How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 68

76. The Start of Business Begins on the Streets (2)

A peculiar street vendor selling potions had appeared.

The rumors about this foreigner quickly spread throughout the city.

Merchants, with their keen instincts for profit, were already taking notice.

“I heard there’s someone selling these…”

“Potions, you say?”

Balzard, the branch manager of the Caluon Merchant Guild, stared intently at the wooden bottle placed on the table.

“Selling potions on the street is quite unusual. Come to think of it, I seem to recall a rumor about some kid selling potions in the outskirts of the kingdom a few months ago…”

Of course, he didn’t know the details.

He had no reason to remember someone who just opened a small shop in the outskirts.

And the customer in front of him probably wasn’t interested in that far.

“But what about this potion?”

“It seems quite useful. When my subordinate bought it on the street, I initially thought he had wasted his money on something useless.”

*Why* is he telling *me* this, who has nothing to do with it?

From what he’d heard, that kid didn’t belong to any established guild or organization.

That meant he was operating outside their jurisdiction.

Balzard carefully considered the customer’s true intentions and asked for confirmation.

“Do you need it?”

“Yes. I want you to secure as much as possible. This is definitely useful.”

Was it the potion, or the kid selling it, that was truly desired?

There was no need to distinguish between them, not really.

Balzard bowed politely upon hearing the request.

“We will do our best.”

“I’ll be waiting for a favorable outcome.”

The words of the two men each lacked specifics, but no one pointed it out.

Perhaps because there was no need to spell it out.

They didn’t care about the *means*.

That’s what they both thought.

* * *

It had already been almost 20 days since I started selling potions here.

It was also a time when I was starting to get used to my daily routine.

“Haa… Should I just quickly make them and finish for today?”

Running a street stall was quite tiring.

I thought it would be better than managing a store, but it wasn’t necessarily so.

Let’s finish work quickly and rest.

Since coming here, I had been coming out to the backyard of the inn and lighting a fire every day when the sun began to set.

“Salamander, light the fire.”

No need for firewood.

I used the power of the Salamander [a fire elemental spirit] to ignite a fire on the ground.

Elemental magic is the best in times like these.

There’s no worry about the fire spreading, and no smoky fumes come out.

I occasionally showed off lighting a fire in front of the mercenaries when camping, and they all looked strangely moved.

Everyone praised me, saying they were envious.

After making a fire so conveniently, I put a large pot on it.

I also lit fires next to it, put several pots on them, gathered the ingredients, and busily boiled them.

I was manufacturing the potions to sell tomorrow.

Recently, I had been manufacturing all the potions I sold only in the required quantities.

The most cumbersome stock solution had been prepared in advance, so all that was left was to finish it.

In fact, this was quite annoying, so I wanted to finish it all at once, but unlike when I opened the store, there was no place to store it separately.

And I didn’t really want to buy a building just to set up a workshop right now.

Besides, my goal wasn’t to settle down.

‘Anyway, I’ll get a better base soon.’

In the end, after compromising with the innkeeper here, I got permission to light a fire in the backyard at this time and make potions.

Of course, I didn’t get permission for free.

The price of the innkeeper’s favor was one gold coin.

If I had allowed this for free, all sorts of hooligans would have been rampant, so it was an inevitable fee.

Anyway, I’m openly lighting a fire and boiling suspicious medicinal herbs to make potions, so naturally, I’ve become the object of attention.

On the first day, the innkeeper and employees peeked at me.

After that, mercenaries and travelers peeked over the wall.

Some were curious about what I was doing.

Some knew the meaning of what I was doing and were spying on me.

I was now resigned and half-ignoring them. I’m tired of it.

‘Seriously, they’re watching again…’

I don’t know why making potions is so amazing. I’m just diligently boiling, cooling, and bottling them.

However, today’s gaze was somehow a little exaggerated.

The curious eyes of young children.

‘Are they the kids from around here today?’

It seemed that the kids living here came out to watch.

Perhaps unlike adults, they didn’t really understand how to hide.

I could see everything.

I heard small whispers between the protruding heads.

“…Look at that. He’s boiling something strange.”

“…What is he boiling?”

“…Shhh, the adults say he catches children and boils them.”

“Wow…”

Seriously, the rumors are terrible.

More than that, what am I boiling? What kind of rumor is that?

It’s probably a scary rumor that adults made up to keep children away from this place.

‘Couldn’t they make up a more plausible rumor?’

I’m not some witch grandma who eats children.

‘Should I have gotten a small workshop after all…’

I was putting up with the backyard as much as possible because it would be useless in a few days.

‘I have to chase them away.’

I sighed and ordered Salamander.

Then, several harmless flames appeared in the air and flew to where the children were hiding.

Soon, I heard a commotion and small footsteps moving away.

Good! I successfully chased them away!

Don’t come again, you damn kids!

However, don’t misunderstand.

I don’t hate kids, and the fireballs I just sent can’t even burn a piece of paper.

It doesn’t matter if they watch, but there’s no good reason to have kids hanging around in a place full of suspicious foreigners.

I’ll feel uneasy if something happens.

‘That’s right, it’s about time I got a hunch [a feeling that something is about to happen].’

Running a street stall is fun, but I’m starting to see the limits.

I’ve used about half of the materials I’ve obtained.

‘It’s not that there’s no profit at all.’

At least I’ve already made back my investment, and my income has increased quite a bit.

‘But it doesn’t feel like I’ve made a big hit.’

I made a profit, but that’s only the amount that can be covered by selling individually.

It’s the same as when I opened the store.

