Dream Life - Life in the Other World of Dreams

As I was making soap at home, Enos came to the house.

"Mr. Nicholas, the hall is here for you. You want me to come up to the office right away."

"What can I do for you, you hear me?

"They say it's a visitor. Master Zach said he was a merchant who came to buy soap."

I immediately changed out of my work clothes and headed to the mansion.

The hall's office was waiting for the hall and Zacharias, and the story of the merchant began immediately.

I will listen to Master Zacharias' explanation, but I have no business talent, so I cannot understand it without hearing it all the time. However, Master Zacharias would like to explain clearly while checking the status of my understanding.

I always wonder why I can think this far. I would have gotten right into the negotiations and probably been bought and beaten.

If Zacharias was meant to be, he'd want to negotiate for himself, but that's impossible with that body. I know it's the next best thing you can do, but trust me and leave it to me. We have to keep up with that expectation somehow.

And I headed to the reception room with the hall.

Dear Zacharias will follow you to the pavilion, pretending to be my son.

When I entered the reception room, a gentleman in his early fifties or so, a little older than his predecessor, was waiting.

Upon acknowledging the appearance of the Hall, I immediately thanked him deeply. And I started greeting him with a merchant-like smile.

"We apologize for your time in this busy place. My name is Edmond from the Musgrave Chamber of Commerce."

Is Edmond accustomed to talking without even being afraid of the person in the hall?

"It's Masaias Lockhart. I'll tell you first. It is unpleasant to demand a meeting with the lord without touching it. Are you insulting us as country knights?"

Instead of the usual bright feeling, the museum has bent its mouth and expressed its displeasure.

"That is not the case. As for the first touch, I am truly sorry. It's in our downfall. Forgive me."

Edmond answers that in a hurry, and again, bows his head deeply.

"It is my son Zacharias who is here. I've never left the territory, so I've never seen anything called a merchant. I don't mind letting you stay here because it's not noisy."

Edmond doesn't change his expression at all, says, "Of course he does," and smiles at Master Zacharias.

And where his gaze turned to me, the hall introduces me.

"It's Nicholas Garland. I leave home affairs in general"

Edmond gracefully thanked me and immediately tried to tell me what to do: "Well, let's do what we need to do today…"

The hall immediately blocked his words,

"I thought I told you earlier. Whether it's rude or untouched. You don't seem to understand."

And Master Zacharias sends me a signal. I nod in my heart,

"Lord Edmond, I'm so sorry, but I want you to come back out today. But then you too will be in trouble. Just for the purpose of the visit, could you please talk to me?"

I find Edmond's expression slightly cloudy, but I quickly return to my original smile.

"I am truly sorry for this. Then we can come back tomorrow."

That said, I bow my head deep again.

"I came to you today to use soap in your territory. Rumor has it that it is manufactured in this village. If you don't mind, it's up to you to ask our Chamber of Commerce to give you the method..."

Because I still tried to keep talking,

"Suitable for you. I'm sorry, but I want you to come back tomorrow. I don't care if the time is the same as today."

He broke his hip and slightly stiffened his expression, but nodded quickly.

And the next day.

Edmond has been visiting your mansion as promised.

After he enters the reception room, the hall, Zacharias, and my three slowly enter the reception room.

As we go in, Edmond gets up with a grin.

The hall sits in the front, and I sit in the side seat. Encourage Edmond to speak where Master Zacharias was seated opposite me.

"Thank you for your disrespect yesterday," Edmond apologized, putting aside a souvenir. As soon as the innkeeper nodded, he went into business.

"The soap is manufactured in your territory. Could you sell that manufacturing method to our Musgrave Chamber of Commerce exclusively (...)"

The pavilion moves the right eyebrow pickly, but is instructed to continue the conversation with his jaw without saying anything.

Whatever I say, the pavilion also plays a good role as a lustful lord with quite a few actors.

"Our Chamber of Commerce will buy it for 5,000 C (krona) (= 5 million yen), how about it?

The innkeeper looks at me like he can't even talk to me.

while I take care to sound as mundane as I can,

"Lord Edmond. Are you fooling us?

"This is something different," Edmond says, breaking up his rapport greatly.

"He told me to get the soap method for just 5,000 C..."

Here I pretend I'm calculating.

"... even if you sell half of the market price, five cents a piece, you only make a profit by selling about a thousand and fifty. Not at all."

Edmond's expression changed in the words for a moment. When I saw Master Zacharias, he sent me a signal saying, "Hang on."

