bookworm

The next morning, when the members of the Crimson Vow stopped in at the Hunters’ Guild, a man came rushing over to them with a strange expression.
“Why didn’t you come back?!?!”
It was the owner of the shop. For the owner of a company—not his head clerk or assistants—to wait around in a place like this, for a group of hunters who might not show up anytime soon, was truly an atypical occurrence. Clearly, the circumstances warranted it.
“You all were supposed to come right back with the other sc—the other item! Why didn’t you come back?!?!” cried the merchant, swiftly stopping himself from saying aloud what said item was. It was only natural he would do so; shouting something like that in a place like this would be sure to bring others around, and if things went poorly, there was a chance of the competition finding out exactly what he was referring to, and just how much it was worth. They needed to move somewhere more private.
“Please just come with me to the shop!” the merchant shouted, grabbing the arm of Mile, who was the youngest and appeared least able to resist, and attempting to drag her from the guildhall. He seemed to believe that if he took one of them, the others would naturally follow along. And, in fact, the other three shrugged and followed behind him.
Of course, had Mile dug in her feet, he would never have been able to pull her so easily, no matter how light she was. Naturally, she was letting herself be taken on purpose.
“Hey, uh… Hey now…”
Behind the group, those hunters and guild staff who had begun to understand a thing or two about the Crimson Vow, in light of Mavis’s demonstration, the dragon incident, and the Roaring Mithrils boasts about the girls’ exploits, began to mutter wearily, but the merchant had no idea what their voices were trying to convey.

“Why didn’t you all come right back yesterday?!”
The shop owner was at least making an attempt to maintain an air of politeness in front of his clients, but his expression was fierce and his tone sharp, the smiles of the previous day nowhere to be seen. He seemed to be quite worked up. This was probably to be expected; he’d likely spent the whole night tossing and turning at the thought of being able to get his hands on such an item, unable to sleep at all.
They moved to a concealed inner chamber within the shop. With this room having been constructed with soundproofing in mind, there was no need for the man to control his voice as he screamed at the Crimson Vow. He really still should have kept his volume in mind, since he was dealing with clients. However, he seemed to be rather beyond that. This was a slip-up, especially for a sly old dog like this merchant, but given that a group of little girls, of all people, had broken their word and made a fool of him, resulting in his sleepless night, it was little surprise that his anger won out and slipped into his words…
“Well, to tell you the truth, we were going to come back, but we ran into a mother and daughter we knew who were having trouble paying back a loan, so we gave them both the scales we had, thinking it might help supplement their payments or something…” Pauline explained.
“You…y-y-y-y-y-you did what?!” the merchant screeched.
All the soundproofing in the world could not have stopped that scream from reaching the rest of the shop.
“Wh-wh-wh-wha… Wh-wh-wh… Aah… Aaaaaah…”
The merchant was unable to form words for some time, until finally, his babbled noises began to make sense again.
“Wh-why…?”
“Well,” Pauline replied, quite unaffected, “Those people helped us out before. We figured that even if they were only worth 14 half-gold, that should be enough to help them out a little.”
Hearing this, the merchant went pale. His lips flapped, but not a single sound emerged.
“So, we actually can’t sell them to you anymore. We didn’t have any formal contract though, and just hearing a quote doesn’t really constitute an intent to sell, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
In fact, it was a huge problem. However, it was a problem for the merchant. Not having someone sell you something was not the sort of thing one could really complain about.
He had to get his hands on the scales, one way or another. With this thought in mind, the wheels in his head began spinning at full power.
“U-um, so about the people you gave them to…”
“Huh? I mean, that’s not really any of your business. I can’t just go blabbing people’s personal information to strangers. Especially when it comes to something as sensitive as debts… Anyway, since we don’t have anything to sell you anymore, do you still need us for anything? If not, we’ll be taking our leave. Let’s go, everyone!”
“Coming!” chimed the other three, cheerfully in sync.
And so the members of the Crimson Vow rose from their seats, leaving behind the desperately babbling merchant.

