( 1 month later )
The economic woes of the Kingsman clan worsened with every passing day, 3 merchant organisations had decided to wrap up their operations from within dombivli while 17 had suspended operations.
With the enemy not allowing any trade to flow, the common citizens were starting to notice the immediate effects as the local markets were quickly depleted from imported goods and only had local products on display.
While Dombivli did have the ability to sustain itself long term, with both agriculture and natural resources abundant on the planet, they could not flip the pivot immediately.
Being reliant on imports for critical industries like iron and cooking oil, while they did have iron reserves on the planet they could not simply increase production overnight.
It took time to establish facilities and increase yield, whereas agricultural crops needed 3-6 months to mature and being in the middle of the current crop cycle, they could not be suddenly swapped for other forms of produce.
The quality of life of the common people had begun to be affected, as although they were living inside an open planet with open skies they psychologically felt like they were inside a prison, knowing that enemy ships patrolled their planetary borders.
According to the current economic and social setting, the internal ministers expected the matter to reach boiling point around the 3 month mark, unless the deadlock was broken.
*********
( Meanwhile Inside the Kingsman palace )
" Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! " Farid screamed as he punched the wall hard, breaking a chunk of the brick.
With the growing troubles, a lot of subordinates loyal to him had started to turn rebellious.
His position as a visionary leader was being questioned as he was being made into the scapegoat of the current crisis.
Farid knew that if he wanted to usurp the throne from Roy, he needed to become the hero of the masses.
It was exactly for that reason that he assumed control of the army and decided to deal with Ravan, as he knew that if he could defeat the rising star of the vampire clan, his prestige would soar and he would be able to usurp the throne.
Now that everything was going downhill, Farid had to deal with the consequences of his ambition as instead of Roy's incompetence being blamed, it was his head on the guillotine.
Most of Farid's anger stemmed not from making bad Military decisions. It stemmed from the fact that he made a small wrong decision at the start.
He should have known Ravan was a genius and let Roy deal with him, and when he failed which he was bound to do, he could have usurped the throne without any troubles.
But now he was stuck inside the mess and needed to clean up after himself, with the immediate problem to solve being that of the trade routes.
A good 47% of the highest income population of Dombivli were merchants. With their business directly attacked, their kind feelings towards the army were starting to vanish.
While they were patient for now, if the situation was not resolved soon, Farid was sure in his mind that there would be bad consequences for him.
About 150,000 people were directly related to the trade profession and about 450,000 more were indirectly linked.
With so many people being put out of job, riots were a real possibility.
Just as Farid was brainstorming for a solution, his subordinate walked into the room with an urgent message
" Sir - Sir a new merchant ship has managed to dock on the ports, they claim to have found a secret pathway that bypasses the Rebel security.
Their leader wishes to talk to someone in power to negotiate the price of trade "
The subordinates words were like music to Farid's ears who could not beleive his lucky stars that some daring merchant actually found a way around rebel security!
" Take me to meet him, this is a matter of national importance! " Farid said in a nervous voice as he could barely contain his excitement.
It seemed like things were finally taking a turn for the better.
*********
( At the ship docking bay )
" Are you the merchant who found a new route bypassing the rebel patrol? " Farid asked as he sized up the human infront of him.
Christian Grey was smoking a cigarette as he wore extremely fashionable earthen suit.
He calmly extended his hand for a handshake from Farid as he tossed his cigarette aside.
Taking a moment to blow the last bit of smoke out, he smiled with his dazzling white teeth and said " Christian Grey, pleasure to meet you "
By slowing down the conversation and making the other party wait, Christian gained the upper hand in the conversation as his calm persona coupled with his confident charm gave a bright first impression to anyone who met him.
" How did you bypass them? We the Kingsman have ruled this space for over 1500 years, how did we not find this route but you did? " Farid asked curiously as he did not wish to trust the enemy blindly.
Christian Grey laughed, he knew this question would be the first one that the authorities would ask as he came prepared.
" The difference between you and me is that you view space as 3 dimensions, I view it as 4…. " Christian said as he raised his eyebrows in a cheeky smile.
He gave a very vague answer that could be translated in a million ways, and while it made a lot of sense, it also did not make any sense throwing the enemy into confusion.
" Mr. Grey, name your price for telling us this new route. Even if it's 5 billion gold coins, we shall pay you immediately…. " Farid said as he revealed his hand in the negotiations
" It's a great offer, but unfortunately the secrets of the fourth dimension are a core secret of my merchant ships.
Even 100 billion is not enough for me to sell those.
Instead, I propose a happy partnership.
I'll bring you any goods you want, export any products you like.
I'll become your nationalised trading company, where all the merchants under you only have to post their products to me, and I shall deliver them to their destinations and bring them into the City.
Doing so I take all the risk, and naturally I also take some of the profits " Christian said as he made the Kingsman clan a offer that they were hard pressed to refuse.
An intense discussion ensued over the next 12 hours regarding Christian's proposition, but after pressure from the merchants end, it was passed and a system contract was signed between Christian Grey and the Kingsman clan.
For every small ship that he provided, Christian charged 100,000 gold coins as a one way fair, while he charged 1.2 million for large ships.
Maintaining a fleet of 130 ships, Christian expected to make about 35 million gold coins a day on average, which meant that if the trade continued smoothly for 3 or so months, he would stand to gain 3.1 billion gold coins from this deal overall!
These 3 or so billion were from transportation fees alone, he had also received a local trading licence and could make additional profits from selling products, all at the cost of bearing little to no risk.
This time he had truly struck rich by possibly earning over 1 billion gold/month all thanks to his childhood friend Max Rajput.
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/// A/N - Chapter 13/40, A new day ///