At the northern port of the Land of Tea, a group of ninjas wearing masks and cloaks disembarked from their ship.
All eyes turned in their direction, as many wanderers and prominent nobility gathered for the celebration of the eldest son of the Tepei family, the strongest clan, only second to the current daimyo.
Rumor has it that the Tepei clan are blood relatives of the daimyo, and that's why they're allowed to accumulate so much power without hindrance.
"Are they assassins sent out to kill the princess?" a bystander asked.
"Why the hell would assassins be showing themselves so openly?!"
Many of the bystanders whispered among themselves, but after a glare from Toji, everyone went on their way.
Sakina walked beside Toji and informed him, "We have about two days before we can enter the estate. Would you like me to find a place where we can stay?"
Toji nodded, "Yeah. Rent out an entire inn if you have to. We need to keep the goods safe. Grab some gold from one of the scrolls and quickly find us an inn."
Sakina nodded and vanished.
The merchant guild has an abundance of gold—enough to buy an entire clan. As for why Taro couldn't simply use it to replace the ryō, it was because gold wasn't the standard currency in the ninja world.
Most, if not everyone, use gold as a reserve for when the market crashes or if they need relief for a financial burden. Gold is the only resource that can maintain its value with little to no depreciation, and so many clans and countries used this form of reserve instead of ryō.
If Taro were to use an abundance of gold, not only would it cause a commotion in the Land of Wind, it would also cause a massive retaliation from everyone, as it could lower the value of gold.
It was better to sell gold at a moderate amount and exchange it for ryō to prevent market crashes throughout the world, as everyone uses the same currency.
While Sakina was looking for a place to stay, a man inside his inn sat in front of his desk with an angered expression.
"That bastard Moshen! How could he spread false rumors about my inn?! Now I only have a few people renting my rooms in such a busy week!"
The middle-aged man named Kaito cursed at the inn owner across from him. The inn across from him was owned by a man named Moshen, someone who ran multiple inns in the northern port.
Hearing about the wedding a year earlier than everyone, he began buying all the inns in the port, with the only exception of Kaito's inn.
The two had a grudge since childhood, all because Kaito stole the heart of Moshen's crush. Because of this, Moshen began to hate his best friend. And so he went on a journey to accumulate wealth so the woman he loved would finally look at him.
However, after returning in his mid-twenties, he learned that Kaito and the one he loved had become husband and wife. They even had a kid a year before Moshen returned.
Not accepting the defeat, Moshen grew his business while trying to claim what was rightfully his. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't win her over.
And so he finally gave up—until news arrived from his cousin, who worked directly under the young nobleman that's getting married today.
When he heard about the marriage, he saw the potential of the inn business. Not only would he earn thousands or maybe even millions, he could also gain influence through nobility staying inside his inns.
With this influence, he wanted to destroy the livelihood of Kaito.
Kaito scoffed, "And why the hell would people believe that I'm a rogue ninja?!"
In the ninja world, especially in less powerful nations, rogue ninja are heavily frowned upon, and most weaker countries avoid associating with them.
Unlike future rogue ninjas that are from villages, rogue ninjas are banished clansmen. Most of these clansmen are bandit-like savages that would do anything to survive.
As Kaito was contemplating the situation, the door slid open and a group of people wearing masks and cloaks walked through it. From their looks alone, Kaito knew these guys were ninjas, strong ones at that.
Kaito began to sweat as he thought to himself, "Are they after me? What if they kill me because they think I'm a rogue?"
However, his thoughts were cut short when a soft voice asked, "How many rooms are left in this inn?"
Kaito shook off his momentary daze and answered, "There are 15 rooms left…"
The woman nodded and took out a golden bar from somewhere, "We'll take all of it. And make sure we have somewhere to station our goods."
Kaito's eyes widened as he took the golden bar. From the weight alone, he could deduce that it was a 10-pound gold bar, something precious to even royalty. After all, a single 10-pound bar is enough to live off for generations.
[Note: A 10-pound bar is around 340k-640k in USD, which is 53m-110m in Yen. And from what I've gathered, 1 ryo = 10 yen, so around 10mil ryo.]
"Wait!" Kaito stopped the lady from leaving, but after realizing what he just did, Kaito became timid, "T-This is too much!"
The woman didn't turn around. She simply said, "Keep the change."
After Sakina left the inn, she quickly made her way back to where Toji still was. Upon arriving, Toji asked, "How did things go?"
Sakina answered, "It went well. And from the looks of it, this place is booming because of the wedding."
Toji nodded as he looked around. For the past few hours, he hadn't been idle; he'd been gathering information from passing merchants and nobility. As he watched and listened, he began to notice a pattern. This place was a hotspot for wandering ninja and merchants.
Toji glanced at Sakina, "Let's start a sub-branch here. We won't need to personally manage it, but hire someone to do it for us. We can control the trade and the ports by buying one of the shipbuilding businesses here."
Confused, Sakina asked, "How are we gonna do that? Should we just start buying businesses? But if we do that and don't manage it, how exactly will we earn money? After all, they could just leave with the money we gave them."
Toji smiled, "Remember what Taro told us? The guild isn't a single entity, it's a union of merchants. A single merchant won't be able to traverse the entire world, so we need smaller merchants to join us and buy our goods then sell them to other places."
"So are we gonna ask one of the merchants here?" Sakina asked.
Toji nodded, "Pretty much. But right now, we don't want them to have any of our goods, so we'll just have to start off small." He glanced at the ships on the dock and said, "First, we need to obtain one of the shipbuilding businesses here."
Hearing Toji's words, Sakina remembered the actions of Kaito from earlier. Although she didn't know his full personality, the fact that he was willing to give back something that could change his life was enough for her to trust him with this small matter.
"I have someone in mind to be our representative."
"Who is it?" Toji asked.
Sakina smiled, "It's the inn owner who I rented the rooms from."