Side Story:
Lahki’s Merchant Diary Pt. 1
Alone horse pulled a cart down a darkened road in Diento. The sun had set, and night cloaked the land.
A young man in his twenties with curly brown hair hummed to himself as he sat in the driver’s seat, holding the reins. Though dressed nicely, he didn’t give off an air of wealth. A quick look at the crates stacked in the back his cart suggested this young man was a merchant. In addition to his leather armor, he carried a simple sword at his waist and small shield on his back. He was on his way to stay the night at his usual inn in Diento.
As the inn came into view, a muscular man with short blond hair standing out front waved toward the cart, as if he’d been waiting for its arrival.
He shot the driver a warm smile. “You’re late, Lahki. Did you bring any goods to sell?”
The young merchant known as Lahki responded quickly, suggesting that the two were friends. “Evening, Behl. Actually, I got a bunch more than I expected!”
The other man, Behl, had the massive body of a fighter. His face registered surprise at Lahki’s words. “No way! Rea and I were jus’ talkin’ about how all the stores would already be closed.”
Lahki looked around. “Where is Rea, anyway?”
“Heh, already back in the room, kicking her feet up.”
Lahki parked the cart in front of the inn’s entrance and unleashed his horse. After leaving his steed with the inn’s stable hand, he pulled his bags out from the back. The inn locked carts inside a garage overnight to reduce the risk of theft, but it was still a wise idea to bring valuables into your room with you.
Lahki struggled with a particularly heavy bag. Behl reached out and picked it up for him.
“This is pretty heavy. You sure you bought weapons?”
“The weapon’s shop was closed, just like you said. But I happened to run across a wandering mercenary selling weapons of his own. So I bought them off him.”
The two walked past the counter downstairs and made their way to the second floor. Lahki almost always stayed in the same room.
Lahki knocked on the door and waited for the woman inside to respond. “Rea, can we come in?”
After getting permission to enter, Lahki and Behl entered.
The room was in the corner of the building and barely had enough space to contain the three beds crammed into it. A woman sat on the bed farthest from the door.
She’d taken off her armor, and her chestnut-colored hair hung loose past her shoulders instead of being tied up in its usual ponytail. Despite her boyish attire, she gave an impression of femininity.
Rea’s face perked up as soon as she saw Behl and the heavy bag he was carrying.
“Whoa! You got the weapons?”
“Well, actually…” Lahki repeated the story he’d told Behl earlier.
“A mercenary, huh? So, what type of weapons didja buy?”
“I was wondering about that, too.” Behl dropped the bag on the ground and began pulling out its contents. After he’d drawn every single one of the swords out of its sheath, he gasped in surprise.
“They’re all pretty impressive. Each sword must’ve cost you twenty-five gold coins, yeah? I’m surprised you could afford to buy ’em all.”
“Look at this one! Isn’t it great? It’s totally different from all the rest.”
Behl and Rea both gasped when they saw the sword Lahki was holding.
“They’ll each sell for around thirty gold coins. The one Rea’s got’ll give us another sixty, maybe even a hundred.”
Behl spoke in hushed tones. “How’d you buy all these…?”
Lahki scratched his head in embarrassment and leaned in closer, keeping his voice low as he recounted his story.
“Wha?! No way!”
The two could hardly keep quiet. Lahki quickly put his hands over their mouths.
“Are you serious? You bought all of this for 150 gold coins?”
“That’s amazing, Lahki! We should make at least double that in profit if we can sell ’em all. Did the mercenary have any idea how much they were worth?”
Lahki shook his head. “He claimed he was a traveling mercenary, but it seemed like he was some sort of noble knight. I don’t think he was hurting for money. More than anything, I think he just wanted to lighten his load.”
Behl looked at the sword hanging from his own waist and let out a sigh, as if he could feel the difference in social standing.
“Must be nice for swords as expensive as these to be nothing more than a bother to you…”
Lahki, noticing his friend’s reaction, got caught up in the excitement of the moment.
“Listen, Behl, pick out whichever one you want. I’ll give you one for free!”
“Wait, are you sure about that? I mean, that’d be amazing, but…” Even as Behl said this, he was already excitedly looking over the swords before him.
“Of course! You’re always such a great bodyguard. Plus, if you have a better weapon, I’ll be even safer in my travels.”
Behl reached for one of the blades, similar in appearance to the sword he currently wore.
“Are you sure that’s the one you want?”