Moments after the Crimson Vow left the shop, the owner’s voice could be heard echoing.
“Find them! You have to find the people they gave those elder dragon scales to! If it’s someone with a debt, we should be able to research and find something out through our financing division. We need to find them quickly, before any other firms can find out about this! Hurry!!!”
“The preparations are complete. Now, all we have to do is sit and watch the stupid puppets dance!” Pauline gleefully exclaimed as they left the shop behind, heading back toward the inn. “Thanks to diligent practice, I’m expecting a decent performance from our final actor as well. We can look forward to a splendid show!”
As always, Pauline had an utterly blissful smile on her face, a smile so full of benevolence that anyone who did not know her might even wonder if she was a holy woman… Though any particularly insightful animals or children they came across might grimace and run away.
With a subtle flinch, the other three nodded vigorously.

***

That evening…
“We’ve found them… We’ve found them! To think that the one they gave those scales to was someone who borrowed money from our firm! It seems like the owner of the shop in question is away, and his wife is currently in charge of paying back the loan. She was wondering if she could sell off ‘something resembling a wyvern scale’ in order to supplement her payment, with no idea of its value… Bwahaha, what splendid fortune I have! I hate to boast, but the goddess of commerce must be smiling on me to give me such awesome power! Bwaha. Bwahahahahaha!”
Upon hearing his subordinate’s report, the firm owner was unable to contain his wicked laughter.
“All right! Tomorrow morning, we’re heading to their home! Go find the head of our financing division! Tell those folks we’ll be dropping by at the first morning bell. Bwaha. Bwahahaha…”

