Chapter 42: Market and slave
It was as if it were right next to them, as if you were hearing the beat of your own heart.
"What the..."
They both immediately looked toward the direction of the aura and saw a strange girl emerging from the warehouse.
Externally, she looked like a 15-year-old girl who hadn’t eaten for several days—extremely thin. She had dirty black hair and black eyes, and her only clothing was a shirt that wasn’t very long.
’Was she the one the captain called a slave? Since she came out of the warehouse and, moreover, because I can feel an aura coming from her, my assumption was correct.’,
’But how did the crystal get inside this girl, or is the girl herself the crystal?’ he thought, analyzing the situation to decide on his next move.,
"Father, I noticed there is a crystal inside this girl. As I said before, crystals can come in different forms, including edible ones. So perhaps she accidentally ate it without knowing," she suggested, offering a perfectly logical assumption.
’I thought the same, as it’s one of the most likely guesses, but right now that isn’t as important as obtaining this girl for myself. If the captain of this ship called her a slave, it means she is an insignificant person on this ship who only performs basic tasks.’,
’Perhaps if I offer him a fair price for her, he might agree; it is the fastest, most efficient, and legal way to get her.’,
She was holding several wine glasses in her hand. The contrast between her and the glasses was great; the glasses appeared very expensive and golden, giving them an aristocratic look, while she herself was, as previously noted, very poor.
Apparently, the captain had important guests right now, so it was not the right time to approach. Instead, Alister began to contemplate what amount would be best to offer him.
’What amount should I offer? I don’t know the full economy of this world, so it will be more difficult. But judging by the fact that I bought little Mi half a kilo of chocolate for 4 rons, and considering the nun gave me 6,000 rons saying it would last for 12 months, I can assume I currently possess a large sum of money.’,
’This means that upon arriving in the city, I should immediately start growing my power so that I am more visible to the continent and especially to the Queen, and then create a plan based on the situation to obtain the seal.
At that moment, it occurred to Alister that since he had purchased items for 4 rons from the vendor, there was an opportunity to ask what the current prices on the continent were, in order to evaluate the economy and make a proper offer.
"I’ll be right back," he said, informing little Mi that he was leaving.
After that, he again descended the stairs into the ship’s interior and headed straight to the vendor; fortunately, he was still sitting there.
"Excuse me..." he began the conversation politely.
The vendor, who was reading something that outwardly looked like a newspaper, immediately looked at Alister and stood up.
"Hello again. Do you need more chocolates?" he asked, apparently thinking that Little Mi had already completely eaten the chocolates and was demanding more.
"No, we have enough for now. I simply have some questions-not personal ones, of course-but I need your help. Could you assist me?" he said in a soft and respectful voice, as if he were speaking with the aristocracy themselves.
"Oh, if it’s not personal, then I’ll help with what I can," the vendor replied immediately.
Following this, Alister began his conversation to gather information:
"I am also a merchant, but as you can see, I have come from another city, so I do not know the current prices for this city, Verigia. If I ask a few questions, could you answer them?"
He got straight to the point, prioritizing the most efficient way to gather intelligence.
"Ah, so that’s the matter," the vendor said and laughed, apparently having initially suspected something worse. "I also recently became a merchant in Verigia, so I have some notes where I also started studying the economy to understand how to sell my sweets," he said, and began searching in his large bag for perhaps that very note.
Finally, after a few minutes, the vendor found the specific note where the prices for goods were written.
"Here, you go, you can take a look," he said, handing over a note written in an old brown notebook that, by the way, felt as if it were made of leather.
Alister looked at what was written there:
1 kg of bread — 0.4 r;
1 kg of meat — 2–3 r;
1 kg of chocolate — 8 r.
Salaries are divided into three classes of people:
Lower class (70–90 r): Consumers of basic food items. Potential participants in labor riots if bread prices rise > 0.5 r.
Middle class (150–300 r): The main consumer segment for retail goods.
Upper middle class (500–1500 r): Management circuit, capital owners, primary counterparties.
Iron ore (1 t): 300 r.
Timber (1 t): 150 r.
Cocoa beans (50 kg): 200 r.
Real Estate: Warehouse rent — 80–120 r/month.
This was everything written in that notebook, but Alister immediately noticed that it was impossible for this vendor to have studied and written this himself, because the words written were very suspicious-for example, "Potential participants in labor riots if bread prices rise > 0.5 r."
"Why would an ordinary old vendor need to know about a population riot? This means there is a possibility that this report was made by professionals for something and then sold for money. Or perhaps I am being too cautious, and this old man really did write it himself, but for what purpose remains unclear to us."
"It’s not worth asking him about this directly right now; it would cause too much suspicion, and one could also assume he belongs to some organization. Therefore, it is better to remember all this now and begin analyzing the market so that I can soon create my own power that will control half the market. This will create conditions for me to contact not only the Queen of this continent but also the Queens of other continents, which increases the chances of collecting the seals faster."
After that, Alister looked at the notes for a little while longer and finally found a reasonable price offer.
"This means I should offer approximately... rons for that girl."
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