Edmond made a face that seemed a little sorry,

"I never thought it would cost that much. So how about 10,000 C?

So the hall that received Zacharias's signal,

"Don't talk about it. I'm not willing to sell exclusively in the first place. I intend to continue to make it in my territory, and I intend to sell it to other merchants. If you can only offer such an amount of money, this is a waste of time."

The innkeeper says so and tries to get up in a grumpy mood.

Edmond panicked,

"Please wait. Now tell us the amount of money your lord has offered."

The innkeeper looked grumpy and sat back down somewhere, sending his gaze to me.

"The innkeeper said I could tell you if it was 50,000 C."

Edmond pretends to wipe his sweat, "Well, then, if the profits were… earlier conditions, eight thousand would be the limit," he says.

When I glance at Master Zacharias, I still keep telling him to "mount the offense”.

"Okay, we're not talking about it. We have no brother-in-law to sell to you."

Edmond has seen me and the Hall many times.

He seems worried about which one to negotiate with. Apparently, you're negotiating with me, pointing your body slightly towards me.

"Dear Garland, Our Chamber of Commerce is also in trouble if it is not a profitable amount…"

I blocked his story,

"As I said earlier, five thousand C would make a profit with one thousand and fifty. Eight thousand C's, how old is it?

"… it is one thousand six hundred and eighty. But I don't know if that's really going to happen..."

"You're trying to tell me I'm lying! Besides, if there are about a thousand or seven hundred buyers, we can collect them in a year or so. If the buyer turns into a thousand, it turns into money in just about a month. Do you still have something to say?"

Edmond is starting to be pushed by my momentum. When you look at Master Zacharias, the instructions are "pull him a little”.

"Let's do this, then. We have no brother-in-law to sell to you. But you came all the way here..."

I will hit the play to have the full powers delegated to me by the Hall, as Master Zacharias operates.

"Dear Hall, could you entrust me with full powers?"

The pavilion said, "Be good. I'll leave everything to Nicholas," he nods.

"Lord Edmond, even fifty thousand is fully profitable. But if you don't know much about it, you'll be anxious. How about 40,000 C's? I will also teach your craftsman how to make them directly."

Edmond wipes his sweat, thinking desperately.

"In twenty thousand... more than that..."

I took a peek at Master Zacharias as I pretended to think. Instructions were "No”.

"Right. Too bad. Dear Hall......"

As I started talking to the Hall Master, I've been blocking Edmond from screaming.

"How about 30,000 C. Really no more..."

Master Zacharias' instructions are "gone," but “make them conditional."

"Don't you ever make terms out of that? This is a pretty concessionary one."

Edmond seems desperate to consider the conditions and begins to talk as he wipes his sweat.

"… We at the Musgrave Chamber of Commerce handle a wide variety of products. From jewellery to magic props, cereals and other foodstuffs. If you need anything, promise to give it away for a cheap price"

I did not assume this condition. Because I thought that the conditions I assumed in my meeting with Master Zacharias were about the dedication of jewellery, martial arts, etc. I'm in a hurry, but I can't ask Master Zacharias.

"I called it a demon prop, but do you have any demon props to measure the time?

"Yes, there is. The price will be a little tight..."

So when the pavilion says, "How much is it?", he replies with a grin, "It's about 5,000 C for normal things, but let's give it to the special"... "free of charge.

The pavilion growled, "Then five thousand is the round money," and Edmond starts wiping his sweat again.

"I want to hear one more thing. Do you have a book or something to handle?

Edmond said for a moment, "Is it a book?" and put it in my mouth,

"We handle it. We don't exactly have a magic book, but we have everything from other specialty books to entertainment stories."

"Do you have anything like a textbook? of reading, writing, calculating, etc."

"Yes," replies Edmond, looking strange.

I said, "To what extent can I give up (...)?," he said.

"It shouldn't have been so much in stock... I'll give it to you if it's about a hundred books"

Seeing Master Zacharias nodding satisfactorily,

"So please. Then I will also apply instruction at 30,000 C. Consider these terms understood."

"Yes, our Chamber of Commerce does not object to selling to other vendors, to being made in this village"

"Later, I approved the contract." Bring it. "

Edmond nodded, and where he stood up to exit,

"Lord Edmond asked me quite impossible. Let me tell you a good story."

Edmond lowers his floating hips again and is a little wary of "what did you say?"

"I mean, why don't you buy the soap we have in our inventory? There are about a thousand now. I'd like to say seven C's around the corner, but how about five C."

