NOVEL NEXT vol. 4 chapter 35 - Container
With Amagio Silverhead and Alban Breias now participating, the trade talks began to accelerate all at once.
In particular, Amagio’s presence was decisive.
He not only grasped, to a fair extent, the conditions and policy concepts Paraiso was putting on the table—he even undertook to explain and coordinate them on the Lepuitari Kingdom’s side.
In particular, understanding the problem with a gold standard and conveying the concept of bills of exchange finished faster than scheduled.
“However, Drei. If you’re bringing out bills of exchange, are you planning a very large transaction?”
That, naturally, led to the obvious question.
With the lineup of goods Paraiso had presented so far, the scale of trade shouldn’t reach a level they’d worry about.
“You’re quick on the uptake. Originally, this was a topic we meant to advance after trade had begun.”
And the local Strategic AI acknowledged that point without fuss.
Amagio Silverhead’s involvement had forced a major change in the negotiation strategy.
“We know what you want. We meant to proceed cautiously, but with these participants, we should be able to keep it contained to this room.”
What they feared most was domestic turmoil triggered by gratuitous leakage of information.
Paraiso, which wanted the resource-export system organized as quickly as possible, absolutely wished to avoid the confusion of many independent wills colliding.
“Let me say it first. What we want is resources. Specifically, metallic ores.”
“…Oh?”
At that declaration, everyone present stiffened.
From the Lepuitari Kingdom’s perspective, metal resources are strategic materials—ideally consumed domestically if at all possible.
“Of course, we won’t demand large quantities out of nowhere, and we will prepare ample consideration. But the volumes we are aiming for are enormous, beyond what you can presently supply.”
“Is that so? Not to boast, but our nation’s steel output is head and shoulders above the rest.”
“At minimum, ten million tons per year. In your units, roughly 3.73 million VARCA. For iron ore alone, we want to transact above that.”
“Th-three point seven three million V… VARCA…”
Confronted with a number they’d never even heard spoken aloud, the Lepuitari side wavered. Amagio Silverhead alone did not change expression.
“…So. You’re saying you can prepare consideration commensurate with a transaction of that scale?”
“We can.”
Naturally, everyone understood they were not about to say they would pay in gold coins.
“We can show you. We have a sample loaded on this ship.”
Behind the deck-top meeting space was a direct elevator up from the internal hangar. From it, a single container was now being brought up.
Amagio Silverhead muttered, almost in spite of himself. Faced with a gulf in technical capability, there was nothing for it but a sigh.
With a smooth drive hum, the container rose. The deck locked, and at the same time the container’s side panels folded upward.
“Given the direction of your technical development, a steam-driven lift should be manufacturable. If you use piston motion, low-speed drive is comparatively straightforward. You should try it.”
“…We’ll consider it.”
Handed a line of technical direction so casually, Major Palliard Aminas of the Bureau of Engineering answered while his shoulders slumped. Their study of steam engines was ongoing and full of ideas under consideration.
In reality, however, Fuelstone “tone-mag” prices had risen, leaving them unable to run sufficient experiments.
Receiving guidance on R&D direction was welcome—but as a researcher, it surely came with a bitter taste.
“Now then. This is Paraiso’s mainline product for export.”
On cue with Drei’s words, Sechzehn gripped one handle inside the container—partitioned into a grid—and slid a drawer out with a clatter.
The container interior was designed as drawer-type storage, built so the contents could be retrieved by hand.
“Please.”
From within, Sechzehn lifted out the neatly arrayed rectangular blocks.
Dark-brown ore, standardized to 12 cm × 12 cm × 46 cm.
Cradling one in both arms, Sechzehn stepped forward to the Lepuitari grandees.
“Hm… This is…”
At a glance, it was merely stone trimmed clean and square.
But everyone here was among the Lepuitari Kingdom’s top elites.
The faces that had begun with doubt shifted, one after another, to astonishment.
“N-no… no way…”
Fleet Admiral Alban Breias wavered a step closer to Sechzehn.
“…May I touch it?”
“No problem.”
After Sechzehn’s nod, Alban Breias gently set his hand upon the ore in her arms.
What came through his palm was the feel of hard ore—and a faint warmth.
The dark-brown appearance; the property of holding heat.
If it was exactly what it appeared to be, then it was the strategic material the Lepuitari Kingdom presently wanted so badly it could taste blood.
It was a solid block of Fuelstone tone-mag.
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Amagio Silverhead let the words slip, under his breath.
“Hey now… Drei, don’t tell me the inside of that container is—”
“Affirmative, Amagio. The contents of this container are Fuelstone. All standardized to this size.”
With that, Drei turned on her heel and approached the container.
Then, with her own hand, she pulled a different drawer.
“Each case holds twenty-four Fuelstone blocks. As you see, the drawer bank is five rows by twenty-four columns. There’s another bank on the reverse side.
The Fuelstone blocks are 8.51 CF × 8.51 CF × 34.0 CF in your unit, weight 4.9433 TR Rogun.
In other words, per container, the Fuelstone comes to about 26.99 V.”
“…”
Even Amagio Silverhead fell silent at that explanation.
26.99 V—72.33 t in Paraiso’s tonnage. They were presently mining that quantity in roughly a week, and it exceeded the Lepuitari Kingdom’s annual purchase volume with room to spare.
Moreover, the usefulness of Fuelstone varied with its inherent quality.
In particular, crystal size connected directly to heat output and duration; for the same mass, sand-like grains and crystalline blocks performed completely differently.
Therefore, if the Fuelstone presented was exactly what it seemed, its value was immeasurable.
The impact was so great that everyone on the Lepuitari side fell into complete silence.
What lay before them was one full year’s worth of Fuelstone they normally struggled to import—
—and it was standardized into unbelievably high-purity blocks.
That value could easily swell by an order of magnitude or two.
“All Fuelstone we plan to sell you will be standardized to this specification. Because this shape is for our convenience, we will basically not accept special requests.”
Drei then tossed in another bomb.
So long as they purchased from Paraiso, they could procure Fuelstone as crystals of identical size. Industrially, that was of enormous use.
At present, because they used Fuelstone crystals of every size indiscriminately, Fuelstone compression-ignition devices were bulky in both volume and weight. This opened the possibility of shrinking them.
“You may already know this, but Fuelstone can be worked under water. If the pieces are too large, you can drive in a wedge and break them easily.”
The Lepuitari participants wore looks that said, “Breaking this would be sacrilege,” but Amagio Silverhead alone seemed to have reined in his agitation.
“…I see. I see. …This is indeed not something you can show around lightly…”
He let out a long breath and moved in toward the container. Perhaps that finally snapped the others back to themselves; they hurried after Amagio Silverhead.
“From the look of it, it’s all Fuelstone, all right. …Good grief, you’ve brought out something outrageous, Drei. We certainly can’t use our gold coinage for a deal like this. But with bills of exchange, we can grant payment terms—and if need be, we can swap directly for goods.”
At Amagio Silverhead’s words, the Lepuitari group finally seemed to grasp it.
If buying a single one of these containers would blow their annual budget, then of course trade would be difficult.
But if they extended payment through bills, and Paraiso then took up those bills as payment for other purchases Paraiso desired, they could dispense with currency-mediated exchange entirely.
Thus, with Amagio Silverhead’s arrival, trade negotiations between the Lepuitari Kingdom and Paraiso began to surge forward.