Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

{ "Haha, I knew you would figure it out." }

"Of course I would. Who else in this world had that kind of specific resource for a small country with falling borders?"

{ "Well, you do. Though you\'re bound by the laws of the empire for the time being so that only leaves a few other-." }

"Yes, yes. I know you know everything like you should sad my little baby. But that\'s not important right now."

We were talking though the communication device connected to my office in Hiraani so no one else knew he had contacted me.

Anna especially had no idea I was talking with her cool, dear brother even though she was down there playing around with the staff.

"How much did you share with them? The entire book from what I can tell, hun?"

{ "Not everything that I know, but yes. A book that contains a good bit. It\'s ten percent of what you know, I\'d say." }

"Ten percent of what I know you know equates to the national secrets of twenty countries of this world, baby. Giving such things for free isn\'t something I would expect my dear little baby to do."

{ "That\'s why I didn\'t do anything." }

It has been a month since he left for his school again, the time for the grand conference was nearing so we were going to meet soon anyway.

But… it was still bitter talking with my own little baby after a month.

Especially, because this talk wasn\'t between a worried mother and a young son but between a merchant and a war supplier of an allied nation.

{ "Sharing information and selling some important items for cheap in exchange for partial operation rights of the market of various nations in this world wasn\'t a bad deal, I\'d say." }

"Oh?"

He was smirking since he said \'he\' didn\'t do anything.

He was my amazing baby so there was no way he would do anything that would result in loss for him so, I at least knew whatever deal he had made with Lakmer wasn\'t something that would help them one sidedly.

"Which markets did you get?"

{ "That would be confidential, Miss. A trade secret, if you will." }

There was a good number of war merchants in this world that traded with the countries that were at war with the other nations and I had never imagined my own baby would take that path.

\'Especially in an unconventional situation like this one.\'

There was conflict going on between Lakmer and its neighbouring countries and they were having various kinds of silent wars with one another.

It wasn\'t an all out war but something that was happening on a more fundamental level.

Instead of people, the elements that were being used in this war were the economy, national threats, roundabout ways to cut off the important basic resources, and there were even strange things happening all over these countries.

\'We already knew Lakmer was going to break its stance as a neutral nation thanks to Eon telling us about his strange dream, but the situation that actually happened was more interesting than them going to conventional war with them.\'

Lakmer wasn\'t using their army or the war artifacts that their predecessors had used to establish its position in the past.

Instead of humans and a certain battlefield, they were using money, and resources to bring down the nobles and royals of the other countries.

\'They were playing a game with what they did not have.\'

They were a small country in comparison to the opponents that they were up against, so if they wanted to bring down even one of the economies, they had to manipulate a lot of internal and external forces.

They had to employ their own resources to gather the attention of the people that would have become collateral damage, and save many lives by regulating resources and properly selecting their targets.

"You won\'t even tell your mom?"

{ "If it is my mother asking that question and not the leader of one of the top merchant associations, then there\'s no way I wouldn\'t answer her question.

But… are you the mother that I love unconditionally, or are you simply asking that question because you care about the economy and market of the nations that are facing difficulties?" }

"You little bastard…"

I couldn\'t help but smile joyously at that question of his.

"You\'ve gotten better at this."

{ "All thanks to my amazing mother, I\'d say." }

"Hahaha, right~. Your mother is amazing~."

The kind of war that Lakmer was fighting required a lot more resources than what a simple war involving humans would need.

There were techniques in this world that politicians used to maintain public relations and then there were techniques that the merchants like us used to to maintain the market from a superior position.

\'The market was everything for a merchant, and the most basic element of any market were people of a certain geographical area.\'

There were various kinds of products that did well only in certain places and there were various kinds of things that merchants could only sell in certain kinds of markets.

\'To sell, one needed resources that were competitively easier to get, however, to buy… the individuals of that market needed capital.\'

Capital was generated by the workers that produced resources and the trades that took place in order to bring in that capital.

It was necessary that one understood the flow of money, goods, and capital if they wanted to succeed as a business, and even as a consumer, one needed to have a basic understanding of what they are spending their capital on.