“Yup! It’s best to stick with what you’re used to.”
Behl clipped the new sword to his waist, smiling brightly as he checked the feel of it.
Lahki and Rea exchanged glances and laughed.
“Well, I think it’s time we get some shut-eye. Sorry, Rea, for always making you stay here with us guys.”
Lahki looked truly apologetic as he said this, but Rea didn’t seem to care in the least. She simply waved her hand and dropped back onto her bed.
“No reason to make a fuss about it now. It’s always been like this. I’m just happy to have three beds.”
“Even if we only had two, we’d let you have your own! Lahki and I would just double up!” Behl looked up from adjusting his new sword to tease his two friends.
“Hey, I’m a refined young lady! I thought that was obvious!”
“Hmm…where is this refined lady you speak of?” Behl looked around the room with exaggerated confusion, glancing straight past Rea. This kind of banter was common between the two of them.
“All right, all right! Listen, it’s getting late. Let’s clean this stuff up and get to bed!”
Lahki spoke in a well-practiced tone. He was used to breaking the two of them up. After putting the weapons away, he extinguished the lamp and climbed into bed.
“Tomorrow, we head to Luvierte.”
“Roger that, boss.”
“G’night, Lahki!”
Lahki smiled at his companions’ replies and closed his eyes. Soon, the room was filled with the sound of steady breathing, as all of them joined the rest of the town in its slumber.
The next morning, the trio took the road out of Diento and headed northwest toward Luvierte. Lahki led the way in his horse-drawn cart with the other two following on foot.
Whenever they ran across a beast or monster along the route, Behl would take off to slay it, all too happy to try out his new blade.
Rea was supposed to be providing support magic, but she spent her time complaining about Behl’s enthusiasm instead. Lahki didn’t seem to mind—after all, this was par for the course.
Several other merchants and travelers maintained a steady distance from Lahki and his party. Not only were Behl and Rea both four-star mercenaries, but they were also magic users, so the others were all too happy to let them deal with any threats. This was a pretty common occurrence on their travels.
Four days after leaving Diento, the group finally caught sight of Luvierte in the distance.
From its moat, with water drawn from the Xpitol River, to the five-meter stone wall surrounding the town, Luvierte looked like Diento, but on a smaller scale. It’d been quite a while since Lahki had visited the town.
Behl looked around at the vast fields as he walked, speaking to no one in particular.
“Made it without any problems, and just in time for lunch, too.”
At the east gate, Lahki showed the guard his merchant guild license, identifying him as a seller of metal goods. The group was allowed to pass through.
The back of the cart was only filled with scrap iron, the weapons Lahki had picked up in Diento, and a few other commodities, making for a quick inspection.
Lahki took his cart straight to the blacksmith to have the swords sharpened. Since he’d blown all his money back in Diento, he figured it would be best to look for buyers here in Luvierte while the blades were being sharpened nearby.
Smoke billowed out of the blacksmith’s chimney, and the sound of metal clanging against metal could be heard from within the shop. Lahki left Rea with the cart and went inside, Behl following close behind with the bag of weapons.
Deep inside the blacksmith’s, two men were in the middle of a conversation, yelling to be heard over the noise of pounding hammers. The muscular, white-haired man appeared to be the owner of the shop, while the younger man was dressed in a military uniform commonly worn by knights. His physique put even Behl to shame.
“Ya can’t just come in here and add a weapon to yer order! We’re runnin’ short on materials. And besides, I can’t make tools for the townsfolk if I’m always makin’ yer weapons!”
“Are you mad? How do you think the townsfolk will be able to go on if we don’t have weapons to fight the monsters?! You can’t have forgotten that we slew two giant basilisks mere days ago!”
The argument between the men continued heating up, as if they were competing with the temperature of the forge itself. Unfortunately, the more they debated, the further they seemed from a solution.
Behl’s and Lahki’s eyes went wide at the mention of a giant basilisk. A monster like that could easily wipe an entire town right off the map. The self-proclaimed mercenary Lahki met the other day had mentioned there were monsters in the area, but Lahki never imagined he’d been talking about giant basilisks.
The older man finally took notice of Lahki and Behl and called out to them.
“Whaddya here for? You a customer?”
Lahki had to yell to be heard over the hammering.
“Uh, yes! I’d like you to sharpen these weapons so I can put them up for sale!”
Before the blacksmith had a chance to respond, the knight got a word in first.
“What?! You’re weapon merchants?”
