The Merchants’ Guild
We headed to the Merchants’ Guild with Benno carrying me. At first I had been walking on my own, but Benno got so mad at my walking speed that he yelled “You’re slow! This is a waste of time,” and picked me right up. Along the way he lectured me about the importance of time, giving me no room to protest.
“By the way, Mr. Benno. What is the Merchants’ Guild, exactly?” It was very possible that this Merchants’ Guild was different from the ones I was familiar with, so I decided to ask for details.
“What, you don’t know?”
“I’ve never been. Do you know about it, Lutz?”
“It’s just a place for people who buy and sell stuff, yeah?” I had thrown the ball into Lutz’s court in case every kid in the city knew about the Guild, but his reply wasn’t anything I couldn’t surmise myself from the name alone.
Benno, sighing, gave us an explanation. “...Well, you’re not wrong. The Guild’s main job is to give permits to those wanting to open stores in the cities, and to punish stores violating the law. You can’t open a store without the Merchants’ Guild’s permission, not even a stand at the market. On top of that, everyone in the business needs to register with the Guild. Anyone doing business unregistered gets punished severely.” In other words, it was like a government office dealing with trade. Since they gave permission to open stores and registered merchant apprentices, that probably wasn’t too far from the truth.
“The Guild seems like an organization with a lot of political power.”
“That’s right. It’s powerful and greedy. You gotta pay to register an apprentice, you gotta pay more if you want to start a new business, and basically anything you do there will have some kind of fee attached.” Perhaps it was a shared trait among all worlds that money was required for doing anything. This was a cruel world for poor people.
“Either way, a kid can become a merchant apprentice after his baptism gets registered there. Everyone working in a store is connected to the buying and selling of products. You two will only be temporarily registered until your baptism, but this is the only way I can sell the paper, hairpins... any products you bring me.”
“Does that mean we have to be registered with the Guild for you to buy our paper?”
“Correct.”
I see. Benno was rushing our registration so that he could buy our prototypes. I nodded to myself, but Benno furrowed his brows.
“I’m hoping this goes smoothly, but we’re dealing with that insufferable old geezer here. He’s not gonna let this happen without butting in.”
Well, that’s not something I expected to hear. I thought Benno was a higher-up in the Merchants’ Guild, but I guess not. Maybe there’s a faction war going on?
“Y’see, my store is expanding at a pretty fast rate. The guildmaster wants a piece of the pie and is always trying to snatch as much of my profit as he can. Understand? Keep quiet and don’t say anything unnecessary.”
“Okay.” Lutz and I both replied together. Neither of us had any intention of getting between two skilled merchants battling it out. It’d be like jumping into a pit of angry lions.
“Right. About that hairpin you brought, Myne.”
“This one?” I opened my tote bag a bit to show the hair ornament.
Benno nodded and then looked at me with his dark-red shark eyes. “How many days does it take to make one of those?”
“If I have all the materials ready and Lutz makes the wood part for me, and if I’m not feeling sick... Ummm, I can finish the flower part in about a single day, if I work really hard.” It would also depend on the number of small flowers, but still, it would generally take me a day’s work at my speed. My mom, skilled at sewing as she was, could probably finish one within the span of two bells.
“What about you, Lutz?”
“Shaving the wood and stuff should probably just take a single bell.”
“Alright. Good,” said Benno, his tone pleased but his eyes still gleaming sharply.
“Why is that good?”
“You’ll see.” With the grin of a carnivore that had just found its next target, Benno jutted his chin forward. There I saw the Merchants’ Guild building.
The Merchants’ Guild was a large building constructed in the corner of the central plaza. That alone signified that it was a wealthy organization, but on top of that, every floor of the building was part of the Guild, with no rooms being rented out to anyone.
The front door had an armed guard standing in front of it. After giving Lutz and me a suspicious look, he turned to Benno. “What brings you here today?”
“Getting these two a temporary registration.”
