Chapter 86:
Sales
“Okay, let’s set up shop here!”
It was the third day that the caravan had been within imperial territories. As they would not be able to obtain much new information anywhere near the border, up until now they had merely proceeded onward toward the capital with only brief stops. Finally, in the current town, they decided it was time for a bit of commerce.
Of course, their goal was not to make any large-scale deals with the merchants of the Empire. That would mean their stock would be depleted in just a few transactions, and they would have no reason to head further into the country, which would seem suspicious. True, there was a little money to be made transporting goods from one Albarnian town to another, but this was not the sort of thing that was typically profitable for foreign merchants.
It would be far more logical to take one’s goods elsewhere rather than linger in a place as dismal as the Empire.
At the end of the day, the function of this caravan was to kill some time making small sales to the ordinary citizens, loosely gathering what information they could along the way. Getting intel out of nobles and wealthy merchants was best left to the pros and was not the function of these particular merchants.
“All right, drivers, please unhitch the horses and lash them to the trees over there. We will remove the wagon tarps and start setting up shop. Crimson Vow, you all keep on the lookout for pilferers who are waiting for us to let our guard down. Try not to interfere in our shop preparations. There’s a bit of skill involved, so we don’t need you getting in the—er, making a mess of—no, um, helping us out.”
Here the man had let his true feelings show, but it was true that if amateurs interfered, it would cause nothing but trouble. Even though the men were only pretending to be merchants, surely they at least had done some minimal practice beforehand and gotten some real merchants to show them a thing or two…
The design of the wagons was very well thought out. Some of the goods for sale would be taken down from the central platform of the wagon and lined up on a sheet spread on the ground. However, they could also simply remove the tarp and display a good deal of their wares on the wagon itself.
In truth, Reina had some familiarity with this type of convertible shop wagon, but it would be a bit awkward to have only one of the four of them helping out, so she kept quiet.
“As long as you all stay near enough to come back right away if any trouble arises, then we don’t mind if you go ahead and wander around a bit or take a nap while we’re doing business,” said the head of the merchants. Of course, the Crimson Vow—and Pauline in particular—already had another activity in mind…
“Let’s get the traveling shop, House of the Holy Maiden, ready for business!”
“Ho-ho-ho-HO!!”
This time, instead of their typical hunter’s call and response, the other members of the Crimson Vow answered Pauline’s declaration with a phrase that had become familiar via Mile’s stories, the catchphrase of a certain djinn. It was a powerful battle cry!
Mile then peered around at their surroundings. It was still early in the morning, so there were few people about. She waited until there was absolutely no one looking their way, and…
“Tada!”
Fwoom!
Beside and a little behind the three wagons, a large, familiar tent suddenly appeared. In front of it, in line with the wagons’ display, was a table and chairs. Mile moved immediately into the tent, likely to unload all of the merchandise. It was better to take her time and carefully select the goods to sell away from prying eyes.
The merchants did not appear surprised at all by this turn events. After all, they had already seen her in action many times while setting up camp at this point.
After a short while, a heap of wooden crates and sacks began to grow behind the table. Though they were a little ashamed to do so, the other three left Mile to transport their wares alone.
The stuff was pretty heavy, after all, and while Mile could carry these items handily, for the rest of them, that kind of repeated stooping and carrying might cause back strain.
And so, they left the task to Mile—the only one truly suited to the job. They could always help out with anything that Mile happened to be bad at, they told themselves…
While Mile was busy carrying things, the others lined up the product samples atop the long table. Unlike the varied wares of the merchants—a large variety of goods with a small quantity of each—the Crimson Vow had gone for larger quantities and a more limited range, thinking that it would be a pain to memorize the prices of too many different goods, which would also be less efficient to display.
Of course, they didn’t intend to sell their whole quantity of any item in one place, instead, selling some portion of the total in each location. Strategically, they planned on limiting sales to only an amount that would not be unnatural to sell at one time—a quantity that would not take up more than half of one wagon. That way, no one would realize that what they were carrying was inconsistent with the carrying capacity of the caravan—though of course, few people would even pause to give such things a second thought.
Furthermore, they had also been thoughtful about not overlapping with the merchants’ stock, aiming for cheaper items that would be of use to the common folk of the Empire, rather than expensive luxury goods. Of course, they had some specialty items—like the aforementioned “cheap booze”—but for the most part, their wares consisted of things like wheat, barley, and salt. This meant their sales could take place without much conversation.