***

Aritoss was a small shop, staffed by only five employees, including the husband and wife who owned it.
Presently, this tiny shop was being called upon by the owner of a mid-sized mercantile firm that was said to do fairly high-profile business in both the commerce and financing spheres, along with the chief of their financing division, the head clerk, an assistant clerk, and a contingent of several guards.
Normally, this was not the sort of place that the owner of such a firm would grace with his presence. He would entrust one of the clerks with any visits—or better yet, call the other party to meet him, as a show of power. The fact that he had a bodyguard with him meant that he was likely aware how high the possibility was that he might be assaulted somewhere in town, owing to the many grudges held against him—indeed, it was likely enough that he had bothered to make the expenditure of hiring guards.
There could only be one reason that such a man would go out of his way to travel all the way to this small shop on his own.
“…Wyvern scales, you say?”
“Yes, some friends of ours gave them to us. We were wondering if maybe we could give them to you in place of the repayment and penalty fee…”
The woman, wife of the proprietor of the shop, had explained that they had not yet had time to find a buyer for the scales, so rather than selling them somewhere else to gather the funds, she was hoping she could offer the scales themselves directly as a form of repayment. It would have been one thing if they were able to take their time looking for buyers, but to turn the goods into cash in just a few hours would likely mean taking a huge hit in terms of the profits. If things went poorly, they might lose up to half of the rightful price. If they offered the scales to their lender directly, even if they were not going to get the full price, they could at least offset their debts, making this the preferable option.
So the woman thought, and hers was not a bad assumption…or at least, it wouldn’t have been, were the items in questions truly wyvern scales.
The owner of the firm was practically dancing at the continuation of his mind-boggling good fortune. He had traveled here himself with the head of the financing division in tow because this was a negotiation they could not afford to fumble, but now, he was fighting desperately to suppress a grin.
Things might not have gone so swimmingly for him if the woman’s husband, proprietor of their shop, had been present, but it seemed the man was currently out of town to collect on some accounts, leaving his wife, who was not as sharp when it came to business, the only one here to deal with the loan.
In light of the fact that her husband was the one largely in charge of their commercial affairs, was it really right of the men to make such a fool of the wife of a merchant?
It was…as long as it helped out their profits!
With this thought in mind, the merchant could feel nothing but an intense sense of gratitude toward the idiot of a woman standing before him.
“I suppose we really don’t have much choice. We ourselves are no charity, unfortunately. Still, it is the duty of a merchant to aid a client in need. You seem to be in a bit of trouble, so just this once, we will accept these items as a part of your payment.”
“Oh, thank you so much! So, these two wyvern scales should cover the total amount, including the principal, the interest, and the penalty fee, is that correct?”
“Huh?”
The merchant was clearly puzzled at the woman’s assumption.
“Two scales at seven half-gold a piece would never cover the full amount!”
Yet the woman made no move to back down.
“Seven half-gold? No, a wyvern scale is worth far more than that. If that’s the price you’re going to insist on, then we’ll just head over to the merchants’ guild and sell them there. Even that would get us more value than just seven half-gold, I’d say. We’ll go that route and have the payment ready for you in cash tomorrow.”
Apparently, the young hunters had not informed the woman of the price at which the scales had been assessed.
Unlike elder dragon scales, only a few of which might surface every few decades—or even centuries—wyvern scales, were not especially rare. They still fetched a decent price, but a wyvern was not beyond the abilities of any first-rate party, and hunting just one would mean a sizable influx of scales into the market. Thus, even if they had not seen one themselves, it was no surprise that there would be plenty of people who had some idea of the market rate for them.
It was far different than getting one’s hands on elder dragon scales, scant fragments of which might be given over only at the whims of another—making a full scale utterly unthinkable.
This is bad! thought the merchant. Even if she can’t tell them apart, she still knows the value of a wyvern scale… I can’t be quibbling over pocket change here!
The merchant, unwilling to spoil the whole deal over a bit of pettiness, decided not to get hung up on the paltry sum of the loan, which was really little more than pocket change to their firm.
“V-very well. Then, let’s call the full sum even, yes? To tell you frankly, I think we should be able to net far more than market value for these, so I really must thank you!”
This merchant, of course, was never one to forgo negotiations with a first-time customer—not without some sure plan to recoup his costs later, anyway. No matter how small their shop was, there was no way the proprietor’s wife could now know that. However…
“Thank you! I’ll go ahead and prepare a contract stating that our offer was accepted,” said the woman. She clapped her hands twice, and one of the shop staff brought in a contract. One had to wonder—had she been so certain ahead of time that her deal would be accepted that she had already written up this contract, or had she prepared several different ones, with the appropriate one being brought to her with the signal she had just given…? Such power plays were the norm for any good shop owner, so it was difficult to say for certain.
The merchant then looked over the contract, the gist of which was:
All sums associated with the repayment of the loan in question (the initial loan sum, interest, penalty fee for late payment, handling charges, and all other mandatory associated fees), will be covered by the tendering of two dragon scales, likely those originating from a wyvern, in place of monetary repayment.
There was no issue with the wording or contents of the contract. It was all stock language, written in such a way as to prevent any misinterpretations or misunderstandings. Even clearly specifying that the scales belonged to a dragon caused no trouble; the language did not assert with certainty that the scale belonged to a wyvern, so if it should turn out that the scale belonged to an elder dragon instead, there would be no breach. If the woman were to later find out about the value of the goods and complain, he could simply shrug it off.
“Now then, shall we take those scales off your hands?” asked the merchant with a grin.
The woman shook her head coldly. “No, thank you.”
“Wh…?”
There was no way to describe the man’s expression but slack jawed.
“Oh, no, there’s nothing wrong with the terms of the contract itself. It’s simply that I would like to do the handover at the Merchants’ Guild instead. The thing is, we actually still haven’t been given the items ourselves, so we can’t give them to you yet. Also, considering your behavior when we originally tried to pay back the money, I don’t really have much confidence in you right now. If we do the handover at the guild in front of all the other merchants and guild staff, I can rest assured that you won’t attempt any egregious violations of contract or try to entangle us in any strange schemes, since that would greatly hurt your reputation as a merchant.”
“Guh…”
The merchant was clearly unhappy, but on further consideration, he supposed all this would apply equally to the other party. If she were to later complain that she had been tricked, or demand the scales back, the merchant, too, could rest assured that there would be witnesses to attest to the validity of their transaction. There was nothing wrong with him taking her words at face value during the exchange and believing the goods to be wyvern scales, only to later determine that they were something else entirely. At any rate, it would be the others who had made a mistake in assessing the goods and given a false description…
“So, tonight then, at the guildhall—first evening bell,” said the woman. “At that time we will handle the return of the original contract of loan and the replacement with the new, as well as the exchange of the scales.”
There was no telling what could be done if the original contract was not retrieved—if, for example, a fake was destroyed in front of everyone while the original sat safe and sound, or some such trickery. Being fooled once already was plenty.

