Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Volume 3 - Chapter 15 - Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

Previously on EC…

Till became the target for some bastards, got rescued by some weird people, when in fact she was never in any danger due to her mom’s company’s security team covering her when she activated her ‘oh shit’ button. Bell reeling in some big fishes after feeding them chum and dangling bait in front of them, tempting them to invest into her little resort plan for Second Phantasia.


Flight. A never-dying dream of humankind, an obsession that has been pursued since even before the Age of Chaos. The idea of flight exists everywhere, and has been the dream of every scientist since the varied civilizations crawled their way back up since the Age of Recovery. Due to the extreme lack of resources -and unable to utilize it in a world filled with Auroras-, no governments nor groups actively pursue the study of flight itself. But… this doesn’t stop those with capable minds and aspirations from dreaming of it, especially those that can only watch birds fly jealously. Sadly, the closest they can ever get to it, is in the form of a kite.

Entertainment and media had always used the concept of flight since time immemorial, even all the latest games that were released within the last decade have flight in them. There’s one difference though… You can’t feel it. Everyone in the conference room are scientists or have at least some knowledge of science, otherwise they wouldn’t even be able to get a job working in this frozen wasteland. All of them know that Second Phantasia has unparalleled realism even if they haven’t tried it yet.

“Are… are you serious?!” The beanpole-esque man walks over to Isabel, grabbing her by the shoulders.

“Yes! I am! Umm… you mind letting go first? That’s actually starting to hurt a little.” The still grinning woman looks at the man in the eyes, before shifting her gaze to one of his hands.

“Ah!” He quickly lets go of her shoulder, jumping back a little like he just got shocked. “I’m, I’m sorry!” The man mumbles different apologies as he gets quieter. The rest of the group are looking at each other, silently digesting what has been said.

Isabel maintains her smile, before it deepens further, revealing a slight dimple. “Hahaha, it’s okay! It’s okay! Really!” She reassures the man and fixes her posture before continuing. “You should have seen the first time I got in the sky. I was really, really excited, but we were on a mission, so I couldn’t say anything. When I was finally let go and dropped, I… I… You will just have to try it.” Her face turns a bit pink in embarrassment, remembering the various stunts she pulled, flipping around, spinning like a top, her embarrassment deepens when she recalls that a young girl, that is just old enough to be her daughter had she married early, was watching and supervising her casually the entire time.

“How does $800,000 sound?” The usually playful George suddenly asks, his frivolous appearance completely disappeared. Isabel’s face changes into one of contemplation as the other five people in the room give yet another look of shock before quickly recovering. Silently discussing it in a pair and threesome.

Despite the calm appearance on Isabel’s face, her heart is pounding. Her little project was meant to just expand the Academy while providing a steady source of income, it doesn’t hurt that it would become an additional playground for her, this is completely unexpected! But, $800,000! She knows George, he might seem like a playboy, but that is just how he is, otherwise she’d have kicked his ass already and sent him packing. His passions are the Sciences and the Exotic! She is willing to bet her entire fortune that the resort itself isn’t what’s drawing him in.

“If it isn’t enough, how does a million sound? But I want free access to all the facilities and dibs on any future projects as well.” Before Isabel gives her reply, George ups his number, a clear, shining, almost fervent, look burns within his eyes.

“Alright, but I will have to redo my plans to make them either scalable or have multiple phases depending on how much everyone is investing.” The fiery hair that droops over her ear gets tossed back as she answers with conviction. On the inside, her stomach is doing backflips.
[T/N: The expression used was “A carp is struggling to cut the fishing line.”, which I switch to the similar meaning english line of “Her stomach is doing backflips.]

“Umm… I will have to talk with the entire department about this… But umm… will you accept $100,000 from my personal investment?” The petite woman asks.

“Clarisse…” The beanpole man fixes his glasses, giving her a sad puppy look.

“Fi-fine, make that $150,000.” The woman flusters before turning to the man. “Don’t give me that look Howard, you know we’ve invested most of our funds earlier in the year, this is all the liquid asset we can pull out.”

The man sheepishly nods. Isabel can only look on, wondering who is really the top in that relationship.

[T/N: I would have went with “who’s wearing the trouser in that relationship”. But you know how the nips like their tops and bottoms, right Tensai? Right?!

“I think I’ll throw in $300,000.” One of the men chirps in.

“I guess I’ll do the same… but eh… can we get a trial first?” The third remaining woman finally adds her voice into the discussion.

“What do you mean? We haven’t even bui.. Oh! Right, right, that’s no problem.” With her mind still reeling from the unexpectedly large numbers, it took a moment for her brain to catch up. “Just eh… send me a list of times of when you are free, and I will try to schedule it, but you will have to reach the Sardon-Feia region first.”

