Side Story:
Lahki’s Merchant Diary, Part 4
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Three figures stood on the side of a road to the suburbs surrounding Lamburt, watching silently as a horse-drawn cart shrank into the distance.
A friendly looking, well-dressed young man with tousled brown hair—probably in his twenties—smiled warmly as he watched the cart disappear, waving with one hand and clutching a piece of parchment to his chest with the other.
A second young man stood at his side, barely able to contain his excitement. “I can’t believe it, Lahki, you got a shop permit! I’ve heard of luck, but this is a whole new level!”
This second man was a mercenary, dressed in leather armor and armed with a shield and modest sword. He wore his blond hair cropped close to his head. He stared at the parchment the first man—Lahki—held.
The shop permit fluttered as Lahki’s hand trembled. Lahki grinned ruefully. “I can’t believe it, either. It’s kinda funny, though. You seem more excited than I am, Behl.”
“No, no! I mean, shouldn’t you be excited about something like this? No one from our little town has ever owned their own shop before, y’know!”
“That’s right! You’d better hurry and tell your folks back in the village!” the woman next to Behl agreed. She wore her chestnut hair tied back in a ponytail. It was obvious at a glance that this woman, dressed in leather armor, was also a mercenary. Like Behl, she beamed at their friend’s sudden change in fortune.
Lahki thought long and hard about the places his travels had taken him, and about his parents back home, who’d agreed to let him pursue the life of a merchant.
“Thank you, Rea. You’re right, I really should tell them.”
Behl turned his gaze back to the cart and mumbled to himself. “I can’t believe that you’re going into business with elves.”
Lahki looked up from the shop permit and stared at the distant figures who’d made this all possible.
“Those two really were nothing like the elves I’ve heard about,” Rea said.
It was the first time any of them had ever met an elf in real life.
One elf had been clad from head to toe in exquisitely decorated silver armor. When he took his helmet off, they saw that he had elongated ears, red eyes, black hair, and brown skin. The other elf had snow-white hair, golden eyes, and amethyst-colored skin. Her ears were slightly less pointed than the man’s.
Apart from their ears, both were quite different from the elves in stories, who had green-tinged blond hair and bright green eyes.
The two mercenaries looked at Lahki, as if seeking some explanation. Lahki smiled nervously under their gaze, then clapped his hands together as if trying to recall something.
“I think…and this is just a theory…but I think that Ariane, the woman, was a dark elf. I’ve only heard rumors about them, of course. Apparently, though, they’re a rare subspecies of elf. I don’t know what Arc might be, but it’s possible he’s an even rarer subspecies.”
“A dark elf, huh? Well, she was definitely easy on the eyes.” A silly smile crept across Behl’s face.
Rea shot him a death glare. “Cut that out! She’s a fellow warrior in arms, y’know. I’ll lop that filthy-minded head of yours right off if you keep it up.”
Behl wrapped his arms around himself and slouched, pretending to shudder at Rea’s threat. “Hey, I know! But a guy can’t help it if a beautiful woman draws his attention.”
Rea narrowed her eyes. “Yes, he can.”
Behl cleared his throat nervously.
Lahki could only tilt his head to the side and return Rea’s gaze as her eyes drilled into him. Behl, seemingly undisturbed by Rea glaring daggers at Lahki, continued to speak aloud to himself. “Speaking of which, the girl there was a real looker. Black hair, azure eyes… Chiyome, was it? I wonder what her relationship with the elves is.”
Lahki shrugged. “They mentioned that we’d meet with Chiyome much more often from here on out, since she’ll come by to sell monster parts and purchase materials. But she definitely didn’t seem like an elf.”
Rea jammed her elbow lightly into Lahki’s ribs in warning. “Listen, they’ve got some sort of relationship with the Lord of Lamburt, y’know. So, don’t go sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong, or your business’ll be done for. A merchant should think about how to make the best of their connections.”
Lahki laughed and scratched the back of his head. “Hahaha! You’re right, Rea.”