The guard opened the door. We went inside and I was stunned to see that it immediately led to a staircase. The stairs were somewhat wide, but I couldn’t see any path to the first floor.
“Mr. Benno, what kind of first floor does this building have?”
“Right. The first floor here is used for parking carriages and carts. It’d get in the way of public business if carriages were to line the main street. You’d see them if you went out around back.”
We got to the second floor and reached a wide hall. A large number of people were traversing through it, going every which way. It was such a bustling crowd that I actually felt surprised, like wow, this really was a big city with a lot of people.
“We’ve got no business here. We’re taking the inner staircase to the third floor.”
The path to the inner staircase was safe for me since Benno was carrying me, but I saw Lutz getting crushed by the crowd of people as he followed behind us.
“Are you okay, Lutz?”
“Yeah, but man... it’s like a festival here.”
“This is where people apply for stands at the market and where traveling merchants come to get permission to do business. It gets busy like this when the market’s coming up. Once it ends, it’ll be quiet for a bit.”
“Neat.”
The inner staircase was blocked by a metal fence with another guard standing in front of it. “Registration card, please.”
“All three of us are going up.”
“Understood.”
Benno took out a metal card and handed it over to the guard, who then held it out toward the gate. Immediately, the gate shone with a white light and then melted into thin air until it was gone.
“Bwuh?! What was that?!”
“It’s a magic tool. Lutz, don’t let go of my hand. It’ll knock you back.”
“R-Right.” Benno held me up with one arm while taking Lutz’s hand with the other before walking up the staircase.
“I thought that only nobles could use magic.”
“The executives of organizations like these generally have connections within the nobility. More than a few nobles don’t hesitate to give out magic tools if they determine that it’ll be a net positive for them.”
“I’ve never seen a gate like that before.” I thought the same thing when I signed the magic contract, but apparently this was much more of a fantasy world than I had expected.
Once we finished climbing the stairs, Benno let go of Lutz’s hand and set me onto the floor. White walls stretched into the distance and I could see what looked like a receptionist counter near the other end. As the third floor was for those who already owned stores in the city, there were fewer people and it was a lot quieter than the second floor, which had to deal with anyone wanting to open a stand in the market.
Although the second floor had been dusty and dirty with wood flooring, the third floor had carpet and was kept clean. It had the atmosphere of a place where a decent sum of money was being dedicated to its maintenance and furnishing. A single glance would remind you that we lived in a stratified, status-based society.
“There are conference rooms behind these walls. Neither of you will be seeing the inside of one,” explained Benno, pointing at the white walls while walking to the counter. Lutz and I held hands and followed behind him. The floor’s high-class atmosphere was unlike anything I dealt with in my normal life, and it was making me nervous.
We passed by the conference rooms and reached the counter stretching from wall to wall at the end. There were children working behind it, probably apprentices, reading wooden cards and using calculators to do math.
“Lutz, you’ll really want to learn math and letters over the winter.”
“...Yeah.”
There was a sofa by the counter to relax on, though the area it was in felt more like a reception office than a waiting room.
“Wait, is that a bookshelf?!” I looked around and saw a rack with wooden cards and pieces of parchment lining its shelves. My enthusiasm immediately shot through the roof.
Benno shot me a somewhat confused look. “More or less. It’s a bookshelf with rules for opening stores, simple maps of this region, and scrolls detailing the lineage of nobles. You’re interested in them?”
“Yes, very! Very interested!” I wanted to charge right at the bookshelf, but Lutz squeezed my hand tight and wouldn’t let me go.
Benno grinned at the sight of me losing my cool. “You can look at them after we state our business at the counter. The waiting time’s gonna be long, no doubt about it.”
“Really?! Yaaay!”
“Calm down, Myne. You’re getting too excited.”
Could I be calm after discovering what could be technically classified as simplified books? Simplified books that were within my power to read? No, I could not. I valued Lutz’s advice, but this heart-racing excitement wouldn’t just vanish into thin air.