After seeing off the gloating merchant, the woman’s lips twisted. Her smile very much resembled one that three of the members of the Crimson Vow were accustomed to seeing.
Indeed, it was the spitting image of Pauline’s wicked grin whenever she was scheming.
The young matron had the looks of a saint…but she was still a merchant’s wife.
Soft words then tumbled from the woman’s lips:
“Now, witness the fury of Aritoss!”

***

That night, shortly before the first evening bell, the wife of the owner of Aritoss, the merchant, the head of the financing division, and their bodyguards stood within the Merchants’ Guild.
The guildhall was packed. It was the most bustling time of the day, when hunters would be returning from hunting and gathering and selling their spoils to the Hunters’ Guild, which were in turn sold wholesale here… That was of course precisely why the woman had chosen this time.
Ding-a-ling!
The doorbell rang, and everyone’s eyes reflexively turned to the door to see them enter: the young all-female hunting party who had managed to kick up quite a stir at the Hunters’ Guild in just the past few days. While it was the Roaring Mithrils who had made a name for themselves selling the ground dragon parts, some of those present still recognized the members of the Crimson Vow, even if they were thought of as nothing more than a rookie party who had traveled with the Mithrils and scraped up some of their leftovers.
From the doorway, the girls headed straight to the table where the rest of the group was assembled.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. We’ve come to deliver the wyvern scales that we promised to the manager of Aritoss here.”
This time it was not Mavis, the leader, who was in charge of the negotiations, but Pauline. The others of course would have no idea who the party leader was, and even if they did, they likely would not care.
“It’s no trouble, we’re still a bit ahead of schedule,” said the woman. “Now then, once the signing of the contract has been confirmed, please hand over the scales. When the wyvern scales have been handed over, our debts will be settled. If the scales are found to be fakes or damaged goods at that juncture, please announce as such immediately. In such an event, we will request an official appraisal from the guild, and if fault is found on our part, the contract will be nullified. Is that agreeable?” The latter part of this was directed at the merchant.
Naturally, the merchant had no objections. Even the fact that they were not handing over the items first was to his advantage. In fact, he had been the one to suggest confirming the integrity of the items after the contract had been signed. If they were to hand over the items before the signing, the other merchants around might cause a fuss and make the woman aware of the scales’ true value.
Bwahaha! She’s thought of so many ways to avoid being swindled that all she’s done is dig her own grave. A pitfall of so many fools who think themselves clever. She thought she could outwit me, but truly, women are nothing but fools… The merchant sniggered internally.Normally, he would have put far more thought into this, but he was entirely caught up in attempting to screw over this other party—and thinking they were falling for it. So wrapped up in the thoughts of the trap that he had laid, that he failed to let anything else occur to him.