Edmond can't keep up with the development of the story and groans, "Is there a thousand soaps... at five C's for that..."

"I heard that the market is one small one and ten C. Our stuff is bigger than that and smells even better. Even if I sold it for 10C, it should sell. That alone makes about 5,000 profits. I would like to thank you for listening to my earlier impossibility. Dear Hall, is that okay?

Get the Hall's approval while Edmond thinks.

He didn't even negotiate on the flow and said, "Thank you. I will pick it up at our Chamber of Commerce," he said.

Master Zacharias said, "If the negotiations are over and you aim where you are alarmed, throw in food that is likely to be profitable, you will surely eat it”. You were absolutely right.

When Edmond leaves, Master Hall, Master Zacharias starts laughing.

"Nicholas, well done. Three times the lowest 10,000 C. I didn't expect you to put more books on the magic props."

"Nicholas is really amazing. I never thought I'd let you put a book on it."

I'm complimented by both of you, but I just followed Master Zacharias' instructions.

"Everything was as instructed by Dear Zacharias. But Edmond was unhappy, too. The more impatient you are, the bigger you can get out of here."

When I say so, Master Zacharias shakes his head.

"Perhaps Edmond should be shitting by now. If it sticks, it could have sold even 50,000."

I couldn't believe the word and asked why.

"Perhaps his negotiable amount should have been higher. I thought this one was amateur and I think he was deluded by the act. Reason..."

Master Zacharias said that after I raised it from 20,000 C to 30,000 C, I put on the magic prop lightly. I don't know to what extent the purchase value is, but I have handed over thousands of C's without hesitation, and I have added a few hundred more books that I would do.

If you're critical, you can't afford that, and you're saying it's odd that you've had light drinks on these terms.

"If you thought it was really tough for me to be Edmond, you'd have conditioned me on a grace period until I sold it to another vendor. For example, it feels like we're not selling to the next vendor until our craftsmen have mastered the technology."

I realized that now I was being fooled by their appearance.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea. Something more valuable, not a textbook..."

Master Zacharias apologizes for blocking my words,

"I just followed my instructions, and I realized it myself, after it was all over. And the magic props and textbooks of time are worth it. I think Nicholas has great taste, especially when he chooses to teach books."

The innkeeper is also nodding beside him.

"Nicholas is not a merchant, and I think it turned out the same way I negotiated. Besides, I'm not originally going to make money with soap. You can be proud of me."

And to the Hall.

"I sold it for more than I planned. Perhaps other vendors will sell for the same amount. I'll leave the use of this money to your father and Nicholas."

Master Zacharias got his hips up when he said he was going to training, but he would back down again to see if he had come up with something.

"I just figured, there's going to be a back for things like selling it to other vendors so lightly"

The innkeeper said, "What's that?" and I get to the fore.

"We rarely go out of town. If rumors spread that the Musgrave Chamber of Commerce either got the manufacturing laws exclusively or bought them for a pretty high price, it would make it harder for other vendors to get their hands on them. Then it is possible that the next vendor will not be able to come"

The pavilion said, "Um, sure. So, what do we do?," he asks roaring.

Dear Zacharias, I have a few thoughts.

"Let the pedestrians spread the rumors. Then ask Nicholas or Guy to go to Kilnarek and spread the rumors. If Nicholas had a commercial guild relationship, and Guy had an adventurer guild or mercenary guild relationship, it would have spread in an instant."

"What exactly am I supposed to let you talk about?

"In a commercial guild, it sold for tens of thousands of C's, but it still feels good like it's going to sell because it allows anyone to buy it. In mercenary and adventurer guilds, you should let it flow less blatantly and insignificantly, worried about bandits, but feeling like you're going to be a good training partner for vigilantes."

And tickle and laugh,

"In fact, my uncle would be happy if the bandits attacked us, but we don't make much money selling fights to the Lockhart family."

That's all Lady Zacharias said, he left the room.

The Hall and I honestly wondered if the Musgrave Chamber of Commerce would get that far, but when it comes to crossing with the merchants, Zacharias' thoughts are more trustworthy than my senses.

The leftover pavilion and I, in the story of the last Zacharias, were also somewhat squishy in exalted mood.

"Thirty-five thousand C... Nicholas, how do you use it?

"In the meantime, why don't you turn to the distillery where Master Zacharias is putting the most effort? If it's a specialty, you'll earn more from the territory, and most importantly, you'll be happier with it."

The hall laughed at me and said, "As usual, I'll leave it to Nicholas".