Mercenaries and Adventurers

The merchant at this stall stared at the two of them with burning eyes, feeling that business would definitely be open today.

But he didn't expect this stall to have many short knives and daggers on the wooden shelves. Kil just glanced at it and called Mr. Scott to go to the next stall.

"Hey, hey? The things in my house are all good, aren't they? This guest, why don't you come over and take a look?"

The stall merchant spoke in a rough voice, which was obviously not his original voice but a deliberately fake voice.

Keir shrugged: "Sorry, I don't have enough of these eating things."

As soon as these words came out, the merchant who set up the stall sat down in frustration, complaining in a low voice about damn bandits and the like. In recent days, many bandit gangs that robbed businesses on commercial roads have disbanded, so many small weapons built or stolen by the bandits are all over the streets.

Normal shops on the ground rarely sell such second-hand weapons and equipment that have been used for dirty work. Therefore, in addition to being melted into iron materials, these items are digested and re-traded, and more in better condition are taken underground. Traded on the black market.

Kil had previously led his men to annihilate the lairs of several bandit gangs. He already had one of these short weapons like daggers and daggers in his team.

He doesn't need it, and he doesn't like it.

Although the short knives placed on the wooden shelves all look good and are considered high-quality products. But the weapons prepared for Kiir's armed people who have little combat effectiveness are actually not much different.

They only need basic weapons. What really affects their combat effectiveness is their courage and skills in combat. After having these things as a base, the quality of the weapons in hand can affect the combat effectiveness.

After passing this stall, Mr. Keel and Mr. Scott continued to the next stall.

"I thought you were in dire need of these things."

"How could it be? I already have enough people and things under my hands, even too many."

Kil shook his head and looked embarrassed: "I was attacked by a bandit gang before. After defeating the bandits, there are as many weapons as there are bandits. The last thing we need now is these things."

The next stall is called [Sneeze]. The name is very strange, but when compared with the products on its shelves, I think the name is more clever.

This stall sells condiments.

The most conspicuous ones are several sacks of coarse salt and fine salt in clay pots protected by twine.

Since the Kingdom of Saint Holes itself produces salt, the price of salt in this landlocked country is not high, and the majority of the people eat this yellowish coarse salt.

As for the fine white salt that is the same color as snow, only the rich and nobles can afford it.

Reflected in price, the price difference between the two is twenty times.

The price of one pound of coarse salt is about five copper coins, while the price of fine salt is one hundred copper coins per pound. Considering that salt must be eaten every day and every meal, even if the people who eat salt can afford it, they cannot afford it.

For coarse salt, buy it in large pieces and smash it into pieces with a mallet or hammer at home, and then grind it into powder. If you don't consider the salty taste, you won't be able to tell the difference when you add it to meals.

Of course, this stall selling seasonings is not just salt. It's just that as black goods purchased from bandits, what the bandits mostly robbed were the salt caravans that transported and resold them.

As for other seasonings, people generally only use fresh plant seasonings grown near their residence. Expensive sun-dried southern seasonings are less likely to be robbed by bandits, so in the underground black market, these precious items are carefully protected on wooden shelves by small metal cages made by this stall merchant.

Thinking that Kiel and the two were rich people, the stall merchant tried his best to recommend those 'cheap' expensive seasonings to Kiel, but he didn't know that Kiel just wanted to buy some coarse salt.

Considering the need to find a place to settle down safely in the future, it is difficult to say when the next time the necessities of coarse salt will be purchased in large quantities under current circumstances, so Keir felt that he should buy more coarse salt this time.

Especially these things are really cheap on the underground black market.

"Sir, sir, let's take a look at this. The island peppers with charming aroma are rare and valuable goods in the local area. I finally won them by gambling from an ignorant bandit. Such a small bag only costs Ten gold coins for you! If it weren't for the difficult roads now, I would have transported them to a big city myself and found someone to sell them! Guaranteed three times the profit, it's just such a small bag. Look, this opportunity is only available now. some!"

Upon hearing the triple profit, Kil's eyes, which were originally paying attention to the quality of the coarse salt, were dragged by his ears to the innermost part of the stall, where he placed a plate of granular spices in a small metal cage on the merchant's hand.

I went over to take a look and found that the color of these things was a little strange. They were purple and blue granular spices, but they smelled pretty good. Just a slight whiff made my spirits rise.

