CHAPTER 1490: CHAPTER 1489: MERCHANTS (2)

"Is that so? Well I imagine we’ll get along rather well, Mister..?"

"Chadwell Roux DuMont. Call me Mister Roux or Mister DuMont, either is fine~!"

"Very well Mister DuMont. I look forward to your continued visits, and I can assure you that every visit here will be accommodated within the Merchant Hall - this building - and that soon it shall be a bit more... to your tastes."

He gave Jahi a smile before gently placing his glass on the table, leaving it there and leaning back as he replied "That sounds lovely, Lady Asmodia. I am always looking for new places to visit and make friends, you see, and with this being the first stop of many out west I am relieved to know I have accommodations now~!"

With that he gave her a nod and folded his hands in his lap, signaling to the others that they were free to do as they pleased now that he had gone ahead and gotten what he wanted, though I was rather surprised that he was so... content with little.

Mister DuMont just gave me a knowing wink and a smile when he sensed my confusion, the pink skinned man doing so not out of lust or hope for something more but instead out of amusement and the easy confidence of a man who knew he got what he wanted.

"Who here deals in magical goods? Enchanted items, potions, pills and the like?"

To no one’s surprise the scarred chocolate skin woman with the oversized crimson robes raised a hand, looking towards Jahi with that tired gaze that almost made her seem like she didn’t want to be here, yet her eyes were alight with intrigue.

"You as well, you are able to stay here free of charge. My wife here - Katherine Zara - is adept with enchanting, while my other wife - Anput Sera - enjoys spending time in a forge. The amount of enchanted weapons and armor that we produce should be worthwhile, and although I plan on keeping most within the confines of the city I don’t mind the idea of selling some to those outside of the city."

"I don’t deal in things that are ’adeptly’ enchanted, Lady Asmodia. No offense, Lady Zara, but my money is only moved for things that are impressive. Do you have something to show me, or am I meant to just hedge my bets now on spoken promises?"

She was neither scathing nor insulting as she said those things, her dry tone and flat delivery making me chuckle as I slowly slid one of the daggers I had onto the table, letting her inspect it.

The way she handled it and how she immediately began to trace out the lines of mana that were barely visible on its surface made it abundantly clear she could walk the walk too, and after a few moments she nodded and slid it back over to me.

"Impressive, no doubt, but that is clearly a perfected piece tailored to yourself. Perfectly weighted and sporting enchantments that undoubtedly favor your own flavor of close quarters combat, no?"

"It does, but I can counter and say that you won’t find someone capable of creating Ice Ritual Circle enchantments without having to journey up north into the Duchy of Blizzards, and unless you are willing to deal with the abyssal cold and lack of civilization, I am your best bet. Plus I am capable of creating enchantments with any elements, given time."

The scarred lady let out a hum as she stared at me for a few seconds, only to lean back and consider something for a few more seconds before she finally said "Those are valid enough points. However, if you wish to secure my repeated returns, I want a few things."

With a wave of her hand Jahi gestured for the woman to continue, swirling around the wine in her glass and taking a sip as she began to listen to her demands, which weren’t that bad in all honesty.

"I wish for the room inside of this Merchant Hall to be owned by me, to be used by me as I please. I want a fully stocked wine cabinet for free and I also want to purchase everything at 70% market price. Since I am traveling this far out I am accruing a bit of a loss, after all."

"75% and you have a deal."

A small smile adorned the woman’s face, causing the scar to twist a little as she gave Jahi a nod of agreement, which sealed another deal with a powerful merchant; this was going easier and quicker than I had thought, though...

After a few moments of thinking I realized it was probably due to the backing of the Demon Clans, the hope to foster a relationship with Jahi built upon goodwill and harmony, as well as adding a new potential avenue of money straight into their pockets instead of someone else’s.

I mean, we had the backing of the Demon Clans, March Asmodia, the Sultanate, and then the Empress to top things off; while we might not receive direct and immediate support from them we were still able to pull strings they could only dream of, so... it definitely made sense why this was easy.

Of course someone was going to want to make things a little more difficult sometime soon, and that came from the Foxkin woman who was going to be taking the monster parts off of our hands; the rate at which she wanted to buy them from us was 50% of the market price, which was definitely not going to happen.

Even when offered a similar package deal of complete ownership of her own room, dibs on one piece of land within the city and dibs on unenchanted weaponry she still remained adamant of 60%.

When Jahi finally threatened to just send her off if she didn’t accept 65% she finally caved a little, though she attempted to wrangle it down to 62.5% only to end up having to accept 67.5% instead, losing just that tiny amount of money that she was working so damn hard for.

Her greed cost her yet she put up a fight that secured her some additional benefits, and I suspect that was the point entirely since everyone else seemed to forget about the piece of land she could buy without competition as well as first call on any weapons Anput made that weren’t enchanted.

All in all it was a lucrative deal both ways since monster parts were plentiful and I planned on ensuring the ENTIRE monster was used and or sold, so even if we were technically barely making anything off of just a few parts it wouldn’t matter since we were selling in bulk.

Also she was going to buy Anput’s projects from us, which meant I didn’t have to worry about a storage shed filled with sharp, dangerous weapons that could eventually become a problem for someone wandering around... and for that I was thankful.

By the time the next merchant began to negotiate I was losing a little interest, though I regained some by pouring myself a glass of wine and enjoying the sharp prick of alcohol against my tongue and the warmth sliding down my gullet as I listened to every word.