Chapter 46: Banished for 3 Years
Hanu entered the room, saw the chief alone in the office, and said
"Father, we just heard that Wooden Village has closed their doors and is not allowing anyone into or out of the village."
"What else?"
"It's a rumour, but we have heard that yesterday night more than half of the villagers went missing."
"This is really worrying; did anyone request our help?"
"The woodland village has not reached us yet, but we heard from the stone village that they want to negotiate for our help."
"There is no negotiation; there is always do or do not, never a try. So rules can't be changed."
Hanu, after listening to his father, hesitated for a while and wanted to speak but didn't.
"I know that you feel that we should help immediately."
"Yes", Hanu nodded.
"Tell me one thing: have we ever taken any advantage of the situation and taken over any new region? even when we could have done it."
"No, but…"
"Though we didn't interfere ever, we have always supplied food and other resources, even when we were at a loss. We did it because of humanity."
"If we help them now while totally discarding the rules, what is the point of us being neutral?"
"But…"
"Son, sometimes one needs to be cruel even when he doesn't want to." "I also want to help my fellow humans and neighbours, but I can't. I am tied down by the rules."
Hanu nodded in understanding. Though he understood everything his father said, he really couldn't bear to see his neighbours fall.
Chief was about to continue when he looked behind Hanu towards the door, and soon there was a knock.
"Hanu, sit down; we will figure something out now."
"Please enter."
The merchant leader and Ram entered the office together.
"Chief, I really like Ram. I have given him a way to directly contact me for the trade in the future. I just felt like I needed to inform you."
The chief looked surprised by the mood of the merchant leader, but still in confusion, he nodded while the leader took his leave and, while laughing, exited the office.
…..
"What just happened?"
"We just had a normal conversation, and he out of his liking towards me gifted me a Level 1 anti-poison pill."
Chief and Hanu both looked at Ram as if they had heard something wrong. The mysterious merchant had never gifted them anything, even after knowing them for many years, but has gifted Ram a pill just to maintain the friendship. What did they talk about to form a friendship?
"I won't pry into your trade; it's good that you can now contact the mysterious merchant directly for trade. It might help you later."
Ram nodded.
Then the chief, as if he remembered something, looked towards Hanu and Ram and instantly came up with an idea.
"Ram, we can form a long-term food supply partnership if you can guarantee the quality."
"Yes, I can guarantee the quality, but I want to ask if you are also interested in law-embedded products."
"Yes, we can also buy that, and the cost is something we can discuss for both products at the time of trade."
Then the chief continued with a calm expression.
"Ram, what do you plan to do tomorrow?"
"Nothing; I will just go around with my Noraml routine. Why?"
"See here, Hanu is having an issue, and I was thinking if you can help him with it, off course we can discuss the cost if you are interested; nothing is free."
Ram turned and looked towards Hanu, who had a confused expression on him, and then at the chief, who was very calm. He felt something off. so he cautiously replied.
"Money is not the answer to everything. Can you tell me what the problem is first?"
"Sure, so it's like this. Our neighbouring village is facing an issue. This issue can only be resolved by asking our help, but for some reason their leader is not asking for help, while his people are desperate. What should be done here?"
"Why don't we directly help them?"
"It is because of the main rule."
Then the chief explained the rule and talked about the last night's incident and the stone village nearby requesting help.
"This is a little tricky, but it can be solved."
"How?"
"What will I get in return?"
What do you want?
"10 percent of the total profit per village that enters under the control of village 1 every month."
"Aren't you being too greedy here? 10 percent is too much; those villages would also need time to recover."
"Okay, how about this: we make a contract where you can state that for the first month there will be only 4 percent profit per village, but from the second month on, every month it will increase by 2 percent till it reaches 10 percent, and then it will stay at 10 percent for 5 years."
Then, after some time, the chief nodded and said
"Tell me the plan of action."
"Okay, it's like this..."
Then Ram explained his plan to the chief while Hanu also listened, and after he was done with the explanation, Hanu felt as if this plan was immoral and ridicule, while the chief smiled and said
"Brilliant, Excellent. This is good."
"Chief, I object to this plan." Hanu interjected and said
"This is immoral and ridiculous; this is against humanity, and the plan goes against the rule of the village."
"Hanu, you seem to be overthinking; what he said doesn't in any way go against humanity or the rules of the village. If you clear your mind and think deeper, you will realise this plan only works in grey areas. There is no black and white here, and one thing to remember is that Ram has not yet bought land here in the village, so he is not yet a citizen. We are only hiring him as a negotiator with the neighbouring village."
"But…"
"Don't think too much. If anything goes wrong, I'll take the blame."
"Father, this is not right. We can't do this."
"Hanu, you have still not learned how to understand on a deeper level, so hereby I give you the order that once this situation is solved, you have to leave the village for 3 years and travel the world and learn from your observations."
Hanu, after hearing this, became very sad but still bowed in the direction of his father and said
"I understand."
…..
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