"Three sets of components, three Gold Coins for you."
Su Li looked at him.
"Are you serious?"
The goblin steward's smile did not change.
"That's the going market rate. Wartime supplies are moving unstably, and prices fluctuate wildly—"
"The Silver Crown City black market quotes two Gold Coins per set. Good-quality ones can fetch two and a half. You're offering three Gold Coins for three sets—thirty percent below market price."
The goblin steward's smile was beginning to falter.
"You're very well-informed, sir..."
"I'm more than well-informed." Su Li swung down from his horse and walked up to the goblin.
He crouched down until he was eye level with the short goblin.
"Baris's trigger components are sixty percent copper and forty percent iron. If your Silver Claw takes them back, melts them down, and reforges them according to refined steel proportions, the yield can reach seventy percent. The copper and iron from one set of components can be reforged into four crossbow limbs. One limb sells for one and a half Gold Coins. Four makes six Gold Coins. You're offering me three Gold Coins for three sets, for a net profit of more than fifteen Gold Coins."
The goblin steward's expression changed.
Those figures were internal cost calculations of the Silver Claw Merchant Guild. How could some young blacksmith encountered by the roadside possibly know them?
Su Li gave him no time to react.
"Six Gold Coins for three sets. Take it or leave it."
The goblin steward opened his mouth, then closed it.
He looked at Su Li, then at Elena on horseback. Elena returned his gaze with a cold look.
The goblin steward knew when to yield. He counted six Gold Coins from his purse and handed them over.
"Deal."
Su Li accepted the coins, weighed them in his