A young merchant was many things. Easily swayed by some emotion since they had not perfected the best possible cover for when they found something good. But that also did not mean they were less of a merchant. The younger merchant perfectly understood the information he had just been given.
Furthermore, he understood that Clark was playing up the feelings of a beast in pain. While it may be the case that Clark didn't want to see a beast be born and grow in pain, eventually to be abandoned, it was also clear that Clark had a target.
That target was a much bigger merchant that had more power than they needed. In terra, there was rarely anyone that would be able to ignore the physical focus of power in the city. The people cared very much for physical growth over wealth or in depth knowledge studies. It was just the way that city had flourished, planning and growth from a young age.