\'However, a healthy economy was only possible if the government or individuals-mostly nobles- in high positions of a society possessed the larger amounts of capital.\'

If those nobles or rich people themselves lose the wealth they possess, the economy of that geography would slowly collapse into chaos.

The lower classes wouldn\'t have any capital to spend, reducing the purchase power of that land, ultimately skyrocketing the price of the commodities.

"Still, the sudden riots, those natural disasters, and all those unbelievable artificial things on one side, why did they chose the most peaceful way when they could have gone with something much better, something that would have saved them a good sum of money, resources, and business?"

{ "That… is something even I am not certain of." }

"Right?"

Eon wasn\'t the one that created these war methods, but he was the only one that knew the most about these never thought about methods of bringing down a power with even a thousand years of history.

He showed Carol things that she would have seen for the first time and knowing her, even that ten perfect of his knowledge was something that she could weaponise better than anyone else in this world.

\'She was a sorceress witch when it came to politics.\'

Everyone knew what she was capable of and still, those dumb people tried messing with Lakmer after the incident.

\'They brought it on themselves.\'

If anything, thanks to my baby, the losses they all would have suffered were lowered significantly.

"Anyway… did I tell you about Elle\'s parents?"

{ "Ah, did you get any news from them?" }

"Yes. Earlier this morning…"

Anna was alone without her brothers and sisters but she was doing well on her own.

She was training with her papa and grandpa everyday, learning things that her siblings had started learning even before they were the same age as her.

He was away in the academy, learning, training for the big day, preparing to face the really important people of this world.

It wasn\'t going to be anything easy, I knew well just how difficult it was to present one topic in this conference.

Those bastards weren\'t a sight that just anyone could handle.

One had to prepare for weeks, perhaps months just to become good enough for this presentation, and it wasn\'t fun when they were gathered in the same place.

\'He wasn\'t going to present one or two topics in this conference, he was going to be the only one that would lead the whole of the conference.\'

There have been a few times when something like this happens, when a single person takes charge of the entire conference, and however powerful or talented they might be, they had to go through a vigorous training for a few few months before they were ready to do that.

It was a near impossible task for a young child, but I knew he will do just fine.

{ "That\'s a good news. Thankfully they didn\'t hurt them or else I don\'t know how I would have stopped her from going there and causing a commotion." }

"Hahaha, I would have loved to see her angry. Though… where is she? Why are you all by yourself?"

{ "She went out with her friends earlier and didn\'t know you would be calling. I was about to go to library as well, but looks like that won\'t be possible anymore." }

It was a weekend for them and I knew this should be their free time and that was the only reason I called him without telling them, but from the looks of it, they were enjoying their lives in the academy.

"I see. Then, I ended up wasting your time, hun?"

{ "There\'s no way you could do such a thing, mom. All my time is yours anyway. And talking with you was fun." }

"Then you should call us like the others, you bad child."

The others call home and talk with us occasionally.

Zoe alone calls every night and tells Anna everything that happened with them and they have their usual conversation.

Even Elle calls here and tells us how the two of them have been doing every once in a while, but… this son of mine alone doesn\'t call us himself.

He certainly talks with us, sends letters on how they had been doing, and things other than direct call from him, and it sometimes feels selfish of him.

\'But… we understand his reasons.\'

He cares a lot.

Especially about my other little life that\'s playing downstairs.

\'He believes it\'s better to not talk at all instead of having these little conversations that would make him uncomfortable for the rest of his day.\'

It\'s something he need, and so, avoids it.

And as parents and the adults… we respect his decisions.

"Alright then…"

He had a bitter expression even right now.

{ "Mom… I…" }

"It\'s fine. Don\'t worry about it too much."

It wasn\'t easy for him to stay away from us either. But he still did it his own way.

And for that, we admired him ourselves.

"It was nice speaking with my little baby, but I\'ll have to go now, so… take care of yourself, and everyone else as well."

{ "Of course…" }

He smiled bitterly at me in those last moments, and warmly, I smiled back at him.

"It\'s alright. You\'re doing great…"

We will see each other soon anyway, so, this much talk was enough was for now.