Even if these spices are not used to make luxurious food, just smelling them and refreshing them is very effective.

But Mr. Scott, who was next to him, just followed him and took a glance, and secretly grabbed Keir who was about to make a move.

He whispered: "Don't be fooled by this man."

"What? Is there a problem?"

Keir was a little puzzled. This thing looks like spices, smells like spices, is called spices, and the price is the price that spices should be. Isn't it right?

In response, Mr. Scott sneered and explained to Keir in a low voice: "The island pepper produced in coastal countries is not purple with blue in color, it is pure purple, and the blue color is moldy due to moisture. It's just that it is moldy due to moisture. Because the spices themselves have a strong smell, if you don’t look at the color, you can’t smell the musty smell after mold. When the spices can smell the musty smell, then they are all ruined.”

Fortunately, Keer heard the explanation from Mr. Scott, who was in charge of the Chamber of Commerce, otherwise he would really have been deceived by the black-hearted businessman at this stall.

Triple the profit. The reason given by the other party for not taking this profit in return is also perfect. If you don’t pay attention, you will really be cheated.

With a cold snort, Kil stopped looking at the expensive spices and pointed at the yellowed kosher salt placed in a burlap bag at the front of the stall: "I want five burlap bags of kosher salt. How do I calculate the price?"

Seeing that Kiel, the black cloak, would not buy his spices, the businessman who set up the stall stared hard at the troublesome Mr. Scott, and then replied in a non-attentive voice: "Are you counting by weight? By the bag?”

"Why is it calculated by weight? Why is it calculated by bag?"

Keir asked.

"Based on the weight, we carried the sacks containing coarse salt and weighed them on the weight scales provided by the underground black market. We ignored the weight of the sacks themselves. For the weight of the coarse salt, we paid according to the price written on the sign. As much as you want, I will give you as much as you want.”

"And based on the bag, I tell you the price for one bag, you tell me a price, and finally we agree on a price that both parties are satisfied with. But if you weigh it on the scale, how much does it cost for a bag? Just ask someone to carry it away."

The black cloaked businessman sat down on the wooden chair next to the stall, crossed his legs and explained to Keir.

The former is more troublesome, but fortunately there will be no mistakes. The latter is much simpler and offers the opportunity to buy cheaper things at low prices.

However, the sources of goods in the underground black market are not very formal. In Kier's opinion, the goods here are already much cheaper than those in the shops above. It is not impossible to negotiate the price of coarse salt, at least. Keir knew that Mr. Scott around him must have this ability.

But he had a lot of things to do today, and he didn't have the leisure time to bargain with this dishonest stall merchant in this place like an underground mausoleum.

Can't do it.

"In that case, let's calculate it by weight. Approximately how much does your bag weigh?" Kil asked, pointing to the sack containing coarse salt.

The businessman rolled his eyes with his only exposed eye, and then said nonchalantly: "A bag of eighty kilograms. How many bags do you want?" (As before, the weight units in the story are all familiar modern units.)

Eighty kilograms is quite a lot. One kilogram of salt would be enough for a young man to work in the fields in a month. It is about the amount needed for two people to work. Such a bag of coarse salt is enough to feed nearly 400 people for a month. Of course, this is when all 400 people work every day and need to supplement their salt intake.

Considering the situation on Kiel's side, and based on the salt usage in the next year, he will need at least twenty bags of salt. Of course, this amount is not actually used, because many people in the team will not participate in heavy physical labor, and there are not that many jobs for people to do. Many people just walk every day and then rest.

Kiir doesn’t need to think so far for the refugees.

Therefore, after only considering half a year, Kiel said: "Then I want ten bags of coarse salt. You can weigh it for me and calculate the money."

The stall merchant did his best. After confirming that Kiel was willing to buy, he reached out and called someone from the underground black market and asked him to carry ten bags of coarse salt to a scale not far away for weighing.

The place is not far away, there is a weighing scale just at the 'intersection' in front, which is also provided by the Thieves Guild for the underground black market.

When Mr. Scott was weighing the coarse salt, he told Keir that at the beginning, the black market used scales from respective merchants, so many conflicts and problems arose. When the scales at the black market stalls were inaccurate, people who had suffered losses stepped forward. And if the buyer's own scale is inaccurate, it can easily cause conflicts.

