Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 5 - Ch 4.12

Yay, my ignorance is on full display yet again.

There are many things about this world that I dont know and this is one of those things. Anyway, the words of the cat-eared female clerk basically confirmed what Sherry was telling me earlier: that amber is indeed harvested from near the sea(TL Note: No shit Sherlock.). If that is the case, then maybe what they are dealing with here is not actually amber, but pearls instead?

I often replace myself travelling to faraway places, so I have decided to sell amber during those travels of mine. I heard about this place from the Duke of Hartz and the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy, and both of them advised me to come here in case that I would ever want to buy and sell amber.

I then showed her the letter of introduction that the Duke has written for me.

Please, sir, if you could wait here for just a little bit while I confirm this letters contents, that would be much appreciated.

The cat-eared clerk then bowed to me respectfully as she took the letter of recommendation from my hands and then walked away to the depths of the shop with my letter in tow. And after a short while.

This letter of introduction. It has been penned by the hand of the Duke himself!

A bitter-looking old merchant appeared immediately from the back of the store where the cat-eared female clerk was supposed to have taken the letter. I was hoping for an another appearance of a cat-eared servant, but what I got myself instead was a cat man who apparently was the one responsible for an entire shop. And exactly like I thought, cat-eared do not look good on older guys. In fact, they do not fit him at all, making him look as if he was some kind of a poor excuse of a cosplayer.

Yes, that letter of introduction has indeed been penned by the Duke of Hartz Duchy.

He gestured me with his hand to come with him to the room in the back of the shop. When I entered that room, the female cat-eared clerk from before even offered me herbal tea. I guess this has to be the power of the letter of introduction prepared by the Duke of the entire Duchy himself.

The merchant gestured me to sit on the sofa that was placed in the room, so I sat in the middle of it while having Roxanne and Sherry sit at the either side of me. Then, the female clerk with cat ears came to the table and placed four cups on it, pouring the herbal tea not only for the merchant and myself, but also for Roxanne and Sherry as well. So she is treating them as full-blown customers as well, instead of just something of an accessory to my own person? That is good. Very good, even.

Thank you, and sorry for the trouble.

Yes, thank you.

Both of them thanked the cat-eared clerk politely.

So, let us hear it then. What is it that brings you here, exactly?

I would like to get myself involved in the business of selling amber.

The old merchant gazed at me from beyond the other side of the table that was placed in between the two sofas. In the meantime, he nodded at the cat-eared clerk, signaling her that she might leave. Oooh, no, do not go, you can stay here a bit longer! Damn, what a waste of a perfectly good cat-girl that I could have used to feast my eyes upon her cuteness! Anyway, I guess it is now the time to switch into the business mode and start the talks with this guy here in all seriousness.

The Duke and the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy advised me that if I ever wanted to start dealing with amber, this store should definitely be the place that I should visit, and so I came here with their encouragement.

In my opening statement, I chose to further emphasize my connection to the big shots of Hartz Duchy. There is always a possibility that it might not mean much in the end due to the Dukes light-hearted and free-spirited nature being widely known in these parts, but still, if I managed to get myself a connection to the two of the most important people in the entire Duchy, then why not make use of it whenever I get the chance? Maybe it is going to work like a charm, or maybe it will not work at all. Whatever the case may be here, I guess I am about to replace that out for myself.

I figured as much. Since there are not that many customers who come here to my shop with the letter of introduction written directly by the Duke himself, then that has to mean that you really must be someone who is in the Dukes good graces, and that is why me and the personnel of my shop are going to treat you with the same level of esteem and respect as we would the Duke himself.

I see.

However, before we start talking about anything that is going to be business-related, there is one thing that I want you to understand: as an establishment, this shop operates primarily within the borders of Hartz Duchy, Imperial City and its vicinity, and because of that I would have preferred it if my business within those regions remained undisturbed so that it could continue as is. So, if the business that you want to have with me is not about doing anything in these regions, and if your order is going to be something that could be fulfilled from the remainder of our stock that we have right here, I would be more than happy to help you out with that. So, what is your plan going to be exactly, sir?

So, it seems that this shop is still going to do business properly, even if they are not going to be lined up with amber in the store directly. And I can definitely see where this man is going with what he said about having his region of operations and not wanting that region to be disturbed. If I was in his shoes, then I definitely would not want some unknown upstart to just barge into my field of business disturbing the stability of what has already been established, and it would have been a huge problem for him if his business got too ruined because of such an unexpected influence from the outside. Of course, my primary goal here buy amber from him at the lowest price possible so that I could then sell it in Palmasque at the highest possible price for maximum profits, but even if I manage to buy it at relatively cheap price by getting it directly from this shop, there is also the problem of transportation costs that I need to take into consideration. Since carrying it from Palmasque to the Imperial City results in essentially doubling the original cost of the Palmasque Mirror, then I am afraid that it might just end up being exactly the same with amber and the costs of its transportation, and that would be pretty bad for business from my perspective. Or rather, it would have been, since Adventurers, in other words those who have access to Field Walkeror in my case, to Warp, the superior version of Field Walker, can essentially dump all of the transportation costs thanks to them having access to those skills.

I am planning to do a bit of business in Palmasque this time, and because it is only going to be an occasional thing, not a regular trade I do not plan on selling amber there in large quantities.

I understand. If you really plan on selling amber only in small quantities, then it does not really matter where exactly you are going to be selling it, because it will not end up destabilizing the market, but if you say that you want to do it in such a distant place as Palmasque, then I have no reason to refuse selling the amber from my shop to you, so it is going to be perfectly fine for us to do business.

As he was saying that, the old cat-eared merchant has produced a wooden box from somewhere and placed it on the table. Does that mean that he liked my answer so much that he is going to do business with me with no further questions asked from now on?! Because it would certainly be great if he did that, as it would make things much simpler and cause them to move on at a much smoother pace.