Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Balak's Bargain
"This deal is off."
Anyway, it's no good.
The merchants jumped as Vikir spoke in Supreme.
It's normal to be shocked when a ragged stranger out of nowhere addresses you in a natural language.
Especially when they had just been exchanging insults and foul language.
"Uh... speak Supreme?"
"Did you hear what we just said?"
"Oh, there might have been a misunderstanding."
"Let us clarify. These words are just..."
People who were all having a dreadful discussion about the diversity and sexuality of the Balak locals turned away.
Vikir's eyes widened as he realized that if he got caught discussing the diversity and sex of the Balak, he'd be in trouble.
Vikir's demeanor was casual.
"You mean insulting Balak's heroes with the shade of their skin and physically harassing a woman?"
"Huh! That, that!"
The merchants were bothered.
Vikir kept his face blank.
"It might not matter now."
Indeed. The merchants were so surprised that Vikir spoke Royal that they hadn't thought about what he'd actually said.
Void. The whole deal is off.
Fortunately, the merchants' goods had all been stacked in one spot to be sold, so the locals of Balak could return them to the merchants as they were.
The merchants, in turn, could return the heaps of forest products to their carts.
After hearing Vikir's words, Aiyen sensed something and halted all trading.
Even the merchants around him looked confused.
"No, what's happening here?" they asked.
"We're not trading, why would we want to buy and lose money?"
"We don't come here every day, how are we supposed to..."
The merchants protested.
Vikir dismissed them quickly.
"Losses? Well, if the trade doesn't happen, who will?"
Aiyen gave him a puzzled look.
She leaned up to Vikir and whispered softly.
"Look. There are many people in Balak who are counting the days until those merchants arrive."
She was right.
Among the locals of Balak, I saw a young girl crying, an old man tapping his foot eagerly, middle-aged men and elderly women with thoughtful looks on their faces.
They longed for the merchants and the goods they brought: glass beads, potatoes, corn, and harmonicas, not knowing when they would return again.
Aiyen was controlling the trade, as Vikir had said, and they always checked each other in silent regret.
But.
"It's a nice gesture to take care of the residents, but you need to look out for the other side first."
Vikir's advice continued.
"...?"
Aiyen's head snapped up at Vikir's words, and then.
"!"
Aiyen's expression immediately turned to shock.
While the Balak's mood was one of lingering disappointment, that of the merchants on the other side was hostile.
Extreme fear made their hands and legs tremble.
Vikir spoke briefly.
"Your goods are all perishable."
Most of their trade was vegetables and grain.
Most of these would spoil or rot on the return journey.
The Balak, on the other hand, traded medicines, hides, spices, and other items that don't fluctuate in value over time.
So if a trade fails, the people of Balak lose very little.
The merchants, on the other hand, would have to carry back what they brought, and the value of their goods would have diminished significantly in the meantime.
The merchants shivered and protested.
"If you do this, we won't come here anymore!"
"Nevertheless. You seem not to be the only ones who want to come here."
There was truth to Vikir's words.
For when he was ready to return to Baskerville, he would use Sindiwendi to arrange trade with the locals of Balak discreetly.
The merchants were caught in a dilemma.
As they stood there, dumbfounded, Vikir spoke briefly.
"I know how much these goods fetch locally. If you trade fairly, we can continue trade."
A glimmer of hope appeared on the merchants' faces.
"How could a mere child know the local prices?"
"Hah! The Domain's trade regulations are very strict."
"He will forget a lot of money anyway, so why not leave a little less?"
The merchants chuckled among themselves.
They decided there was indeed room for a few more deals.
...But.
"Four gold."
"What?"
"Four gold."
"No, that's too much..."
"Four gold."
Vikir knew exactly how much the merchants' goods were worth.
He also knew very well what Balak's goods would ultimately fetch if they were to reach the distant capital of the Domain.
He would...
"I'm the one who established the underdog city's trade code."
Vikir had been directly or indirectly involved in countless political and trade matters during his tenure as Representative Justice of the City.
