_________________________________________
Kesl
It's been three days since Kesl had to shoulder-carry Tissa out of Leo's room, and yesterday he had to sit down with her, yet again, to have a talk about her sleeping with the inn's patrons. Although now he would probably settle for anyone but Leo, since he wanted her to be at least physically capable of working the next day. Unfortunately he imagined it would be difficult to try and keep her from attempting another round with the dragon.
‘Gods, three selarin… The fuck is he?’ He thought in bewilderment, then noticed his two niece's chatting in the back kitchen.
“I'm telling you, more than ten times! He was bedridden for nearly two days because of the venom, which made him push himself too quickly.” Tissa told her sister.
“Okay, I can't deny that he slew two others as well, but over ten-” Vissa was cut short by their annoyed uncle.
“Is that productive work I hear back there?” He warned from the order window and sighed as Tissa rushed out of the kitchen to serve food.
Kesl was handing out drinks at the bar when he spotted Leo and company enter from below, the strange man heading toward him with an assortment of items in hand, while the other two took a seat and started eating breakfast. “Morning dragon, you no longer sore from your trifecta?” He remarked with a smirk.
The tan little man rolled his eyes with a groan. “Morning Kesl, and I was only sore because of Allis's stupid venom. I don't even remember anything soon after being bitten, and to be honest I thought you were going to snap me in half when you said that woman was your niece.”
Kesl let out a deep laugh. “You're not the first person that I've caught her in bed with.” His expression dropped into slight annoyance. “And unfortunately, you'll probably not be the last. Anyway, I assume you want to sell me something?” He finished, gesturing to the items Leo was holding.
“Yeah, basically I want to set up a magic stove top and oven for you, as well as sell you a few other useful items.” He responded as he laid the rune enchanted items out on the counter.
The innkeeper raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Well the stove would definitely save on firewood, but it's damn expensive. I tried to get the mage that did the showers to do it, and he wanted five gold. So I'll tell you this now, I won't go over three for anything.” He said stubbornly as he crossed his arms, because he hated how mages priced gouged the value of rune enchanted items, never taking a step back to see the actual value of their effort.
The little mage grinned. “Alright, I'll take three gold, and to sweeten the deal for you, I'll throw in all the items I have as well as improving any of your already enchanted systems. I also want to sell you a recipe for a tenth of the monthly profits.”
Confusion warped his expression as the experienced negotiator was taken off guard, frowning at the offer. “That…sounds way too generous… You do know the point of bartering is to make as much coin for yourself, right?” He asked with a bit of concern, always enjoying a good deal but never desiring to take advantage of someone.
Leo shrugged. “I'm completely broke, so three gold is more than enough to get me more supplies for making more enchanted items, some of which I want to sell to you. So sweetening the pot now, makes any future deal more amenable, not that I particularly care since I control the product, and more sales just means more supplies for me to make and sell more things.”
Kesl's eyes went wide in surprise. ‘Wait, he wants to simply make coin to snowball it into more coin. He knows that it doesn't matter how low the price I offer him is, because the value for enchanted items is already expected to be worth full gold coins. So compared to the materials used to make it, he'll be basically turning copper into gold. Holy shit, he actually understands…’
The old tradesman broke into a wide smile. “You sly bastard, you're actually thinking like a merchant and not some pompous bitch from the academy.”
For some reason Leo’s eyes grew a bit distant. “Well, I'm essentially selling a service, and if I want to get the most value out of it, then I have to spread out the conten- er merchandise's value over many items to entice buyers.”
The large selarin couldn't help but shake his head, still smiling. “If you're treating them as a commodity then this is probably going to be the most expensive purchase for me, because you'll just push the value down to something more reasonable further down the line. It would also be stupid for me to turn down the first deal since it's already a good offer, as well as the prospect of deals being alot cheaper in the future.”
“The goal is to make money from a variety of sources, and not everyone is going to be walking around with gold to spend, so why not push the value down. The number of customers will outweigh any high value deals.” Leo admitted casually, and the large selarin couldn't help but grin at the fact that someone with magic actually knew how to sell.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“You have no idea how good it is to meet a mage that understands the value of things, much less one that can talk to another person like they're worth a damn.” He let out another deep laugh.
