Year 2, Spring, Third Month, First Week.

“I think that’s Caiset…” Keller looked expectantly at the distant village.

From distance, it looked like a normal small size village. But how could it not? If they had any visible peculiarities, wouldn’t they attract the Kingdom’s attention?

The common structure for a Kingdom’s village was quite simple. In the center, a large square, used for announcements and the annual inspection. The square would be circled by small huts, usually, 20 square meters sized and constructed by a combination of rough wood, bamboo and straw.

The common resource villages didn’t have a proper entrance. In fact, if it wasn’t for the connection with the Path, it would be difficult to identify an entrance at all. The village fields would be located next to a bamboo grove and a quarry.

Thankfully, the Kingdom had the minimum sense of constructing the village next to a quarry and plant some bamboos at its border. Without this kind of resources and the limitation of not going out, the villagers could hardly survive.

Keller observed the worn-out huts attentively but failed to identify anything unusual. His Merchant’s instincts kicked in and he started to calculate the village’s trading potential.

Looking at the distance from the village barrier and the huts, he estimated the existence of 400 or so huts, which was pretty normal for a resource village. This number would normally mean the presence of little to no trading potential, but this village was anything but normal.

When Keller saw Sania's enhanced weapon and confirmed the possibility of replicating the effect, his business instincts went crazy. He understood the huge opportunity brought by the so-called Alchemy.

From a simple perspective, if he had access to the enhancements his distribution lines would improve dramatically. The caravan's escorts’ armor and weapons could be improved, reducing his costs with security and losses with theft.

But the golden touch was given by the enhancement that decreased weight. If it could work on his carts and carriages, his delivery time would be greatly reduced, he could only speculate how much profit it meant.

Soon, a group of villagers started to gather at the village entrance.

“Chief, are they the Kingdom’s Guards?”

The villager didn’t try to hide the apprehension in his voice. Since they built the new magic fields, the villagers' worst fear was the Kingdom discovering it.

Even though the fields were located at the opposite side from the entrance and they could easily be mistaken for the common fields by a distant observer, they would definitely be found in an inspection, which was keeping the villagers on edge.

Every time the villagers had some spare time, they would walk around the entrance to check for possible visitors, which resulted in them seeing Keller’s caravan from a long distance. In less than ten minutes, many villagers had come to check. Fortunately, they were sensible enough to gather all adults in the fields to avoid suspicion.

“No… Be calm, everyone. It’s not the Kingdom… They are friends…”

........

“Boss… They sent… Ah… Armed people… Are they trying to attack us? Is this a rebellion against the Kingdom?... Boss, are you sure we should be here?”

“Humph, why are you freaking out? Gather your bearings! You look like an amateur, haven’t we met an armed reception before?”

‘Hahaha… Omero your old fox… So, you decided to make a demonstration of strength… But, are you sure these villagers are a threat to me?... So you don’t believe my good intentions… I can’t blame you, it’s not like it didn’t cross my mind to take the magic crafter by force… Let me see what you got.’

Since the time for the agreed exchange was getting close, the Council decided to keep three teams prepared at all times and reduce the huntings to one expedition a week.

To increase the effectiveness of their demonstration, Omero instructed Diana and Katlyn to train the teams for a very flashy reception. They had to show their stance from the beginning, the village was engaging in business and not begging for any favors.

Although the three elders trusted Keller, they had to be prepared for the worse.

Diana was leading the teams’ reception, after she gave the go signal, they started to move towards the caravan. The 60 team members marched forward keeping a synchronized pace. If it wasn’t for their crude and poor appearance they could even be mistaken for well-trained soldiers.

They started moving positioned in three visible layers, forming a triangle with Diana at the front. The outer layer was formed by defenders, followed by a line of attackers and by the archers protected in the middle.

Once they were midway to the caravan, the formation started to change, the sides spread orderly forming a semi-circle.The display of synchrony surprised the visitors and even ripped a smile from Keller.

The sides moved until they each had a distance of four meters from a central group, formed by Diana, Toni and Sania, forming a corridor. The team stopped, their final formation left enough space for the caravan to pass but closed enough to keep them in check.

The sides were formed by a front layer of defenders, spread in a distance that would allow the second layer of attackers to move forward between them to attack but close enough to allow them to close the gaps when need. The last layer continued to be archers, equipped with almost all of the village's arrows.

Diana and the central team waited patiently. This formation was a clear statement that they welcomed the traders, but wouldn’t hesitate to attack if they had unfriendly intentions.

After the demonstration of training and organization, the visitors could only place the villagers a level higher in their regard. Keller’s entourage still thought that they would come on top if the two sides engaged in a fight, but they realized that they would have to pay a heavy price for it.

Keller wouldn’t back down now, he was pleased about the demonstration, it showed the villagers’ stance and put some of his worries to rest. If they didn’t have a strong mindset they wouldn’t have a chance against the Kingdom. He still thought they would fail, but now he could hope that they would stand long enough for him to reap some benefits.

The caravan stopped but Keller moved forward to greet the central group, this showed his clear intent of friendly engagement. Once he was an arm's length from Diana, he looked at Sania and exchanged an affirmative nod.

“Welcome to Caiset... I’m Diana, Chief Omero send me to welcome and escort you into the village.”

“Oh… young Diana, I remembered you… You probably don’t, because you were a baby at the time… I’m happy to see that you grow up to be such a fine woman, your grandfather should be proud… Thank you for welcoming us.”

Diana politely smiled and Keller signaled for the caravan to move before following her to the village. They had chosen a professional approach, but Keller was adamant about establishing a more friendly relation.

On the inside, he was already cursing Omero because he would have to pay a premium price to change their relationship.

A professional relation was usually the best choice for a business deal, but to establish an exclusivity deal, as Keller wanted, he either needed to conduct the deals from a higher position or a very friendly one.

Because of their unique abilities and the clear show of organization, it would be difficult for him to establish superiority in the deal. Although he could try to fake less interest in their craft, Omero would see through him, so his only option was to pay more to earn their friendship and gratitude. He could only grit his teeth and accept the loss.

........

“Omero, I’m really surprised by your accomplishments… When you decided to come here I thought you were crazy…”

Feeling Omero’s reproving gaze, Keller understood that he shouldn’t talk about this. He gave a forced and laughed embarrassed, but before he could resume talking, the Chief said:

“You should be tired from your journey, you can take your men to rest at the central pavilion… I’ll ask someone to serve you food and water. Let me know when you’re ready to discuss the deal so I can assemble the Council.”

Keller understood the cue and followed Diana to the central square. Omero’s hint told him about the village’s power structure, they should be following the Democracy’s structure or something similar. Their power wasn’t centralized but distributed among Council members.

Keller’s headache worsened, the price for his ambitions kept increasing by the hours...