Chapter 188 - Fancy Barn

The Unit of 24 finally arrived at Silver Kingdom after two week's worth of hard effort. It isn't easy to travel for 200 Kilometers through the deep cold Snow! To their good luck, the Snow melted while they were in a week's worth of time deep in Travel. March started roughly 5 days ago as well and it worked just to their advantage! The Weather has been shifting for the better ever since which helped cutting down the travelling time, it would take a few more days for them to arrive if the Snow didn't melt.

Now since they literally are in enemy territory, setting up Camp has become the main issue the entire Unit is worrying about. If Kingdom officials won't prove threatening, low lives seaking for Gold might prove as a big problem. Disrespectfully, thieves! For a thief, risking to go and steal from a Unit of which includes 24 people, is more than a risky task. It's just playing stupid! 

One can't be qualified with the job, you see where this is getting right? Since one can't tackle this task, they could be raided by overwhelming Numbers of Thieves or worse yet, Bandits. They could be stormed by Bandits who come from the Woods a few kilometers away too. In enemy territory they can't be sure, none of these people (In this Unit.) are aware of what Silver Kingdom can offer (Be it good or bad.).

Now there is a tricky question, where should the Unit set camp? They are a Kilometer away from the Kingdom, they can set up Camp here and risk being raided by any individual or team who discovers their location. It's not hard to see a camp or at least a speck of light in a big flat land. They even are just a few hundred Meters away from the stretching Farmlands. It is Mars now, these Lands will soon be planted in order to harvest the yield at September or early October. A rather unique wheat planting season here in the Clear Lands!

Another option would be risking renting 3-5 Rooms in a Tavern. They can qualify as a Unit coming from Gravel Kingdom like they were taught. King Michael even gave them extra Gold Coins for such reasons, food was covered from the Kingdom since the beginning though, worth reminding that there are Wagons filled with them. But if they do actually run out of food, they have extra Gold to buy some. 

King Michael gave them 5,000 Gold Coins, 4,000 of which are for purchasing Wheat Grain. The Unit is carrying a lot of Gold with them, they could quite possibly get robbed if they rent a few Tavern rooms. Because, where Thieves find out that there are Government officials, they figure out that there is Gold too! They would have to put down two thieves a day(At least.) if the word spread out that the Unit has enough Gold to supply Gravel Kingdom with Grain. 

The Unit's main Goal here is to stay at Silver Kingdom for as little as possible, buy that Grain and move to Green Kingdom immediately! They can't risk staying too long in one Domain! Camping near the Kingdom Walls isn't a good idea either since the Kingdom is surrounded by farm fields on each side and Corner. The Fields are empty now, but the Kingdom wouldn't want them trembled because it would take more time to prepare the Fields after.

Everyone gave Camping a little thought, most agreed that they should camp here on the open and just buff up security for the night. 8 Guards will stay awake, including the newly nicknamed "Guardian Angel"! We are talking about Isabel of course, this unique lady can't be confused with anyone else. With her standing Guard, the entire Unit can sleep like a newborn baby without a single bit of paranoia stuck on their brain.

Thankfully, they passed the night without any noticed problem. It was just the bit of motivation they needed to progress further with this overall task. Suffering no losses became a good motivation, just to clear it out! Now, they are all ready to make their way towards the Kingdom and fill a couple of Wagons at least, with Wheat Grain. This too can be tricky though!

"Where do you think we should look for Wheat Grain first?" Asked one of the Unit Guards in curiosity, they aren't used to such business so this can be a great learning opportunity if any of them aims to be a Merchant someday soon. It doesn't seem to be the case though, everyone is on their toes expecting an attack. Isabel is quite anxious too, she is hiding in one of the Wagons now which doesn't help relieve her own stress.

"Well, if the rules here are anywhere similar to the ones in Crutal Kingdom, the Outer Farm lands are our best choice." Commander Alia did the bargaining when they were there, she succeeded tremendously and left the Farmers with eternal traumas and their pride quite hurt too. That is, if those "Businessmen" are still alive after the considered damages. Hearing her story, King Michael found the best for her to do the Bargaining here too. Because she seems to find a way towards progress one way or the other.

"Well this Domain is under the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance's influence so maybe the rules here are mostly similar." Expressed Mogranius. As fun it was to permanently Scar or kill ill.u.s.tratios who have ill intentions, here they need to put racism or killing in general aside as much as they can since there are ill.u.s.tratian Guards in the Unit as well. Now, they should express anything bad towards the Alliance instead of primarily blaming the ill.u.s.trarian/ill.u.s.tratio(Both terms acceptable.) Race. "Or at least, I hope the rules are similar."

"Let's ask that man over there, the one standing in front of that little Barn." Suggested Eric after he hesitated to speak for a while, since the rest of the Unit didn't bother to talk about it even after they saw him, he did in hopes of not letting this opportunity slip. It was interesting to see a Barn here though, they didn't exactly see any back in Crutal Kingdom which is rather odd because the Farmers there were mostly rich. In Crutal Kingdom, there weren't any Barns but Storage Buildings instead. They were blank, cubic formed and only had one color, brown! Here although the Color the same, the Barn seems a bit more different, more personalized and expensive.

The man near the Barn seemed to have heard Eric say that, even though he didn't intend to be loud. This Barn is quite away from the Kingdom, the Unit just entered the Farm fields actually. Interestingly, the man called for them, offering business as a first way of introduction. "My Farm is open for Business, are any of you Gentlemen looking for a Job?" "Gentlemen", well that's no way to approach a Farmer whose status is generally frowned upon, but he was using speechcraft to try and win them over I suppose. 

Qualified as the bargainer, Commander Alia walked away from the Unit behind her and spoke. "No, none of us are looking for a Job but we are looking to buy Wheat Grain, a lot of it!" Cutting right to the case, a good way to save time no doubt.

The ill.u.s.tratian man wasn't too happy about doing business with a Woman, that fact was all over his face. Thankfully he wasn't attracted to her features which made her feel a bit more comfortable, but seemed to be s.e.xist instead. Or he could be fearing the Unit behind her, we can't be sure. This can either work for the worse or for the better.

If he was attracted to her, she would use that against him and get ridiculously cheap prices. But he isn't, so she needs to use his dislike towards the opposite gender to the Unit's advantage. That can be a lot tougher to do though, but she has to try in order to find out.

"How much Wheat Grain do you need?" Luckily, the Farmer cut right to the Case. No asking questions, no hesitation, nothing. Which gave a hint that he might be desperate to sell his stock. It could mean that he either bought it from thieves, stole it or is very short on Gold Coins. At this rate, she can get equal offers if not cheap ones.

"How much do you got?" A simple question, but so useful for striking a deal here with this man from the looks of it. With this question she showed that she has Gold to give, but also other options she can choose from if she went deep enough. It was made clear that the Unit wasn't nearly depended on this one Wheat Grain provider. Now all we can do is cross our fingers and hope that this Farmer will continue to Cooperate.