All six of the men and women immediately take out their handheld computers and start tapping away.

*Ding*
*Ding* *Ding*
*Ding*
*Ding*
*Ding*

Isabel’s own handheld computer starts ringing notifications in succession, making her sigh in her heart.


* * * * *


“Kun! Kun!” A scar-covered man runs inside the small snow covered building, calling out urgently.

“Eh? I’m here, Uncle Hank.” A figure leans backwards from behind one of the wooden pillars, with feed in his hands. “What’s the matter?”

*kokko kokko*

The chickens, hearing the loud voice, retreat to the other side of the coop. With the expansion of the facilities and the employment of multiple advisers, hunting and foraging can no longer sustain the current population at this site. As such, simple farming facilities were added during the expansion. The idea is to get the facilities going before hiring more abled bodied “Untouchables” afterwards, but it has been more time consuming than what Kun initially thought.

“Kun! I need a favour!”

“What… what’s going on? I’ve never seen you like this before.”

Hank looks a little frazzled, “We need you to log in, I… Um… there has been a situation, and I think you are probably the only one that can fix it.”

“Alright… let me lock up and go take a look.”

“No, you go on ahead, I’ll lock up, just… go!”

“Okay, okay.” The young man walks out of the building into the winter landscape, heading for the main buildings to log in from one of the console rooms, kind of confused at this strange situation.


* * * * *


“““Kyyaaaaah!””” A group of slightly wet female demihumans scream with shrill voices before skipping away, trying to get away from a middle-aged, brown haired man in nothing but a speedo, exposing his body, it isn’t toned, but obvious hints of muscle can be seen. Two trickles of water would occasionally squirt out from his index fingers, aiming at the demihuman ladies.

“Come back here my pretties! Pammy isn’t done giving you girls a wash!” The man’s playful teasing drifts pleasantly in the wind, as though it belongs there.

“““You’d have to catch us first~!”””

“Then don’t mind if I do! Gahahahaha!” The man laughs as he suddenly sprints to behind one of the demihumans and sprays her legs with a stream of water from his right index finger.

“Kyaaaaa!”

Kun stands on the side, staring at the spectacle with a dumbfounded expression, a small mound of unconscious demihuman men resting behind him. Further behind the mound is a group of demihuman men looking at the figure chasing the ladies with admiration in their eyes.

“Who… who is this man?” The young man asks one of the instructors that has been here since the beginning.

“He… He is… Or rather, he was, known as the Rampart General, General Pamuk of the former 3rd Infantry Army.”

“Hmm…” Kun tilts his head to the side, vaguely remembering the name, but can’t quite recall it. “What is he doing here?”

“He’s the biggest hire Hank had, didn’t he tell you?”

“Oh… right…” The impression he got at the time was that the former General being hired was extremely strict, unlike this man running around almost naked. “I umm… I guess I’m supposed to put a stop to this?”

“Y-yes, please do so. The others tried and ended up not unlike that mountain of bodies behind you.”

“Got it.”

*PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII*

Off in the distance, a gray mass gets up from a figure it was resting on, bolting towards the scene. A small mountain of white slowly rises up after the gray blur leaves the shade of the tree.

“What’s the matter, Brother?!” The loud whistle with his fingers also caught the attention of everyone else, including the man that’s chasing the women.

“We need to subdue that man over there.”

The gray fox turns his head from the young man, toward the man that’s being stared at. “Okay!”

“Let me borrow that for a bit!” Kun runs off after grabbing a wooden practice sword from a nearby instructor’s hand while retrieving the rod that’s on his back. Next to him is the gray fox, keeping pace at a fixed distance away.

“Hoho, another hot-blooded challenger!” The man stops his chase, starts to shift his shoulders and stretch his neck. “Wait right here ladies, I will be right back!”

“Make it quick~”
“Who’d want you to be back?!”
“Go teach the new guy a le- wait, isn’t that Kun-sensei?”

The ladies throw back some remarks, which are completely ignored by the man as he readies himself.

“Hya!”

*Hyuuu*

“Naive!” The man casually sidesteps the overhead strike from Kun’s wooden sword in his right hand, causing Kun to run past him.

“«Back Slide»!” The young man’s sword strikes the ground as he leans forward deeply before gliding back all of a sudden, doing a backhanded sweep with his rod.

*fyuu* *KA*

“Ow! Not bad kid, but I haven’t-” The man is hit in the ankle unexpectedly by the strike that defies the laws of physics. Before he can finish his sentence, the wooden sword *shu* from a low trajectory, aiming for his neck, causing him to bend backward. In the same motion, he swings out his left leg in a retreating roundhouse, aiming for the young man’s head.

