Chapter 81:
Trouble Magnets
“Huh? Wait. This is…”
Unable to leave town until they had received payment from the guild, the Crimson Vow decided to peruse the jobs posted at the guildhall, when they saw a notice stuck beside the board.
“It’s an auction notice…for elder dragon scales?” asked Mile, looking at the posting.
“Those would have to be ones provided by those other hunters, wouldn’t they? The merchants who bought from us would never conduct sales in a place like this,” Pauline said. “They have three scales on display, do they? Guess they were able to find all of them…”
Truthfully, the scales that had been left behind at the site of the battle were ones that the members of the Crimson Vow had left behind on purpose. It made sense, if one thought about it. Even a miser like Pauline could be flexible from time to time, but there was no way that she would ever let an elder dragon scale go uncollected for no good reason—not when they had Mile and her search magic on their side.
Elder dragon scales were a treasure, one which rarely surfaced. They came not from earth dragons or wyverns, which were nothing but massive monsters, dragons only in name. Real elder dragons were superior life forms who possessed fortifying magic and intellect that far surpassed any human’s.
As a result of its immense sturdiness and its light weight, the scale of an elder dragon—a being akin to a god—was highly prized, with great symbolic value as a good luck charm or a protective amulet.
Furthermore, whereas the slaying of a regular dragon might result in a flood of scales on the market, there was no chance of anyone actually hunting one. These were the sort of items that might appear on the market at the rate of perhaps only one every few decades.
Even if one was acquired, typically it would be offered as tribute or sold for a large sum to a king or high-ranking noble. The chances that it would ever appear in the marketplace at all were abysmally low.
If Mile had done a thorough search using her magic, it would have been a simple task to locate every single little splinter, leaving not a single scale behind. However, so that the situation did not seem overly suspicious, the Crimson Vow had left behind three damaged scales, in relatively rough shape, in locations that anyone might be able to find with a little digging, should the need for an explanation arise.
Pauline, naturally, had glared at the locations where the scales were hidden—her eyes bloodshot, and her face looking as though she were about to spew bile. They were as good as throwing away gold—nay, orichalcum pieces!—but, after all, it had to be done. Understanding this, Pauline did not lodge any complaint, though she still sulked quite visibly.
“This should be enough to settle the elder dragon matter. I doubt those guys will say anything either, since they’ve been informed that the reason the elder dragons were here had nothing to do with humans. I’m sure they’ll convey that their source wishes to remain anonymous, so as not to get wrapped up in anything strange or dangerous, and the guild should not have any special interest in mere messengers.”
Their need for anonymity was something that they had firmly reiterated to the B-rank party when enforcing the gag order upon the merchants.
For both hunters and merchants, reputation was everything. If word got out that any of them had broken a promise or contract, it would be all over for them. Plus, rumors having anything to do with elder dragons and their scales would race throughout the kingdom in the blink of an eye.
“Given how serious this matter is, there’s no way anyone would ever break their word. Assuming we’re dealing with honest folk, anyway…” said Pauline.
The other three nodded.
Incidentally, the Crimson Vow intended to sell one scale a piece in every place they stopped, relying on the fiction that they had just so happened to get their hands on that one scale and one alone.
According to Pauline, this was the best way to keep from ruining their sales value.
In the end, the members of the Crimson Vow found no particularly appealing jobs, so instead, they decided to leave the guildhall behind and spend the day loitering around the woods, doing some menial work as they hunted and gathered anything they came across in the name of daily requests.
“It might be about time for us to move on,” said Reina. “Should we leave once we get our payment for the ground dragon?”
“Maybe so,” replied Pauline. “There are no more good jobs around here, and we’ve already made enough of a name for ourselves with that dragon business.”
“Maybe too much of a name,” Mavis added.
Mile winced.
Indeed, they had drawn a bit too much attention.
“Haven’t you been getting a bit carried away yourself of late, Mavis?” It seemed Reina had a bone to pick.
“Now that you mention it, I’ve been feeling the same way,” Pauline added. “It also seems like you’re moving very quickly through all of the Awesome Phrases to Say Someday list without leaving any for the rest of us.”
“I-I mean, it’s not like I’m trying to…” Mavis grew a bit frantic. Apparently, even she had been somewhat aware of her behavior. Thus, Mile, who bore the most responsibility for all of this, spoke up to intervene.
“Well then, Reina and Pauline, why don’t you use those Magical Gunner Girl Wands? If you use those, along with a transformation sequence and your special techniques, you’re sure to attract attention! You can incorporate some catchphrases, too, and use some powerful lightning magic—maybe the Greased Lightning as your powerful finishing move, and the unbeatable Pearl Dash form to beat down any human…”
The pair were dumbfounded at Mile’s proposal.
“And Pauline, you can use the transformation method from the Borgman series when you change out your armor. It’s custom-made for you. The jiggle as you equip it adds more charm…” said Mile, grinning as she delivered these suggestions. Until…
“Who the heck would use that?!”
…Reina and Pauline summarily rejected her.
Naturally, during the aforementioned tests, they had not been especially taken with neither the fact that they would have to get buck naked in front of friends and foes when they were transforming, nor with the fluffy, frilly uniforms they would have to change into. Even though Mile had already developed a method that would perfectly keep their “vital parts” just barely out of view by way of mysterious light and camera angles, staff placement, distracting stars, and the forceful use of a certain kind of magic.
“But they’re cool and cute—and really high in defense!”
This refusal was particularly regrettable for some of the nanomachines, who seemed to have been lingering around for the express purpose of being used for this, busying themselves with their own fervent research and development, only to be shelved.
Having successfully drawn attention away from the shade being thrown Mavis’s way by the other two, Mile patted her chest wearily. Just then…
“Stop! No, let me go!!”
Ping!
Mile’s wickedly sharp ears, which could hear a little girl’s cries for help no matter how many kilometers away she was, pricked up.
“I mean, of course we all heard that, too…” Reina muttered, guessing the situation from Mile’s expression. Mavis and Pauline nodded as well.
