The Story Of Jammetaria
CHAPTER 19 - Cunning Traders

A week later, the three of them had finished their boar hunting mission, and were now heading to the guild.

Arriving at the guild they went straight in as usual and prepared to report the results, but the guild attendant said, they were told to meet the merchant who ordered in person. He also said the payment of this mission would be taken care of directly by the merchant, and not taken care of through the guild.

The three exited then immediately headed to the merchant's place, as explained earlier.

Before long they arrived, and by chance the merchant in question was outside his shop and restaurant, he was an old man who seemed a little fierce. The three of them greeted him as usual and intended to get straight to the point, but the answer was even a little sewot.

"Where is it.. He said it's done, but how come there's no boar you're carrying ?"

Hendry was a little annoyed at the merchant's words, but Eliana managed to calm him down. Audrey rushes to retrieve a boar from the storage magic. The 1 and a half meter tall boar lying on the ground had appeared from within the magic circle, it made the merchant startled, his mouth gaping and his manner of speech changed drastically to be arguably friendly.

"Well, it's pretty big apparently… "

"So how, can we finish it now ?" Audrey asked.

"In the meantime, I'll check it out first." The merchant paced around the boar, looking at each piece in detail. The boar was hunted quite well, its head was not separated and only left a small wound on the back of the neck, leaving no other wounds all over its body, and again this wild boar was only hunted this morning so the condition is still very fresh. Although the outer skin is slightly dirty this is natural, because wild boars live in the forest.

"Sorry but I can't accept it, my restaurant only uses ingredients in their best condition, sorry I can't buy this boar."

"WHATAAA???" Shouted three.

The merchant tried to find out their mistakes in hunting wild boars, and insisted he could not accept them. Though actually in pretty good condition, also including cheap for a hunting mission proposed.

"I'm sorry I can't actually accept a defective item like this, how about I just buy half the price, and that way you won't have to pay for the mission failure in the guild ?" Said the sly merchant in a good manner.

Hendry, Audrey, and Eliana are a little confused about this decision, the three turn to each other and finally solidify the choice.

"Ah sorry, like this is indeed our fault, so we accept to thwart the mission as accountability. We don't want clients to have to pay for a worthless defective item like this." Eliana replied with a smile and seemed to start getting into the game of the crafty merchant.

"Are you sure…? you guys have to pay the cost of your failure ?"

"Yes." replied Eliana and Audrey simultaneously, while Hendry was still a little confused about this.

After that Hendry handed the request paper to the cunning merchant, he signed it and declared the failure of the mission with some information like that, he had a slightly disappointed face.

"Cih... you stupid child.you will lose more if you do this kind of thing." Gunam trader earlier while filling the request paper and hand it to Hendry.

Eliana overheard the gunam of the merchant and answered him with a smile.

"Ah actually we are not too much to lose, even there is still a little profit.Audrey, try to get everything out…"

"OK.." Audrey took out everything that was hunted.4 boars came out of the storage magic so that a total of 5 wild boars lay here.

The cunning merchant was very surprised, he thought that the storage magic capacity was only as much as 1 wild boar, but it turned out that there were 5 wild boars in all.

After being satisfied to show it, Audrey immediately pulled the five boars into the storage magic while saying...

"We have nothing to lose just for handing over one of them to the guild, after all we still profit to sell all four to other traders at a fairly high price, after all I think the condition is still good."

"Let's go, our friends will go.." said Eliana, and the three began to move away.

"Tu wait... I'll pay it at full price.No, one and a half times is okay…"

"I'm sorry I couldn't. You turned it down earlier, after all you've confirmed it on this paper." Eliana took the request paper that Hendry had held and showed it into the air, without even looking at the merchant.

The three of them immediately returned to the guild, to report their first failure on the mission this time, the three flew with their respective equipment and darted quickly towards the guild. The merchant was still trying to catch up despite the scorching heat and his body was bathing in sweat. He hoped that they would change their minds when they arrived at the guild later.

He was very sorry for his own greed, like a man who almost slaughtered a goose laying golden eggs just because he was hungry. Meanwhile on the way to the guild, the bewildered Hendry immediately asked something.

"Are you two sure you want to do this ?"

"Isn't the merchant willing to pay a high price, higher than the initial price ?"

"Yes.." Audrey and Eliana answered.

"But why ?" Hendry

"Since he refused, I have no intention of handing him over for any price, just look at it later, the possibility that something interesting will happen in the guild." Answer Eliana.

"What does brother mean ?" Hendry asked.

"Let's see, don't ask too many questions…"

About 5 minutes later the three had already reached the guild, they did not head straight for the receptionist to report the mission failure but instead took a break, ordering drinks and snacks.

