Wondering if Elon had luckily succeeded in one of superstitious rituals, Old man Ark stared at the new Elon in surprise, not taking his eyes off him.
Elon: "..."
Not understanding the reason for the sudden tension or rather not understanding how far he had changed, Elon felt awkward under the old man stares , ' Did I have something on my face?' he thought.
"Seems you finally succeeded in one of your rituals,huh?" Old man Ark decided to voice out his thought.
Elon wasn't surprised the old man knew the previous Elon was performing ritual, according to his predecessor's memories. Old man Ark was the one who had crafted several voodoo dolls and other strange weird statues, so it wasn't improper for him to have questioned the youth with a gloomy temperament, after all they knew not each or had any connections, this why the previous Elon only patronized this old man in the whole market.
"Gave up... decided to try something new in life and go for a change" Elon lied wearing a casual smile on his face.
"Suits you"
"So what are you here for then?" Old man Ark quickly changed the topic not wanting to dig further into the life of this former gloomy youth with an extraordinary background, as he always spend in gold coins. Which made the old man exceptionally smile every night whenever Elon came to buy something.
Don't take the Nylene Kingdom currency for joke though.
One gold coin equaled - 100 silver coins.
One silver coin equaled- 50 bronze coins.
One bronze coin equaled- 25 penny.
And Elon always dropped a few gold coins after every purchase, with all this wealth the once poor wood crafter was probably one of the top ten richest men in the Mmergau district.
"Nothing... Just a few things" Elon said with a smile on his face.
"Hahaha, you should have said so from the start." Old man Ark hurriedly stood as he welcomed Elon with a smile, finally offering his attention.
"What do you need...?" Old man Ark said stressing the latter part of his sentence.
"Rubber wood" Elon said without hesitation..
"Rubber...?!" Hearing Elon words, the old man hurriedly made a susshi gesture, before quickly walking forward to close the tents.
"Please don't say that out loud next time" Old man Ark said for the first time with a frown on his face, warily looking around he walked towards Elon.
"How many do you need?" he asked with lowered voice, beside Elon's ear.
"Ten logs"
Hearing Elon's casual tone like it was a normal thing, the old man widened his eyes with surprise.
",Te...ten... ten?" he questioned as if to confirm what his ears heard a moment ago.
"Yes " Elon replied, seeing the old man expression quickly changed, Elon knew his previous guess was probably wrong.
Elon never knew what a rubber wood was, just that he had seen it in the previous Elon's memory and felt it was the best man for the job. As for how he knew that the old man had it, it was also through the memory.
"Ok" Old man Ark stealthy moved , pulling off the mat he had been sitting on , a big box was revealed. Without hesitation he opened it...
"Here it is " pointing at the ten logs of wood which seems to have been artificially made,more like plastic.
Taking a closer look and touching to feel it, Elon gave a nod, confirming the deal was real.
"You can take the box" the old man added with a crook smile on his face.
"Ok" Elon also smiled, lifting the box without effort which surprised the old man even more.
Feeling the intense stare, Elon ignored it as he brought out a shiny gold coin from his pocket, dropping it on the outstretched palm without a pause.
Old man Ark: "..."
Looking at the shiny gold coin on his palm ,the old man couldn't be more surprised, as he turned speechless as if in a daze.
Carrying the metal box filled with rubber woods, Elon said his good bye.
"If you feel it isn't enough, remember by previous change?" leaving behind this words to reverberate through the old man's ear , Elon left the Mmergau district.
Untill Elon left , as his voice finally disappeared, Old man Ark finally released a loud roar... "Damn!!! you bastard!!!"
He was probably going to fined for that.
...
Having completed the first step of his plan Elon moved to the next.
Leaving Mmergau, Elon waved his hands to stop a carriage...but then again he remembered he had no small currency other than the
gold coins in his pouch.
Left with no other choice and not to arouse attention on himself, Elon walked to the next location on foot,which proved to be quite tiring for someone who hated exercises.
...
Upon arriving, the stinking stench of horses dung directly hit his smell organ.
