Chapter 111 – Warm Welcome
After half a day of travel, Alfiro finally came into sight. We were able to notice it from afar due to its size, which was much larger than any place we had come across in Makji so far. While following the same architectural style as the previous town, the castle in its center stood high and tall, a prime example of a grandiose and luxurious building. It belonged to Duchess Gaitai, ruler of this territory, and younger sister of the current Queen.
There were two reasons why I had chosen this city for my trade. The most obvious one was its proximity to Geola. It was the closest large city to our initial location. The second reason was that Duchess Gaitai was fond of war and battlefields. She sought thrilling fights and spent a large part of her territory budget on military expenses. Their army was one of the most elite in the Kingdom and they always achieved great results in the various wars the country went through. As such, the Queen was happy to grant her sister additional funds to continue the good work since fighting power was crucial in the current geopolitical situation.
I judged they would have both the money and the will to buy my goods since they needed to equip a large body of warriors, now more than ever with the incoming war starting any time soon.
As we approached the city, we saw a group of feline fighters arriving from the other direction. Their group was relatively large, with around fifteen people, most of the sorcerers equipped with high-quality weapons. Their eyes were focused on us and when they got close enough, they rapidly surrounded our group, staying in pairs of two, one sorcerer and one mage of similar rank, a common formation due to its high efficiency.
We stopped in our tracks and I counted a duo of rank 6, two groups of rank 5, and a bunch of lower-ranked ones, from rank 2 to 4. On top of that was a rank 6 feline, not part of any duo, standing in front of us with a couple of their fighters on both of her sides. She was the one to speak first.
“Get down from your carriage, merchant. We want to buy your goods.”
I complied, Wico flying over my head and Selva standing next to me, warily observing the warriors. The ones surrounding us almost all focused on Wico, clearly considering her as the main threat in our group. I gave them my best mercantile smile.
“Hello, great warriors. I’m Tila, a merchant from Geola. I’ll gladly sell you some of my stock. I have weapons and iron ingots. How much of each would you like to buy?”
“My name is Zhuri, chief of Chian’s internal affairs. I want to buy everything you have.”
“That’s not a problem. Shall we discuss prices?”
“15 silvers per weapon, 70 silvers per ingot.”
That was no different from robbery. It was even lower than what I paid for them. No, even lower than their price in Geola before the increase due to the war.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, great warriors.”
Many of the women surrounding us took on a menacing posture, some of them even directly pointing their weapons at us. I reacted quickly.
“Master! If they attack us, please destroy the goods first!”
This startled everyone, including Wico. After a second, she nodded, quickly understanding.
“I’ll do that. And don’t worry about them too much. They’re mistaken if they think I’m a normal rank 6. I can kill everyone here by myself. Kahahah!”
Her words increased the tension between us even further. Any other passerby on the road made a large circle around the obvious trouble that we were, staying far from our mixed group.
I didn’t know what sort of confidence Wico had to spout something like that. From my knowledge, it was most certainly a bluff. When I calculated people’s potential fighting power, I always added a multiplicator for trump cards. However, this was mostly for the form since trump cards were very rare in the first place. Taking my world as an example, it was estimated that only a thousand people possessed a trump card, out of the 13 billion people that lived on the planet. What’s more, each trump card was created with high-level technology and extremely rare materials, something I couldn’t imagine possibly existing in the outer world.
Nevertheless, it didn’t matter much whether she was better than a normal rank 6 sorceress or not. I could also take care of everyone here but I would never use one of my very rare chances in a situation with such low stakes. One of the younger feline women surrounding us suddenly burst into anger.
“Who do you think you are, lowly male? How dare you go against us superior women?”
Her shout didn’t have the effect she expected. Except for a few other young women in their group, none of the higher-ranked ones were moved by her words. Still, the tension increased even further and I swiftly acted to defuse it.
“Now, now, everyone. There’s no need for all of this. I’m sure we can find a good compromise.”
I put my attention on the grey-furred woman in front of me since she seemed to be the one in power here.
“You understand that nothing good will come from attacking us, right?”
She stayed silent and I continued.
“Not only will you lose the goods, but you’ll also incur some losses in fighting power, right before the war starts.”
The tension increased again, some of the women even walking toward us menacingly.
“You know about the war?”
“Oh, come on. It’s nothing more than an open secret in Geola. Why do you think I came here with weapons and iron ingots?”
This made the younger women wince while the older ones stayed stoic.
“But I wasn’t done explaining. Our expedition and its destination are well-known to many of my trader friends and mercenaries. Do you believe Geola’s traders will continue to come to your country if we don’t make it back? Trading is based on trust, after all. Can you afford to lose your most important trading partner?”
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