“Or rather, we can see it. Right over there!” added Pauline. Sure enough, there was a scene unfolding just meters ahead of them.
“Mile, you do know that a ‘little girl’ usually refers to a child of no more than five or six, right?” Pauline suddenly asked Mile.
Her intuition was a little too on the money.
Actually, this was business as usual, which meant that one could understand exactly what Mile was thinking just by looking at her face.
Regardless, there in front of them was a girl of around seven or eight, apparently in the process of being forcibly dragged away from her mother by three thugs.
“What’s with you guys? You little ladies need to keep yer noses outta other people’s business!” bellowed the man who appeared to be the leader of the thugs, as the Crimson Vow stood before them, blocking their paths.
“Oh ho,” came one chuckle.
“Oh ho!” came the next.
“Oh ho…” came four in unison.
“Wh-what?! Look, you listen good. These folks couldn’t pay us back the money that they owe us, so we’re just takin’ this kid in exchange. It’s her parents that messed up here not payin’ us—we ain’t doin’ anything wrong!”
Though the members of the Crimson Vow were young women, it was still a matter of three versus four—and moreover, the Crimson Vow were hunters, two of whom were equipped with swords and two who were clearly mages. Perhaps assuming they were at a disadvantage with their own lack of sword training and magical skills, the men were attempting to settle any conflict with logic rather than brute force.
This was the correct decision. Ostensibly, anyway.
“What of it?”
“Huh?”
The thugs were bewildered by Mile’s question.
“I’m asking you: what does lending money have to do with the violent, criminal action you are currently perpetrating, i.e. shoving that woman away and twisting that little girl’s arm? Are you saying that it’s fine to harm or even kill someone who you lend money to? I wonder if the authorities would accept that excuse. Should we find out?”
“Guh… That wasn’t what I—”
“Furthermore, just now you confessed yourself that you were taking this girl in exchange for the money you’re owed. That sounds to me like you just admitted to being part of a ring of human traffickers! Protecting a little girl from being kidnapped by traffickers is a defensible action, so if we kill you, we won’t be charged—in fact, we might even be rewarded! And if we bring you in alive, we’ll get half of the profits when you’re sold to the mines as punishment!”
“Wha—?!” the three men gasped.
There was no one who could stand up to Mile’s arguments—or rather, her verbal onslaughts—when she was angry. Though standard human relations were very much a weakness of hers, the same could not be said for her skill at splitting hairs or finding technicalities. She was a master at twisting an opponent’s words to their disadvantage.
“You’ve been caught committing a violent abduction, confessed to your crime, and you’ve already taken a hostage by force. We’re left with no choice but to draw our weapons and rescue the hostage. No holds barred!”
“Leave it to me!”
Mavis smoothly drew her sword.
“Leave them to me!”
“Let’s go!”
Reina and Pauline brandished their staves.
Finally, Mile sneered, “You’ll regret this!”
The thugs let go of the little girl, shouted a stereotypical line of defeat, and bounded away like hares.
The Crimson Vow were met with raucous applause and cheers of praise and admiration from the surrounding crowd of spectators, who seemed to have gathered at some point in the confrontation. While they might appear now to be good Samaritans, these people had kept their distance while the mother and child were in danger, afraid of getting involved, only approaching the moment the circumstances changed and there was no longer any risk of being caught in the crossfire.
A bitter look crept onto Reina and Pauline’s faces at the thought, which did not yet seem to have occurred to Mile and Mavis.
Well, we’ve scared them off for now, but that doesn’t mean this is finished…
Unlike Mile and Mavis, who were grinning as they lifted the young girl and her mother up in their arms, there was no mirth in the eyes of Pauline and Reina. As the two daughters of merchants, they knew better.
***
“And so, that money…”
“I see…”
Naturally, there was no way that Mile and Mavis, who were strong in battle but weak in the face of little girls, could possibly leave the mother and daughter alone. After healing the girl’s twisted arm, they escorted the pair home, asking them more about the situation. All the while, Pauline and Reina glared at them from the corners of their vision.
“So what you’re saying is, you can’t pay back the money you borrowed?” Pauline asked bluntly.
“Y-yes…” said the mother, nodding.
“I’ve heard that story before.”
Indeed, this was a common tale—perhaps even a mite too common.
“Pauline! Come on, now!”
No matter how typical their story, it did not change the fact that this was a big deal for this family. Though Mile was just as frank in her chiding of Pauline’s wording…
“That interest rate is a bit higher than normal, though… Still, you did agree to those terms when you borrowed the money. It’s not as though they rewrote the contract or pulled a bait and switch. You didn’t have sufficient collateral to get a loan elsewhere, so you borrowed from a lender with a high interest rate. At the time, you were overjoyed and thanked these lenders for helping someone in such poor circumstances as yourselves. Am I wrong?” asked Pauline.
“Y-yes, well…” replied the mother, somewhat reluctantly.
However, the questioning did not end.
“When you’re lent money, you treat the lenders as gods, but when it’s time to pay it back, you call them demons and devils, don’t you? Even though all they’re doing is fulfilling the terms of the contract. Why do you think those interest rates are so high in the first place? Because they’re lending to people with a higher risk of defaulting on their repayments. There are heaps of people, just like you, who can never pay the money back. But if they aren’t forceful in attempting to collect their payments, and just put on a good face, people will think they can just take the money and walk all over them.
“Thus, they’re forced to keep their interest rates high to account for this, so that they won’t go out of business. If they lowered their rates, they could not afford to lend to risky parties such as yourselves. They would deny you, just like all the other lenders did. So, are you telling me you intended to stiff these kind lenders, who would loan money to even as risky a client as you, and run?”
Pauline was in a bad mood… Not just slightly bad but very bad. Apparently, the harsh reputation associated with the business of moneylending was something that she thought about on a regular basis.
Of course, what she was saying was not incorrect.
If everyone who borrowed money were to tell their lenders, come repayment day, that they could not pay them back because they didn’t have the money, it would mean they profited, while the lenders went bankrupt. Such things could not be allowed to happen.
