Chapter 434. Merchant’s daily life (5)
“What I paid attention to Elliom was not his skills as a merchant. What I paid attention to.”
I pretended to tap his hair with my fingertips and smiled intrigued.
“The talent to roll the hair.”
What business did the woman first think of?
I already figured that out from the beginning.
It seems that he desperately rolled his head as a trick, but at least it’s in the palm of Arel-sama’s hand.
It can’t be helped because the digits of experience are different in the first place.
Still, he said that he was unique and would give him the stamp of ‘You did a good job’.
“It wasn’t the business of selling snow that woman started.”
I grin.
“It’s something other than snow, pure white.”
It should be as fresh as snow and something else that can make money.
“And the Budell Company knew that and used Elium. But on the not-so-good side.”
And that’s why I paid attention.
Through the casual conversation, I also guessed what kind of deal was going on between her and the Budell store.
“And for some reason, Elium is dissatisfied with the upper class. It’s probably close to resentment.”
“indeed. So, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to seduce Elium and point the blade at Budell’s. And make a mess.”
It is deliberately trying to stir up internal strife.
There are merchants whose activities are questionable, and there are also merchants who are dissatisfied.
Then he’s going to use her to poke him.
Scouting Elliom to the Arnil Company is, in a way, a reward for using it.
I grinned.
“But why are you doing such a troublesome thing?”
that’s what i don’t understand If I don’t like it, I can go ahead myself. Then, it’s easy to get rid of that trouble in about five days.
“That way, the parasites hiding there will come out without knowing anything.”
“helminth? Is there such a thing?”
“uh. there is.”
I was sure
If I go out on my own, there will definitely be a guy who will feel the crisis and hide.
the next day.
We sat in the same seat at the same bar at the same time and waited.
After asking Seina to look around for a while, I decided to wait while having a drink.
And after waiting a little bit, she finally came this way.
I thought it would come, so I just shrugged my shoulders leisurely.
“Have you made up your mind?”
“…Before that, there is one thing I want to make clear.”
“What?”
That’s all you can ask.
I’ve said it several times, but the regret is on her side.
Elium hesitated for a moment, hesitated, and finally spoke up.
“If I join hands with you, will the Arnil Company not abandon me?”
“?…”
Oh ho?”
What do you mean by asking?
But it is a very pressing, yet most important question.
From the standpoint of a mediocre peddler like her, any Grand Prix would only be regarded as a monster worse than most monsters.
Even if you promise good treatment and transfer, if your situation doesn’t change, nothing will change.
Good point.
It’s not an unexpected question at all, so the answer is easy to hear.
“well. That would be up to you.”
Of course, I don’t do as much trash as I’m worried about.
“And I can teach you what real business is.”
“Really… a merchant?”
“Ellium, you must have been in a position to be ripped off by the merchant as a peddler until now.
Isn’t it?”
She doesn’t really deny it.
“That’s why the small business you started this time must have ended up being led by them.”
“?…”
That’s it.”
“And the idea of hiding rock salt in the snow and ice and bringing it back. Both of them are superficial.”
When I suddenly revealed my true nature and brought up the story in my usual way, I was excited as if her ears hidden under the hood pricked up.
This is proof that you were surprised.
“…Did you know?”
“That’s why I’ve been paying attention to this incident from the beginning.”
How to smuggle rock salt by hiding it in snowdrifts, she thought.
In other words, it is a way to smuggle salt here.
Salt is in steady demand, and the taxes attached accordingly are quite reasonable.
If you’re smuggling, you’ll make a pretty good profit.
That’s why it’s a popular item that any trades consistently seek to smuggle.
And the lords are paying attention accordingly.
“The idea was pretty good. But it is not a business that will last long.”
If you keep trying without taking any action, one day someone will notice the salty smell and grab your tail.
Smuggling that is literally only valid until the snow melts.
I say it lightly, as if I were evaluating a mischievous prank, but the listener’s eyes are shaking quite a lot.
The smuggling was caught, and it was discovered who thought of it.
Well, before that, I need to reassure you first.
Elliot’s complexion turned pale.
I’m going to pass out at that.
“don’t worry. I will not accuse you.”
“I have no intention of prosecuting you if you kick this offer. Because I know your situation. I didn’t even feel like making a complaint.”
But even if I said this, I wouldn’t believe it.
It’s like an opponent who has a weakness appeared.
“To be honest, you’re bound to find out sooner or later. No… I’ll let you find out at that company.”
Ugh…
She swallowed her breath as if something had poked her.
Apparently, the sign that the company was going to abandon Elium must mean that she felt it too.
