Chapter 14:
The Client
The Crimson Vow arrived at the Abbot Company, the client that had posted the rock lizard job.
“Pardon me. We’re the hunters who accepted the rock lizard job. We’ve come to deliver our goods.”
Mavis, their leader in all official exchanges, called an employee over.
“Oh, hello! I’ll fetch the owner straight away. Please wait a moment.”
The employee went into the back, and after a short while, a man in his forties emerged. His rotund physique was very much that of a merchant.
“Oh, you’re the hunters who took on my request, are you? You sure look young…”
He spoke with a smile, but there was a suspicious glint in his eyes. For better or worse, they were also very much the eyes of a merchant.
“Yes, we are the Crimson Vow, a C-rank party. We would like to deliver the requested goods and have you sign the job completion certifi—”
“Yes, yes. Where are the goods?”
“Bring it out, Mile.”
“Okay!”
At Mavis’s direction, Mile pulled one of the nicely intact rock lizards out of her loot box.
In this case, “nicely intact” meant the head, body, and tail of the rock lizard, neatly separated into three pieces.
“Oh? Storage magic? I see. That’s how you did it with so few… never mind, that’s impressive!”
It was rare for a merchant to let his true feelings show, but the man showed a hint of real surprise that someone as young as Mile could pull an entire rock lizard out of storage. But just a hint.
He scrutinized the rock lizard, glanced at the four girls and, after some thought, gave his assessment:
“Twelve half-gold.”
“Huh????”
The Crimson Vow shouted in surprise. Mavis was the first to protest.
“B-but why? It’s in almost perfect condition. Why would you subtract so much from the standard reward of fifteen half-gold?”
“Now, look. The head and tail are detached, so you can’t get as big a hide off of it. Plus it’s been, what, at least three days since you hunted it? So the pieces are probably a bit bruised…”
Mavis protested again. “Don’t you chop it up for processing before you skin it anyway?! And it hasn’t even been a full two days since we killed it!”
“Even so, that’s our assessment criteria…” replied the owner calmly.
Mavis protested again, but Pauline reached out and tapped her hand near the wrist. This was another of their signals.
“Um, that isn’t the only lizard we hunted. Is that the price you’ll be offering for each of them?”
“Oh, you’ve got another, do you? Might I see it?”
“Certainly. Mile, please bring out the other two.”
At Pauline’s direction, Mile brought only two more of the lizards out of storage. Their condition was almost exactly the same as the first.
“Oh my! You can hold three of them?!”
This time, the shock on the owner’s face was clear. He gave the lizards a quick once-over and delivered his assessment.
“I’ll give you nine half-gold a piece for these, so thirty altogether. I’d say that’s a pretty good salary for just a few days’ work, wouldn’t you? So, let’s go ahead and get that certificate signed. By the by, I couldn’t persuade you all to join my staff, could I? If you’re on our payroll, you’ll never have to worry about work. You’d be earning a steady salary and could live without a care.”
It was clear that what he was after was Mile’s storage magic, but seeing the way that his glistening eyes roved over their figures, it surely wasn’t the only thing on his mind.
“And the reason that the prices of the second and third one were lower is…?” Pauline asked, straight-faced and ignoring the merchant’s words.
“Ah, well, to tell you the truth, I was being generous with the first one, giving you a good price and taking a loss myself as congratulations for doing such a good job as novices. However, I can’t afford to pay that for the other two…”
It was a lie.
He underestimated them, assumed that because they were young he’d be able to bargain them down. However, if the four of them traveled for days and earned little, they were unlikely to take the job again. So, there was a limit to how far he would go. Now that he knew they had caught three of them, he must have thought he could safely undercut them further, knowing that they’d still earn a decent wage and might come back again in the future.
“I understand,” said Pauline.
The owner’s face beamed brightly.
“Mile, please put all three away.”
“On it!”
At Pauline’s command, Mile stored all three of the lizards away in the blink of an eye.
“Huh…?”
The owner was taken aback. He didn’t understand what was happening.
“It seems that the goods were not in the condition that you desired, so we will consider this job a failure. Now, we shall take our leave.”
