97 Chapter 97
The day for the fair was finally here. He had to apply for a leave to participate in the fair. Bloody corporates.
No matter how confident Aaron was before, but the day before the fair, it was hard to fall asleep. If he was successful enough in the fair, he would take a big step forward in achieveing his goals.
More importantly, it might solve his current problem of being poor.
As he reached the spot where the fair was to be held, he was shocked at what he saw.
It was an open ground with hundreds of stalls scattered about with hundreds of possible participants.
Turned out, the number of participants for this kind of events were fairly high. Everyone knew it would be a life changing achievement if their artifact was chosen. As a result people flocked to this event every time it was organized.
The thing which made the fair so large was that it was open for the normal public as well.
Everyone liked seeing new artifacts. So people and even mages could enter after paying a entry fee and enjoy the artifacts on display. As the fair grew popular every year, the number of people coming to see it increased as well.
The benifit of having so many people here was that even if a product was not chosen by the association, other people could still buy it. Of course the association would take a fee for it. But a lot of times it had helped mages sell their goods and inventions.
Where there were so many people gathered, there was bound to be food stalls as well. The stalls served a variety of food and snacks. There were entertainers as well which entertained the crowd.
The whole place had a festive atmosphere to it. It looked much larger than an artifact exhibition.
When Aaron reached the gates, he was asked to pay a fee of 50 mage stones to get a stall to display his artifact. The minimum fee made sure no one was sitting there for just to waste the time.
There were still people who pay the sum to have fun and show off silly inventions, but the mage association didn't mind them since they were paying for it.
Aaron was allocated stall number 444. He had thought he was early enough, but there were apparently many who had been before him.
There was nothing in the stall apart from a table and placard which displayed the number 444.
As he was setting up his display the stall owner next to him came over.
"Hello there young man. I am Rogan. First time setting up a stall here? " Aaron looked at the man who was sporting a salt and pepper beard. He had a smile on his face as he approached Aaron.
"I am Aaron. And yes it is the first time. How did you know? "
"Haha. It is experience. You see I have been setting up stalls in the fair for a long time now. All the experienced people bring some essential stuff of their own which you seem not to have. So guessing it was easy."
"Essential stuff?" Aaron was confused.
Wasn't his artifacts the most essential thing needed here? He still decided to ask the man for his opinion.
"Yes. Things like a chair. You are going to be here all day. They provide you a table to display your goods. But they don't provide you a chair. And an umbrella. You see it's an open area and the sun is going to climb up as we approach noon. It will be really hot. Or what if it starts to rain?"
"Such things might seem trivial, but you will know how important they are."
It was a sagely advice from someone who played the sport for a long time.
Such thoughts had never crossed Aaron's mind.
Aaron was busy thinking that perhaps he could leave and buy a couple of things since he had the advantage no else had, he had his gates. It would harldy take him a few minutes to get such things.
"Old man Rogan. It seems that you don't have anything to do. You are prentending to be knowledgable in front of a young lamb. "
The speaker was a new comer who seemed to be of a similar age to Rogan, but he was much better dressed and infact had a couple of followers with him. He was the owner of the stall on Aaron's other side.
"Young Man, don't listen to that old fool Rogan. All these years he had been participating but he has never managed to produce a artifact which had drawn attention of the mage association. Better stay away from him before you catch on his bad luck. "
Hearing the newcomer Rogan seemed to loose his temper.
"Enough Milano. Why don't you settle the score with a duel instead of running your mouth?"
"Duel? Why should I? I wasn't brought up by barbarians that I should be solving all my issues with a duel. "
"What are you scared? You display your expertise in artifacts. That's something you are good at. But you fail to show up to a challenge in battle which is my strength? " Rogan retorted.
Milano didn't have any reply for that. He was infact much better than Rogan at making artifacts. But Rogan was much better at battle.
This was an age old argument between the two. They had belonged to the same class in the same academy. Milano had gained success and recognization for his artifacts. He was a rich man. Although Rogan was stronger and carried more respect, he was definitely poorer than Milano. This always made him a little bitter. So he had always tried to make something and successfully show off in the fair. But he had failed repeatedly.
Aaron understood that both men had long history between them. He listened to both of them with a long face. It was going to be a long day for him being stuck between the two of them.
He put both of them out of his mind for now and continued to arrange his artifacts on the display. For the display he had out the edge on three daggers, two swords, two spades and two picks.
The quality of the products he had on display was ordinary. He had purposely chosen them to make a point about how good his technique was. Even ordinary product would end up being extraordinary under his atomic edge.
By the time he had finished up his display, the fair had officially begun.