*gobu*

“AHHH!” A sharp pain appears out of the blue, a vice-like grip made from needles clamps down on his right ankle. The suddenness of the pain causes him to lose balance, losing his form.

*tsu*

The rod in Kun’s left hand thrusts forward, aiming for the pelvis.

*koku* *KA*

The man swiftly drives his left heel back, landing sharply into a bundle of fur before doing a small crescent kick while he spins like an axle, locking the rod in place with his left leg. The man’s rotation doesn’t stop as his bleeding right leg whips out.

“«Stardust Impulse»!”

[T/N: This cringeworthy name is brought to you by Ishman, IMPULSE IS GOOD OKAY. The original is “星灰 飛び出す”, so we are open for suggestions.]

*KAKU*

The rod that’s locked in the man’s left leg flies forward suddenly, striking him square in the jaw, knocking him out.

“Aww… He’s knocked out.”
“Oh well, we had our fun, let’s get back to work.”
“Sorry for the mess, Kun-sensei!”

The ladies leave the scene lightheartedly as they get back to work, the still conscious demihuman men turn their gazes of admiration from the unconscious man to the young man who defeated him.

“Gui, ask for some rope, I’m going to have to string this guy up.”


* * * * *


*bashan*

A bucket of cold water is splashed onto a man hanging from a beam used for training, wrapped up like a cocoon, hanging by a rope. The demihuman who splashed the bucket moves to the side, making space for the young man and the fox that’s staring at the hanging figure passively. Various instructors are standing behind him in a line. Further back are the students that are already at the Academy as well as the demihumans that came to watch the commotion.

“PU! PU! You didn’t need to do that you know! I was awake the whole time, just the damn game wasn’t responding to my control!”

“Oh, I know.”

“And you still did it?! Do you know who I am?!”

“Yeeeeeep.”

“You damn idiots! Untie me at once and discipline this young upstart at once!” The man screams at the men and women behind the young man vigorously, causing his cocoon to swing side to side.

The instructors look to one another uneasily, yet unwilling to move from their respective positions.

“Brother… is this man stupid?”

“Yeeeeeeeeeeep.”

“Who are you calling stupid you damn pervert! Stop playing as a beast and fight me man to man!” The cocoon scrunches up and down as the man taunts the fox.

“Cane.” The young man speaks that one word indifferently as one of the instructors step forward with a tapered wooden stick, presenting it with both hands respectfully.

“PNF Military Adherence Act - ” Kun continues without changing his tune.

“What?! Release me at once before I court martial you!”

“Clause 179c, Section 9a. Punishment for disorderly conduct and subordination is…?” The young man asks the group behind him, completely ignoring the man.

“““First demeanor is 25 lashes, Sir!”””

“Wait, wait, you can’t do that, I outrank you! Clause 213, punishment can only be carried out by a committee of equal ranking or higher! I outrank you!”

“Clause 114, Section 3b.” The young man continues, causing the instructors to go “eh…” “umm…” as none of them can recall that part. “All training contracts must be honoured, all visiting authorities must submit to the Chain of Command of the on-site administration unless stated otherwise on the contract.”

“… Y-you don’t mean…” The loud, agitated man stops struggling as his cocoon swings silently while the implication gnaws at him, his face turning pale.

“Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Kun Lee Mathis-Sawara, the owner and XO of this training facility.” The young man swings the cane up with a sharp *shi* “I believe we are about to get well acquainted.”

“Eh… ummm… I… I’m sorry?” *SHI* “YYOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!”

Everyone witnessing the sight winces as the cane rips through the air, then the cloth bag that’s holding the man, revealing the red welt on the naked flesh.

“By the way, please dress appropriately the next time.”

*SHI*

“YYYYYYEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!”

The screams continue for a while, as everyone looks on.


* * * * *


“Um… Hank… remind me never to piss off Kun.” One of the instructors whispers to the bulky dwarf that had logged in at some point, who has been stifling his laughter the entire time. He honestly never expected the young man to deal with the old sarge that effectively.

“Yeah, just don’t do anything stupid, he looks soft, but he’s really a cunning honeybadger.” Hank hides behind the crowd as he tries to suppress the laughter once more, nearby, he spots people that had also served under Pamuk struggling to do the same thing as they also watched the punishment from beginning to the end.

A sudden brightness arrives from the back, causing heads to turn.

“What seems to be happening here?” A girl dressed in pure white approaches, light surrounding her body, while asking someone nearby.

