Morph reported the incident to when I visited the shop at my usual ti.
“I think there was a fight… probably. I found so traces of blood, and a lot of the furniture was destroyed. Even though they tried to clean afterward, it was done sloppily. The damage to the store is quite… large.”
He was timidly telling the facts, looking anxious once more. I wasn’t sure how to feel about my hard cleaning work being called “sloppy”. Maybe it was for the best since he managed to co up with a guess of his own.
“I see. We’ll need to replace what has been destroyed.”
My response startled him, and he hesitated.
“May I… May I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why are you so calm about this? Isn’t the store losing a lot of money?”
“It is. That’s fine. Business is always hard at first. It’ll get better once we’re well established.”
“But, still…”
“I know what you want to say. This shop, you see, is more like a long-term investnt. Most of the ti, I’ll be happy as long as we break even.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That’s why you don’t have to worry too much. Just focus on your work and everything will be fine. I won’t fire you, just so you know.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that…”
He denied it, but already seed more relaxed after hearing . My words weren’t lies. This boutique had two goals. The first one was to provide a slow but steady inco. The second was to use that inco to invest in goods like iron ingots and weapons when they were cheap. Considering the country went to war every few years, I only needed to wait until that ti to rack up a large profit in one go, just like I did when I ca with my first caravan. That implied I wanted a bit more than just breaking even, but that shouldn’t be too hard as long as nothing unexpected happened, like the thief incident. Which was now taken care of.
I spent the rest of the day replacing the lost furniture until everything was back to normal. I could only hope the location would run itself in the future. It was now ti to expand further. Since I couldn’t do anything in Taifau and I was recomnded to leave Thuk alone for now, my only option was to grow inside Makji.
And the obvious starting point was the kingdom’s capital, Hyien. But first, I needed a point of contact. I asked for a eting with Zhuri and managed to get one after waiting for two days. Even though she sent people to buy my fish whenever it was available, she didn’t personally visit my shop, so I hadn’t seen her since she gave the silver token. I t her in her office, and she watched pleasantly.
“Long ti no see, my Lady.”
“Our fresh fish rchant! You made a lot of people happy, you know?”
“I’m glad if that’s the case. It makes my work worthwhile.”
“There are so who wanted to ask you to increase your fresh fish deliveries. How is it? Is that possible?”
“Maybe in the future.”
“I see. I’ll relay your words. So, what can I do for you today?”
“My store is slowly stabilizing now, so I’ve been thinking about expanding. I’d like to open more shops around the kingdom, starting with Hyien. The problem is that I don’t have any contacts outside of the Chian’s duchy.”
“Hmm. My influence is mostly within the duchy, so I won’t be able to help a lot with that.”
“Could you maybe introduce to soone who could help?”
“There’s only one person here with enough influence for that.”
“The duchess, I guess?”
“Right. But she…”
She took a pause, squinting her eyes a little.
“…She probably won’t have any reason to help. The number of people asking for similar favors from her is unnurable, most having much greater status than you. She’s the beloved sister of the Queen, after all, and her words have power. She probably won’t et you even if you ask for an audience.”
This was the downside of starting from nothing in a different place. A situation like this wouldn’t have happened if I had nad myself part of the Trading Union back in my world. Here, I was nothing more than a slightly successful newbie trader. In other words, a nobody.
That was fine, however. There was so fun climbing the ladder. One day, I would be the one folks co to, asking for favors. At that ti, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the initial struggles anymore, just like many I had seen in the Trading Union. There was no need to rush too much.
“I understand. Do you have any advice on how I should start this?”
“Fortunately, it’s not like you have no advantage. Your silver token won’t have any power outside of Chian, but it still will be recognized by the right people. It might help with first impressions. Also, I don’t dislike you. I might be willing to write an introduction letter for you.”
From the way she phrased it, I understood it wouldn’t be for free.
“What do you want in exchange?”
She smiled widely.
“More fresh fish. A lot of it. For personally.”
This made laugh. It wasn’t anything too hard to do, even though it sounded very much like a bribe. I had no idea what she was doing with all that fish, though. Maybe she distributed it around to earn favors for herself. At least, that’s what I would do in her shoes.
“You’ll have it.”
“Great! It’s always good to be doing business with you!”
She wrote the letter and I delivered the fish after that. It was now ti to go.
I already ran a reconnaissance on the capital city from the sky when I was monitoring the war progress, so I imdiately teleported there.
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