The Arrival of the Resources
After a few moments of viewing the front of the store, Tenur identified the Touma family symbol on the wagons coming in convoy down the street.
Six wagons, each 3 meters long, 1.5 meters wide, and 2 meters deep, were slowly moving toward this store. At the same time, several men, the overwhelming majority of them slaves, were walking in the vicinity, but a few were riding the horses.
Amidst these slaves and animals, the servants of Mero sent to lead the train were riding the best horses while having weapons and armor, something not seen in the slaves.
Tenur realized that this was the delivery they were expecting and shouted to Amir and Shui, alerting these two servants to the cargo about to arrive at this store.
The two ran from the back of the store to the entrance, along with some less busy slaves.
As they stopped in front of the store to wait for the group to arrive, some old customers saw the cargo from the Touma family and asked.
"Hey, Tenur, will the promotion continue?"
"That's right. Your prices were great before... Is there any chance we can get some discount again?"
As Shui and Amir nodded to the men sent from the Touma family to make this delivery, old acquaintances of both of them, Tenur answered the questions of the nobles and servants in the area. "Unfortunately, no. That special promotion marked the store's opening under new management.
From now on, the prices will go up a bit, but I assure you we will still have a competitive price."
"Too bad..."
"Yes, I was already thinking of making a massive purchase with the arrival of new resources."
"But what about the plaster, Tenur? If this shipment is like the previous one, there probably won't be enough plaster for our orders..."
Tenur heard this relevant question and said. "Dear customers, we will solve any problems in a short time, so don't worry about scheduled deliveries. We will fulfill all of them."
The shipment about to arrive at that store had nothing Tenur had requested. After all, that cargo was supposed to have left the kingdom capital weeks ago, even before this foreigner took over Mero's store in Cusca.
Moreover, even if the letters from Amir to Mero had already reached him, something that these people in Cusca were not sure had happened, a delivery with what Tenur wanted would take two months!
It would be a while before Tenur had more resources, so he would have to worry about doing local business, lowering his profit margin, and delaying his deliveries a bit.
Anyway, while the nobles and servants already interested in shopping at Mero's store lamented, the wagons finally arrived in front of the store.
When one of the servants got off his horse, he immediately looked at Amir and smiled before waving at Shui, but a little less friendly.
"Amir, you bastard, I heard you had a daughter!" That man, the leader of the delivery group, walked over to this Mero watcher in Cusca, smiling and indicating that he would hug that man. "My congratulations!"
"Hmm, I heard she was born three months ago." Amir smiled, thanking this old-school colleague for the gesture. "When I finish this service ordered by lord Mero, I plan to spend a few days beside her and my wife."
"Good for you, haha." This fellow said, slapping one of his hands on one of Amir's shoulders. "But tell me something, what's going on here? What happened to the store?"
Everyone in the newly arrived group was somewhat surprised to find Mero's store different, with smooth, straight walls, but also painted.
They were obviously curious because they hadn't been warned about any of this.
"Haha, that's the stuff of Tenur, the slave the lord left leading this place!" Amir laughed, sensing that these people would be amazed about this redesigned store.
Amid this explanation, the other three servants who were there to keep Mero's goods safe greeted Shui before they had a chance to talk to Amir.
After a few comments aloud, all in good humor, one of the servants looked at Tenur and addressed the word to this light-skinned foreigner. "So you are that slave lord Mero spoke of?"
Mero had sent letters to the groups who would be passing through Cusca within a short time so that none of them would dare to go against his interests. Because of this, everyone there knew that Tenur was running that store and that they should not make things difficult for him.
Because of this, all four servants were curious to meet this peculiar scholar that Mero had gotten as a slave, someone he had described as a genius in a million.
Seeing the current state of the outside of Mero's store, they could all already sense that Tenur was not normal.
"Seniors, this here is called Tenur Orfeo. I am here only to serve lord Mero to the best of my ability." He humbly said.
There was no point in being arrogant when meeting people who saw themselves as superior to him. That would only cause unnecessary friction, something that someone with no history in this place, or background, could not afford.
As someone who knew his qualities and faults, Tenur would not expose his weaknesses unnecessarily. That is why he was always humble and acted to avoid problems with servants and nobles.
Since a humble reaction could also be disconcerting, Mero's servants on that caravan did not pick on Tenur much at first.
They glared at him, feeling that an unworthy being was trying to become something he was not. But as Mero's loyal servants, they didn't do or say anything else, heading towards the interior of that store.
One of them gave the order to the slaves on his caravan to start unloading the items to be delivered, while three slaves under Tenur's supervision were going to help.
Amir waved to one of those servants and smiled, leading him to talk inside the store.
When he did so, the four newly arrived servants were immediately surprised to find a totally different interior of the store.
This place was nicer, easier to move around, more convenient for customers, and much better for people taking and putting resources there. As such, all four liked the changes led by Tenur, promptly becoming more optimistic about this slave's situation.
The slaves accompanying them were also surprised by the place but were soon guided by the captives under Tenur's command to store the resources brought to this place properly.
At the same time that everyone was doing something, Shui was watching the situation cautiously, in command of some of those slaves, 'helping' to guard this place.
No one was paying much attention to him at the moment since, with so many people carrying things and checking items, someone coming and going through there would blend in easily...
He took this opportunity to make his move, already looking forward to the day when he might see the despair in Tenur's eyes when this captive would be punished to death for causing trouble for Mero.
'Just you wait, slave. Your death is not far off!' He said in his mind as Tenur presented the new products he had developed in that store to other servants of Mero.
That would last a few minutes, long enough for the slaves to finish moving the items brought to that store while the place was closed.
But soon Tenur would open the store again on this day, which could make him bigger profits than ever!
...