As a former newbie, Roxia had listened to every word of his seniors and seriously listened to every word of their teachings and experiences. He had memorized them in his heart and repeatedly studied and pondered over them, turning them into his own experience and knowledge as soon as possible.
Rorschach respected his seniors, at least on the surface. However, there was one person whom Rorschach had never shown even a shred of respect to, even though she was also a descendant of one of his seniors.
"… What did you do?"
It was likely that Rorschach's current expression wasn't very good.
Meanwhile, Isabella was excitedly rummaging through Rorschach's backpack, looking for the charging device that he had promised her … Of course, she didn't find anything. After learning that something had happened, Rorschach immediately rushed back.
This was no longer the inn that they had been stationed at. Everyone directly activated the backup inn that they had rented earlier. Only Su Nanna remained in the inn, waiting for the situation … or at the very least, waiting to see how the locals would react. After all, no matter how many people came looking for trouble, her companions wouldn't worry that she wouldn't be able to escape.
"Haha, I'm not as good as you make me out to be … Fine, fine, it's really no big deal. Don't make such a big fuss over nothing. Do you know how many foolish human nobles I've beaten up before? I know what I'm doing. "
"If you know what you're doing, then why did you still use your balls-crushing kick?"
Rorschach frowned, but didn't continue speaking. It wasn't because there was a problem, but rather because there was a third person here.
"Who is she?"
She was a gray-brown-skinned girl who appeared to be around thirteen or fourteen years old. Judging from her rather outlandish short dress and the black scarf on her chest, and the crisp tinkling of silver bells on her bare feet, she seemed to be a dancer?
There was a totem of an eagle on her bare back, and a small ring was attached to her broken horn. Based on what Rorschach had seen over the past two days, these Seymour people, who valued their horns more than their own lives, weren't some pleasing ornament at all.
"Isn't she a Seymour person from nearby?"
The unfamiliar tattoo on her skin, as well as her overly dull complexion, faintly confirmed Rorschach's guess.
"Oh, spoils of war. Isn't it cute?"
Only then did Rorschach carefully observe the other party's appearance. Even by the standards of elves, it seemed to be pretty good.
"Lori, keep an eye on her. Why are you still letting her mess around?"
Rorschach was too lazy to talk nonsense with Isabella. He directly asked Lori what had happened.
[You really can't blame Isabella this time. At least, I think that her response was correct. That old man was both provoking and testing us. If we were to admit defeat without any anger, I'm afraid that we would be the ones who would be looked down upon. We wouldn't be able to leave this city alive, no matter if it was the goods or people.]
With Lori's description, Rorschach reconstructed the whole process in his mind, as well as the scene that had happened before.
A drunken old man had come over and pulled this dancer in front of Isabella. His mouth was filthy, and he had even taken advantage of the alcohol to ask Isabella to become his thirty-eighth concubine.
And then, not only had Isabella attacked him, she had been extraordinarily vicious … Roland hoped that the healing techniques here were strong enough. Otherwise, there would have been thirty-seven more living widows.
And then, she had casually come up with an excuse, such as "I took a fancy to that dancer first, and this bastard actually dared to steal her from me." She had forcefully turned the conflict between a foreigner and a Seymour noble into the most boring relationship between a man and a woman … or perhaps a woman, which had messed up the situation.
"Was this really effective?"
Rorschach was astonished. If this really was effective, then Roland must have lost his mind.
"Ha, of course it's effective. After I defeated the fifth guard warrior in a 'fair duel' … Actually, he's probably here because he's eyeing our goods. He's probably just an unlucky bastard sent by someone behind the scenes to test us."
Hearing this, Rorschach finally calmed down. The older the ginger, the spicier it was. Older women were typically more difficult to deal with … Cough, Isabella's response might not have been completely wrong.
"Where's the goods?"
[Hermit was keeping an eye on them. There were indeed people wandering around, but they dispersed later on. Judging by the time, it was about time that Isabella sent those people to test us.]
Rorschach heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed that he was still not mature enough, as there were still some things that he hadn't seen through yet.
"It would seem that we were too ostentatious when we came in."
Who said that the natives were easy to trick? The mountains were high, and the emperor was far away. Villains were born in poor villages, and there were no law enforcers here. It was quite normal for a few "lost travelers" or "wandering merchants" to go missing.
Trade? The prerequisite would be that both parties were equals. Otherwise, it would be much more convenient to just directly rob.
Even if the local government wanted to maintain their reputation, they wouldn't directly act. However, there would always be people below them who would be "tempted". Before the first trade, it would be necessary to prove one's strength and confidence. There would be no turning back if one became hostile. It would be quite natural to find an excuse to start a joke or fight to test the waters.
Typically speaking, such a test wouldn't appear for the first time … Who would dare to casually start a fight in such a terrible business environment?
But after one or two attempts and establishing a relatively stable business route, the fun would come knocking.
If one could prove one's worth and strength, they would naturally be able to protect their business route and long-term relationship. If one couldn't … it would be quite common for both the person and the goods to disappear.
Rorschach felt that he had been too ostentatious and attracted trouble early on, which was probably correct.
This time, since he was looking for a port area, he would definitely need some money.
This was already a cliché. In Ansorenne, due to the existence of the magic fog, it was quite difficult for the various regions to communicate normally. The population was usually quite far away from each other.
This also meant that it would be quite difficult for a uniform currency to appear. For example, in Cape Town, special shell coins were used. These were alchemically processed shells from the sea. The raw materials used were quite rare here, so naturally, there wouldn't be any counterfeit coins.
Ansorenne didn't have any currency exchange centers. It was still possible to use Divine Tribute to trade with the New Gods, but to talk about such things with the local residents … that would be meaningless. Be careful that others would think that you were here to preach and directly chase you out.
Naturally, the bulk trade here was still the most primitive form of bartering. The result of inconvenient travel was that the goods had to be brought along.
This time, the Game Church didn't just want to buy the right to use the port area. They wanted to bring along even more goods.
No matter where one was, food, medicine, and weapons would always be the most important requirements.
The villages and towns under the Game Church's jurisdiction had high-quality food, spiritual herbs from the Nature faction, and precious magical ores. The two large trucks were carrying the Game Church's entire harvest for the past half a year.
They had already attracted enough attention when they entered the city. It would seem that the greedy bastards were already hesitating about whether or not they should act prematurely.
"We haven't even found any clues about the port, and we're already in trouble? This is really … "
You're looking for the Iron Bird's port? I know a very, very good spaceport. "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