The demihuman dog-eared male can only stammer a bit before tripping over himself.

“Ah, someone was causing trouble and Kun-sensei was carrying out some Immortal law thing and dealt the punishment.” An older demihuman woman with multiple long, elegant whiskers chirps in.

“Ah, I see.” The princess curtsies in thanks.

*BIIIUUUUUUUUUU*
*BIUUU BIUUU*

The sound of a horn blaring resounds throughout the Academy, this particular series of sounds signifies the arrival of a large contingent. A set of signals were introduced on top of the regular military alarm procedure, the idea was thought up by the students from the Tactics and Logistic classes after the unexpected visit by the Feian upper echelon the last time. Immediately, all the demihumans rush to their stations, with messengers flying out towards the grounds entrance in droves.

“Hm… What’s going on?” Kun asks as he stops lightly tapping the cane onto his other hand.

“That’s the signal for visitors, I think?” One of the instructors who has been observing the various classes ventures a guess.

“Oh… damn, I guess I will have to deal with them since I’m the only one here. Alright, some of you can deal with this guy, the rest can go back to… Wait… why are all of you in here anyways?” Kun looks at the various instructors behind him, numbering in the dozens.

“Oh, I’m just here to… eh… familiarize myself.”
“I’ve been looking at those other classes, especially the cooking classes. What’s up with those aromatic chickens with those big wings?”
“Eh… We’ve been pla- training with the ones shooting and defending against the arrows.” The other instructors nod their heads like chickens pecking rice.

Kun just chuckles and shakes his head at the mass of excuses. “Alright, keep it up then.”

“What is so funny, Brother?”

“It’s nothing, come on, let’s go.”


* * * * *


“De’muel-ni is back! De’muel-ni is back!” One of the students bursts into a classroom in the main Academy building, before running down to the next room and repeating himself.

Outside the building, at the main road to the entrance of the Academy, a caravan of wagons slowly trods its way forward, laden by their loads. Six fox-eared demihuman escorts can be seen leading the first wagon, waving their hands at the posted sentry.

“““Welcome back, Captain!”””

“Thank you, keep up the good work.”

“Eh, this be yi’home, boy? The Academy ye keep boasting about?” A woman sitting on the wagon asks the youth with the bull-horns.

“Yes, Boss.” A proud smile appears on the youth’s face, similarly, the other youths nearby show the same expression.

The group has left the Academy for a little over two months on their trade excursion now. They had initially failed to secure any trade agreements - and even had the city guards harassing them. The Apothecary Guild had tried to drive them out of Ashentor by pressuring the various shops in the Merchant’s Quarter to not conduct business with the group, or face the consequences. Helped by an incident with some children and Sammy, the group had the idea to trade with the locals instead of the merchants. This is helped by the children, who shared their eggs with their families, the neighbourhood ladies -whom Mikhal purchased a variety of things for-, the city guards -whom gave them trouble no thanks to a certain Dumb Ass-, the appearance of the various goods during court sessions with the King, and last but not least, the marketplace peddlers whom appreciated the group’s strategy.

To be exact, they got the attention of Clair; known as ‘Boss’ by those who respects her. With her endorsement, the marketplace started to trade with the demihumans for their products. It was merely fascination of the demihumans on her part that gave them a chance, but it was the meticulous attention to pricing and marketing strategy that had ultimately won her over. The group suffered some losses early on due to some bad deals, as she only oversaw their actions, but never give them advice until after the fact. She called it a “Merchant’s Tuition fee”. Even with the losses, the group was making a steady income.

The empty field they occupied eventually turned into a bustling marketplace featuring special of the day eateries as the peddlers and cooks move their shop closer to their little tradepost, this is due to a policy Mak’ra thought of as the frequency of trade and the demand for their goods continued to rise. ‘Purchases will be first come first serve with a maximum cap, exceptions will be made for personal purchases and no sales are to be conducted to any shop in the Merchant’s Quarter’. What this meant is that, small families will be able to make purchases in reserve, while the peddlers will have to purchase the goods when they’re available. There was some pushback by the peddlers at first, but the policy’s effect became obvious when the Merchant Guild tried to muscle in and buy out all the stocks. The demihumans’ obstinate refusal, repeatedly reciting the policy, was like a splash of cold water, waking the angry peddlers up. There won’t be a monopoly by the rich Merchant Guild, supplies will be stable and the price can never be artificially inflated by someone manipulating the supply line; this means the peddlers will always have a piece of the pie as long as the policy is in effect - as long as they manage to purchase in time while supplies last, that is. During the entire upheaval, only Clair and her close associates stayed quiet while silently getting the proper permits to either move their stalls or open a branch store near the shabby looking tradepost.

