“I, uh, I just bought it off a traveler. He, umm, sold it to me—for pretty cheap, too.”
Lahki broke out in a cold sweat. The self-proclaimed mercenary had said these swords were looted from some bandits. But it was inconceivable that a bandit would be carrying a mithril weapon. If they’d stolen it, news of the theft would have gotten around, and an order would have been issued to hunt the bandits down. Still, Lahki prided himself on being a good judge of character, and he hadn’t sensed anything disingenuous about the mercenary. He almost didn’t want to know where the swords had truly come from.
The knight’s voice interrupted Lahki’s thoughts.
“Merchant! Would you be willing to sell these swords to my master, Viscount Luvierte? We can offer you five hundred sok for the mithril blade and twenty-five sok each for the rest.”
After some quick calculations in his head, Lahki realized this would fetch him more than five times what he’d paid for the weapons.
“You can have the mithril sword for four hundred sok. I accept your offer for the rest.”
“What? You’ll undercut my offer by a hundred sok for the mithril blade? You must want something in return.” The knight’s eyes went wide as he inspected Lahki’s face, trying to gauge the other man’s motives.
Lahki decided it would be poor form to tell the knight that he’d picked up the sword for a mere ten sok. Instead, he came up with a different explanation for his behavior.
“I was hoping this could be an opportunity to put myself in the viscount’s good graces.”
The knight looked taken aback for a moment, then he reached out to slap Lahki hard on the shoulder, letting out a hearty laugh.
“Wahahaha! You merchants don’t let a single opportunity pass you by, do you? My name is Horcos. I’m in charge of the knights of the Luvierte estate.”
“You’re the h-head of the knights? Apologies for my insolence, Commander Horcos, sir. I am Lahki, the merchant.”
“Ahaha! Don’t worry about it. I almost forgot, though. I need to run this conversation past Master Buckle. Wait here. I’ll be back with your money shortly!”
With that, Commander Horcos left the shop, mounted his horse, and took off at a gallop toward the castle.
After watching this all unfold, the blacksmith finally addressed Lahki.
“Commander Horcos is always like that. You can wait over there until he returns.”
Lahki thanked the man, then asked if he’d be interested in purchasing some scrap iron, ultimately securing a sale. Iron ore usually reached Luvierte from the south, but lately it had been getting held up in Diento.
Considering this, Lahki had hoped he’d be able to sell the scrap above normal market value, but the blacksmith managed to talk him down in exchange for sharpening Behl’s sword for free. Overall, Lahki was satisfied with the deal.
A short time later, Horcos returned with several of his men to collect the swords. After receiving his 725 gold coins, Lahki shook hands with the commander and made his exit.
In stark contrast to Lahki’s expectations of a long, drawn-out sales push, he now found himself with more money than he’d ever held at one time. His hands trembled slightly as he accepted the money.
Just to be safe, he opened a compartment in the bed of his cart, revealing a chest. After putting the money inside, he covered it with dirt to keep it from rattling about.
“I still can’t believe that was a mithril sword…” Behl spoke animatedly, his excitement obvious. Rea was quite surprised when she heard the story, but also delighted at their luck.
“This is great! You’re so much closer to owning that shop you’ve always dreamed of!”
“I know. I was completely taken by surprise!” The excitement seeped into Lahki’s voice as well as he steered the cart toward the town’s merchant guild office.
Whether you wanted to know about the current year’s crop yield, or about the recent monster sightings, or even about the various tax categories, the local merchant guild was a great source of information. Goods and tax rates in particular varied for every domain and ultimately affected the selling price of everything. Success depended entirely upon a merchant’s ability to look at the taxes each town levied and find something profitable to sell.
Selling the swords had given Lahki a great deal of money to work with. He hoped the merchant guild would be able to help him find something else to sell before leaving Luvierte.
Unfortunately, despite having all this money at his disposal, Lahki had a limited carrying capacity in his current cart, and, with just one horse, the more he piled on, the longer it would take him to travel between towns.
Lahki’s mind cycled through his options as he made his way to the merchant guild office. He wasn’t sure where he wanted to go from here—down south to the capital or follow the Xpitol River to the port of Bulgoh off to the west.
He pulled his cart into the parking area and left Behl and Rea behind to watch it while he went inside alone.
Strictly speaking, the purchase counter at the merchant guild office was more of a wholesale shop than anything else. Sellers who didn’t already have a specific buyer lined up could check the market value of their goods and sell them at the counter—at a slight discount of course. This service was of great use to mercenaries, since they could sell whatever they brought in, from monsters they’d slain to rare medicinal herbs.
Lahki mumbled to himself as he put together a plan in his head. “First, I’ll check what sort of goods they have in their storehouse, and figure out where to travel next. Then I’ll figure out the tax categories for towns along the route.”
There were several people, buyers and sellers, at the counter haggling with each other over prices. Their voices jumbled together, creating quite a racket. As he walked past, Lahki overheard one man—possibly a guild member—arguing with a girl about a purchase price.
“That can’t be right! Daddy sold less than this before and got ten more gold coins for it. Why are you only offering me ten, and for a larger amount?!”
“It’s like I said, kid. Price is determined by demand. First it goes up, then it drops back down. This is my best offer.”
The girl stood just 150 centimeters tall, her soft, chestnut-colored hair tied back in braids that hung down past her shoulders. She had large, blue eyes and a healthy tan, and she wore simple clothes, like you might find in one of Luvierte’s outlying villages.