“Oh, Belle, it looks like you have a customer.”
“Who th’ heck is it? We were just gettin’ to the nitty gritty—Oh, it’s Mr. Gratt!” Eindebelle exclaimed once she saw Gratt, her cheeks blushing slightly. She hadn’t at all noticed that Gratt appeared discouraged upon hearing what she said, thinking that he really did come in at the wrong time.
“My apologies. I seem to have come in while you’re in the middle of something. I will come back again later.” Just as he was about to turn back toward the door, Eindebelle frantically rushed toward him.
“Hold it, hold it! I was just a lil’ engrossed in enchantment chat; that’s all. You’re not gettin’ in the way of anythin’, Mr. Gratt.”
“You aren’t just saying that out of consideration?”
“‘Course not. I appreciate you always takin’ the time to come out.”
“Oh, no. Ms. Eindebelle, coming to your shop is worth the trip.”
“Teehee, flattery’ll get you everywhere,” she commented, blushing and clearly fairly pleased. He knew that Eindebelle turned into a different person when it came to enchantments, and it seemed as though that explained what happened a moment ago. Realizing that it wasn’t because she disliked him, Gratt breathed a sigh of relief. He then instantly switched gears, putting his business-focused merchant face on.
“Ms. Eindebelle, you told me that you had something interesting in today’s stock?”
“Yeah, I did, but lemme introduce her first off. This lil’ lady is Nanami’s savior, Ristia. And the somethin’ interesting I got was from her.”
“Oh-ho...” Now it’s making sense. So it was no coincidence that this young, stand-out lady is here. Gratt thought to himself, pointing his attention toward Ristia once again. Her clear red eyes met Gratt’s line of vision head on. Looking at her up close was starting to make her look less and less like an ordinary individual. If I let down my guard, I’m bound to get overwhelmed, Gratt thought to himself, attempting to get back into the swing of things. “Pleased to meet you, Lady Ristia. My name is Gratt. I establish places of business in the imperial capital.”
“Very nice to meet you, Mr. Gratt. I’m just a normal girl.” Ristia stood up from her seat and elegantly curtsied in front of him. Gratt found himself holding back a chortle as a result. A normal girl would never go out of their way to address themselves as normal, yet here she was, making such a dainty show of respect in the most refined manner and explicitly proclaiming herself as such. That was practically the same as her shouting that she was not normal.
...No, wait. There is no way that this girl wouldn’t know that herself. If this girl is introducing herself as normal knowing that full-well... I see. She’s trying to gauge my reaction. She was probably going to pass Gratt off as an unreliable business man if this slight inconsistency was enough to make him disparage her. With this possibility in mind, Gratt acknowledged Ristia as a business partner not to be taken likely. Hence, there was only one reasonable way for Gratt to handle this. Remember. You just have to interact with her in good faith as a business partner, regardless of what her social standing is, he concluded, warning himself of his own conduct.
“Well then, Lady Ristia, I was told that you have some goods you’d like to show me today?”
“Yes, that would be correct. I asked Belle to introduce me so that I might interest you in buying the items I created today.”
“Very well. I’d like to start off by viewing the merchandise, so... Ms. Belle, would you mind if I took a seat?”
“‘Course, help yerself.”
“Much obliged,” he thanked her, taking a seat next to Eindebelle and across from Ristia. Gratt was slightly embarrassed to be sitting right next to Eindebelle, but he locked off that happy-go-lucky thought since he knew that he was conducting business.
“The item I was hoping that you would buy off of me is a brooch that I made,” Ristia said, pulling the brooch out of seemingly thin air. Witnessing this, for a split second, Gratt thought, That couldn’t have possibly been an Item Box, could it? That would explain a lot, but there wasn’t a human being alive capable of using an Item Box. It was probably some form of sleight of hand. Most likely, it was some strategy to distract Gratt away from the brooch. What was essential right now was appraising the brooch she presented him. Gratt understood that and quickly turned his attention toward it, and it wasn’t long before his breath was taken away by its beauty.
“...Would you mind if I were to examine it by hand?”
“No, be my guest.”
“Much obliged.” Putting his rashness in check, he used a piece of cloth he had on him to take the brooch. It was an open heart brooch with differing sizes on both sides. However, the difference in sizes seemed to be done in a perfectly calculated way. It was asymmetrical, yet it maintained a certain balance. Most importantly, its contours were superb—beautiful, with not a single irregularity. Gratt had never seen contours as aesthetically pleasing as this. And the stone set in its center... was a magic stone, without a doubt. The rainbow-lustered magic stone held exquisite potential even as far as jewels went. Furthermore, the silver-colored material that made up the brooch intrigued him. At first, he thought it was silver, but once he held it in his hand, he noticed it had some considerable weight.
I can’t estimate an accurate weight since it has a magic stone in it, but my guess is that it’s about double the weight of silver. He racked his brain, coming to the conclusion that this was made out of platinum. To be frank, the brooch was simply sublime. But that was the reason why it was hard to believe that a girl this young could ever make it. With that thought in mind, Gratt decided to trick her to get to the bottom of this.
“This is quite a beautiful design. You seem to be superbly skilled.”
“Ehehe, thank you very much,” Ristia said, her lips curling into a soft smile. He didn’t sense an ounce of nervousness from her; in fact, he felt an air of confidence.
“Still, this is truly beautiful. Is this metal silver?”
“No, that would be platinum.”
“Platinum, you say?”
“Yes, it doesn’t oxidize as easily as silver. Also, I’ve mixed in other metals to harden it.”
“...Oh-ho, is that so?” Gratt said, essentially back-channelling while in a state of complete shock on the inside. Even Gratt knew the difference and features between platinum and silver, but he wasn’t privy to the act of mixing in other metals to harden it. If that were true, that would be a trade secret among trade secrets even for metal carvers. Considering that Ristia knew about it, there was a chance that she was a top-class metal carver herself. But if she were a top-class metal carver, then there was no way she would so easily divulge trade secrets. He was clueless as to who it was he was dealing with here.
“Mr. Gratt. Lil’ Ristia ‘ere made that right in front of my very eyes.”
“Oh-ho. Did she now?” Gratt had shared quite a long relationship with Eindebelle, so he didn’t think that she was lying. Which only meant that it was true that Ristia had made this brooch herself. That piece of information came to Gratt’s rescue since he was so clueless to all of this. While there was a lot he didn’t understand, it didn’t seem as though the brooch was stolen property, at the very least. He decided that as long as he knew that, he could safely put all other factors aside for the time being. It was a decision that seemed to come a little too late, however. Ristia had noticed that she was being suspected, as her face adorned an awkward smile. “My apologies. I am running a business here, you see. I need to be extremely careful about how I handle my products.”
“Yes, I understand, which is why I’m not worried about it.”
Despite Gratt and his worries, Ristia gave a tender smile in response. With her display of tolerance, the young girl ended up one step ahead of Gratt. Gratt rebuked himself. I can’t afford to mess this up any further.
“So then, Sir... are you interested in buying it?”
“Ah, right. I’ll have a definitive quote for you after I confirm this item’s materials, but how does thirty gold pieces... no, fifty gold pieces sound?” Fifty gold pieces was enough to build a fine house. It was a relatively high asking price, but the tagline of “hardened platinum” was bound to attract the interests of the aristocrats and nobles, so he set it high based on that idea. He thought that it was a transaction that was more than satisfactory. However...
“Now hold it right there!” Eindebelle unexpectedly shouted to halt the proceedings.