As Pauline pressed them all to leave, the owner raised his voice in a panic.
“H-hold it! We’re the ones who requested those, so I can’t allow you to just take them and leave!”
“Oh? You’re only offering 60 percent of the pay promised on the posting, so surely these are no good. Getting a reputation for returning such inferior goods would be an embarrassment for us. Thankfully, since the job completion certificate hasn’t been signed, the contract isn’t complete. We can simply count this job as a loss…
“We deposited the proper two half-gold penalty fee at the guild, so don’t worry about that. Come girls, let’s go home.”
“W-wait! Please wait! Let’s talk this over!”
Ignoring the owner’s shouts behind them, the four girls left the shop.
“I’m sorry I acted on my own in there… we went through all that effort to complete the job, but now we’ve failed it thanks to my indiscretion.”
“What are you saying, Pauline? If you hadn’t refused, I would have. And probably a bit less politely.”
“Exactly! How are we supposed to do business with someone who disrespects us? If we let a guy like him get the jump on us once, then it will keep happening. Good hunters never let someone take advantage of them.”
Pauline tried to apologize again, but Reina and Mavis answered her with smiles.
As for Mile…
“I bet you have another idea, don’t you Pauline?”
Pauline wasn’t the type to ruin a business deal on pride alone. Reina and Mavis should have realized this, too.
Pauline grinned shrewdly.
“Here’s the new plan…”
“There it is!”
Though they meant to say it only in their heads, the three girls spoke aloud, sighing with relief.
***
“Please process this!”
The four girls returned to the hunters’ guild and approached the clerk.
“Nice work, hunters. Let’s see, we’ll process the… huh?”
The certificate had no signature with the assessment fee. The clerk puzzled over the form.
“Ah, yes. It’s incomplete. We failed the request. Please, go ahead and take the two half-gold penalty.”
“Wait… didn’t you say earlier that you’d completed the job?”
Other hunters began to gather around, noticing the rookie party was having trouble. Guild officials began to cluster on the other side of the counter as well.
“To tell you the truth,” Mile explained pitifully, “when the client assessed the goods, he only wanted to pay us nine half-gold, even though the job promised fifteen. We couldn’t in good conscience hand over any goods that were in that poor a condition, so we just took them and left.”
Mile was the perfect actor for this role, although her casting had nothing to do with her acting abilities. As the youngest, she would garner the most sympathy.
“What?! That’s only 60 percent! Miss Reina, did you burn them up with your fire magic?”
“No, though I can see why you might think that…”
As they spoke they motioned the gathered hunters back, and Mile pulled one of the rock lizards out of her loot box, placing it in the space before the counter.
“Wh-what is that?!”
“I’ve never seen such a pristine-looking rock lizard—other than one that was still alive!”
“How on earth did you hunt this thing? And just the two of you with swords…?”
“What? Isn’t taking down a rock lizard pretty simple for two or three C-rank hunters…?” Seeing the hunters’ stunned looks, Mile asked the first question that popped into her head.
“Don’t be ridiculous! That’s just a matter of taking one down . You can fire attack spells from far away, shoot it with arrows and spears from mid-range and then, once it’s weakened, you can approach it close up and hit it with swords. If you approach when it’s lively, the tail poses a serious threat… even a standard-priced rock lizard should be full of holes. This should have garnered a bonus reward for its condition.
“The standard market price is twenty half-gold, but for a premium specimen like this, you should get at least four or five more. Or, if you find a particularly generous buyer, maybe seven or eight more!”
“Wh…”
The girls were flabbergasted. The promised reward was already well below market value…and they were crestfallen to learn that they could have used magic and spared themselves some trouble.
“Honestly, to tell you that the market value was fifteen, and then to assess it for nine! Who was this merchant?!”
“Um, he was with the Abbot Company…”
“Unbelievable! He thought he could take advantage of you girls just because you’re rookies!”
“Underestimating hunters… he made a big mistake!”
The veterans clapped the girls on the shoulders, and both sides of the counter—hunters and guild staff alike—echoed with voices crying out against the Abbot Company.
Everything’s going according to plan…
Inside, the members of the Crimson Vow were laughing.
