When you held the initiative, you might as well be a little bolder.
Ask a high price of strangers.
Ask an even higher price of people you knew.
That was another of Old Charlie's sayings, and Arthur wholeheartedly agreed-having the initiative meant you were about to have everything.
But why ask an even higher price of people you knew?
Arthur had not understood at the time either, and had asked Old Charlie in confusion.
Faced with that question, Old Charlie had sighed helplessly.
"Compensation for emotional distress!"
Arthur still had not understood back then, but Old Charlie had offered no further explanation.
Now, of course, Arthur understood-
Once you took money from someone you knew, they assumed you had made a profit whether you had actually profited or taken a loss, and that made them uncomfortable.
If they found someone charging less than you, you were even more screwed. They would simply curse you for taking advantage of them.
But they never cared about quality or reliability. All they looked at was the price.
Yet when they went to a stranger's shop, they paid less attention to the price and started caring about the shop's quality instead.
It felt rather like dating a tycoon and claiming you did not care about money, only emotional support, then dating a poor boy and claiming you did not care about emotional support, only money.
Maybe that's why it's called "business," not "buddy business"!
Arthur muttered the pun only he understood inwardly, while his gaze settled on Kang Si'ang before him.
After hearing Arthur's flat refusal, Kang Si'ang, the Whale-Slaying Sword, showed neither anger on his face nor surprise in his eyes. He merely sighed softly-
"Nobles really can't be trusted!
When I first contacted that Baron Coroll, he said he could give me