‘After all, there’s a limit to the business I can do alone…’

While running a street stall here, I have been observing the scenery here to the point of getting tired of it.

I mainly watch how each merchant guild spends their day.

I have realized something just by doing that.

No matter how good I am, even if I have the knowledge of the original work, there is a limit to what I can do alone.

Sadly, that is the truth.

Especially in business, that limit is clear.

A highly advanced business that requires capital, manpower, and everything else.

My goal is that commerce.

The act of properly distributing goods and earning a large amount of money through it.

‘But I can’t imitate them right now…’

There are several conditions to becoming a merchant.

The first condition is to join and be active in any merchant guild.

It’s not explicitly mandatory, but if you try to imitate a merchant without joining anywhere, no one will deal with you.

It’s almost an unspoken rule.

‘But there’s no merit for me to join as a low-level merchant.’

Even if I join, I will struggle with the harsh reality for several years.

Many people throw themselves into commerce with the dream of becoming a great merchant, but only a very few survive in it.

The rest barely make a living.

Of course, I have enough ability, so I am confident that I can stand out even if I join as a low-level merchant.

‘But it takes too long…’

Leaving aside efficiency, I don’t have that much time.

‘I can’t just ignore everything and do business my way.’

No one doesn’t know how difficult it is to establish a merchant guild.

I lack funds, and it’s not easy to find people who will follow me right away.

Then there is only one answer.

Using an existing merchant guild.

There is a way to share some of the inside story and cooperate with them to pursue profits together.

That is much more reasonable.

‘But the problem is who to cooperate with…’

Which merchant guild should I approach?

I don’t know anything about the information of the existing merchant guilds.

I really know almost nothing.

Some merchant guilds mentioned in the original work are like this, but that is only a part of the description, and there are almost no places where the entity is specifically mentioned.

At best, there are a few malicious merchant guilds to avoid.

A blacklist guaranteed even in the original work!

I can only avoid them, but I have no way to know about other merchant guilds.

‘If I had to pick one, there is one place I can trust…’

The Sephilaos Merchant Guild.

As a merchant guild boasting the largest capital and scale across the surrounding countries, it is the only place I can trust.

Because that is the merchant guild that the protagonist has trusted and used throughout the early and late stages of the original work.

He even gets involved in some commerce through them to earn money.

It’s the protagonist’s source of money.

‘The problem is that I can’t touch it…’

If I interfere with the merchant guild that the protagonist will use in the future and something goes wrong, it will be irreversible.

As I said before, it’s best not to touch the protagonist’s things unless you are prepared to save the world instead of him.

You’ll be ruined. You’ll really be ruined.

Then who should I cooperate with?

I have to choose with my intuition and insight.

‘The problem is that I don’t know anything about other merchant guilds.’

Information is lacking. The hints are too vague.

There is a limit to asking around.

Most importantly, I have to judge for myself to some extent.

‘If you don’t know, you can test it.’

For that, I am staying here while even doing the troublesome street stall business.

It is easier to integrate without being suspected than a foreigner who does nothing.

In fact, I have started to talk to people working in nearby merchant guilds to some extent.

Foreigners are rejected, but those who feel somewhat settled are seen differently.

Thanks to this, I have obtained quite a bit of information about this place through the people I have come to know or through customers.

Mainly what they deal with and who is behind them are minor information.

Thanks to this, I was able to narrow down to useful information.

Perhaps a merchant guild involved in some incident will be here.

I roughly know the name too.

‘But it’s still not enough.’

The information I desperately wanted was not heard.

There is a merchant guild I want to cooperate with.

I roughly got a sense of who they are while staying here.

However, I cannot be sure about them in detail.

What kind of guys are they, and are they really sane? There was not enough basis to make a judgment.

‘Maybe they’ll start showing interest soon?’

Because this is something they would be interested in too.

I complained while cooling the sufficiently simmered potion stock solution.

“The problem is how they each come out.”

What I’m doing now is, to put it bluntly, a flag [an action that invites a specific consequence].

Of course, not only the things I hoped for will happen.

* * *

The prediction was right on.

The next day.

When I was making potions as usual and trying to get up, I took a long, deep breath.

‘They’re here.’

Because the semi-transparent Sylph [an air elemental spirit] in my ear had already informed me of their approach.

“…I’d rather it just be those kids from yesterday. I would have just gotten a little annoyed and ended it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Some men who looked like mercenaries revealed themselves, as if they had already noticed that I had been discovered.

‘For now, I haven’t seen those faces in the inn.’

I’m not very confident in remembering people’s faces, but the faces of those men who approached me now are unfamiliar.

Then the business is obvious.

“I’ve already gotten permission from the innkeeper to light a fire, so there’s no need to say anything unnecessary.”

“…”

“…”

I deliberately acted nonchalant, but there was no answer.

Seriously, how annoying.

There’s no need to even act.

“So? What’s the business? …Who wants to see me? I want to hear that first.”

“That’s not something we can answer. Come with us.”

The men were closing the distance.

That meant they were going to drag me away without warning.

“…Okay, if that’s how it is, I have nothing to say either.”

I calmly counted their numbers and pretended to kick my heel slightly.

Of course, their eyes were drawn to it.

“Don’t do anything… Keuk!”

The mercenaries, whose attention was turned to my actions, soon screamed and staggered, covering their mouths.

Some had drops of blood falling.

“…Stone?”

Only then did they realize that they had been hit by a stone that appeared from somewhere and were embarrassed.

I pretended to do something else and moved the stones rolling around to throw them.

Of course, it’s a warning.

I can attack at any time, and you have no means to stop it.

“Get lost.”

If you attack any more than that, know that I will be merciless.