Or so I thought, until Lutz gave a flat warning that forced me to calm down. “If you get too excited, you’ll pass out before you get to read anything.”
No... Anything but that!
Benno, who had been watching our exchange with amusement, sensed that a conclusion had been reached and said, “Follow me.”
We walked up to the counter. The receptionist gave a fake business smile upon seeing Benno. “Hello, Mr. Benno. What brings you here today?”
“I want a temporary registration for these two. Myne and Lutz.”
“Temporary registrations? But they are not your children, I imagine?”
“They’re not. But I need them registered. Let’s get this done.”
Apparently, temporary registrations were originally devised as a loophole to allow merchants to let their children work in their store before being baptized, when normally unbaptized kids are not legally allowed to work or be registered with the Guild. Under normal circumstances, no merchant would ever want to involve a non-blood-related child in their business to the extent of getting a temporary registration for them, so Benno was doing something quite out of the ordinary.
The receptionist narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but asked Lutz and I some questions while writing something behind the counter. The questions were what you would expect from any bureaucratic institution: our names, our fathers’ names and where they work, our home addresses, our ages, and so on.
“You’re getting temporary registrations for the son of a carpenter and the daughter of a soldier?” With the questions over, the receptionist looked over Lutz and me with even more suspicion than before. She was very clearly searching for the reason for why he would want to get temporary registrations for us. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience.
“Just finish the registration. You’re wasting our time here.”
“Yes, certainly. Please wait for just a moment.” She pointed at the waiting space. I looked at Benno, holding back the urge to bolt to the bookshelf.
“Mr. Benno, can I look at the bookshelf while we wait?”
“Sure. I’ll answer any questions you got. Just bring the scroll over to me. Lutz, don’t let Myne out of your sight.”
“Got it.”
I walked to the bookshelf with Lutz, who was refusing to let go of my hand. I spread out the parchment and picked up the wooden cards to see what they were. They all had practical usage in mind first and foremost: there were maps, diagrams, records of noble lineages, and what looked like old newspapers giving information about the city and surrounding area.
“Wooow, this is a map!” It was a fairly rough map, but it was the first one I had ever seen in this world. I hugged it close to me, not even knowing where we were on it, and walked to the sofa where Benno was sitting. Once there I enthusiastically sat on it like I would a normal sofa, expecting a soft spring cushion, but in reality it was just a piece of cloth spread across a wooden board. The landing hurt my butt. “Owwww...”
“That’s what you get for sitting so hard, idiot. I know you’re excited, but try not to embarrass yourself.”
It’s not my fault... They shouldn’t trick me with fake sofas like this. I wouldn’t have sat like that if it were obviously a wooden bench. I let out a little “hmph” and made excuses in my head after Benno looked at me with exasperation, then spread out the map on the cloth-covered wooden board we were sitting on. “Mr. Benno, which city are we in?”
“This one, Ehrenfest. The family name of the area’s lord is used as the name of the city.” I heard the name of my city for the first time. At the same time, I learned the name of its lord. You didn’t have to know the name of a city if you never left it, and everyone just referred to the lord by his title.
I looked at the map and saw that there were farming villages and forests to the south of Ehrenfest, then further down there was a small city. To the west was a large river and a city belonging to the neighboring region. The lord of our region and the lord of that region were apparently friendly, which meant there was a lot of trade between them. The north of the map had a big blank space, since that was where the lord lived in a city of nobles. To the east was a large paved road. Most travelers came from that direction.
“You two might leave the city for business reasons, but all in all it’s not likely that you’ll ever leave what’s on this map.”
After I had Benno teach me the names of several neighboring cities, I put the map back and went back to digging through the bookshelf. The lowest shelf had a book for teaching apprentices numbers and letters. I skimmed through it, thinking it might be good help for studying with Lutz. There were letters I knew and lots of words related to business. I wanted to memorize them.