The man crossed the shop with quick strides, striking quite the imposing figure. It was all Lahki could do to nod his head.
“Can you show those weapons to me?”
Lahki didn’t have any good reason to object, so he glanced over toward Behl, who dutifully laid the fourteen swords on the blacksmith’s workbench.
Lahki had given one of the original fifteen to Behl. Behl’s old sword was back in the cart with the other scrap iron. He’d nearly had tears in his eyes, contemplating his beloved sword’s end. But the blade itself wasn’t in a condition befitting a four-star mercenary, so it was the most practical choice. It was actually quite impressive that Behl had made it up to four stars with such a poor blade.
The knight and the blacksmith looked over the swords, drawing each one to check its condition.
“The steel used on these is pretty impressive! About twenty-five sok, I’d guess?”
The blacksmith didn’t immediately acknowledge the knight’s question, instead inspecting the blade in his hand, the sharp look in his eyes making him appear much younger than his years.
“Where did you get this sword? This… Is this a mithril blade? It’s gotta be worth at least five hundred sok…”
The surprise in the blacksmith’s voice was nothing compared to the surprise on Lahki and Behl’s faces. They’d known it was a high-quality sword, but the possibility of it being a mithril blade hadn’t even crossed their minds.
This was hardly the type of weapon an average merchant like Lahki would normally deal in, especially considering he’d bought all fifteen swords for a mere ten sok apiece. He’d never imagined they’d be talking these kinds of prices.
Mithril was said to reduce the power of magic. Putting a thin plate of it on a shield would reflect magical attacks, while forging it into a sword would allow you to cut through even the toughest of monsters with ease. It was incredibly valuable.
However, mithril ore was both relatively rare and incredibly hard to work with. This made it rather difficult to properly price mithril weaponry.
Historically, only elves and dwarves had possessed the skills necessary to work with mithril. By kidnapping these species, however, humans had managed to learn their craft. The human’s actions ultimately led to the dwarves being hunted to extinction on this continent, and the elves fleeing to the forests. Despite having gone to such lengths to acquire these skills, the items humans produced still didn’t hold a candle to the dwarves’ work.
As a merchant, Lahki was pretty good at telling the quality of an item, but this was far beyond his experience.
“I, uh, I just bought it off a traveler. He, umm, sold it to me—for pretty cheap, too.”
Lahki broke out in a cold sweat. The self-proclaimed mercenary had said these swords were looted from some bandits. But it was inconceivable that a bandit would be carrying a mithril weapon. If they’d stolen it, news of the theft would have gotten around, and an order would have been issued to hunt the bandits down. Still, Lahki prided himself on being a good judge of character, and he hadn’t sensed anything disingenuous about the mercenary. He almost didn’t want to know where the swords had truly come from.
The knight’s voice interrupted Lahki’s thoughts.
“Merchant! Would you be willing to sell these swords to my master, Viscount Luvierte? We can offer you five hundred sok for the mithril blade and twenty-five sok each for the rest.”
After some quick calculations in his head, Lahki realized this would fetch him more than five times what he’d paid for the weapons.
“You can have the mithril sword for four hundred sok. I accept your offer for the rest.”
“What? You’ll undercut my offer by a hundred sok for the mithril blade? You must want something in return.” The knight’s eyes went wide as he inspected Lahki’s face, trying to gauge the other man’s motives.
Lahki decided it would be poor form to tell the knight that he’d picked up the sword for a mere ten sok. Instead, he came up with a different explanation for his behavior.
“I was hoping this could be an opportunity to put myself in the viscount’s good graces.”
The knight looked taken aback for a moment, then he reached out to slap Lahki hard on the shoulder, letting out a hearty laugh.
“Wahahaha! You merchants don’t let a single opportunity pass you by, do you? My name is Horcos. I’m in charge of the knights of the Luvierte estate.”
“You’re the h-head of the knights? Apologies for my insolence, Commander Horcos, sir. I am Lahki, the merchant.”
“Ahaha! Don’t worry about it. I almost forgot, though. I need to run this conversation past Master Buckle. Wait here. I’ll be back with your money shortly!”
With that, Commander Horcos left the shop, mounted his horse, and took off at a gallop toward the castle.
After watching this all unfold, the blacksmith finally addressed Lahki.
“Commander Horcos is always like that. You can wait over there until he returns.”
