Eisen took a step aside as the plan started unravelling. Komer seemed quite proud of what was happening right now, and the old man certainly understood why. When Komer suggested this earlier, he wasn't quite sure, but now that everything was actually happening, and maybe even better than they had hoped for, Eisen had no reason whatsoever to doubt Komer.
Though, he never did in the first place, really. There was just so much at stake here right now that Eisen wasn't totally sure about these kinds of manipulation, but considering that it was fairly harmless even if it failed, he had agreed to let Komer give it a shot.
The plan was simple. Since Aaron had always been a particularly intelligent young man that was interested in such matters, Komer suggested to use Aaron as the first bridge between the central continent and the giants. An icebreaker, of sorts. And then, once the atmosphere had improved, Komer coaxed the giants over toward Eisen once a good opportunity presented itself.
With the talks of that kraken, which inadvertedly led to the rapid expansion of a forest in the giants' country, a new 'mystery' had been solved. Of course, until that point, all of these mysteries were conversation topics that they picked up for fun. There was no real consequence to it.
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However, with that, the knowledge that the giants' country had such special fruit that could not only improve the amount of wool that could be produced, but could also become an extremely powerful fertilizer at the same time, was something that the people of the central continent wouldn't leave up.
After all, the very existence of that fruit was something that could lead to a very specific thing; money. And a lot of it, at that. As that was something that interested most of the envoys from the central continent, it was the perfect topic to start some conversations between them.
After they spoke of those fruit, the topic moved on to other special products that the giant country had to offer, and similarly, the envoys from the central continent tried to brag about products that the giant country may need.
Just like that, even if it was less of a conversation of leisure and more something like a networking event, as long as they started talking while trying to be nice to each other and make positive impressions, it literally did not matter to Eisen. He glanced down at the merchant standing next to him.
"So, is this what you had in mind?" Eisen asked, and Komer laughed lightly, shaking his head.
he'll be stuck in the business of low-level items until he can pivot into a whole different market, but he doesn't seem to have much of an intention to do so. I think he's still underestimating exactly the scale that Starlight is working at."
Eisen listened with a curious smile, nodding along to Komer's explanation. Considering that to most people, this was still 'just a game', it was easy to see why they would underestimate exactly the hard work that went into all of this. Of course, that was something that would change with time, but right now, it was understandable.
Putting Komer into a position where he could understand the weight behind all of his actions was incredibly benefitial to his growth as a merchant, "So what about Cial? Peddling ressources seems like a fairly safe thing, right?"
Komer just shrugged as if it were obvious, "Well, sure, but we're about to spread the train to the central continent, right? It won't take long until the cost of materials and ressources will drop to the lowest they've ever been, just because the transport costs will be astronomically low compared to what they will have been before.
Not to mention, Starlight is obviously going to have the largest fleet of private trains in the continent, so... Cial probably won't be able to do much against that."
"I'm very glad we managed to get you on our side. Wouldn't want to go against you in terms of business," Eisen laughed, but Komer quickly shook his head.
"Oh, trust me, I would have been doing anything I could to get on your side if I hadn't been from the beginning," Komer grinned.
Just then, the subtle sound of music started spreading through the room. Evalia stood on the slightly elevated 'stage' at the edge of the room, playing her violin. Behind her, other instruments were set up together with colourful, extravagant figures that she was creating with her magic. It was a group of string instruments, where Evali was playing the lead, accompanied by her own spells.
The music drew some attention for a short while, but in the end simply ended up improving the mood as the conversations continued on. While they all started with business, it seemed as though they were slowly but surely moving toward more casual conversations when everyone relaxed a bit more. The mood was improving, and Eisen couldn't help but be impressed by how good everything was going.
Of course, not everyone was really partaking; each side had a small group of troublemakers that didn't seem happy about this all. And as expected, the ones at the center each of those groups were the Cloud Giants and the Holy Empire respectively. But that was to be expected, and their behaviour had properly been accounted for already.
However, that was fine. Not everybody had to be happy or cooperative, as long as the overall mood was developing how Eisen liked, those guys could do whatever they wanted.