Chapter 103. Shady Trade (3)

Nomadic tribes, whether African tribes or Central Asian nomadic tribes, are generally hospitable.

When outsiders visit, they grill plenty of meat, serve alcohol, and treat them with great hospitality.

In some tribes, they even send their wives to the guest's bedroom in case their waist hurts while sleeping.

The reason isn't because those gentlemen are kind and innocent, but because outside guests are valuable sources of information, so they treat them preciously.

"If you come any closer, we'll kill you!"

At the same time, arrows fell quite far from us.

It's certainly not because their archery skills are lacking that they missed, but it's probably the same principle as warning shots in the military as a final warning measure.

'Even if words don't communicate, arrows and bullets do.'

Chloe asked me:

"Didn't you say these tribal people are kind to guests from outside?"

There are always exceptions in this world.

And let's see where the cause of this strange situation is.

Come to think of it, nomadic tribes need to herd animals numbering dozens of times their tribal members, but…

Right now there are only a few hundred animals here.

Unless some epidemic spread, they must have been urgently driven from their original territory due to the Nador governor's intense invasion war.

'In business terms, it's like bankruptcy or insolvency.'

"These people probably don't have room to welcome guests from outside right now."

It's hard to see clearly because of the distance, but this tribe must be in a state of famine or facing an equivalent crisis.

If we, numbering about 150 people, attack in such a dangerous situation...

'If we have that intention, we could probably enslave the entire tribe.'

Of course, I have no such intention unless they openly launch a preemptive attack.

"Abdullah, tell them we have no intention to fight."

They won't let their guard down just because we say we don't intend to fight.

But at least they won't shoot arrows at my neck asking to talk.

"Understood, Baron."

Hearing my words, Abdullah hurriedly ran towards them.

"There's no need to run, but he's really trying hard to win my favor."

After waiting a bit, Abdullah brought an indigenous Ifriqiya tribesman.

Coal-black skin with a very tall height and long limbs.

Even though he's terribly thin and gaunt now due to starvation because of poor food conditions, he's this majestic.

What state must he have been in normally?

Was he like Usain Bolt, full of practical compressed muscles?

Abdullah hurriedly introduced the man in front of me:

"This man is Taio, the warrior chief of the Botswana tribe. He says he wants to talk, but they can't let anyone into their village now."

"But those guys really kill if they say they'll kill. It's too dangerous."

If they really intended to kill, they would have shot one of us instead of a warning shot.

We came prepared by hiring nearly 100 guys with mercenary fighting experience.

Are you scared of just this much?

'Guys who betray well are terribly cowardly.'

"You talk too much. Just convey my words without changing a single letter. If you don't do as I say, I'll hand you over to the Nador governor."

As if my prediction was correct, sweat ran down Abdullah's back.

"I've committed a capital offense, please anything but that..."

I gently patted his shoulder and whispered in his ear:

"Let's do well together. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to give you a sad fate."

Now he should do well since I even persuaded him nicely.

"Nice to meet you, Warrior Chief. I am Baron Pierre of the Kingdom of Granada across the distant sea."

To deceive the enemy, you must deceive even your allies.

Otherwise, spies might leak the strategy I stayed up all night devising to the enemy, and allies could be annihilated or suffer great damage.

'There's a reason the military takes security seriously.'

Besides, it's perfect for deceiving the Nador governor too.

We can play dumb saying it seems the Granada guys are selling gunpowder for you to kill them.

Those guys will definitely believe it if we deny responsibility like this.

Because the Kingdom of Granada and the Sultanate were at war called 'Reconquista' until just 20 years ago.

They don't engage in full-scale war now because they've been completely expelled from the Albania continent.

Hearing my words, Taio tilted his head.

"Kingdom, baron? What's that?"

"Baron means the leader of a tribe, and kingdom is a very large tribe formed by gathering leaders of several tribes."

Well, the empire's barons are nobility of the robe or territorial nobility, so the system is very complexly organized, so it can't be said to be exactly like that.

Moreover, it's difficult to say that an empire is a union of several tribes.

But when explaining something to someone who knows nothing, it's okay to explain moderately within the bounds of 'facts'.

For now, this much is enough, and later I can teach the concept of a country.

"So you're saying you're a tribal chief?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Why would a person who's a tribal chief come all the way across the distant sea here?"

When lying, there's no need to say unnecessarily long words.

No, if words get longer, you'll step on your own tail.

Excellent scammers, no, the East India Company at the forefront of the British Empire's colonial expansion and management, always act like this.

'99% facts, 1% lies.'

More strictly speaking, they keep everything related to very trivial things to make themselves believe they're very trustworthy people.

Then at the most important moment, they backstab as hard as possible.

This hyena country-like wisdom is being well used by scammers who borrow money and run away.

They repay very well when borrowing 1,000 won, 10,000 won, 100,000 won at first, then later borrow in units of 10 million won and disappear.

"We cannot get along well with infidels, those who believe in other gods. Although we've stopped fighting now, we don't know when those evil plunderers might target us."

There's not a single lie mixed in here.

The Tuscan Empire is 'officially' in a constant state of war with infidels, and we don't know when they might invade to kill us.

Ah, of course some great merchants do spice trade and buy all sorts of slaves.

Among nobles, having an 'infidel sex slave' sold by infidels is a great source of pride, and I have a very close relationship with the Alsini family and Nador governor.

But those are just 'unspoken facts'.

"I don't know what kind of people you are. But those evil Nador bastards are shooting and killing us who are just staying still with guns, kidnapping our tribespeople and selling them as slaves. They're just trying to keep pushing us out of our living grounds."

The fastest way to become close with someone is to gossip about a 'common enemy'.

"Although we've just met, we have the same enemy. We should get along well, right?"

"That's right."

"Would it be alright if I meet the tribal chief to discuss in more detail?"

The warrior chief gladly accepted.

"Those who fight against the same enemy are friends. Baron Pierre and his party, follow me, I'll guide you to the chief."

**

The warrior chief took us into their village.

"Don't stray from us. If you stray, angry tribespeople might kill you."

The state of the village was as terrible as I thought.

They're not quite at the level of starving to death, but their faces and limbs are gaunt and thin.

Their expressions show only worry and concern instead of vitality.

Livestock that should be commonly seen in such tribal settlements are sparsely visible.

'Those tents over there must be full of injured people dying.'

And people around were looking at us with hostile eyes.

"Chloe, Chris. Never act alone."

Both of them nodded at my words.

Not long after, the warrior chief took us into a tent decorated with gold.

Inside, an old man was seen wearing all sorts of gold ornaments as if to show his authority.

'That gentleman must be the tribal chief.'

"I'm meeting the chief of the Botswana tribe. I am Pierre, in charge of a small tribe in a huge tribe called the Kingdom of Granada."

The chief looked down at me and said:

"I called you because you said you have the same enemy as us and want to trade. Well, what have you brought?"

I had porters open a chest loaded on a cart to show.

"We've brought weapons used by evil plunderers. We want to buy gold with this."