The release of the new type of currency threw the entire discussion regarding which option to choose into disarray, because the choice before had, at least, been clear.
Even though it was convenient that the official coins of the king could be recharged at a price that wasn't too high now, there had been no doubt that it was cheaper to just buy the one-time use coins being supplied by the merchants which were branded with the names of the famous trading families of the continent.
However, now… With the larger capacity coins, the slight inconvenience that one felt when they saw a coin be completely depleted might be addressed, as a larger capacity would mean that they would not have to replace them for larger amounts of time. At the moment, they were even supposed to be cheaper, so everyone started to lean towards abandoning the lower capacity coins and opting the higher ones.
However… Jessica had long anticipated this, and she was already ready with the counter-attack.
Instead of her other operation which had been quite open, this one had been carried out with the utmost secrecy, after deploying many Hero level formations which the king would definitely have no way of getting past.
She knew that she was cheating by using resources that only she could deploy, but her master had told her that short of using force, any of her actions would be condoned and that she had free reign to do as she wished for the year of time that she had been given.
The next day after the announcement, people began to set out to go get the coins which must have been stocked in the official stores that had been newly set up by the Alliance in all major towns and cities.
Yet… It was on their way that they were waylaid by the same merchants who had appeared at their houses before, and their eyes were like those of vultures which were circling the carcasses which they longed to feast on.
In her cell, Jessica watched as the multiple scenes of the display trinkets showed the people pausing with shock that was followed by pleasant surprise when they saw the merchants holding fatter coins, with larger shining pearls which had already begun to be admired for their beauty.
"Off to get the new coins that the Alliance advertised? Look no further! These coins also have more capacity, and again, they are cheaper! Of course, no pesky recharges either! As soon as you're done with them, just throw them out and get a new batch!"
No one could have expected that the trading families would be so prepared to battle the king, and all around the continent, this war began to be publicized.
Trading families had always been known, since a long time ago, as forces which were almost as powerful as the kingdoms in the continent of Angaria.
However, their might was more in their trade, and it was not of the apparent sort like that of the other forces which could directly deploy powerful Mages and Fighters to do their bidding.
Yet, it was the smart ones who knew that both kinds of might were valuable, and had different uses in different scenarios.
It was these people who explained to everyone they could find that this war would set the tone for the future, because by now, it was clear that these gadgets were here to stay.
Already, there were multiple inquiries all over the continent being thrown at the merchants regarding when they could get their own trinkets with which they could heat and store food, instead of seeing it go to waste. The merchants were helpless as they knew that the sole source of the trinkets was still the Alliance, and although there were rumors that the trading families would also launch them soon, there was nothing clear at the moment. What they did do was give samples of the coins from the trading families which they had on hand, and these began to be hoarded by even those outside of the Alliance.
This was, of course, excellent to see, and Jessica was really ecstatic that she had managed to tap the market which the King must have decided to target later at his own pace, after he had completely dominated the one in his Alliance.
Once again, she wished that she could see him, but even though she couldn't, she imagined him to be fidgeting in his boots and feeling quite helpless because she had spun the perfect trap around him.
This was the natural thing that she had expected that he would try, because the best way to pull people away from a certain product was to market them a better one. Knowing that, she had begun preparations beforehand, and now, she was once again in a winning position.
Yet… The feeling still remained that there might still be something that she wasn't seeing, so she and the cloaked man were completely alert, looking for signs of plans that they might not have spotted yet.
Yet, again… There seemed to be nothing.
In fact, by this point… It was almost like the king was putting up a half-hearted resistance, as if he had already accepted defeat.
Only, this did not fit, at all, with the impression that she had of the king, and she kept asking the cloaked man to keep looking more and more, and keep deploying as many resources as needed so that they could see just what was going on both in the Palace and in all of the places where the production of the King's coins was in progress.
However, no matter how much they searched, all they found was that all the production seemed to have ramped up, and there was nothing else out of the norm going on. Coins of both sorts were being made, and recharging stations were also being set up slowly all over the Alliance. So far, they had only been used by a few people who were curious to see how the entire process of recharging would be, and although they were pleasantly surprised that it was all very smooth with them needing to just drop in the De-energised coins and take ones which were Energised, they still opted for the other kinds of coins because the overall rate was cheaper.
Jessica had already deployed a few formation masters in secret to go and study these recharging stations, but in this matter, she faced failure as the king seem to have deployed a lot of countermeasures to make sure that his method would not be copied. This was to be expected, though, because this was something that anyone would have done even if she hadn't entered the fray, so it must definitely have been something that the king must have spent a lot of time on to make sure that it would work.
Oh, well. She would have her own recharging method soon enough, and even if she had to burn through all of the thousands of Ker Gems that she had stashed away, she would make sure that she would be the final victor of this entire thing in the end.
