Chapter 227: The Bear Negotiates with the Merchant Part One

Chapter 227:
The Bear Negotiates with the Merchant Part One

 

SANYA BORROWED A ROOM at the guild. We decided to use it for our talk.

After Sanya heard the adventurers out, she looked completely exasperated. After tearing the painting, the adventurers said, Luimin had handed her bracelet off to the merchant to avoid causing trouble for Miranda and the others. Then, without telling them, Luimin had skipped town.

“I just didn’t want to cause trouble for everyone…” she mumbled.

“We told you that we wanted to talk it over with you, Luimin.”

Luimin said nothing. She just hung her head and avoided looking at everyone.

“According to Doglud,” said Eriel, “that bracelet is important to elves.”

Sharla nodded. “We invited you to join the job, so we all share in that responsibility.”

“But it was my fault for tearing it,” Luimin insisted. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Miranda shook her head. “We asked you to join us, so we share in the responsibility.”

“But that money...”

“Yes, there’s the money, but—” Sharla began.

“—that’s still no reason to just leave!” finished Eriel. “Do you have any idea how worried we were about you?!”

Luimin shrunk into herself. “Sorry…” she said in a small voice.

Jeez...I apologized to the three adventurers internally. Here I was, thinking that they’d been after Luimin’s bracelet, even wondering if they were in bed with some corrupt merchant.

When Luimin had first told us about what’d happened, I’d been convinced that she’d been duped by some terrible adventurers. But all along, they’d just been worried from the bottom of their heart for their dear friend. They’d found Luimin hanging around looking for work at the Adventurer Guild, saw that she was too broke to make it to the capital, and invited her to join their job. Even when Luimin had made a mistake, they’d tried to address it with her together.

Helping a stranger with a money problem, even after that stranger made a mistake…I couldn’t imagine there were many people who would do that in my old world, let alone this one.

On top of that, I could hardly believe what they’d done after Luimin had left town.

“You’re telling us that the bracelet…is safe?”

“Yes!” said Miranda. “Once we found out Luimin had left her bracelet behind and gone out of town, we negotiated with Doglud and asked him not to sell the bracelet to anyone else.”

Sharla nodded. “We didn’t know how long it would take, but we were planning on buying it back.”

“But we have no idea how long it’ll take us,” said Eriel, “We’re low-rank adventurers, you know?”

“Everyone...” Luimin gazed at Miranda, eyes welling up.

They’d negotiated with the merchant just so they could get Luimin’s bracelet back. They’d told him they wanted to buy it back. They’d reached out and asked him not to sell it.

It was idiotic! Idiotic, plain and simple. What kind of total idiot would buy back a bracelet for some stranger they barely knew?

Well…the kind of idiot that I like.

“On behalf of my sister, please receive my deepest thanks,” Sanya said. “Please, let me show you my gratitude again.”

“Not at all. We still haven’t bought it back yet.”

“Just making sure he didn’t sell it to someone else was more than enough.”

It really was. If Miranda and the others hadn’t negotiated with the merchant, the bracelet might’ve already gone to another buyer, and then we’d be in real trouble.

“Please let me thank you,” said Sanya.

“But we didn’t do this for any reward...”

“If you do want to pay us back,” a certain someone said, “then I’d settle for a hug from Yuna!”

We decided to ignore that little comment. Yeah, I was definitely just hearing things...

But Eriel was definitely looking at me. I pulled my bear hood low over my face and hid from her stare.

Once we were done talking, we were introduced to the guild master to finish things up. Y’know, check in, explain that I’m a bear who gets into trouble a lot, and ask, “Couldn’t they please help us if we got into a jam?” and all that.

The Laluz guild master reluctantly agreed, if only because Sanya was the one asking.

Cool. Looked like I could rampage away!

With that over, we left the Adventurer Guild behind. Miranda led us to the merchant—we were going to buy the bracelet back.

“This is Mr. Doglud’s shop,” she told us.

There were a lot of people hanging around the place. It was a great place for a shop. There was a large carriage stopped in front of it too. The thing was beautifully decorated, as if the owner could barely stop themselves from painting something on it like “I’M A HUGE SPENDER!” I guess that was the sort of clientele the merchant had—rich dudes, here to buy some expensive stuff.

As we were looked at the carriage, Miranda headed into the shop without us. I followed her, just in case. Didn’t want to get left behind either.

When we got inside, a boy greeted us. “Welcome!” And then he recognized Miranda. “What brings you here today, Miranda?”

“Is Mr. Doglud here?”

“He is! I’ll call him in right away.” The boy headed to a back room to do just that. After a short wait, a thin guy in his thirties came in along with the boy.

Miranda approached him. “Mr. Doglud.”

So, this was the guy who owned the shop…and the guy who had Luimin’s bracelet.

“Oh, Miranda? What brings you here today?” asked Doglud. “And goodness, is that Miss Luimin I see?”

