Nolan slowly opened his eyes.
Sunrays entered the chamber through the window.
Nolan rose from the bed.
"System, show me the timer."
The timer instantly appeared before his eyes.
[23 hours 43 minutes]
"Sighh!" Nolan sighed heavily. "It's time to go shopping."
He opened the door of the chamber and left, heading downstairs.
Though it was early, there were a few people in the restaurant.
Nolan sat at an empty table.
"Good morning, boss," Layla came to his table.
"Good morning," Nolan greeted back. "One bowl of noodles and a jar of water.
After taking Nolan's order, Layla immediately headed to the kitchen.
...
A few minutes later, Layla brought the bowl of noodles and a pair of chopsticks. She then returned to the kitchen, and a few seconds later, she returned with a little ceramic jar full of water and a ceramic cup.
"Thank you," Nolan thanked and immediately dug in the noodles.
Nolan finished the noodles and drank all the water in just a few minutes.
After finishing his meal, without informing anyone, he left the restaurant.
He headed toward the Transport Agency.
...
After walking for a little more than half an hour, Nolan finally arrived at the street of the Transport Agency.
He did not want to waste any time, so he entered the closest carriage to him.
"Where to?" The coachman asked.
"Golden Horse Hut,"
"Understood," The coachman started the horses, directing them toward their destination.
...
Another half-hour later, the carriage stopped. They had arrived at their destination.
"We have arrived." The coachman said. "One tael of silver."
Nolan used his old trick of taking money out of his sleeve and passed a tael of silver to the coachman.
"Thank you," Nolan said as he got off the carriage.
The coachman turned the carriage and headed back the same way he came.
"Here I am," Nolan muttered, staring at the large yellow pasture enclosed with a meter and a half (4,9 feet) high wooden fence and the horse stables in the distance.
A/N: It is late autumn, so the grass in the pasture is yellow.
There were a few horses inside the pasture, freely walking.
Nolan stepped on the small path beside the wooden fence. This path was going all around the pasture and also, led to the horse stables on the other side of the pasture.
It took Nolan ten minutes to arrive at the horse stables.
A person came out of one horse stable. "How can I help you, sir?" He asked.
"I want to buy a horse of the highest quality," Nolan said. "I also want to buy a lot of bales of hay."
"May I ask, sir, how many bales of hay?"
"I am not sure. But at least three hundred."
"T-T-Three hundred?" The man's eyes almost came out of his sockets. "Sir, please wait here for a moment. I will call my boss."
The man immediately stormed toward the other horse stables and entered the horse stable that was the most distant one.
A few minutes later, he returned back with his boss, Ethan.
A/N: Ethan was introduced in Chapter 27: Golden Horse Hut (2)
"I am Ethan. Nice to meet you." Ethan stretched his hand for a handshake.
'Looks like he does not remember me,' Nolan thought. "I am Nolan," He shook Ethan's hand.
"Sir, my friend here already informed me of your needs," Ethan said, pointing at the worker who called him. "Please follow me."
'He refers to his employee as a friend,' Nolan thought, following Ethan. 'He is still a nice guy, as I remember him.'
Following Ethan's lead, they passed two horse stables and entered the third horse stable.
Ethan walked over to one horse box and opened the door.
He brought a beautiful black horse out of the horse box.
"Sir, this is the buddy I recommend for you," Ethan said. "This is one of the best horses in the highest quality category. With a little more training, I am sure he would be able to enter the ultimate quality category."
Nolan smiled. 'He is overpraising the horse. Will he really be willing to sell this horse for ten taels of silver if it needed just a little more training to become an ultimate quality horse? The ultimate quality horse is fifty taels of silver.' Nolan thought. But, of course, this was not what he said.
"I will take him," He said. "Also, please prepare the necessary equipment for the horse."
"Leave it to me, sir," Ethan said with a smile. "Someone!" He shouted. A few seconds after, a man entered the horse stable.
"Boss, how can I help you?" The man asked politely.
"Take this horse and put a saddle on him," Ethan ordered.
The man immediately took the horse and led it out of the stable.
"Sir, about the bales of hay..."
"Three hundred," Nolan did not let Ethan finish his sentence. "I want three hundred bales of hay."
"I understand, and the number is not the problem," Ethan spoke. "But sir, how will you move out that many bales? You will need at least dozens of wagons and even more horses."
"Do you have a place with exactly three hundred bales inside?" Nolan asked. "If you have, then there will be no problem."
Ethan fell in deep thought for a moment, thinking does he have a place with three hundred bales inside. "I have a place with 270 bales. But sir, what do you intend to do?" He said after thinking about it for a few minutes.
"270 bales will be enough," Nolan said. "Lead me there."
Ethan did not say anything and just quietly led the way.
