27 A successful Partnership
"Little bro, I won't even lie to you.
I came here to buy some mineral ores from you.
So would that be possible?
Please...." Santa asked with pleading puppy dog eyes
"Of course it would.
Not only that, in the future, I will be making new unique and interesting products that'll be only available only in Baymard.
Anyway, Just tell me how many tonnes you need, and I'll provide them for you immediately."
Santa's eyes lit up when he heard the words unique and interesting.
He was a merchant, after all.
As they moved through the lower region, Landon purposely showed Santa the labs and chalk samples he developed.
As they moved through the lower region going, Santa was stunned: 'He made the land bear food? this guy.....'
One could see fields of wheat, beans and all other foods covering up to farmlands.
There were bananas and plantains growing on the sides, as well as apples, tomatoes, lettuces, cabbages and spinach.
All the times he came to Baymard, 97% of farms didn't even have a single crop growing in them. But now, these farms were overflowing with rich crops.
How could Santa not be shocked? Was this still the Baymard he knew of?
And unlike the other nobles he met, Landon didn't disrupt the people's peace just because he was passing through with a guest.
Santa observed that as they passed through, everyone on the farms greeted them warmly, especially Landon.
And there were no pretenses in their gazes.
He noticed that most people looked at Landon as if he were a God.
This little brother of his even cracked jokes with the villagers and carried the little children who came to see their parents at work.
The kids were all happy that they could touch or get carried by their king.
He even did a little magic trick for them before they left.
This is how nobles should act, Santa thought.
In fact, Santa was a noble himself.
He was the third son of Baron Hamilton of Carona.
Since he couldn't inherit his father's title, he chose to be a merchant.
Over the years, he built quite a name for himself and became known throughout Carona as the 'Foolish noble merchant' by many.
They call him foolish because since he was young, he never liked following all those pretentious and fake Nobel rules.
At an early age, he always wanted to do things that regular people loved.
Once, he disguised himself as a peasant and worked in a bakery for 3 months.
In the third month, his dad found out and gave him the beatings of his life.
Because of his nature, he became a thorn in his dad's eyes.
People would mock and laugh at the Baron, saying that he had a peasant son as if there was anything wrong with that
He later bought a ship and successfully crossed the sea's bringing different things from other parts of the world into Carona.
He became popular and the go-to-man for all shop owners and nobles in Carona.
But his dad was still constantly disappointed in him, as well as his two older brothers.
For them, it was an honour for a noble to fight and go to war for his majesty.
The only people who loved him dearly were his mom and his three sisters.
They thought he was cute, funny and very kind.
He just didn't like pretending and doing senseless things.
Why couldn't people talk to each other regularly without the extra rules attached?
That's why he secretly admired Landon; he could tell that Landon wasn't one who was also hung up on the rules of etiquette.
As they passed through, the villagers didn't even bother with Santa at all.
Their gazes were on full focus towards his highness Landon.
Was this the weak and dumb bastard child of king Barn?
Santa knew that he wasn't weak.
The aura Landon gave out was that of a person who had experienced a lot of battles.
When he learnt that Landon would be creating items that have never been seen before, Santa was skeptical.
And after taking a tour in the laboratory and seeing this so-called chalk, Santa was pleasantly surprised.
Although chalk seemed like a small matter, to Santa, it really wasn't.
It was genius.
Do you know how many slate-boards are thrown away per year in his empire because they get scratched or destroyed?
Chalk was way better than slate-pencils and way cheaper.
Slate-pencils are like sticks that are used to scratch the boards for educational purposes.
Chalk was the best solution for this problem, and it was only found in Baymard.
How could Santa not want any?
"Little brother, is it possible to buy these chalk sticks now? I need enough chalk for 10,000 people in one go."
"Not for now.
These chalk sticks are barely enough for my people as it is.
And we don't have enough man labour to produce such large amounts.
But, If you can get me 3000 slaves or people who are genuinely looking for work the next time you come, then I'll be able to produce a huge batch for you.
How about that?"
"That makes sense, little bro.
Okay, okay, okay.
At the end of each month, I will send one of my trusted aids to you with a ship containing 1000 workers in them. I will do this every month until you have 3000 men from me."
"That's good.... speaking of which..how much will you pay per tonne of ores?" Landon asked curiously.
"I usually pay 1200 gold coins per tonne, little bro.
And I'll be leaving with 150 tonnes of these ores today."
'So I'll get 180,000 gold coins today...not bad..' Landon thought.
"Alright.....so how much does it cost to get slaves?"
"In the slave markets, slaves are gotten by how beautiful or how strong they are.
The average slave costs 1600 copper coins per person," Santa said
'So for 3000 people, I'll need 480 gold coins.' Landon thought.
"Do you have any rare seeds on your ship?"
"Of course I do, silly.
When I used to come here, the nobles would buy bags of wheat, beans and other foods from me. There would also be a few who bought the seeds, although they knew that the lands couldn't bear anything.
I'm guessing they still wanted to try their luck."
"Hmhm.
I think so too.
Alright, once we're done with your order, I'll take a look at your seeds."
"Good."
