Chương 464: 458. Negotiation - III

Trevalo continued, "I asked around in the city. Prices are very high there as well, but at least there is no shortage of wheat. I can buy as much wheat for you from Ulriga as you want, as long as you have the coin for it." That loosened something in Kivamus's chest. He did not let it show too much, but he felt it. Coal mattered because it brought money. Wheat mattered because people had to eat. The village's population was no longer fixed. New miners were arriving. Workers had families.

Every increase in production also meant more mouths, and the harvest was still months away. Trevalo looked at him seriously.

"So, do you have my contract ready? I really need that guarantee that you will buy 50 sacks of wheat from me every month if I am going to continue taking this risk."

"It's ready," Kivamus said. Duvas reached for one of the papers beside him and slid it forward. It was already written in a careful hand, with space left for the final price and details they had needed to settle in person. Kivamus's seal had been prepared for it, and the wax mark was already visible on the lower part of the page. Trevalo leaned over the contract, reading slowly. Kivamus let him take his time.

The contract guaranteed that Tiranat would buy a minimum of five wagon loads of wheat from Trevalo every month. That meant 50 sacks. In return, Trevalo would transport and sell a minimum of 24 wagon loads of coal every month through the Ulrigan route. Any extra wheat or coal beyond those minimums could be handled by verbal agreement as needed, since the exact amounts would change with production and demand. The agreement would last until the coming harvest. After that, they would renegotiate if necessary.

Trevalo read the lines twice, then tapped one finger beside the blank space.

"The price?" Duvas wrote it in carefully, using the figure they had agreed on. Trevalo watched him finish, then read the contract again. The merchant's lips moved faintly as he checked the words. When he was done, he looked up.

"This is acceptable." Kivamus nodded.

"Good."

"You said the raft can transport around 20 wagon loads of coal on each trip," he said.

"So around 40 wagon loads each month. But coal and wheat are different types of cargo. How much wheat can that raft bring back every month?" Trevalo answered without hesitation.

"Coal can be piled in large heaps, but wheat has to remain in the sacks it is sold in. It cannot be treated the same way. I asked the captain about it, and he estimated that the raft can transport somewhere around 220 sacks of wheat in one trip if we do not overdo it. He said 200 sacks would be safer." Kivamus raised his eyebrows.

"That means around 400 sacks a month," Trevalo said. Kivamus laughed before he could stop himself, not loudly, but with real relief.

"Then I don't have to worry about whether you can transport enough wheat anytime soon." Trevalo's mouth curved slightly.

"No, my lord. Not unless Tiranat becomes far larger very quickly."

"Our current estimate is that we need around 94 sacks of wheat every month," Kivamus said.

"So while the contract guarantees that we will buy 50 sacks from you each month, we will probably buy more than that as long as you bring it. Our population is growing because new coal miners are coming every week, so the demand will likely increase."

"That is fine by me," Trevalo said.

"If I can sell more wheat to you, I will not complain." Then his expression became more serious.

"But I should tell you plainly. Wheat is still selling for just above six gold per sack in Ulriga." Kivamus pressed his lips together. Six gold per sack was painful. There was no way around that. It was not a price anyone would happily pay if they had a choice. But choice was exactly what they lacked until the autumn harvest came in.

"We can't help it," Kivamus said.

"We have to buy wheat at whatever price it is selling for until our own harvest comes in." Trevalo nodded, but his frown remained. Kivamus continued, "At a rough estimate, we will sell you 28 wagon loads of coal every month for around 280 gold. But we will buy a minimum of 50 sacks of wheat from you for around 300 gold every month. We might need to buy more than that from the very first trip." Trevalo stared at him. Then he looked down at the figures Duvas had written, then back up.

"My lord, this means you are at a loss. How will you ever repay my advance at this rate?" The worry in his voice sounded genuine. It was not only the concern of a creditor fearing he would never see his money again. There was something else there too, a merchant looking at an arrangement that seemed unsustainable and not understanding why the other side was so calm. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Kivamus folded his hands on the table.

"Don't worry," he said.

"Our coal production is still increasing." Trevalo did not look convinced, so Kivamus continued.

"Our current estimate is that in around a month, we will be producing about 75 wagon loads of coal here every month. In two months, that should rise to about 90 wagon loads. After that, the increase will slow down because by then the new workers will have learned the trade, and we will also have gotten past the current shortage of mining tools." Trevalo's eyes narrowed slightly as he followed the numbers. Kivamus kept his voice steady.

"Once we are producing 90 wagon loads a month, we will still sell 30 wagon loads to the other merchants coming from Cinran. That leaves 60 wagon loads of surplus coal." Duvas leaned back slightly, letting Kivamus explain.

"Our original plan was for you to transport up to 13 wagon loads of coal every week from Tiranat to Cinran," Kivamus said.

