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Volume 8 Chapter 3 Part 2

This is looking to be the limit of what Sherry can achieve as a negotiator. That being said, even though Sherry herself claims to dislike brokers and middlemen, then I say that she has all of the makings needed to become an outstanding broker herself.

「Then I’ll be buying these two necklaces.」

「Thank you very much for your patronage. I made a good business today, so I think this calls for a little celebration. Alright then, the total amount to pay for the two necklaces shall be eighty four thousand Nars in total.」

And of course, when it comes down to the final payment, my thirty percent discount kicks in because I bough more than just one thing from him, resulting in the cutting of the price by the said thirty percent. You might say that me using that discount at literally every chance I get is unfair and bad for the business of the people from whom I am buying these things, but I don’t care about that. This is a Bonus Skill, so I am going to use it to gain advantage over the others whenever I can.

I will show no mercy. I’m even willing to become a bad guy in the eyes of others if I have to, but no matter what happens, using my 「Thirty Percent Discount」Bonus Skill is the one thing that I won’t stop doing.

I pay the money and receive a small wooden case as gift along with the Amber Necklace. We then went to Bode’s Adventurers Guild, and from Bode’s Adventurers Guild we warped to the Labyrinth of Zabir, where we start hunting monsters under Roxanne’s guidance.

「Now that I think about it, why did you ask for a necklace with a cost within fifty thousand Nars? It’s similar to the one we sold to the workshop owner’s wife, and the one we sold to her had a cost of around fifty five thousand Nars if I remember correctly, right?」

When I take a breather after having to recover some of my lost MP, I ask Sherry.

「Only an amateur would sell an item which costs fifty thousand Nars for exactly fifty thousand Nars. A real merchant would sell a fifty thousand Nars costing item for fifty five thousand Nars. Going by the same logic, if I have to sell something for fifty five thousand Nars, I will keep the cost limited to fifty thousand  Nars.」

「I see.」

When it comes to all that stuff related to buying and selling, I think it’ll be better if I leave the thinking and planning up to Sherry. I’m a professional, after all. A professional consumer, that is. Therefore its only natural that a pro consumer would leave the bothersome things to a pro negotiator like Sherry.

「Umm… that merchant first put the fifty thousand Nars necklace in front of us for comparison. The necklace, however, was of inferior quality. It shows that even though he might not look like it, that merchant is in fact a pretty cunning one. He must’ve known that everyone would doubt whether that necklace was really worth fifty thousand Nars or not, and that is exactly why he took out that fifty six thousand Nars necklace next. Between the fifty thousand Nars necklace and the fifty six thousand Nars necklace, everyone would choose the latter, since most of the people tends to think that the more expensive an item is, the better its quality will be.」

So those were the tactics used during the negotiation, huh? Sherry is  as reliable as always if she was able to pick up on all of that and still managed to steer both the conversation and the buying process in her favor.

「In Palmasque, will you be able to sell it for more than the actual cost of the necklace?」

「Now that I know the cost this time, it is going to be difficult. But it’s precisely because I know the cost of the necklace that, I will try my hardest during the bargaining to keep myself from going into the red and to keep the other party from noticing what we’re going for here immediately. It is going to be possible, but to be as much on the safe side as possible we might want to do some preparations beforehand. However, we have already sold similar necklace to the merchant’s wife. Even if I’m prepared, if I try to sell it for more than the price that we stated last time, the merchant’s wife won’t probably be as polite this time as she was last time when she realizes that we were essentially trying to scam her.」

It does seem like its going to be difficult no matter how you look at it. Oh well, I will just entrust it to Sherry and hope for the best. As long as she’ll be in charge of the whole operation, then I’m sure that it’s going to turn out a success.

「Is that so? As expected of you, Sherry.」

「Not at all. Even after all that negotiation that I did, I couldn’t make him lower the price by more than five hundred Nars at a time. Later, however, he lowered it by about thirty percent without saying anything for some reason, so I wonder why did he do that? Was it due to some hidden factor that I failed to have noticed? Or maybe it was something else entirely?」

「Oh r-really?」

Sherry seems to have caught wind of my 「Thirty Percent Discount」Bonus Skill. To be honest though, I am surprised that she only noticed that just now, since she had numerous occasions earlier when she could have noticed it way easier. Or maybe she did notice, but she has chosen not to say anything about it up until this point?

Should I try shuffling it with a ten percent discount every now and then just throw her off of any suspicions that she might be having?

「It’s natural for such a virtuous person as Master.」

「Natural, desu.」

「Once again, I wouldn’t go as far as to call myself a virtuous person by any means but yeah, such a thing is definitely not out of place, so if you think that’s what that was then it has to be it.」

I grab the straw provided to me by Roxanne. As for Miria, I’m not sure if she understands what we are even talking about here, but as long as she also agrees with it, there’s no need to correct her.

In order to escape from this situation, I jump to Palmasque.

「This time around, we might be getting back pretty late, sp please take that under advisement, all right, master?」

「Okay, I understand.」

We won’t consign the necklace to the merchant’s wife alone. Rather than that, we would have her introduce us to the prospective buyers to whom we would then sell the necklace directly. But because of that, it is exactly like Sherry said: the whole procedure is going to take much more time, and so the girls might not be back until much later than usual.

「Well then, we shall be on our way now.」

「I’ll do my best not to fail master’s expectations.」

「Go, desu, go!」

I see the three of them off from Palmasque’s Adventurers Guild, and once I am left alone, I head back to Quratar via Zabir’s Labyrinth. I then engage in the Floor Boss battle on Quratar Labyrinth’s fifth floor to recover my MP as well as to replenish the reserves of Pepper. With Durandal, I can take out Spice Spider by myself without any issues whatsoever. Hell, I bet that I could even take it on with my eyes closed now.

After the Floor Boss battle, I jump to the Merchants Guild in Quratar and I call for Luke the Broker, waiting for his arrival in the waiting room.

「Welcome. What kind of business brings you here today?」

「Actually, I’m not here to place any orders this time, but to inquire about something. If you don’t mind hearing me out, that is.」

「Of course. Come with me, please.」

Luke comes over shortly after I arrived and leads me to the usual meeting room, where I take a seat in one of the chairs offered to me and then proceed to talk to Luke.

「Do you know anything about the slave auctions held on the holidays?」

「Yes. As a matter of fact, I am indeed privy to the knowledge about them.」

「Good, that’s going to make things easier. Long story short: I intend to participate in it, so I would like to know when exactly it is going to be held.」