After all, gathering information was the job of the merchants, not the Crimson Vow. These sales were an independent operation on the part of the hunting party, and it was nothing more than an added bonus for the merchants if their presence helped attract more sales.
Of course, they worried whether the merchants, who after all, were actually bureaucrats and information specialists, would be able to properly elicit any gossip from their customers—however, it stood to reason that they had been selected for a reason. Not every researcher was necessarily socially awkward, and thought must have gone into choosing these men for this job.
“Okay, preparations complete! Let’s open up!” Pauline shouted. The Crimson Vow’s sales began. The merchants had already begun selling—without similar fanfare.
The customers began to flow in, and despite the supposedly poor economy and low purchasing power in these parts, a relatively large number flocked over to browse the merchants’ wares. However, browse was all they did. No one asked questions or attempted to haggle. Perhaps there was nothing here that they considered a bargain by the standard market prices in the area, or perhaps they were merely window-shopping, enjoying looking at these unusual items. That said, it was important for a merchant to value even those customers who did not buy anything. You never knew when someone might return to make a purchase.
Furthermore, the real goal of these “merchants” was to talk to their customers about things other than business. As such, the men did not go out of their way to force any sales, simply letting folks enjoy themselves while they chatted about the trends and rumors in this foreign land.
“That’s surprising…”
“I didn’t expect that from them at all…”
“To think they’d be this good at customer service… I guess we shouldn’t underestimate researchers…”
“Well, they were selected after all…”
Thwonk, clunk!
“Ow!”
Reina smacked Mile and Pauline on their heads with her staff.
“What was that for, Reina?!” Mile griped.
“Didn’t I tell all of you not to talk about this stuff?”
“Ah…”
Sure enough, they had clearly established that they were not to discuss anything sensitive, even when they were alone. While it was likely that no one had overheard this particular conversation, there were in fact townspeople close nearby. Though Reina and Mavis hadn’t necessarily spilled any secrets, using words like “researchers” or “selected” was strictly forbidden.
“Forgive us!”
“That was careless!”
Prudently admitting their own fault, the pair apologized.
At first, the Crimson Vow, who only had samples of ordinary goods like flour, salt, and alcohol atop their display table, had no customers. Instead, everyone huddled around the merchants’ wagons, with their variety of fascinating goods. This made sense. Necessities or no, flour and salt were commonplace items. Though there were shortages of them, these items were not totally scarce and could easily be obtained by saving up a little coin. Furthermore, once you factored in the transport and handling, heavy, bulky goods like this tended to get quite expensive, due to the costs associated with many days’ travel over poor and winding roads.
The prices also had to factor in labor fees, guard salaries, upkeep on the horses and wagons, and the less-than-zero probability of being attacked by bandits or monsters along the way. Once that was all calculated, imported goods tended to be several times more expensive than usual. No matter how cheaply one could acquire something straight from the source, a fifty or sixty percent mark-up quickly outweighed any initial savings.
It only made sense that the customers would ignore the Crimson Vow, moving past their tent to see if there was anything interesting or unusual on offer from the merchants.
Yet the members of the Crimson Vow were unbothered. If they did not make any sales here, it was no matter—they still had plenty more chances for success. They could simply put everything back into Mile’s inventory and sell it off at some later time and place for more than they purchased it for. If nothing else, there were times when a bad season yielded poor crops, and war provisions were always in demand.
This inventory of Mile’s, with its endless capacity and ability to perfectly preserve its contents…there was no doubt that it gave them a bit of an unfair advantage.
“Huh? These are so cheap!” a middle-aged fellow gasped in shock. Having finished his perusal of the merchants’ goods, he had moved on to the Vow’s table.
“Wheat, barley, salt, booze…and is this sugar? You brought these all this way—at these prices you’re gonna end up in the red!”
The man wasn’t wrong about the Crimson Vow’s prices.
But hadn’t Pauline specifically said not to sell things below market value, even aside from the fact that they might end up in the red?
So then, why…?
“It’s because these are such low-quality goods!”
“ Huh? ”
There was a collective sound of confusion from the crowd. Had the salesgirl really just referred to her own goods as “low quality”? No merchant would ever do such a thing—except, of course, when they were trying to get a bargain from the person they were purchasing them from, that is…
Still, there was no merchant alive who would permit a salesgirl in their employ to refer to their own wares this way. She would be scolded, yelled at, and perhaps even thoroughly beaten. With this in mind, the customers looked to the merchants, but…
The girl had spoken loudly enough that they must have heard, but they did not seem to pay any attention to her words, simply carrying on their negotiations and gossiping.