“Anyway, we do still want to sell this lizard, so…”
“Oh, the guild will take care of that. When the client goes AWOL , the guild exchange normally handles the goods. If you don’t sell it through us, we won’t get a commission, see? If that happens, it won’t contribute to your guild participation points, which you need to get promotions!”
All that went without saying—even little things like jackalopes and herbs earned the guild a commission. If they didn’t, the hall would never have any income. It was difficult for hunters to find a buyer for every item, and so the guild took care of it—in addition to shouldering the risk of unsold merchandise. It was only natural that it should take a commission. The guild wasn’t doing all this out of the goodness of its heart, after all.
The clerk wasn’t about to let the chance of extra money slip out from under her nose. Rock lizards could bring in a nice profit.
Mile and the others looked at each other and nodded.
“We’ll do it. Do you want all of them?”
“Huh? ‘All,’ you say?” the receptionist asked, puzzled.
Mile replied, “Um, yes, well, we have five of them, so…”
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!”
Mile covered her ears to shield herself from the shouts of the gathered hunters. Perhaps that was too many. On hearing these girls had brought in five rock lizards, the guild erupted into a ruckus.
“S-seriously? There’s no way you girls have five of those things in there, is there?” a veteran hunter asked, trembling.
“Um, yes. We do,” Mile answered, staring blankly. “Is that bad?”
“…………”
“J-just a moment, please!”
The clerk rose from her seat. She had to consult with the guild master.
Even if the prey was unexpected and outside of their normal purview, the guild would normally buy it, so long as they could sell it for a profit.
Rock lizards were popular for cooking, and their claws and hides made good raw material, but since they lived so far away and they were difficult to transport, the guild never received very many. They could definitely sell them. Two or three, at least.
However for five of them, the payout would be huge. The clerk wasn’t sure if the guild could even sell them all before they started going bad. If they could, this would be too great an opportunity to pass up.
It was too big a responsibility for the clerk to make on her own, so she consulted with her superiors. As it turned out, this was a wise decision.
“Right this way, please.”
The clerk returned and guided the members of the Crimson Vow up to a meeting room. There, they were greeted by the master and submaster of the capital’s guildhall.
“Please sit.”
As the four entered the room, the guild master indicated several chairs. The clerk, the guild master, and the submaster sat on the opposite side from them.
“So, Laylia already told me your story, but I must ask—is it true? Do you really have five rock lizards?”
Faced with the guild master, Mile had no choice but to tell the truth.
“No. That was a lie. We don’t actually have five…”
“I-I thought as much. That would be impossible… that number would never fit in storage space,” the submaster said, relieved.
But Mile had not finished speaking.
“Actually, we have twenty-six.”
Bang!
The submaster’s head hit the table.
“You really have that many lizards in there?”
“Yes…”
The guild master, the submaster (who had eventually recovered), and Laylia faced the four girls of the Crimson Vow. Mile, as the holder of the storage magic, was the one to reply.
“Do you have any idea what it means, if you really have that many rock lizards in there?”
“Y-yes. We want to exchange these right away, but you’re not sure whether or not you’ll be able to sell them all, and if you sell them all at once, then the price will go down…”
“That’s not it, you idiot!”
Mile flinched.
“If you can store that much, everyone and their mother is going to be after you! I don’t know if you’d call it luck, but you’re all already famous for what you did at the graduation exam. After seeing the power you displayed battling the Roaring Mithrils, you’ve not only caught the eye of their leader, but also His Majesty the king himself! Even Her Highness the princess is enchanted. I don’t think it’s hard to believe there are more sinister sorts who want to get their hands on you…”
Mavis was the only one not to notice how his gaze flitted her way when he mentioned the princess.
“On top of that, word has spread of how you saved the prep school from being shut down. And so all the graduates of the school, and all the hunters who believed in it, will want to be your allies. Your existence, and all you’re doing now, is proof of just how necessary the school is.”
Mavis, Reina, and Pauline beamed with pride, but Mile just looked on dully.
