The Automated King

The Merchant

“Hoy, wake up, Mr. veteran... We have to sell our merchandise soon.”

“Ouch, what time is it, mate?”

“An hour before dawn, four o’clock.”

Simon stretched out his limbs in his way to get up. However, the gentle breeze of the wind is blowing down to their room, lulled him back to slumber and envisaged another row of sleep.

“Come on, sloth!!”

“It’s too early for a stroll outside.”

“We were not prepared a container to preserve the greens, Simon. This whole veggies would be spoiled and rotten by the next day if we’re not selling this sooner.”

After being discerned of Reginald’s cause of stirring a ruckus in the early morning, Simon prompted to pinch his cheeks for a dose of wake-up catalyst.

“Surely forgotten that one, eh? Shake a leg and be spirited, Regi, we have a full day to settle.”

---

The market of Malia, a pivot of their economy and trade-bargaining activities. A Horde of street vendors and food stalls were opened for business ahead of the two late newcomers. In their wake of prompted promotion to the visitors, the crowd were gotten immense in front of their stalls to convene the negotiation dance across the grid.

“Hmmm, where do we have to settle? No space vacant for us, I suppose.”

“hunt for it, Simon! Or else we have to dump this stuff for free.”

“Do we already have money for life? Yesterday was a sucker to everyone in this place.”

“More earnings, better to thrive. This is the mindset of living abroad of our own comfort zone, Simon.”

“Getting the hang of it, eh, Regi? Fine, I’ll look for it as fast as I could. Just keep on walking, I’ll catch up with you later.”

Simon warmed up his leg and arms, then going out of sight shortly afterwards.

“Woah, he’s so careless... I hope nobody saw i..t.”

“Excuse me, Sire. Is this fruit on sale?”

A stranger is stopping by to Reginald’s unfolded stalls. It’s an ape-like creature in a shining vest of armor.

“You can sense my products? I don’t know how you did it, but that’s impressive.”

“This is nothing but a day for me, sire. My nose could smell countless savory taste from your semi-fresh greens and fruits.”

“So, do you want to purchase some? If it’s not, how about a sample?”

“I am a guardsman assigned for this territory, sir. I am in charge of the stall registration around the place. Who’s your name, kind sir?”

“Reginald Lambardi. Well, since you are the man of this place, how am I suppose to set my stall? Do I have to pay for it?”

The Ape guardsman inspected Reginald’s cart in full caution. He is looking at the whole partition to scrutinize any possible danger hidden underneath.

“What’s with this lamp, Mr. Lambardi? Is this useful for your cart?”

“Ermmm, I am in fond of exotic stuffs. It’s a modified structure for aesthetic purposes.”

“Duly noted. Anyway, may I ask you of some  circumstances, sir? Is there any correlation of you and the mysterious magician?”

“Pardon? I’m afraid it’s not understandable.”

“The mysterious magician, sir. He is on the trail of several death counts, killing the high-level officials of our city.”

“Hmmm.... You are not suspected me right away, aren’t you? Is this person akin with me or something?”

“I am not going to say it’s exactly the case. However, some of the trace were directed our allegation to the human race. For the reason of the ‘magician,’ we’ve stashed a severely broken coats alongside a top hat on the crime scene.”

The cold sweat drenched Reginald’s clothes as a sign of anxiety down his throat, albeit he wasn’t the true culprit of the show.

“I’ll inform you if I have something on my behalf. This is the benchmark day for me, you know.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Lambardi. I’ll never arrest someone on basic racial prejudice, so save your sweat and focus on the profits. Welcome to our city, kind sir.”

The Ape guardsman is leaving him out with a single farewell nod. After several distance were laid, Reginald wiped off his perspiration from his face in ease.

“A problem is looming ahead of our surveillance mission, huh.”

After Reginald wandered off for some time, Simon returned from his hunt in a flash.

 “I tagged the space for us in advance. It’s a few blocks from here, not really cramped like anyone else. Follow my lead.”

Without further ado, Reginald tugging the cart in due course to the tagged vacant space. They arrived to their destination after several minutes of meandering about the further side of the market. The empty space was located close to the exit gate, neighbored with memento and merchandise section of the market to note.

“Here it is. Strategic and wide enough for us to occupy.”

“I couldn’t set my opinion for your poor judgement. Is this the only available position for us, Simon?”

“Not really. The other available space would be within the fruit and the meat section. You wanna set up in there, then?”

“Hmm, Let’s see our fortune in this place, first. I don’t wish to have a direct contest with the lots of similar type of stalls. Luckily, I’ve had this item to cover up our mess.”

He unpacked a small, but compact form of a regular-sized blender, a recent innovation from the kitchen-hood appliances of Titania.

“Well, to see this  coming from you... no, no, I might be mistaken.”

“Huh? Find the public socket, Simon. We could ramp up lots of money with this machine.”

“You dummy, this is not our city! It’s my role to be shambolic, not to be shared with a clumsypants like you, mate!”

“....... I lost 200 credits for nothing? Ah, a bug’s bite might be the cause for such bad luck.”

“Luckily, this is but a drop in the ocean, brother. Don’t take it too much of a woe.”

In a half an hour time, the fruit stand was enacted in place. All kinds of fruit and vegetables that they have in stock were stacked on top of each other, sorted in their respective type and size.

