Chapter 496 - Checking Out the Locale (Patreon)

"So Rasacopa cloth is our next product then," Sami concluded.

"Yeah," Chanca confirmed. "I didn't get to ask more stuff because those drunks lunged at me for no good reason, but at least they told me about some big wholesalers on the island, so we know where to go if we want to buy some. So tomorrow, we'll go to the right place and get the stuff. But I don't trust the drunks, not after what they did. So first, we find out if their prices are really good, and if their cloth isn't just bad. I'll need your eyes for that, cause I have no idea about anything. Then our guys can load everything while we check out the local daughters."

Sami wisely chose to ignore the last sentence from a man married into a gangster's family. Instead, he tried to add to Chanca's vague, incomplete plan.

"Maybe we should look around the island and check out their operations first, just to get a feel for everything. We can also talk with some of the local workers and supervisors while we're there. The more we know, the harder it will be to trick us."

"That's fine," Chanca replied. "Still, I won't work all day. If we have to stay an extra day, we will, but I'll have to check out the local customs too, if you know what I mean."

"You know, for a second there, I almost thought you were being responsible," Sami replied, now much calmer than before. Neither his anger, nor his earlier anxiety were still there.

Throughout their conversation, he had gotten a better and better feel for his friend's own position. Clearly, Chanca's father-in-law was a controlling figure, but the son himself seemed eager to prove himself, and to break free from Ekkoko's influence. For that, he needed help from someone, anyone who wasn't one of his father-in-law's men already. Sami, the only guy he still knew since before he came to Saniya, became his best support.

Thus, Sami himself realized more and more that not only had his efforts over the past month not been wasted, his friend also hadn't just taken him along on this journey out of pity. Instead, both of them had their own problems, and they both needed help from each other to solve them. Although he wouldn't get excited about his friend's troubles, this mutual arrangement felt much better than the one-sided pity he had assumed all this time.

With his confidence restored, none of Sami's previous issues mattered anymore. Not to mention, he had clearly misunderstood Chanca in the first place. Rather than just slack off and slowly drink himself to death, his friend had also studied up quite a bit. Who knew how much of the time at the harbor he had spent to learn the ropes just like Sami had. Today, he had found out a lot about Rasacopa, too. Among them were many things Sami himself wanted to learn as well.

"So is there anything else of interest that's happened in the Verdant Isles? What else did you hear?"

Since Chanca had clearly learned a lot from those drinkers, there was a good chance he knew more than what he had told so far. Thus, Sami asked just in case. In response, his friend thought for a moment, before he actually confirmed Sami's guess.

"Well, those drunks gossiped about more rumors than I can remember. If you wanna hear those, I can give you as many as you can stomach." Chanca laughed, but continued when he saw that Sami was listening eagerly. "Some green woman's maid has had some affair with some officer or something? I don't know, someone is sleeping with someone anyways. They sounded important, but the gossip sounded worthless. Those highborn folk have nothing to do with us. But in the west, they've found some useful stuff in the ground, the drunks say. Don't think it's silver or copper, but it's something. Seems like it's too deep in the forest though, so it's hard to get. Now they're sending all those poor bastards to clear trees and build roads to that place. That way, whoever survives that part gets to start digging a mine straight away, lucky them. The drunks say that's the reason they've been hunting the pirates more these days: They need more free workers for their mines. Poor bastards."

"Not sure about the pirate stuff or the gossip with the maid, but those mines sound like something we should keep an eye on," Sami commented. "That might be a smart place to invest early, depending on what they found. I mean, if it's cinnabar, or even just high-quality iron, that would be pretty good. We won't get a piece of the main business, since stuff like that is always reserved for those high-born. But at least we can maybe service the place, provide some goods they need. And if we can buy land there early, we can set up shop, and surely the land around the mine will gain in value. That's usually pretty safe business."

"You think so?" a skeptical Chanca asked.

However, Sami remained optimistic. After all, he had seen his previous boss Sawo earn money exactly the same way. Ever since the miracle king had begun to build up Saniya, housing prices had exploded, something he himself had painfully felt already. Maybe this time, he would be early to one of the king's projects, and would be able to profit as a result.