“The problem here is dishonest folks. That is: idiots, people who don’t know about the graduation exam, and those from other countries. Since your conversation downstairs in front of all those people, it’ll be common knowledge that you can hold at least five rock lizards in your storage. How could you—no, no, it’s fine, I understand. If you didn’t say you had so many, you wouldn’t have been able to exchange them, and it would have been inconvenient later. So, to obscure your true capacity somewhat, you said you had just five. I do understand, but…”
Mile tried to make an excuse, but the guild master pre-empted her.
Even just five rock lizards weighed around two tons—as much as two or three wagons could carry. But that alone wouldn’t be extraordinary enough to attract the attention of nobles and royals. Although not many people in any one country were able to use storage magic, the number of those who could was at least in the double digits. Or so Mile thought.
However, there were also a number of other factors—keywords, if you will. These were words like “secretly,” “impassible by wagons,” “quickly,” “escaping,” “resupplying,” “military,” “four or five hundred kilos, while others carried only a few,” “exclusive,” and “attractive young girl”…
She could travel alone on a fast horse, changing mounts along the way, and two tons of goods would come with her. All without standing out. There wasn’t an aristocrat, royal, or general around who wouldn’t want to make use of that.
“Well anyway, it’s too late for that. Just be careful and, if anything happens, ask for help right away. Do you hear me?!”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right then, that’s all for now. Please, please try not to overdo it!”
“…………”
“Why aren’t you responding?!”
Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all turned to Mile.
“Wh-why is everyone looking at me?!”
The three looked away again, and Mile turned to the guild master.
“U-um, there’s one more thing I’d like to ask…”
“What?”
“Would you consider buying five of the lizards from us at a time, every few days?”
“Huh…?”
Indeed, that matter had yet to be settled.
And so the guild decided to buy five lizards at a time, one batch every week. Buying all of them at once was out of the question: they wouldn’t be able to sell the meat before it spoiled. Besides, flooding the market would cause the price to drop, and the guild would be hard-pressed to explain where so many rock lizards had come from. As one trip should take five days, the interval was more easily explicable.
The guild had no intention of publicizing who brought the lizards in. They had a backup plan in case an explanation was required. Without this, the Crimson Vow wouldn’t be able to show their faces in the capital more than once a week.
The rock lizards came with the stipulation that they absolutely must not go to the Abbot Company, nor any of its affiliates—nor even to anyone who might possibly resell them to the Abbot Company. Each lizard fetched 20 half-gold, or two gold pieces. Selling five at a time, they earned 10 gold a week, and 50 gold altogether—the party’s minimum monthly earning goal for five months combined. It was possible that the price would drop eventually due to oversupply, but this was unavoidable. It would all depend on their negotiations with the guild.
And there was still one lizard that couldn’t be sold, due to its blackened condition. The girls took the tail, which was relatively unscathed, and gave it to the inn as a gift—keeping the rest for themselves.
In less than four weeks, they had exhausted their stock of lizards, but earned their living for the next five months. Even if they overspent a bit on food and clothes, they could still live comfortably for at least three. Only if they got carried away purchasing luxury armor and goods could it could be frittered away in an instant…
To make sure she didn’t have to betray the existence of her loot box, Mile invented a “continuous cooling magic” that kept her storage space insulated. Even this was clearly out of the ordinary, but by this time, everyone was numb to the strangeness of the whole situation and could only shrug it off with a “Why not?”
“I forgot something. We can’t count this job as a loss for you all. It’s clear that the client failed to uphold the terms of the job posting, so you may consider the request cancelled. It will still count as an achievement on your record, and we’ll return your deposit. Furthermore, the client’s deposit will be forfeited to the guild. After we pay out the maximum reward on the request for five lizards, the rest will become guild property. Any objections?”
“None!”
The Crimson Vow raised their voices in assent, but then Pauline interjected.
“Um, isn’t there some other punishment we can give the company? They tried to swindle the guild by submitting a false job request. Is there nothing more that can be done?”
Pauline was asking whether the merchant’s actions had been unforgiveable, but the guild master just laughed, shaking his head.
“No, there’s nothing else we can do. This was a simple failure to uphold a bargain, and we can only deal with it under existing rules. Although it is a breach of contract, it isn’t as if they committed a particularly grave crime…”
Isn’t there such a thing as criminal fraud? Mile wondered, but it occurred to her that, in this world, the one who let herself be cheated might be in the wrong, so she said nothing.
