Chapter 117. Negotiation

Just as the strength was returning to my limbs the door we had came through moments before opened up to what had to be an elf with bright blue hair that trailed down her back in a plat.

She wore the uniform of a soldier with all the insignias that one would expect though the actual pictures and ranks on them were unknown to me.

Voras, who had taken to sitting on the ground beside me as the couch was not built for her kind flinched at the rapier on her hip but apart from not taking her eyes away she said nothing.

Following her came an older gentleman who was a silver catkin in the guilds uniform and lastly the receptionist, who closed the door behind the group.

"So you must be the trader who has made such a disturbance downstairs." The catkin man laughed offering a hand from across the table.

Thankfully I had recovered enough to shake the offered hand within looking like my body was jelly. "My apologies. It wasn't my intention to draw a crowd."

The Catkin man laughed again. "Oh you would have done that regardless with her." He said pointing at Voras who simply glared back. "You must be a strong tamer to have one of her kind actually following your commands."

They thought I was a tamer?

I looked at Voras hoping she would have answers.

"Tamers capable of forming a bond with my kind are rare, and considered very powerful my Master." Voras shrugged apparently happy to keep up the misunderstanding while not admitting or denying the claim.

"Then I apologize again for not thinking about it ahead of time."

Was Voras considered a monster or a person? The way they said that makes me think monster but whenever I think of a monster it's always a creature that has no intelligence apart from its basic instincts.

Well, I guess Dragons are the odd one out there... Or a lot of things really.

Dam. I never thought about it all like this.

"Well regardless. I would like to sell my wears, are you open to buying them?" I turned back to the Catkin man that seemed to be taking point.

"Well that entirely depends on if you were telling the truth downstairs. My name is Heath and I'm the guilds treasurer. But be warned, I possess appraising eye so trying to pass off normal items as Livestock products will not end well." The now named Heath sat down on the couch opposite Voras and I as he adopted a relaxed posture.

"This is Evelyn." He continued pointing at the Elf. "She's the personal assistant of the guild leader and is here to make sure nothing happens. Mainly she's just going to report anything that happens here as well as intervene if something were to happen."

She nodded in my direction before refocusing back on Voras.

"And this lovely lady is my daughter Bella."

So Bella the Cat girl, Evelyn the elf and Heath the cat guy. Got it.

"My names Clovek and this is Voras. We don't want any trouble and just want to offload our goods before shopping around. We're on a bit of a time constraint unfortunately." I concluded the introductions and got small nods from the group.

"Okay. With all that out of the way, are you serious about having Livestock items?" Heath sat up a little straighter as he asked.

"Yes." I hesitated to continue as I wanted to say Voras was one but didn't quite understand if that would be a good thing to admit. It wasn't like Voras could be taken as she would be forced to return to the farm and even death wouldn't stop that. But there was no sense in providing a reason to them. "I have a deal with a hidden farm that I will be keeping to myself for now."

"I see." Heath said a little disappointed I didn't divulge anything. "And can we see these items or are they also secured elsewhere?"

Instead of answering him I stood up and went to the space beside the couch and pulled the barrel that was only partly full out of my inventory as a test.

Voras had said people might steal so I felt this was warranted to only show the smaller one.

With the lid removed Heath came over to inspect the milk inside. I watched with a little fascination as his left eye started to glow yellow.

"Centaurs milk." He whispered as his eyes widened. "D quality as well."

Evelyn broke her staring match with Voras at that. "D quality you say? As in the farmer has cared for his Livestock enough for their quality to improve?"

I would like to say yes but Zeldi's milk was already that quality when I arrived.

"Father. This might be the same Centaurs milk that was popular around a year ago." Bella said coming up besides her father.

That complicates things. If they already knew about Zeldi then they probably already knew about the farm... Then again, that's what I wanted right? For them to come to us?

"Ah yes. That was the stamina regeneration milk correct?" The question was aimed at me.

"Yes." I gave before realizing I still needed to sell just shy of fifty liters to complete Zeldis quest. "I have another barrel full of her milk but I need to sell it all. So I would rather you buy in bulk."

"Why?" Evelyn asked. Curiosity getting the better of her as she came to inspect the contents of the barrel.

"Business deal with the farmer." I lied. Not like telling them all about the quests would help us and I didn't need to sell it for a good price either. Dríade had proved that by selling her fruit for a leaf.

"Well I can definitely say we're interested but I would also be more interested in setting up some sort of continuous deal." Heath mumbled as he dipped his finger into the barrel and brought it to his lips.

Voras growled but was silenced by Heath holding up his hand

"No need to get feisty. We will be buying this barrel at the very least, I just wanted to confirm it really was the Centaurs milk that passed through the town before. Glad to see she's still doing well."

I just stood there watching. My attention was divided between Heath and Evelyn. The elf had part of her sword drawn the moment Voras growled and I hadn't even heard it move.

Truthfully I was very useless if something was to happen. All I could really do was heal Voras.

"And the second barrel?" I asked trying to get us back on topic. "Would you buy that one as well?"

They hadn't mentioned any price just yet.

"If you will allow me to appraise it then yes. This is easy to sell even in bulk as between adventurer's, laborers and even the ladies of the night there is no shortage of potential customers. But as I said, I'm more interested in a recurring deal."

"We'll stick with this for now. The farm has a few problems as of this moment but we would be interested in a deal like that for the future." I tried not to wince as I said that. It wasn't giving too much away but I almost forgot I was a tamer in this not the farmer.

Heath nodded and sat back down before pulling three gold coins from up his sleeve. "I can offer you these for the two barrels of milk as a start. Once circulation of the Centaurs milk begins the price of it will rise quickly before it will level out. Depending on the supply I am willing to offer more for additional barrels with a bonus for consistent supply."

He was being pretty obvious about wanting a steady supply.

Part of me really wanted that as well but I wanted to avoid having to come into town on specific days. Could I possibly get him to come to me?

"And if you had to travel for this consistent supply would you?" I asked trying to subtly look at Voras to see if he three gold was a good price.

"If there is enough there to warrant a trip then I could potentially arrange that." Heath replied.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes at me for some reason but stayed quiet.

I shrugged. That was good enough for now.

So I summoned the second barrel for him to inspect before picking up the three gold coins. Unfortunately each one was a separate entity in my inventory but that wasn't the important thing. What was important was Zeldi's quest was now complete.

Finally. It took me way to long to do her quest even with all the problems we ran into.

"I do hope you haven't blown your budget." Voras taunted watching the two Catkin move the barrels out of the way before sealing them closed. "We do have more to sell after all."

Heath smiled back. "Of course not. While stamina regeneration is useful my daughter mentioned you have a few items that are a lot more valuable."

And a lot harder to get in bulk. I mentally said to myself.

"Of course." I said aloud. "Now you're incredibly lucky with my next item as I have a deal with another group to buy the majority of it, but since they haven't been round in a while I have some spare."

I summoned one of Tarakona's eggs onto the seat next to me and was reminded again just how big they were. Forget the lack of points they give out because there was more than enough egg here to make plenty of omelettes.

The three opposite me gasped at the egg in surprise. I wanted to be proud but Evelyn dashed my hopes.

"Well that answers where the farm is."