It was already unusual for this transaction to be going on in front of everyone, rather than in a private room. Then, there was the fact that the phrase “wyvern scales” had been flung around multiple times. Furthermore, the talks were going on between the infamous Melphict and—not the owner of Aritoss—but his wife. No matter how you looked at it, this was not your typical negotiation.
He’s definitely gonna try to pull the wool over her eyes, the watching merchants thought. However, it was not their place to interfere in another merchant’s dealings, so they could only watch uncomfortably as the woman fell victim to Melphict’s tricks—all their ears pricked up to catch every word of the conversation and make certain she was not being deceived.
Two copies of the new contract were produced and each one given the appropriate signatures before both parties took their own and folded it away. Normally, these papers would be left atop the table while the final exchange was done, but in this case, putting them away first provided a safeguard against the other party learning the truth and trying to quickly retract the contract in a panic. The watchers who noticed this grimaced, thinking to themselves, Ah, they don’t trust each other at all…“Now then, if you would,” said the woman to Mile, who produced two packages from her storage and placed them atop the table.
There were a few surprised gasps of “Storage magic!” but the majority of the crowd was more fixated on the rest of the proceedings, gulping nervously as they watched.
“Go ahead,” said the woman, and the merchant opened the packages to find…
“What are these?!” he shouted, standing reflexively.
Sure enough, placed inside wooden frames and wrapped up to disguise their true size—or rather, to protect them—were two dragon scales.
Specifically, two wyvern scales.
“As you can see, these are wyvern scales.”
“Wyvern scales?! That’s not right at all!!!”
The people around them were stunned at the merchant’s behavior as he raged indignantly at the woman. For all the talk that had been going on about this being an exchange of wyvern scales, it was incomprehensible why he would be blustering at receiving what were, in fact, wyvern scales. It would have been one thing if they were broken or damaged, but as far as the people around could tell, they were scales of fairly exceptional quality—nothing to scoff at.
“Hm? What are you so confused about? We’ve been telling you the whole time that they’re wyvern scales, haven’t we? You’ve been saying the same thing. Even the contract, which you yourself checked over plenty of times, specifies ‘dragon scales, most likely belonging to a wyvern,’ does it not? So, what exactly are you trying to say? If something’s the matter, should we call for an official appraisal?” asked the woman, smiling vaguely.
“Wh-wha…?”
The merchant sank into a chair, momentarily lost for words, but then shot back up, shouting at the Crimson Vow.
“You lot! What about the scale you brought in yesterday?”
“Huh? You mean that unidentified scale that you appraised at seven half-gold? We already told you, they seemed like they weren’t worth much, so we handed them over to an acquaintance. We weren’t supposed to have brought those now, were we? What would you care about those cheap scales that you, a first-class merchant, appraised at just seven half-gold?”
The merchant looked back at Pauline with an utterly dumbfounded expression upon his face.
She had just stated loudly, multiple times, that the scales in question had been appraised for seven half-gold.
An actress…
Pauline’s performance was impeccable, an act that only an animal, a small child, or someone who knew her well could see through. It was, in fact, so impeccable that a certain refrain that often cropped up in Mile’s Japanese folktales floated into the heads of her fellow party members…
Hearing Pauline’s response, the others around them now began to grasp the full situation. For the past several days, the guild had been gripped by talks of a certain something, so there was no way that any merchant with half a brain cell would not begin to put two and two together, given that scales were involved.
Here and there, suspicious smiles and looks of understanding began to flicker upon the faces of the surrounding staff and merchants.
“Guh…”
The merchant stammered, unable to say anything—what could he say? That he had appraised a perfect, complete elder dragon scale at just seven half-gold or that he had tried to trickily purchase an elder dragon scale as a wyvern scale, here in front of all these people?
Naturally, he was aware of how poor his reputation was to begin with. However, all prior incidents of questionable dealing could easily be explained with one of a million excuses like, “That was a conversation only between the parties involved, which no third party was privy to,” or “That was not specified in the wording of the contract,” or “I didn’t know that,” or “My subordinate acted out of turn,” or “We have no records of that,” or simply “This was a legitimate contract that both parties willingly agreed to.”