He’d noticed me too, of course, but he looked over at Luimin again when she spoke up.

Luimin bowed her head. “I’m so sorry about what happened earlier.”

“Mr. Doglud, you haven’t sold Luimin’s bracelet, have you?” asked Miranda.

“No, not yet.”

“Oh, good!” Everyone looked incredibly relieved.

Sanya came to stand by Luimin’s side now and greeted Doglud, “I’m Luimin’s sister, Sanya. I’d like to repay you for the painting she tore. Would you be willing to give us back her bracelet?”

“You’re Miss Luimin’s sister?!” Doglud looked over at Luimin. Luimin nodded slightly. “So you are, then. Rutto, if you could mind the store? Please follow me, if you would. I have something I need to tell you regarding that, ah…incident.”

He had us file into the back room. The room was pretty spacious. There was a long table in the middle and some chairs to the right and left of it. I guessed that it was Doglud’s workspace.

“Please, come right in. Take a seat.” Doglud took the seat at the very back so casually that I supposed it was his usual spot. We all sat around the table.

Was Doglud giving me a look? No, that was probably just my imagination.

“How much would we need to pay to get Luimin’s bracelet back?” asked Sanya.

Doglud looked away from her. He lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I can no longer return the bracelet to you.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Miranda shot up in her seat and slapped the desk right in front of Doglud. “You promised not to sell her bracelet! Well?! Didn’t you?!”

“I’m sorry,” Doglud repeated.

“I don’t need your apologies. You promised not to sell it, and Luimin’s sister is agreeing to pay for it. Explain yourself.”

“Well...I…”

Sanya’s calm tone threw water on the fire. “Could you explain it to us?”

Miranda sat down again, fuming.

“There was a client I had, you see. He’d wanted to buy the painting that Miss Luimin tore. When he learned that the painting was no longer available, that individual proposed different conditions for our trade.”

“Different conditions?”

“Yes. He noticed Miss Luimin’s bracelet in this room and told me he wanted it. I refused, of course, but I was already beholden to him due to the issue with the painting. In the end, I couldn’t say no.”

“But you said things were fine a few days ago.”

“Yes. I had added another condition: I would prepare a painting by the same artist if he would give up on the matter of Miss Luimin’s bracelet.”

“Then we have a chance?”

“The painting was supposed to come in from Solzonark yesterday. That was why I told you that things would be fine. But...”

“It wasn’t the rain, was it?”

“Yes…it was the rain. The river was raging and they couldn’t get any boats out. The painting never made it, even though I’d promised to have it here this evening.”

Miranda sighed. “But...” The painting had reached the town on the other side of the river, at least. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“They plan to keep an eye on the river for a few days, even after it seems safe to cross.”

I guess they wanted to make absolutely sure. Raging rapids could be pretty unpredictable.

“Is there anything we can do?” Miranda asked.

“Nothing I can do at all if the painting doesn’t reach us by this evening. I already broke a promise once. I can’t do that again.”

“He won’t wait a few days?”

“He already has been waiting long enough.”

“But the rain is to blame.”

“I had taken that into consideration when I determined the day. I cut it too close, I suspect. It was my own error.”

“No, it’s not!” said Sanya. “You’ve done so much for Luimin, keeping her bracelet safe. That alone is enough for us to be thankful…”

“Thank you for your kind words,” said Doglud.

Yeah. No one could complain after he’d gone so completely out of his way to help.

“So, who was it? Do you think we could negotiate with this person?” Sanya asked.

Sanya was the capital guild master, so maybe she could use her influence to strike a deal. If I needed to, I could probably help out with my crest knife.

“It’s Mr. Retbelle,” said Doglud, “one of the large merchants in this town.”

“Mr. Retbelle...” Luimin repeated.

“Why is he involved in this?” Miranda said ruefully.

“Who’s Mr. Retbelle?” asked Sanya.

“One of the influential merchants in town,” said Eriel. And something of a celebrity, apparently.

“Do you think he might listen to Sanya, at least?” Miranda wondered.

“I only have influence within the Adventurer Guild. If it’s a prominent merchant we’re dealing with...”

If all else failed, I could try the knife. But as much as I wanted to give it a test drive, but this guy might’ve been too much of a big shot for it to work.

 

The room went silent.

Why were we getting all broody? The answer seemed simple.

“We just need to cross the river and get the painting, right?” I said, breaking up the silence and speaking for the first time.

Sanya turned to me. “Yuna?”

“I’ll go get it. Where do I need to go? The painting’s at the town on the other side of the river, yeah?”

“Child, there aren’t any boats going out! Do you plan on swimming? Or perhaps you’re thinking of flapping your arms and flying across the river?!” Doglud was coming on a little strong. Fair enough—I’d probably sounded like I was making a joke in poor taste.

“I’m not going to swim, and I’m not going to fly.”

The time had finally come for me to use my new skill—the one I’d gotten after that job slaying the golems.

Bear Water Walking.