The Next Day

Carrying my training sword with me, I ran straight to Ryota's place immediately after finishing breakfast and cleaning up, while Azu went with Teru to deal with the paperwork for opening a stall through his connections from work. I wanted to head straight to the temple but I had some things I had to get done first.

"I need the address for that merchant who sells potatoes to you guys." I said as I met Ryota at the back entrance.

Ryota took a glance at my training sword then turned around to lead me inside. "No greetings anymore? He makes himself more at home with each visit." He mumbled to himself.

After grabbing a book from the front of the shop, he copied down the address and gave me the piece of paper, he said, "After last night we're low on most of the good sake, so you'll have to pay extra if you want them or I'll get in trouble with my senior brother."

"Actually, I also came here to ask about your supplier."

"Supplier?"

"Where you get all your sake from?"

Now that Azu knew, there was no need to pay extra to get alcohol secretly. I could save money if I found a supplier and bought wholesale instead.

"Why do you want to know that? You don't want to buy from me anymore?" Ryota asked.

"Come on, you should know that this deal wasn't going to last forever."

"I thought it would last a little longer." Ryota said.

He seemed kind of dejected at the news. He was only making a few mon of profit overcharging me on sake each time.

'I guess even low level recruits like him have their own struggles.'

"Well, I don't know about the supplier, it's not in here." He held the book up. "So I'm gonna have to ask my senior brother."

"Can you go ask him for me?"

"How about this? I'll ask him if you deliver some stuff for me."

"Deliver what?"

"Nothing much, just some packages."

"That doesn't sound shady at all."

"You'll get paid for it."

"Like our alcohol deal and this deal you're trying to offer me, if you want negotiate, you have make sure both sides are happy with deal, even if you're in the shady business."

"Well, I'm not happy with the deal so I don't want to ask my senior brother." Ryota crossed his arms.

'Looks like we'll just have to buy alcohol from a store, or maybe Teru knows some distilleries.'

"What about yer senior brother?" A voice came from around the corner, followed by the appearance of the sloppily dressed man I've seen before. "Whose yer little friend here Ryota? Ya talking shit about me, huh?"

"No, we weren't talking about senior brother Goro." Ryota said. "He just wanted to ask something from Senior Brother Kurata."

"Hmmm? Haven't we met before?" Goro squinted as he examined me.

I shook my head hoping he didn't remember me. Goro seem to give up and turned to Ryota.

"The boss is calling everyone in fer a meeting, so take a hike punk." Goro waved me away as he dragged Ryota along with him.

"What is it Senior Brother Goro?" Ryota asked as they left.

"Those peddler bastards are trying to square off with us over the Uegawa district..." I heard as their voices faded into the distance.

I left the bar and I decided to stop by the address for the potatoes that Ryota gave me, since it was on the way to the temple. I ended up in front of a large two-storey building by the river.

There were already people working out front, loading up a wagon with packages and barrels brought out from a side entrance.

I stepped inside looking for someone who could help me.

"Excuse me." I said to a man who was inspecting some boxes, while writing notes.

"People are working here, go play somewhere else." He said after taking a side glance.

"I'm here to place an order."

"For?" He asked impatiently.

"Potatoes."

"We don't do small time, go to the market for that." He waved me away dismissively.

"I'm not buying small time."

"Run along."

"I'm here for my big sister."

He sighed before he said, "All our current bulk orders are spoken for, the only way we can fit more with our shipments is if you place an extra order, meaning you'll have to buy by the barrel." He pointed at a small barrel the size of a wooden basin or a bushel.

"Okay." I said.

He finally turned to face me.

"Your not pulling my chain are you?" He said as he scanned me.

"I'll start with 2 barrels."

When I was working at the fast food place, we easily went through around 10 cases of potatoes a day—each case was a little smaller than these barrels, so I decided that this was a good place to start.

He brought out a handheld abacus from inside his robe and began adding numbers on it.

"It'll cost you this much."

"617!?"

"6 monme and 17 mon."

"Let me see that." I reached for the abacus but he pulled it away.

"What? You don't trust an upstanding merchant like myself?"

'This guy...'

I began doing the numbers in my head and with my fingers.

"That's still market price." I finally said.

"...Theres the shipping fee." He said after a pause.

"If I'm buying by the barrel, you should give me wholesale price."

"I'll make it an even 6 monme."

"Theres no way you're charging other people that." I gestured at the abacus

"Says who?"

"Mister Kurata." I gave Ryota's senior brother's name hoping for a good price.

"Well, we're the only ones in town shipping these in." He still argued.

'It seemed like my name drop was ineffective.'

"If there was large demand, others would be selling too and I wouldn't need place a special order." I argued back.

"Because we have a deal with the farm growing them, you won't find anyone else is selling in this town."

'So they have a monopoly?'

"Same thing. If there was large demand, others would be growing them here. I heard potatoes are very easy to grow."

"Alright, alright, you made your point, no need to make a fuss about it." He said, sounding annoyed. "5 and a half monme."

I decided to pull out the last trick I had—one that I had seen many times on TV.

"Forget it." I turned around and walked away.

"..."

I was already out the door but he didn't say anything.

'Is he not going to take it?'

I was feeling awkward as I started walking down the street.

"Wait!" He finally called when I was halfway down the street.

I let out a sigh of relief as I turned around.

"You better not be fooling around kid." He said. "5 and thats the lowest I'll go."

'5 monme of silver is about 335 mon.'

"Alright, I need to talk to my sister first."

'And Teru to see if it's even a good deal.'

"Remember to come back with a deposit." He said, whether he was bitter or happy about the deal, I couldn't tell.

"I'll come back in the afternoon, I have to go play somewhere else." I said as I left, acting a little like my physical age.

'They need some sort of anti-gouging laws. I'll have to make sure Teru comes along when we buy the other stuff, he should know how to deal with these types better.'

"I wonder which household is this little demon from." I heard the merchant mutter to himself as he walked back to the store.

~!~

Wasn't sure about this chapter, hope it turned out okay.