The Economics of Prophecy

Small space placed in front of you. I can hold it sparingly with both hands. A costume box won't fit a single piece of clothing.

To that little sight, my eyes are sucked in.

Green leaves soaring in the stream in a cube stained with water. A silver scale fish wrapped in red and blue swims slowly between its greens. Short if painted on a painting the same size, it would be stale if engraved on a sculpture. It is moving but the beauty of the late exists.

"It's a living boxyard. Funny how it even comes with a gardener."

My gaze captured a newly added organism. A creature with legs the size of a fish. I wondered what outrageous thing Ricardo was because he said "biological weapon," a little shrimp in the pond aquatic plants.

Covered in plain brown armor, he walks thin feet through the water wielding long tentacles. A move that doesn't make you feel like a little fish swimming gracefully underwater.

They lay on the bottom, baked, hardened round soil, glass surfaces, and on the leaves and stems of aquatic plants. I work everywhere. Like a needle, he constantly works the two little ones. We're pruning weeds in a garden sunk in water. Well, it's a meal for them.

These shrimps restored that rotten sight to the beauty it is now.

What Ricardo did after that was add about five of these shrimps to the tank and put the whole thing on with a cloth. The shade withers the cockerel that needs light. Because aquatic plants grow bigger and slower than cockerel, they can withstand it with stored nutrients.

As a result, the shrimps sprinkled the browned coke. In the future, shrimp will be eaten at a stage when the cockerel is invisible to people.

In fact, the glass surface is as beautiful as polished. It's prettier than people clean with cloth, and I can't believe it's funny to watch. I think I'm going to stick around and see something about the kids, especially the boys.

... I wonder if this product is also for Alex. Well, if that's why you've been so hard on me, maybe there's something I'd like to know.

"I wondered what I would do when the green one was also covered, but it would be increasingly wonderful as a product. In addition to fish and aquatic plants, shrimp, … how much will this cost?"

"Right. It's only a luxury item, and given the hassle of transporting it... how about this?

"Well."

Lisaberto, who at first said it was a fish with no weird philosophy, begins to start the Abacus with Ricardo. It's literally the beginning of a cash story.

"Beautiful sight in front of you. It's impeccable."

………… …………

The two of them pointed their unexpected looking faces at me.

"What? Even I have a heart that loves beautiful things. I need a sketch of a warcraft."

"First and second half are inconsistent."

"Your Highness, I see."

They laughed.

"Hmm. Fair enough. Because you are lords and merchants. But..."

I think. When it comes to business, even if my amateur I see it, I think I can sell this. Ricardo said he would arrange tanks in the heart of humans visiting Central Gardens, convention centers and futures exchanges, and it would spread as a new fashion. Lisaberto would also be welcome to see more exports from the territory. As an empire, it is economically and politically important to reduce the trade gap with the kingdom at all.

Still. I still can't figure it out if you ask for the amount to be paid next to me.

"A big merchant like Ricardo went out of his way and decided to spend nearly two months doing it."

"You said it wasn't such a big story from the beginning."

"I have enough expectations for this one. Well, it's certainly small for Lord Ricardo to do."

Lisaberto said and Ricardo laughed bitterly.

"Like a disguise to test this screw in secret to your royal palace? In fact, I've been studying speed regulation and everything."

"Don't be afraid. No. Well, I know it leads to the area."

I said what I was thinking. Ricardo shook his head. I don't know, it'll be much more important that way. When I tried to claim that, the door was knocked.

"His Royal Highness Liezabelt. I got a complaint about the lodging."

"What's up?

"That, on this occasion..."

Lisaberto's samurai tells the Lord. He's moving to the corner of the room and talking. It would be an example story. The increase in population is causing various problems, such as the increase in human excreta and the shortage of coal. In that sense, I wonder if this product is to this extent...

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take it off a little bit."

Lisa Belt leaves the room.

"Sounds tough."

Ricardo dropped off Lisaberto's back and said in a slightly darker voice. I guess I prefer being a submissive woman like that. Alfina does, and Meer... Meer is a little different.

"What about Mathier more than this one? Didn't you originally have business in Imperial City?"

"His Majesty the next emperor at heart is not coming back from the Old Capital. Hi, I think I found some new information over there. A detailed map of the western side of the Mountains of Despair."

