A buisness deal and a sweet goodbye

The two persons came in after being welcomed , the manor was vast from the inside , after they went in Shiro was amazed by how vast a hall he had stepped in , beautiful carpets cover the ground , with maids and servants standing in perfect lines welcoming them in with bright smiles on their faces , the butler walks in front of them guiding them upstairs then down a corridor all the way to a room with a beautifully made wooden door , with many engravings of roses and thorny rose bushes , the butler knocks , and respectfully and slowly speaks in such a refined accent , master , lady Sofia and her friend are her for their appointment , a small amount of silence fills the hall then a moment after , a baritone voice from behind the door , so noble and musical , speaks as he says , thank you Ifrit , you can all come in , then the door opens yet the wasn't anyone behind it to open it , Shiro and Sofia followed the butler inside , the room was relatively big and well decorated , albeit nothing too extravagant , it was beautiful and orderly , a chandalier holding candles lit the room , in front of them was a good looking wooden dest with several papers , an inkwell and a feather , behind the desk was a large wooden chair decorated with rose carvings , a man sat on that chair , white and has a sharp beard and a small moustache , he wore some refined , clean and colorful european noble clothing , with his coat put on the chair waiting for its owner to pick it up when needed , he was slim yet not weak-looking , the figure on the wooden chair smiled and spoke , welcome , niece , friend of my niece , I suppose you have had a tiring trip here , make yourselves comforatble , he pointed to a couple comfortable sofas in front of his dest , Sofia smiled and spoke , niece humbly pays respect to uncle Jack , Jack smiled and said , why so formal , dear niece , come here and give your uncle one of those hugs you used to give him as a kid , Sofia chuckeled and said , happy to oblige , as she got up and hugged her uncle , he spoke , you're a big girl now huh , walking in with your boyfriend , I remember last we met you were but a little child , this time she didn't seem to object , perhaps she wanted him to think they were that close , perhaps she felt that way , either way Shiro felt happy about it , Jack smiled once again and said , so , what should I call you , he looked at Shiro , Shiro smiled and calmly replied, my name is Shiroi Jigoku , you can call me Shiro as Sofia does , pleased to make your acquaintance , sir , I am a humble merchant and I've heard that uncle is a reputable supplier, I hope me and uncle can do business , the uncle was pleased, he spoke , it's nice to see that my niece has gotten herself involved with such a polite gentelman , my name is Jack L. Rose , since you're so well acquainted no need for much courtesy, you may call me Jack , you mentioned that you need a supplier right ? what exactly is your field of experience, what do you sell usually? he asked , and so Shiro responded, I'm afraid I have a bit of a tough case on that subject matter, I seem to have lost a lot of my memory , I cannot recall what is it that I used to work with , if I could trouble uncle , could I have a look at the documents of merchandise, anything helps , lists of available supplies and prices are gonna be the most helpful , Jack was a bit surprised at the clueless merchant who came to do business not even knowing which business exactly he was gonna do , and yet he was curious about him since he knew how to find out , it meant that he remembered a bit on how things were done , so in a swift motion he clapped and so the butler showed up , he ordered him to get a parchment piece, ink and a quill , and so the butler did so , he brought out a large book out of his desk drawer , he started to silently write something then he handed Shiro the piece of paper and spoke , this is a list of the current available supplies and their average prices , you can choose which you wanna deal with and then we'll talk about it more , Shiro took that piece , read through it and remembered what he knew about commerce from his former world , he thought to himself, this world is so underdeveloped, these are all basic items , fruits and vegetables, meats , jewelry, clothing , weapons and armor, each sells at a certain district in town it's too unreliable, he spoke and said , I know what I want , sir , I have decided to deal in all of these and he pointed to the items he chose on that list , I can see that this city is not lacking in food such as vegetables and meats , so naturally although the consumption is high but I don't think they would sell for high prices , so for now I'll leave them be , as for fruits I need several boxes of apples and red grapes , but not now , until a later time , for now I will deal mostly in jewlery , clothing , weapons and armor , as they are items that do not rot , I will sell them all in one place , as you can deduce they're items that are pretty similar in nature , so that it would be convinient and attract more and more costumers , people won't have to move around distrits for each and eveyone of them , Jack nodded and said , that is indeed a smart , yet unorthdox way of thought , I like it , but how are you gonna pay me for all those , it seems like a lot of things to come by , Shiro smiled and said , seeing as you're from Sofia's family I do not think a huge suplier would have a problem with getting those suplies , as for the way of payment I would like to make a proposition , how about we deal with contracts , we sign a contrat , in which of all my sales you get 70 percent of the profit , Jack rubbed his chin and said , it sounds like too good of a deal , what if your merchendise wasn't sold , I would be ripped off the capital , Shiro was confident seeing as how in his original world read many books about trading and economics , he smiled and proclaimed , that is true , yet you know that even if my buisness failed the items won't rot , you can simply sell them off to another person , and I am only taking 30 percent of the profit because I am confident in my abilities , Shiro thought to himself that he shouldn't have said that , due to it might expose that he lied about his memory loss , but Jack just laughed and said , I like you kid , you can come up with such things even with no memory , you probably are , or were a genius merchant , I just wonder why I have never heard of you , Shiro laughed back and said , often the brightest gems remain hidden underground it , takes a person to look for them to notice , Jack's laughter got even louder and said , I like your confidence , and since you are a friend of Sofia I will trust you , it sounds like a good deal , I am willing to invest , I will also let you keep 60 percent of the profit , I am not lacking any money as you can see , Shiro smiled and asked , are you sure good sir? to which Jack answered , that I am , Shiro thanked him several times for the money he can earn will let him go on his journey , which is what he did not tell Jack , and so the deal was through .

Days later ...

Shiro has his merchendise all on the floor , marketing it and using the skills or rather capitalistic trickery he read about and so his buisness was successful , Jack earned more than he had expected , and Shiro was ready to set off , before he can go on his way he met Sofia , and thanked her , told her he was going on a short travel to find new places to market his buisness , Sofia exclaimed and said loudly , are you sure? last time you did that you got yourself into a mess that you haven't recovered from yet , Shiro simply smiled and said , it must be done , they both went ahead to the stables and Shiro bought a good horse , he also returned to the castle and thanked the king , telling him that they shall meet again as soon as he returns he did so with Sofia and Jack too already , and as he knew his destination he told the innkeep to keep a room for him when he returns , Shiro , on the back of his horse , thinking to himself , to think this is the first time since I came here that I will go my own way , it feels like a child leaving home for the first time , but It should be done , I should seek knowledge , and so he got out the city gates and road off , a horsebag with him , so ready and a map in his hand to his destination...