The Merchant Guild became incensed with the demihumans, claiming jurisdiction on all large-scale trade activity. Surprisingly, it was Carna that made the guild representative speechless by asking. “If that is so, then where was the Merchant Guild when the Apothecary Guild tried to stop us from selling our goods?” De’muel followed her up by showing the permit issued by the King himself, that if there’s an issue, the Guild should go argue with the King instead. This unexpectedly caused a rift between the Merchant Guild and the Apothecary Guild as this was apparently a unilateral move by the latter, it was at this time that Clair made her move and gave them a single piece of advice. ‘Change the last policy so that only Merchant Quarter’s shops that admit their fault and come clean about the Apothecary Guild’s involvement can purchase the goods’. De’muel, being more cunning than Mak’ra, accepted the advice and immediately announced the new policy. This mended their relationship with the Merchant Guild who received some face at the concession, further pressuring the Apothecary Guild, causing them to lose influence as well as building new bridges with the merchants who were between a rock and a hard place.

Of course, all of these actions didn’t go unnoticed by the traveling traders who specialize in imports and exports, whom immediately went toward the little tradepost sitting in the middle of what is now the busiest part of Ashentor. The Kingdom of Sardon, along with the Norman Kingdom, are at the extreme tips of the major trade routes that connect the known parts of the continent. As such, the news didn’t spread far, but like a spark dropping on dry kindle, it spread at exponential speed, causing the sight that’s now before the Academy.

“I will try to introduce you to Bell-sensei and Kun-sensei if I get the chance.” De’muel adds as he slows down the wagon ever so slightly as a group of demihuman youths line up on the side along with a man and a young girl that are riding on top of an extremely large bundle of white fur.

“Welcome back, De’muel-ni, Mak’ra-ni, everyone!”
“Welcome back.”
*Kero Keroro*
“Souvenirs! Souvenirs!”
“Trailmixx! Trailmixx!”

The older students greet the returning group properly while the younger ones were more concerned with gifts. Of course, this is due to the fact that each time someone comes back from the outside to retrieve more goods, they’d bring back some novel food or toy for them, thus spoiling them. Sammy and the man sitting on top of him greet the group happily in a calm manner.

The group alighted their respective wagons as they park orderly at the empty spaces as directed, looks of nostalgia and soft smiles on their faces.

“It’s good to be back.”
“Ah, I wonder how Isnic and Dosnak have been, they must be exhausted.”
“Hmmmmm, I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed.”
“The guys are going to flip when we show them all these new spices! Wait, we should go stock them right away!”

The returnees spontaneously speak their own minds as they disperse. A few remain behind to help organize the wagons in the caravan to park in an orderly manner, separating the users and non-users, as well as the size and grouping of the wagons. The many merchants look around in curiosity, a few of the non-users spot the man on the white blob, rubbing their eyes.

“Oy! Philipe! Am I seeing things or what?!” One of the merchants roughly grabs his colleague.

“The hell are you on about?”

“That!” The merchant twists the man’s head into the direction of the white blob.

“WAHH?!” The colleague also rubs his eyes to double check. “Didn’t he retire?!”

“Even in retirement, he’s beating the lot of us. FUCK!” The merchant slams his hat onto the floor and stomps it a few times.

“Hey, hey, calm down. Even if we can’t take a big piece of the pie, there’s still profits to be made.”

“Fuck! And here I thought we’d finally make it to the top in one go, ARGH!” The merchant picks up his hat, roughly swings it to dust it off and takes a deep breath. “Alright, let’s go, no wonder those brats wouldn’t budge, they’ve him as a backer.”

The merchant, along with his colleague, slowly join the group that’s forming at the front of the parked wagons, readying themselves to make the best pitches of their lives to rake in some profits.

29 comments:

  1. This came up when I started editing with ishman.

    When I first read this years ago, I was like "dafuq, what's the big deal with flying? It's just flying!"
    After piloting on my own in a cessna and what not, I was like "holy shit".
    I think that sense of wonder is really hard to convey, this is the difference a decade or so of life experience made since I'm looking at my past self and thinking how ignorant I was.

    If I were to give an equivalent example now, it's like someone telling you you can fly through space and visit Mars for tea. Hell, fuck the tea, just get me to Mars muahaahhaahahah

    Anyhow, enjoy, prologue 4 for Dao Ming will be up within the next 72 hours o/

    (And thanks for answering the poll, this will help with the editing... gods know I need help with that, just ask Ishman).

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are talking about the man above the blob, not the blob itself.

