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Chapter 4 : Bartering
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Chapter 4 : Bartering

Her eyes open wide with some disbelief.

“You say there are lots of this kind of plant at your place right?”

“Yes.. And there are a few kinds of fungus too. Also there is this yellow mushroom that is thin and wide as wide as an adult palm.”

She was so excited telling everything that they have in their village. I was thinking about what I can do to have all those things.

Should I follow her? But I don't have any money with me now.

It might take some time before I ask for my salary. I have only been here for a couple days.

Then I remember something that Boru said about stuff that the guests who pay use items or material if they don't have money.

“Lana, could you possibly bring all those to me? And I will buy those mushrooms for you. Or are you possibly interested in some animal skin? I will ask if there are some at the Inn’s storage.”

I look at her bright eyes. She was obviously gonna accept these deals.

“Really? You do? I meant… I would like to. But you see, It takes a few days to walk to my village and to come here. So you will need to wait for around three or four days.”

I nodded and gave her a big smile.

Seems I just made a new friend in this world. It somehow comforted me a bit.

I walk inside the Inn with something in my mind. I looked around looking for Madam Anne.

I needed to ask permission to enter the storage and asked her if I could take the skin as my payment for this month.

I told Madame Anne that I promised Lana about exchanging the materials. She was so delighted that she said I can take it for free.

“Of course you can. But you don’t have that as your payment my dear. Besides, you will use the ingredients for cooking in this Inn right?”

I just smiled brightly and nodded at her words.

I was too occupied with cleaning the inn and preparing for dinner and forgot that the day Lana was supposed to come with all the ingredients was tomorrow.

I was panicking as it was already midday and I promised to help Madame Anne clean up the storage.

“Yes dear, you looking for me?”

I was startled when Madame Anne suddenly waved her hand in the middle of the hall.

Did I call her unconsciously while walking inside the Inn just now?

“I need to Fortizete this Inn for a while. Could you possibly wait until I finish?”

“Of course. I will wait.”

Madame Anne took more than two hours to ‘Fortizete’ the inn. The Inn was running with the energy of magic.

The light, the water that pumps running through the pipe came from the magic. It’s kinda like the electricity of this world.

Everyday, Anne will fortizete the Inn which means “recharge the energy”.

I was amazed at how the Inn operated. The guest would register their hand at the counter and will be assigned to the room they paid for.

The door would recognize the guest and only the permitted guest could get in their room. It's like the handle of the door has a handprint scanner.

This Inn has few types of rooms for guests to check in. There are two Dorms that could fit in for around 10 guests per each dorm. One for women and another one for men.

It is cheap since it is a shared place. It only provides a mattress and pillow with some blankets. And only cost five copper per person.

And it has a single room for only one person that costs you twenty copper and a medium room for two people that costs two silver coins. The room comes with meals either for lunch or dinner.

A bath and toilet were separate in this Inn. Toilets will be free to use but a bath needs to be paid differently.

It is because the water was generated by magic and a special germ needed to make it continuously flowing out.

At first everything seems so simple and yet after a few days I notice that this Inn is actually pretty big and somehow it resembles an old castle.

While I was wondering about the Inn, Madame Anne was already beside me.

“Alright, let’s check out the storage”

We walked to the hallway which separated the main hall and the kitchen. Main hall is actually a place with a few tables where the food will be served to the guests.

At the right of the main hall there was some stage with a large red and yellow curtain covering the wall.

At the end of the hallway, there was a door that was painted with some dark blue colour.

When it was open I could say that I was taken back.

This is not storage, it was some kind of big supermarket. Wait… did I say something again?

As I wandered around and saw all the things that were sitting lookin so lonely on the rack, I remembered my talk with Lana the other day.

“Madame Anne, Is there no place for people to buy things?”

“There are some Adventure Guilds that collect things from Adventurer and Merchant Guild that make some trading activity. But you see, it still cannot provide enough for the community. Not to say that they were being monopolised by those rich brats and idiot nobles.”

I blink a few times. Did I just misheard something? Was Madame Anne called a noble idiot?

“Is it because the journey is too far? Did trading within the kingdom not occupy the needs?”

Madame Anne looked at me with sparkling eyes. Somehow this makes me shiver. Is it a bad omen for me?

“Aren't you too brilliant for your age my dear?”

I gave her an awkward smile since I was wondering how I should manage this question. It's just a simple question but why does the answer seem so complicated?

“There’s different raw materials in each kingdom. And every kingdom has its own climate which is very important to cultivate or grow crops. For example…”

Madame Anne stops her words and reaches out to a green lettuce.

My eyes sparkle unknowingly and show some foolish face. Madame Anne chuckles and continues her words.

“These green crops only grow in Ouranos Kingdom. But people there are not very likely to eat some vegetables like people from the Dranthia Empire who most likely need herbs and green supplements to make their potion. But both of the kingdoms were on the edge of war, hating each other and refused to cooperate directly.”

“So how do they cooperate indirectly?”

“Merchant Guild. The Merchant guild that existed for three hundred years held a natural stance for each kingdom as they were powerful enough to not be swayed by anyone.”

“Weren't they likely selfish to keep it by themself and not to open it to everyone or anyone?”

“The merchant guild is like a place where they do some buying and selling of goods and services, with compensation paid by a buyer to a seller, or the exchange of goods or services between parties. Only the highest bidder could get their attention. The merchant guild is the only neutral party in this land that can negotiate within anyone.”

“How do people get their necessities like clothes and food? There's no place to do trading?”

Madame Anne gives me a sweet smile, just like a mother that feels proud of her brilliant daughter.

“As for food, they would look at it by hunting in the woods. Some make exchanges for those who have skills to craft anything. Sometimes there will be some small independent merchant guild that moves to places trading their stuff but you will never know because it will come around once a year?”

This world is tough.

I let out a soft sigh and looked at everything around me. I promise to get some skin or fur for Lana. They need materials for winter.

“Here it is. Some white bear fur.”

“Huh?”

“You looking for it right?”

“Yes…”

Did I tell her I wanted fur? I took the fur from her hand and it actually got plenty. And it smells terrible.

I almost throw up when I take it to my hand and Madame Anne seems flustered by the look at my face. She swished her hand gently and the bad odour was gone.

“I am sorry my dear. I forgot to neutralise the smell before I handed it to you.”

“No, don't worry about it.”

I took around five pieces of the white fur. Madame Anne says it's ok for me to look around and look if there is anything I would be interested in.

Chapter end

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