220 Departure And A Promise (2)
Hey, Shun here!
Driving a carriage, in the modern day, that's something that you could only hear in a movie, a novel, a TV series, and many others when its settings take place during an era very long ago.
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(Shun's POV)
I literally have no idea what this Dragon White Stone is, and this probably showed on my face as the merchant Sunuva-san immediately caught on it. He's a good merchant, as he noticed the slight change in my demeanor quickly.
Since I didn't know what this material is, Sunuva-san began explaining to me what this Dragon White Stone is. Turns out that this Dragon White Stone is a really important and special ingredient that, when processed with alchemy, it could be used to cure all types of poison.
While this does sound like a big deal, especially in modern times when cures to poison, although not very necessary, is still a welcome thing to have in the field of medicine.
"If you're living your life normally, you probably won't ever get poisoned but, for Explorers who enter the labyrinth on a regular basis, it is a very important item to have. After all, they don't know when they will encounter monsters with deadly poisons."
He then further explained that, while there are many types of items that, when mixed together, could cure specific poisons coming from specific monsters, it is just impractical to carry that many supplies with them. After all, how can they bring back their loots if they're loaded with so many ingredients that could heal whatever posion that may come at them.
'So this is where the Dragon White Stone comes in, huh…' I thought to myself.
"This is why antidotes made from Dragon White Stones are traded at a high price in the Labyrinth City…"
That explains it.
After listening to his explanation, I finally understood why he was offering this to me, who's sole destination is the Labyrinth City. It definitely is a nice addition to the items I could bring with us to sell when we arrive at the Labyrinth City.
It seems that they sell one small barrel for 10 gold coins, which seems to be the same as the market price. As a side note, it seems like you could easily sell them for double the price at the Labyrinth City, which definitely sold me on the idea of getting some.
While we did get a hefty sum of money that we could spend during this quest, which is around 400 gold coins, I and everyone agrees that we could definitely use more than that. After all, there seems to be many interesting things that we could buy here using cash, which is definitely welcome since we wouldn't need to spend our d-coins.
Sunuva-san did explain that, because of the tariffs for the entering cities on the way, as well as the transportation cost, the profit would end up to be on the small end.
The cities, huh. I don't think we need to go through each and every city on the way so, we could just completely skip over them and avoid the tariffs.
"If the stones doesn't sell, then you can bring it to the merchant guild, they will buy it at the price you buy here. If you wish, we could make a letter of endorsement to guarantee the quality." Sunuva-san said as a final reminder.
I ended up buying 5 big barrels of Dragon White Stone(which is double the price of a small barrel and has a lot more content), 150 pieces of goat leather, 100 bundles of wool, 20 crossbows, and 2,500 bolts. Since, all in all, the price ended up at 110 gold coins — after my best efforts of negotiating for a much lower price — I signed a temporary contract that says I will pay for them all tomorrow during the products exchange.
I could definitely pay for it now up front but, I don't really need to do so. We're really not in too much of a hurry so it's all good. With that many items, they needed to prepare the items first, anyway.
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Right now, I'm riding a covered wagon that will take me to the center of Seiryuu City, where the mansion of the current lord of this city lives. It's not the current lord that intends to meet me but the sort of governor of this city, an official who sits at a high position.
What happened with the development where the lord ends up meeting the protagonist because he slew a great threat to his city, you ask? It seems like the lord of this city is quite arrogant, a perfect example of a typical noble.
He's also an Earl so, I don't think he's interested in meeting a 'mere' son of a successful merchant. I didn't really expect anything from the nobles of this city so I did not feel anything from getting such a treatment.
If it weren't for Mr. Kendricks, I would've declined even the rewards for subjugating those wyverns. Having nothing to do with such nobles are for the best.
After driving to the mansion, I alighted the carriage before I was received by a guard. This guard then guided me to a separate room, which seems like an office or something of the sort.
It seems like this is their receiving room for guests or something.
Anyway, I didn't really have much time to observe the whole room as the governor was already there to welcome me. While I was shaking my hands with him, I saw a huge portrait of a pretty dignified-looking man who's sporting a goatee that does not suit him at all.
He looks dignified, and that's all that's going for him. You could definitely feel that scrupulous aura of those villain-like nobles from the portrait alone.
After saying a few pleasantries to the governor, he told me a few things that weren't really of importance. It was just him telling me how valiant of an effort we did to slay those wyverns, how thankful they are that we slayed them, and etc, etc.