    What I don't understand is why the Apothecary guild (herbs) would take interest in some newcomers. Sure the king is interest in the tea would cause some commotion, but their reaction is too fast

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, I don't know, I will have to reread those chapters. Limme do some research and send a email to the relevant bugger in question (don't expect a quick reply).

      Delete
    2. I know its because of their health herbal tea (taste like diorea). Because of the uproar over the celebrity advertisement (king), many people are searching for a taste, but none equal to the tea that the king has. (But their information gathering is too fast, no way they would bother with random peddlers)

      Even the merchant guild were to intervene, with self-interest, for out buying newcomers, they have nothing but new and unknown product thats an unknown factors. Even if they were to out buy them, its only a temporary gain, as they would have to buy their supply source as well. Their not much of a merchant guild if they really don't think ahead.

      Delete
    3. CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU FOR IGNITING THE DIGGER BUG INSIDE OF ME! And the more I read on it, the more wtf I’m at the intricacy of the settings… It’s deeper than I thought… >.> I think I really should be making that Reference page Ishman has been bugging me about. At the risk of becoming the Vann diagram of English teacher interpreting an author’s work, I “think” this is a depiction of the political-economic effect of different economic models. Let’s me eh… share some of my research thus far.

      Okay, so… I poked around on wikipedia’s sauces (never, ever trust wikipedia at face value) and a bunch of other sites featuring historians and whatnot. There were supposed 4 major types of guilds, the ones we are concern with is the Merchant Guild and the Craftsman Guild. The Apothecary Guild obviously falls into the latter while the Merchant Guild is self-explanatory. I’m going to be referring to the Continental Europe guilds for references as those are the ones that popped up the most (and most likely to have information on in an age pre-wikipedia).

      Merchant Guild were primary interested in locking out outsiders, help their members and control prices within a city/town/whatever by having a monopoly, they also tend to form their own local governments (ie. City of London Corporation) and members are giving a higher status (They were in short, Nobles, even if they aren’t from nobility). They tend to be the first guild that pops up, with some cases in which a Guild would but a charter and literally found their own settlement.

      Craftsman Guild often appear later on, when a certain industry within a settlement reaching a certain size. They are similar to Merchant Guild in their role, just narrower in scope. But as the importance of their industry grow, so too do their role. This often ends up as the Craftsman Guild in question demanding more power from the Merchant Guild or compete with them from their patron (ie. Florence and the Shoemakers Guild).

      In this case, it appears that both Guilds are a vassal of the King (Guilds could be, but not limited to, vassal to a bishop, nobility and royalty as well as other governing bodies - ie. Paris). So they are in direct competition in term of influence. Conflict between guilds are noted throughout history, so much that in some countries, there were laws/special divisions made to resolve them. I think that’s why the permit signed by the King was so effective at shutting the Merchant Guild up.

      ---- continued below---

      Delete
    4. So what we have are guilds that are super zealous in protecting their own financial interest, has a political bone in the fight, and don’t like outsiders. Using irl examples (pretty much stab at a major European city and pick a guild xP), Guild members were required to meet every fortnight in some cases, while information sharing between members were mandatory. Some guilds were known to have information networks that span outside their own cities (ie. Traders and Shipwrights), for a lack of a better word, they might as well be called spies.

      So… now… we’ve established that Guilds are put their self-interest first and aren’t reluctant to be complete assholes to outsiders not part of the guild that wants to do business in their city.

      As for the reaction time, I’m not sure how much time passed (at least one season in the real world, so it’s longer than that since their world runs on a 16 hour clock (I think?) with shorter days per season , I’ll have to look it up), but it should be long enough for the news of it to spread. Considering…

      1) Mikhal already tasted it when he was rescues and returned to Sardon (vol. 1 in the early/mid chapters)
      2) The Feian Captain (and likely, the rest of the Feian guards) also tasted it when the MCs took down the dawn’s moonlight and monochrome blades. (v1c14)
      3) The mass visit by the Feian headhanchos after the demihuman battalion joined the academy and the resultant meal and stay, which were noted by Norman spies, who are even further away than the Sardonians.

      Here’s the potential Vann diagram part, so take it with a grain of salt. What I see is…

      Given how close Rick and the Feian guards are, Rick would’ve told them all about it. (He was complaining about not having tea to Till before and only having what I presume to be coffee).

      Feia all of the sudden became prosperous as hell

      There were some hints of trade between the Academy and Feia.

      Minus the Headmaster doing his, ahem, his secret job. The only thing that has changed was the sudden murmurs and requests of for certain “goods”.

