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After returning home, Josh checked the time—it was around 7 PM.
After a moment of thought, he summoned the Trading System.
However, this time, Daenerys appeared a bit late.
Josh waited a full fifteen minutes, and just when he was about to lose patience, Daenerys finally appeared on the screen, dressed scantily.
"Oh? Looks like I interrupted something good!" Seeing Daenerys flushed and full of lust on the screen, Josh grinned teasingly.
Clearly, the queen from another world had just been through an intense "battle."
It seemed Daenerys had already returned to Meereen, and Josh guessed the person she had just "battled" with was probably the leader of the Second Sons mercenary group—Daario.
"Since you know that, pick a better time next time," Daenerys replied with an unchanged expression, unfazed by Josh's teasing.
On the continent of Westeros, people were very open-minded. Daenerys had experienced even more awkward situations, so Josh's remarks didn't stir any waves in her heart.
"But that is indeed an issue. Trade is important, but if it interferes with our personal lives, that's not good either. So let's agree on a fixed time. If either of us happens to miss it due to unforeseen circumstances, we'll simply postpone the trade to the next day," Josh said.
"That makes sense. You pick a time then," Daenerys responded without much objection.
"Let's go with 7 PM system time. Each session will have a 10-minute waiting window. If neither of us shows up by 7:10 PM system time, then the trade automatically rolls over to the next day. That way, unless there's an emergency, we won't bother each other," Josh said, looking at the system time.
Though they were in different dimensions, the trading system synced all transaction partners' time flows with Josh's timeline. The system now used Chicago time as the standard.
"Alright!"Â
Daenerys agreed after a moment of thought. This time roughly coincided with her rest period anyway. The nightlife in Westeros was quite dull, so finding time wasn't hard. It had just been a while since she'd last seen Daario, and that beast had been holding back—he'd performed so well she couldn't stop, which caused the delay.
"With the time set, what surprise do you have for me today?"Â
Having confirmed the regular trading schedule, Daenerys asked.
"Sorry, something unexpected happened today, so I didn't have time to prepare supplies. To apologize, I've brought you something else," Josh said as he placed two brown paper bags in the system's trading slot and initiated the trade—no charge.
"What is it?" Daenerys didn't blame him.
While she did value firearms, her military strength in Westeros was already among the most powerful, so her need for guns wasn't immediate.
Still, she was curious about what kind of novelty Josh would bring from his world.
"Some sugar and chocolate," Josh shrugged.
Just as he said, the two brown paper bags each contained one pound of sugar and one pound of chocolate—just under half a kilo each.
He had bought them at a store he passed during lunch, before going house-hunting with Margot.
Though the quantity looked small, don't think Josh was being stingy.
In fact, during wartime America, sugar was one of the most strictly rationed civilian commodities—more than tires or gasoline. Each person's weekly sugar ration (including chocolate) was only 0.25 pounds, or about 2 ounces.
This one pound of sugar and one pound of chocolate already accounted for all the sugar coupons black-market dealer Mike had in stock.
"I know sugar, but what's chocolate?" Daenerys didn't think much of the sugar—as Queen of Meereen, she wouldn't be deprived of it—but she was very curious about the "chocolate" Josh mentioned.
"It's a candy made from a unique fruit of our world. It can improve your mood," Josh explained.
"Wait, this is sugar? This pure sugar?" Daenerys was clearly intrigued, but when she opened the bag of sugar, she was stunned.
Though Westeros had dragons, magic, and possibly gods…
Its productivity was, frankly, likely lower than that of medieval Europe.
So even if sugar existed, it was usually in the form of rough brown sugar blocks.
Refined white granulated sugar was unheard of.
"That's right, that's sugar. Because it's fine and resembles white sand, we call it 'white granulated sugar,'" Josh nodded.
"Oh, gods, the taste—such pure, sweet flavor." Once Josh confirmed it, Daenerys delicately used the edge of her slender pinky fingernail to pick up a pinch of sugar and slowly brought it to her lips.
Then, as if tasting some heavenly delicacy, she closed her eyes and savored it.
Watching Daenerys' careful tasting and intoxicated expression, Josh couldn't help twitching the corner of his mouth. For a moment, he suspected what he'd given her wasn't sugar—but some kind of forbidden, sinful substance.
"Sorry, I lost myself for a moment. But I've truly never tasted such pure sweetness!" After enjoying it for a long while, Daenerys finally returned to her senses and spoke to Josh.
"No problem. But I think once you try the chocolate, you might like it even more," Josh shrugged.
"Thank you. I'll savor it carefully. But sugar this pure must be expensive, right?" Daenerys asked curiously.
"Yeah, it's pretty pricey—strictly controlled wartime material," Josh nodded. Those two pounds of sugar and chocolate cost him $4 even with ration coupons.
And how much was regular beef? 40 cents a pound.
That was with ration coupons.
On the black market, prices could be several times higher.
Without question, compared to the cheap sugar prices of the future, this was astronomical.
In fact, sugar in the U.S. was still considered relatively cheap.
During WWII, the country with the most outrageous sugar price hikes was Japan.
At its peak, Japan's sugar prices had increased by 770 times compared to pre-war prices. Meanwhile, grain and fuel prices had only risen fiftyfold.
By the end of WWII, American soldiers could buy the affection of a gentle Japanese girl with just a piece of chocolate.
But when Josh said "pretty pricey," he was comparing it to the low future prices.
Daenerys, however, misunderstood, thinking Josh had spent a significant chunk of his gold reserves.
As anyone who watched Game of Thrones would know, Daenerys, as a queen, was extremely generous to her subordinates.
And while Josh wasn't exactly her subordinate, he had just tributed such valuable food, and she didn't want him to suffer a loss.
So with a wave of her delicate hand, the system made a transaction notification sound.
Josh was dumbfounded.
Because the trade bar now displayed: 1,000 ounces of gold.
This woman had lost her mind!
Josh knew sugar was expensive in ancient times—but even comparing it to sugar-starved medieval Europe or wartime Japan, it was, at most, equal in value to gold.
But trading 1,000 ounces for two pounds of sugar—that was thirty times the price of gold.
Forget selling guns—shouldn't he just sell sugar instead?
Fortunately, Daenerys' next words made Josh realize she hadn't lost her mind.