Lahki thanked the man, then asked if he’d be interested in purchasing some scrap iron, ultimately securing a sale. Iron ore usually reached Luvierte from the south, but lately it had been getting held up in Diento.
Considering this, Lahki had hoped he’d be able to sell the scrap above normal market value, but the blacksmith managed to talk him down in exchange for sharpening Behl’s sword for free. Overall, Lahki was satisfied with the deal.
A short time later, Horcos returned with several of his men to collect the swords. After receiving his 725 gold coins, Lahki shook hands with the commander and made his exit.
In stark contrast to Lahki’s expectations of a long, drawn-out sales push, he now found himself with more money than he’d ever held at one time. His hands trembled slightly as he accepted the money.
Just to be safe, he opened a compartment in the bed of his cart, revealing a chest. After putting the money inside, he covered it with dirt to keep it from rattling about.
“I still can’t believe that was a mithril sword…” Behl spoke animatedly, his excitement obvious. Rea was quite surprised when she heard the story, but also delighted at their luck.
“This is great! You’re so much closer to owning that shop you’ve always dreamed of!”
“I know. I was completely taken by surprise!” The excitement seeped into Lahki’s voice as well as he steered the cart toward the town’s merchant guild office.
Whether you wanted to know about the current year’s crop yield, or about the recent monster sightings, or even about the various tax categories, the local merchant guild was a great source of information. Goods and tax rates in particular varied for every domain and ultimately affected the selling price of everything. Success depended entirely upon a merchant’s ability to look at the taxes each town levied and find something profitable to sell.
Selling the swords had given Lahki a great deal of money to work with. He hoped the merchant guild would be able to help him find something else to sell before leaving Luvierte.
Unfortunately, despite having all this money at his disposal, Lahki had a limited carrying capacity in his current cart, and, with just one horse, the more he piled on, the longer it would take him to travel between towns.
Lahki’s mind cycled through his options as he made his way to the merchant guild office. He wasn’t sure where he wanted to go from here—down south to the capital or follow the Xpitol River to the port of Bulgoh off to the west.
He pulled his cart into the parking area and left Behl and Rea behind to watch it while he went inside alone.
Strictly speaking, the purchase counter at the merchant guild office was more of a wholesale shop than anything else. Sellers who didn’t already have a specific buyer lined up could check the market value of their goods and sell them at the counter—at a slight discount of course. This service was of great use to mercenaries, since they could sell whatever they brought in, from monsters they’d slain to rare medicinal herbs.
Lahki mumbled to himself as he put together a plan in his head. “First, I’ll check what sort of goods they have in their storehouse, and figure out where to travel next. Then I’ll figure out the tax categories for towns along the route.”
There were several people, buyers and sellers, at the counter haggling with each other over prices. Their voices jumbled together, creating quite a racket. As he walked past, Lahki overheard one man—possibly a guild member—arguing with a girl about a purchase price.
“That can’t be right! Daddy sold less than this before and got ten more gold coins for it. Why are you only offering me ten, and for a larger amount?!”
“It’s like I said, kid. Price is determined by demand. First it goes up, then it drops back down. This is my best offer.”
The girl stood just 150 centimeters tall, her soft, chestnut-colored hair tied back in braids that hung down past her shoulders. She had large, blue eyes and a healthy tan, and she wore simple clothes, like you might find in one of Luvierte’s outlying villages.
“Gah, I can’t believe you! I’m going to sell these somewhere else!”
The girl grabbed the handle of her pushcart, a large bag still inside it, and made her way toward the exit in a huff. Lahki picked up a sweet, familiar scent as she walked past.
“Yer not gonna find a buyer all on your own, li’l lady! Come back here and sell it at the offered price!” The man yelled after the girl as she left, but she ignored him, not even glancing back on her way out.
Lahki, who had watched the entire exchange, chased after the girl. It didn’t take him long to find her. She looked utterly dejected.
“Hey, girl. Do you have a moment?”
She turned a suspicious eye toward Lahki, hiding the large bag behind her back. “Who? Me?”
“Ah, excuse my manners. I’m Lahki, a merchant. And you are…?”
“My name’s Marca. Do you need something?”
Lahki spoke to the girl in a soft voice, despite her rather curt response. “That item you’ve got there… Is that kobumi by chance?”
Marca’s eyes went wide. “You know about kobumi?”
“Well, it has a pretty unique scent. Would you mind letting me look in the bag? I’d be interested in buying it if the quality’s right.”