“It’s the time to twiddle our thumbs, Simon. Who would have know of how much profits from these chunk of sweets.”

“I can’t expect much of 2000 AoK to be our downfall, mate.”

Unfortunately for them, the other hours were spent for standing by and lulled about with no transaction happening in-between.

“We were neglected one simple fact, Simon. We have no ads budget to have, a campaign manager to broadcast our product.... Argh, I don’t know which one was futile for this.”

“We are close to the exit, that’s my wild guess.”

“Uhm.... yeah, I do think of the same. This placement is strategic, accessible, and stood out amongst the other vendors.”

“No, Regi. We should not sell the raw products on this place. They might be purchased a sack of it already from the other stands.”

“Hmm, nice deduction, Simon. Humph, my blender won’t be solutive ways to this matter anyhow.”

“I’ve been resting too much, Mate. I’ll scout the commodities section again for reference.”

Simon’s bedazzled sprint let himself set sailed through the crowds with no problem whatsoever. As Reginald’s ways to kill time in his partner’s departure, He flipped through the pages of Merry’s wagon manual to learn the secret of their carriage.

“How was it, Regi?”

“Not a speck of dust.”

“I’ve found pretty interesting facts out of the fruit section, and equally disheartened for us.”

“Speak.”

“From my short distance overview, They were more captivated by the smell and taste of watermelon and papaya, and it’s the most sold out products of the day.”

“ Hmm, any other conclusion? We have dozens of those fruits, fresh to the seeds.”

“Well, it might be cause we’re humans. There might be some kind of distrust towards our race on selling this type of products, I guess.”

“A total bust, I suppose.... agh, dang it, I’ve clearly forgotten of this....Have you peeked on their way to set up the price? If it’s not, please note them in this paper. We haven’t lay our price tag for the fruit.... Well, since it might be outlandish, just scribble everything you find upon their tags. I’ll handle the translation with our device afterwards.”

“I’ll go for it.”

After a handful of minutes spent to collect intelligence over their competitors, Reginald fragmented several vacant cardboard box to pieces. As the next process, he scribbled down some numbers up the empty spaces of the cardboard, then dropped it as a signage in front of the fruit stand. He did it on some other part of the rest available cardboard, doodling them with numerous set of drawings, and hanging it all up across their fruit stall.

“A discount? Are you sure it would be beneficial for us?”

“Verily, and with immediate result. Welcome!!”

A group of elephants, differed in retrospect with their colors of dress, were gone attracted by the infatuation of lowered-down prices of the fruits. They were chattering in unfathomable language to the seller, divulged in conversation among themselves.

“How’s this be situated, Regi? We haven’t learn their language at all.”

“Merry has prompted to manifest her skills on this. Watch.”

Reginald entered the wagon, leaving Simon confused to his maneuver while kept his manners with his rigid smile to the elephants in front.

“Test, test, can you understand me, my lady?”

“AH, hello there, young human. We wanna look over your.... interesting offer.”

“hehehe, true, true, could you roll back the tent, please? We can’t see anything down below.”

“As you wish, my fair lady.”

The automatic roller pulled the tent inwards, smoothly sliding into the gap on the upper roof compartment of the wagon.

 “Wow, so much delicacy!! Are you really sell this one half its price? Give me 5 boxes of those! Pronto, young human.”

The red-dress elephant pointing on the stacks of watermelon by the stands.

“Hey, Simon, haul the boxes inside the carriage. I’ll handle the speech.”

The Blue-pajamas elephant latched her sight to the rack of bright-yellow bananas on the left-side segment of stalls.

“Smells good, Mr. Merchant! Is this fresh?”

“New arrival, mam. It’s packed right out of the oven!”

“What’s an oven? Whatever, I’ll pick 7 boxes of these.”

“Nice having business with you, mam!”

The White-dressed elephant, in her elegant gesture, ventured towards the pile of papaya that stranded over the far end of the stall. She inspected each fruit carefully, jiggled each one of the fruit in random occasion.

“This colors....... The weight.... organic cultivation, isn’t it?”

“Exactly!! As told by the farmers, though. I am one but a human merchant of them, nothing like this is common to me.”

“It smells of fertilized soil... the texture, smooth without bump.... this is a high-grade greens. Are you certain this would be better sold by half the price?”

“Absolutely! I’m not gonna defy your alternative payment, if you wish to paid it in full, Ma’am.”

“Yes, it seems unnecessary for you guys, but I don’t want to stain a fine product under  a lame discounts. I’ll get 10 boxes of this papaya for the actual price.”

“Much obliged, Ma’am!! You are the role-model for a customer to follow. Quick, Mr. Reiner, all of these woman have a share of our heavy-duty job.”

Simon tossed off the cargo to the bags of the respective customer as a response to the immediate purchase from the three of the elephants.

“Thank you very much, you two!!”

On the end of their tail, A massive line of customer moved a step forward in queue.

 “Please be patient, my fellow customers!! We have every sort of fruits ready at your disposal. Stay on the line, you’ll get the fruit and veggies that you wished for!”

The two aspiring merchant worked themselves restless, sprang up and down to give proficient services for their customers. Everyone is smiling in delight to have a peculiar bargain on primary goods, and promised to stop by in the future.