Looking at the carriages with horses already attached to them, Elon squeezed his nose, compared to the one he owned at the castle it looked rather common. But Elon never cared,after all he was here for it.
...
One eye, a popular nickname given to him after being know for his notoriousity of being a greedy merchant. One eye who already had his day filled with misfortune and bad luck, after the death of two of his old horse, was blazing with both anger and pain. Upon seeing Elon standing before his carriages, his anger turned into fury, thinking it was one of those few kids with big dreams who usually came to motivate their self by staring at his carriages, by thinking that one day they would own theirs, laughable he always thought.
"Fuck off!" the greedy One eye merchant shouted out loud from afar, ad he had no hope that Elon,the kid before him could rent or talkmore purchase one of the carriages.
...
Just when Elon was starting to wonder where the carriage merchant had gone to,he heard the loud curse from afar.
"Fuck off!"
Speechless , Elon was lost for a moment and didn't know what to say...
"Is it for sale?!" Elon shouted back, ignoring whatever misunderstanding there must have been.
Arriving with hurried footsteps to chase off the kid, One eye was even more stunned by Elon's reply, and his fury increased.
Speaking foul words without a thought, "What? You think selling off your father could get you one?"
"Fuck off kid before , I teach you a less..."
Elon wasted no time, as he was quite in a hurry stripping off his pouch he brought of a single piece of gold coin , actions spoke louder than words.
" Give me two good horses and a carriage" Elon said staring at the dumbstruck merchant with a serious look on his face.
"I'll get it" One eye said absent minded as his eyes became focused on the pouch in Elon's hand.
"Quick" Elon said, seeing how distracted the merchant was. As for why he boldly brought out his pouch? he had confidence in his strength.
10 minutes later... Two clean horses were brought forward, pulling behind a considerably third hand carriage that once belong to a noble.
Handing over the one piece of gold coin that equaled a total of a hundred silver coins , Elon boarded the horse carriage under the twinkling eye of the One eyed merchant.
"Aren't you going to hand over the change?" Elon questioned, seeing the One eyed merchant still standing there without any attempt to bring out his change.
"Huh... young sir" the Greedy One eye merchant said with a fawning tone , which Elon ignored as he stretched out his palm in a demanding posture.
Seeing that the youth couldn't be tricked, Greedy One eye merchant hurriedly handed over 10 pieces of silver coins.
'You think I'm Santa Claus to hand over freebies?'. Elon thought, hitting the reins of the horse precisely, following familiarity of the previous Elon memory, who had been thought to ride a horse and other bunch of useless things to maintain the dignity of a noble.
...
Watching as Elon quickly departed on the carriage, the once fawning expression on the Greedy One eye merchant's face disappeared as if blown by the gentle breeze.
A group of three burly men ,wearing old leather boots, their shirt roughly arranged as they gave off the temperament of a thug, quickly revealed themselves from where they had hidden , behind the carriages.
"One eye" the man who seemed to be the leader called out, as they walked towards him.
" Is that the kid?" he asked.
"Yes"
"I'll tell you, you have to be careful though" Greedy One eye said.
" How much did you say it was?" th leader of the three thugs asked.
" Above fifty gold coins"
" What?!" they all shouted out with synchronized voices.
"One , two, three, four...?"
"Boss, it's a bull eye" of the three thugs whose notorious name was known as scorpion said,four of his fingers outstretched, with an excited look that couldn't contain the joy in his heart..
"How many silver coins is that?" the one called Boss asked, looking at Elon departing carriage in a daze.
"One , two,three, four, five..."
"Five thousand silver coins" said Bug the one who seemed to be the genius among.
"Five thousand? Hahaha"...
"Boss it's a bull eye"
"A jackpot" they all exclaimed.
"Good, then we'll go for the kill then"
Looking at the Greedy One eye merchant once again, the called Boss asked... "One eye, are you really sure...?"
Just before he could complete his sentence Greedy One eye cut him short... "Trust the eyes of a merchant when it comes to money, what more a one eyed one"
"He's all yours , remember the deal" One eye quickly summarized without caring if they would silence him, after all this wasn't their first business, they were not too stupid to end their future income too soon.
"Ok, deal then…"