These transactions are often accompanied by fights and bloodshed, which also leads to chaos in the black market. Merchants setting up stalls and buying things have to bring thugs and self-defense guys.

Soon, after carrying and weighing several times with a cart, the people in the underground black market gave a fair and accurate weight. Of course, this did not include the weight and money of the sacks, but people who choose to buy in this way will not care. Several sacks were used as money for coarse salt.

After paying the money, as before, the people from the Thieves Guild here will arrange to deliver the ten bags of coarse salt to the place designated by Keir.

"You said, if someone uses this method to conceal his identity, buys a lot of cheap and useless things, and piles up the entrance of a certain enemy store, making it impossible for the other party to open a store. How should such a thing be considered?"

Keir was so whimsical that he remembered the time in his previous life when he pretended to be someone else and ordered a meal to prank others. So he put the question to Mr. Scott.

Mr. Scott was quite speechless. He thought Knight Kiel was a very powerful and capable young knight last night. But when he saw it today, he was a young man after all, and his thoughts were always so boring.

"Then, if someone really does this, then this guy uses that organization to play tricks on other people and cause trouble for rival shops. I can guarantee that he will be found lying in a dirty alley within a few days. .”

"died?"

"You may or may not be dead. There are some things that cannot be touched upon in a joking way, such as the dignity of a large organization."

Keir nodded, and the two continued walking forward.

Later, they played a game called [Want to eat eggs? 】At the stall, a batch of laying hens with cages and, of course, roosters as breeder chickens were purchased.

The poultry of the fleeing people had been eaten and robbed long ago on the road. Even though they did not forget to take their poultry with them when they fled from their respective hometowns, they still could not save the poultry including the poultry due to various twists and turns along the way. All kinds of livestock within.

Some people couldn't even keep their own dogs, and if they were even worse, they would lose their children.

Fortunately, even bandits would not snatch the young children of the fleeing people, because for the bandits, children are noisy and troublesome, and it is far better to snatch some farm girls they like.

Of course, since there are poultry sellers in the underground black market, there are also stalls selling livestock.

It's just that there are rules not to allow big animals to enter here, so as not to mess up the underground black market because of the big animals that can't see the outside world and feel anxious and nervous.

So the Thieves Guild replaced the on-site inspection of livestock with a method.

To put it simply, they inspect the animals on behalf of customers who buy things on the underground black market, and then they issue an authentic and reliable document indicating the specific condition of the animals.

They have marked out the good and bad parts, so that the purchaser can directly understand the real situation of the animals on the wooden sign through the text.

It has to be said that it is ironic that the Thieves Guild, a group of thieves, can actually provide a real and reliable fair place for the merchants who are afraid of them.

The black market organized voluntarily by merchants had been very chaotic before the Thieves Guild took over. It even required specialized body collectors to deal with the corpses that died in fights in the black market every day.

At least that's what Mr. Scott told Keel.

Through the actual situation he saw with his own eyes, Keel felt that Mr. Scott was not lying.

An order, at least a public order recognized by everyone, no matter who maintains it, this kind of place really needs an order in order to operate normally.

It has to be said that it is a very ironic thing that the Thieves Guild, which the merchants are reluctant to mention, is responsible for maintaining order here.

After buying laying hens and breeders, Keel had a very 'punk' experience at the livestock trading stall by using the wooden sign displaying the livestock. He looked at the explanations of the words and pictures on the sign and spent money to buy it. There were several draft horses that could not be seen.

This experience, I have to say, is really weird. Especially for Kiel, it was so weird.

It feels like buying cars and motorcycles in an offline physical store through an online store. Moreover, there were no physical items on display in the offline physical stores. The merchant at the stall confidently pointed to the wooden sign with the horse pattern on his face, asking Keir to buy it boldly. He also patted his chest to ensure that the sign looked like the animal he actually got. What does it look like.

It's so punk that Keel doesn't know what to say.

From then until noon, Mr. Keir and Mr. Scott spent money on various purchases in the [Feng]-shaped underground black market. Of course, they are all things that people use every day, and they are not expensive.

After the previous example of 'island pepper', Keir no longer dared to spend money on some small and expensive products that stall merchants claimed to specialize in and could make a lot of money.

On the contrary, Mr. Scott bought several paintings that were sold at low prices and a silver kettle, and his voice sounded like he was taking advantage.

This made Keir very unhappy.