It was the ones who failed to pay back what they borrowed who were in the wrong.
It only made sense that the authorities should take the side of the lenders, who had adhered to the law—and it did not follow that they should fall in with any ne’er-do-wells… Though of course, this did not excuse violence or human trafficking.
“Moneylenders are always treated like villains. Even the kindhearted merchants who lend to risky clients without much backup. It’s only natural that they’d be stringent about collecting money from those who violate their contracts, isn’t it? If they didn’t, it wouldn’t be a business!” exclaimed Pauline.
“Well, I guess that’s true,” added Mavis. “It would be weird of us to shoulder their debts, just to help out the lenders, and it doesn’t make much sense to chastise the lenders either. If the lender were to go bankrupt, there wouldn’t be anyone left to loan to people without collateral. And if on top of the many people who wouldn’t pay them back, they’re treated as monsters and killed or ruined by people who claim to be allies of justice, then…”
“ Whaaaat? ”
The mother and child, assuming that they were in the presence of people who would be sympathetic to their cause, were speechless.
Even Mile and Reina had to nod in agreement at how sensible Pauline’s words were.
“Now of course, this only applies to cases where the lenders have not attempted to reclaim their funds through illegal methods.”
Pauline’s displeasure with the situation was apparent, but it did not appear that any of this was directed toward the mother and daughter.
“Now then. Why would you borrow such a ridiculous amount of money that you could not pay it back?” she asked, giving the impression that the conversation would not continue until she had an answer.
“Well,” the woman began, “my husband took ill on his travels and was unable to conduct all the business he planned to. He was forced to squander all of his investment capital on medicine and inn fees, so we needed the loan as a temporary stopgap to cover our working capital and living expenses. Still, we should have been able to pay it back right away. The interest rate was fairly high at 20% a month, but we expected to make enough advance sales to earn enough to repay it. However…”
“However?”
“When we tried to bring the full sum of the money to them three days before the payment was due, the lender’s shop was closed, with a notice on the door that said they were away for several days. The day after the due date, when they reopened again, we were told, ‘As we weren’t paid back by the due date, you will need to pay a penalty fee for breach of contract on top of the original amount.’ This penalty was double the original amount, meaning our debt became thrice altogether…”
“Ah…” the members of the Crimson Vow sighed in understanding.
This was the most basic of basic scams. So basic that, if there were a textbook for grifters, this little number would appear somewhere around page three.
It’s ridiculous to think that such a simple scam would have any traction… I guess they don’t have TV or newspapers, though, so there’s no way that these things would become common knowledge. Wait, so if I were to pull a pyramid scheme or any other sort of racket that’s outlawed only by the grey areas of Japanese law, I would pull in tons of suckers? It’s like a scammer’s paradise!!!
Though these thoughts crossed Mile’s mind, naturally, she did not actually intend to do such a thing. However, were Pauline to get her hands on a few of these methods…
Mile had come to a rather terrifying line of thought. When she turned to look at Pauline, however, she saw her friend was crestfallen.
Here she had gotten so fired up advocating on the behalf of lenders, only to hear such a story of unethical behavior. That had to be disappointing.
“Let’s crush them.”
All Pauline’s sweetness was gone; she was fierceness times one hundred.
Though she had defended the lenders, thinking they were guilty of only a mild case of loansharking, it had turned out that their offense was more egregious, and there was no fault on the part of the borrowers at all. Given her embarrassment over her loss of face, it was perhaps only natural that Pauline would blow up now, ignoring the fact that she had brought this shame upon herself.
“You should’ve listened to them properly to start with,” said Reina, wearily.
Pauline looked all the more crestfallen.
“It’s fine to be a little strict about getting your money back, even to threaten those human trash who won’t return what they’ve borrowed or the heretics who break their contracts… No, in fact it’s natural! But it’s just as natural that any cowardly swindler of a merchant who would break their own contracts should be expunged from this world as well!” declared Pauline.
“I see,” Mile said frankly, “so that’s part of the law of merchants? Eliminating all bad merchants?”
Reina smacked the back of her head.
“Don’t just take everything you hear at face value!”
“We aren’t going to raid them?”
“We are not!!!” Pauline shouted, veins in her forehead bulging angrily at this simple question. This entire incident seemed to have her quite worked up.
“If they’re going to use force, then it’s fine for us to respond in kind. In the name of self-defense, we can return it tens of times, a hundred…”
“Uh, doesn’t that go a little beyond self-defense?”
“Shut your mouth!!”
“Y-yes! Forgive me!!” Mile apologized at once.
At times like this, it was best not to argue with Pauline. The other three members of the Crimson Vow had already had this lesson drilled into them.
“If those guys are going to swindle people, then it’s only right they be swindled right back. They say that, ‘If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back,’ right?”
“Oh, is that what that means?” asked Mile.
“Don’t be so gullible!”
***
“What’s that you say?! A massive scale?!”
Before long, they stood in a particular mid-sized merchant’s shop. The man who had come to attend to this party of four young women, who seemed to be a clerk of around twenty years in age, raised his voice in shock at what the representative of these young ladies had just told him.
To raise one’s voice during the discussion of a sales transaction, when there were other customers present in the front of the shop, was a grave error on the part of the clerk, but his reaction was entirely reasonable given his relative lack of experience and what he had just been told.
A massive scale.
Normally, upon hearing this, one would at first wonder, “What kind of scale?” That, however, was only under normal circumstances. At present, there were rumors racing through the mercantile world here in the capital—namely, that it seemed some elder dragon scales were up for auction.
Well, perhaps it was a misnomer to call them rumors, given that the auction had been publicly announced. It was a cold, hard fact.
A B-rank party had gone out on an intelligence-gathering mission and discovered the aftermath of a struggle between elder dragons, at the site of which they had found several fallen scales. They were fragmented, burnt, and broken, but they could still be expected to fetch a high price.
And here this party of young girls had just told the clerk a story: “When we were out gathering, we found a place where it looked like some kind of big monster was running around, and there was some scale-looking thing on the ground there. We’re not really sure what it is, but we figured we could sell it, so we took it with us.”