"Chess pieces made from the teeth of hellhounds typically fetch around 2,000,000 gold a piece, with different prices for kings, queens, bishops, and knights, and billiard balls carved from the horns of bulls are all the rage in the ecliptic these days. They fetch 5,000,000 gold a piece at auction. Common red ivory, undyed, cannot be had for less than ten times that price. And then there's this troll chanterelle mushroom here, which has recently become a popular ingredient in new medicines and is practically priceless..."
The merchants just stood there, mouths agape, as Vikir rattled off the exact local price, wholesale price, retail price, distribution margin, etc. of each trade item in fluent Royal tongue.
And then. Vikir finished his calculations.
"I'll offer you a price that's fair for you, after considering transportation, labor, and taxes."
The asking price is indeed what the buyer wants.
Vikir picked up a few horns, a small person, and a sea god from the pile of Balak trade goods and tossed them into the merchants' cart.
"This is as much as you can buy with what you have brought."
Only a tiny portion of the heap remained.
The merchants' faces were red with anger, but they had little to argue about.
Vikir's valuation had been accurate, and they had actually made quite a bit of money.
In the end, it was a fair deal, with no one getting the short end of the stick.
But for the swindlers, who were hoping to make a fortune, it was a nightmare.
I can't help but be upset that the locals of Balak were treated so poorly and only received a fair (?) price.
What?
It didn't end there.
"Now, we need to calculate the damages."
Vikir took back the deer antlers, gourds, and sea gods that he had just placed on the merchants' carts.
Then, he turned to the merchants and held out his palm.
"Give me the money."
At that, the merchants' faces went blank.
...Is this a trick? look on their faces.
But Vikir's judgment is always based on facts.
"I'm asking for serious punitive damages for selling contaminated food and distributing illegal drugs."
The merchants looked shocked.
"What did we do wrong?"
"Don't you know?"
Vikir loosened his finger and pointed at the grains and vegetables.
Among the piles of produce were pouches of seeds.
Vikir reached into the pouch and took out the seeds.
Crash, crash, crash, crash.
Dumping
all the seeds on the ground, Vikir picked up a few of them.
"You lightly roasted them to prevent them from sprouting, didn't you?"
Some of the merchants gasped in shock.
Indeed, they didn't believe that the locals of Balak should farm and become self-sufficient.
They don't think they should sow seeds and farm for themselves so they can continue to bring them produce and profit off them.
When the locals of Balak realized that these were seeds that wouldn't sprout, they began coming in large numbers, looking panicked.
And.
"And, you're distributing cheap drugs that the Realm has deemed illegal. You're completely insane."
Vikir took out the glass beads and trinkets the merchants were offering for free and crushed them in his hand.
The glass beads were said to bring good dreams when worn to bed.
Inside was a small amount of white powder.
It spilled out naturally through the small holes on the outer layer of the glass bead.
If kept close, it would naturally make you fall asleep and have good dreams.
But in reality, a low-quality narcotic causes severe damage to the body if used for a long time.
The glass beads, clips, necklaces, perfumes, cosmetics, etc. were all made of similar materials.
Vikir's eyes flashed.
"Did the Morg or the Baskervilles endure this?
It was possible, he thought.
It would be beneficial for the Realm in the long run if Balak's heroes were drugged and weakened by cheap drugs, but if they also produced deformed children in the future.
However, Vikir had zero desire to act to assist the Domain or the Baskervilles.
It would be much more beneficial for Vikir to align himself here in Balak's village and learn archery.
Vikir smashed all the glassware that leaked drugs and collected all the boiled and roasted seeds.
The merchants' faces turned increasingly blue with time.
Some of the merchants, including Lord Runner, were furious.
"Why do you interfere with this? This is a sacred trade, approved by the God of the Forest himself!"
"This is a sacred trade, approved by the Lord of the Forest!"
"Even the shaman of Balak favors us for the Lord of the Forest...!"
The merchants continued to invoke the forest gods, but that's only for the locals of Balak, and Vikir's tan hides his skin color, but he's still a Magnificent, so it doesn't matter.
"Not the forest gods reign here, but the Forest Branch of Baskerville."
The merchants mostly swallowed hard at Vikir's casual response.
It was true, but they hadn't expected to hear it from a local Balak.
Vikir introduced himself with another drink.
"If you continue to whine about your silly beliefs, I will have you brought before the judiciary of Longshot City."
