Chapter 588: Chapter 588 - Associating With Merchants Early In Life With Incredible Valuables Suddenly At Hand... Teaches You Nothing!

"Now, if you can maintain at least some level of operation extending out across the continent, through agreements with other groups that retain our branding on the matter or else... then this organization will essentially become a small Society of its own. Your profit will be small amounts, but gathered at mass."

"But we would be untethered to the council... and the amount of people needed and potential for corruption..."

A soft scoff came from her throat as Elua er Goltbred erased the illusions that had been showing example spread patterns of the company’s future. While they were at least half-based on real data, she had no intention of limiting him with the expectations she had. At the end of the day, the reincarnator left a lot of the little details and responsibilities to him for a reason.

He was still a somewhat competent and successful merchant that had marketed her sudden goods at limited auctions, after all. While keeping his source’s identity a well enough kept secret.

"Do you think people are actually going to dare cheat my mother? After everything that was revealed during the investigation into Anper’s dealings and favors... and all the quiet firings that occurred in dozens of places?"

"Err... yes?"

"Well, you’re right. But tying yourself as premier to her Guild is for both of your benefits."

Standing up after saying so and nudging Onya off of her lap - then pointing for the girl to sit back down - Elua began to wander the room as she was feeling a little restless herself. While she did invite her sister to come along, all of this seemed like it would be much more fun if the brunette had been the one sitting on a certain lap - Qat’s. Not because her husband-wife needed to be around for her to enjoy such planning and light manipulation, but because... just because!

"The Society will have increased logistical leverage, the merchant group will have increased open backing. I’m sure I can convince her to create a specific treasurer position meant entirely to audit the mercantile groups that they work with, which means they will also look into the ones *you* end up working with."

The Silversky ’owner’ did blink in surprise at the second part... for he hadn’t even thought that, outside of being a member of the Opal Scale Guild that was focused on merchant support, he could outsource and rely on the workers of elsewhere for handling such problems.

"What about penalties?"

"If you arrange the contracts right, they would be levied only on the subcontracted parties responsible. Which is honestly one of the best reasons not to officially consolidate distant groups directly under the Silversky’s control. Though that does not mean you should just sit back and let that be the end of it."

"...What do you mean?"

"Those groups implicated in corruption findings may take the financial hit, and some reputation plunge of their own if it is large enough to become public, but so will the Silversky name in that region. Rebuilding that goodwill means-"

"So it will cost me either way!"

"Us. It will cost *us*. But yes. However, you will literally be working alongside the Guild seeking nothing but spreading goodwill, returns to normalcy, and entertainment. As long as you keep things plain and clear in everyone’s minds that these are parasites feeding on your well-meaning services and not an intended feature of your plan... and it better *never* be that..."

"I understand. I would never, absolutely, so please stop making a concerningly realistic strangling motion with your hands?"

Brown eyes turned up and tried to see the heiress standing behind the chair, but whether the man was telling the truth or lying, all she saw was two sets of fingers clamping onto the back of the piece of furniture. The reincarnator knew she’d already done too much, when it came to infecting her sister with a diminished fear of violence.

"Good. Now, we can iron everything out later. I believe our little darling here has some things she brought to sell."

"Eh? They were your things, I thought?"

"They *are* in your bag."

"No, but that... wait, hold on. No. That’s not right...? Isn’t it stealing to take something and say it is yours just because you are the one holding it?"

Elua’s hand pet over the short reddish-blonde hair, appreciating the good societal manners. Yatrel and Ondua both may have liked to tell stories and complain about her energetic, physical rascal nature, but-

"...El? I know I got into trouble for taking an older boy’s toy before... it’s wrong, right?"

The hand pause for a second, then continued rubbing. Kids did have phases! And she did remember a story her father told her about the girl sitting on a poor boy’s back. Pinning him down while she played with some sort of ball attached to a string attached to a stick.

"Yes, it’s wrong. But you aren’t the one claiming it is yours, the person it formerly belonged to is now saying so - with a witness. That way I get to be the first one that watches you sell things to a merchant."

"Oh."

Growing quiet and ’shy’, Onya lifted up the heavy white leather rucksack and hugged it. Torn between keeping the now cataloged as *gifts* inside for herself, forever and ever... and the alternative of letting her elder sister be happy with whatever odd, complicated plan she had going on. Not at all aided by the idea that the heiress would probably laugh and be happy either way.

’Maybe I sell just half of it...?’

She really struggled!

"I’ll get a receipt pad."

"The private ones you used to use for the brooches, please. I think you’ll likely want to auction or find special buyers, even if they are fairly mundane items."

