“Sol, what does this thing do?”

“If it works, then it will use the wind or water to create bundles of hay for easy transportation. With a few alterations, it can be used to transport water, crush grain into flour, or anything else we can think of. I’m not sure how to do it yet, but I’m sure it can be used to pump air into a furnace as well to help with ironwork.”

Duke Reviarra couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows at the comment. He understood the state of his territory well. The main export of Arcgate was unprocessed grains and meat. Despite exporting a large quantity of the product, traveling merchants typically purchased the grain at a bargain price. 

There was little the locals could do to negotiate a better price as the merchants were correct to say the grain had to be imported into a territory for processing before it could be properly sold. Those costs were not cheap and ate into the profits of the farmers.

By creating a mechanism for local farmers to process the grain within the territory, it would both grant the farmers greater negotiative leverage and potentially bring raw grain from nearby territories into Arcgate boosting the trade tax income.

Duke Reviarra was proud of his daughter’s creativity, but as he looked further into the future, there was a slight discomfort that overtook him. The Iridescent brand was limited to Arcgate territory for now, however it was unlikely Sol would remain local. 

Her company was already showing signs of expansion. While he was deep in thought, Sol had already walked up to the new building and inspected it closely. She turned one of the fins and watched the interconnected gears and axles rotate along with it. 

Unlike the simpler tools Iridescent initially released, this construct was far more complex and required knowledge about gear ratios and material strength at the very least. Considering the initial models would be powered by wind, it was unlikely for competing products to be released so soon. Sol’s eyes soon drifted from the mechanism and  settled onto her father.

“Father… I have something I’d like Iridescent to get engaged with, however I don’t know if it would be overstepping my boundaries.”

“Go ahead. I want to hear it. It’s related to this thing, right?”

“Yes. Father, as it stands, most farmers in our territory barter and negotiate their own prices with traveling merchants. This has both a positive and negative aspect, however I think this is unfair for the farmers. To begin with, our citizens are reliant on the traveling merchants to distribute the cost of grain outside the territory and have no means to dispute a quoted ‘market price’.”

“Certainly. I’ve considered this as well, however outside of strong punishments for those caught price gouging, there’s little I can do to assist them.”

“That’s only true while the negotiation power is with the farmers. Father, I’d like to become the central transaction point for merchants looking to buy grain. I plan on having Iridescent negotiate a contract with the farmers and then sell on their behalf. To generate profit for Iridescent, we can charge a small fee to the farmers and process their grains into flour. The flour will sell better than the grain and as such, the farmers would still receive more from us than they would if they directly negotiated.”

Duke Reviarra stared at his daughter as if she were a monster. Her ideas aligned perfectly with the current state of the territory, and the action of consolidating resources to a centralized area was the first step of creating a competitive economy.

The mere fact that a burgeoning 7 year old would be capable of planning in such a way made the Duke both proud and depressed. The greater her brilliance, the closer she was to death. Those thoughts only crossed his mind for a moment before he wrangled them back down. 

“This is a good idea. Iridescent will obtain control over the grain market and be able to control the prices to match the actual market value. Overall, the farmers who choose to go through Iridescent for their sales are liable to make 2 to 3 times more than they did in the past. Without proper discipline though, corruption could ruin the model overnight. Select your salesmen well.”

“I was hoping to leave that aspect to you, my dear father. I don’t believe my ability to discern people is developed yet. I’ve been trying to improve, but this is too big a step for me to risk losses on.”

“That’s true. I’ll get you some trustworthy men. Make good use of them.”

“Of course.”

Sol smiled brightly before gesturing to the men near them. The servants packed the building up onto a carriage before moving it to a remote site selected earlier. The new site rested at the edge of a steep cliff and a large building lined the edge along with it.

Fixed in place to a preset frame, the new building extended a series of fans over the edge. The moment the fins dangled over the cliff, the updraft caught against them and turned the shaft. Cheers arose as men took a moment to appreciate both their hard work and their Lady’s ingenuity.

It took just over two years for Sol to expand Iridescent enough where it could handle trading for over 90% of the territory’s farmer populace. Merchants rarely engage with the farmers directly anymore, instead favoring to deal through Iridescent.

Transactions were pre-negotiated and as the product was centralized, it took practically no time at all to load the merchant wagons up. Over all, the merchants preferred interacting with the professional and trusted Iridescent rather than negotiating at wild with farmers individually.

Despite having to purchase the grain and flour at higher cost, the dramatically reduced time to purchase, load, and eventually transport the product gave the merchants a greater profit as well. 

With the grain refined into flour, most merchants swapped over to purchasing the refined food to boost the amount of product they moved each trip. 

Two years was also long enough for Iridescent to expand their milling machines from the original 3 prototypes to 36. Sol sat in her chair on the 3rd floor of Iridescent headquarters. The remnants of her childish innocents had long been grinded away.

Laying in stacks across her desk were a series of proposals to take Iridescent to the next stage. Sol tapped the desk while in thought. So far, she was able to improve the quality of life for farmers in the territory.

There was less hunger due to increased harvests, less slavery, and debt now that they had higher income, and Sol noticed a growing trend for spending amongst the farmers as well. It was clear the economy in Arcgate had started flowing.

Of the sorted stacks, Sol held two in particular in front of her. She was debating between the two as both could technically be implemented, however each would take Iridescent in different directions. She wasn’t too concerned with what the company dabbled in since the goal of Iridescent was to improve the territory overall, however by performing too well, Iridescent would likely draw unwanted attention.

For that very reason, Sol glanced up at the two men sitting across from her. Each held a copy of the two business plans and were going through it with tightened brows. As she knew they were on their third read through, Sol queried the first man.

“Chrisopher, what are your thoughts?”

“...”

“You couldn’t possibly be telling me you have no thoughts, right?”

“Sister, are you trying to get yourself killed?”

His comment drew the attention of Duke Reviarra as well. The two men appeared to agree with each other though as the Duke didn’t refute his son’s claim. Rather, the Duke held a stern expression as he put down the business proposals.

“I don’t think this would endanger me though. I intend to keep both of these plans restricted to Arcgate territory only.”

“Your brother’s right, Sol. Even if you wanted to keep this to our territory only, it’s too dangerous. After merchants interact with Iridescent using this, they’ll want it elsewhere as well.”

“Couldn’t other regions implement it then? A banking system already exists through the guild, it’s just horribly unrefined and mismanaging the money.”

“You don’t understand… No, I’m sure you understand if you can write something like this. Sister, if you go through with this banking plan and manage to outperform the guild, you effectively increase the Reviarra household from a powerless Duke estate into a foundational family. It’d be the same as wresting control from the Royal family via the economy.”

“How so? The Royals can establish their own banking system to compete and the guild already has a poor banking system as well.”

“There’s no discussion about this, Sol. Forget about the banking plan for now. Your second business plan has issues as well, but is less dangerous for us all. Let’s go with it instead.”