He looked down at the shop permit in his hand, issued by the Lord of Lamburt. Any merchant was painfully aware of the sheer difficulty of obtaining the right to run a shop in a bustling port town.
Yet there he was, holding a piece of paper reserved for a limited few in this world. It was nothing short of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That new reality was slowly starting to sink in.
“You’re absolutely right. But first things first. We should check out the shop.”
Rolling up the shop permit, and placing it carefully into his jacket pocket, Lahki turned back toward Lamburt.
Behl and Rea led the way, serving as Lahki’s bodyguards. They headed for the central administrative office in the old town district, near the lord’s castle.
Lamburt’s administrative office was a three-story building detailed with elegant stonework. Its black roof stood in stark contrast to the mahogany roofs around it.
Lahki entered the building and headed straight for the counter, where a clerk stood at attention. He handed over his shop permit. A short time later, after finishing the name registration and other paperwork, he left the office.
Lahki stood in the street, rolling the key for his new building back and forth in his hand. Its heft brought a smile to his face.
Behl nudged Lahki with his elbow. “So, it’s finally feeling real, huh? You’ve got your very own shop, Lahki!”
Lahki dropped the key into his jacket pocket. “Now I need to start wrapping my head around the next steps.”
“Hey,” Rea said. “Is the shop located in the old town district, or the new one?”
Lahki laughed wryly as he recalled the number written on his shop permit. “It’s in the new town district, near the south market. I mean, if I’d gotten a shop in the old district, I’d almost certainly have either turned it down or tried to trade it for a shop in the new area.”
Rea cocked her head. “I thought merchants preferred to have their shops in the old town district.”
As usual, Rea was right.
The town of Lamburt consisted of two districts: the old town district and the new town district. The names, obviously, referred to when the areas had been built. The historic old town district had more ties to the nobility, and thus, closer connections with the merchant guild. But the merchant guild had slowly acquired power over time, making it all but impossible for a newcomer to break in.
“Before you can get a shop in the old town, you need to build your influence with the merchant guild in the new town. You can’t just jump in and set up shop. Relations between shop owners are incredibly important, so if I ever plan to enter the old town district, I’ll need to bide my time and build connections,” Lahki sighed.
“Huh,” Rea said. “I had no idea. I figured, once you got rich, you were allowed to live there. That all sounds like a huge hassle.”
Behl looked as though he’d just remembered something. “If they have all those connections, how come only the merchants involved in the slave trading debacle went bankrupt? If the merchants were all so intertwined, you’d think that the whole group would’ve come tumbling down, no?”
A surprised look washed over Lahki’s face.
“Hey, why’re you looking at me like that?”
“I was just shocked by what an astute observation you made, Behl.”
Behl’s face darkened. “Hey, I’m always saying astute stuff!”
Lahki apologized, his expression once again serious. “The business closures in the old town district happened suddenly, and the reasons behind them are vague. It seems as though there are trust issues between the businesses in the old town district, the local nobility, and the lord.”
Rea looked around furtively. “You think some trouble’s brewing?”
Lahki shook his head. “No, not exactly. Rather, the reputation of the businesses in the new town district was pretty poor. Rumor had it they were involved in something despicable. The general consensus is that the lord’s quick and decisive actions were for the best, while also giving the new town district a chance to ride the wave of criticism against the old town district.”
Behl laughed. “Oh, I get it. So, the old town district is even more suspicious after having their dirty laundry aired?”
Lahki told his two companions what he had heard over the past few days concerning the situation. Behl laughed and nodded along, and Rea put her hand to Behl’s head, as if to check for a fever. “What’s wrong with you today, Behl? Did you eat something strange?”
Behl sighed in exasperation. “Just who do you think I am? Y’know, us mercenaries are good at sniffing out trouble.”
Lahki clapped his hands loudly to break up the argument before it could begin. “All right, all right. Settle down, you two. I want to go to my shop and see the layout.”
Behl and Rea stuck their tongues out at each other. They could argue over just about anything, and had since they were young.
“You two really are great friends, you know,” Lahki said.
“Us? Pssh!”
“Hardly!”
Lahki shrugged in defeat.