Chapter 202 – Looking towards the future.

“Here you go Mr. Wayland, your cut of the sale.”

The auction was over and at this moment Roland was in the office with an auction house clerk responsible for giving out the earnings. Thanks to the strange rich woman who contended with the dwarven union members, the sale amounted to twelve large gold coins, which was quite a sum of money.

“Isn’t there too much in here? You only took out one small gold coin, this is not the price we agreed on.”

With the help of his skills, he was able to quickly count how much money was in the sack. A contract was signed beforehand, it stated that he would be given ten to fifteen percent of his earnings to the auction house. This depended on the scale of the sale, the more money he earned the less he needed to pay up. With this one passing the ten large coin threshold he would need to fork up ten percent.

He was also required to present a minimum of ten items in a year otherwise, he would need to pay a fine. This was an understandable clause as he was given a better rate than other sellers that mostly had to give up from fifteen to twenty-five percent from the sale. Thus he was confused that he only had to give up one small gold coin.

“This was the lord’s decision, he sends his regards and hopes that you will continue to work with us. He also wanted to inform you that he would look into the situation with the dwarven union and the merchants.”

“Oh he did? and he will?”

By the ‘situation’ the clerk probably meant the way the dwarves almost caused others from bidding. Such acts were strictly forbidden in any auction house, even without words it was clear what had happened there. The union members probably didn’t think anything off it after getting used to almost owning the city.

‘Those bastards were heading upstairs weren’t they?’

After the bidding war was over the dwarves left in a hurry. It was clear that they only wanted to get his golem for a cheap price. After failing in their attempt they b-lined it for the auction storage to pay up. Roland was a bit interested in their reactions so he followed behind them but then when they were about to leave with the crate the lordling’s maid appeared out of the blue.

‘Will that guy do something about them, or will they just offer him a bribe?’

Roland wasn’t sure what he should expect from his new business partner. It was clear that he was getting some favorable treatment at least for now. What the future held in store for him was unknown and he could be betrayed any moment.

Yet he was willing to give it a try as he had become tired of all the running. It would have been easy to just leave a few years ago when the union became aware of him. Even going to a different country would be that outlandish as his manufacturing class would probably allow him a position almost anywhere.

Until times became really dire, he decided to remain and go through the hardships. Contending with a few penny-pinching dwarfs wasn’t all that bad, his business was doing well enough even when he was getting sanctioned left and right.

“Well then, give the lord my regards, I’ll deliver the next set of products before the deadline.”

It was not the time to worry though, he had made a lot of money today. Many more gold than he could by selling runic weapons in bulk. Also now with everything in place he would be able to construct the same golem a lot faster and perhaps at a lower cost.

Thus the town runesmitgh made his way out of the Valerian Auction house, his mind was now only on his comfortable bed.

….

“You can’t be serious…”

“Oh I’m very serious, this will be your only warning, if something like this happens again my father will hear about it. I wonder what the union would do to the little dwarf that caused a scene at a Valerian Auction house?”

The two dwarven union members that were bidding for Roland’s golem were now together in Arthur’s office. As always he was here together with his maid that was in the process of serving some tea to the two guests.

“We understand…”

While Dunan’s face went pale, Bamur remained calm. He lowered his head at the request knowing well that they were in the wrong. While Arthur Valerian here was not someone that they feared, they were in no position to offend a duke household. How much pull outside this city he had was unknown to them, thus it was better to tread lightly.

“Good, I will not fine you this time around but let this be the last time we have this conversation, you may leave now… oh and enjoy your new golem, I’m sure it’s worth all the coin that you paid for it!”

Arthur smiled while sipping his tea, Bamur just looked at him with a blank expression while his friend was biting his tongue. Soon the two departed with less gold in their pockets as they had already paid up for the golem. Finally after leaving the room Mary was able to speak up.

“That was somewhat boring, they didn’t even try to make a deal. It’s still disappointing, I’m sure I could have gotten more out of them.”

After her performance at the auction house she was feeling quite good about herself. This was not the first time that she inflated the price of an item around a place like this.

Before this day she had done some research for prices of golems, with the help of that knowledge she knew just how much the union dwarves would be willing to pay. How much they had in their coffers was also important but Arthur stopped her before she reached the amount she was going for.

“That was more than enough, it was already a big enough gamble, not sure how I would have explained it to our runesmith if you had won the auction.”

Arthur laughed to himself while thinking about Roland, his new business partner. What would he do if he knew that a noble was inflating the prices at his own auction house? Would he be all for it or did he have a more steady moral compass?

“Speaking about Mr. Wayland, I think that he might have noticed that it was me.”

Mary shifted the conversation towards a different subject, which was Roland’s piercing gaze.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Oh? Was he able to look through your disguise?”

“I’m not sure, I changed my voice and mannerisms, he is hard to read with that helmet on his face but maybe Sir Gareth and Sir Morien did a bad job in their new roles?”

The guards that she had with her were of course the two knights that served Arthur. They didn’t have to do much besides standing in place while Mary shifted the attention towards her extravagant look.

“Think I need to train them more!”

“I think they did well enough but we should focus on other things now, is our next guest here?”

“Yes, he is drinking up all the expensive wine as we speak.”

Replied Mary while frowning slightly when thinking about the person that she would need to fetch now.

“Good, would you be so kind to bring him here, I thought that he would at least make one bid but instead he kept to himself through the whole auction.”

“Maybe he is just afraid of the union as the rest?”

Mary shrugged while walking towards the door to go to the VIP room where the next guest was waiting.

“He didn’t seem like the type but I’ll see for myself soon.”

“Fine then, but I wouldn’t trust that man too much.”

“I’ll take that to heart.”

Replied Arthur while looking down at some papers. While the issue with the city runesmith was probably settled now, he was only a small cog in the machine. For this young noble to get his heart desires he needed more power and the amount of money that his new worker gave him wouldn’t be much unless he somehow attained tier 3 status within the next few years.

“Tier 3, that would be nice…”

Arthur gazed at his own status screen while thinking about the fabled tier 3 stopgap that not many could get through. If his new potential follower could attain it he could become a larger chest piece but for now, he was only someone with some potential. Whether he could prove himself in the coming years remained to be seen. For his future plans, he needed many more pieces like him.

“Lord Arthur, our guest is waiting, should I let him in?”

While contemplating the future he heard Mary call out to him from the corridor outside. The door slammed open as it was pushed with impunity, the maid on the outside started shouting but the person that walked into the lord’s office didn’t seem too apologetic.