Inside the noiseless Herbs & Lotions, Alfraed's eyes darted around all over the corners in disquiet to find his valuable goods that supposed to be stored safely on the bare shelves. Unfortunately, no matter how much effort he put in his search, what was not there, was, simply, not there.
All of the potions, from Basic to High Grade categories were missing!
"Boss Alf, welcome back"
"Boss, thank you for the foods!"
When Alfraed was still stupefied by the unexpected situation, and the twins were doing their hardest to bring him back to reality, his two employees, Elise and Lisa, respectively, came to greet their employer who was kind enough to bring their lunches personally.
"…Ms. Elise, Ms. Lisa, I'm seriously trying to keep up my composure now, w-what happened to the goods? Did a burglar come and steal them?? Are the two of you okay??"
Alfraed forgot that his store was located in the lower district where security was lax, it was actually a miracle he did not encounter any unfortunate break-in until now.
"S-should I hire guards from now on? No, soldiers? Maybe the knights? High-ranked adventurers? ....Or, ask my master for help? With a person capable of bringing down a kingdom alone looking after my store, no thief would dare to come! Buhahahaha!"
....At the moment, Alfraed Logick had lost the ability to think logically, which was bad, literally.
"B-Boss, c-calm down! Snap out of it!"
Lisa tried to calm the distraught Alfraed after he showed a twisted expression and was laughing hysterically like a madman, but her comical efforts only fueled his nervousness instead. The twins also became panic, and running around circling him while waving their hands to somehow resolve the situation.
On the other hand, Elise, who was watching their amusing behaviours could not help but let out a timid smile, and decided it was time to end this comedy before her young boss really made an outrageous decision.
'...For curiosity's sake, how much money needed to hire a kingdom-destroying individual....?'
Imagining the accompanying zeros was beyond the scope of Elise's visual ability, and trying any further would shake the foundation of her sanity. So, she decided to ignore it.
'...Ignorance is bliss...' how true the saying was.
"Boss Alf, everything is fine. Someone did come, not to steal though. Rather, he bought all the potions" informed Elise in a soft and gentle tone that would make anyone want to listen to her.
".....…The potions…sold?" asked Alfraed in disbelief. Simultaneously, that good news from Elise managed to bring his usual self back, making Lisa and the twins sighed in relief.
"Yes" assured Elise.
"...When did this happen...?"
"Let's see, around two hours after you left a person called Dal came, do you know him? That person claimed he knows you.."
"Dal...? Hmmm... Ah! Dal! Daloddin Blessedstone! Yeah, I know him!"
A figure appeared in Alfraed's mind. Daloddin Blessedstone was a barrel-shaped dwarf with a protruding belly who worked as a merchant. His head was barren of any hair, yet the lower half of his face was fully covered with kempt facial hair.
"...But, just to make sure, did the person wear... fancy clothing?"
"...I prefer the word stylish, with smooth shirt, classy vest, and personally-tailored jacket"
"Yup, definitely him, the man has high clothing standard"
---Alfraed accidentally met Dal around a month ago when he and his group, sad to say, were attacked by a stray, enormous bipedal wyvern with bulging skull on top of its head, solid bone-like skin, and thick tail that ended in a knife-like protrusion. Additionally, this particular wyvern was extremely fond of the taste of meat, and sometime resorted to cannibalism when there was no other prey around, even if the other wyvern was its partner or family. That, was how much the blissful taste of flesh intoxicated them...
In fact, at that time, the beast was gaily chomping on a lifeless body of one of adventurers Dal hired as guards without a care in the world. Simultaneously, Dal and the others were badly injured, there was someone who even lost a limb, and they seemingly able to only wait until their turn to be helplessly devoured arrived.
"...Should I help...?"
To be honest, Alfraed did not want to be involved, as it looked bothersome, and undoubtedly dangerous. No one would blame him if he chose to ignore the blood and gore before his eyes, he had that choice available.
"...Yeah, let's help..."
However, no matter how much he wanted to turn around, leaving them alone to meet their untimely deaths would be hazardous for his mental health, and he sure to have nightmares for years to come. Therefore, without further ado, he leapt forward and thumped the wyvern's head from the side, knocking the giant tens of meters away, as well as breaking its rigid layer of skin.
"Grrhh!!"
Unable to prepare for the unforeseen force and irreparable pain, the giant fell in a feeble kind of manner to the ground. Alas, though it received considerable damage, a single strike was deficient to end it. Seconds later, the beast was already miserably trying to stand up, and irritatingly succeeded.
"Oh, boy..."
In a fit of anger, the wyvern propelled its hefty body with great strength using its muscular legs, and arrived before Alfraed with its steel jaw widely opened.
Alfraed had read about the wyvern's movement from an encyclopedia and deduced there were several ways to deal with the incoming threat. However, he was not keen to waste anymore energy on it, and wished to end this immediately. Thus, he flung three opened-bottles to the mouth, and moved to the side at the very last second.