To be honest, the trip here felt like such a huge waste of time. They should've just sent the reward money via a knight or something if they would just say a few pleasantries like this.
Even though I was definitely annoyed at this complete waste of time, I didn't want to create unnecessary trouble by provoking these nobles or whatever. This is almost a [Quest] that was handed to us so that we could relax and sightsee, or atleast that's what we thought.
By the end of that lengthy conversation, I received around 30 gold coins for slaying the wyverns. Man, this guy was almost unwilling to hand me that money as well.
There was no sincerity whatsoever when he was talking to me earlier as well. With such an attitude, I'd be surprised if any talented individual would want to stay inside this city for long.
Carrying such thoughts inside my head, I said goodbye to the governor before promptly leaving with Yosagu-san, who was waiting for me at the entrance of the mansion. I still have business with Yosagu-san today, which is about him teaching me how to drive a carriage.
After coming home that day, I bought a carriage with a great suspension system as well as a sturdy but light body from the [Dimensional Shop] before informing everyone about what happened during that day. All of them showed their dissatisfaction towards the governor and the lord of this city, especially Ritsu and Rinka-san who were quite vocal about it.
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It was the next day, two days before our departure. Right after eating breakfast with the girls, I immediately went to the Merchant Guild first thing in the morning to pick up the goods and pay for it as well.
I hired Yosagu-san's services for today as well, along with is carriage, so that we could load the items in there before loading it in the carriage that I bought from the [Group Chat] yesterday. This is my indirect way of thanking him for teaching me yesterday, as he wasn't really so willing to take the two gold coins that I was giving him yesterday as my lesson fee.
Once we arrived at the [Gate Inn], I was immediately greeted by the lively Pochi and Tama who were waiting outside the inn for us.
"Weeelcome home~?"
"—nano desu~!"
They said as they greeted me happily. Thus, I greeted them happily in kind.
"I'm back!"
Since there were very eager to help me out in unloading and loading stuffs inside our carriage, I let them carry the bolts, since its the lightest items we have. The girls, Yuni, and Martha-chan also came out of the inn and helped us out in carrying the leather and the wool while I carry the heavier and bulkier stuffs like the big barrels.
By the way, I had to pay for the parking fee for using the stable since it's a different charge from normal inn room. Martha-chan and Ms. Mosa was definitely wondering where I got the carriage from but I just explained to her that I bought it from a merchant.
Once we got that settled, I, along with the girls, rode inside the carriage of Yosagu-san to the outside of Seiryuu City.
Why are we here, you ask? Well, the girls expressed their desire to learn how to drive a carriage yesterday night, so I took them with me. They're very excited about this as well, kind of like they're on a field trip or something.
Liza and Ritsu are quick learners but, as for the rest, they were not as fast of a learner when it comes to driving a carriage like the former two. Well, so long as they are able to learn the skill, I think it will be a win for us.
I watched from the side as Yosagu-san explained carefully to the girls about how to take care of the horses, as well as which cities we could stop by to resupply. Those are things that he already taught me yesterday and he's now teaching it to the girls.
"We're about to leave this city in a few days time. Did you two already say goodbye to your friends?" I asked the two who joined me in watching on the sidelines, along with Tsuka.
These two are none other than Pochi and Tama. They were very interested in how to drive a carriage at first but it seems like they were more interested in sitting down with me and munching on some snacks while we're at it.
"Not yet nanodesu! But Pochi told Martha-chan and Yuni-chan that we will exchange letters nanodesu!" Pochi replied before getting her hands on another piece of hamburger.
"Mmm, mmmm~!" Tama was too busy munching on her own hamburger, but I think she basically said the same thing as Pochi.
Still, exchanging letters, huh. Maybe I could ask Tsuka to do the delivering of letters while we're in this dimension. I have the [Divine Warp Feather] so the exchange of letters would definitely be faster.
After confirming some things inside that Labyrinth City, maybe I could even do something about making their exchange of letters as frequent as possible.
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※~To be continued~※
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Author's Remarks:
※ I have many plans for the future of this fanfiction and this is definitely one of them. I'm just wondering when I should start going about this but, yeah, there's still a long ways away before we could even make headway on this thing. Anyway, I could finally get some time to relax after a few days of work. Well, not really since I have to catch up by 3 chapters until Sunday xD.
