Sam stood up and walked to the entrance.
He looked at the shopkeeper who just arrived at his residence and smiled.
“I thought the transaction was complete. Is there any error? I am pretty sure the Gandharva oath would have left me alone if that was the case.”
“Of course the earlier transaction was canceled. I am here on a different business here.”
“Business? What business could it be? Do you want to buy the Vermilion Hawks from me?” Sam asked as if he is really surprised.
“Can we discuss this over a meal? We have a restaurant that is owned by our group. The chef there is excellent.”
“Sure, I can do that. Let me just tell my friends about it though.”
“Okay, I will wait here.”
Sam walked in and came back after two minutes.
“Let’s go.”
They both walked leisurely and reached a restaurant. They were taken to a private booth. The shopkeeper ordered the best dishes there and waited calmly until the order came.
He only spoke after they started eating.
“Do you plan on selling your medicine shots?”
“Selling? I don’t have a particular plan, the selling and stuff are mostly done by my organization. Why? Do you want to buy some? If you tell me how many you want, I can think about it. If it is not a large amount, I can think of a way for you to get some.”
“No, no. I am not talking about a few shots.” The shopkeeper smiled awkwardly. He doesn’t even know what to say to Sam’s enthusiastic and considerate reply.
“Not a few shots? Do you want too many? I can only manage around a thousand or so. If you want more than that, you have to contact my organization directly.”
“No, we are not looking for a trade deal for medicine shots. We are looking to buy off the design and manufacturing method of the medicine shot. Including the mechanism of the injector and the medical formula.
Everything.”
Sam suddenly stopped eating and looked at the shopkeeper.
“I am really sorry. It seems like you are wasting your time. It is not possible. I can’t give it to you.”
“Why? Is it because of the organization you talked about? If you don’t have enough authority to make a decision, you can just introduce me to someone who can make a decision.”
“Well, actually I am the one who can make that decision, but still this trade is not possible.”
“Why?”
“For starters, if I sell this to you. I mean a big IF, I am sure you don’t want us to make the same product, right?”
“That….”
“I guess I am right. Of course, a product that unique can only be made by one organization. And I can’t approve that, because I already approved my own organization to manufacture them. They are well on their way to mass production.”
“Mass production? How big is your output?”
“At least fifty thousand units a day.”
The shopkeeper took a massive breath as he tried to calm down.
“How are you guys producing that much?”
“As a merchant, you should know better than anyone that you cannot reveal your trade secrets out in the open. That is very unnatural and impolite of you to ask me that question.”
“I apologize.
But can you reconsider this offer? If possible, not only would we buy off the products you have developed until now and even if there is any special equipment and personnel you must have prepared for this.
We will bear all of the costs and a profit for you on top of that.”
“Mr. Shopkeeper, don’t you think you are promising sun, moon, and stars to me? Do you even know what kind of development costs we incurred in the development of this product? Do you think it was easy?
Do you know how many test subjects died in the process?
Do you know how long our organization had to suffer because of the losses incurred by the research time we could have spent on this? Do you even have enough capital to do that?”
“Of course. I am not just the shopkeeper for that one shop. Currently, I am the most trusted aide of the ruler of these lands.
You must have heard of the name Saint since you have come here, right? He is my direct boss and he wants to buy this from you.”
“Oh, Saint? He is actually your Boss?”
“Yes. Please consider selling this to us. I am sure my Boss would like to collaborate with you in the long term if you do this.”
Sam stayed silent for a moment and replied.
“I am sorry. But I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“This all seems a bit fishy to me.
Why is your Boss, who is known as the greatest healer in these lands, trying to buy something off of me like this? And that too, to take away all of my rights to produce them. Even his nickname is Saint, but why does it seem like an idea of a regular money-grubbing merchant?
As for the long-term collaboration, I don’t really have any particular interest in doing it. Because, from what I can see, I don’t have anything to learn from your Saint. Clearly, I made medicine that even he couldn’t make.
So, even if we could collaborate, I will be on the losing end, constantly.”
Hearing those words, the atmosphere turned tense.
The Shopkeeper stopped eating and looked at Sam with a solemn expression.
“You cannot make a claim like that. Saint has been the most competent healer this land has ever seen and he maintained that position over the years. You don’t have the right to claim that you are a better healer than him and you cannot gain anything by collaborating with him.
That is nothing short of provocation.”
“I stand by my words. I wholeheartedly believe that there is not much your boss could offer me.
What are the things he does have?
Spirit stones? I have a lot of them.
Resources? I don’t have a shortage of them.
Background and Strength? We might not be as famous as the Divine formation mountain, but our strength is nothing less than theirs.
Medical expertise and knowledge? I don’t know how Saint became known to be such a great healer, but I am pretty sure I have better expertise than him in terms of healing and pharmaceutics.
The medicine shot you have in your possession is a real-life example. I made that from a scratch and it works so well that even your boss wants to make the money off of it.
You tell me, what do you think he has to offer me?”
The Shopkeeper became stumped. He didn’t know what to say. He started moving his mouth, but no sound came out. He is completely lost.
“But I can’t have someone just doubt my expertise like this. Do you want me to prove it to you? I can do that.
Let’s have a competition. A competition that covers all kinds of healing. Just me and your Boss will deal with it in a civilized manner. As long as I win, he needs to admit that he is not the Saint people call him to be and just a merchant who is trying to make some money off of his fame and popularity.
And if I lose, then not only will forfeit the rights for the medical injector, I will also give you blueprints for these special instruments I developed in the past few months.”
As Sam said, he gave out three scrolls, that had basic description and functionality of three more healing products.”
When the Shopkeeper saw this, he suddenly raised his hand and waved it.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing. It is something that I do when I get excited. That’s it.”
The shopkeeper looked through the designs and nodded.
“I will inform my boss and get back to you after he made a decision.”
“That would be great. I will stay in the same residence.”
“Thank you.”
Both of them departed. The shopkeeper looked at Sam who leisurely walked away as if there is not a thing in this world that could bother him.
But what he doesn’t know is that at this moment, Sam is gulping down hard and sighing right after.
“That would have gone nasty really fast.”
He muttered as he went back to the residence. The situation was very dire at that moment because when the shopkeeper raised his hand, it is not just to show his excitement, it is to stop some of the troops that were about to barge in and take care of Sam.
Sam noticed them. Even though they are stronger than him and they are very stealthy, they cannot hide from the crystal table, so he found them and immediately improvised.
As soon as he reached his residence, he waved his hands and his friends came out of the Divine dimension.
“It seems like you were pretty shaken. Why are you so nervous?”
