Chapter 58: A Sudden Deal

After turning a corner, just a few steps away, the buildings here were completely different from the previous place. If George had ever been to Europe, he would have realized that the old environment felt like a small town left over from the European Middle Ages, while this place had the vibe of ancient architecture left behind in big cities like Paris during the late Renaissance.

Of course, the heavy use of large, colorless, transparent flat glass made it look more like a European big city after the old houses were renovated in the 19th century.

Walking to the end of the road led to a small polygonal square. There were many such large and small squares in the Outer District of Karada, and a few even existed in the Commercial District. However, unlike other places, squares here were mostly used as transit and unloading points for large Caravans. Therefore, only power ful Merchant Guilds within the Duchy of Nohan could open shops on the square’s edge. These included huge international merchants like the Earth Journey Merchant Guild and the Metos Federation, as well as local guilds like the Bolerum Merchant Guild, which George controlled and possessed some administrative resources.

During festivals and celebrations, the merchants around the square would pool their money together to invite relatively famous artists from Karada to perform on the square. This not only attracted customers but also served as a reward for local residents and shoppers. Meanwhile, squares in other parts of the Outer District mostly became markets in a certain sense, having long since become an essential part of the daily lives of nearby residents.

Unlike other places, the buildings around the square were unique due to the arrangements of each Merchant Guild. There were imported shops with exotic styles, hard-edged weapon shops, and mysterious Alchemy Items shops that looked strange because of various external decorations. As for shops selling Magic Items? In Karada, a city with less than 300,000 people, there were no shops dedicated to selling such rare items.

One of the shops that looked quite ordinary was George’s destination for today. Actually, when George took over the affairs of his territory four years ago, he had planned to renovate this unremarkable shop to look like ancient Chinese architecture from his memory. Unfortunately, due to a series of reasons such as raw material procurement and costs, the plan was eventually shelved. So, every time George came here, he always felt an indescribable awkwardness in his heart.

“Good day, Lord! Good day, Young Master Val, Young Master Bart!” Before even entering the shop, the clerk standing outside saw them and bowed deeply.

George nodded slightly to return the greeting, then walked into the shop with long strides. The interior of the shop was quite simple. A few sparse cabinets were labeled with various distilled liquors, finished spices, soy sauce, and other daily necessities produced within the Territory. There were also samples like Paper Armor placed on shelves and sea salt in glass jars. Although the shop sold these few items at retail, their more important purpose was to provide samples in preparation for potential bulk transactions.

“Huh! I clearly remember ordering them to put this out on display.” George looked left and right but could not find the Loot he had obtained in Greywood Town inside the shop. He felt a bit strange in his heart. “Could it be that they were too busy with something and didn’t have time to put it out today?”

Feeling something was wrong, George quickly called over the clerk who was wiping the cabinets nearby and asked, “When will the batch of weapons and armor that arrived at the shop yesterday be put on display?”

“Do you mean those extra-large Scale Armors, weapons, and Tower Shields? Two batches of customers came this morning and bought them all,” the underage clerk said, hiding the rag in his hand behind his back and bowing his head cautiously.

“Oh! They have already been sold. What! They were already sold? Do you know who the buyers were?” George excitedly grabbed the clerk’s shoulders.

The clerk was startled by George’s action and stuttered, “I… I don’t know either. Such a large transaction is always handled by the store manager in the meeting room on the second floor, isn’t it? Lord, you should probably go up and ask him yourself. He just sent a group of guests to the shop entrance before going up a short while ago.”

George then realized he had been too excited just now and said to the clerk, “Go back to your work. We will go to the second floor to ask.”

Saying this, George led Hiren and Craig to the stairs on the side of the shop and hurried up to the second floor. During the process, Craig couldn’t help but ask George, “Isn’t it a good thing that the items were sold? Why are you so excited, George?”

“If it were ordinary items being sold, of course, it would be a good thing. But equipment like this, which can basically be called exclusive items, is not easy to sell,” George explained to the two people behind him while walking. “We just eliminated a group of bandits, and the Loot we got was mostly useless to Humans. Yet, the moment we consigned them, they were bought immediately. Don’t you think there is something strange about this?”

