I attended an unofficial meeting held at Yoko's Mansion in Village Five.
Besides myself, the attendees included Yoko, the Acting Village Head of Village Five; Donovan, the Elder Dwarf; Ria, the High Elf; Gatto, the Beastman; two of the Civil Official Girls; and Roku, the Village Five Head of Civil Officials.
Joining us were two members of the Previous Generation Four Heavenly Kings, the Elven Tree King and Bow King, Michael-san, Michael-san's son Marlon, and Beezel of the current Four Heavenly Kings. In total, fifteen people were present.
The agenda focused on the Village Five Industrial Development Plan.
At first, Yoko, the Civil Official Girls, and I had been pushing the project forward on our own, but we were hampered by a lack of information. The lack of clear feedback from the workers on the ground was a major hurdle. Since it was difficult to issue directives based on guesswork alone, we had gradually increased the number of stakeholders involved.
I was deeply grateful that Michael-san, Marlon, and Beezel made time for these meetings whenever we gathered.
We sat around a large round table, and the meeting began. One of the Civil Official Girls acted as the moderator to keep the discussion moving.
"The issue regarding sake, which has been a concern for some time, is moving toward a resolution. We received significant cooperation from Michael-sama's Goroun Company on this matter. Thank you very much."
"Not at all, it is a venture that benefits us as well. Please, think nothing of it," Michael-san replied modestly, taking a sip of his tea.
The "sake problem" concerned how to handle the distribution of sake produced in the Village of the Great Tree within Village Five. Since Village Five was under my jurisdiction, I personally wanted the residents to be able to drink it as freely as those in the other villages.
However, the population was simply too large. Furthermore, the residents of the Village of the Great Tree, as well as those from Village One, Two, Three, and Four, felt that Village Five should be treated differently. There was a prevailing atmosphere that this was only appropriate.
Personally, it might have been irresponsible of me, but I was actually grateful for that distinction. I would have been overwhelmed if I were expected to shoulder the needs of tens of thousands of people. I was glad Yoko was there to manage things.
But I digress.
Before deciding how to handle the sake in Village Five, we had to establish the Alcohol Rank for the sake produced in the Village of the Great Tree. Wine, distilled spirits, fruit wine, rice sake, beer... Currently, a wide variety of sake was being produced under Donovan's management.
Even within the same category, the quality varied significantly, as did the proportions of the ingredients. They couldn't all be treated as the same product. Therefore, I asked for ranks to be assigned to each type.
"Should I rank them by flavor?" Donovan asked.
I shook my head. "That can come later. First, I want you to assign broad ranks based on accessibility—essentially, productivity."
We settled on three tiers: high productivity, normal, and low. If we called them First Rank, Second Rank, and Third Rank, people might mistakenly assume the First Rank was the tastiest, so we decided to call them "Mountain," "Forest," and "Tree."
"Mountain" denoted high productivity, "Forest" was standard, and "Tree" was low.
"I see," Donovan grunted.
I planned to refine the categories further in the future, but for now, this was sufficient.
"Oh, and you don't need to rank every single batch. Only the sake intended for sale is necessary."
"Understood."
With that, the sake for sale was categorized. We then returned to the matter of how to handle it in Village Five.
We were moving toward selling the sake, but the price remained the primary issue. Currently, our only sales contracts were with Michael-san and Beezel. If we sold it in Village Five for the same price we charged them, the average person would never be able to afford it.
So, should we lower the price? When I proposed this to Michael-san and Beezel, they expressed their concerns. The sake they purchased from the Village of the Great Tree was primarily used as luxury gifts for nobles. If the market value dropped, it would damage the brand's prestige.
Because of this, the two of them had started attending our meetings. Their main argument was to maintain the value of the sake. They didn't mind if it was sold cheaply within Village Five, but they were worried about vendors buying it there and reselling it elsewhere.
At first, I thought they were just worried about competition lowering the value, but I was wrong.
"They will undoubtedly water it down or add adulterants, ruining the quality," Michael-san warned.
"It would be a disaster if people drank an adulterated version and thought that was all the sake was worth," Beezel added.
I see. Dilution. That seemed almost unavoidable; merchants always want to maximize their margins. Cutting the product with water is the oldest trick in the book.