Nodding and heading towards a certain safe, he was inwardly overjoyed. The high society at large had mourned the lack of new-to-market, weak-effect healing brooches being ’found’. Though hardly anyone actually believed there was just some cache of them lying around after all these years, even if just that sort of happenstance tended to occur when it came to excavating old city ruins. Paired with her scare tactic earlier, he had truly thought those items might be the last of her wares he would ever handle.

By the time he returned, Onya had her head stuffed over the opening while digging around inside. Looking for what she thought she was willing to part with the most but that would also impress her sister as the first thing to show this man. However, she didn’t know a lot about merchants... and even less about the refined materials the heiress had brought back from the Exclave.

"How about this?"

A small spool of white thread that the girl thought was probably just for making dresses or something was placed on the desk. Onya had more dresses than she wanted already, she was actually having a harder time convincing Yatrel that she needed more pants! More upsetting was the stark refusal from her mother when she discovered the wonderful looking styles of short culottes that were hand-drawn within the Valmenf trading catalog while visiting Qat’s territory...

While her young mind turned toward a bit of parental-rule bitterness, the merchant began to examine what she’d actually placed down. After about fifteen seconds of appraisal, he sat it back on the flat surface with a shaking hand. The same kind he always got when he knew the other party knew the value of what they brought... an anger that he couldn’t possibly get as much out of it *from them* as he could if they were ignorant!

"Is this what I think it is?"

"Pulled from the spider’s spinnerets myself. Then I allowed what they could each produce daily enough humidity to supercontract, pulled it back taut, and then dried it to crystallize the proteins that- you know what? You don’t need to know all that."

She could see and feel the confusion on both of them, but it was particularly Onya making a little squeezing motion with one hand as she imagined *physically* holding a tiny little spider and literally pulling string out of it that made her quit talking. Elua decided to show their real size and explain more later about the particular use of abilities outside of *touch*.

"Yes, it is spidersilk. One of my first batches while I was still experimenting with keeping the things ’happy’ enough to make good quality dragline. It has many uses, but obviously the important part today is that if made into textiles, the resulting product is quite strong."

"This does not seem like enough to make full clothing... not to mention strong fibers are notoriously frustrating to find capable tailors to work with. Or dyes that take fast."

"I was away for years with many hundreds of spiders. We brought samples today, my dear merchant. Not the whole stockpile. As for how much trouble it is for those with big dreams to make them succeed, that is their problem after they buy it."

"I’m just saying that if we were to secure and pair such an artisan together with it, then it would sell even faster and at a higher price. Doesn’t your spouse employ-"

The quiet smile and tilt of her head was worse than any glare. She didn’t even put any strong pulse of spirit behind it, but the motion still made him stop short and sit up straighter. If only because he could just *tell* she was not at all as pleased as she looked!

"Ours is taken for projects for the foreseeable future, I’m afraid. I’m not stopping you from making as much money off of these products as you can, but do not waste too much time seeking perfection in one matter when you have other things to be doing."

"Understood."

"What about this? Did it come from the spiders too?"

Plopping down a vial of yellowish liquid that the little girl thought might be spider blood, she would be embarrassed later when she said so and her knowledgeable sister explained slowly and carefully - like she was *five*. That they and other invertebrates didn’t have blood at all... but a substance called hemolymph. As well as that spiders in particular used a copper-based transport system for internal oxygenation that tinted the liquid green rather than human red (or her expected yellow!).

"No, that one is concentrated dye. A kind that will work with that thread. There are a few natural colors in there. But the other yellow vial in there-"

"Oh, it looked kind of clumped and dirty so I picked this one instead... here!"

The other glass vial had a much grittier, orange-yellow to it. But the hiss and hands slamming on the table made Onya shake and almost drop the container. Which made Elua quite glad she had not brought any of the nitroglycerin that she had once made, just to show Rezzue how it was done. It was good for her cousin-in-law to have a trade of some kind, after all.

"That’s dissolved gold. You were making aqua regia?!"

"I know a person now. So the process was quite easy."

"Who? I’ll pay."

Seeing him hook so easily, Elua was pleased with herself. Especially because she was fairly certain that Rezzue er Yecine would indeed be pulled into the Clearer Skies Society eventually... but until then she could likely make a bit of her own personal funds if she and her husband were willing to be talked into private dealings with this group.

"In time, I’ll tell. Be more selective with this one’s buyer, please, as the chloroauric acid here is intended to be a show of their capability... and not actually a matter of intense secrecy. Look for a combination of show-off and well-paying that will net my source the *right* kind of attention."

"I always do. How else does word spread for the next sale?"

’And yet you were willing to take advantage of those you have supposedly secured yourself with, even if it cost you further sales. What a greedy merchant that runs boldly toward the danger, indeed...’

The reincarnator was sure she would regret some part of this along the way.