We exchanged a handshake, then were asked to take a seat in the plush sofa opposite of them. I gotta say, whoever made them was a master at their profession. I don’t even want to ask how much they cost, because I know I would get a headache.
“So how do you find our haul?” Ayame asked, looking to get things rolling.
Jack is the one to respond once again. “Very good. You will definitely walk out of these doors satisfied, however, the two of us would like to have a little chat with you beforehand.”
“What can we help you with?”
“How much do you know about the current situation?”
Ayame and I exchange a glance, then ask for clarification.
Seems like Sylvie is only interested in staring at us, so it’s Jack doing all the talking. “The greenskins. They’re invading once again. The county and its surrounding area is becoming more and more hazardous to traverse.
We commissioned the adventurer’s guild a couple of weeks ago, and paid the hefty sum the mithril-ranked team under Broderick’s leadership demanded, but they didn’t manage to clear all of the nearby orcs and almost got killed in the process.
They are the highest-ranked team in Braedon, so we can either turn to the Consortium, something we really don’t want to do or simply wait for the kingdom to finally send the army. However, with how things work nowadays, that could take a long time- time our business can’t afford to wait. You see, you’re the ones who brought labyrinth materials from Aldoria for the first time in the last five days.
We used to get many carriages every single day before this month.”
I could tell that the green fuckers were up to something, as we kept running into them, but to think that the situation became this bad. “So how are we expected to be of help? Just so you know, we are not professional monster exterminators.”
“We were wondering if you had a trick up your sleeves that let you travel the roads safely, and if you were willing to share it with us, for a suitable reward, of course.” Sylvie finally graced us with her smooth, chilly voice.
Letting them know of my gate spell is an obvious big no-go. “Sadly we can’t be of help with your issue.”
Jack sighs, “haaah. Well, it was worth a try. Can you confirm whether you have a way to travel to Aldoria and back with an unorthodox method? If you do, we have another proposal.”
I debate ending this conversation right here, right now, but decide against it. “We might.” Such a noncommittal answer shouldn’t bring us problems.
“Great!” Jack clapped his hands together happily. “Then how do you feel about becoming our suppliers? We will pay you double the standard market price for whatever monster material you bring- as long as they’re not from greenskins, we have more of those than know what to do with- and add an extra hundred percent on specific items we request.
Just to be clear, it will only be valid on items you bring from Aldoria, as we are not interested in Braedon’s local produce. We can acquire that ourselves.”
<Quinlan, I know it’s very tempting, but we should think more about this.>
<Ayame, they said they would pay three times the normal rate.>
<… I heard.>
<This is a goldmine for us. It won’t take more than a few minutes of our time.> Naturally, we couldn’t come back instantly, as that would be very suspicious, but we could complete a delivery once a week easily and just claim to have good mounts or something.
“Do you have a shopping list prepared for us, and what’s your weekly upper limit you could pay?” I asked, eliciting a happy smile from the middle aged married couple.
Sylvie stands and walks to a cabinet nearby, and brings us a parchment. On it, I can see hundreds of materials listed, most having a number next to them, indicating the quantity they want. “The market price of these should be about ten gold coins altogether. If you procure everything on this list, we are willing to reward you with thirty-five gold coins.”
Fuck. That’s the generational wealth well-off commoners couldn’t even dream of. It’s in the range that I imagine not even a baron family has freely lying around in their treasury unless they are hoarders.
Of course, that’s not to say that a landed noble family couldn’t procure such an amount should they wish to, but they likely have their funds invested into projects, people, and other resources like artifacts and such.
“And I imagine we are supposed to foot the bill.” Ayame asked with some distress. She clearly was against it. It does sound a bit too good to be true, to be honest.
Sylvie nods, “yes, that’s our offer. If we wanted to invest in this, we could just hire a lot of mercenaries and adventurers to act as guards for our carriages, but that would make the end result of the venture cost more than forty gold, and we are still not guaranteed to get the goods back here in one piece.
With this, we will either get what we want by only overpaying a bit, something we will manage to recoup once we sell the items we create from the materials, or not lose anything, which would be a win-win situation for us. If the ten gold coins are too much for you, our initial offer still stands. We pay three times the market price for whatever you get from the list.
If you check the last page we listed the market prices for clarity’s sake.”
“Before we discuss any further, I would like to say that we are secretive people who treasure our privacy. If you get ideas of following us to unearth our methods, the deal would be instantly off. We have multiple associates with the rogue type specialization who are above level thirty, so we would know if you’re sniffing around.” I also state for clarity, lying as easily as I breathe.
Jack raises his hand in playful surrender, “we won’t be doing any of that. I can already tell that you have some one-of-a-kind method that we couldn’t replicate without stealing it, and as I said we despise the Consortium. If we were willing to do such things, we would’ve gotten into bed with them long ago.”
I nod. We then drafted a legal contract under my name and theirs. It’s non-binding for our side, however they are obligated to pay the amount if I bring in the items. Such a contract is also going to serve as an iron-clad alibi should I come under suspicion of being Luke’s murderer. I can’t be in Aldoria’s labyrinth and then an hour later sign a contract in Braedon, right?
That just makes no sense whatsoever, right?
Right.
I plan to invest most of these funds into my stronghold plan, and furthermore, into the creation of my slave labor department. Due to the secretive nature of our future base, we can’t just hire ordinary construction workers, they have to be slaves that can’t divulge any of our secrets.
Living out of our inn is not too bad, but a man needs to have his own home, especially now that my harem officially consists of three needy bombshells. I wouldn’t feel right to keep housing my girls in a shabby wooden inn, and it’s also pretty unsafe for a long-term solution. We are criminals, after all.
We need our safe haven.