Chapter 29: The Nations and The New Patent

The day after the bandits’ subjugation quest and coke-related negotiations. Today I had nothing to do, so I decided to spend some time hunting like a normal adventurer.

I hunted Red Wolves while moving fast as before, but today, I ended up hunting about 50 Red Wolves without discovering other bandits’ hideouts.

I headed toward the Guild after hunting. I had to receive yesterday’s reward as well.

「Hello. I came to report on the Red Wolf subjugation request. In addition, when will I receive the reward after annihilating the bandits?」

The receptionist looked over my Guild card first. Then, she immediately looked up and said.

「Kaede-san. I heard that you had a discussion with the branch manager about the subjugation of bandits and your status. Are you okay?」

「Yes, I am okay. 」

Regarding the content of the request itself, was it about the rank that we talked about on that day and said he would think about it?

Were they going to rise my rank again when it has just risen? I couldn’t help thinking about it, so I decided to go to the branch manager’s office for the time being.

「Oh, Kaede. You should sit down. 」

「Yes. 」

「First, the reward is 500 Tael per bandit. Since you have defeated 38 people, it will be 19,000 Tael. Then the basic reward is 8334 Tael, and the distribution of the spoils is 12,666 Tael, for a grand total of 40,000 Tael.」

I felt pleased about those numbers.

Did they adjust the distribution of spoils in the end? Well, if I could get 40,000 Tael, then awesome. Other trivial things did not matter much.

The Metal Lizard may be a scrap from metal, but it generated a lot of money. Plus this one-time request and my economies had risen considerably.

「Moreover. About the story of your rank. Regarding your ability, it turned out that your skills easily exceed that of the D-rank. Magis told me so personally. It also means that you can kill people without wavering. Or so it seems.」

Was he having doubts about my ability? I wondered if something was amiss. I would be in trouble if he told me that I needed 3 years of work experience to raise my rank.

「Nevertheless, Kaede. You lack some experience, and if you want to reach D-rank or higher, you will need experience in escort requests, so I wrote on the Guild card about your current abilities. Of course, Guild officials are the only ones who can see it. However. This will prove your ability to some extent, so if you complete the escort request and it is judged that you are reliable as an escort, you should be able to be promoted without difficulty. Raising your rank will be easy after you succeed the escort request for 5 times without trouble.」

5 times, huh. It seemed that it would take more time to raise my rank than before. The so-called escort request. Perhaps, it was moving around between the towns.

I did not know how many days it would take to move from Tsubai town up to this point if I moved in a carriage.

It would be easier if I could escort the entire luggage into the item box and carry it with a strong dash. Still, it would be another story if I were to escort a person myself. I wouldn’t leave a person to someone I could not trust, even if it were a fellow carrier or escort.

Either way, I could only do this request after the dwarves made my weapon.

「Yes. I can’t leave this town now, but I want to do the escort request when I have time.」

「There’s no problem whatsoever. You don’t have to hurry, but I want strong adventurers like you to be given the right rank. The Guild also has a shortage of manpower at higher ranks, so it’s not a trifling matter.」

It seemed that the story was over, so I left the room. I had to go to the reception again because they did not settle today’s subjugation request yet.

Certainly, even if we besought requests to subdue bandits, the number of people per team would have to be large. It would not be enough even if only one B and C-rank came. Like Ain, it was possible that the level of adventurers in this town was low.

In other words. This was a thriving town of weapons production, and a town where people made a fuss over one Metal Lizard. Basically. They made a fuss over special occurrences once every 10 years. I thought that high-ranked adventurers were just a few among the populace.

High-ranked adventurers used good weapons, and the more high-ranked they were, the more good materials they could get.

There may be too few monsters here, but I couldn’t imagine a situation where an insane number of strong monsters appeared in the forest, and people would say happily, “Yay it’s a prey”.

In the first place, if the average level of adventurers were high, there wouldn’t be any problem in facing an invasion of strong monsters. Ain was a good example of such failure.

Most of the adventurers I’ve seen so far did not wear strong weapons. It seemed that most of them used practical weapons. There was no way that great adventurers would use weapons that could break very soon.

In other words, most of the adventurers in this world were not that strong. Even at B-rank. Those who were the real deal were in a fairly rare category.

With that in mind, I settled the subjugation request and went to the inn to sleep.

The weapon production might finally happen tomorrow.

—

The next morning, when I went to Sumizu-san’s workshop right after the morning bell rang and met Sumisa-chan, she told me that she was making the wand smoothly. People in this world sure got up early.

It seemed that it would take about 3 more days because there was some processing to be done by Sumizu-san.

Next was the Commerce Guild. In other words, the meeting.

It seemed that I was the first to arrive, but in less than 10 minutes, everyone appeared.

「Then, shall we go?」

I entered the Commerce Guild led by Ginta-san. It seemed that he would talk about the details at the meeting again.