“Ah! This shop is actually independent from those fellows. Our prices have nothing to do with them. The four of us manage this shop, so we’re in charge of everything,” said the silver-haired girl with a smile.
The townsfolk could not hide their shock.
This group of girls, ranging from somewhere around twelve to eighteen, were mingling with merchants and running their own shop? That in itself was surprising enough—before one even considered that they were somehow turning a profit with these absurd prices. How in the world…?
“As I said before, these are lower-grade goods. The grains are small in size, and on inspection we found a lot of empty casings, batches that have started to sprouts, some with an excessively high moisture content, others that have been stored in a warm area, and so forth. We can’t sell these at normal prices. But the ones that have started to sprout are still fine as long as you aren’t too fussy, and the ones that were improperly stored won’t last as long, but they should be fine to use right away. Really, they are perfectly good! However, the prices were way cheaper.
“Basically, we struck a bargain on these ‘special goods’ and brought them to a place where we could sell them for a fair price. It’s the same with everything here—it’s fine as long as you use it up right away, but the stuck-up folks in the capital considered it ‘inferior’ and wouldn’t buy in. Still, everything comes with written expiration dates and appropriate warning labels. If there’s anyone here who doesn’t mind that, then these are a steal!”
“………”
The customers were a little stunned to hear such a forthright, candid explanation. And yet, they understood.
In fact, her explanation made it abundantly clear to them how these girls were able to sell these goods at such low prices—and that they were not doing so out of any intent to deceive their customers. Rather, they deduced, this was a strategy that these girls had devised, no doubt to give themselves a way to do business in spite of their own lack of capital.
Plus, these items were expensive here, due to shortages. They were becoming harder and harder for the poor to get their hands on. They never had the spare cash to buy enough of these supplies to store long-term.
All of which meant that if they could buy these goods, which were still perfect usable despite their defects, at a cheap price, wasn’t that quite the steal? Customers swarmed to examine the labels on the various products.
It was all going according to plan…
Deep down in their hearts, the four members of the Crimson Vow grinned.
***
“You four are amazing,” said one of the merchants to the Crimson Vow, as they all sat down for dinner that evening at an inn.
Normally, merchants would only spend one night at an inn in the town they were visiting. After all, the cost of rooms for not only them, but their drivers and guards, would add up quickly over the number of nights involved in even a short journey. It would be a faux pas for only the merchants to lodge at an inn, leaving the rest of their group out in the cold. Then, once you factored in the need to find an inn that had a stable, a shed large enough for the wagons, and someone to mind the horses and guard the cargo overnight, any cheap establishments were out of the question, and besides, security would be a concern at any inn with rougher clientele.
As a result, merchants typically overnighted at camping sites prepared here and there along the highway, only staying at an inn maybe once a week in order to gather more information for their sales or simply to give their bodies a rest from rougher sleeping conditions. Even when staying in town on business over the course of several days, they often just pitched their tents in an open field or the town square.
However, this expedition’s goal was not to make money. As a result, they would be staying in inns almost every night—and fairly nice ones, too.
Cheaper inns were filled mostly with low-level hunters, who were unlikely to have any particularly useful information. Besides, other agents—traveling as hunters themselves—would have been dispatched to learn as much as they could from these groups. The duty this group had been assigned was to get information out of the staff at fairly pricey establishments, as well as the influential types who were likely to stay at these locales.
That said, should they happen to catch sight of any other merchants or influential-looking high-ranking hunters setting up camp at the sites just outside of town, their party could swiftly alter their plans for the sake of connecting with them. In fact, it would be far easier to drum up conversation with fellow campers than with those who just happened to be staying at the same inn. By sharing Mile’s excellent cooking, they might open up communications and ingratiate themselves to other travelers—and the merchants promised to pay Mile extra for any efforts in this vein.
“It’s remarkable that these girls have such savvy business sense at their young age… While normal merchants focus on stocking high-price goods for long distance sales in order to ensure a profit even if the margin is slim, these girls are making a killing selling reject goods for just a little below market value… It’s astounding!”
Mile beamed at this high praise, though the other three wore conflicted expressions.
In truth, even if a normal group had thought of this strategy, it would have been hard for them to pull it off without Mile’s incredible “storage” skills. Furthermore, getting such large quantities of these bargain goods was not that simple. Most of what they had stocked were merely cheap and low-grade, but otherwise normal products. (Of course, Pauline still had haggled hard for them.)