Had they just so happened to pass through the place where that other party had gone to investigate? Or had the elder dragons been active in some other area as well? Regardless, if what these girls had brought them happened to be one of those … And, if they had no idea what it was because they were so inexperienced…
“P-please, come right this way!”
Even upon seeing the scale itself, there was no way that the clerk would be able to evaluate it. He had never even seen an earth dragon or wyvern scale, let alone that of an elder dragon, so he would have to pass this matter along to someone with more experience. At any rate, what was most crucial right now was to not let these girls slip through his fingers.
“Sorry to keep you waiting…”
The Crimson Vow were led to an interior discussion room, where they were served some tea, and waited for a short while before the clerk from before reappeared along with two elderly gentlemen.
“I am Melphict, the owner of this firm, and this is Howl, our head clerk,” said the owner, the more rotund of the pair, as the two of them bowed their heads. Apparently, the young man who had helped them before did not warrant an introduction.
Under normal circumstances, by no means would a party of youngsters, first-time visitors to a shop, have been greeted by the owner and the head clerk. But presumably, from here out, the two elders would be in charge of the discussions, the clerk only in attendance for educational purposes. This seemed like quite an opportunity for such a low-ranking clerk, but perhaps it was a reward for securing such a potentially lucrative client, correctly judging that the job was above his own pay grade, and reaching out to the higher-ups.
“I hear you have brought us something unusual. Might we see it?”
“Of course. Mile, bring it out.”
Naturally, Pauline was in charge of the negotiations.
As instructed, Mile produced the item from her “storage” and placed it upon the table: a single, complete scale, free of any scars or burns.
“Please feel free to inspect it.”
“Th-thi…this is…”
The head clerk was lost for words, but Melphict, the owner, seemed unaffected.
“Hm. Looks like a scale from some kind of big monster. I’ve never seen one of these before, but, well, it’s just a single scale, not a horn or fang or hide or anything… Still, I’d hate to send you home empty-handed after you all were so kind as to choose our shop to bring this to, so we can take this off your hands for six half-gold—no, let’s make that seven.”
Normally, the fact of Mile’s storage magic in itself would have garnered surprise. And yet, the man was cool and collected, completely ignoring the means by which the goods appeared, and moreover, appraising the scale as though it were nothing special. His act would have been more than enough to fool Mavis or Mile, but unfortunately for the man, Pauline was not so easily deceived.
She knew that the fact that he had not made mention of the storage magic meant that his attentions were preoccupied by something else. In the way of a true merchant, his expression was unchanged because he was forcing himself to feign calm—his poker face precisely calibrated to prevent any unintended tell.
Most importantly, Pauline knew exactly what it was that the party had just set out before them—along with the value of such goods.
Yes indeed, this was an elder dragon scale in nearly mint condition, one of the rare few that probably existed in this world.
“Whoa! With that much money we could stay at an inn for three nights, maybe four, and eat as much as we want!” Mile said happily. The owner and his partner smiled. But then…
“You see?” Mavis replied. “Aren’t you glad we picked up both of them, like I told you?”
Snap!
The men froze.
“D-did you say, both of them?”
“Oh yeah, there were two really nice-looking ones. It was kind of a strain on her storage space, but we brought both of them back with us. Some of us thought that just the one would be enough, but as the leader, I insisted,” Mavis explained.
The men fell silent. The wheels in both their heads seemed to be spinning at full tilt, as they tried to devise some way to get their hands on both scales.
“Of course, that did mean that we had to carry all of our things on our backs and discard all of our spare water in order to free up storage space,” Reina added, elaborating on Mavis’s story. “I mean, I was pretty opposed when you told us that we should take all that stuff out just to keep from damaging the scales, since you thought they might be valuable…”
This would be their excuse for why they had only brought one scale with them—that Mile’s storage space was limited, and that they did not wish to damage the scale by cramming too much in. And also that they weren’t certain it would sell for a good price…
Naturally, the only conclusion that the merchants could come to was that these young girls had chanced to pass through the same area that those B-rank hunters did, before they got to the site, and had brought the two prettiest specimens back with them without realizing their value.
As far as they had heard, the scales that the B-rank party had retrieved and were planning to auction off were greatly damaged, so much so that they could better be thought of as shards, and were scorched in a number of places. How many orders of magnitude greater would be the price fetched by these specimens in nearly perfect condition—not especially large but large enough to make a nice centerpiece for any piece of armor?
And to think that there were two of them!
If they were to bring one to His Majesty the King as a tribute and auction the other off amongst a gathering of high-ranking nobles—imagine the honor! The prestige! And not to mention, the immense profits.
If they played their cards right, they might even find themselves conferred a knighthood, or nobility!
“………”
The men were silent. They still seemed to be fighting desperately to maintain their composure, but Pauline could see their every thought unfolding. Of course, it was simple enough; all she had to do was imagine what she might be thinking if she were in their position.
“Will we be able to get the same amount for the other scale?” Pauline asked. The men nodded fiercely. Apparently, they were nearing the limits of their self-control.
“Well, should we bring the other one here, then? Ugh. I really wish I’d taken more stuff out so we could put them both in storage…” sighed Mile.
“Yeah, you really goofed up,” Reina agreed.
“Well, we should head back immediately and go get the other one,” said Pauline, and Mile put the scale on the table back into her storage.
“Oh—”
As they stood to leave, the men moved to stop them, hoping to at least secure one of the scales, but it would clearly be unusual for them to try frantically to buy just one item, when the seller said they were going to retrieve more. It would be dreadful if the girls were to grow suspicious and instead take their business to another merchant. For now, they had to act as naturally as they could in order to prioritize keeping the girls off their scent.
The trip to and from their inn, if they went straight away, would not be long enough for word to get out to any other shops, thought the merchants—nor would it give the girls a chance to wise up to the true value of their product. And so, they kept themselves in check and saw the Crimson Vow off with a smile.