They said that this room was used for important business negotiations that were not related to Commerce Guilds because information would not be leaked to the outside. Well, unless someone spoke in a very loud voice even with the soundproofing magic protecting in the room. There was a usage fee.

I heard that Naiaki-san would act as an intermediary today.

「We have obtained a permit for a new patent. It will be a new system named New Patent. Although the final decision required creating a new system that has not yet been made, the system can be used immediately in the form of a provisional permit. However, until now, there has been no brand new system that has not passed due to provisional permission, but when I talked to the Guild master, he praised it and promised to pass it by force. He spoke with great excitement. Therefore, there is no need to worry. Nonetheless, there are some special restrictions applied to this.」

「Special restrictions? 」

Was it a related to the percentage?

「Yes, there are restrictions with respect to the person who provides this technology.」

I was not sure. Was not this new patent a system to spread the technology?

「Specifically, the government will examine the person who sells this technology, and only the organizations that have passed the examination will be allowed to provide and sell the technology. In addition, transactions to foreign countries are prohibited, and all the people engaged in this work will be subject to an examination from this country jurisdiction.」

In other words, did it mean to monopolize this technology in this country only? Well, was it necessary to reach this length? Was it because of war?

There may be various important things to consider such as the balance between nations.

「Are the restrictions related to war?」

「War hasn’t happened for hundreds of years, and if the amount of metal refined increases, it will be okay to sell it abroad. However, we first need to monopolize the profits domestically. That’s our priority. It will also be a means of earning foreign currency later on.」

Hey. Give me back my serious thoughts. Was it money after all?

Well, that was fine. I did not intend to pursue extra profits by going against the country.

Miyas-san and the others nodded in unison.

「I understand. By the way, how much will be the price?」

Ginta-san answered.

「For the time being, we sell it at a slightly lower price than charcoal. Then, we adjust the price after the name spreads to some extent. Finally, we fix it when the price stabilizes. Is there any problem?」

「About the spreading, do we have to change the price only after the price stabilizes?」

「Until then, we are going to spread the technology to people whom we have as acquaintances. These selected people will understand if we change the price later one, but it will be slow to grow in scale.」

「Well, that’s okay. I’m not in a hurry. 」

「Well then. Is there any problem to use a normal patent contract with 50% of the profit, and use the new patent when it stabilizes afterwards?」

Naiaki-san spoke while holding his mouth. It seemed that we finally reached to a conclusion. Two of the people agreed to it, but I still had something say before ending this meeting.

「It is fine. But while the production facilities are in development, I don’t mind putting my patent fee into capital investment. It doesn’t matter to me if I get my share of the profit a little later than normal.」

「Understood. We finalized this meeting. 」

The contract seemed to be settled.

After that, we read the contents written on the contract and we signed it by using a magic stone that Naiaki-san brought over. Was there something magical about the contract? Perhaps, it was also an artifact.

「Wait a moment please. 」

Ginta-san stopped me when I tried to leave the room.

「It’s about the capital investment. It is unlikely that coal mining will be ready in time for exploitation. Even if we increase the equipment to some extent.」

「Don’t you have many people working at the coalmines?」

「Well, yes. There are many people ready in case others needed some coal. However, after a small earthquake happened, people working in the coalmines began to collapse one after another. The symptoms seem to be the same as an overload of magical power, but there is no appearance of magical power increasing separately. I don’t know the cause, and it may not be important for now. Still, the question is whether they are willing to exploit a larger amount of coal in the future as opposed to what they did before.」

Too much magical power seemed to have an adverse effect. I wondered if it would not overflow if we reduced it beforehand.

Nevertheless, it would be a problem if the earthquake caused something worse.

「That’s a problem… Have you tried to reduce the magical power before entering the coalmines?」

「I asked an adventurer to try it. Well, it took longer for the symptoms to appear, but eventually they appeared. They say if you get closer to one of the tunnels, the more severe are the symptoms. It is prohibited to enter that area, but that area is a path leading to a zone where coal is most often obtained. Because of this unknown disease and the subsequent prohibition, the production volume dropped considerably.」

Prohibited, he said? I wondered if someone who could use a lot of magical power could go scouting the area.

Like, try it, or run away if does not work.

「I am going to try it. I have a lot of magical power, so if I reduce it a lot, I think I can go on for a long time.」

「I don’t mind, if indeed you are a wizard who is quite good and has a lot of magical power. However, you have to do some scouting before entering the coalmines. Do you have a plan?」

「Yes, I have a plan. 」

Well, I had a rough idea. But, it seemed that I would push through my magical power if this disease proved to be challenging. Even though I was also a wizard with a lot of magical power, it would be a different story if my MP reduced from three-digits to two digits.

It may be better to consume magical power depending on the situation instead of using it straightaway. I wanted to have some magical power left in case of a self-defense situation.

I will show these people the difference in magical power!

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The patent thing is a bit boring…But after these ongoing negotiations end, it will be more interesting 😉

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