“A delivery service using Gate Mirrors?”
“Yes. I am of the opinion that such a business would be groundbreaking, given we have access to a magic tool that lets us send letters anywhere in the world.”
Kousaka had placed two long and narrow-framed mirrors on the table; they were the Gate Mirrors infused with my magic. It was a magic item that allowed you to place an object inside one mirror and have it appear through the other paired mirror. Right now, it was primarily being used to send correspondences between countries, but what was being suggested was that we find a way to make it available for public use.
I didn’t hate the idea. To this day, a lot of nobles still used horse-drawn carriages to send letters, but they could send them much faster if we gave them access to the Gate Mirrors.
The problem was that there were a lot of caveats with handling letters addressed to commoners. First was that most people didn’t have a precise address. Getting it to a village was well and good—you just had to put “Blah-blah of XYZ Village” and it would deliver fine. The moment it was addressed to someone in a big city, however, it was nearly impossible to get your letter delivered with just that.
There were tons of people with the same name, and if you wanted to differentiate them, you had to specify not just that they were in the city, but details like the names of their parents.
Even then, telling your deliveryman to search for someone in a big city was a bit of an unreasonable ask. If they were a noble, something could be figured out—they probably had a big estate somewhere, after all. But what about adventurers? Adventurers were a nomadic sort who stayed in inns and other lodgings, changing where they stayed as they needed.
Not only did that already limit who could have letters sent to them, but there was also the issue of literacy rates. There weren’t very many commoners who knew how to write, since they didn’t have the opportunity to learn. There were even countries where royal proclamations required an official reader.
Incidentally, as a bit of a brag, Brunhild’s literacy rate was practically one hundred percent. Sakura’s mother, Fiana, was the headmistress of our local school, and even adults were allowed to learn there for free. Olba’s Strand Company, which sold things like picture books, had also served as a big influence.
In any case, the more widespread low literacy rates across the continent meant that very few commoners sent letters. There was always the chance that people who wanted to learn how to write may start appearing, though, and a functioning delivery service may serve as a good motivator for just that.
I didn’t mind turning it into a business, but I doubted we could do a lot by ourselves. We simply didn’t have enough hands.
Honestly, it seemed like it would be easier to just sell the Gate Mirrors themselves at a luxury price. The problem with that was that the moment I wasn’t there to make them, they’d go out of business, and some noble somewhere would make a delivery service with whatever ones were left.
Felt like a waste to throw away the chance of such a profit, though.
The adventurer’s guild had something called a Tracebook that let them send messages between other guilds. Like Gate Mirrors, it required a partnered item. When you wrote on your own Tracebook, those letters would appear on the other Tracebook.
On the topic of the adventurer’s guild, adventurers had guild cards, so it at least guaranteed you could deliver a letter to a registered adventurer eventually. You just had to send it through to the branch where the card was most recently used.
In that case, should we combine the guild with a post office?
If we got adventurers to help out with deliveries, that would also save on labor costs. We couldn’t afford to let them handle official correspondence, but I didn’t think personal letters would be such a big deal. Even now, it was perfectly normal for people to entrust their letters to merchants or travelers.
There were stories of people who entrusted their letters to people they didn’t know and they ended up taking their money and not delivering the letter. The adventurer’s guild taking on letters would help alleviate that issue.
“Guess I’ll go consult with Relisha first.”
“That would be advisable.”
Whatever we decided to do, it was almost certain we couldn’t handle it ourselves. The adventurer’s guild had branches all over the world, so they would be perfect as a partner for the company.
I quickly teleported to the guild.