...Nothing happened...
But, Alfraed did not fret, he knew things would soon come to an end as planned, and only focus on evading the wyvern's feral bites and destructive tail swipes without consuming unnecessary energy.
"Should be, right about...now!"
Exactly three minutes later, it abruptly stopped moving entirely, then starting to uncontrollably twitch in agony. The liquid inside the bottles which he extracted from poisonus herbs had corrosive properties, and was savagely and splendidly assaulting and burning its inside without gap.
The wyvern was endlessly tormented by excruciating pain which was impossible to be stopped by anything.
...The nauseating stench of a melting flesh soon filled the area, and the wyvern did not able to find peace until its last breath. Alfraed could even see sad regretful tears falling down from its soulless eyes.
"...I feel like the villain here..." said Alfraed, while closing his eyes with his hand, feeling tired and guilty all of a sudden.
To appease his restless heart for the irreversible action he had done, Alfraed treated Dal and his group using both his healing magic and potions thoroughly. It was in this process that Dal's fashionable appearance caught his attention, and he began a conversation with the merchant.
Afterward, Alfraed gave his no-address name card to Dal and left. Needless to say, the merchant could not find him until now.---
"Do you know what he was doing in this city?"
"The man said he usually visit this town looking for interesting merchandises once in every fortnight. By chance, he heard adventures talking about the Association selling rare potions and holding auction for a rarer potion in a pub. He went there, and promptly recognized your brand. Thus, he asked the staffs of your address"
"...I see. And, how did he end up buying the remaining potions? I had impression he came here looking for the 'rare' potions..."
"He did, quite disappointed actually when I informed all the 'rare' potions we produced are for the Association, and don't have the capacity to increase production at the moment..."
"So.. ?"
From the story up to this point, Alfraed still unable to figure out how Dal made the decision to buy all of his potions.
"Elise told him your potions come in different flavours boss! And claimed even the normal one tastes better than what normally sold in the market!" it was Lisa who provided him the answer.
Alfraed did change the taste of his potions to be more enjoyable to drink, and developed other flavours based on his preference; orange, grapes, and strawberry. His master was addicted to the orange flavour, and often secretly drank orange-flavoured potions from his inventories, without paying, even though there was no need for it...
"The claim was a bluff, really. But, in my previous workplace, which was a general store, I've never seen flavoured potions. I stressed on that point"
Thinking back, Elise did ask him in details about goods that were being sold in his store when they were putting an all-nighter, and the information he provided turned out to be usefull for his sales. Having product knowledge was indeed essential.
"However, boss Alf, I had to give him four Basic Grade potions as samples so he could taste them, and believe what I said" said Elise apologetically.
"No, I think you did the right thing"
The benefit received from giving out samples outweigh the costs. Alfraed had no objection. In fact, he was grateful for Elise's quick thinking. It was her previous employer's loss for letting go such capable worker.
"The man was so excited after testing them, letting out an ear-splitting yell "I CAN SELL THIS!!!" So, he decided to buy all the potions!"
Lisa continued her story, and imitating Dal's gleeful expression and gesture accurately, inviting laughter from the twins.
Later on, Elise was in charge of negotiating the selling price with Dal. Lisa said terrorizing sparks could be seen flying veraciously between the two of them, the atmosphere was intense, as if they were fighting with their lives on the line. There was no room for her to stepped in, she was too afraid to do so.
At the end, the dwarf merchant received a fifteen-percent discount for his purchases, which was good enough result for both parties.
"To summarize, 396 basic grade potions were sold at 85 rune per bottles. 300 medium grade potions at 850 rune per bottle. And, 200 high grade potions at 8,500 rune per bottle. In total, total sales were 1,988,660 rune" concluded Elise while giving Alfraed the sales note.
"Oh, boss, the man also said he will come back in two weeks time. Wheh his sales succeeded, which it will, he expect to buy the same amount of goods from you. If possible, he wants the rare potions also" added Lisa.
Alfraed absorbed all the information and started to think. His decision to hire Elise was correct, and she was able to handle negotiation with buyers confidently and correctly calculate the prices. As a result, the sales were unexpectedly good.
Having said that, supply of materials and production capacity were the problems. He did not have any materials left to manufacture basic to high grade potions. The remaining ingredients were all for the greater grade category. In addition, he also needed to employ potion-makers and more preparers to capture Dal's and other future demands. Sadly, there was not enough space in his store to add more workers.
Alfraed received a terrible headache knowing there were urgent matters he needed to solve soon, and here he thought they would appear weeks later.
"...Anyway, for now lets have lunch together!"
""Ooooo"" replied the twin enthusiastically.
People were creatures who could not think properly with an empty stomach. There was indeed time for anything, and now was the time to eat.
Afterward, he ought to see that person to consult about his problems...