Anyway- 'Better not push my luck too much.' "Is the guild master available? As I mentioned before, I do have business with him other than the license."
And that business was basically the three literal bags I was carrying with me.
Pouches with extra space were not only rare but also expensive. So, I didn't want to just show it around like no big deal.
Besides, I was supposed to be a wandering knight with a broken pocket- so…
"Right this way then," The receptionist actually came out of there and led me towards the stairs. They didn't have customers, so it was natural, I guess.
A middle-aged, round, tall woman; sweet fox lady.
She actually reminded me a bit of the head maid. The only maid who actually respected me in the whole castle. This woman did not though.
The two cats with me gathered quite the stares but no one said anything.
Who'd have thought Amiya really wasn't kidding when she said no one would bother talking about the cats?
***
In a corner of the second floor, the guild master was just dealing with paperwork.
I use to deal with them on a daily basis, so I knew how painful those mountains of stacked papers were…
When I thought of the word Guildmaster, I almost always had the image of an old experienced tough dude running the show.
Instead, all we got was a frail old bunny lady.
What was she, 120- something?
'Why couldn't the guild master just be a hot lady?'
Oh well- "Pleased to meet you, madam." A noble bow; with a hand in front and a hand behind me, gently bowing forward.
"Ah, what a well-mannered boy," The woman stood up and bowed in a similar manner. "And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, my lord?"
Despite me being a knock-off noble, they all treated me with care.
There was a reason for that.
No one in their right mind would ever fake being nobility.
One, most people didn't even know how to fake it.
Two, you needed quite the pocket to fake a noble lifestyle.
And three, if you got caught, public execution!
So yeah, not worth it.
Suer didn't stop me though.
"I would like to sell these and also acquire a merchant license."
Merchant license.
You didn't need it to do business.
But you did need it to make a profit.
In this country, unless you had a license it was almost impossible to sell things at a good price, or buy things cheap.
After all, only those with licenses would buy your things and they would want to make a profit too…
So, yeah.
"A license? You would like to do business instead of managing your lands, my lord?"
"Yes, that is correct. I left my homeland in search of glory. We're a proud family of wandering knights you see. Ah, where are my manners? I am Gain Bennebough, fourth son of Sir Attert Bennebough."
"AH, it truly is a pleasure to meet you, my lord. I am Rooskeba Ullana, the branch guild master of the Brolk Merchant guild… And where do you come from, lord Gain?"
"The west Madam, in a small city called Brookesv-"
"Brookeville?"
She said it before me.
'Oh fuck…. She knows…'
"Yes."
"Really? Although I'm quite familiar with your family, I didn't know Sir Bennebough had a fourth son…" She mused over the fact for a minute. "Though I suppose it isn't that unlikely…. Very well then, my lord. I shall procure you a license." But she didn't dive too much into the whole thing. "And you'd like to sell these?"
She finally came over and took a look at the products.
Skins, carapaces, fangs, nails…. Tails. And a bunch of other stuff.
"Much obliged. And yes, yes, I would."
"Let's see… quite rare… two Sahagin chiefs and a twin tail… oh, this is also quite rare…" She kept on grinning. "You weren't kidding when you said you were a proud knight family…" She cleared her throat. "How much do you have on your mind for these my lord?"
I knew basically nothing about the market price.
I also knew nothing about how to properly do business. I'd studied the theory but never practiced it in the real world.
So- "Whatever you'd give me. I also plan on taking an adventurer's license and I often hunt with my entourage. Besides, there are quite a few cases of monster-slaying and- " I paused for effect. "All of those materials might just make it to a competing shop in case what you give me, is deemed unfair." A smile.
Poker face.
Yeah…. I was trying too hard.
A bit of pause but the woman did giggle. "So, this is a test, I assume?"
Yeah, I didn't expect her to say it out loud though. "Maybe…"
"A hundred gold." The woman carefully went through everything. "I'd have liked to offer you 120 but you see, the license fee for a year is 25 gold. But I suppose I can give you a discount. Would that be, okay?"
Amiya did say I should just aim for 90, so this wasn't that bad.
I sighed. "As I said, I don't plan on haggling. I'd take whatever you offer. Whether I come back the next time or the time after that is totally up to you." I just stared at her eyes.
I was of course just bluffing.
Anything to get a fair price.
This was already fair enough though.
She stared at the middle-aged woman behind me. "Please give him 150 gold. And my lord? Please fill the forms below and collect your license within a week and don't forget to get it signed by the mayor." She smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse me."
"Of course."
And she went back to work.
And we came out.
"Normally we charge 30 gold but you got off with 20. Also, even if I was being generous, I would have just given you 90 gold for that… so, I don't think she ripped you off. If anything, she gave you extra."
The woman was kind enough to fill me in.
Probably just a business practice on her end too.
One thing I knew for a fact, business owners would never buy things at a loss, and even if they did, they would only do that in case they could sense something that would be far, far more worth it than the meager loss.
Which meant- 'Either way, this was a success…'
***
We went down, filled in some forms and the woman gave me a pouch full of gold coins.
"Please come by next time and we'd make an appointment with the mayor, so you can get your document signed."
"But of course," With a noble vow, I traced my steps back to the door.
Gold- was the second highest currency.
Almost all the countries had three specific coins.
Gold- worth 10 silvers.
Silvers- worth 10 Bronze.
And Bronze- worth a single loaf of bread.
Basically, with one gold you could buy 100 loaves of bread, aka food for roughly a month and a half.
Some countries did have a higher tier coin called Steller coins but those were more of a placeholder coin than an actual one in circulation.
So anyway- I was rich.
Kind off.
I was actually getting more attention now. Apparently, getting a license this fast was a rarity, at least that's what the whispers were going on about…
'UP next.' The building next door.