“That was flawless. Excellent work, everyone,” Pauline praised the other three. “Those merchants are the heads of the moneylending firm, so now all we have to do is massage the information a bit. Then, we make a bit of an exchange—without lying, deceiving anyone, or doing anything unseemly,” she clarified, though it was quite impossible to believe her with the wicked grin that was upon her face.
“Now then, just as we planned…” said Mile.
“All right! Time for some neglect play!” Pauline gleefully replied.
Her happy-go-lucky smile was frightening—truly frightening.
How can she say such things with such a cheerful grin on her face? thought Reina, somewhat taken aback.
It’s frightening to be her enemy, but I’m glad that she’s on our side… Mavis thought earnestly.
It’s frightening to be her enemy, but even scarier to be her ally! thought Mile, taken utterly aback.
***
The next morning, when the members of the Crimson Vow stopped in at the Hunters’ Guild, a man came rushing over to them with a strange expression.
“Why didn’t you come back?!?!”
It was the owner of the shop. For the owner of a company—not his head clerk or assistants—to wait around in a place like this, for a group of hunters who might not show up anytime soon, was truly an atypical occurrence. Clearly, the circumstances warranted it.
“You all were supposed to come right back with the other sc—the other item! Why didn’t you come back?!?!” cried the merchant, swiftly stopping himself from saying aloud what said item was. It was only natural he would do so; shouting something like that in a place like this would be sure to bring others around, and if things went poorly, there was a chance of the competition finding out exactly what he was referring to, and just how much it was worth. They needed to move somewhere more private.
“Please just come with me to the shop!” the merchant shouted, grabbing the arm of Mile, who was the youngest and appeared least able to resist, and attempting to drag her from the guildhall. He seemed to believe that if he took one of them, the others would naturally follow along. And, in fact, the other three shrugged and followed behind him.
Of course, had Mile dug in her feet, he would never have been able to pull her so easily, no matter how light she was. Naturally, she was letting herself be taken on purpose.
“Hey, uh… Hey now…”
Behind the group, those hunters and guild staff who had begun to understand a thing or two about the Crimson Vow, in light of Mavis’s demonstration, the dragon incident, and the Roaring Mithrils boasts about the girls’ exploits, began to mutter wearily, but the merchant had no idea what their voices were trying to convey.
“Why didn’t you all come right back yesterday?!”
The shop owner was at least making an attempt to maintain an air of politeness in front of his clients, but his expression was fierce and his tone sharp, the smiles of the previous day nowhere to be seen. He seemed to be quite worked up. This was probably to be expected; he’d likely spent the whole night tossing and turning at the thought of being able to get his hands on such an item, unable to sleep at all.
They moved to a concealed inner chamber within the shop. With this room having been constructed with soundproofing in mind, there was no need for the man to control his voice as he screamed at the Crimson Vow. He really still should have kept his volume in mind, since he was dealing with clients. However, he seemed to be rather beyond that. This was a slip-up, especially for a sly old dog like this merchant, but given that a group of little girls, of all people, had broken their word and made a fool of him, resulting in his sleepless night, it was little surprise that his anger won out and slipped into his words…
“Well, to tell you the truth, we were going to come back, but we ran into a mother and daughter we knew who were having trouble paying back a loan, so we gave them both the scales we had, thinking it might help supplement their payments or something…” Pauline explained.
“You…y-y-y-y-y-you did what?! ” the merchant screeched.
All the soundproofing in the world could not have stopped that scream from reaching the rest of the shop.
“Wh-wh-wh-wha… Wh-wh-wh… Aah… Aaaaaah…”
The merchant was unable to form words for some time, until finally, his babbled noises began to make sense again.
“Wh- why …?”
“Well,” Pauline replied, quite unaffected, “Those people helped us out before. We figured that even if they were only worth 14 half-gold, that should be enough to help them out a little.”
Hearing this, the merchant went pale. His lips flapped, but not a single sound emerged.
“So, we actually can’t sell them to you anymore. We didn’t have any formal contract though, and just hearing a quote doesn’t really constitute an intent to sell, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
In fact, it was a huge problem. However, it was a problem for the merchant. Not having someone sell you something was not the sort of thing one could really complain about.
He had to get his hands on the scales, one way or another. With this thought in mind, the wheels in his head began spinning at full power.
“U-um, so about the people you gave them to…”
“Huh? I mean, that’s not really any of your business. I can’t just go blabbing people’s personal information to strangers. Especially when it comes to something as sensitive as debts… Anyway, since we don’t have anything to sell you anymore, do you still need us for anything? If not, we’ll be taking our leave. Let’s go, everyone!”
“Coming!” chimed the other three, cheerfully in sync.
And so the members of the Crimson Vow rose from their seats, leaving behind the desperately babbling merchant.
Moments after the Crimson Vow left the shop, the owner’s voice could be heard echoing.
“Find them! You have to find the people they gave those elder dragon scales to! If it’s someone with a debt, we should be able to research and find something out through our financing division. We need to find them quickly, before any other firms can find out about this! Hurry!! ! ”
“The preparations are complete. Now, all we have to do is sit and watch the stupid puppets dance!” Pauline gleefully exclaimed as they left the shop behind, heading back toward the inn. “Thanks to diligent practice, I’m expecting a decent performance from our final actor as well. We can look forward to a splendid show!”
As always, Pauline had an utterly blissful smile on her face, a smile so full of benevolence that anyone who did not know her might even wonder if she was a holy woman… Though any particularly insightful animals or children they came across might grimace and run away.
With a subtle flinch, the other three nodded vigorously.
***
That evening…
“We’ve found them… We’ve found them! To think that the one they gave those scales to was someone who borrowed money from our firm! It seems like the owner of the shop in question is away, and his wife is currently in charge of paying back the loan. She was wondering if she could sell off ‘something resembling a wyvern scale’ in order to supplement her payment, with no idea of its value… Bwahaha, what splendid fortune I have! I hate to boast, but the goddess of commerce must be smiling on me to give me such awesome power! Bwaha. Bwahahahahaha!”
