The scene: Shunrai’s ground floor. Two women are sitting at the bar counter—Miss Fox Lady and me.
In all honesty, I would’ve loved to take her upstairs, but she’d turned me down, saying she wasn’t feeling up to it today. Aw, bummer! Still, she’d agreed to chat and drink with me for a while, so we were knocking a few back at the bar counter. She gave her female staff a drink order, then handed me a glass of amber liquid a little later. She clinked her own glass together with mine, and we both took a sip.
“I was sure you’d come back to beg me to work here, but it looks like you managed to save up enough money on your own to drink here, eh? I’m impressed. Unless it was dirty money, that is?”
“No way! I earned this money fair and square! I just used Blade, his party, and a little magic to cut down some trees.”
“Oh, using magic to complete logging quests? You don’t say.” Her ears twitched, seemingly in admiration. Heh heh, go on! Keep praising me!
“And so, I was thinking about joining the Trader’s Guild and wanted some advice.”
“Hm? Planning to become a merchant, are we? You’re not going to keep logging with Blade and his party?”
“Y’see, we got a little carried away, and the guild kinda barred us from doing any more. Though I was already thinking about becoming a merchant from the get-go, since it’d give me a profession to utilize my special ability.”
“True, if you can use such amazing magic, becoming a traveling peddler would be easy for you.”
Indeed—after all, the special ability in question even allowed me to teleport. I didn’t tell her that, though.
“But you know, this is a bar, not an information center. I’m not sure I’ll be too much help.”
“That’s okay, just whatever advice you can give is fine! You’re the only one I can talk to about this!”
She looked slightly mollified. “All right, guess there’s no helping it. To reward you for your courage for coming here alone as a woman, I suppose I can give you a few pointers.”
All right! You’re a saint, fox lady!
“Now, what was it you wanted to ask about in particular?”
“Maybe something like what type of items would be good to sell?”
“Oh, the employees at the guild will help you out a lot more on that than I could. They’ll tell you what’s in demand and what vendors they need more of. I doubt they’ll outright tell you which items you’ll profit most from—but they’ll also probably tell you which items don’t sell at all or are illegal to sell.”
So there are illegal items even in this world, eh?
“In fact,” she continued, “when I was first getting this bar off the ground, I just sold whatever items the guild told me to buy, since it was the safest route. You might not make any money at first, but think of it as an offering of goodwill to your fellow senior merchants. Eventually you’ll win their trust, which will be more valuable to you in the end. If they trust you, they won’t be so quick to cut you off if you run into a serious loss.”
“I see.” In other words, without their trust, I’d be lucky to find someone to help me among the fellow smaller merchants. Though considering I’d made everything I currently had on hand in a single day of logging, it shouldn’t be too hard to recover on my own.
“Oh, and here’s something else you need to be careful about selling—fragile items like these.” She pointed to the alcohol in her hand—or rather, the glass.
“Oh, right,” I said with a nod. “If items like that break, you’ll lose out on that sale.” But I had spatial magic on my side. As long as I stored my merchandise in my space of holding, it would never break. In fact, fragile items might be the easiest way to profit, so maybe I should make those my focus?
“Hm?” Come to think of it, this confirmed that glassware like cups and such did exist in this world. But wait—didn’t I drink from a wooden cup last time I was here? Well, potions and the like are in glass bottles, so I guess I should’ve realized that by now.
“Finally noticed, eh? That’s right—I wanted to give you a warm welcome to my establishment, so I pulled out the good stuff.”
“Oh...” I was taken aback by her generosity.
“Although, I also wanted to keep an eye on how much you drank, since you staggered around here dead drunk last time.”
“Er... Yeah, that did indeed happen last time. Right.” Now I remembered—Blade had treated me, and I’d drunk a little too much. How could I have forgotten?
“By the way, what’s the quickest way to make money in this town?” I asked.
“Selling your body, most definitely. That’s how I was able to expand this bar to its current size.”
I see, so fox lady’s speaking from experience. I don’t want to sleep with guys, though.
“Barring that, the only other way is to work your butt off. A merchant that can’t secure any inventory will just be a laughingstock.”
“Hm. Yeah, guess you need a product to sell before you can do any business... Oh, wait!” If I didn’t have anything to sell, I could just make some stuff myself, just like I’d made my own futon the other day! With spatial magic, I could create goods for free and profit!
Yeah, that’s right! I had some excess logs from the logging quest today, and I’d gathered some medicinal herbs and magic stones along the way. Couldn’t I use those ingredients to make my own potions?
“What if I made my own goods to sell? Oh, but if I did that, wouldn’t I classify as a craftsman? Would it be best to join their guild instead, if there even is one?”
“If you’re making your own goods and plan to make a decent amount of them, you’ll be classified as the owner of a workshop—in which case, you’ll need to register with the Trader’s Guild.”
“Oh, so I should just stick with the Trader’s Guild as planned, then. Good to know.”
Looks like I’ll be Foreman Karina, owner and proprietor of Karina Works!
“Great. Now that I have a plan, let’s drink the day away!” I downed the contents of my glass in one go. This world’s alcohol was kind of lukewarm and not too strong, but it did have a tinge of sweetness that I was quite fond of.
“Oh, sorry, but I’m cutting you off at one glass today. You might lose your memory again and forget all this advice I went through the trouble of giving you.”
“Huh? Oh, right. Fair point...”
“And you’ll need money to join the Trader’s Guild, so you should save what you have. Watch yourself around people like me—I won’t hesitate to take what you’ve got.”
And yet you stopped me at one glass, huh? She couldn’t have been any more of a softie. I couldn’t help but smile wryly in response.
In the end, after buying one glass of alcohol and a light snack, I left Shunrai and headed home. I didn’t want anyone to see me entering my space of holding, so I walked into an abandoned alley first. Whoa, just one glass and I’m feeling buzzed? Looks like this body has a low tolerance for alcohol... Hic!
“Sorry, miss. End of the line.”
Huh? “Miss”? Oh, right, that’s me. I turned to the man who’d called out to me. “Sorry, my bad,” I said with a small bow, and I turned around again.
But another man stepped in front of me to block my path. “Apologies, but this path only goes one way. If you want to pass, you’ll have to pay up.”
“Huh? Really?” I made a one-eighty back around to the other man, who was blocking the other side of the alley. Uh-oh.
“If it’s a one-way path and the way forward’s blocked, where am I supposed to go?”
“Where indeed? Let’s see... How about heaven?”
“Oh, heaven! I see—if I can’t go forward or back, I’ll just go up! Thanks, mister! Sorry for troubling you.” I used my spatial magic to lift myself up into the sky and get the hell out of there.
Oh, right! If I’m in the sky, no one will be able to see me anyway! What a profound discovery!
And so, within the skies of Solasidore, I opened my space of holding and spent the rest of the night in my room. Hic!