They were able to make a profit because they had purchased cheap goods in large quantities…and gotten them to market with zero transporation costs.
Any member of the Crimson Vow would be happy to be recognized for her wisdom and efforts, but in this case, they knew they were relying entirely on Mile’s abilities. They themselves had done nothing they could be proud of, and they were not so shameless as to let themselves get a big head for something they hadn’t done. Instead, they merely pouted, not saying a word, leaving Mile fully in charge of dealing with the merchants.
“You all have been a huge help. Thanks to you, we’ve had a ton of people coming over to ask, ‘Who are those girls?’ and ‘Do you all sell any cheap products like that?’ Getting people to talk about anything other than business without arousing their suspicions is the hardest thing to do. You can’t get much information out of exchanges like ‘How much is this?’ and ‘Here’s the two silver,’ after all. It’s incredibly helpful if they’re the ones to bring up these other topics themselves… It’s unfortunate that you’ve already run out of inventory.”
The merchants assumed that the Crimson Vow, having already sold several hundred kilos of goods today, would have reached the limit of Mile’s storage capacity. Thus far, Mile had prudently—yes, prudently —not shown them too much of what she was capable of.
They’d seen the tent, of course, and assumed that it took up the remainder of her storage space, with all of the cooking implements and ingredients Mile had shown them packed inside it. The capacity of one’s storage was limited by both mass and volume, so it would be unthinkable for anyone to store an empty tent fully constructed…
Of course, the Crimson Vow had purposely convinced them that the tent was stuffed, in order to keep too much information about the true capacity of Mile’s storage from getting back to the palace. Little did they realize that even what Mile had revealed so far was more than enough to pique anyone’s interest… Habit was truly a dangerous thing.
***
“Wh…?”
It was their second day of setting up shop in town. The merchants were wide-eyed and speechless as they watched the Crimson Vow once again unload a great deal of goods from the tent and pile them up behind their table.
If the Crimson Vow’s inventory ran out, like it had the day before, were they going to produce even more items from the tent? The merchants couldn’t believe such a thing would be possible.
Nope! Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope!
“Let another fierce battle for the wandering shop, House of the Holy Maiden, begin!” shouted Pauline, full of confidence.
“ All right! ” the other members of the Crimson Vow replied, and with that, the day’s business was underway.
Indeed, as far as merchants were concerned, commerce was a battlefield, where they went to war with customers, the capricious demons known as opportunity, and themselves.
They had already mostly sold out of the damaged goods they had advertised the day before, which meant that everything they had for sale currently was low-grade but otherwise normal in quality. Thus, if they did not get more serious about their sales, they would not turn a profit. While they were selling at a price that might have been expensive for truly damaged goods, it was incredibly cheap for normal quality items, even low-grade ones.
The tough conditions, however, only got Pauline more fired up.
“This is just a trial run for using Miley’s storage for commerce! We can take notes on this, and use this data for the future… Plus, with the sales I’ve predicted, we’re definitely going to end up in the black!”
Apparently, this sales tactic was one that she had purposely selected, even knowing that there were more efficient methods out there. Hearing this decision, the others had to wonder…
“So, you’re planning on relying on Mile’s storage forever? Even after you retire from being a hunter and move into the mercantile world?”
“Pauline, that’s kind of…”
“Wh-wh-wh-wha?! I don’t plan on being some merchant pack mule for the rest of my life!!!”
Reina, Mavis, and Mile all had plenty to say about this.
“Huh? What?!” Pauline looked stunned at their criticism.
“What’s with that look? Like you have no idea what we’re saying?! We only decided to do this as a way to help out the impoverished imperial citizens!” cried an exasperated Mile.
The other two simply sighed.
Mile was not a pack mule, and it was clear Pauline’s greed had gotten her into trouble again.
“Pauline, you’re aiming to be a first-class merchant, aren’t you? Would you really be happy relying on cheap tricks like Mile’s special abilities to make your money?”
Ah! Mile and Reina froze.
Mavis had just crossed a line. What she was saying was not wrong, and if Reina or Mile had been the one to say it, Pauline would have been in no position to argue. However, for Mavis—of all people…
“I don’t need to hear that from the aspiring knight with the magical trick arm!”
“Gwah!”
Yep. There they go…
Mile and Reina grimaced at Pauline’s response, watching as Mavis withered to the ground with this fatal blow.
Indeed, Mavis had chosen to keep Mile’s magical arm, thinking that it might help her to become a knight… So, she was truly in no position to judge Pauline for her actions.
