After lunch, Nora put on her hat and eagerly went downstairs to watch the shop.
Ron tidied himself up, then went into the study and browsed for a while.
Around one in the afternoon, Ron heard Nora call from downstairs, "Shopkeeper! Someone's here to see you!"
Ron set down the book of illustrations in his hands and strolled downstairs. The moment he saw Jasper, he smiled and went over to greet him.
"Your Highness, Ron." Jasper bowed respectfully.
"Let's go upstairs and talk," Ron said with a smile.
Watching the two of them head upstairs, Nora was still a little dazed.
After Jasper had come in earlier, he had introduced himself to Nora, so she knew who he was: the highest-ranking representative of the Glorious Mercenary Group in Chaos City.
It was already incredible that someone like him had come to the shop to see the owner. But when he greeted the shopkeeper, what had Jasper called him?
Your Highness, Ron?
The shopkeeper's name was indeed Ron...
And the shopkeeper had said before that he was Andre III's son...
No way... Nora shook her head vigorously.
How could that be!
The shopkeeper had Orc blood. How could he be a direct member of the royal family?
Maybe he was the illegitimate son of some noble?
But what kind of illegitimate son would be addressed as "Your Highness"?
And treated with such respect by someone like Jasper?
Nora felt as though her mind had turned to mush. She couldn't make sense of any of it.
Just then, more customers came into the shop, so Nora had to set aside her questions for the time being and focus on helping them.
The second-floor sitting room.
Ron and Jasper sat down on the sofa.
After exchanging a few pleasantries with Ron, Jasper took two documents from inside his coat and got down to business.
"Your Highness, this is the contract for the Nether Orchid. Please look it over and see if there's anything you'd like changed." Jasper handed one of the documents to Ron.
Ron took the contract and read it carefully.
A few minutes later, he set it down and nodded. "It looks fine."
They had already discussed the terms of their Nether Orchid partnership yesterday afternoon, so the contract had no major issues.
Supplying the Glorious Mercenary Group with 25 Nether Orchids a week wasn't much different from their original agreement of 100 a month.
They would exchange the goods once a week, at the end of the week, with payment due upon delivery.
In other words, Ron would have a steady additional income of 500 gold coins each week.
After confirming that neither side had any further requests, they immediately signed two copies of the contract, and the partnership took effect.
Setting the contract aside, Ron smiled at Jasper but didn't speak first.
The next deal was probably the real highlight of the day.
A hundred Nether Orchids a month was little more than a nice bonus for the Glorious Mercenary Group.
After all, the group was made up primarily of warriors, and mages were few and far between.
So their need for Nether Orchids was far less than that of the Magic Academy.
Golden Red Chrysanthemums, on the other hand, were different.
The previous night, Jasper had found five novice mercenaries who had trained consistently for a long time but still hadn't advanced to First-Order Warriors, and had them take petals from the Golden Red Chrysanthemums.
The results had been impressive.
Four of the five had successfully formed a Battle Qi Vortex on the spot. The fifth hadn't advanced, but the amount of "qi" he had managed to draw out was still far greater than usual.
If he took Golden Red Chrysanthemums over a long period, he would surely be able to advance to First-Order Warrior in the future!
This was practically a perfect way to mass-produce First-Order Warriors!
Aside from the rather steep price, Jasper couldn't find any other drawbacks.
Unfortunately, the Magic Academy had a complete monopoly on the supply of Golden Red Chrysanthemums. Otherwise, Jasper would have found some way to work things in his favor.
Still, their group leader seemed to have a good personal relationship with the head of the Magic Academy. Perhaps, the next time the group leader came to Chaos City, Jasper could ask him to sound the head out?
These thoughts flashed through Jasper's mind. Still smiling, he handed the second document to Ron and asked, "I've already drawn up the terms for the Golden Red Chrysanthemum deal. They're much the same as those in the Nether Orchid contract, but the quantity will depend on how much you can supply, Your Highness."
Ron took the contract and looked it over. The terms hadn't changed much; the Nether Orchids had simply been replaced with Golden Red Chrysanthemums, and the quantity had been left blank.
He smiled and looked up at Jasper. "You took yesterday's Golden Red Chrysanthemums back with you. You must have had someone try them, right? What did you think of the results?"
"...They worked very well." Jasper hadn't wanted to discuss that before signing the contract, but Ron had asked, so he could only answer honestly.
Ron chuckled twice and didn't ask anything more. After thinking for a moment, he said, "The shop can supply you with a maximum of 500 Golden Red Chrysanthemums a month. What do you think?"
"Mm, that quantity is acceptable." Jasper nodded calmly, giving no hint of what he was thinking. "Then shall we follow the same terms as the previous contract: 125 Golden Red Chrysanthemums a week, payment on delivery?"
"If we trade Golden Red Chrysanthemums on the same terms, I'm afraid we'll need to add another clause to the contract," Ron said after considering it. "Although Golden Red Chrysanthemums are produced in greater quantities than Nether Orchids, they also have a much wider market. Other groups may come looking to work with us in the future, and then I might not be able to guarantee the mercenary group its current share."
Ron was talking complete nonsense. As far as he was concerned, as long as he had enough time, a day spent growing Golden Red Chrysanthemums in Dimensional Space would be enough to produce hundreds or even thousands of them.
But the principle that scarce goods were precious held true everywhere.
He had said all that to make Jasper understand how valuable the Golden Red Chrysanthemums were.
Unfortunately, in his previous world, Ron had just been an ordinary college student. He didn't know much about business.
If he hadn't had the system's special plants and monopolized their supply, he wouldn't have been sitting at the negotiating table with Jasper at all.
Jasper, of course, had no idea about Ron's real background. He still thought the Magic Academy was backing the Seventh Prince.
So when he heard Ron's words, he didn't find them strange. He simply held his ground. "Your Highness, the mercenary group was your first partner for Golden Red Chrysanthemums. Surely you can at least give us priority in the supply?"
"I can certainly do that, but shouldn't the mercenary group make some concessions in return?" Ron set down the contract and tapped it a few times with his finger. "I can guarantee priority on 500 Golden Red Chrysanthemums each month, but on one condition: the mercenary group must pay the full monthly amount in advance. Once the 15,000 gold coins are paid, I'll guarantee your priority."
Jasper certainly wasn't going to agree.
Paying such a large sum in advance would be a heavy burden for the mercenary group.
But Ron and the Magic Academy controlled the supply of Golden Red Chrysanthemums, so Jasper didn't have many good options.
After arguing his case for a while, Ron gave a little ground and didn't push too hard.
In the end, they agreed that the Glorious Mercenary Group would pay 10,000 gold coins in advance each month. Of the remaining 5,000, 3,000 would be paid in the middle of the month, and the final 2,000 at the end of the month.
I don't really know much about business, so just take this negotiation for what it is... Please go easy on me...
Before you continue