Necessary Corruption 5 (Patreon)

Necessary Corruption
Chapter 5

-VB-

I took a sip of the offered jasmine tea, and found it to be acceptable. I set the cup down daintily before looking back up.

Today, I was meeting with one of the most powerful nobles of the Land of Rivers and someone who used to be my father’s ally - and someone I hoped I would be able to call my ally by the end of the day.

“Your cultivation is still the best in the Land of Rivers, Lord Ginzunobu,” I praised the middle aged man.

Said man, the head of the Hyokon Clan, looked smug at my praise. “I’m glad you think the same as I do, Lord Takanori,” he grinned as he set his own tea cup down.

“And perhaps I can enrich your collection of teas to bolster your repertoire even further,” I said as I pulled out the box my servant brought with me, and set it down next to the tea table. I pushed it towards him, and he took it. He turned to the side to face the small chest, which was only proper to show that he was giving my gift his full attention and thus telling me that I was worthy of his full attention indirectly. He opened the chest and stared at the neatly arranged square boxes, each with a handful of seeds.

He blinked before looking up at me. “Would this be?”

“Yes. It is a collection of all known tea varieties native to the Land of the Rivers and the Land of Fire. It was rather expensive to gather.”

“... I thank you, Lord Takanori. This… this will definitely improve my garden,” he replied. His glee threatened to ruin his noble composure, and he tried really hard to keep it up for appearance’s sake.

I smiled. “No need to be firm and strict with me, Ginzunobu-dono. We are friends, after all, are we not?”

He let himself smile in full before leaning forward a little. “How did you know I was looking to gather these?” he asked quietly.

I smirked. “Your tea cultivation has always been growing in size, Ginzunobu-dono. It wasn’t that hard to guess that you wanted as much as you could get your hands on.”

He sighed in exasperation. “Found out by a lordling. How low I’ve fallen,” he lamented half-heartedly.

I laughed easily and briefly before I leaned in. “I also know that you are trying to sabotage the efforts of Lord Fukuhami to your north. I wonder if I can’t help you with that.”

He froze for a moment before pulling back and looking at me coolly. I knew that I was taking a gamble. For a lord to get involved in another lord’s affairs without the latter lord requesting help or offering partnership was generally considered rude. It also came off as insulting as if the lord in question could not handle his own affair, especially if it’s an internal one.

Essentially, calling him incompetent.

That said, I knew that Ginzunobu was having issues with his campaign to downsize the Fukuhami Clan.

And I also had my own reasons to want the Fukuhami Clan weak and servile.

“I too need them gone,” I added before he got any ideas about nonexistent insinuations. “You see, their retinue have been harassing my trade caravans.”

A look of understanding dawned on him. “You too?”

I nodded.

Fukuhami Clan was unfortunately right at the junction of the trade roads that led into and out of the Land of Fire from the Land of the Rivers. They strictly controlled that point, and heavily taxed any and all merchant caravans that went to their rivals, ie us.

To fuck them over, I have already been sending cheap opium to their villages and cities, and I knew that they were having an effect. How did I know this?

Well, my trade caravans reported that more than a few of the guards with opium pipes in their belts. The exact numbers weren’t clear, but something like half of the road patrols and city guards touched the narcotics, a rather significant number.

Ginzunobu-dono leaned forward. “You intend for us to attack him without cause?”

“He has been unlawfully taxing us for the last decade. I think that’s cause enough to attack him. If we are quick enough with our attack to neutralize them before their allies could mobilize…”

“... It might work, but how? He has so much patrols on the trade roads…”

“Then it’s fortunate for us that my spies have reported that the Fukuhami Clan patrols are inebriated with drugs then.”

“... That’s why you approached me, isn’t it? You don’t have the manpower necessary to fight him on your own, even with his reduced fighting power, but I do.”

“And where you have manpower, I have the logistics and money to wage a brief campaign.”

“Just one campaign is too short of an alliance, though. How do I know that I will not be the next target?”

I hummed. “Well, your clan and my clan has no issues with one another, and I am all too willing to hand you over all of the fertile farmlands south of the trade roads. I only ask you to give me the cities.”

Ginzunobu-dono looked at me contemplatively. “You are serious.”

“I am.”

It was an odd request for sure. While trade was known to be the backbone of an economy even to the nobles, nobles derived their powers from the agricultural products and any other specialties their lands produced. It was why the ninjas, even with their mystical chakra, did not touch the nobility; to touch a noble was to mess with their own food supply.

“You wish to get into trade?”

“I do.”

“Many of our peers will not look upon you kindly for touching the lowest of the trades.”

This was also true. Trade, despite the lucrative wealth it made, was a nonproductive class. Merchants made nothing.

In a far more conservative land like the Land of the Winds and the Land of Rocks, the laws of the land forbid nobles from engaging in trade at all.

Thankfully, I lived in the Land of the Rivers, not either of the restrictive lands.

Regardless, it was looked down upon by the local nobility.

“And I will take the blunt of the shame of our alliance. I only ask that you stay by my side as we sweep through the Land of the Rivers.”

He met my gaze and then, after a moment, nodded. “Very well.”

Good. I wouldn’t have to sell opium to his people. That’s more supply to ruin others with.