A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 5 Chapter 1 Part 19
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Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist Editor: Weasalopes
Mr. Luke said while maintaining a perfectly expressionless face. It was that kind of face that made it really difficult to discern whether he was telling the truth or was he simply putting up a front. Was he impressed that I have decided to put my trust in him, or was he laughing in his heart thinking that I am someone gullible who might be an easy target to cheat?
「You said that the price of this Mermaid Skill Crystal was twenty-five hundred Nars, correct?」
「Yes, that is indeed the price that I have listed in the message that my messenger delivered to you.」
「Good. If you ever happen upon yet another Monster Skill Crystal that would be so cheap, then I would be very much interested in such Skill Crystal again.」
「Of course. In that case I would like you to pay five hundred Nars as an advance fee for such a transaction.」
「………..」
I waited for a moment to see if anything was going to happen, but nothing seemed to be pointing to that. Looks like my thirty percent discount is not going to work this time, as unfortunate as that that may sound, because a part of me was hoping that I would only have to pay around two thousand Nars for it with my discounts. I could always try asking him directly how much that would be in total, but that might have been a little too blatant, right? Actually, that twenty-five hundred Nars might be the exact amount of money that Luke would be handling over to the seller from whom he obtained the Mermaid Skill Crystal, so if I was to give him only two thousand Nars instead of twenty-five hundred, that would mean that I would still be in the red and I would not have enough to finalize the purchase. There is nothing that I can do about it now, but this is exactly one of those times where I would have liked it for the discount to actually work. As inconvenient as that might be for me right now, I have no other choice but to cough up the full amount and pay exactly how much I was told to pay.
With the purchase of the Mermaid Skill Crystal done and completed, we said our goodbyes to Mr. Luke and went downstairs to the Merchants Guild’s ground floor where I opened up 「Warp’s」 portal on the wall of the waiting room, creating a passage that we then used to travel straight to the Labyrinth of Vale.
「Master, may I say something blunt?」
「Sure, go right ahead. I will listen to it, no matter what that might be.」
As soon as we entered the Labyrinth, Sherry asked me if she could say something without sugarcoating, and I gave her the go-ahead because I was thinking that I might know what this was going to be about.
「I do not wish to question your actions and decisions, but with all due respect…. I think you trust that middleman way too much than you should have.」
And sure enough, it was exactly about the thing that I was anticipating. Sherry normally would not have said something direct like that to me, but perhaps knowing that there was no people around gave her all the encouragement that she needed.
And of course, she used that precious opportunity to once again remind me that she does not trust the middlemen all that much. But is it just me, or does she seem to have some kind of unusual obsession about them?
「Well, I knew that there was probably nothing for us to worry about since this was our very first time using his services, so he probably would not risk selling us a counterfeit Skill Crystal because of what might have happened if he were to be found out, and if that man really is as smart as he think he is, then he is not going to try to outright scam us, but just to be on the safe side, we should remain as cautious as possible when doing business with him. At some point he might try to sell us counterfeited items, but any middleman worth his salt would not dare do something like that repeatedly for a few times in a row because that would be straight up pushing his luck too far. And of course, if we end up catching him in the act, then we might just have to “persuade” him into giving us a little consolation fee as compensation for the damages that his fake would-be items would have eventually caused us.」
I am kidding about that last part of course…. Or am I?
「That sounds like a good strategy in theory, but is there actually a way for us regular people to be able to discern if the item we are getting sold is a counterfeit or not? Because if we were to discover that after the purchase has been completed, then it would most likely be too late for us to do anything, 」
「Well, one way to go about it would be to inspect the item as closely and accurately as possible and observe the way in which he reacts as you continue to poke around the items. If the middleman starts getting unusually nervous or shows any signs of acting suspiciously, then you would definitely know that we are on the right track.」
「And you would be able to notice signs like that immediately when they would appear?!」
「Of course! Who do you take me for?」
No, no, no, you have to be joking, right?
「What a wonderful idea! That way we would be willing to expose anyone who would be trying to deceive us by thinking that we are doing just a regular inspection of the item while having an entirely different goal in mind, but because inspecting your items is an obvious thing to do, the one who would try to deceive us would have no choice or reason to deny us from doing that, because then he or she would have immediately outed themselves as scammers!」
Sherry nodded her head vigorously at Roxanne’s words, glad that she was able to understand her line of thinking, while I was grabbing my own head in disbelief in my mind. Yo, guys, chill out a little, okay? I was only joking with that, so there is no need for you to be taking all of that so seriously.
「All right, master. We understand that what you did was meant to be a lesson for us and a warning for that middleman, so allow me to apologize for trying to lecture you. Now that I know what was your intention with that, I have no problems with it whatsoever.」
「I can say the same. Thank you for this valuable opportunity to learn, master.」
「As expected of master, always so forward-thinking and considering every possibility with the long-term consequences in mind.」
No, guys, I really mean it, I only said it as a joke, it is not like I would ever consider seriously doing something like that, because that would definitely end up branding us as criminals for sure, causing our peaceful lives to be over once and for all without any possibility of getting them back. So then, why are you taking this so seriously and treat it as if it was a good thing, huh, Roxanne?
「When we were still back at the Merchants Guild I saw the listings of the winning bid from every auction that has been conducted yesterday, and it was definitely sold for twenty-five hundred Nars, and since the price of the starting bid was set at thirty-three hundred Nars, which we can assume to be its typical market price, and it would mean that the price at which the middleman sold it to master was definitely cheaper than the market price, so at the very least he was not lying about the price, it seems, so if that middleman thinks that he might deceive us in the future or lead us by the noses when it comes to the prices of the items, then he is going to be in for quite a rude awakening if he keeps underestimating my investigative and research-conducting skills! Oh, just thinking of all the possible strategies that we could employ here is making me wonderfully nervous with anticipation!」
Guys, let me repeat myself. It. Was. Only. A. Joke. Nothing more than that. I never intended things to escalate this far when I made that comment, but seeing as how Sherry was coming up with a lot of strategies and scenarios as if she was supposed to go to war with Luke the Broker or something has made me literally speechless and dumbfounded.
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