When I wondered aloud if there was any way to counter this, Yoko offered a solution.
"We should simply blend it ourselves first and sell it under a different name."
I thought the idea had merit, but Donovan looked displeased. Yoko quickly corrected her phrasing.
"Perhaps 'adulterant' was the wrong word. I mean we should blend sake with sake."
"Hmm."
"It is a common practice. To ensure a consistent flavor, it's standard to blend wines produced in different villages."
I looked at Michael-san for confirmation, and he nodded. Beezel did the same. They explained that because this was the standard method, the villages producing the wine were usually paid based on volume rather than quality.
I see. Perhaps that was why sake from outside the Village of the Great Tree wasn't considered particularly remarkable. If your efforts to make a superior product aren't recognized or rewarded, no one will bother. Truly delicious sake elsewhere was either for personal consumption or produced on lands where a noble specifically protected the batch from being blended.
"Compared even to those rarities, the sake from the Village of the Great Tree is far too delicious. I see, Yoko-sama's plan is to blend our sake with the varieties currently circulating in the Demon Kingdom."
"It would increase the volume as well, which is a benefit," Yoko added.
"Wait!" Donovan shouted, voicing his firm opposition. "I don't mind mixing good sake with good sake. I don't even mind mixing bad sake with bad sake. But mixing bad sake into good sake is a sin!"
"Then what do you suggest?"
"We will only blend sakes produced within the Village of the Great Tree. I will oversee the process myself."
And so, it was decided. This discussion had taken place around early spring.
Using the "Mountain" rank sake as a base, Donovan created two blends: "Village Five Sake" and "Village Five Sake Kai." Both were wines. Given the crops we grew in the village, that was the most natural outcome.
The reason for having two types was that Donovan had been torn between productivity and flavor. "Village Five Sake" had high productivity but only a "so-so" flavor. "Village Five Sake Kai" had normal productivity and a normal flavor.
Even though he called them so-so and normal, both Michael-san and Beezel rated them as perfectly fine. We decided to sell these varieties at a low price during the Village Five Festival.
"If the people become familiar with the true taste of the sake, it will be much harder for vendors to get away with further dilution," Donovan had suggested.
I had originally intended to give it away for free, but they advised me to charge for it, arguing that people would drink the village dry if it cost nothing.
"It would also be bad for the other taverns if we just handed it out," they pointed out.
That made sense. We settled on one small cup for one medium copper coin and limited the quantity per person. We sold the "Village Five Sake Kai" at the festival.
That was the first step in solving our sake problem. The second step was to begin regular sales for those who had developed a taste for "Village Five Sake Kai" during the festival. We would sell "Kai" in limited quantities while making the standard "Village Five Sake" more widely available.
With this, we hoped to stabilize the supply in Village Five. Since there were other types of alcohol being imported from elsewhere as well, I hoped this would be enough to keep everyone satisfied.
During this process, Michael-san suggested one more trick. The sales to vendors would be handled via a bidding system. Michael-san's Goroun Company would then place a bid at a specific price to win the auction.
I wasn't sure what the point was at first, but it was a tactic to use the Goroun Company's bid to set a standard market price. If other vendors bid higher than that, the Goroun Company would simply withdraw.
I worried it might be a bit dishonest, but apparently, it was a very common practice. If everyone in an auction coordinated, they could buy everything at the minimum price, so this was a necessary countermeasure. Since the legal framework for this kind of thing wasn't fully developed yet, I suppose it couldn't be helped.
However, if we stopped there, it would just be another business selling sake from the Village of the Great Tree. There was a third step.
That step was to establish local sake brewing right here in Village Five. The profits from selling the "Village Five Sake" and "Village Five Sake Kai" would be used as capital for this. By using those brands to introduce the people to the flavor of our alcohol, we would encourage the development of a local brewing industry.
This was the main reason Donovan had agreed to cooperate. He had an ambition to eventually create a "True Village Five Sake"—a blend of alcohol from the Village of the Great Tree and alcohol actually produced in Village Five. Relying solely on our village's production would eventually lead to supply issues as Village Five grew, anyway.
Well, that third step was a goal for the future. For now, the second step was proceeding smoothly.
The meeting continued.