Upon hearing his subordinate’s report, the firm owner was unable to contain his wicked laughter.
“All right! Tomorrow morning, we’re heading to their home! Go find the head of our financing division! Tell those folks we’ll be dropping by at the first morning bell. Bwaha. Bwahahaha…”
***
Aritoss was a small shop, staffed by only five employees, including the husband and wife who owned it.
Presently, this tiny shop was being called upon by the owner of a mid-sized mercantile firm that was said to do fairly high-profile business in both the commerce and financing spheres, along with the chief of their financing division, the head clerk, an assistant clerk, and a contingent of several guards.
Normally, this was not the sort of place that the owner of such a firm would grace with his presence. He would entrust one of the clerks with any visits—or better yet, call the other party to meet him, as a show of power. The fact that he had a bodyguard with him meant that he was likely aware how high the possibility was that he might be assaulted somewhere in town, owing to the many grudges held against him—indeed, it was likely enough that he had bothered to make the expenditure of hiring guards.
There could only be one reason that such a man would go out of his way to travel all the way to this small shop on his own.
“…Wyvern scales, you say?”
“Yes, some friends of ours gave them to us. We were wondering if maybe we could give them to you in place of the repayment and penalty fee…”
The woman, wife of the proprietor of the shop, had explained that they had not yet had time to find a buyer for the scales, so rather than selling them somewhere else to gather the funds, she was hoping she could offer the scales themselves directly as a form of repayment. It would have been one thing if they were able to take their time looking for buyers, but to turn the goods into cash in just a few hours would likely mean taking a huge hit in terms of the profits. If things went poorly, they might lose up to half of the rightful price. If they offered the scales to their lender directly, even if they were not going to get the full price, they could at least offset their debts, making this the preferable option.
So the woman thought, and hers was not a bad assumption…or at least, it wouldn’t have been, were the items in questions truly wyvern scales.
The owner of the firm was practically dancing at the continuation of his mind-boggling good fortune. He had traveled here himself with the head of the financing division in tow because this was a negotiation they could not afford to fumble, but now, he was fighting desperately to suppress a grin.
Things might not have gone so swimmingly for him if the woman’s husband, proprietor of their shop, had been present, but it seemed the man was currently out of town to collect on some accounts, leaving his wife, who was not as sharp when it came to business, the only one here to deal with the loan.
In light of the fact that her husband was the one largely in charge of their commercial affairs, was it really right of the men to make such a fool of the wife of a merchant?
It was…as long as it helped out their profits!
With this thought in mind, the merchant could feel nothing but an intense sense of gratitude toward the idiot of a woman standing before him.
“I suppose we really don’t have much choice. We ourselves are no charity, unfortunately. Still, it is the duty of a merchant to aid a client in need. You seem to be in a bit of trouble, so just this once, we will accept these items as a part of your payment.”
“Oh, thank you so much! So, these two wyvern scales should cover the total amount, including the principal, the interest, and the penalty fee, is that correct?”
“Huh?”
The merchant was clearly puzzled at the woman’s assumption.
“Two scales at seven half-gold a piece would never cover the full amount!”
Yet the woman made no move to back down.
“Seven half-gold? No, a wyvern scale is worth far more than that. If that’s the price you’re going to insist on, then we’ll just head over to the merchants’ guild and sell them there. Even that would get us more value than just seven half-gold, I’d say. We’ll go that route and have the payment ready for you in cash tomorrow.”
Apparently, the young hunters had not informed the woman of the price at which the scales had been assessed.
Unlike elder dragon scales, only a few of which might surface every few decades—or even centuries—wyvern scales, were not especially rare. They still fetched a decent price, but a wyvern was not beyond the abilities of any first-rate party, and hunting just one would mean a sizable influx of scales into the market. Thus, even if they had not seen one themselves, it was no surprise that there would be plenty of people who had some idea of the market rate for them.
It was far different than getting one’s hands on elder dragon scales, scant fragments of which might be given over only at the whims of another—making a full scale utterly unthinkable.
This is bad! thought the merchant. Even if she can’t tell them apart, she still knows the value of a wyvern scale… I can’t be quibbling over pocket change here!
The merchant, unwilling to spoil the whole deal over a bit of pettiness, decided not to get hung up on the paltry sum of the loan, which was really little more than pocket change to their firm.
“V-very well. Then, let’s call the full sum even, yes? To tell you frankly, I think we should be able to net far more than market value for these, so I really must thank you!”
This merchant, of course, was never one to forgo negotiations with a first-time customer—not without some sure plan to recoup his costs later, anyway. No matter how small their shop was, there was no way the proprietor’s wife could now know that. However…
“Thank you! I’ll go ahead and prepare a contract stating that our offer was accepted,” said the woman. She clapped her hands twice, and one of the shop staff brought in a contract. One had to wonder—had she been so certain ahead of time that her deal would be accepted that she had already written up this contract, or had she prepared several different ones, with the appropriate one being brought to her with the signal she had just given…? Such power plays were the norm for any good shop owner, so it was difficult to say for certain.
The merchant then looked over the contract, the gist of which was:
All sums associated with the repayment of the loan in question (the initial loan sum, interest, penalty fee for late payment, handling charges, and all other mandatory associated fees), will be covered by the tendering of two dragon scales, likely those originating from a wyvern, in place of monetary repayment.
There was no issue with the wording or contents of the contract. It was all stock language, written in such a way as to prevent any misinterpretations or misunderstandings. Even clearly specifying that the scales belonged to a dragon caused no trouble; the language did not assert with certainty that the scale belonged to a wyvern, so if it should turn out that the scale belonged to an elder dragon instead, there would be no breach. If the woman were to later find out about the value of the goods and complain, he could simply shrug it off.
“Now then, shall we take those scales off your hands?” asked the merchant with a grin.
The woman shook her head coldly. “No, thank you.”
“Wh…?”
There was no way to describe the man’s expression but slack jawed.