"Don't forget that this place is in the middle of the jungle," Sami added to sweeten the pot for Chanca. "Even if their mines turn out useless or the land doesn't gain in value, they are still building roads deep into the trees. If all else fails, we can just start harvesting and selling wood from there, or lease the place to someone else to do it. The place is still in the middle of the jungle, surrounded on all sides by the best lumber resources in the world. That alone will make us a killing."

Rather than the more abstract idea of appreciating value, his was an argument the former carpenter's apprentice Chanca could understand.

"In that case, we might wanna check out the place if we have some time," Chanca concluded.

"Maybe not this time, but we'll get around to it. Building roads takes a long time, so we don't need to rush."

This was something Sami only considered after his enthusiasm had died down a bit. After all, they were here to do work as well. They couldn't just trek through the jungle for days on end to look at a mine that wasn't even open yet. Not only would they have to feed and pay their crew for every extra day at sea, but Ulan was also still waiting for him at home.

"If that navy of ours won't get a handle on the war soon, then none of that will matter anyways. No point buying land in a war zone," Chanca put a further damper on their plans. Though for Sami, those concerns were only a convenient excuse to ask some more questions.

"Since those drunks know some general and the maids in the palace, they must also know how the war is going, right?" he asked.

"Slowly, apparently," Chanca replied, much to Sami's disappointment. "The soldiers from the Green Island and Saniya are going island by island, clearing them out as they go. But it seems like it's slow going, and the locals are getting annoyed by it. At least those drunks were. One of them said that our very own General Paec has come here on the king's orders to wipe out the locals and replace them with people from southern Medala. Wait, that's right! The maid had an affair with General Paec!"

"That's ridiculous," Sami said, before realized that the target of his outrage was unclear and added: "Wiping out the locals is ridiculous, I mean, not the maid thing."

He wouldn't let such slander against their king stand. Yet Chanca was strangely pensive, and not angry like Sami would have expected.

"That's what I thought at first too, but they did make some sense," he said after some awkward silence. "The longer the war goes, the more locals will die, that's the truth. I mean, we did beat those rebels in the south — and the northerners, and the Orientals — all at once in less than a year. You can't tell me that we — together with the pirates from the Green Island — can't deal with other pirates, even after years of fighting. It makes no sense. I mean, our king even made that offer for land if anyone from Medala wants to come here. Sure sounds to me like he's trying to replace the locals."

"But the king made the same offer to Verdant Folk willing to move to Medala!" Sami immediately shouted, louder than even he himself thought was appropriate. Still, he couldn't just let such slander stand. Or rather, he wouldn't let his friend be fooled by these slanderous rumors from those vicious drunks. He had to set the record straight. "I don't know why that land exchange between our places is happening like that, but clearly, the miracle king has a plan, as always. And he has proven again and again that he does not want to kill people senselessly. Just think how he treated those refugees from Kapra and Antila. Would someone like that plan to kill people off on purpose? What will the queen say about such an attack on her people? You think she would be silent?"

"I guess not..."

"Now think, most of the soldiers who fight on our side should be from Saniya, right? Most of the navy hails from there," Sami continued. "If the king was trying to kill as many locals as possible, then he would never use people from his own estate to fight, right? I mean, that way, his own men die just as much as those Verdant Folk. Those drunkards' claims are just ridiculous."

"Maybe you're right."

Although Chanca finally admitted as much, he still sounded pensive, or maybe he was just bored. Sami couldn't tell, though he wouldn't be surprised at his friend's indifference. Unlike Sami himself, Chanca just didn't care about politics, or the plans of the greater folk at the top. No matter what Sami said, his friend might not even register it. Since there was no way to convince him now, Sami made the wise decision to just drop the topic.

"So, it looks like you really did learn a lot from those guys then, huh?" he concluded their talk instead.

"As I said, I didn't just waste my time drinking with those bastards. I was working."

And getting drunk while doing it, Sami added in his head. Though of course, he himself had done the exact same, for worse results. The time for complaints had passed.

"So maybe we should have thanked them, rather than beating them up," Sami joked instead, to lighten the mood.

