In the morning, Alexander woke up with a bad headache. "damn! I drunk to much." Rubbing his temples to ease the pain, the door of his room opens. "big bro! Come lets eat breakfast!" Lulu run towards him and tugged him out of bed. With no choice, Alexander followed suit and eat breakfast at the inn. After breakfast, he instructed Hector and Candice to shop around for their needs for their journey and provided them enough coins.
Alexander also went out to roam market to check meat prices. As he roam the market place, he notice that there are less meat shop than vegetable or fruit shop. He also asked for meat prices and currently, a kilogram of wild beast meat reach at 50 coppers and an elemental beast meat is for 2 silvers and 30 coppers. With this, he asked some rumor mongers to spread rumors at the village that a there is a noble that sells meat and is currently staying at the village. He also tasked some of them to spread that this noble is currently looking for someone to collaborate with. After doing so, he decided to stay for one more day in the village.
In a small room several men are sitting in a round table. "brothers! The reason of our gathering today is about the rumors that is currently spreading in spring forest village." Said by the man at the center. "is this rumor confirmed?" asked by one of the person. "based on our investigation, there was someone in the sleeping forest village sold almost a ton of meat hence we can confirmed that this rumor is true." "if so, how can we coordinate with this personage?" asked by another man.
The room went silent for a moment, then an old voice rang "why don't we announced that we are inviting this personage in our round table meeting." All of the men in the room was shocked. "bu-but founder! We can't do that! The round table only exist for Merchants like us and base on our tradition, we can only invite entrepreneurs and businessmen such our self in our group." Debate by the man at the center of the round table. "then do you have any other idea?" asked by the old man. Then a man in his forties stand up "since the village is in my area of business, I can invite this personage as an individual and by doing so, we can connect with him by me on behalf of the round table." After suggesting, all of the men pondered as well as the old man.
After a few minutes, the person at the center that acts like the leader of the men in the table said "I agree with Lord Don's suggestion." After saying so, one after another, all of them agreed with the suggestion. The old man nodded "Lord Don, we will hand this task to you. However, if this personage has any ill intent, you know what to do." Said by the old man calmly. Lord Don immediately bow "thank you founder! Thank you leader and thank you brothers for trusting me! I will not let the round table down."
At night, Alexander once again is hanging out in the restaurant when he heard an interesting news "hey did you hear, Lord Don is looking for the 'meat noble' that sold almost a ton of meat in the sleeping forest." " yeah yeah I heard that. Also it appears that this 'meat noble' is currently in our village and our village elder is currently maximizing his troops and currently scouring the inside and out of the village." When he heard this, he already beamed with a smile. After finishing the dishes he ordered, he went out of the restaurant, wear his black cloak and wear a mask then took off for the village elder home.
After he arrive at the entrance of the village elder house, the guard stopped him and ask "what is your business in the village elder house." "I am here to sell some beast meat to the elder." He calmly said and not claiming that he is the 'meat noble'. The guard stare at Alexander sizing him up "how much meat are you planning to sell? Many meat seller already come here but only have no more than 100 kilograms of meat." "I am planning to sell a ton of meat." As he said that, he took out four cloth sack "there are a total of 200 kilograms of beast meat here as proof." The guard was shocked and immediately instructed his colleague to inform the elder. "Good sir! Please follow me." The guard who's sizing him up earlier has a change attitude and became polite, too polite. The guard open the door and invite Alexander to sit on the couch "you, prepare some tea for the guest." He point at one of the maid and instructed it to prepare some tea.
As Alexander sipping his tea, the door suddenly open up and an old man that is about in his sixties or seventies with long white hair and white beard. "Hello there! Welcome to my humble house. You can just call me elder young. My I ask for your name good sir?" as he introduces himself, Alexander burst in laughter. As his voice sounded, it was a laugh of an old man hence elder young thought that this person in front of him is an old man like himself. "I apologize elder young for my discourtesy. You can just call me Lord Grid." "nice to meet you Lord Grid" he bows "my subordinate said that you are here to sell some meat, is this true?" asked by elder Young "yes that is true but I didn't bring much today and left all of my remaining meat in my abode not far from this village." Said by Alexander. "I also look around tour village and seems that there are less meat shop than vegetable and fruit shop. May I ask why is that?" elder Young sighed "I will not hide it to lord Grid, currently there is a huge scarcity with wild beast meat. As for the reason of the scarcity, as per on the rumors in the capital, there was an ongoing war between Central continent and the Southern continent and the empire task each kingdom for their cooperation to supply the army with rations to continue the fight." Said by elder Young
When Alexander heard that there was an ongoing war, he pondered for a bit "I see. I also heard that the meat prices are already through the roof. Is that right?" when elder young heard about the prices, he immediately frown and said "yes, the current price of the wild beast meat is at 50 coppers and the elemental beast meat is at 2 silvers and 30 coppers." Alexander continue to ponder while elder Young is sweating profusely "elder Young, if we will be setting the price at that range, how much meat can you buy?" he asked, "if we will be setting it up at that price, the max capacity will be around 2-3 tons." Elder young immediately answered like he was expecting it. "too few." He muttered to himself. Before this meeting, Alexander visited the secret land and currently the population of the gourmet beast reached the maximum capacity of a thousand. Currently, he has 600 wild beast, 300 yellow ranked beast and 100 blue ranked beast and for the meat hat was just harvested it was 5 tons of wild beast meat and 2 tons of elemental beast meat. This harvest was only for 3-4 days worth or a month inside the secret land hence in total, he currently have 14 tons of wild beast meat and 4 tons of elemental beast.
"Elder Young, I will be honest with you, 2-3 tons of meat seems to be a little bit lower than I expected, what if I lower down the price to 30 coppers per kilograms of wild beast meat, how much can you buy?" when elder Young heard that Alexander is lowering the price, he can't help but smiled and be grateful to Alexander "thank you very much lord Grid! If that's the case then we can buy at least 5 tons of wild beast meat" he confidently said. Alexander pondered again then suddenly said "elder young, that is still not enough." Elder young was shocked, "eh? Not enough?" "how about this elder Young, I will sell you this 5 tons of wild beast meat, I will also extend my stay in the village for 1 more day and I will be back tomorrow and I hope by that time, you can purchase more." Said by Alexander. Elder Young eyes immediately lit up and agreed hence he instructed his subordinate to fetch the money while Alexander took out sacks after sacks of wild beast meat. After the transaction, he excuse himself and as elder young staring at Alexander departing back, he immediately asked his messenger to contact Lord Don.