“Oh, no, there’s nothing wrong with the terms of the contract itself. It’s simply that I would like to do the handover at the Merchants’ Guild instead. The thing is, we actually still haven’t been given the items ourselves, so we can’t give them to you yet. Also, considering your behavior when we originally tried to pay back the money, I don’t really have much confidence in you right now. If we do the handover at the guild in front of all the other merchants and guild staff, I can rest assured that you won’t attempt any egregious violations of contract or try to entangle us in any strange schemes, since that would greatly hurt your reputation as a merchant.”
“Guh…”
The merchant was clearly unhappy, but on further consideration, he supposed all this would apply equally to the other party. If she were to later complain that she had been tricked, or demand the scales back, the merchant, too, could rest assured that there would be witnesses to attest to the validity of their transaction. There was nothing wrong with him taking her words at face value during the exchange and believing the goods to be wyvern scales, only to later determine that they were something else entirely. At any rate, it would be the others who had made a mistake in assessing the goods and given a false description…
“So, tonight then, at the guildhall—first evening bell,” said the woman. “At that time we will handle the return of the original contract of loan and the replacement with the new, as well as the exchange of the scales.”
There was no telling what could be done if the original contract was not retrieved—if, for example, a fake was destroyed in front of everyone while the original sat safe and sound, or some such trickery. Being fooled once already was plenty.
After seeing off the gloating merchant, the woman’s lips twisted. Her smile very much resembled one that three of the members of the Crimson Vow were accustomed to seeing.
Indeed, it was the spitting image of Pauline’s wicked grin whenever she was scheming.
The young matron had the looks of a saint…but she was still a merchant’s wife.
Soft words then tumbled from the woman’s lips:
“Now, witness the fury of Aritoss!”
***
That night, shortly before the first evening bell, the wife of the owner of Aritoss, the merchant, the head of the financing division, and their bodyguards stood within the Merchants’ Guild.
The guildhall was packed. It was the most bustling time of the day, when hunters would be returning from hunting and gathering and selling their spoils to the Hunters’ Guild, which were in turn sold wholesale here… That was of course precisely why the woman had chosen this time.
Ding-a-ling!
The doorbell rang, and everyone’s eyes reflexively turned to the door to see them enter: the young all-female hunting party who had managed to kick up quite a stir at the Hunters’ Guild in just the past few days. While it was the Roaring Mithrils who had made a name for themselves selling the ground dragon parts, some of those present still recognized the members of the Crimson Vow, even if they were thought of as nothing more than a rookie party who had traveled with the Mithrils and scraped up some of their leftovers.
From the doorway, the girls headed straight to the table where the rest of the group was assembled.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. We’ve come to deliver the wyvern scales that we promised to the manager of Aritoss here.”
This time it was not Mavis, the leader, who was in charge of the negotiations, but Pauline. The others of course would have no idea who the party leader was, and even if they did, they likely would not care.
“It’s no trouble, we’re still a bit ahead of schedule,” said the woman. “Now then, once the signing of the contract has been confirmed, please hand over the scales. When the wyvern scales have been handed over, our debts will be settled. If the scales are found to be fakes or damaged goods at that juncture, please announce as such immediately. In such an event, we will request an official appraisal from the guild, and if fault is found on our part, the contract will be nullified. Is that agreeable?” The latter part of this was directed at the merchant.
Naturally, the merchant had no objections. Even the fact that they were not handing over the items first was to his advantage. In fact, he had been the one to suggest confirming the integrity of the items after the contract had been signed. If they were to hand over the items before the signing, the other merchants around might cause a fuss and make the woman aware of the scales’ true value.
Bwahaha! She’s thought of so many ways to avoid being swindled that all she’s done is dig her own grave. A pitfall of so many fools who think themselves clever. She thought she could outwit me, but truly, women are nothing but fools… The merchant sniggered internally.
Normally, he would have put far more thought into this, but he was entirely caught up in attempting to screw over this other party—and thinking they were falling for it. So wrapped up in the thoughts of the trap that he had laid, that he failed to let anything else occur to him.
It was already unusual for this transaction to be going on in front of everyone, rather than in a private room. Then, there was the fact that the phrase “wyvern scales” had been flung around multiple times. Furthermore, the talks were going on between the infamous Melphict and—not the owner of Aritoss—but his wife. No matter how you looked at it, this was not your typical negotiation.
He’s definitely gonna try to pull the wool over her eyes, the watching merchants thought. However, it was not their place to interfere in another merchant’s dealings, so they could only watch uncomfortably as the woman fell victim to Melphict’s tricks—all their ears pricked up to catch every word of the conversation and make certain she was not being deceived.
Two copies of the new contract were produced and each one given the appropriate signatures before both parties took their own and folded it away. Normally, these papers would be left atop the table while the final exchange was done, but in this case, putting them away first provided a safeguard against the other party learning the truth and trying to quickly retract the contract in a panic. The watchers who noticed this grimaced, thinking to themselves, Ah, they don’t trust each other at all…
“Now then, if you would,” said the woman to Mile, who produced two packages from her storage and placed them atop the table.
There were a few surprised gasps of “Storage magic!” but the majority of the crowd was more fixated on the rest of the proceedings, gulping nervously as they watched.
“Go ahead,” said the woman, and the merchant opened the packages to find…
“What are these ?!” he shouted, standing reflexively.
Sure enough, placed inside wooden frames and wrapped up to disguise their true size—or rather, to protect them—were two dragon scales.
Specifically, two wyvern scales.
“As you can see, these are wyvern scales.”
“Wyvern scales?! That’s not right at all!!!”
The people around them were stunned at the merchant’s behavior as he raged indignantly at the woman. For all the talk that had been going on about this being an exchange of wyvern scales, it was incomprehensible why he would be blustering at receiving what were, in fact, wyvern scales. It would have been one thing if they were broken or damaged, but as far as the people around could tell, they were scales of fairly exceptional quality—nothing to scoff at.