"Can't change anything if they are so eager to rearrange my face." Chanca defended himself with a wry grin, one which once again made him wince from pain.

"Now that you say it, why did that fight break out in the first place?" Sami finally asked the question he had wanted to know all this time. "Sounds like you and those drinkers were getting along just fine before."

"I don't have the foggiest idea," Chanca complained. "I just said how our king is the best, and how Rasacopa is lucky that he'd be in charge of their country now and take care of them. Something like that."

"And where is the problem in that?" a baffled Sami asked. "You said nothing but the truth, right?"

"One of them suddenly shouted that their Captain Tayali would have been a much better king. Talked like he was crazy. Guy had his spit flying like he was possessed by a rain spirit."

While Chanca was eager to complain about the rude drunks again, Sami was more focused on the unfamiliar name.

"Who in the underworld is Tayali?" he asked.

"That's what I wanted to know," Chanca whipped his head towards Sami as he shouted back immediately. He looked as baffled as he looked angry. "So I ask that drunk fool who the guy is, and that damn bastard just up and throws his cup at me out of nowhere. Cut me right above my brow. Almost took my eye out, that lunatic!"

"And of course, you couldn't just let him get away with that," Sami concluded with a sigh.

"Of course I wouldn't! A bunch of drunks like that aren't enough to scare off Captain Chanca the Great!" Chanca scoffed with his usual bravado, in defiance of his squished face.

Finally, the whole story began to make sense. Apparently, those drunks were as unreasonable as they were well-connected. In the end, the fight really hadn't been Chanca's fault at all, and he hadn't been slacking off either. Instead, he had been doing his best to contribute to their journey's success.

Maybe his methods had been a bit unusual, though based on his own abilities, his approach made perfect sense. Considering how easily Chanca made friends, getting information out of some local drunks was a mission which really suited him well.

The more Sami thought about it, the worse he felt about blaming Chanca before. Maybe he had been too easily influenced by his quartermaster. Though of course, there was still plenty of time to make up for his mistakes. Their journey wasn't even halfway over, after all.

Thus, Sami stood up, finally at ease with his position in this fleet, and with his position in this life. For now, the most important thing was to get to bed. It was already deep in the night and they had a lot of work left to do tomorrow. Though his bones ached and he groaned as he forced himself on his feet, at least his nose had stopped bleeding. Once his footing on the wooden boards of the deck was finally stable, he held out a hand to the still seated Chanca.

"Looks like I was too quick to judge," he said. "I shouldn't have complained about you. I was an idiot."

"That doesn't matter." Chanca shook his head, and took Sami's outstretched hand. "What matters is that you showed up when those lunatics had me surrounded. Who cares about some words, right?"

"That's right," Sami replied, and pulled his friend up on his feet with a smile on his face.

"Right, I'm beat," Chanca said, and patted down his legs to get rid of the dust on his clothes, a vain attempts considering the sorry state of both of their wardrobes. After a few more hopeless pats, he gave up, shrugged, and said: "Let's just go back to our cabins. Maybe my damn face'll stop hurting once I sleep it off."

As Sami watched Chanca walk down the Suyana's gangway on his way to his own ship, Sami finally began to feel more confident in their adventure. At the very least, he no longer had the feeling that he was traveling alone, doing all the work by himself while his fellow captain just made trouble all the time. Now, he finally understood that he had a true ally he could rely on.

"By the way," Sami asked towards Chanca's back. "I still don't know how we're going to sell that Chutwa glaze you insisted we buy in Saniya. Maybe tomorrow, we can go looking for a wholesale buyer here in Jurau, and make some more room for cloth in our holds."

In response to the question, Chanca stopped at the bottom of the gangway and looked back.

"Don't worry about that," he replied with a laugh. "I already have a buyer for the stuff. Father planned it all out, remember?"

"You mind sharing that plan?" an interested Sami asked, but Chanca's annoying grin — further marred by the state of his face — disappointed him.

"What would be the fun in that?" he asked, added: "You'll see when we get there," and left for his own ship without another word.

Hermit's Notes: Lots of details about the world in this one. I wanted to do a general update on the situation in the Verdant Isles for a while, and finally I got to it in this arc.