Chapter 21 - A deal

" Sorry what? " Christian asked, clearly shocked to hear the words coming out of Max's mouth. 

Max cleared his throat as he said " How about I sell you, 3000 dark gold-rated Bluespot flowers, 3000 dark gold-rated Redspot flowers, and a thousand epic-rated Foie Gras ?".

The temperature in the shop seemed to fall by a few degrees as the chef dropped his kitchen knife when he heard the mention of the epic-rated Foie Gras.

He himself cooked Foie Gras in this restaurant, it was one of his most expensive dishes, however, he only sold commonly rated Foie Gras because of how tight the supply was. 

In his entire life, he had only cooked a bronze-rated Foie Gras once and that was when he was cooking for the guild master of BlackLake City's number one guild himself! It was a day of incredible honor for the chef and the Foie Gras he cooked was obtained with great difficulties. 

An epic-rated Foie Gras's market value was nearly 600 gold coins! To put that income into perspective, the shop made 4000 gold in profit in an entire year. 

Max's claim of owning a thousand such precious ingredients was so ridiculous that if taken at face value it was enough for him to buy the entire street and become a rich young lord in this city. 

Christian Grey seemed to contemplate Max's claims as well, however, his aggressive demeanour was toned down by a huge margin. It was clear at this point that this was most likely the most important deal of his life, a risky one for sure, but if done right it could change his life. 

In the merchant business, it was important to establish contacts with important people and some of the most important people to be connected within the world of Sigma were nobility and alchemists. 

The alchemists needed good materials like the Bluespot and Redspot flowers, whereas the nobility preferred exquisite ingredients like Foie Gras. 

Christian was excited but he kept his demeanour as he said " I will need to see samples to trust your word. Do you have samples on you? " 

' You have got him on the hook now boy, carefully reel the fish in ' Grandpa Drax said inside Max's head.

Max's smile widened under his mask as he produced one quantity of each material from his inventory. 

The moment the medicinal herbs were exposed to the air, it caused an explosion of aroma all across the restaurant completely suppressing the smell of cooking, and flushing out all other scents. 

Everyone threw inspection spells onto the Blue and Redspot flowers and audible gasps could be heard when they found out it was indeed Dark Gold quality.

A single Dark-gold blue spot flower was worth nearly 60-100 gold with Max claiming to have 3000 of those it was also a sizable wealth, whereas the Redspot flower sold for 60-80 gold coins each. 

Everyone's gazes lingered on the table but Max withdrew the items quickly and then produced the king of the show, the Epic-rated Foie Gras. 

The Foie Gras was a tender pink in color, absolutely beautiful, and extremely soft. It looked to be so exquisite that one could make out just by looking at it that a butter knife could carve this meat like butter and the rich juices would overflow. 

The aroma and texture were so delicious looking that many men unconsciously reached out for it, only for Max to withdraw it back into his inventory. 

Christian who had already inspected the item, was dead silent because now that the other party had backed his words with irrefutable evidence, the ball was in his own court.

Never in a million years would Christian have ever thought that he would find such valuable items dealer on a tier 0 planet like Morning Star. 

He already had connections in the tier2 and tier 3 planets but these goods were hard to off-load even on those planets as the average bulk buyer would never be able to purchase items of this grade.

He needed to go all the way up to tier4 planet to sell these items, but he had no connections there.

In a way, this was his ticket to enter the big leagues but the risk involved was great as well. 

Christian had an in-depth and heated conversation with his economic advisor as he tried to estimate the true value of these goods, and after a full half an hour of intense talking on his end, he turned towards Max and asked him a simple question " Who the hell are you? " 

Max wondered how Christian would feel when he found out it was his old childhood friend Max, but he wisely avoided the question as he replied " Who I am is of little importance, whether or not you want these items is the question ?". 

Christian wanted to know the identity of Max really badly, however his inspection spells could not penetrate the security of Max's mask and the other party was clearly not keen on revealing who he was, in this situation there was not much that Christian could do but move onto topics he could actually control. 

 Pulling out an ink pen, Christian started writing on the wooden table itself, as he wrote while speaking 

" The market price for Foie Gras ( Epic rated ) is 620 gold, I will pay you 560 for 1000 units at 560,000 gold. 

The market price for Blue Spot Flower ( Dark Gold Rated ) is 96 gold, I will pay you 80 each for 3000 units for a bill value of 240,000 gold. 

The market price for Red Spot Flower is about 83.5 gold currently and I will pay you 69 per flower, for 3000 units it comes to 207,000 gold coins. 

That brings the total bill value to 1 million 7 thousand gold ". 

The entire room sucked a breath of cold air when they heard the amount and so did Max, a million gold was an amount 99.9% of the universe's population would never see at once, and it was exactly the amount he needed to enrol into the university at only 7000 gold above the million he needed for admission. 

The profit margin of Christian was also insane on this deal with him netting well over 10% of the total sale value, which was higher than the usual commission, however before Max could raise any objections over the rate Christian Grey explained the prices to Max.

Christian said " I know the profit margin for me is high on this business deal, I understand that you are a high-value customer and this is not how I usually do business with my high-value customers, but give me leeway just this once. 

I have to grease important palms and pay commissions to many people on this deal, which is why I need more leeway. 

However, if you do this deal, you will gain Christian Grey as an ally. Consider it the price of friendship ". 

Max hesitated when he heard this, and after considering for a while he reluctantly nodded signalling his agreement to the deal.

Christian Grey smiled as he signalled to his staff to draw up a universal queen contract to finalise the deal, as he extended his hand towards Max and said " I understand you value privacy, which is why the mask. I also understand you are no thief from the den of thieves because there are no thieves capable enough to have a haul of this size in that organisation on this planet. 

This means you are also capable enough to plunder a Mask off the corpse of one of the Thieves and hence a formidable warrior. 

Do not worry, I will not pry into your identity my friend, but if you give me a name, even an alias it will be enough for me to know it's you doing a deal in the future ". 

Max thought about it for a while and realised that Christian's words made perfect sense as he shook his hands tightly and said " Call me Ravan ". 

Max thoroughly read and re-read the terms and conditions of the contract to make sure there was no hidden loop-hole within the terminology used, however finding no traps he signed it, officialising the deal. 

Christian Grey had asked for 3 days to sell the items and raise the money, however he was legally bound to pay the full amount of 1 million and 7 thousand universal gold within 5 days maximum. 

It was only a waiting game for Max now, unless something went horribly wrong his admission into the university was all but confirmed now. 

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/// History Notes - Ravan or Ravana, is a popular Hindu mythology figure, he is the Asura King of the mythological kingdom of Lanka and is said to be one of the strongest warriors with many divine powers, as well as a great scholar and astrophysicist. 

Just like Shakuni, although he had many great qualities, he was a villain and someone on the wrong side of history. 

Just like Shakuni, I as the author want to bring glory to his name like the legendary figure that he is. //// 

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/// A/N - This chapter has been sponsored by patron Matthias_Schmidt ///