Chapter 221 – Nobody
Morph reported the incident to me when I visited the shop at my usual time.
“I think there was a fight… probably. I found some traces of blood, and a lot of the furniture was destroyed. Even though they tried to clean afterward, it was done sloppily. The damage to the store is quite… large.”
He was timidly telling the facts, looking anxious once more. I wasn’t sure how to feel about my hard cleaning work being called “sloppy”. Maybe it was for the best since he managed to come up with a guess of his own.
“I see. We’ll need to replace what has been destroyed.”
My response startled him, and he hesitated.
“May I… May I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why are you so calm about this? Isn’t the store losing a lot of money?”
“It is. That’s fine. Business is always hard at first. It’ll get better once we’re well established.”
“But, still…”
“I know what you want to say. This shop, you see, is more like a long-term investment. Most of the time, I’ll be happy as long as we break even.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That’s why you don’t have to worry too much. Just focus on your work and everything will be fine. I won’t fire you, just so you know.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that…”
He denied it, but already seemed more relaxed after hearing me. My words weren’t lies. This boutique had two goals. The first one was to provide a slow but steady income. The second was to use that income to invest in goods like iron ingots and weapons when they were cheap. Considering the country went to war every few years, I only needed to wait until that time to rack up a large profit in one go, just like I did when I came with my first caravan. That implied I wanted a bit more than just breaking even, but that shouldn’t be too hard as long as nothing unexpected happened, like the thief incident. Which was now taken care of.
I spent the rest of the day replacing the lost furniture until everything was back to normal. I could only hope the location would run itself in the future. It was now time to expand further. Since I couldn’t do anything in Taifau and I was recommended to leave Thuk alone for now, my only option was to grow inside Makji.
And the obvious starting point was the kingdom’s capital, Hyien. But first, I needed a point of contact. I asked for a meeting with Zhuri and managed to get one after waiting for two days. Even though she sent people to buy my fish whenever it was available, she didn’t personally visit my shop, so I hadn’t seen her since she gave me the silver token. I met her in her office, and she watched me pleasantly.
“Long time no see, my Lady.”
“Our fresh fish merchant! You made a lot of people happy, you know?”
“I’m glad if that’s the case. It makes my work worthwhile.”
“There are some who wanted me to ask you to increase your fresh fish deliveries. How is it? Is that possible?”
“Maybe in the future.”
“I see. I’ll relay your words. So, what can I do for you today?”
“My store is slowly stabilizing now, so I’ve been thinking about expanding. I’d like to open more shops around the kingdom, starting with Hyien. The problem is that I don’t have any contacts outside of the Chian’s duchy.”
“Hmm. My influence is mostly within the duchy, so I won’t be able to help a lot with that.”
“Could you maybe introduce me to someone who could help?”
“There’s only one person here with enough influence for that.”
“The duchess, I guess?”
“Right. But she…”
She took a pause, squinting her eyes a little.
“…She probably won’t have any reason to help. The number of people asking for similar favors from her is unnumerable, most having much greater status than you. She’s the beloved sister of the Queen, after all, and her words have power. She probably won’t meet you even if you ask for an audience.”
This was the downside of starting from nothing in a different place. A situation like this wouldn’t have happened if I had named myself part of the Trading Union back in my world. Here, I was nothing more than a slightly successful newbie trader. In other words, a nobody.
That was fine, however. There was some fun climbing the ladder. One day, I would be the one folks come to, asking for favors. At that time, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the initial struggles anymore, just like many I had seen in the Trading Union. There was no need to rush too much.
“I understand. Do you have any advice on how I should start this?”
“Fortunately, it’s not like you have no advantage. Your silver token won’t have any power outside of Chian, but it still will be recognized by the right people. It might help with first impressions. Also, I don’t dislike you. I might be willing to write an introduction letter for you.”
From the way she phrased it, I understood it wouldn’t be for free.
“What do you want in exchange?”
She smiled widely.
“More fresh fish. A lot of it. For me personally.”
This made me laugh. It wasn’t anything too hard to do, even though it sounded very much like a bribe. I had no idea what she was doing with all that fish, though. Maybe she distributed it around to earn favors for herself. At least, that’s what I would do in her shoes.
“You’ll have it.”
“Great! It’s always good to be doing business with you!”
She wrote me the letter and I delivered the fish after that. It was now time to go.
I already ran a reconnaissance on the capital city from the sky when I was monitoring the war progress, so I immediately teleported there.
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