Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 5 - Ch 5.08

Yes. If it is not a problem, then I would like you to get all of them for me.

Thank you very much for your business, but unfortunately, I have no way of knowing then they are going to be available next time.

The cat-eared merchant apologizes. It would seem that large quantities of amber are not something that is so easy to arrange. I wonder why it is like that? Maybe it is just his own excuse to gatekeep his business, because if he sells too much amber to someone at any given time, that would mean a risk of him accidentally creating a competitor for himself on the amber selling market?

And what is more, if you could just go and get any amount of amber as if it was nothing but pebbles on the side of the road, they definitely could not be as expensive as they currently are. The only reason for why amber can be sold for a premium price is precisely because it is so rare and hard to come by. If it was any other way around, then the amber merchants would just start popping up like hallucinogenic mushroom after an acid rain, resulting in the drastic drop of ambers market value, meaning that it would really be worth nothing more than ordinary pebbles, and that is not a situation that any merchant who is worth his salt would allow to happen.

I always thought that the amber merchant could simply employ the Adventurers in order to sell amber in distant places to make an even bigger profit, but if he is not doing so already, then it has to mean that there probably is not all that much of a supply of amber available at the current moment. And following that line of thought, if he started selling amber in the places where there is not much supply of it all of a sudden, then its prices would skyrocket, destabilizing the local economy as a result.

I see. Well, if it is like that, then as unfortunate as it is, I guess there is nothing much that we can really do about it, is there?

Yes, it is exactly as you say, Mr. Customer. Unfortunately for us, amber is only being washed ashore where it can be safely collected after there is a storm at the sea, so more of it might just become available the next time when there will be a storm happening, and for the sake of my business, I hope that this is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Yeah, I guess we can only hope for that to happen now, huh? By the way, is it available in Talem or Tamel or whatever the name of that town is?

It is Talem. It is a town famous for its woodworks. Many kinds of wood that are typically used for decorative purposes can actually be found there, but it is exactly for that purpose that we do not cater to that particular area with our services.

It is the same place where the Duke is planning to get the mirrors decorated. So, it is a place renowned for its woodworks, huh?

If that place is so renowned, then I bet there are trees such as Japanese Cypress, Teak or Mahogany growing in that area.

Could you please have wooden cases for the necklaces prepared from this Talem place for me?

Right now, the necklaces that I bought from here earlier were being kept in a cloth bag, while in Japan, the necklaces have these special cases in which they can be held. Apparently, as I could have expected, honestly, there is no such practice in this world, which means that if I want Roxanne and Sherrys necklaces to be stored in a proper way that is not gong to damage their Amber Necklaces, I have to make a special custom order for such cases to be made.

Wooden cases?

Yes. Amber Necklaces that I bought from you are, without a doubt, a very special kind of a high-class luxury item, so a case made out of wood found only in Talem is definitely going to only add to its class.

I see. You are certainly correct about that, but why are you asking me about it?

The amber merchant has become quite restless. It is just as I thought. This guy does not understand that holding a luxurious item such as Amber Necklace in a case that was made specifically for it will only add to the sense of luxury surrounding the item, because you are going to make it seem that it is so valuable that it has to be kept separately from all of the other items in your possession, but if the word gets out that I am the only one selling necklaces in special wooden cases, then I will definitely gain quite a reputation to my name, and that is something that I would have liked to avoid for the time being.

Well, if I will be the only one who sells necklaces in cases, I will gain reputation quickly and it will be only a matter of time before others start to copy me. And besides, I am not from this region, but a faraway place, so I would rather have someone who is a local of Hartz Duchy to deal with the matters in Talem.

You you are planning to sell amber necklaces in wooden cases?

Yes, because according to the market research that I have conducted, there are people who would definitely be willing to buy such a product, and it looks like it is going to have a pretty good chances of being a huge sales hit especially in Palmasque. Oh, but if you are getting worried about it, then be at ease, I can assure you that I am only going to be selling them around Palmasque, and not anywhere near the vicinity of Bode or Hartz Duchy.

After all, this guy and the company that he runs are focused on selling amber and amber-related items exclusively in Hartz Duchy and the Imperial City, and he has made it very clear last time that he does not wish to see his business getting disturbed, but as long as I promise to keep my own amber-selling business away from those two regions, he told me that he will not mind selling me his amber, and that is what I should be sticking to.

So, in other words, what you are saying is that you would not mind if my company started selling Amber Necklaces is wooden cases?

Yes, that is exactly what I said. I would not mind that at all.

Understood. In that case, I will consider ordering these wooden cases for you immediately. Wooden cases from the Talem wood, was it? I will get to it right away, so you can definitely expect good news during the next time we meet!

After asking the cat-eared merchant to fetch me a pair of wooden cases, which he seemed to be oddly enthusiastic about right there at the very end, I left his store. Now that I requested him to get these items for me, we will not have to keep Roxannes and Sherrys Amber Necklaces in a cloth bag anymore, because if I am to be honest with you, it did not look very good to be keeping such an expensive pair of items in something so poorly-looking, and the poor necklaces must be feeling all depressed about it as well, so putting them in some proper casing is surely going to make them feel better on the spot.

Just like every man should have his own place to stay, every proper piece of jewelry should have its own case from which it could be displayed to others. That is definitely going to be something that the wife of that craftsmen who Roxanne and Sherry sold raw amber to will not be able to boast about, because just like this cat-eared merchant right here, in this world, no one is even thinking about the decorative functions of things, focusing too much on their practical aspects and applications instead. Well, if the plan with the wooden cases ended up being a bust, selling the Necklaces back to the craftsmans wife once they start to get a little bit too worn out for my liking is always going to be a valid option as well.

For the remainder of they day I did not go anywhere else in particular, and just stayed in the Labyrinth exploring and killing monsters for their Drop Items. When it was evening and the time to go back home, I went to the Adventurers Guild and bought the Shyuraf leaves and a small pot to go along with it, and only then went home.