Nolan was not concerned about the transport of the bales. After all, he was going to store them all in the inventory. But his only concern was, whether the inventory had enough space.
'System, how big is the inventory?' He asked in his head.
[Host, with each level up, a hundred spaces are added to your inventory. You are level 9, so your inventory has 900 spaces]
'Perfect," Nolan's smile widened.
Before he even noticed, they arrived at a large wooden building resembling a warehouse.
Creaaak!
Ethan opened the large door.
"Please wait here," Nolan said, entering the warehouse.
Thanks to the light entering the warehouse through the open door, Nolan was able to see inside the warehouse.
The warehouse was almost empty. The floor was covered with hay, and there were bales of hay on the other end of the warehouse.
But compared to the size of the warehouse, those bales were just too little. This warehouse was large enough for Ethan to store at least a thousand bales.
"Those are the bales," Nolan muttered as he walked over to the bales. "I hope they are enough."
"Store," He passed his hand in the air inches from the bales.
The bales disappeared. But another row appeared behind them.
"Store."
"Store."
"Store."
Nolan continued storing the bales until they all disappeared.
When he finished, naturally, he walked out of the warehouse.
"What happened?" Ethan asked.
"I finished my business," Nolan replied shortly.
Confused, Ethan glanced inside the warehouse.
"Wha..." His jaw dropped, and his eyes almost came out of his sockets.
"T-T-This is!" He exclaimed in shock. "The bales disappeared?"
"Don't worry, I took the bales," Nolan said casually. " But never mind that. Tell me how much I need to pay."
However, Ethan did not hear what Nolan said. He was too shocked.
It took him a few minutes to come to himself.
"Cough!" He coughed after coming to himself. "Sir, sorry for the wait. Let's talk as we walk. Your horse should be ready by now,"
Nolan nodded and followed Ethan.
"Sir, about the disappearance of the bales..."
"Let's not mention that. I will not say anything." Nolan cut him again. "Just tell me the price."
"Alright," Ethan showed a look of disappointment. "One bale is 30 copper coins. All 270 bales will cost you 81 taels of silver. And together with the horse and the saddle, it will all cost you 95 taels of silver."
Nolan's heart tightened. He only had 360 taels of silver on himself. And this money was nowhere near enough for him to buy everything he needed.
'I must try to save as much money as possible." Nolan thought.
"Sir Ethan," Nolan spoke. "I am buying from you in bulk. Don't you think you should lower the price a bit? How about 20 copper coins for a bale?"
"Hmmm..."Ethan shook his head, showing a troubled expression. "You are putting me in a tough position. 20 copper coins are too few."
Nolan smiled. Just looking at the troubled expression Ethan made, one could tell that he was an experienced businessman and good at bargaining.
"The lowest I can go is 25 copper coins," Ethan said.
The smile on Nolan's face widened. "Deal," He stretched his hand.
Honestly, he did not expect Ethan to actually lower the price. He just wanted to try his luck.
Ethan smiled too. "Glad doing business with you," He shook Nolan's hand. "The total amount you need to pay is 80 taels of silver."
'Nice, I saved 15 taels of silver,' Nolan thought. 'Wait.." His expression darkened a bit. 'I forgot to take the silver teals out of the inventory.'
"Sighh!" Nolan sighed. 'There is no other way now,' He thought.
"Ethan, you were curious about how I made the bales disappear, right?" Nolan spoke with a smile on his face.
"Could you tell me more about it?" Ethan asked excitedly.
"I will not tell you anything. But I can show you if you promise to keep it a secret. Do you promise?"
"I promise," Ethan nodded his head.
"Inventory, two wooden boxes," Nolan uttered, and the next instant, two of the wooden boxes with silver taels inside appeared in his hands. "Here are the money."
Though Ethan prepared himself a little beforehand, upon witnessing this, he was still shocked to the bone.
Nolan immediately figured out it would take Ethan a few minutes to comprehend what just happened, so he opened one wooden box and took out 40 taels of silver which he stored in the inventory.
"Y-You, what are you?" Ethan took a step back.
"Do not be afraid. Just a little magic." Nola said casually.
"M-Magic? Y-You are a sorcerer."
"Sighh!" Nolan sighed again. "If I knew you would make such a fuss over this, I would not have shown you."
"Here are your money." Nolan passed the two wooden boxes to him. "The two boxes have 80 taels of silver in total. If you do not believe me count them.
Now show me where my horse is. I will be leaving. As for the magic I just showed you, you can either forget about it and keep your distance from me, or you can think things through, and the next time I come, tell me what you thought of."
Ethan did not say anything and led the way to Nolan's horse.
Nolan got on the horse and set on his way toward the restaurant.
With a grim expression, Ethan silently watched as the silhouette on the horse continuously shrank until it disappeared in the distance.