Still, Pauline looked frustrated.
“However…”
The guild master was not yet finished.
“Do you really think that anyone is going to accept a job from a merchant who tried to swindle the guild and their fellow hunters? Would anyone accept a job from an untrustworthy client?”
“Ah…”
“Even if they are barred from making individual requests, they can still purchase things from the guild and other merchants. Still, that means they can only get their hands on whatever the guild has in stock at the time, which will probably increase their stock prices. And I wouldn’t be surprised if other hunters offered their goods to the guild with conditions like, ‘Don’t sell this to those guys,’ or ‘Only sell it at double the price,’ just as you did. The company will still be able to order, but it’s not going to be easy for them.”
The guild master laughed.
The girls finally left the meeting room and descended to the first floor, but just as they were leaving the hall, another clerk called after them in a panic.
“Oh! The Crimson Vow, just a moment! Some letters came for you!”
Letters? They returned to the reception counter skeptically, only to be handed two sealed missives.
“My apologies. I meant to give you these earlier, but with all the commotion…”
Since they had been the cause of said commotion, they couldn’t very well complain.
Mavis looked over the addresses on the letters, she found one addressed to her and the other to Pauline. She handed Pauline’s letter over silently and looked over her own, trying to identify the sender.
“Oh…”
Of course, she’d known before she saw it. There was only one person who could possibly be writing to her.
When she was still at home it would have been different, but now?
Yes, it should go without saying. It was a letter from her family.
They’d finally sniffed out her whereabouts… in fact, it would have been strange if they hadn’t.
There had been scores of people watching at the graduation exam—who knew how many were nobles?
Mavis grimaced and looked at Pauline, only to see her clutching her own letter tightly, face pale. Everyone already knew who her letter was from. There was no point in asking.
“What are you going to do?” asked Reina.
“Ignore it,” Mavis answered with a wry smile. “No matter how many letters they send. Eventually they’ll just get tired of waiting and send one of my brothers to check on me. Until then, it’s whatever. There’s no need to kick up a fuss. It will only speed up the process.”
“What about you, Pauline?”
“I’ll do the same. I already decided I’m never going back, so there’s no need to reply.”
Clearly Pauline was not longing for home, but her expression was dark—perhaps out of worry for her mother and younger brother.
“If you’re worried, then maybe we should all go back to your hometowns…”
“No, that won’t be necessary. If nothing else, they’re his mistress and her child, so nothing bad will happen to them. Probably.”
“I see. But, if anything does happen, please tell us. Because we’re…”
“Eternal allies, bound by our souls to the Crimson Vow!”
Reina smiled ruefully as Mile butted in on their motto.
“Now then, let’s take a nice few days’ rest!”
“Yeah!!!”
“Ah…” On the way home, Mile stopped suddenly in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Reina asked.
“We forgot to exchange anything besides the rock lizards.”
“Oh…”
In the end, to avoid causing another scene, they decided to portion out the sales of their other catches. Since they were already selling rock lizards, it wouldn’t be unusual to think that they might have other beasts of the “rock” type to sell as well. After all, they had Mile’s premium refrigerated storage magic (though, of course, it was actually the time-static loot box).
“We’re back!”
“Welcome!”
Lenny greeted them from behind the reception desk.
“Here! We brought you a souvenir!”
As she spoke, Mile produced the only-slightly-singed rock lizard tail from her loot box, placing it on the floor with a thud.
“Wh-what is that?!”
It was the first time Lenny had seen a rock lizard tail still in its original form.
“Can we really have this? Daaaaaaad, come heeeeeere!!!”
Lenny’s father (the chef), and her mother (the matron of the inn), both appeared. They thanked the girls over and over before dragging the tail back to the kitchens with a clamor. It seemed like they’d be enjoying rock lizard dishes for some time.
“That should earn us a lot of brownie points. We might even be able to avoid playing hostess,” said Reina triumphantly.
Yet Pauline, who knew the ways of merchants, and Mile, who knew little Lenny, just shook their heads sadly.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login