Shui clenched his fists as he realized that all the products in the store were priced below what Cusca typically saw.
In fact, with those prices, the Touma family store was the cheapest in this area!
Since Shui was making low-cost sales to his brother-in-law, who resold locally in the small store of Khaa, this was by no means good for them.
Customers who bought products from their store did so for below-average prices. But with a store like this selling at prices even lower than those charged by Khaa, their business would be greatly hindered.
Worse, Shui was planning to move to harm Tenur and make this slave look guilty of some financial problems. But since Tenur himself was already lowering prices and giving a justification for losses, this man was nervous, thinking he would fail.
'How will I make him look intent on harming lord Mero if he acts like this publicly?' Shui gave Tenur an ugly look.
It was one thing for Tenur to cause damage by acting without explaining anything or in secret. But by speaking out loud, what he intended changed everything!
He would at least appear to be following a plan, not just being incompetent!
While Shui was reasoning about what he should do, Unas took the opportunity and started shopping.
He had his restaurant, and this place sold many ingredients that were not very perishable, useful for his business. So he had no reason not to take advantage of the opportunity.
"Slave, come here and take 10 kilograms of..." Unas began to give his orders to the slaves on hand for service inside the store, while now and then, some slaves would come by with a bucket with plaster to continue the work in front of the store.
But not only that, Tenur wanted to plaster the walls of the store's interior to further improve the look of this establishment and even improve the lighting.
So with the front almost entirely covered in plaster, he had already ordered some captives to begin the interior work.
"Hello, my master sent me here to ask..."
While Unas was making his requests, a servant of some local nobleman entered that store at the behest of his master, who had earlier seen what was going on at the front of this place.
But upon seeing the prices of the products, this individual who could read and count couldn't help but eat his words to open his mouth and ask. "Are those prices correct?"
"Yes, but for only one week," Tenur answered promptly, right now standing next to the counter, taking over the accounting responsibilities.
He already had his plan with Amir to catch Shui in the act, but that didn't involve him risking the store's coins daily!
That servant heard him and promptly ran back from where he came to alert his master of this important news.
Nobles might be wealthy, but most of these individuals were attached to their resources and would not spend without thinking.
Some would even have strange extravagances, but at the same time, they would try to economize on everyday things and even complain about high food prices and the like.
So when prices dropped, even heirs used to go shopping.
Considering that the richest had the most significant spending powers, sometimes the savings could be such that that noble could buy a new slave with the amount saved!
Since many of the local wealthy were people attached to their coins, soon, several people would enter Mero's store to make purchases.
Unas would leave that place after spending 15 silver coins, a significant amount, considering that previously the average daily income of that store was 50 silver coins.
...
After 3 hours after the opening, Mero's store had received more than 40 people, all of whom had bought something.
Because of this, Tenur had collected about 400 silver coins but registered 200 kilos of plaster orders, that is, another 20 silver coins to be paid in the next 3 to 4 days.
But as people slowly emptied Mero's store, finding everything very unique in that place, suddenly a tasty smell spread throughout that store.
"Hmmm? What is that smell?" A local young nobleman wondered as he registered his plaster order with Tenur.
The other people in the surrounding area also noticed the delicious smell coming from behind the wall built the day before and looked at this slave with inquisitive glances.
Even Amir looked at Tenur with several questions in mind, feeling his mouth salivate.
The smell they were smelling was that of bread. However, as much as bread existed in this place, it was usually of inferior quality. At the same time, most people, even noblemen, would only eat stale bread, which was naturally not good.
When they smelled the stuffed bread that Tenur had taught the slaves to make, everyone stopped paying attention to the store, the products on sale, or the plaster. All that was in their minds at that moment was this bread with the smell of some meat.
Gulp!
'What is it?' Shui found himself distracted from his hatred for Tenur and the fear he had been having, afraid that nothing would be left in that store.
Tenur smiled and explained to everyone. "Dear customers, as the opening of the store under new management, today we will give you a tasting of an appetizer made with ingredients sold in this store of lord Mero.
Starting today, daily, we will have the production of 30 bread near sunset time.
Today we have only 10 to give you free of charge and another 20 to be sold."
Gulp!
"Where is that bread? Quick, bring me one!" A middle-aged nobleman, a bit bulkier than the other people in the vicinity, said this loudly, pushing the people in front of him to get closer to Tenur.
Tenur was no fool to make life difficult for the people in this place, but he explained. "Senior, for the ones to be sold, their buyers can do what they wish. But the ones we will give away will be split and served in 5 servings each, so all the customers here will have a chance to taste them."
"Split?" That man asked. "Never mind that, slave. Just tell me the value of one of those bread, and I'll buy it!"
Tenur would not ask these people to line up, so he decided to serve him first since no one complained about that fellow.
He then said. "Senior, it's 100 bronze coins per bread. Unfortunately, we only have 20, so I ask you to buy only 1 so that the other customers can also buy."
That man would not stand against all the nobles in the city, so he took this slave's advice, thinking it was rather expensive to pay 100 coins for bread but not give up so as not to look poor.
'100 coins? How absurd is that?' Shui wondered, considering that fresh bread in a bakery cost at most ten coins.
But when that man paid and Tenur ordered that those loaves that were to be divided among the customers and those to be sold be brought from the kitchen, everyone understood the reason for the value.
That bread was 40 centimeters long, 14 centimeters wide, and 4 centimeters high.
It had on its top a design that looked like braids, with the inner filling exposed, showing reddish roasted meat that was making everyone salivate.
"What's that?" Another wealthy local asked, having never seen such a thing before.
Tenur then wrapped the bread of the first paying customer in a piece of paper, smiling as he saw the stares of the people in the surrounding area.
Meanwhile, one of his trusted slaves cut up the ten loaves to be distributed free of charge and slowly offered this gift to the various customers in the store.
There were only 35 people there at the moment, so the ten loaves of bread were enough to give them all a taste and satisfy the palates of Mero, Shui, and the servants of some of those rich people.
Slaves didn't taste anything, of course. They just watched their masters and some leading servants taste that soft bread.
Tenur would have nothing either since his pleasure was not to eat tasty things but to earn coins and have results that would lead him to a good life in this backward world.
So he would be delighted to collect another 20 silver coins from the sale of the bread but also guarantee 30 silver coins for the next day with the reservation of the day's 30 loaves.
So he would continue collecting coins until the sun began to set and it was time to close up the store.
Upon closing the store, Tenur would find that he had incredibly collected 834 silver coins at the opening!
...