"Really? That said, the deal with the West was broken..."

◇ ◇

Three days after the completion of the small product, Ricardo said. I was just finishing up my preparations for my departure to ”Legion”. In the end, Dagobad was set to head to the Central Garden. You found something so serious on the map that you also had information about magic observations.

Damn, what brings you so far? I shrugged my shoulders when I saw the outfit I wore more than usual. Neither did I fail to achieve the prescribed results.

Well, I hope that was funny.

Say goodbye to the tank. Leave it here as a sample of the product. I would lie if I told you that I had no attachment to the living artwork I watched from the beginning.

In the light from the window, the aquatic plants are bubbling with small bubbles and stretching the leaves. After that, the little driftwood that Ricardo picked up from the river plains is also creating an atmosphere.

"Ah, here. That's not bait. It's... it's bait for fish."

On that driftwood, the fish was small, that's what I ate a prawn larvae about a grain of sand. It's normal for small animals to be eaten by big animals.

"It's not even like me. These are the same things we eat birds and cows..."

............... is that it?

The grass stretches out in the light, and the birds and cattle eat it, and we eat its meat. Very obvious. So what's in front of you? Prawns eat aquatic plants and cockerel grown by light, and fish eat it. Same.

No, more...

I think as I look at that brown coming out of a fish ass bile.

Fish manure, shrimp shells, and carcasses are also returned to the soil by mucus in the soil. That becomes fertilizer and grows plants............ Going around?

"............... that?

Unexpectedly on the mouth. I blinked my eyes unexpectedly. The little product in front of me looked different now. I caught a glimpse of why such a small space would not let go of my eyes.

"Hey Ricardo..."

I open my fearful mouth. I can't keep the possibilities that come to mind.

"... this fish could be... us"

Ricardo looked surprised when I heard that. It goes through in words that don't even have such a thump. Right, then I figured from the beginning...

But I'm not the other way around. I noticed something about the living art in front of me, the beautiful boxyard.

"In that case, in that case, Ricardo. This tank…… it traps the world itself."

"... well, the light, the air, the bait comes from the outside......................... You've noticed so well"

Ricardo's answer is naturally affirmative. Somehow, you look at me with a subtle look like a troubled compliment.

"What if this tank is more than ten times the size of this, and the number of fish is about the same?

"We may not need food if an ideal situation arises. Well, under current conditions, if it's just shrimp, not fish, maybe we can just keep the light."

(Hey, what's a small business?)

I looked back at the man who looked at me with a troubled look. Like I'm going to be pressured against myself.

I've been relieved many times by the knowledge of the man next door. But so far, I've had stronger feelings about greater interest and curiosity.

But this is something different. Stuffed the way the world works inside a small glass box. Attempts to put the world itself on top of experiments. It's like God's point of view......

"Oh, how much are you up to..."

It was fear, no fear, that moved my mouth. But the words stopped on the way. I'm still uncomfortable with something. Step on my foot trying to get distance by accident. And I saw the tank in front of me again.

It's a world circulating in a closed space. Yes, it's like this little basin.

All of a sudden, I'm reminded of Lisaberto's words. Ricardo's reaction to it. I realized I saw that eye before. A little after leaving the city, this guy's face looked back at the developing Central Garden. There was anxiety in the eyes of seeing that city that still seemed to have enough room for development.

Just for a moment, I think I saw the back of this guy's eyes for a moment...

What if it doesn't look that way to this guy? The next moment, Meer's story of 128 gold coins came back to life. That's what I cleverly taught Lisaberto the other day.

A man borrows only one gold coin. Interest rates are double monthly. If the amount of debt goes to 128, you will be executed. It's an unlikely high interest, and executions are tough on boulders. But that's not the nature of the story.

In the first month, the amount of debt will be two pieces of money. Four gold coins for the second month. And eight, sixteen more. Seven months later, the debt reaches a ceiling of 128 sheets, and the man is done. But what about the month before that? The amount of debt is 64 sheets. Looks like it's only half the distance to ruin at last. It's as if I can still be illusioned as if I had six months.

Yes, the man spent six months halfway down the road to the execution bench. And in the next month, we're going to break through everything else.