"That would be 52 wagon loads every month. Out of that, 10 wagon loads would go toward filling the remaining coal demand in Cinran. The other 42 wagon loads would be kept in the warehouse for the raft captain to sell in Ulriga." Trevalo's expression changed as the shape of the plan became clearer. Kivamus went on, "Thankfully, even though the transport method changed from a sailboat to a raft, the plan still works. The raft can carry around 40 wagon loads of coal to Ulriga each month.

Once we produce more than that, we can consider hiring another raft. But even with the current arrangement, within two months you should be receiving the full 52 wagon loads of coal from us each month."

"At the agreed price," Duvas said, "that is more than 520 gold worth of coal purchases every month."

"So even if we buy wheat worth around 300 to 350 gold each month," Kivamus added, "we will still have around 150 gold of extra income. That can be used to repay your advance. Even so, I would like another extension on the advance. The mercenaries will be arriving soon, and we need to keep some extra gold ready for them."

"You mean they will ask for—" Trevalo stopped.

"Yes. Once our accounts are safely in surplus, repaying you will be one of our first priorities." Trevalo was silent for a while.

"I wouldn't let anyone else delay a payment for this long, but I know you have unavoidable obligations and aren't merely trying to avoid paying me." The lamp flame shifted as a faint draft moved through the hall. Tesyb remained still in the corner, but Kivamus could feel the guards listening, even if the numbers meant little to them. To most people, 150 gold was already an enormous amount. To Tiranat, at the moment, it was both a fortune and not nearly enough. Trevalo finally let out a slow breath.

"If I waited this long, I can wait a little more." Kivamus did not interrupt. The merchant looked down at the contract again, then at the papers covered in Duvas's notes.

"And it does make sense, if your production truly reaches those amounts."

"It will," Kivamus said. Trevalo studied him for another moment, then nodded.

"All right. Then we will proceed with this." He took out his own stamp and pressed it to both copies of the contract after Duvas prepared the wax. The seal settled into place, marking the agreement in a way that felt heavier than the sheets of paper itself. It was not just a trade note. It was a lifeline running from Tiranat to Cinran, then downriver to Ulriga, and back again in the form of wheat and coin.

Once the contract was set aside to dry, Trevalo added, "Tomorrow morning, I will leave for Cinran with the six wagons I left here. We now have the contract for the minimum wheat you will buy from me and the minimum coal I will buy and transport for you," he said.

"Anything above that, we can handle verbally for now. By this point, I think we can trust each other that much." Kivamus extended his hand across the table.

"Agreed." Trevalo clasped it firmly. His palm was rough from travel, and his grip held the tired strength of a man who knew exactly how much rested on the agreement he had just made. Kivamus held it for a moment, then released it. Trevalo stood, gathering his things as well as his copy of the contract with the care of someone who wanted no paper misplaced after so much bargaining. He bowed to Kivamus, nodded to Duvas, and then left the hall with the contract settled and the morning's work already waiting for him.

The door closed behind him. Kivamus remained seated, listening to the fading sound of Trevalo's steps outside the hall. Then he turned to Duvas.

"This deal sounds good, actually." Duvas looked at him, then down at the papers, then back up.

"It does."

"Assuming the first run of the Ulrigan trading route works out in a fortnight," Kivamus said, "we will likely be selling far more than 280 gold worth of coal every month, because coal production is increasing by a few wagon loads every week." Duvas's mouth slowly stretched into a grin.

"That's what it seems like." The expression looked almost strange on his tired face. Duvas had spent too many days tightening accounts that refused to balance, shifting debts from one side of the page to the other, and warning Kivamus that good ideas still needed coin. Seeing the numbers finally bend in their favor made him look younger for a moment.

"Now," Duvas said, tapping the papers into a neat stack, "I need a few hours to tally all of this properly and make sure nothing is wrong. I also have to add up all the bank deposits we received from the people." He paused, then muttered, "I really do wish I had one of those calc—" He stopped. His eyes flicked toward Tesyb and the other guard in the corner. Kivamus understood at once. The old word had almost slipped out too easily. Calculator.

A small, ordinary thing from Earth, and utterly impossible to explain here without raising questions no one in that corner needed to ask. Kivamus leaned back and spoke before the silence became noticeable.

"I understand exactly. I also have to make all the calculations for the blueprints manually. I really wish we had better methods, but for now, it will have to do." Duvas gave him a quick look of gratitude, then lowered his gaze to the papers again. Kivamus pushed himself up from the chair. The long meeting had left his shoulders stiff, and the hall felt quieter now that the merchant had gone.

Outside, Tiranat was settling into the evening, but there was still too much work waiting for them to treat the day as finished.

"Anyway," Kivamus said, gathering his own notes, "let's get to work. I still have to finish the blueprint for the tenement block soon." Duvas gave a tired nod and reached for his pen again. The numbers were not fully solved yet. The wheat was still expensive, the debt was still heavy, and the Ulrigan trading route had yet to prove itself in practice. But for the first time in days, the path ahead looked less like a wall and more like a road.

Kivamus picked up the blueprints he needed and turned back toward his work.