There is no law a savage can't make.
The merchants countered, stunned but stubborn.
"We've already been inspected for food processing by Longshot City's Food and Drug Administration!"
"That was done under the previous deputy, and with the new deputy, we'll have to also get the updated regulations and go through a new process. In my opinion, some of the things you're selling don't meet the current regulations."
"Yeah, who in the world do you think you are to tell us the law?"
The merchants shouted.
Vikir's eyes widened at that.
"...Do you think I don't know the regulations?"
"Of course you don't! How could you know the new regulations that have been added? They are very strict and demanding!"
Lord Runner, the head of the merchants, yelled back at Vikir in a pouty way.
"What dark creature is familiar with the Vikir Extraordinary Regulations'?"
Hearing that, Vikir gave a single, dry laugh.
But since he couldn't reveal his identity here, he decided to just assume that his regulations were still in effect.
"At any rate, this is the end of this trade. You may consider yourselves fortunate that I have not ended your lives, and now leave."
It was Aiyen, not Vikir, who had the final word.
She was furious to discover that the secret plague that had been circulating within the village was not a disease, or a genetic disorder, or a curse, but a drug imported from outside.
Some of the heroes were ready to shoot arrows immediately, and the merchants had to flee.
Naturally, Vikir became the most talked-about man around for his role in this trade.
It was a rare example of a slave turned hero.
When Vikir returned to his tent after the merchants had hurried away.
...Boom!
Something flew and landed in front of his tent.
It was a smoked pig's hind leg.
Vikir turned his head in the direction the meat had come from, curious.
There stood an unusual figure, his face flushed.
"...hmmm. Hmm."
It was Ahun.
He tore his gaze away from Vikir and glanced at the distant mountains.
"Well, thanks for that. For your help."
"...?"
Before Vikir could respond, Ahun shouted.
"How long is he going to be weak? Get well soon, so I can give him a beating... or wrestle him!"
When he finished, Ahun was red up to his ears.
"Eat everything and get well soon!"
With that, he turned away and walked off.
He left behind a large portion of the pig he had killed.
"What's up with that one?
Some mushrooms can cause vivid dreams and hallucinations when eaten.
If Ahun had eaten it, he could have experienced...
'Take him somewhere quiet, no mice or birds will be aware...'
Vikir was thinking to himself.
"Hey. Slave."
Someone tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned and saw Aiyen standing there with a big smile on her face.
"I'm not a slave anymore."
"No. You are a slave forever. My slave."
Vikir frowned at Aiyen's demand.
However, Aiyen continued with what she wanted to say.
"Ahun, that rascal. He's not the same when it comes to his sister. He's a decent enough guy for an elder brother."
...Sister?
When Vikir gave her a puzzled look, Aiyen figured out further.
"The girl you helped today is his sister. She is Ahul."
After some thought, Vikir remembered a girl named Ahul.
The girl in her early teens who had waited outside the tribal leader's barracks at dawn to become Vikir's wife.
The girl who had been physically harassed by Vendor when she had brought a sunbeetle larva to trade with the merchants today.
Aiyen continued.
"Ahul has always been fragile. I was worried that she was getting weaker due to an unknown illness, but now that I think about it, it's probably because of the glass beads brought by those merchants."
He had a point.
If it hadn't been for Vikir, Ahul would have continued trading with those merchants, and her health would have deteriorated even further.
She would have become bedridden, given birth to a deformed child, or even died.
So Vikir's actions in this trade could be said to have saved all of Balak.
"Darn it. I was a fool to let those merchants go. I let them go because it's a hero's shame to kill defeated enemies who don't resist, but... looking back, I should have just killed
them and gotten rid of them."
Aiyen gritted his teeth.
Just as Vikir was about to part his lips to say something in Moorish.
Hudadak-
A Balak hero rushed over.
"A message from the tribal leader, all heroes gather!"
This seems quite urgent.
When Aiyen asked what was happening, the hero replied.
"It seems that the merchants we chased away during the day are planning something sinister! They're coming towards us tonight!"
Then.
Aiyen's demeanor changed instantly.
Vikir hadn't seen her smile this brightly since he had been here.
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