“Mr. Benno, could I have a stone slate for studying with Lutz...?”
“Sure. I’ll subtract the cost from what I’m paying you today. Study hard.”
“Also, can I ask how literate the average child of a merchant is?”
After our baptism, we would be working with the children of merchants as apprentices. I wanted to at least get as good as them before that happened.
“They can read and write on a basic level. Same for math. They mainly know what products their stores sell. Math-wise, they can calculate transactions that deal with just coppers and silvers.”
Oh no. I don’t know how the currency works here. I know there’s small and large copper coins, and small silver coins, but that’s it. I don’t know the exchange rate or market value or anything.
...Because, I mean, my family only uses copper coins. I’ve barely ever even seen any currency other than copper coins. Plus, I just deal with numbers at the gate. I’ve never seen Otto actually using money.
“In my eyes, the thing you two lack the most is knowing how to deal with customers. The other kids have seen their parents working every day. They’ve got customer service in their bones.” That was impossible for us to compete with. In the past I had always been the receiver of services, never the giver. Lutz likewise had never been given the opportunity to develop a merchant’s instincts.
...Oh no, what should we do? Before I could lose myself in thought on the subject, the receptionist called for us from behind the counter. “Mr. Benno, the guildmaster would like to see you.”
“...I knew that geezer would get in my way,” murmured Benno before standing up, just quietly enough for us to hear. The glint in his eyes and the clenched fists by his sides told me that he was preparing for a fight. “Let’s go, you two.”
We walked to the counter and the leftmost part of it folded down so that we could go inside. Behind the counter was another staircase. We climbed it and the door at the top opened by itself. Behind it was a relatively small, but comfortable looking room. A fluffy carpet was spread in front of a brightly burning fireplace, and on top of the carpet was a business desk.
Behind the desk sat a kind-looking older man with somewhat broad shoulders that looked about in his fifties. I had expected that the guildmaster would be an old grandpa, but this man looked like he was just slightly past his prime.
The guildmaster gave a warm smile and stood up. “Now then, Benno. I will get right to the point. Why do you want to temporarily register these children, who are not even of your blood? This is quite different from a merchant registering their child so they can look after their stand at the market, as you know.”
In other words, the guildmaster was saying that he knew Lutz and I had in our grasp a product valuable enough for Benno to want to register us now without waiting for our baptism. He had said all that with a warm smile still on his face.
“I can’t allow this registration unless you make your intentions clear. There is no precedent in recorded Ehrenfest history for a child unrelated to a merchant being temporarily registered.” The guildmaster stared at Lutz and me with a smile that gave no hints as to his thoughts.
My first impression of him had been that he was a kind man, but that was far from the truth. He was threatening us. If we didn’t answer his questions, he wouldn’t approve our registration. The guildmaster had complete control of the situation, and out of nervousness, I looked at Benno. He was looking at the guildmaster with a malicious smile that made it clear he was utterly confident that he would succeed.
“In short, you want to know what these children brought me?”
“Yes. Depending on what it is, I might find it better for another location to sell it. Your store is beginning to overstep its bounds.”
Again, in other words... We’re worth something and he wants the profit for himself. He’s not even hiding his intentions here.
“They want to sell it in my store, and so I’m going to. Right, Myne? Lutz?” Benno threatened us with his eyes not to say anything. Lutz and I just nodded hard. Pleased by that, Benno’s smile widened and he looked down at me. “Myne, show the guildmaster the prototype of those hairpins you want to start selling.”
“...Okay.” It seemed that Benno intended to hide the fact that he was dipping his toes into the paper industry. I didn’t know why he was hiding that, but he had made it clear I shouldn’t say anything unnecessary. I stuck a hand into my tote bag while saying as little as possible, then took out the hairpin and held it out so the guildmaster could see.
And for some reason, the second I did that, the guildmaster paled and his eyes widened.
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