A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 5 Chapter 5 Part 8 **BONUS CHAPTER**
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Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist Editor: Weasalopes
「Yes. If it is not a problem, then I would like you to get all of them for me.」
「Thank you very much for your business, but unfortunately I have no way of knowing when they will next become available.」
The cat-eared merchant apologized. It would seem large quantities of amber are hard to arrange. I wonder why? Maybe it is just his own excuse to gatekeep his business, because if he sells too much amber to someone at any given time, that would mean a risk of his accidentally creating a competitor within the amber selling market?
In addition, if you could obtain amber as if it were gravel on the side of the road, it wouldn’t be as expensive as it is. Amber can be sold for a premium price because it is so rare and hard to come by. If it were any other way, then amber merchants would just start popping up like hallucinogenic mushrooms after an acid rain, resulting in a dramatic drop in amber’s market value, meaning that it would be worth nothing more than ordinary pebbles, and that is not a situation that any merchant worth his salt would desire.
I always thought that the amber merchant would employ Adventurers in order to sell amber in distant places to make an even bigger profit, but if he is not doing so already then likely there is not much amber available at the present time. And continuing that line of thought, if he suddenly started selling amber in places where there is little available its price would drop, destabilizing the local economy.
「I see. Well, if it is like that, then as unfortunate as it is, I guess there is nothing that we can do about it, is there?」
「Yes, it is exactly as you say, Mr. Customer. Unfortunately for us, amber is washed ashore where it can be safely collected only after there is a storm at sea, so more might become available the next time there has been a storm, and for the sake of my business I hope that this happens sooner rather than later.」
「Yeah, I guess we can only hope for that, huh? By the way, is it available in Talem or Tamel or whatever the name of that town is?」
「It is Talem. It is a town famous for its woodworks. Many kinds of wood that are typically used for decorative purposes can be found there, but it is for that reason we do not cater to that area with our services.」
It is the same place where the Duke is planning to get the mirrors decorated. So, it is a place renowned for its woodworks, huh?
If that place is so renowned, then I bet there are trees such as Japanese Cypress, Teak or Mahogany growing in that area.
「Could you please have wooden cases for the necklaces prepared from this Talem place for me?」
Right now, the necklaces that I bought here earlier were being kept in a cloth bag, while in Japan the necklaces have these special cases in which they can be stored. Apparently, as I should have expected, there is no such practice in this world, which means that if I want Roxanne and Sherry’s Amber Necklaces to be stored in a way that is not going to damage them, I need to have them custom made.
「Wooden cases?」
「Yes. Amber Necklaces such as I bought from you are, without a doubt, a very special kind of a high-class luxury item, so a case made out of wood found only in Talem would add to its appeal.」
「I see. You are certainly correct about that, but why are you asking me about it?」
The amber merchant has become quite restless. It is just as I thought. This guy does not understand that holding a luxurious item such as an Amber Necklace in a custom case will increase the sense of luxury surrounding the item, because you are going to make it seem that it is so valuable that it has to be kept separately from all of the other items in your possession, but if the word gets out that I am the only one selling necklaces in special wooden cases, then I will definitely gain quite a reputation to my name, and that is something that I would like to avoid for now.
「Well, if I will be the only one who sells necklaces in such cases, I will swiftly gain a reputation and it will be only a matter of time before others start to copy me. And besides, I am not from this region, but a faraway place, so I would rather have someone who is a resident of Hartz Duchy deal with the matters in Talem.」
「You… you are planning to sell amber necklaces in wooden cases?」
「Yes, because according to the market research that I have conducted, there definitely are people who would be willing to buy such a product, and it looks like it is going to have a pretty good chance of being a hit especially in Palmasque. Oh, but if you are getting worried about it, then be at ease, I can assure you that I am only going to be selling them around Palmasque, and not anywhere near the vicinity of Bode or Hartz Duchy.」
After all, this guy and the company that he runs are focused on selling amber and amber-related items exclusively in Hartz Duchy and the Imperial City, and he made it very clear last time that he does not wish to see his business disturbed, but as long as I promise to keep my own amber-selling business away from those two regions, he told me that he will not mind selling me his amber, and that is what I should stick to.
「So, in other words, what you are saying is that you would not mind if my company started selling Amber Necklaces in wooden cases?」
「Yes, that is exactly what I said. I would not mind that at all.」
「Understood. In that case, I will consider ordering these wooden cases for you immediately. Wooden cases from the Talem wood, was it? I will get to it right away, so you can definitely expect good news the next time we meet!」
After asking the cat-eared merchant to obtain for me a pair of wooden cases, which he seemed to be oddly enthusiastic about in the end, I left his store. Now that I requested him to get these items for me, we will not have to keep Roxanne’s and Sherry’s Amber Necklaces in a cloth bag anymore, because if I am to be honest with you, it did not look good to be keeping such an expensive pair of items in something so poor-looking, and the poor necklaces must be feeling all depressed about it, so putting them in proper cases is surely going to make them feel better on the spot.
Just like every man should have his own place to stay, every piece of jewelry should have its own case from which it could be displayed to others. That is definitely going to be something that the wife of the craftsmen who Roxanne and Sherry sold raw amber to will not be able to boast about, because just like this cat-eared merchant right here, in this world, no one is even thinking about the decorative functions of things, focusing too much on their practical aspects and applications instead. Well, if the plan with the wooden cases ends up being a bust, selling the Necklaces back to the craftsman’s wife once they start to get a little bit too worn for my liking will always be a valid option.
For the remainder of the day I did not go anywhere else in particular, and just stayed in the Labyrinth exploring and killing monsters for their Drop Items. When it was evening and time to go home, I went to the Adventurer’s Guild and bought the Shyuraf leaves and a small pot to go with it, and finally went home.
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Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon
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