      Ignoring the King of Sardon, I think the Feia guards -let alone the ruling families- would be trying to buy it. So the existence of these “goods” should already be known, least of all the ones with an obsession on monopolies.

      That covers the time period/reaction time and the intensity of the Asshole Guild’s action. Here’s where I think the depiction of economic structure comes in. In Sardon, we’ve an early Guild system in play which is based on the medieval European model. In Feia, we’ve a sort of family controlled specialist enterprise thing going on (I think that Mathew old geezer guy specialized in seafood or somewthing?), which is like to be based off of Far East Asian thing (can be seen in Sake brewers, sauce makers, etc…). For Norman, there isn’t enough information, but what I recall, it looks like a feudal/fiefdom system with Nobles controlling the land they own.

      Delete
    5. Thanks for the interesting breakdown.

      Delete
    6. You can thank Lirg... good god I haven't entered into digger mode in years... That was some major speed reading I did, ~2 hours well spent, wwwwww

      Delete
  3. “Trailmixx! Trailmixx!” Meatbun wants Trailmixx! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the chapter.

    Who is this him that the merchants are referring to?
    I think it should be Kun, but I don't remember him doing anything to get that kind of reaction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe it's the man on Sammy with whom I think is Charlotte, so it should probably be Cori(Cory?) since there was those backstory of trade group sending people to hunt him down for help. I sped read those chapters earlier when I was doing the digging, so it should be correct save for his name xP

      Delete
  5. I'm just saying, Tea as we commonly know it is technically just an herbal tea made with Camellia leaves (a specific species, but still). The stimulant effects are rather mild and the "safer water due to boiling" holds true for herbal teas, too. In the first place, in a world where Herbal infusions/decoctions are referred to as "teas", why would they have no knowledge of "tea"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wait, where was I going with this?

      Delete
    2. Ahahaha, don't worry, it can be confusing. Good thing I already did the research the first time this came up.

      I believe, considering the amount of relatively accurate historic references (save for the medical stuff), this is actually based on the real world emergence of "tea", otherwise known as "cha".

      European herbal "tea" and the default "tea" as we know it are completely different things. The former was often prescribed as medicine (hence going through the Apothecaries) and as noted by other, taste like crap. The latter was known for its taste and effects.

      For your confusion, I think it was depicted in the early chapter when it was introduced by Till to the non-users, who had a similar view on it. "Why is it just 'tea' and not 'X tea'?" Iirc, the non-user in question just accepted it at face value and drink the damn thing (ie. I give you a delicious milkshake that I called yogurt, but it's really a milkshake, will you argue with me or just grab the milkshake and chug the thing? Replace 'milkshake' with american version of cuban sammich or anything bastardized and you'd get the same shit irl, wwwwww)

      Delete
    3. Oh, I forgot to add, it was SO well known for its taste and effects that it bankrupted a nation (namely the Brits). That's a part of the reason why the Opium War happened.

      Delete
    4. I probably should have asked that last one the other way around. They had no knowledge of tea, so how did the terminology for herbal tea arise? IIRC, tea's etymology is derived from china's "cha" via malay, where it's referred to as "te".

      Side note: how are the leaves mostly being prepared? Green? Fermented? Roasted with rice? Well, probably not that last one.

      Delete
    5. It's like gold, the hellenic world would call it aurum (latin), the middle kingdom would call it kin (chinese). The word used is completely different, but they are talking about the same thing.

      Or in this case, it's like party serving carbonated drinks, crappy soda/pop. and then out of nowhere champagne pops up. I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go for the champagne, wwwwww

      They have the benefit of a universal translator, so that makes it easier I guess if you are referring to the word "tea". I do believe it one was in katakana and the one used by Till was in kanji, I'm not sure unless I go and look at a the raw, but at the very least, tea used in this chapter been the kanji.

      Tea's etymology is derived from Hokkien traders selling it to the Portuguese and the other europeans, it's from their dialect's version of "cha" that got spread as a result. Malay and Indian 'te' and 'teh' is derived from said Hokkien dialect.

      The scene depicted so far when we got see a part of the process in one of the earlier chapter seems to indicate green tea (controlled roasting sans the giant wok).

      Delete
    6. Or lemme put it like this.
      "Hey try this, it's beer."
      "Like, some kind of root beer?"
      "No, just beer"
      "Huh? Weir-HOLYSHIT THIS STUFF IS AWESOME DUDE YOU GOTTA LEMME BUY IT BY THE BARREL"

      Delete
    7. Um... that's a really, really bad example.

      Root Beer is actually Root Tea, it was merely renamed for advertising purposes :P It actually has no relation to actual beer.

