The Haggling Noble

"Umm, what's a spirit?"

Azu asked Alexia.

I was curious too, so I listened in.

"Simply put, a spirit is a mass of elemental energy that has developed a will of its own."

"A will?"

"It doesn't speak or anything like that. But it does understand our words."

"Some people call them nature gods. Water is especially important for daily life."

"I see."

I listened to their conversation as I steered the cart toward the lord's manor.

Along the way, I spotted a place where a mage was distributing water, but the amount per person looked pitifully small.

Unlike Alexia, this mage probably didn't have much magical ability.

Even so, people gathered for that meager ration.

That there wasn't a riot was probably because the people no longer had the energy for one.

We finally reached the lord's manor.

I'd confirmed the location at the Adventurer's Guild, so we found it without trouble, but…

There was no gatekeeper, and the gate stood open.

I hesitated briefly, then went in.

When we reached the manor's entrance, a man who appeared to be a servant walked over.

"How may I help you?"

"I'm an adventurer here to deliver burning stone."

"… Ah. This way, please."

He led us to what looked like a storeroom.

"How much?"

"Four crates' worth."

When I showed him the actual burning stone, the servant's expression soured.

According to the quest, payment was to be made per unit of quantity delivered, but no specific amount had been stipulated.

"One moment, please."

With that, the servant disappeared.

"He just left, didn't he?"

Azu said, looking up at me.

"Yeah. It's not like we brought an outrageous amount, though…"

It wasn't even a full cartload.

Hard to see how this quantity would be a problem.

After what felt considerably longer than "a moment," the servant returned with a man in tow.

His attire marked him as nobility.

Probably the lord.

His complexion was slightly off.

"You've brought burning stone?"

"Yes. As per the quest, I'd like you to purchase it."

At that, the nobleman inspected the burning stone.

"Merchants haven't been coming around lately, so I'm glad for this. About the payment, though… finances are tight."

He produced a pouch of silver coins.

"I'd like to reduce the bonus. Is that acceptable?"

"Well…"

That contradicted the terms of the quest.

Normally, the Adventurer's Guild mediated to prevent exactly this kind of thing, but this time the guild had only pointed us to the manor. In practice, it was a direct transaction. The terms were at his discretion.

The silver coins were Imperial currency, and even factoring in the exchange rate, they barely covered the cost of the burning stone itself.

I didn't know the Empire's exact market price for burning stone, but given production volumes, it couldn't differ much from the Kingdom's.

This meant the trip was a wash. No better than selling locally, with travel costs eating away any profit.

"Look, I understand you're not pleased. But you've seen the state of things. This city has no water right now. I've been hiring mages to generate just enough to get by with magic. There's no money on hand."

Then why go to the trouble of collecting burning stone? I wanted to ask, but this was a foreign noble. No telling what would happen if things turned sour.

"Understood."

Better to be grateful he wasn't demanding it for free.

If he had tried that, I wouldn't have taken it lying down.

"Oh, good."

The nobleman never even gave his name. He handed the pouch of silver to his servant and left without another word.

Not worth bothering to give his name to a mere adventurer, apparently.

The servant looked relieved.

We unloaded the burning stone into the storeroom and collected the silver.

Honestly, it was bulky enough that I'd have preferred gold coins.

We left the lord's manor.

At least the manor itself didn't carry that stale smell.

"… What a sloppy excuse for a noble."

"Is that so? Honestly, I haven't met enough nobles to compare."

I only really knew the lord of the town I'd lived in and Jacob.

"An Imperial noble who haggles on his own posted quest would be a laughingstock among his peers."

"But why go to the trouble of collecting it?"

Elza asked Alexia.

Burning stone was a resource that made it easy to generate heat.

With enough of it, you could reach extremely high temperatures, and it would keep burning until it was exhausted.

It was used in metalworking and for keeping warm.

But demand in a water-starved city was hard to predict.

"At first I thought maybe it was for war, like it was back then. But given how things are, that can't be it."

"They're in no condition for that."

"Yeah. I'd think they'd be better off buying water than burning stone."

"I've never heard of a city that buys water, though."

"True."

Water wasn't suited as a trade good at all.

It was heavy, it would spoil, you'd lose some during long-distance transport, and its value was low unless there was an extreme shortage like this city's.

Besides, if you had a mage, you could produce a fair amount in exchange for mana.

It was a vital and precious resource, but it couldn't be turned into merchandise.

We decided to leave the city for now.

Sleeping in the cart outside would be better than staying here.

The gatekeeper had curled up and fallen asleep.

He wasn't exactly fulfilling his duties, but he probably wanted to conserve his stamina as much as possible.

If bandits were going to attack this city, they'd probably go somewhere else instead.

We'd packed food with some margin, so we ate a short distance from the city.

"It was a place with nothing much to it, but it still had a certain liveliness to it."

Alexia murmured.

She looked more downcast than I'd ever seen her, even more than when she'd become a slave.