Walking in Another World - Ch 93

I spent more time than I expected on my little investigation about wagons, because I ended up visiting the place where they make them too. So now it’s lunchtime, and I’m having lunch with all the others, except Leila. No, we’re not leaving her out or anything.

“So, why isn’t Leila here?”

“She had something to talk about in the guild. Just between you and me, there’s a bit of a problem.”

Says Yor, quietly. Is it about that quest where they didn’t find any monsters?

“I hope it’s nothing.”

Yor, that’s a flag.

“Did Sera and Hikari finish what they had to do?”

“Yes, they’re done shopping, so we’ll leave together after this.”

I’m thinking maybe I asked for them to bring me too much, so I’m taking the bags from Sera and storing them in the Item Box. Of course, I’m using the dummy item bag to disguise it.

After lunch, I head to the merchant guild with Hikari and Sera. Mia is going back to the mansion with Yor and the others.

“Did someone call me?”

I present my guild card and ask why I was summoned here, and I’m taken to that room from before.

There I see Arthur, the guildmaster, waiting for me.

“I’m sorry for calling you so suddenly. There is something I want to ask you.”

He says, and then stops. What is it?”

“…Well, I heard you brought potions a few days ago. What happened to them?”

“I sold them somewhere else.”

“I see. We would like you to sell some to us if you still have them in stock…”

“At that price?”

“No, we are willing to pay a good price for potions of that quality.”

He’s talking like he knows about my potions. Did he get his hands on potions I sold on Idoru? Or the holy city? No, with items like these you never know who sold them, so he probably got that information from the guy I sold them to in Idoru.

“I don’t see why you would pay well for them.”

“Well…”

“Wouldn’t that mean that last time I was here, you tried to buy them for less than they’re worth?”

His face is twisting. It looks like I hit a sore spot.

Ah, I think I know what it is. Do they decide what to pay depending on guild rank? Or are they stocking up in advance because they’re thinking that problem in the guild is going to increase demand? It could also be because of a problem here in the merchant guild…

“Was the merchant guild trying to scam me? Or did they assign someone that can’t appraise potions?”

If that’s true, then it couldn’t be helped back in Idoru. Hikari said so too, and I admit that I was ignorant back then. But now I know that if they’re offering too little, I can just go somewhere else and get more. No, I’m not getting sullied by money!

“If that’s all, I’ll be going.”

I don’t think I’m getting anything out of this. The reputation of the merchant guild has been tanking lately anyway.

“Wait… Hold it.”

He insists, and I stop and turn around.

He glares at me like he’s made up his mind about something, and starts speaking.

“If that’s your attitude, we have an idea too. All right?”

Is that a threat? Is he getting mad at me because he doesn’t want to admit fault?

“I see. Then I’m going to take these potions to the chemist guild and the alchemist guild. I’ll ask them how much they’re willing to pay for them.”

Then I’ll respond in kind.

“And then I’ll tell everyone how much the merchant guild told me they’d pay me for them. I assume that’s not a problem.”

If I let them look down on me, the same thing is bound to keep happening with people like this. It’s important to stand my ground. Then again, if this leads to me having to quit the guild, that would bring its own problems because I’d have to find something else.

No, wouldn’t it actually be better to just pay the entry fee every time? But that would mean I would have to go through that procedure every time, and that’s a pain too.

“Master, you sure have a lot of enemies.”

Says Sera.

“I don’t know about that. It’s not like I’m picking fights with people that just approach me normally.”

“But are you sure about this? They might have paid well.”

Maybe. And I’m actually pressed for money right now, but I still don’t want to sell when I feel like I’m being pressured.

After returning to the mansion and talking about what happened, Mia looks exasperated, but I earn the sympathy of Yor and the others. I’m sure they’ve had similar bad experiences during their quests.

This leads to everyone starting grumbling about all sorts of things, and I see a scarier side of Trisha.

Yes, people who are generally calm are the scariest when they’re angry. But the others don’t seem too surprised to see her like this, and casually listen. It makes sense, they’ve been a party for three years.

This girls’ party starts heating up, so I tell them I’m going to my room, and when I get there I take items out of the Item Box and start messing with Alchemy.

First, I break ore into several piles. A single ore has a lot of stuff mixed in, so removing impurities is important. I do this to every ore I bought.

There’s also ore with impurities already removed for sale, but it’s more expensive. And the impurities themselves can be used for things like bullets, so I keep them.

I keep using Alchemy until I’m called for dinner, and the day ends without Leila returning to the mansion.