As day after day passed, it started to become more and more apparent that the king might be clueless regarding how he should even begin to oppose her.
Since the start of the matter, she had been banking on this. The king was just someone from the Central Continent, and there was no way that he could have the amount of reserves that she had at hand. She was like a rich aristocrat who had targeted the business of a poor merchant, and even if the latter had the upper hand in the beginning, he simply couldn't compete as the former would outclass them in almost every aspect.
Numbers kept pouring in, day by day, and they kept getting better and better. Around 100,000 families had been initially targeted by the king to have money rain down upon them, and of them, 50% had already started to exclusively use the coins that had the imprint of the trading families. 40 were using both, mainly because of their loyalty to the king, and the last 10 were fanatics of the man, as they were using only Dans and Nivrons. Yet, the merchants were hard at work slowly swaying them, and with time, there were signs that they would all also be brought over.
Since the launch of the testing, only a month had passed, so Jessica was more than happy with these numbers.
She waited for the next move of the king, and a week later, it was announced.
"Price cut! Price cut! Recharging of Dans and Nivrons now cost half of what they used to! This means that it is natural to opt for those who gave you access to this beautiful world of trinket- amplified happiness in the first place! Rush now to your nearest stores!"
For 10 minutes after Jessica heard this announcement, she kept laughing heartily, because once more, it had been proven that whatever intelligence the king had displayed before was merely a stroke of luck, as right now, he was getting so severely beaten that he had even resorted to burning his own resources in order to ensure that he would not be booted out of the market that he had created in the first place.
This was another natural step that she knew he would take, and his hope behind it was apparent. Even though it was admirable, it was now obvious that he was underestimating just how deep her reserves went, or that he was simply getting desperate.
She was prepared to ruin herself in order to destroy him, and so, she only had to send one word to the cloaked man who already knew what he should do.
"Proceed."
This time, the people didn't even know what to think, because not even an hour after the announcement, those same merchants could be seen shouting in the streets everywhere once again.
"Price cut! Price cut! Collect your silver and gold coins now, at half the price! There will never be another opportunity like this in your life! Once again, the trading families wish to show you just how much they value you as customers! We want to remain the most affordable in the continent, and for this, we are even willing to take losses on ourselves! It is your duty to benefit off of our weakness! Come one, come all!"
By now, it was so ridiculous that people could only laugh and then rush to these merchants to take as many coins as they could.
At first, it had at least been slightly reasonable.
The typical income of a middle-class household was around 40 Gold Lans, or 4000 Silver Lans yearly. According to the economic comparison that Daneel had made, this amounted to around 40,000 dollars if one used the global currency(1 Silver Lan=10 dollars). With this much income, a family of four would be able to live contentedly while also accumulating a small amount of savings.
The initial price that had been announced by the Alliance had been 10 Silver Lans for a fully Energized Dan. With normausagege, a fully Energized Dan would be able to power one of the gadgets for a month.
Dans had two values: Energised, and De-Energized. There was nothing in-between officially.
The cost of a De-energized Dan was only half the value of an Energized one. As for the recharging cost, the difference had to be paid.
So, after an initial investment of just 20 Silver Lans(for two Dans for two gadgets), a family could keep recharging for the rest of the year, making their overall consumption be 130 Silver Lans, which was only 3.25% of their yearly income. Daneel had calculated it to be around the same amount as back on Earth.
As for Jessica, she had priced her coins, which had around the same Energy Value, to be worth 5 Silver Lans each, which brought the yearly consumption to 120 Silver Lans, making it apparent that this was better.
After that, Nivrons had been introduced, each of which had four times the Energy Value. They could run gadgets for four months, and the price of the Alliance had been just 20 Silver Lans, which was clearly introductory. This brought the yearly consumption to 80 Silver Lans, which did make it the best alternative.
Then, the trading families had introduced their versions of Nivrons, which again had the same Energy Value, but were only worth 10 Silver Lans each. This brought down the yearly consumption further to 60 Silver Lans.
Next was the price cut for recharging, which brought the least yearly consumption to 60 Silver Lans, matching that of the trading families.
And finally, with this latest price cut by the trading families, the minimum yearly consumption reached an astonishing 30 Silver Lans.
It was unimaginable just how low it had come to when compared to the initial price, and people even began rejoicing that the real victors of this war was them.
Seeing these reactions, unlike what Jessica was thinking, Daneel was actually chuckling to himself, as these people had found out the already established truth on Earth that competition in the market almost always benefited consumers the most.
Yet…it was finally time to disrupt everything.
Getting up from the throne, Daneel flourished his hand and spoke to the waiting sovereigns.
"She's had her fun. It's our turn. Begin!"