Herald of Steel

"Doc, today you pronounced me incompetent, and now I'm corrupt too!" Camius had a playful, wry smile, finding his cover both funny and a bit demeaning.

"Heh, what's the matter? Afraid no girl will ever want to marry you!" Cambyses could not help but join in, sending a mirthful taunt at Camius.

Alexander too said his part, "Haha, yes, yes. As a lord, you must get a few little devils as soon as possible. I look eagerly forward to it."

Alexander's playful teasing did not deter Camius, as not to be outdone, Camius also countered, "Well said, doc. I was thinking about Mean. What do you say?"

Camius said this knowing the duo's relationship; thus, this was an attempt to poke at Alexander and Cambyses.

"Hahaha," This was Cambyses, who found the mere mention of it belly-hurtlingly funny, and began to laugh so hard at his ridiculous proposal that she almost fell off the couch.

"Hehe, I would love to. But I don't want to arrest Mean for murder," Alexander too knew this was simply Camius's harmless banter and so answered with a light-hearted joke of his own.

Mean hated Camius's guts and Alexander dreaded how that short spicy pepper would react if he seriously said this.

"Haha, Mean will likely kill you after she's killed Camius," Finally getting her breath back, Cambyses said this to Alexander.

"Or master and Lord Camius can share Mean. Like in a devil's triangle," Ophenia also gave in to the temptation of joining the fun and made a lewd innuendo.

And this got another round of boisterous laughter from Cambyses while the two men grimaced at the mere mention of it.

It took a while for the crowd to settle down after which Alexander urged, "Anyway, let's get to the topic."

"The reason why I'm giving you this wine recipe is because it will have multiple benefits for you,"

Raising his index finger, he began, "First, and in my opinion, the most important benefit is that this business will let you get into contact with a type of group we have little ability to spy on right now- the merchants."

"Sure, we can glimpse at other nobles using Pasha Farzah's network of maids, butlers, and stable boys," Alexander admitted, "But this only gives us the look at nobles, not on their territory and more importantly it's people."

"And that's what I want, a more complete picture of the entire situation. And for that, we need to link our spy network with the kingdom's trade network." Alexander claimed.

'There he goes again. It's not even the first point and he's wanting ridiculous things,' Camius lampooned at Alexander's tall demand, knowing his ambitious master was just getting started.

Alexander's orders for Camius to tap into the kingdom's trade hub as a means to spy on others was one of his greatest motives for making Camius a businessman and he emphasized this greatly.

Because Alexander knew that merchants were the best way to gather information at any period of history.

These people, with their horses and carts and trade caravans, could cover vast distances swiftly, inconspicuously, and easily without much barriers to entry to towns and cities, drawing more attention to the goods they sell rather than to actual themselves.

And in this way, through the process of making this journey, they could build strong and natural interpersonal relationships with a vast number of people from all walks of life, getting others to easily spill secrets that would be monumentally hard to accurately get using force,

A merchant by the nature of his job would have to deal with a myriad of people along his journey, from the lower strata from whom he would usually buy his product, to the a bit more affluent members like artisans and guards, to even the nobles themselves if his product was desirable enough, thus letting him touch every social class in the society.

And every people that a merchant interacted with, was a potential source of information.

Alexander thus finished by ordering Camius, "The vast untapped mine of information that the merchants possess, we must get that capability. We must tap into that vast network. And so you are to use this wine as a springboard to help Zanzan achieve that."

"You are the boss doc," Camius replied in a placid, nonchalant voice. having by now grown numb to Alexander's exorbitant demands.

In this time and age, becoming a merchant was easier than it sounded.

Because there were no real maps, and roads were few and far between, mostly between very large cities, one would basically have to find a trade route by himself.

This trade route would have to contain people that want one's product, is relatively easy to access with one's horse and cart, preferably has no competition, has adequate lodging and replenishment facilities, and ideally also sells a unique product one can buy to sell somewhere further along the way.

And they would have to do this all using the shortest route possible, as the length of the route, would drastically affect the price of the product.

Thus ticking all these criteria was never an easy task and so those handfuls that were lucky enough to figure one such out would naturally zealously guard them,

'Where am I gonna find a trusty, loyal merchant willing to share his trade route with me,' Camius felt a headache coming.

Listening to Alexander's demands, it was clear he did not want him to just set up shop and sell wine there but export it through a train of ships and caravans.

But that was a problem for Camius to solve, not Alexander.

"If he is going to be a businessman, is there a need for him to be a policeman? Will he even have the time?" Cambyses asked slightly worried.

"The entire business will be done by Camius's men, and led, on the surface, by the shopkeeper he chooses. That man will be the public face of the company while Camius will always be in the shadows." Alexander announced.

Further saying, "Remember, Camius is a lord now. So, he will only need to be the patron of the business and nobody will ask questions."

"Hmm, yes. That does make sense," Cambyses was convinced as this was the norm.

Nobles typically saw themselves beneath their status to engage in trade, especially peddling wares, by themselves, and usually sponsored various merchants to do it for them.

And merchants were happy to give a portion of their earnings to such people because being able to call oneself under patronage, and thus protection of a noble was like wearing a bulletproof social vest.

Their entry into any friendly and neutral city would be minimal or even free, city guards would give them a wide berth, and bandits seeing a caravan with the house emblem of a noble house would think thrice before attacking it, as opposed to a lone, statusless merchant.

"The wine shop will not just help you gather more information." Alexander began again, and raising his long finger, he listed, "Secondly, it will also help you legitimize your recruiting process. You could take people in the name of hiring workers for making wine but train them as covert operatives."You could also make them start as workers and if they are loyal and skilled enough, invite them to become spies, and no one will be none the wiser."

His ring finger rose at this point, "Thirdly, your wine business will make many places previously not accessible open. Entering and leaving cities, and even other countries will be made much easier if you have an iconic product to sell. Not to mention that if you have a branch shop in another city, spies and collaborators might be able to seek refuge at these places."

Pausing to see if Camius was still paying attention, Alexander then said, pointing the pinky up, "Fourth, the money from the business can help fund the organization. The profits will be split forty percent to me, twenty percent to you, and forty percent for the men to cover all their expenses."

"Twenty percent for me is too much. And you not taking fifty percent is too little," Camius wanted to change the terms to make it more profitable for Alexander.

But Alexander simply said, "Forty percent is enough for me, And if you want less money, then you can use the remaining money to expand your spy network even further."

Camius only lightly smiled.

Alexander then finished by raising his thumb and saying his last point, "Also, once you have made enough contributions, I can use the excuse of you introducing me to such a good wine to promote you, to Talukder (Viscount). So work hard!"

This bait worked wonders as Camius gave a wide grin and nodded, pleased at the promise of his promotion.

"I will try my best," Camius promised.

Though the amount of work Alexander had sneakily dumped on him was not lost on the man.

Hence the clever mercenary internally lampooned, 'It's my first job and he's already set up grand goals for me to achieve. What luck to work under him,'

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