The Merchants' Calculations

[West Gate, Kamikochō]

From Iruma, a great many merchants came streaming in one after another, hauling enormous quantities of food.

"Echizen-ya, what's all this commotion about?"

"Comrade Lord Director of Books, the Awa Army has been placing massive orders for provisions. The delivery dates they specify run from roughly three days out, in sequence. And the place of delivery is outside this very dungeon."

"I see. So if they encircle this dungeon and keep buying food off the merchants, they can hold out until the autumn farming season arrives. Cleverly thought out."

"The single largest order is for liquor. They're offering rather good prices on the rest as well, so it isn't only the grain dealers, dry-goods dealers, and liquor dealers who've come. Of course, I won't be selling Awa anything."

"Liquor, is it. I see. That'll be the Preta, then. If we buy at a higher price than Awa has bid, we can snatch up everything that isn't already under contract, but it'll take that much more money. And this dungeon can't generate money, so all we have is what we took off Tsukuba last time. On the other hand, if we go forcibly requisitioning goods from the merchants, we'll never have their cooperation again. But if we wipe out the Awa Army itself before Awa takes delivery, we should be able to buy at a fair discount."

"In practice, I wouldn't recommend requisitioning. Even from that detestable lot. A bad reputation spreads in no time. This dungeon's 'we take no prisoners' policy is no concern to anyone who doesn't march on this place, since a dungeon can't mount expeditions anyway. But 'your goods will be seized' is something everyone takes exception to."

"Even so, are there really this many merchants who think the Awa Army will win?"

"They've no need to win. Even if Awa is annihilated before the city walls like the Tsukuba army, so long as they've sold their goods beforehand, that's all that matters to a merchant."

"Seizing goods from the merchants is out, but there's nothing wrong with helping ourselves to what the Awa Army has bought, is there."

"That would be wholly legitimate plunder, with no one entitled to complain."

"That said, since we've already begun planting the fields, for my part I'd rather not let the Awa Army anywhere near here at all. So, the largest order really is for liquor, then."

"For it to be a victory celebration from the very outset would be unnatural, so they're most likely hiring on Pretas in great numbers. By the layman's reckoning, Pretas are the most useful for storming this dungeon."

"Echizen-ya, if you were going to attack this dungeon, how would you go about it?"

"Me? A dungeon can't go on campaign, so I'd bring goods from somewhere beyond the dungeon's reach and do business with it. I know of no other dungeon one can sit down and bargain with, after all, the way one can with you, Comrade Lord Director of Books."

[Tier-Group 3 Conference Room]

Floor 10 of Tier-Group 3. In the ten-seat conference room, the Master, Marie, and Mint were gathered.

"As for the Awa Army, the headcount is still unconfirmed, but it appears to be at the upper end of our projections, on the order of thirty thousand. The mercenaries, adventurers, and merchants who joined up at Kōnodai and Hiratsuka are very few in number, but the Pretas appear to number somewhere around a hundred thousand, so the total certainly exceeds a hundred thousand. The Awa Army marches ahead during the day and makes camp at night; the Pretas, being nocturnal, march by night and catch up afterward, then rest during the day. The Pretas are slow walkers, but perhaps because they require no meals, there seems to be no difference in the distance covered per day."

Mint delivered her report. It wasn't that the Pretas required no meals; they simply couldn't eat anything but alcohol and ether.

"Pretas, is it… So they really did round up Pretas in droves. Seven-tenths Preta, that's all but a Preta army outright. And then a great host approaching the hundred thousand of the Siege of Odawara or Sekigahara, yet only thirty thousand of them needing resupply. Truly, in warfare the Pretas are a cheat. By rights it ought to be the Asura who are the warrior race. So, Mint, how many people are presently staying inside this dungeon?"

"The inflow is accelerating, so it's certainly past thirty thousand. Likely close to forty thousand. And on top of that, these last few days the number of merchants visiting has surged."

"In other words, the 'number of adventurers simultaneously present within the dungeon' will reliably exceed a hundred thousand. Whether a number like a hundred thousand was ever envisioned by the system is anyone's guess. Also, to squeeze out even a little more dungeon energy, hand out every last bottle of liquor in the Master's refrigerator to the settlers and the merchants. We absolutely must win this. The merchants have brought plenty of liquor themselves, but that's merchandise."