Green Business 5 - (Original Fantasy, GoblinShopkeeper!SI)

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Mallicus Larniv was many things - a reformist, a modernist, a believer of good morals but...

A practitioner of war he was not.

While the context demanded a sort of military touch to solve their werewolvish problem, it wasn't as easy as many would think for him to come down with the idea of allocating a sizable amount of money from the budget into war-production.

Yet, he had been coerced into giving it a try by both the leader of the militia, Ser Prezmil de Marian, and the investor that had aided the settlement's growh and improvements, Mr. Gobbo Green.

The former had been seen as that aging and ill-minded fellow that wanted more autonomy from the rest of the kingdom, something that Mallicus didn't endorse due to his connections to the reformist group in the royal capital, while the latter had the most weight behind his words due to the understanding that ran between the two in the matter of changing the place for the best.

Still, the young mayor accepted the duo's offer to take part to a presentation of some weapons that Mr. Green had produced after his most recent collaboration of the local blacksmith owned by Ms. Erin Malac. The reputation of Ms. Malac was a controversial one: her father was a fine blacksmith, while his daughter was mediocre at best.

Mallicus didn't expect much to occur from the presentation, expecting more sightings of swords and maces, but he was positively stunned as his ears were assaulted by loud noises as the long and thin-looking tools used by the marksmen provided by Ser de Marian proved to be an entirely different product than anything anyone had expected.

Albeit similar to the recently-developed musket, this 'Martini-Henry' gun was an entirely different rifle. The reloading system was different, it was swifter and it was safer. The aiming was even more efficient thanks to the iron sights, and the overall costs were surprisingly lesser than the expensive muskets.

It was one of the many pieces offered, with the rest of the catalogue intriguing the rest, the mayor was most intrigued by a single piece he was actually gifted by Mr. Green - the Model 1 'Patriot' (M1911) looked sleek and tiny, a pistol that was conjured within the notion of seven shots in the chamber and an even easier time reloading through mags-feeding system implemented for this weapon.

The caliber was weaker, and it was less precise in long-ranged competitions, but it was an effective tool to use in the short-range as he was quick to find out after being offered the chance to test it out.

The kickback puzzled someone as inexperienced around this sort of weaponry as the mayor, but the man could now see why Ser Prezmil was so interested in the products. Especially the large cannons. The prices were affordable, but that wasn't Mallicus' current reason of reluctance.

He knew the situation demanded for them to adapt or perish due to a werewolf assault that was quite imminent, but he was caught up by another issue: what comes after that. After all, the innovative tools, which he was sure came from the surprisingly inventive mind of Ms. Malac after she effortlessly and excitedly defined the mechanisms behind the weapons in dumber terms, could spark more than just survival - it would spark change, fear, and, worst of all, paranoia.

Fear could be dispelled, but paranoia was a rather gross parasite to dabble with. It was paranoia that kept the village from changing, it was paranoia that now drove him to be reluctant to take that step.

So many what ifs, so many chances of this going very wrong for the very village he swore an oath to protect. It felt like he was staring at two roads to hell, he either died a 'royalist' or he died a 'man of honor'.

Both were equally fair in their own application, but as he delved into this more with his thoughts and he felt the incessant ticking of time taking a toll on his capacity to handle this as calmly as possible, Mallicus knew that there wasn't really a choice.

Sticking by the notion of royalism meant betraying the village and pretty much destroying all the progress made. Diplomacy can actually be entertained to stave off a royal investigation if it came down to that, and that's why, despite his many doubts, the Mayor signed the papers to give money to the process.

The militia was given two days to get the needed weapons and ammo, train with those and be ready for war by the end of it all.

It was a tall order, but Ser Prezmil did not lash out at him for it as he was aware that it wasn't something in the hands of Mallicus.

The militia retreated with boxes, money was given to the business-goblins and Mallicus returned to his office.

Within this trying times, his predecessor had argued that booze could 'clear a mind or two', but the young Mayor stuck to just some apple juice. He didn't need to forget or to buzz off, but he definitely needed to deal with his dry throat after this tense decision.

