Chapter 374: Trade agreement (02)

In all, that much wine came to twenty-eight million, five hundred thousand gold coins.

Ethan still had more bottles of wine stashed away in his deposits, but he held back.

During Ron’s last visit, the two had reviewed the supply agreement for Green Fairy Wine. From now on, the merchant was entitled to only half of everything Goldenveil produced and sold.

Of course, even that half represented an absurd fortune. Many merchants would kill for just five or ten percent of it, especially considering that Ron was also entitled to half of all of Goldenveil’s magical crop production.

"Besides the wine..." Ethan pulled two more items from his spatial ring.

One was a magical core. The other, a small, polished wooden box.

Raynar leaned forward, examining both objects closely.

A single glance was enough to tell that the magic core was of superior grade, with extremely high-quality energy pulsing steadily within it.

His hand moved almost on instinct, seizing the box and flipping the lid open with a soft click.

Inside lay magical crops: rice, wheat, and corn—just a few carefully selected samples.

Ethan smiled as he noticed the gleam of greed flicker across Raynar’s face.

Over the past few weeks, his mother’s mages had managed to extract about six hundred magic cores, three hundred of which were of superior quality.

Of those, Ethan intended to sell one hundred and fifty at twenty thousand gold coins each.

It wasn’t the most profitable item in his inventory, but it still brought in solid money.

In addition to the magic cores, he had also stocked Goldenveil’s magical farm to the brim. The 1,000 hectares of cultivated land, combined with the various production bonus cards he had used, had yielded fifty thousand metric tons of magical crops over the past three weeks.

An absurd amount. Enough to sustain Goldenveil for months, even accounting for population growth and the exports he planned to send to Fallenwinter and Greenleaf once both were conquered.

"One hundred and fifty superior magic cores at twenty thousand coins each, and the magic grains at two coins per kilogram. I can sell you thirty thousand metric tons right today."

Raynar’s breathing quickened. His eyes closed instinctively as his mind raced, crunching the numbers.

That amounted to just over ninety-one million gold coins.

The total profit from that voyage, by way of comparison, came to roughly three hundred million gold coins.

By the standards of the Kingdom of Solene and the Kingdom of Burning Ice, buying so many items at such a price was practically madness.

They might turn a profit at first, but the sheer volume flooding the market would send prices plummeting.

Of course, the situation in the central empires was quite different.

There were four great empires in total, all with populations that easily exceeded one billion inhabitants.

Each was home to hundreds of sixth-stage experts, thousands of fifth-stage experts, tens of thousands of fourth-stage experts, and countless third-stage experts.

Any average-sized noble family in that region possessed at least one sixth-stage ancestor and a handful of fifth-stage experts.

In other words, there was an unimaginable number of wealthy experts there—something simply incomparable to the kingdoms surrounding the Eternal Forest.

That was precisely why the central empires were so absurdly wealthy.

Rare items for which no one would pay more than a few tens of millions of gold coins in the Burning Ice Kingdom could fetch hundreds of millions—perhaps even billions—in any of the central empires.

The families there were so wealthy that, in practice, they didn’t even use gold for most of their business transactions. They preferred to pay for everything with credit cards, keeping their fortunes locked away in banks.

For families that wealthy, there was just one problem.

Magic cores, wines, and grains of that quality were simply things that no amount of money could easily buy.

Even the largest farms produced an extremely limited amount of magical grains, and at auctions, a kilogram of magical rice often reached utterly absurd prices.

"How much rice and wine can you supply us with per year?" Raynar asked, his voice now more controlled, though the gleam in his eyes betrayed the anxiety boiling inside him.

Ethan didn’t answer right away.

A discreet knock sounded at the door, and moments later a waitress stepped into the room, carrying the dishes they had ordered on a lacquered tray.

It was steel-skinned ox meat, a powerful creature whose flesh, once the metal plates covering its body were peeled away, proved incredibly tender on the palate.

Accompanying it was second-stage magic rice, along with a variety of side dishes artfully arranged on the plate.

The rich, savory aroma of seared meat and spiced grain curled through the room as she set the plates down.

As soon as the waitress left and the door clicked shut behind her, Ethan resumed the conversation.

"Currently... three hundred thousand metric tons per year, along with fifty thousand bottles of third-stage wine, two hundred thousand bottles of second-stage wine, and four hundred thousand bottles of first-stage wine."

Ethan hadn’t exaggerated the figures.

With his plans for the future, he would be perfectly capable of delivering that amount to Raynar every year, intended solely for sale in the central empires.

And even then, there would still be plenty left over for Ron to buy—enough to finance the merchant’s chamber of commerce’s expansion throughout the Kingdom of Burning Ice and the Kingdom of Solene.

The following month, he would open another Green Fairy Wine factory and double the size of the magical farms in Goldenveil.

Raynar’s grip tightened around his fork until the metal twisted in his hand.

That amounted to nearly a billion gold coins a year!

Even the royal family of the Kingdom of Burning Ice could only afford something like that by committing a portion of its annual budget.

Raynar lowered his eyes to his plate, cut a single piece of meat, and brought it to his mouth.

His eyes widened slightly, and a faint shiver ran through his body.

It was... absolutely delicious!

"What are your terms? For an economic agreement between Goldenveil and the Drakenoir Family?" Raynar drew a deep breath, forcing his racing heart back into a steady rhythm.

Ethan’s smile widened even further.

Was there any Golden Lord richer than him?

He highly doubted it.

By the time his products finally flooded the market and prices began to fall, he would already be producing on such a scale, and dominating such a large share of the trade, that it wouldn’t even matter anymore.