Soon, the group arrived at the door of the second-floor reception room. Normally, if nothing else happened, the store manager of this shop would wait here for big business deals.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” After knocking on the door, George asked, “Randi, are you in there?”

Immediately, a friendly male voice came from inside, “Lord, please wait a moment. I am coming to open the door right away.”

George turned the doorknob and found, as he expected, that the door was not locked at all. As he opened the door, he said, “When there are no other customers, there is no need to bother with these useless formalities.”

As soon as the door opened, George immediately saw the chair the middle-aged man inside had knocked over while getting up in a hurry, as well as the untidy papers and other items on the table.

Randi Halardi was the store manager of this shop, which belonged to the Bolerum Territory’s Merchant Guild. He had worked for the guild for nearly twenty years. He started as an ordinary clerk when he was in his teens and climbed to his current position five years ago through his own hard work. He was a self-made man. After George took over, he investigated him and confirmed that he was still firmly sitting in his current position. He could be said to be a slightly important part of George’s commercial empire.

This man with brownish hair and a carefully trimmed short beard had just rounded the writing desk after the door was fully opened. Before he could even stand up straight, he bowed to George and said, “Welcome, Lord, to inspect our work.”

“Alright, Randi! I don’t have time to worry about the store’s operations for now. Besides, I am afraid my time in Karada this time will be as long as two months. Other matters can be handled later. The priority now is: who bought the batch of weapons and armor that arrived at the shop yesterday?” George said without hesitation, getting straight to the point and showing how much he valued this issue.

Hearing this, Randi suddenly paused, feeling that this matter seemed to be more than just ordinary product sales. He turned back behind the writing desk, took out a ledger from a drawer below, flipped quickly to a specific page, and immediately handed it to George, saying, “Lord, the parts of the Loot you sent, except for the Masterwork items, I have already sold to weapon shops in the Commercial District that are in slightly remote locations. The other parts were set up on shelves and put on display in the shop this morning as you requested. About two hours ago, a group of customers took a fancy to that batch of Scale Armor and Tower Shields and bought them without even bargaining much. As for those few large Masterwork weapons, a group of guests who came later picked them up.”

George looked at the records in the notebook, but his mind was elsewhere. He understood that Randi might have misunderstood something, so he patted the man’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry! You have always done very well in both sales and shop management. So there is no need to be so nervous. Do I not know the somewhat shady tricks inside the shop? In every instance, I have given you enough time to clean them up.”

Then, George immediately stepped back to a distance and said in a normal voice, “This deal was just made a short while ago. You must remember the characteristics of the customers who bought them, right?”

“Yes, sir! The customers who bought the armor and Tower Shields had an accent from the north. Judging from their behavior habits, they should be traveling merchants from the Northern Lands. According to their own words, after accidentally discovering this batch of goods, they bought them to use as backup supplies for the Minotaur Guard in Winterhold. At the same time, they also ordered about 2,000 pounds of Salted Fish from us. More importantly, they said they would send someone to the Territory to receive the goods, so we do not need to send anyone to transport the cargo ourselves.” Randi carefully recalled his previous memories, confirmed there were no omissions, and organized his words to report to George.

“Oh! They didn’t want these Flails?” George asked slightly with doubt about this aspect.

Randi said very confidently, “Regarding this, they even complained, asking why it wasn’t something like a large Battle Axe. They seemed not very satisfied with the Flails that were displayed together with the armor.”

“Oh! Is that so? Then who bought those Flails later?” George began to turn the topic to the latter.

Because of the previous preparation, Randi immediately explained the cause and effect this time: “Originally, after the armor was sold, we were supposed to temporarily put away those remaining Flails. But then a group of Mercenaries suddenly came. They left two people in the shop to tell us to wait, then sent someone back to call their captain. After inspecting the goods, they bought all the Flails at a price of 350 Gold Coins each.”

‘Could it really be just a moment of good luck? Could it be that the series of things I have experienced recently has made me suspicious and paranoid all the time?’ This thought flashed through George’s mind.