Less change at first and visible on a straight line, but not so. By the way, even if it's not an unlikely assumption of doubling, or 10% cheaper as an interest rate, the day when the measure of time just changes, suddenly, it's just a human feeling, but it can make a huge difference.

Problem plaguing the leatherbelt. And filtration that Ricardo cared about from the beginning of the tank. In this limited box, the more small fish there will be in the future, the more pronounced it will be. How prosperous will these fish be able to sustain in a narrow world?

No, wait. Still weird. There's a wide enough plain around that city, regardless of the side of the Great River. Even if that city is ten times what it is now, yeah twenty times, maybe the problem is......

"Maybe this world isn't that big?

"No, it's big. But it's something. Because I'm bringing in the concept of the other world and I'm a little upset about the speed of progress here. That's also with biased knowledge. In that case, is it supposed to be the balance of each area that is naturally adjusted? I'm worried about what's going to happen next."

Ricardo said with his head in mind that dealing with the demonic period was first. But the color of my eyes worries hasn't changed.

"Is that population growth or something?

The way in which the population, or human beings, increases, is clearly equivalent to the pattern of gold coins. Suppose a group of men and women have four children. Ideally in one generation the population will double. As a generation twenty years we spend hundreds of years without any worries and prosper more and more. And without realizing that the next generation will ruin the world......

But whatever it takes...... I try to shake off the impossible imagination, but Ricardo nodded.

"Well that's the way it is. After that, magic resources, the amount of magic crystals you need. Look, you'll use it pretty good in that winter box. Plus this screw. The use of magic extends as much as it can. So, that increases the population again"

Ricardo said as he looked at the small cylinder going around in the tank. Next to the room is a winter box, a magic prop that can no longer think of a life without it, and it still consumes magic.

"It's still a completely irrelevant story right now. So this is only a small business. Just a hundred, two hundred years later, no, actually, more later. I can't see such a future. So it feels like we should at least leave this behind."

A man who laughs so that he can put it aside. As the explanation can be understood, the fear just now subsides. I should have given it up as usual. "What's a small business?" That's what I should have said. But I was being attacked by completely different emotions.

"You're not talking about Ricardo carrying it all by himself."

And I said the opposite.

Emotions that only occasionally came to mind in one room when I was still typing into magical guidance research in the Empire. I'd forgotten that for a long time. That came back to me. A view from a height no one has reached. I guess it was pride and back-bellied solitude.

I forgot that emotion in studying with Noel and Fulsey and the others at his place since I met Ricardo. Ever since I got here, I didn't even feel it when I was adjusting the screws by myself.

So what about Ricardo? I don't miss you. Isn't it lonely? This guy prides himself on his knowledge, but he doesn't see it as his power. Then the only thing left... is not solitude. Nestled at the height of one person, look at the wider world long after you die at the future world.

(That's not true)

Yes, the look Ricardo gave me earlier when I realized my intentions. A relieved, reassuring face. That's... Just a little bit, a human being looking at the same thing......

Well, if that's the case, isn't there something I can do? When I thought so, something in my mind totally made a little noise. Until now, two circuits that did not engage subtly become one.

"No, so I see. It's only for the benefit. Look, do you want to throw a round at a basic future human? It's not a serious story, but people of the future will solve it with technology..."

Oh, you're totally surrounded now. It's like a fish in this tank.

I turned up the hem of my clothes like a dress with a frill and pointed to the tank.

"Ricardo failed to protect himself. So shut up. I already made up my mind."

And I took a step before Ricardo. Oh, I'm just in the way of a long skirt.

"I'll be your partner."

"Yes, no, it's because you're Mathier..."

I wonder what it is.

I pointed to the cylindrical metal spinning in the tank. And then I'll laugh at you. At least in this area, I'll stand next to him. Absolutely better suited than Alfina in this field.

"You must need to talk about me. Ricardo is not someone of the future, you just have to expect me to be here right now."

Mia is more of an enemy. No, I need to talk to Meer about this. We should rather fight together. All right, at least I saw a picture of a surer victory than I could dress and show.

Hehe, remember. You surround a precious, beautiful and brilliant fish like me, so I'll feed you properly. That's enough to hold on to......