His new potential business partner grimaced. “Comes with the territory of being self taught, no academy brainwashing…”
That doused a bit of cold water onto the conversation, but all he could do was sigh and turn his attention to the items before him. “If only so many people had the ability… Anyway, you can work on the stove later tonight, for now show me what exactly is sweetening the deal.”
The little mage showed him a few rune enchanted items, a hand held blender, an ice maker, a speed dryer for meat, cheese grater, and a timer that beeps. He also offered to enchant some cleaning supplies to remove dirt on contact, and he laughed, telling him that another mage would have charged a gold coin each for such a service. Despite taking a bite into the inn’s reserves he decided to toss in two more gold, since all the extra things the small man offered was worth way more than the price he was paying.
He continued to smile while he counted out the coin. “Alright, you have a deal. Here's half the payment now, and you'll get the other half when you've done the stove. Also consider any room service free of charge during your stay, just ask me or one of my niece's and we'll send something down. But do me a favor and send them back up when they still need to work.” He finished with a sly grin.
Leo sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I will, thanks Kesl.”
“No problem. Now what's this recipe you want to sell me?”
_________________________________________
Leo
Kesl sent Leo to the kitchen and told Vissa to give him whatever he needed to make the pizza. Vissa set out a space for him to cook, and some time later he was pulling a fully made cheese pizza out of the oven.
Slicing it up he walked out to the big green giant and served him one, who seemed skeptical at first, but the slice was gone seconds after his first bite.
Appearing both utterly surprised and disappointed when he realized he had finished it, the large lizard man peered down at him with a determination in his eye that set the little human’s survival instincts on edge. “I don't care if you ask for half of the profits, so many people will pay for something this good.”
He couldn't hold back a laugh at the absurd reaction from such a physically intimidating man, over a slice of pizza no less. “A tenth is fine, how else are you going to earn enough to buy more of my service?”
Kesl smirked. “Ha, conceding a deal now to make more profit later. You should talk with the local merchants guild, I have a sister that works there. You'll fit right in.”
‘A guild? I guess I could work out a deal for them to sell my items in bulk, as well as requisition materials to make more. I'll focus on building up some small amount of wealth before going there. I probably want to have the money to back any large exchange's.’
The little summon looked back up to his new big green friend. “Thanks for the advice. I have a few more recipes in mind, but I want to see how well this one sells before sharing.” He told him with an assured tone, knowing that this would probably pull many new customers after word of it spreads through the town.
Kesl licked his lips while wearing a greedy smile, partially tickling the human's flight instinct. “If they're anything like this pizza then I can tell you that my inn might just become the town's most popular place to eat, thanks to you.”
The last word in the jovial man's remark made Leo wince. “That sounds wonderful and all, but could you keep it secret that I was the one who sold you the recipes? I already have the infamous title of dragon, I don't need another.”
Kesl raised an eyebrow with a bit of confusion. “I'd ask why you'd want to remain anonymous, but everyone has their story so I won't pry. What I will tell you is that fame and fortune are often inseparable, so you wont stay out of people's notice forever.” He paused to glance over at the table where Elaria and Allis sat. “Especially if you have something to protect.”
It wasn't difficult to take that bit of advice to heart. “Thanks for understanding. See you later Kesl.” He gave a warm smile while departing from the bar with three slices of pizza, starting back toward Elaria and Allis while leaving the last two for Kesl's nieces.
The human placed a plate in front of them both and pulled up a chair to enjoy his slice, while both Elaria and Allis gave their slices a strange look.
“Um, is this the new food?” Elaria questioned cautiously while staring at the food item in front of her with a skeptical look.
“It looks…interesting…” Allis remarked hesitantly as she frowned at hers.
Knowing that this was literally a recipe from another world, he really couldn't fault their reactions. But still, it's just pizza. “What's the matter, summon food too much for you?” He mocked while taking a generous bite out of his own.
The pair gave each other a questioning look before shrugging and picking up their slices to try. A shit eating grin crossed his face when both of their pizzas practically vanished soon after the first bite.
“Gods, that tasted amazing!” Allis beamed as she licked her lips.
“Is everything from your home so delicious?” Elaria questioned while sucking some of the sauce off her fingers, her tail swaying happily.
“We have countless types of food, but this one is one of the most popular. You can even add toppings to it, like small slices of meat, chopped vegetables, mushrooms and a few other things.”
“How about frui-” Allis was cut off before finishing that sentence.
“No.”
_________________________________________