Before long the merchant had arrived at this guild, he looked exhausted, his breathing was breathless and his body was full of sweat as he seemed to be running after.

"Ah Hendry, please take the paper to the receptionist." Said Eliana casually after drinking the freshly ordered juice.

The trader was panicking. He rushes to stop them and begs them not to cancel the mission, but unfortunately Hendry has reached the receptionist and the guild officer wonders what really happened.

Audrey and Eliana got up from her seat, Eliana headed straight for the receptionist, while Audrey pulled the merchant's hand and brought him near the guild attendant. Then the three of them explained the situation earlier and sucked into paying for the failure of the mission this time.

"WHATAA?... Half the price for a boar, is he kidding ?" The slightly annoyed gazes of the guild attendant were fixed towards the merchant.

"It seems not, he said the quality was as 'defaulted item', and had even signed this paper." Hendry showed the request paper that the trader had handled.

"So do you think the wild boar you hunted is not in good condition?"

"No, we think it's still in good condition and fresh, after all this was just hunted this morning. Aye right?"

The three nodded in favor of Audrey's words.

"All right then let us judge it."

"All of you come with me now..."

Everyone including the merchant had walked back towards the exchange section with the guild officer earlier. There was an open space whose floor was only ground and covered with grass. Beside him was a closed warehouse that looked quite large, and here was the guild officer at the exchange.

Unlike the previous officer who was female, he was a middle-aged man who was quite muscular, he worked in the exchange section to assess and store the hunting goods of adventurers.

Audrey immediately took out the five boars from the storage magic, then handed them over to the guild attendant to assess them.

"So what do you think?" Ask the guild officer to the male officer in the exchange section.

"Seeing however all of this was at its best, even I had never seen any other adventurer capable of hunting this fiery boar, leaving only a small wound on his back neck…" The exchange officer replied casually, continuing his work and not caring about them all.

Hendry, Audrey, and Eliana were relieved but the merchant began to break out in cold sweat. While the guild officer earlier started to give off a terrifying aura.

"SHAMELESS BASICS !!!"

"SO WHAT DO YOU MEAN ?... Are you trying to take advantage of novice adventurers like them."

"DO YOU NOT KNOW.. If hunting in the forest is very dangerous ?"

"Ti.. I'm not just…"

"STILL TRYING TO EVADE ?... After everything you did today…"

"BEGINNING NOW YOU ARE ON THE BLACKLIST OF ALL THE GUILD BRANCHES IN THIS KINGDOM.You cannot submit any form of request whatsoever…"

"Take it easy young lady, how much do you want, I can pay you anything." Said the merchant frantically and was about to take out his wallet.

"Huh... so you tried to bribe me huh... BASIC LOWLY TRADER !!!"

"WHAT KIND OF PLACE DO YOU THINK THIS IS ?... Just so you know, the Guild itself is an independent institution that is not even tied to the empire…"

"AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU TRY TO DO THIS KIND OF DIRTY THING !!??"

"Know where you are.. YOU GARBAGE MERCHANT !!!!"

Seeing the anger of the guild officer, the merchant was very upset. He felt trapped by the three boys, even though from the beginning he intended to deceive them. Now with the scolding of the guild officer he could only use…

"Cih... After all you have no such authority.”.

The guild attendant was at a loss for words, he was even more annoyed but confused as to what to answer. Hendry, Audrey and Eliana could only watch, and could not break them. Though their initial intention was to teach the crafty merchant a little, the three did not expect that the merchant would be scolded all-out and even threatened on the blacklist of the guild.

"No but I have.." A grizzled old man, who accidentally passed near the exchange with his chant said so. The atmosphere became silent for a moment, there was no noise and angry voices anymore. The merchant's face turned pale while the guild officer was satisfied, but the three of them still did not understand.

After being given an explanation, apparently the old man who passed by earlier was the leader of this guild branch (the guild head). So the cunning merchant would definitely be blacklisted from the guild in the next few days, so that his greed did not harm the other adventurers for the next.

After the matter was over, Hendry, Audrey, and Eliana settled their affairs. They handed over a boar to the guild as payment for the failure of this mission, while selling the rest to another merchant who happened to be here.

The crafty merchant had gotten mental, now he could only sit still and pensive, thinking about the fate of his business for the future, also harboring anger towards the three people. Like someone who slaughters a goose lays a golden egg only because he is hungry, while the remaining golden eggs have been stolen, plus the debt because his house is pawned to buy a goose has not been paid a penny.

The three of them sold the remaining wild boar for half the price, unwilling to overload Audrey's storage magic any longer. When the merchant was getting angry, he felt played even though he was wrong himself. He grew increasingly upset, stood up from his chair firmly, then left this guild immediately, until no one knew his fate ahead.

The three of them did not realize that the good things they did today would cause bad problems later on.