Galactic Exchange: The Merchant Sovereign-Chapter 58 – Relic Vault: The Law of Scarcity

The echo of the shattered Anchor hadn’t even faded from the Ledgerverse when the next ripple began.

A new glyph appeared in Kairos’ Sovereign Ledger—a dormant seal long thought lost to the cosmos. It shimmered in dull gold and iron-black, its shape jagged and uneven, almost as though resisting its own existence.

Arin’s voice came over the bridge, shaky.

"Confirmation just hit the core systems. The Equilibrium Repositories are real. And one of them... just opened for you."

Kairos stared at the shifting glyph.

Its name was Vault X-4-Scarcity. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

The Forbidden Vaults

The Equilibrium Repositories were whispered about in the dark corners of the Nexus Trade Network.

They were never officially mapped. Never sanctioned.Said to be caches of power too dangerous to register.

Each one tied to a different Anchored Law—sealed when the Anchors deemed the concepts too volatile for open market.

And among them, the most infamous... was the Vault of Scarcity.

"The Law of Scarcity was never about supply and demand," Vael muttered as the coordinates decoded themselves mid-air. "It was about artificial limits. Anchors built entire economies by withholding resources to force trade."

Kairos clenched his jaw.

"And I’m guessing this Vault holds the blueprint for that manipulation?"

Raya nodded grimly. "And probably the weapon that enforced it."

Journey to the Scarcity Vault

The Vault was hidden inside the debris field of an imploded system—Sector 9-Kairos, ironically named before he was even born.

No stars remained.No planets.Just fragments of once-thriving worlds frozen in a web of null-gravity and collapsed markets.

The Unyielding Trust emerged into the black silence, its shields crackling under the strain of entropy pressure. The entire zone bled negation—a place where trade contracts naturally unraveled.

Arin stared out the window.

"I can’t lock on to the Vault. But I think... it’s withholding its own existence."

Kairos narrowed his eyes. "Then we force it to reveal itself. Prepare a Trade Beacon—encoded with intent."

Baiting the Vault

The beacon fired into the black.

Trade Offer: 1 Sovereign IntentRequest: Revelation of Vault X-4-ScarcityPayment: Truth

The pulse vanished.

For a moment, nothing.

Then reality tore open.

A gash formed in space, jagged like a tear in parchment. Inside it was no architecture—just an endless market of shadows, where items glimmered behind cracked display cases, and price tags hung blank.

The Vault had no floor. No sky.Only levels of loss.

Each layer represented a different manifestation of scarcity—of manipulated starvation, withheld knowledge, restricted movement, falsified demand.

Sol scanned the readings.

"This place was designed not to protect relics—but to remind anyone who enters that scarcity... is a choice."

Kairos stepped through the threshold.

Layer One – The Withholding

The first layer resembled an abandoned farming colony.

Crops rotted in fields. Granaries were full—but locked. Automated drones circled with weapons primed, stopping any attempt to harvest.

At the center stood a projection.

"To preserve the value of food, excess must be destroyed. Overproduction threatens market stability."

Kairos stepped forward.

"And what about the lives destroyed?"

He walked up to the control hub.

A relic glowed behind reinforced glass—The Scarcity Key, said to be used by the Second Anchor to enforce rationing policies that caused five planetary famines.

Kairos touched the case.

A contract appeared.

To claim the Key, you must offer a greater sacrifice of abundance.

Vael blinked. "That’s a paradox."

"No," Kairos said. "It’s an insult."

He activated his Sovereign Sigil and transferred the public blueprints for open-source hydroponic tech—one of the first things he traded on Lumeris—to the Vault interface.

The system froze.

Then the glass shattered.

The Scarcity Key hovered, then embedded itself in his ledger.

One layer cleared.

Layer Two – The Silence of Knowledge

The second floor resembled a university—its libraries crumbling, servers inert.

Screens flashed with red warnings: "Access Denied – Knowledge Restricted by Nexus Law 7-C."

"Why seal this?" Arin whispered. "This isn’t a weapon. It’s just... learning."

Kairos frowned. "Because knowledge increases value. And Anchors only wanted value to be controlled."

He reached out to the central console, which offered him a relic: The Lexicon Null—a codex that could remove technical knowledge from planetary networks.

To claim it, he had to trade a planetary-level education ban—a simulation.

Kairos refused.

Instead, he uploaded Lumeris’ universal education protocol—the same one that trained orphans in trade law.

The Vault shuddered.

And gifted him not the Lexicon... but a fragment of the Anchor’s own notes.

The Scarcity Doctrine

The fragment wasn’t just data.

It was history.

A report by the Anchor of Scarcity, recorded eons ago.

"To maintain control, the illusion of limitation must be perpetual.Knowledge must be withheld. Goods must be delayed.Trade thrives on imbalance, not balance."

Kairos trembled.

This wasn’t just manipulation. It was systemized oppression.

A strategy not to grow markets, but to ensure perpetual dependence.

"This Vault isn’t just a relic vault," Vael muttered. "It’s a confession booth."

Kairos nodded.

"And we’re going to turn it into a museum."

Final Layer – Scarcity Embodied

The last floor was empty.

Only a mirror stood at its center.

When Kairos approached, it showed not his reflection—but a version of him shaped by scarcity.

A Kairos who hoarded Cosmic Units. Who rationed goods to raise prices. Who sold information to the highest bidder and let lesser systems starve.

And it spoke.

"This is who you could become.The Sovereign Scarcity. Worshiped. Wealthy. Ruthless."

Kairos stared at it.

Then answered simply, "That’s not value. That’s extortion."

He touched the mirror.

And it shattered into a thousand coins—each one a conceptual currency representing different interpretations of scarcity.

The Vault began collapsing—its purpose fulfilled.

Legacy of Scarcity

As the team raced back to the Unyielding Trust, the Sovereign Ledger updated.

Cosmic Units: 19,000Star Credits: 2.4 millionTrust Index: 92.4%New Relic Acquired: The Scarcity KeyNew Title Unlocked: "The Abundant Trader"— You are now immune to forced scarcity in trade networks. Passive bonus: Your markets generate organic supply chains, boosting long-term value stability.

The Nexus stirred.

And the Council?

They watched from afar. Unsettled. Angry.

Because Kairos wasn’t just trading anymore.

He was rewriting the definitions.

The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