「Eh? Cheap?」(Customer)
After watching the merchants’ merchandise, a middle-aged man came to see Red Oath’s merchandise and raised his voice in surprise.
「Wheat, barley, salt, wine… and is this sugar?
It will be a big deficit at this price from the neighboring country!」(Customer)
Yes, as the man says, the goods were cheaper than the market around here.
Didn’t Pauline say, “Don’t ignore our deficit and sell at a lower price than the market?”
Then why….
「Oh, it’s because these products are “Low quality, shoddy goods”!」(Mile)
「「「「「Eh……」」」」」(Citizen)
People who utter a surprised voice to the sales girl’s explanation.
A merchant will never call his product “bad” himself.
Except for when he says bad about the other party’s product to cut the price…
Of course, he won’t allow the sales girl he hired to say that.
Thinking the girls may get scolded and yelled at or maybe get beaten hard, people look at the merchants …
The merchants had heard the girl’s loud voice clearly,
They continued their business talks and small talks without any worries.
「…Ah, we are a different store from the merchants over there.
So neither the pricing nor the selling method has anything to do with the merchants over there.
Our shop is run by the four of us, so it’s all our freedom」(Mile)
The people of the city who cannot hide their surprise from the smiling silver-haired girl.
Girls about the age of 12 to 13 and the age of 17 to 18 are doing business on their own alongside the merchants.
… It’s even more surprising that the girls sell the product at this price and can still make a profit.
What is going on …?
「As I said, these things are cheap.
Small grains that have been harvested, wheat has just entered the germination stage due to rain damage just before harvesting, some with high water content was stored in places with slightly higher temperatures,
And many other things that make them not have a decent value.
But they were harvested in the early stages of germination, so, if you don’t need viscosity in the process then it’s fine using it.
For what was stored under bad conditions, although the number of days that can be kept is considerably shorter, there is no problem if you consume them immediately.
It’s just a matter of mood, a matter of mood!
However, in the world of merchants, it doesn’t work that sweet…
The price is falling!
And we happen to see those“Low quality, shoddy goods”, we bought them cheaply and collect them then brought it to a place where we can sell it at a reasonable value!
Others have similar reasons.
There is no problem if you consume it immediately, but luxury people don’t like it and don’t buy it.
The expiration date is marked with a note.
It’s a bargain for those who have no problem with that condition!」(Mile)
「「「「「「…………」」」」」」(Citizen)
The girl was so honest enough to be called an idiot, everyone was a little stunned.
But they were convinced.
The girl’s description was completely convinced of the reason for selling at this price. And she did not try to deceive the customer or do anything wrong. Perhaps it’s the best way of doing business that girls who have no talent could think with their wisdom.
And here, those goods are in short supply and the prices are soaring.
It’s really hard to reach the poor.
They can’t afford to buy enough to eat, let alone something like storing them for a long time.
…And then there is a reasonably inexpensive item that can be purchased in practice, isn’t that a great bargain?
Those who thought so flocked to the description of the product, which had the contents of “Low quality, shoddy goods” and notes.
((((Keikakudoori…)))) (Red Oath)
Red Oath has a black smile in their hearts while smiling cheerfully at the reception.
＊ ＊ ＊
「That’s amazing, everyone …」
Merchants talking to Mile’s group while having dinner at the inn.
Normally, a merchant stays in a town’s inn only once every few days.
Since it’s not possible for only merchants to stay at the inn, it would cost a great deal of money to stay at the inn every day, including the driver and escort guards.
They already rent a stable (for their horses but people can sleep there as well) and their wagons.
And when it comes to the inn with the service taking care of horses and watch over the carriages and cargo overnight, it’s not possible to be cheap accommodation.
In the first place, a cheap inn has safety issues.
Therefore, it’s common for merchants to stay at their camp space in the highway.
They will stay at the inn only once a week to gather information for business and take a rest.
Even while staying in the city for business, they often sleep in tents in vacant lots and squares.
However, since the purpose of this corps is not to make money, they stay at an inn almost every time.
It’s also a pretty good inn.
The probability, that the bottom hunters who have no party-home and stay in a cheap inn to have delicious information, is low. So there’s no need to stay at a cheap inn.
The purpose of this corps is to talk with the employees of a slightly expensive inn and the “somewhat good people” who stay there.
It’s a given task.
However, if you see another merchant who is preparing for camp in the camp space in front of the city or an advanced hunter party that looks like having good information, these “merchants” will change to camp there in a hurry.
Of course, to get closer to them and talk a lot.
It’s much easier to talk in a camp than to talk to someone who happens to be at the inn.
At that time, it is a good excuse to share the dinner made by Mile, and usually, the other party who is overjoyed will talk a lot, so the merchants promised a bonus reward for Mile in such a case.
「Even at that age, you could already come up with a gap business like that …
For long-distance commerce, where ordinary merchants consider only selling expensive goods, it’s still possible to obtain sufficient profit without increasing profit margins. Indeed, purchasing scrap products at a lower price and replace them with regular goods. Then make a big profit by selling at a slightly cheaper price.
No, pardon me!」(Merchant)
Mile is smiling *E~he~he* while the merchant praise the girls but the other three have complicated expressions.
This was possible only because of Mile’s unusual storage, and it doesn’t mean it’s so easy to come up with an ordinary person.
And you can’t get a lot of degraded goods so conveniently,
In fact, most of the products the girls sold were just “cheap but still ordinary products mixed with a little degraded good”
Of course, Pauline bought it and mixed it.
Nevertheless, the girls gained enough profits because they are cheap goods that were bought in large quantities at low prices.
…And because shipping costs are zero.
If the girls have been recognized and praised for their wisdom and efforts, it’s a pleasure.
But this time, it’s just an advantage of Mile’s abilities, and there’s nothing they can boast about.
Rena’s group wasn’t shameless enough to feel good about it.
However, they couldn’t say it. The merchants were just praising them and Mile looked somewhat happy.
「Thanks to you, people ask us a lot like
“Who are those girl merchants?”,
“Do you not deal with such degraded products as well?”.
In any case, it’s the hardest thing to get into another topic without being suspicious.
“How much is this? ”, “ Yes, two silver coins” doesn’t collect any information.
With how grateful they were as they could buy cheap products, they were willing to talk a lot…
But it’s a shame that it’s only for today…」(Merchant)
Merchants believed that Red Oath, who sold hundreds of kilograms of merchandise today, had sold out all of their limit storage magic.
This is because Mile has only pulled out the tent so far.
All the cooking utensils, ingredients and also today’s sold products are put inside the tent.
With that, the merchants believed Mile’s storage could only store that tent and everything needed was contained in the tent.
The storage limit is determined by the correlation between volume and mass, so they never thought that somebody would store an empty tent without folding it.
Red Oath, who thought it wasn’t good for the Royal Palace to know that the storage capacity was so large, made people think that “the tent’s volume is the best Mile could do”.
But they didn’t even realize that alone was already an extraordinary super-large capacity that the royal palace would never leave it alone.
“Old habits” die hard. (*)
(T.N: 『慣れ』というものは、恐ろしい… literal = things called “Accustomed” is scary / But I want to use some English proverbs or idioms)