“Salt smuggling using snow is a one-time business. I wondered if they would think about blowing it up from that side when the time came, in case they were caught, but it must have been the go-to.”
The reason why she was shaken by the transfer offer was probably because she guessed that she would soon be betrayed.
“I looked into it, but the rumors about Budell’s store had been bad for a long time.
Words written and discarded in the same way are overflowing?”
There are exceptionally many cases where affiliated peddlers suddenly commit crimes such as smuggling and are destroyed.
So it wasn’t too difficult for me to guess the circumstances.
Perhaps the merchant who was shouting at that time was also beaten by the same number.
“Tell me honestly. You won’t get past this year.”
I quietly declared her doom, like a doctor passing a terminal sentence.
And she listened in silence, without objection.
I had no intention of blaming the salt smuggling.
I don’t even have the heart to praise.
If the smuggling was not salt, but something vicious, this place would have become a place to condemn her, not a proposal in the first place.
And looking at it, it seemed that something was wrong.
“It must not have been a position to cover the upper house.”
Newbies who have just started their business have no choice.
There are plenty of guys who want to connect with any trade association.
And each region has different influences.
You can’t just say that she was foolish for stepping into that company.
“But can’t you guess when it’s time to escape? The opportunity came after a long time.”
“Why are you giving me such a chance?”
she asks.
That would still be suspicious.
“not a big deal. It’s just a pity that young people get entangled in such places and rot. And I don’t like it that way.”
I smirked and told him why.
yeah not worth it And it’s disgusting.
“Earning gold coins is possible as long as you have a head and a knack.
But all they do is live by cutting their tails. Of course, as a merchant, you’re not counting it, right?
And it’s a waste of those who are abandoned as a result.”
If you really don’t need it, don’t take it from here.
“I plan to further activate trade using trains. For that, we need to sort out those guys once.”
She was startled as if she understood what I meant.
“Yes, the terms of the transfer. Tell me about the number of cases that Sanghoe has committed. And maybe other merchants are cooperating with a few more? Rumors or clues are fine. pass it all Then I’ll see you.”
“In that case, I might really get stabbed by them.”
“Even if you don’t betray, the executioner will wait, right? and.”
I smile leisurely
“Do you think I can’t stop one of them?”
As if she had finally come to a conclusion, she opened her mouth.
“Have you decided?”
“Before that… there is one thing I want to tell you. It’s a very personal story, but is that okay?”
“hmm. I’ll listen to that much.”
“Yeah, it’s a silly excuse now, but…
She said that and weakly laughed.
Finally, to summarize what I heard from her.
At first, the reason why Elliom took the snow and sold it was because the citizens living in this city showed interest in the special product of Fahilia by chance.
It was as far as I knew.
However, Elium only thought of selling his eyes with a single iron trade.
They didn’t sell a lot, and it was just a performance that didn’t suffer a certain amount of loss.
However, it was Sanghoe that intervened at that time.
“At that time, I suffered a considerable loss due to the fur trade.”
Losing money on completely unrelated transactions left her in debt.
“It was weird when I think about it now… I’m ashamed to say it now, but I thought I could categorize the risks.”
“That means it was a scam?”
Fraud, including price fixing and manipulation.
A means to bankrupt a deliberate merchant.
“It’s just a heart attack.”
Material evidence cannot be in the hands of a single merchant.
However, to speak in front of others like this must mean that you have some certainty.
“Because it was never a business to lose money. The market price was clear… at least
.
“That’s… it doesn’t matter.”
His words were blurry, but he still seemed confident.
“So you got involved in salt smuggling to pay off your debt?”
“But if that was the case, I wouldn’t have said much… It’s a shameful story for me personally.
I know it’s a sin.”
As a merchant, business is everything.
He must have felt quite ashamed to say that he made a mistake there and had a hand in smuggling.
Even so, the reason I bring up this story means that I have a different intention.
“However, I am not the only one involved in smuggling.”
“???? hmm?”
“Seventy percent of the peddlers who join the trade are indebted to them in some way, and they end up smuggling or whatever to pay it off.”
“…What if I can’t pay it back?”
“You know.”
What happens to the merchant in debt is not such a pleasant conclusion, so I don’t want to talk about it.
Even more so, if it was his job, he wouldn’t even want to bring it out of his mouth.
“So, did you pay off your debt?”
“It worked somehow. I was also surprised. Now I just think it was a fluke.”
Because smuggling is as tempting as it is successful, the profits are quite good.
A debt that a mere peddler would have to pay would be forgiven at once.
And the Budell Company would have used Elium to get what they needed without soiling their hands.