After letting Lahki’s words soak in, Marca opened the bag and showed it to him. Lahki thanked her, picked up the bag, and looked inside. As soon as the bag’s flap opened, his nose was filled with the familiar scent. Inside, the flowers were half dried. He plucked one out to check its quality; it seemed good. Satisfied, Lahki nodded and hefted the bag again to check its weight.
“Considering the quality and weight…how does thirty gold coins sound?”
“Th-thirty gold coins? Whoooa!” the girl yelled out, before she even knew what she was saying. Lahki quickly put his hand over her mouth.
Her surprise was only natural. As a girl living out in one of the villages, her household expenses probably didn’t exceed even three gold coins a month.
Lahki took his hand off her mouth and put a finger to his lips.
Marca nodded, speaking just above a whisper. “Is that really okay? That’s so much money.”
Lahki replied nonchalantly. “Of course. If I take this down to the capital, I’ll turn quite a profit.”
“If you’re a merchant, do you know what type of illness the kobumi heals? No one back in the village will tell me, though they say they don’t need it there.”
“It’s not exactly used for an illness. More like a…preventative measure? But yeah, I imagine you don’t really need it in a village.” Lahki wasn’t quite sure how to answer. That was the best he could do.
Marca stuck out her lower lip and pouted. “You adults are all the same! Fine, I’ll sell it to you for thirty. Now hurry up before I change my mind!”
Lahki smiled as he counted out thirty gold coins, put them in a small bag, and handed them to the girl. After checking to make sure they were all there and sliding the bag into her clothes, she looked much more cheerful.
“Thanks, mister! Good luck selling it all!”
Marca waved excitedly before dashing off. Lahki threw the bag of kobumi over his shoulder and headed back to the cart.
Behl and Rea were lying in the bed of the cart, bored out of their minds. Rea caught sight of Lahki first and called out to him.
“Welcome back! That was faster than I… Hey, what’s that sweet smell?”
“Oh, that’s kobumi. It’s used for medicines.”
He showed them the bag he’d bought from Marca, recounting the exchange.
“That merchant guild guy was a real jerk. But still, I can’t believe you spent that much… Just what type of medicine does it make?” Behl took the bag and looked inside, tilting his head in confusion.
“The kobumi blossom is used to make contraceptives. It can also be used to induce abortions.”
“Contraceptives… Really? Wow, I never knew that. But I guess it makes sense that villages would have no need for them.”
“Haha, yup! Having a bunch of kids is pretty much part and parcel of village life.”
The three of them had all come from the same small village, making this type of medicine all the more interesting to them.
“Contraceptives… Now those have gotta fetch a ton of money.”
“Yup. Brothels use them, and I hear even some nobles do, too. We’d make an absolute killing if we could sell them in the empire.”
Rea looked confused by this. “Do kobumi blossoms not grow in the empire?”
Lahki shook his head. “They don’t grow at all up north, but that’s not why you can sell them for so much. Have you ever heard of the Hilk?”
Behl puffed out his chest. “Nope!”
Rea looked at him through half-lidded eyes, wracking her mind for all of the information she could remember about the Hilk.
“They’re the ones proselytizing across the entire northern continent, right? I’ve never been there before, but I know they’ve got shrines—churches?—dedicated to fire gods, water gods, and more all across Rhoden.”
“That’s right. The Hilk religion teaches that there is an all-knowing, all-powerful god that created all people. Beyond the port of Bulgoh, it’s been spreading out to the west of the Hilk Kingdom.”
“Must be lonely to be a god without any friends.” Behl looked sympathetic. Of course, if a Hilk practitioner had heard him, there’d be no end to the lecture he’d receive.
“The Hilk teachings forbid abortions, and since Hilk is the state religion of the entire empire… Well, you know. It’s forbidden even to have kobumi out in public. But there’s a huge demand for it, so you can sell it at exorbitant prices.”
Lahki’s friends listened intently to his story, though Behl didn’t really catch most of what he was saying. Behl nodded along all the same. “So, we’re going to the empire to sell the kobumi?”
“Gah, are you stupid or something? Lahki was just talking about how it’s forbidden. If they caught him, they’d take off his head for sure!”
Lahki laughed at the all-too-familiar interaction. “I figure we’ll head to the capital, where we can still sell it for a ton of money. I need more information about the route, so I want you two to stay with the cart.”
He left the sack of kobumi with Rea and made his way back to the merchant guild office, his mind already focused on how they were going to get to the capital.
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