Ignoring Mavis, who was of no use to anyone at this point, the other three got to work. The three (temporary) merchants watched the whole exchange fearfully from their wagon nearby.
Real merchants are terrifying! they thought to themselves.
Though of course, Pauline was still just a merchant’s daughter, not a full-fledged merchant yet.
“Mile, some of the low-grade spirits, please!”
“On it!”
One after another, goods were sold and steadily restocked from the tent’s inventory. One of the best-sellers seemed to be the liquor, labeled “rain-damaged with a short shelf life.”
How was it that alcohol could be rain-damaged?
The answer was unclear.
However, this was not an inconvenience to the customers. In fact, a few customers had purchased a bit as a sample and opened it on the spot to try. It wasn’t anything fancy, but there certainly wasn’t anything wrong with it either—and as this news spread, the remaining stock began to fly off of the proverbial shelf.
Then came the third day.
Yet more “defective” goods were carried out of the tent.
“I knew it…”
At this point, the three observing merchants had as good as given up.
“We’ll be leaving this town tomorrow,” the leader of the merchants announced at lunchtime.
“Normally, we’d stay for about a week, but the people here were way more apt to talk than we imagined, so I think we’ve gathered all of the intel that we will from this place. Sales are starting to decline, too.”
In truth, that last point was hardly relevant, given that making money was not their chief goal. Yet even though they were simply playing at being merchants, they really were making sales, and it had started to become fun for them, a bit like a game. Now that they were starting to see profits, it was impossible not to get a little bit fired up.
“There’s no reason for us to sit around and try to wring one hundred percent of the rumors out of this town. As long as we get about seventy or eighty percent, that’s plenty. These are just rumors, after all, so it’s not as though it’s all reliable intel. Afterwards, we’ll look back at the gossip we’ve collected on all of our stops and see what trends we can identify: how the reports differ based on distance from the capital, what differences and divergences there are, and use all that to get a sense for how people are feeling. With that in mind, it makes more sense for us to get going again rather than staying in one place long-term. Naturally, some of the stories we hear will be largely embellished, so it’s only by collecting a large body of information that we’ll be able to determine what’s really true.”
“I see…” said the Crimson Vow.
Finally, they understood why these men had been tasked with this. They were clearly not merely some office workers who had been given a special mission but true specialists in the field of intelligence.
Not every information specialist was going to be some impressive 007 type. Most of them were probably totally unremarkable older guys, who looked like normal people and weren’t particularly handsome or impressive or strong.
Although this world was far behind modern-day Earth in terms of scientific knowledge, in the field of espionage, they were more or less up to speed. After all, on Earth, by the time of the ancient Greeks, mankind had already advanced quite far in terms of philosophy, with plenty of deep thinkers who could outwit even many modern men and women.
The people of this world are lacking in knowledge in regards to science and technology, but they aren’t fools. In fact, these agents seem particularly sharp… thought Mile, impressed.
The other three members of the Crimson Vow appeared equally impressed by this unexpectedly astute explanation from their clients, who had appeared at first to be nothing more than bumbling old men. Mavis was especially impressed from a strategic standpoint, while Pauline was already thinking about how this information analysis could be applied to business.
In a rare turn, it was Reina who still seemed to have not quite grasped their logic. That was fine, though—this was not the sort of thinking that had any bearing on the actions of a mere hunter.
At any rate, making swift departures was the Crimson Vow’s bread and butter, so there were no problems on that front.
“Understood. We’ll be ready to set out tomorrow.”
All of the preparations involved in leaving—informing the inn of their departure, gathering feed for the horses and food for the humans, changing the wagons back into traveling mode, and other such details—were the responsibility of the Crimson Vow’s employers, the so-called merchants. Therefore, Mavis suggested the party take advantage of the afternoon ahead. “Why don’t we close up shop early today and see if we can find any local specialties, anything we can sell for more down the road, or something to bring back to Lenny or the orphans as a souvenir?”
“Agreed!”
Normally, souvenirs were things to be purchased on the way home, as they tended to take up room in one’s luggage, but that was no concern for the Crimson Vow…nor were expiration dates, nor the capacity of the wagons, nor item’s size or weight. They had Mile.
Furthermore, if the Crimson Vow could sell anything they picked up here for even a copper more than they purchased it, that was pure profit. They had no transportation or protection costs, after all. The exasperated looks on the faces of the merchants were inevitable…wholly inevitable.
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