Night Trading
"We can prepare for the worst.
Someone will try to stand in lord Mero's way because the store is making unusual profits.
If we continue as we are, we will steal the business of several local nobles and unbalance the local powers.
At the same time, for the moment, we are just unimportant people to the Touma family. Then someone will see the situation as if they eliminate us before the family appreciates us, they will still have a chance to prevent a significant change beyond their control.
So we have to act before everyone else." Tenur narrowed his eyes, thinking about hiring some mercenaries to work as security guards for the store.
Mercenaries existed in this place where Tenur was. They were usually free men, some former guards from prominent families, but who had been driven out for some reason.
Mercenaries were not the best option for anyone in this society since they changed sides easily depending on coins. But this was a viable option for anyone with resources and under danger, as the service was not as expensive and time-consuming as setting up a guard from scratch.
Every city in Noskain had its mercenaries, men who disposed of their services and had their own weapons and livelihoods.
"Is there anything else we can do besides prepare for an attack?" Amir asked.
"Yes, we can make agreements with some local powers to ensure that families have benefits if we continue to exist.
That will lessen the pressure on us." Tenur said, thinking about the alternatives. "At the same time, create something to avoid negative surprises."
"Oh?"
"I'll tell you about something..." Tenur quickly told Amir about a method of protecting their interests.
That man opened his eyes in surprise and moved forward, walking and listening to Tenur, feeling more confident to face the unseen threats that surrounded them.
...
Later that night, at the headquarters of the Amari family...
A servant had just knocked on the door of the room of the patriarch of this family, waking up this individual and his wife.
Waking up soon after having gone to bed to rest, that man got up from his bed with an ugly expression on his face, thinking of punishing that disobedient servant.
But as he opened the door in the darkness of his room, he heard before he could say anything.
"My lord, forgive me for preventing your rest. But a representative of the Touma family has just asked for a meeting with you." That man said quickly to try to diminish somehow any anger that might have been in the heart of that old white-haired man.
"Touma family?" The Amari patriarch frowned, not expecting to hear this from his servant, even forgetting that he had been woken up outside his working hours. "What is this about? Why would someone from that family come to me in the middle of the night?"
"They didn't tell me, my lord. Only that it is urgent and that the family can benefit greatly from it." The servant, dressed in a yellow robe, said this, making his lord interested.
"Where are they?"
"In the guest yard, master."
"Very well. I'll put something on and be right down!" He closed the door and went back inside.
...
After a few moments of waiting, Tenur and Amir saw a man with long white hair dressed in a high-standard brown robe appear at the courtyard entrance.
They stood up from where they were standing, looking at this person with whom they wished to do business.
After Amir had heard from Tenur several of the plans this slave had to ensure the continuity of Mero's store, this servant had hypothesized that the two of them would already begin doing business this evening.
If their enemies would act against them, why not start forming an alliance immediately?
Tenur was even more fearful for his life that Amir was loyal to Mero, so he agreed and was there to take care of these matters with the Amari patriarch.
The patriarch recognized these two, for he had recently heard many rumors about the new products from the Teuma family store and had even sent a servant to buy things for him there.
The bread had already won the palate of this old fellow while he awaited the day when he would receive the plaster to use on his property.
On that account, he did not ignore these two because they were only a servant and a slave of Mero Touma.
"Representatives of the Touma family, I hear you are after me?" He asked as he indicated for those two to accompany him to a more comfortable room. "What is this about? I would love to hear about it from someone capable of creating so many magnificent things."
Tenur knew that this old fellow was talking about him and answered straight to the point. "Senior, as we all know, the Amari family and lord Mero's store sell very different resources for the most part. We only sold three similar types of grains previously."
That man nodded, considering they were selling some of the ingredients used in Tenur's bread, which this fellow had bought from his family's store the day before to keep producing.
This man knew about this purchase from Tenur, and that young master Gaber had tried to cause trouble unfairly for Tenur because of this purchase.
He also knew about the ingredients of the bread because his family was involved in the grain trade locally, and they had already sent some of their servants to try to replicate the product from Mero's store.
Unfortunately, so far, it has not turned out well at all...
They didn't know all the ingredients or the quantities, so they were failing.
In any case, he knew that he only had three products in common with Mero's store and continued to pay attention to this slave's speech.
"Well, we are representing lord Mero here and wish to form an agreement with the senior to no longer sell those three products in that store. In exchange, the Amari family would become allies with the local Touma family store." Tenur made his proposal.
"For this deal to be acceptable to the Amari family, we will not sell the three grains, and whenever we need them, we will buy directly from you instead of other local powers.
At the same time, we will give five stuffed loaves of bread to the Amari family daily, and we will also give them discounts on any purchases made by your family in the store."
Upon hearing this proposal, Adham Amari narrowed his eyes, looking at Tenur thoughtfully. 'The five loaves don't make much difference if you think about the short term, but that would be 150 silver coins in 30 days or the value of two healthy slaves in a year...
That's pretty generous. Even more so considering that we would get a discount on all the products in the store and we wouldn't be competitors in anything.'
Families of Noskain were constantly moving to form partnerships and alliances, so Tenur's proposal was by no means unfamiliar to Adham. On the contrary, it greatly pleased this old fellow, who knew that some powers were already looking strangely at Mero's store.
He was not sure whether he would be in favor or against Mero's store in the future. At any moment, its master could sell everything the Amari family sold...
So they were potential rivals!
But everything would change for this man in a potential alliance between the parties.
"We can close a deal. But I will need your master here in Cusca to make it official." Adham said.
Amir smiled upon hearing this since, of the two there, he was the most nervous about the possibility of this old man in front of them accepting a deal.
"That is possible. But it would take weeks before lord Mero could come to Cusca." Amir said, looking first at that patriarch but then at Tenur.
Tenur then said. "We can start fulfilling the agreement immediately if the senior wants to, and we can decide on the permanence of the agreement when lord Mero arrives. We just need the Amari family to show they agree and act as an ally to follow through on what I promised."
"Oh? How much of a discount would we get?" The patriarch asked.
"On the loaves, you could pay instead of 100 bronze coins per unit, pay 85. On plaster, instead of 10 bronze coins per kilo, pay 8. And on paint, 4 silver coins and 50 bronze coins per bucket." Tenur replied. "All this for the price of your support as a military and trade ally."
...