfortably off the company's annual dividends, while the more capable ones mostly took up senior positions in the company's management. Great Swordmaster Udi's family was one such family. When Udi was discovered to have martial talent in his youth, the company had invested heavily in his training, and he now served as the trading company's martial backbone.
By seniority, Chairman Chicked had to address Great Swordmaster Udi as "Uncle."
Udi shook his head with a bitter smile. "I've been on the ship where Kumori met his end. I saw the scene after the battle. To be honest, four Great Swordmasters isn't insurance enough. Make it eight — all Second-rank Great Swordmasters or above. Only then can we guarantee eliminating that Count Swordmaster. Once you've made up your mind, don't quibble over costs. As long as the trading company survives, everything can be earned back."
Chairman Chicked slapped the table. "Good. Then it's decided — the family domain will be Shilovas Island. No more discussion. Moribach, send people to investigate Count Norton's movements and his family's background. Also, have every piece of intelligence on Shilovas Island sent to us. If there are any more slip-ups, I won't let you off…"
"Selykham, contact the other trading companies' Second-rank Great Swordmasters and find out how much it would cost to hire their services. Agree to whatever they ask — we can't have people dying for us and be called stingy…"
"Yes, Father." First Young Master Selykham stood and nodded respectfully.
…(To be continued.)