A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 301: Well Played

Chapter 301: Well Played

"These past few days are troublesome. Despite the spectacle I made to ensure that they will stop, it seems they are not even satisfied and continue to do their deeds," Elaina scratches her hair as she glance at the exploding stones on the ground that she collected after they got defused the moment they entered the farm.

"They are that serious in damaging the farm and causing irreversible damage, Sis. Some of these stones contain enhanced spells which would increase the stone’s destructive force and coverage of the explosion," Julia puts the explosive stone back into the pile.

"Enhanced explosive huh? And here I thought they were just doing this to make some pressure or just some cheap scare tactics but I guess they are that serious huh? What dedication!" Elaina can’t help but clap with how these saboteurs are dedicating themselves to doing something that proves to be pointless.

"Regardless, of whether they are serious or not, we needed to stop them for good. I can modify the barrier so that if they decide to throw something at us, it will bounce back to them instead. What do you think, Sis?" Julia suggested.

"Hmmm, should we? But that would just make the damage go to the village instead of here and it would be bad for us if they decided to forge some rumors that our farm is throwing explosive rocks at passersby. That would be really bad for us. And besides, defusing those explosive rocks seems a better solution. It doesn’t matter if they want to keep on doing this, in the end, they will be the ones who will lose a lot of money since we will not receive any damage and they will keep on buying the explosive stones to keep throwing here. I heard those things cost lots of money per stone."

"Should be about 500 gold per piece. Enhanced versions should cost more, about 2000 to 3000 gold if they are very strong enhancements."

"Haha, let them waste money then. Less trouble for us to make them lose all their money. This might be what they call winning, without doing anything!" Elaina laughed.

"Sis, remember that the one who is doing the heavy lifting is still me so it’s not exactly winning without doing anything..." Julia sighed and had a disappointed look on her face.

"It’s fine, it’s fine! Anyway, we should just wait and see what they will be doing next. We will be prepared for what they have in plan for us!"

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The head merchant slams his fists to the table, startling the other merchants who are now gathered with him at a round table. Everyone can tell that the Head Merchant’s anger is already reaching its critical levels which is why they are keeping quiet.

"Why is it that the bloody farm continues to remain?! According to the aerial surveillance, there are no damages that occurred on the farm and there’s not a single stone that exploded! The ones we saw the other day that have exploded are the stones that the accursed woman gathered and triggered to explode! I thought those stones were considered high quality and enhanced Explosive stones. Then why are they still ineffective?!"

The other merchants couldn’t say anything. After all, their plan to induce some damages to the farm did not bear any fruit and was an utter failure.

"Hah...it doesn’t matter anymore. If those stones remain useless, then let’s just stop buying them. Those things are expensive as f*ck and yet they didn’t even explode. What a waste of money! We should focus on making sure that the farm will not recover!"

One merchant raises his hand and gives a suggestion. "How about we collapse their financial status? Since they are a farm, their source of income should be the market and they would need to sell their produce to get money. If we interrupt and cut off their supplier, steal their customers, and take their means to make additional money, that would count as their farm collapsing, yes?"

The head merchant grinned after hearing the suggestion. "Great idea! Considering our goods have great quality, it should be easy to do all of that with ease. This is much easier than the initial plan we are doing and we will be gaining more customers as well! That farmer will not see this coming!"

With the approval of the plan, the merchants begin to have a merry time, thinking about the face of Elaina wallowing in despair due to her source of income disappearing.

However, it seems they have underestimated the farm too much. So much that they didn’t know how troublesome their enemy would be.

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A week passed by and Elaina received news from Princess Tabatha while she was training with her swordsmanship. It was just a slip topic that Princess Tabatha wanted to talk to while they were sparring so that it wouldn’t be so boring while practicing.

"Miss Elaina, did I ever tell you that I am managing the local Market and the system that works with the guild that declares the prices and money from the products that are taken from shipping bins?" Princess Tabatha inquired.

"Yeah, I do still remember. But why the sudden topic all of a sudden?" Elaina asked.

"Well, the past few weeks, a few merchants have been bribing our employees about excluding your products from the market distribution, and in exchange, they will provide the necessary produce that your farm provides with their own."

"This is the first time I have heard of this," Elaina frowned.

"Yes. We took a bit of investigation on who these people are because there are numerous people doing it. And we managed to profile those people properly. And since our employees are loyal to their job, they immediately reported this matter to their higher-ups while taking the acceptance of the bribe."

"They accepted the bribe?" Elaina was surprised.

"It is our policy to ruin those who take bribes and ruin businesses. Since they are so willing to waste money and resources, we basically help ourselves with what they have been bribing us without fulfilling their demands. Which makes it waste their resources. It might be a bit of a deceptive tactic but considering they are doing something to harm others, why not let the situation backfire?" Princess Tabatha chuckled.

Elaina smiled hearing that. It is indeed a great tactic and considering that they willingly offered money, it is only right for the market to receive the money bribe but fulfilling their demands is not necessary. Why would you ruin the trust you built up with your trusty customers to someone who seems to be not a permanent one that will give long-lasting benefits?

"So? What happened to those people who are giving bribes?" Elaina asked as she swung her sword to Princess Tabatha.

"Well, they offered to replace your goods with something that is equal or greater for a lower price that you usually take but the moment they deliver their goods...well, it turns out that their goods are so inferior that even the goods of our regular farmers are much higher quality than what they were giving that it became a laughingstock. It ended up shaming the people who have been bribing us as a result."

Elaina grinned after hearing the result. It is obvious that her goods are quite pricy indeed but that is because of the high quality and the freshness of her vegetables and fruits that she ships. It is not an exaggeration to say that she holds the crown of supplying the most fresh and the highest quality produce in the entire Darcero Kingdom.

Even the farm owners who have doubts at first soon agree that their products are inferior compared to her and they willingly agree to how the market is doing things. And since her products are so fresh, they are the ones that are always sought out in the market and it is always a bulk buy most of the time. However since Elaina does not always ship vegetables and fruits, this allows the other farmers to earn money before Elaina ships something.

Not only that but Elaina is the only farmer who is currently shipping monster eggs as produce, allowing Elaina to monopolize the market for it. Since she is not hurting the market for eggs as the Hencluckle eggs are limited and are always being bought in bulk, they are always sold out and are considered something rare and a delicacy.

If the people who want to drag Elaina’s farm down wanted to ensure that Elaina loses, they needed to match up the quality of the produce that Elaina ships, and they also needed to be able to supply fresh quality Hencluckle eggs to fully stop her chain of customers.

"Well, let’s see how they can top my produce. If they are that willing to bankrupt their coffers and businesses, then I might as well give them applause for at least trying."

Elaina swings her wooden sword, breaking the one that Princess Tabatha is holding.

"Ah...it’s broken..." Princess Tabatha sighed.

"It’s fine. I see improvements in your way of fighting and I can tell that your stance has changed as well."

Princess Tabatha nodded with a smile. "Yes, Master! Thanks to your suggestion of fighting monsters every day, I slowly adapted to fighting and making the sword part of my body when I fight. Still, I still have a long way to go before I even reach your level."

"At least you are getting the idea. Still, you are still too green. Go grab another set of wooden swords and fight again. I will correct your movements if I find something!"

"Yes, Master!"

Elaina smiled as she stared into the fair sky. The cool spring wind blows on her skin and a smirk appears on her mouth.

"Ah, what a lovely day it is today!"