However, in this case, they had clearly said the words “wyvern scale” in front of all of these people, and moreover, it had been made obvious that he had assessed the scales the young women had brought him at seven half-gold—less than the value of the current negotiations, and indeed far less value than the market price of a wyvern scale. Furthermore, he could not simply claim that previously the girls had shown him an elder dragon scale, and he had made some kind of grand mistake.
Having already just admitted in front of everyone that he could clearly tell dragon scales apart, he could not insist that those seven half-gold scales were worth far more than the wyvern scales before him. All of the options available to him would be tantamount to admitting he had acted fraudulently…
Meanwhile, it was clear that the other party had believed this entire time that what they had were wyvern scales and that they were not of much value. Indeed, even the contract and the equivalent sums involved had clearly affirmed this.
I’ve been had…
The merchant’s shoulders slumped, crestfallen. The wife of the owner of Aritoss, meanwhile, feigned utter ignorance, while Pauline sneered secretly, out of view.
Even given everything, the merchant was not exactly being put at a loss in terms of coin. He was purchasing wyvern scales at a fairly high price, but it was only high when one considered the value of the original sum, interest, and penalty fee. He was more than recovering the original loan and interest, i.e. the amount he was fairly due. He had merely slipped up in letting his greed get the best of him.
Though all their debts had been canceled, Aritoss still had to pay the Crimson Vow for the wyvern scales, so in essence, the shop was still paying the original amount and interest as well.
Pauline, of course, could not let them go without having paid their debts simply because the Crimson Vow had gotten involved. Indeed, even though she had been the one to insist, everyone was of the same mind on this.
Making sure their debts were fairly paid would be proof positive that anything Aritoss had done, they had done only in self-defense, not intending to profit, which would raise their reputation in the eyes of the other merchants and guild staff. After all, what they had handed over to the merchant was in fact two beautiful wyvern scales, not damaged goods, or rock lizards scales, or some such substitute.
Indeed, Aritoss was an honest, upstanding shop, which always kept its promises through and through.
The Crimson Vow had gotten to sell two wyvern scales they already had on hand for not far off of market value, so it was no big loss to them.
And so, the incident concluded peacefully, with no real profit and no real losses for anyone involved…monetarily speaking.
The merchant had now thoroughly disgraced himself before so many of his peers and securely cemented his reputation as a scoundrel. Even more important, however, was the extent of the emotional damage he was now suffering at not only having had such a prize vanish before his eyes but also at having been taken by the likes of some peddler’s wife in front of all these people.
Meanwhile, for the matron of the little shop known as Aritoss to stand up and win fair and square against this corrupt and crafty merchant was a great victory: proof of her own stature as a woman of character and a mark of credence and reputation for the business itself.
The Crimson Vow, of course, became just a little more well known as a fascinating bunch of lovely young ladies who boasted storage magic to boot.

“It sure is lucky you had those wyvern scales in storage, Mile,” said Reina.
“Yes. That was all thanks to dear Lobreth, wasn’t it?” agreed Pauline.
Mile and Mavis laughed in reply.
Indeed, the scales had come to them after Lobreth was attacked in the battle with Wence, the greenhorn elder dragon. When Lobreth was injured crashing down into the trees after being struck by dragon breath, Mile had picked some scales out of his wounds to clean them when applying healing magic.
Naturally, the scales would have gotten in the way in the process of preparing to heal the wounds, so she had put them away into storage. She wasn’t just going to leave them on the ground as litter, after all.
“No one lost out, and in fact, we all profited a little. What a happy ending!” Mile concluded, naive as always.
The other three were silent, though they all truly wished to point out that she had failed to consider the reputation or spirit of the merchant, both of which were clearly suffering…
No, I’m sure she’s completely aware of that, thought Reina.
She has no interest in considering the feelings of villains! Mile truly is a dark one… thought Pauline.
She’s being sincere, isn’t she? Mile, do you really think that? thought Mavis.
The three could do nothing but smile ambiguously in reply.