“Hm? What are you so confused about? We’ve been telling you the whole time that they’re wyvern scales, haven’t we? You’ve been saying the same thing. Even the contract, which you yourself checked over plenty of times, specifies ‘dragon scales, most likely belonging to a wyvern,’ does it not? So, what exactly are you trying to say? If something’s the matter, should we call for an official appraisal?” asked the woman, smiling vaguely.
“Wh-wha…?”
The merchant sank into a chair, momentarily lost for words, but then shot back up, shouting at the Crimson Vow.
“You lot! What about the scale you brought in yesterday?”
“Huh? You mean that unidentified scale that you appraised at seven half-gold? We already told you, they seemed like they weren’t worth much, so we handed them over to an acquaintance. We weren’t supposed to have brought those now, were we? What would you care about those cheap scales that you, a first-class merchant, appraised at just seven half-gold?”
The merchant looked back at Pauline with an utterly dumbfounded expression upon his face.
She had just stated loudly, multiple times, that the scales in question had been appraised for seven half-gold.
An actress…
Pauline’s performance was impeccable, an act that only an animal, a small child, or someone who knew her well could see through. It was, in fact, so impeccable that a certain refrain that often cropped up in Mile’s Japanese folktales floated into the heads of her fellow party members…
Hearing Pauline’s response, the others around them now began to grasp the full situation. For the past several days, the guild had been gripped by talks of a certain something, so there was no way that any merchant with half a brain cell would not begin to put two and two together, given that scales were involved.
Here and there, suspicious smiles and looks of understanding began to flicker upon the faces of the surrounding staff and merchants.
“Guh…”
The merchant stammered, unable to say anything—what could he say? That he had appraised a perfect, complete elder dragon scale at just seven half-gold or that he had tried to trickily purchase an elder dragon scale as a wyvern scale, here in front of all these people?
Naturally, he was aware of how poor his reputation was to begin with. However, all prior incidents of questionable dealing could easily be explained with one of a million excuses like, “That was a conversation only between the parties involved, which no third party was privy to,” or “That was not specified in the wording of the contract,” or “I didn’t know that,” or “My subordinate acted out of turn,” or “We have no records of that,” or simply “This was a legitimate contract that both parties willingly agreed to.”
However, in this case, they had clearly said the words “wyvern scale” in front of all of these people, and moreover, it had been made obvious that he had assessed the scales the young women had brought him at seven half-gold—less than the value of the current negotiations, and indeed far less value than the market price of a wyvern scale. Furthermore, he could not simply claim that previously the girls had shown him an elder dragon scale, and he had made some kind of grand mistake.
Having already just admitted in front of everyone that he could clearly tell dragon scales apart, he could not insist that those seven half-gold scales were worth far more than the wyvern scales before him. All of the options available to him would be tantamount to admitting he had acted fraudulently…
Meanwhile, it was clear that the other party had believed this entire time that what they had were wyvern scales and that they were not of much value. Indeed, even the contract and the equivalent sums involved had clearly affirmed this.
I’ve been had…
The merchant’s shoulders slumped, crestfallen. The wife of the owner of Aritoss, meanwhile, feigned utter ignorance, while Pauline sneered secretly, out of view.
Even given everything, the merchant was not exactly being put at a loss in terms of coin. He was purchasing wyvern scales at a fairly high price, but it was only high when one considered the value of the original sum, interest, and penalty fee. He was more than recovering the original loan and interest, i.e. the amount he was fairly due. He had merely slipped up in letting his greed get the best of him.
Though all their debts had been canceled, Aritoss still had to pay the Crimson Vow for the wyvern scales, so in essence, the shop was still paying the original amount and interest as well.
Pauline, of course, could not let them go without having paid their debts simply because the Crimson Vow had gotten involved. Indeed, even though she had been the one to insist, everyone was of the same mind on this.
Making sure their debts were fairly paid would be proof positive that anything Aritoss had done, they had done only in self-defense, not intending to profit, which would raise their reputation in the eyes of the other merchants and guild staff. After all, what they had handed over to the merchant was in fact two beautiful wyvern scales, not damaged goods, or rock lizards scales, or some such substitute.
Indeed, Aritoss was an honest, upstanding shop, which always kept its promises through and through.
The Crimson Vow had gotten to sell two wyvern scales they already had on hand for not far off of market value, so it was no big loss to them.
And so, the incident concluded peacefully, with no real profit and no real losses for anyone involved…monetarily speaking.
The merchant had now thoroughly disgraced himself before so many of his peers and securely cemented his reputation as a scoundrel. Even more important, however, was the extent of the emotional damage he was now suffering at not only having had such a prize vanish before his eyes but also at having been taken by the likes of some peddler’s wife in front of all these people.
Meanwhile, for the matron of the little shop known as Aritoss to stand up and win fair and square against this corrupt and crafty merchant was a great victory: proof of her own stature as a woman of character and a mark of credence and reputation for the business itself.
The Crimson Vow, of course, became just a little more well known as a fascinating bunch of lovely young ladies who boasted storage magic to boot.
“It sure is lucky you had those wyvern scales in storage, Mile,” said Reina.
“Yes. That was all thanks to dear Lobreth, wasn’t it?” agreed Pauline.
Mile and Mavis laughed in reply.
Indeed, the scales had come to them after Lobreth was attacked in the battle with Wence, the greenhorn elder dragon. When Lobreth was injured crashing down into the trees after being struck by dragon breath, Mile had picked some scales out of his wounds to clean them when applying healing magic.
Naturally, the scales would have gotten in the way in the process of preparing to heal the wounds, so she had put them away into storage. She wasn’t just going to leave them on the ground as litter, after all.
“No one lost out, and in fact, we all profited a little. What a happy ending!” Mile concluded, naive as always.
The other three were silent, though they all truly wished to point out that she had failed to consider the reputation or spirit of the merchant, both of which were clearly suffering…
No, I’m sure she’s completely aware of that, thought Reina.
She has no interest in considering the feelings of villains! Mile truly is a dark one… thought Pauline.
She’s being sincere, isn’t she? Mile, do you really think that? thought Mavis.
The three could do nothing but smile ambiguously in reply.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login