Interspecies Trader

"What is it?"

"Wait a second."

He turned around and asked the merchant renting the stall next to his, with whom he seemed to be on friendly terms, to watch his goods for a moment. He then turned back to me.

"Follow me. Cough, cough."

"Are you still coughing? Maybe you should see a doctor."

"It's fine, it happens sometimes when the weather gets warmer in spring."

I watched him worriedly while he didn't seem to care much. We crossed the market for a couple of minutes, heading to a part of it I hadn't explored much. It was a section of the market focused on selling enchanted items mostly, with many vendors selling all kinds of practical but expensive goods. At one intersection, he stopped and signaled me to do the same, before pointing to a booth located in the street on our left.

"Do you see that weasel there?"

When I checked it, I recognized the man who bought my fans the previous night. I was surprised to realize he was also a trader specializing in enchanted items, selling a bunch of goods to enhance home comfort. This was when a weird premonition came to my mind.

"Yes, he's the one who bought my items yesterday."

Giya let a sigh out before answering.

"I thought that might be the case when you told me you were selling the next generation of enchanted items. Can you guess what he sold today?"

"…Crap. My fans. For how much?"

"1 gold each, no less than that. He's sort of a reputable merchant around here and he's trusted by the rich. He made quite the impression by introducing these new revolutionary items. He called them selnic items."

"Damn it. He even stole my name. He got me good."

And here I thought I was being smart the previous day, handling the negotiation well and selling them at a high price. How foolish of me. That guy didn't care much about my price since he was certain of reselling them for much higher after that. I helped him make free money with almost no effort.

"How much did you sell them for?"

"Less than 25 silvers apiece."

"I see… It's not by chance that he saw your goods. It isn't the first time he's done something like that. He often roams the night market to find some interesting opportunities because he knows all newcomers start there."

"Yes… Very smart of him…"

I looked at that "weasel" darkly. I didn't like this feeling of getting tricked and being made use of. Not at all.

After a few seconds of watching my expression, Giya opened his mouth again.

"That's what I wanted to show you. Cough, cough."

"Yeah… Thanks, Giya. I owe you for that."

"Don't worry about it. I don't like what that guy does too much either, especially when it's about my friend. So, what are you going to do?"

I pondered for an instant before shaking my head.

"I need to think about it."

My goat friend nodded and we went back to his stall, which he manned once again. Since I had a bit more time before the night market opened, I told him I would think about what to do while walking around the city. However, since I still owed him for the information, I bought some of his fruits and vegetables. In my opinion, favors should be paid back as soon as possible if one aims to keep a clean friendship, especially because we were both traders. Plus, I could always find a use for the food later, sell it, or just eat it with Suuru.

I continued my stroll, letting my feet take me to random parts of the city. The good thing about being a spatial mage was that getting lost was never an issue. I could just teleport to somewhere I was familiar with if I didn't remember the way back.

More importantly, I had to think about how to handle the weasel merchant. There was only one certainty, he was going to come and buy my goods again this evening. The question was, how should I react to that? I had a few options. I could let my feelings speak for me and refuse to sell him anything. He wouldn't be able to earn money on my back anymore and I would be a little comforted.

However, that wasn't the way to go. I needed to be cold-minded when doing business. Even though my patience was stretched thin due to having a seriously bad day, I had to think about the long term.

My disadvantage was that I was just a newbie merchant, with no reputation and very few items to sell. Plus, those goods looked ridiculous in most people's eyes, as judged by their reaction the previous night. On the other hand, the weasel had a much higher reputation and probably had a decent client base already. To the point that my selling similar goods could make people wonder if I didn't steal them from him or something.

Yet, it wasn't like the odds were completely against me either. For one, the weasel would never be able to acquire selnic items if not for me. He couldn't claim I was stealing from him either because if I stopped selling them, he would also stop having any for sale. That would be shooting himself in the feet.

No, there was a much smoother way to manage the current situation. I needed to use my other edge over him: I knew he was reselling my goods but he didn't know that I knew. Plus, he needed the goods from me to generate easy profits.

Also, dismantling them to try to reproduce them was simply impossible with the level of technology here. There was no way people who still used bows and arrows could re-create something like a sel battery or a sel circuit. From that point of view, I could confidently say that I had a monopoly on selnic items in the outer world, for the rest of my life.

Soon, the start of a plan began to form in my mind.

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