      But that's pretty much what I used for the champagne example, GIVE ME THE CHAMPAGNE. But yes, there were also irl example of this happening. *points at the colonial period* Doing an apple to apple (cause it was tea to herbal tea comparison), just look at IPA vs other beer in the same time period :3

      Delete
  6. .... Why didn't they make hang gliders if they wanted to fly? Hot Air Balloons might work too, though it wouldn't be as specialized (E.g would need to have fuel on hand and control the fire/attitude manually after being trained.)

    Also, I'm pretty sure the first 'planes' were made of wood, and didn't have engines, though I could be wrong here, since I didn't do any research.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why I mentioned previously to someone else (or maybe it was you) that they are forgetting the world's setting since it was so long ago (vol. 1).

      1) They don't have easily accessible (if any at all) fossil fuel or even radioactive materials
      2) The various countries have laws in place that puts the environment over the lives of people
      3) The world "just" got out of the Age of Sails, and all the recent advancement in electronics and medicine (or was it something else) were attributed to being to access some sort of data from before the apocalypse
      4) The "bleeding tech" in transportation is an outboard motor, a tech that can be argued to be the precursor to plane propellers by a couple hundred years (ignoring the screw system, which predated by a millenia and a half)
      5) There were no mentions of geniuses like Da Vinci
      6) The infrastructure of Earth is really lobsided, they have electric cars and generators, but can be unreliable, local transportation seems to be a mix of foot/horse for the normal citizens and electric car for the rich (well, at least in the Atlantic Union + PNF).
      7) How would you describing traveling to the surface of mars to a crab that have never left seen land? "Skydiving" is a word invented in 1957, long after the invention of actual flight. I "think" the dialogues used in this case is to show that the very concept of 'skydiving' haven't formed yet and can only be explained as "dropping from the sky".

      There's another possibility, I could be failing EPICALLY in my translations, there's a fuckton of subtlety in the wordings in a lot of dialogues and narrations. That's why I'm REALLY scared of changing things too much and strive to keep things as close to context as possible (just ask Ishman, the struggle is real T.T). I'm not just talking about puns and wordplays, I'm talking about entire subplots that don't jump at you and connects to thing throughout the entire novel, it's like building a sand castle with bits of specific piece of sand dropped on a beach. Some of the stuff I noticed were probably ignored or gone unnoticed altogether.

      Some examples -

      The Kun beating a bear thing was foreshadowed well before his sidestory (I only know this since I was onboard with the writing process)

      The position of the rising Sun in the other world (Ishman didn't noticed this until I pointed it out), I don't think anyone paid attention to it since it was so sneaky in the first place.

      The floor within Mikhal's home (where his mom lives, Ishman noticed this little piece of gem).

      The two unconscious users within the lab.

      There are more, either I didn't notice them or they take too long to point out (ie. look at the Tea discussion above, I didn't notice this shit lirg brought up until I specifically went digging for it in the novel).


      Delete
    2. Liquified (highly compressed) wood gas? ... From sustainable harvests, of course (bamboo?).

      Delete
    3. Wait, it might be more efficient to partially pyrolyse the wood until the lignin is carbonised, then put the rest through an anaerobic digester to collect biogas, lowering the heating cost and increasing gas yields a bit. but that would mean no charcoal would be left to use as fuel or raw material.

      Delete
    4. You are talking about tech that they probably don't have the access to. :3

      From my understanding of it, it seems like our world in the 1700-1800 -minus the gunpowder bit- suddenly advanced to the late 1900 in electronics and medicine cause someone gave them the instruction manual.

      Delete
    5. Woodgas is basically what you get when you heat wood in a space without oxygen to make charcoal. All you need is a metal box and some piping at a minimum, but the size would be a bit unwieldy without a way to reduce volume... Like the compressor in a fridge.
      Ironically, it's the expander part that'll do it; the expanded gas has such a low temp it liquefies.

      Delete
    6. Whoops houshold fridges usu use vapor compression, not turbo expansion for cooling, but it shouldn't be difficult to implement either way. And anaerobic digestion forms the basics of modern sewage treatment.

      Delete
    7. Woodgas generators are closely tied into the internal combustion engine that's the result of coal production. They have no coal, they've no internal combustion engine (cause fossil fuels are so scarce that it might as well not exist). So it's definitely a tech that's isn't in their world, I stand by my "they don't have the tech" comment :3

      Delete
    8. Two words: Human Kite; I'm pretty sure they predate the Age of Sailing, and they pretty lead to the invention of the hang-glider.

      Delete

Due to a certain user that keep posting links to sites that directly ripped from wuxiaworld, comments are being moderated and need approval for the time being.