Chapter 51: – Pursuing the Highest Profits by Any Means, We Eventually Settle for the Good Guys.
“No, no, it was really magnificent.”
A few men from the merchant side arrived on our ship with a small craft. Rebecca was happily talking to the man who came with a smile on her face.
“Hey, Makisu! Did you bring the money?”
“Yes. Here are 500 gold coins, please take them.”
Rebecca was in a good mood, and the man handed her a heavy cloth bag. Rebecca accepted it, glanced at its contents, and handed me and Tia two gold coins each.
“Captain?! Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah, I don’t mind. This time, you have done a great job. I’d be a fool to not reward those who produced the results, whether they are newbies or not.”
“If that’s the case, then thank you very much.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Tia said.
I thanked Rebecca, who laughed, and Tia and I stashed the coins away. I nodded in satisfaction, and Rebecca turned her face back to the man from the merchant ship once again.
“However, you dished out 500 for the cargo. Is it really that important?”
“Yes, it is. In this shipment, there is an item requested by a certain nobleman. … If this item were to be taken away from us, we would not be able to get it back even with money.”
“I see. Then wouldn’t it have been more profitable for us to just steal it?”
“You must be joking. I don’t think you have an extensive network of contacts like we do.”
“Ahahaha! That’s for sure!”
“… Hey, Ed. What does that mean?”
“Hmm? Ah, the most important thing for a merchant to sell is ‘trust’ “
I whispered to Tia as she pulled my sleeve.
“Merchants can carry out big jobs because of the trust that a person has in them to deliver what is promised and at a fair price. If it’s a commodity that can be easily obtained, but it is being transported by a ship, it must be valuable, don’t you think?. If so, the other party is naturally in a certain higher position, so rather than risk losing credibility by leaving a hole in a business meeting with such a party and losing all the profit,… It’s more profitable to pay with gold coins that can be replaced even if they lose a lot of money. But on the other hand, if the captain acquires such a cargo, there will be no buyers. There’s no way anyone would buy such a valuable item from someone they don’t know, so it will only remain as luxurious trash without any practical use. So, in other words, it’s in the best interest of both parties to deal in cash.” I said.
“Hou. So this ship was competing with those other pirates, too?” Tia asked.
“That’s right. If you rob a merchant ship or a passenger ship, no decent store is going to give you a decent price for it, right? They will take advantage of you and buy at a lower price, or, conversely, the merchants will rip you off and sell you the food and other supplies you absolutely need at a ridiculous price. If that is the case, then we can make more money in the medium to long term by protecting them, owing them favors, raising cash, and being able to purchase goods at a reasonable price rather than stealing from them.”
“… Is that what it means to be a pirate?” Tia asked.
“That’s a pirate for you. You ain’t abiding by the laws of this country.”
Rebecca and her friends did not pay taxes and would not annihilate hostile pirates to avoid losing their own profits. If these were miscellaneous mercenaries or adventurers, they would be subjected to a tremendous amount of criticism because they would be forgiving the bandits every time they missed them to secure their own jobs.
But Rebecca didn’t care. If someone described a free life in which one had no obligations or responsibilities and could laugh at the evaluations of others, then that would be a pirate.
“Wow. You’re surprisingly smart, huh?”
And then Rebecca, who had heard my story, looked at me with an eye as if she was evaluating me. Furthermore, even the man on the merchant ship who was supposed to be talking to Rebecca looked at me and narrowed his eyes.
“Certainly. Many young merchants these days are only after short-term profits, but you must have been trained as a …. merchant to understand the importance of trust and to be able to think in terms of profit and loss?” The merchant said.
“Eh?! No, no, no, I’m not that great! What I just said was a theory, or rather, something I derived from my experience. …”
“Really? You came to that answer on your own, not from someone else? That’s still… How about this? Would you like to work for us? We’ll pay you well.”
“Oi oi oi, you can’t recruit our new guy without my permission. This is …, the promising newcomer who fought off the captain of that pirate ship just now. Anything more than that is going to cost you, okay?”
“Oops, I didn’t realize that. It’s a shame … that you’re so smart and skilled, but I guess that’s just the way it is.”
“Ed, you’re so popular, aren’t you?” Tia said.
“Haha, give me a break.”
I chuckled and shrugged at Tia’s teasing words. After 100 years of tumbling around in other worlds, I wouldn’t be swayed by this level of flattery, but if it had been said in the first round, I wonder what … would have I said? Would I have followed this man and been used up by him after serving him as an apprentice? Well, compared to being a pirate, it would have been a decent enough life.
“Well, that’s all right. Where are you guys headed?” Rebecca asked.
“We’ll be stopping at the port of Charos.” Merchant replied.
“That’s not far. Since we got paid more, my ship will sail with you in that case. In exchange, Can we use the port? It’s rather tedious to carry water and food and stuff through the back.”
(T/N: Back here means illegally)
“Oh, by all means.”
Rebecca’s demand that she be allowed to enter the port legally as an escort was met with a smile on Merchant’s side. It was not probably not a bad deal for the merchants because if they were attacked again, there would be nothing they could do.
“All right, you heard the man. Our next stop is the port of Charos! We’ll sail alongside Makisu’s ship and restock our supplies there! I’ll even give you an allowance for your earlier efforts, so go enjoy your first time on land in a while!”
“”HOHHHHHHHH!!!”””
Rebecca’s decision once again shook the pirate ship with cheers. After that, the ship proceeded without incident, and after about a week, the Scarlet was able to safely dock at a corner of a port town. Having five days of free time, the sailors dispersed to the town at once, and naturally, Tia and I followed the flow and went ashore.
“Hah, I still love land. … I love being on the ground. …” I said.
“You’re exaggerating. Well, I do understand how you feel.” Tia replied.
I remember being overjoyed to be back on land, too, during the first round when I was sitting in a tiny corner of the ship. In addition to my time as a mercenary, I had accompanied the heroic party in the two worlds, which had strengthened my spirit considerably, but even so, my strength at that time was not much different from Rebecca’s men, and even though I was not a weakling who could be one-sidedly snubbed, I was not a remarkable warrior like I was now.
So, even in the battle with the Baroque pirates, I only killed one or two enemies, and the amount of allowance I received was one silver coin, I think? I was invited to a brothel by some guys I was getting along with, but I refused because my priority was to find information about the heroes, and I became slightly distant from them. …From the perspective of the ruffians of the sea, A friend was only a friend if he enjoyed drinking and women with them.
“…. Well, this time I didn’t get that kind of invitation because Tia is here.”
“What? What?”
“Oh, no, it’s nothing. Well, Let’s go out.”
I walked past Tia, whose ears twitched happily, and stretched out my body. The smell of the tide mixed with the earth, inhaling it made me realize that I was indeed back on the land.
“So where are we headed first? If we’re not going to use Ed’s thing, I, for one, would like a change of clothes.” (T/N: Akashic compass she means)
“Hmm? That’s obvious. There’s only one thing we have to do first!”
My hand, which had been pointing at the center of town, slowly slid away from there toward the backstreets.
“We’re going to go to the back of town and look for work. We need to make some money first.”
“Yeah. …”
The ears of Tia, who had been so excited, drooped down in obvious disappointment