He knew he did right - he would have done so anyway to some extent - but that didn't still sit well with him.

After all, the wolves may be the current problem but... he was very unsure on the Kingdom's reaction to a single militia force handling an entire federation of werevolves on their own.

-d-d-d-d-

If someone was to ask Sakura how she felt in this place so distant from her home, her answer would be a happy smile.

While it was true that the culture was different, same for the language and the manners, the girl had grown enamoured with the little village that had sheltered her.

The villagers were jovial, many races shared the notion of community, and no one seemed to mind that she was a kitsune. Back home, the mere notion of being one was greeted with displeasure due to her kin's known habit for prankful behaviors.

Her clan had always deserted that sort of antics, having tackled a more honorable path and always keeping up with the business of trading and fighting.

Sakura was neither a warrior or a merchant, but she was a scholar of sort as she yearned to learn more of this place's language and the many books in them. She was still upset that there were wolves hunting her down but... it wasn't her fault.

In fact, it was still shocking for her how those 'werewolves' had singled her out as necessarily the 'mate' of this 'Alpha'.

It all felt surprisingly backwater - alpha, beta and omega. Those terms existed to some extent back home, but those had long perished in the passing of the centuries. For beastkins still behaving like this... it was puzzling for her.

Even more as this sort of mannerism was now trying to claim her freedom away from her.

So, she felt guilty for driving those mean people at the doorstep of this lovely community. When she brought this up, both 'Auntie' and 'Big Brother' were quick to answer similarly.

"It's not your fault, these wolves are outright pricks," said the lovely female goblin that had been helping her adapting to her new surroundings.

"The werewolves of this side of the continent are known to be feral due to their isolation. This whole 'alpha' thing is also new shit so... not your fault," said the reliable male goblin that was pretty much working to pay for the rent and other commodities.

Speaking of 'Gobbo-nii', he had taken steps to give her things to read. Surprisingly enough, he came back with booklets with pictures and dialogues written in her original language.

Some were cute slice of life stories, other offered actions and other were downright deep with their thoughts.

Sakura was thus introduced to Manga. And she started to learn the defining nature of her culture through those booklets. She read and read, and then she tried to mimic.

Despite her soft nature, she refused to let those invaders hurt those good people. So, she started to take notes from booklets like 'Naruto' or 'Dragon Balls', but also 'Onepunch Man' and 'Jujutsu Kaisen'.

She worked from the basics and she realized how flexible her magic was compared to what many had told her. Some had told her that due to her fragile body, she was ill-suited for combat. But as she started to do some exercises and sweat a little bit, she felt her magic react instinctively to reinforce her muscles.

A day and she was now a little more lean, then another and she felt herself more 'healthy' compared to usual.

'Auntie' had taken notice of this, coaching her on how to safely gauge each exercises without going too far. Sakura trained, she tended the garden, helped with the house chores, and ultimately stumbled on a very unexpected genre within the booklets.

Defined as 'Ecchi', the genre highlighted sexually-packed scenes with some nudity without going for proper sex. While for a time Sakura dodged those, she couldn't shy her gaze for long before curiosity made her watch and... kind of like what she was seeing.

Propping some boners, here and there, the girl found shelter in the bathroom, rapidly 'cleaning up' any mess she made as she read and learned more about some aspects of nature that were non-negligible. After all, she had always shied away from dealing with sexual matters, out of fears of being 'corrupted' by those.

But she found those scenes in the manga actually highly educational for her own growth - she saw sex as a normal matter within the right circumstance, and she saw the 'Alpha' that was trying to hunt her down as a pervert that needed to get his ass kicked.

The mere idea of beating the crap out of the one responsible to this aroused her immensely, so it made sense that, if it came down to that, she may also show him how wrong it was to target on weaker preys.

Sure, she wasn't expected to face off the Alpha in any of the plans she overheard by Gobbo-nii, but that didn't stop her from knowing that, if it came down to that, she was sure as heck going to return the grief back by knotting a jerk up!


AN

Maybe giving random manga to Sakura was a mistake. Or maybe not.