Chapter 7 – Dress to close a deal

Year 1, Spring, Second Month, Second Week.

“Which goods would sell better in Wind Castle and also give me a good profit?”

Rupert invited the group to his store to finalize the deal while showing them around and giving some other tips. When they entered his tower, Lana was amazed to see how the strange architecture was from the inside. The tower had roughly 36 square meters, with huge openings at all sides and a wooden central circle with stairs going around it. The first floor was surprisingly empty except for a sharping-looking woman dressed in a spotless grey tunic, standing next to a door in front of the inner circle.

“Welcome Mister Rupert, would you like to go to your floor?”

He nodded before urging the others to follow him. Even the woman's professionalism couldn’t keep her from staring at their poor dressing. Lana felt a little uncomfortable by the whole situation, but when she looked at her other three companions, she could only agree with the woman’s silent critic. Before they entered the inner circle, she turned embarrassed to Rupert:

“Ahh… Rupert, can we stop at a store to buy some garments? My employees are… inadequately dressed, I can’t expect to close good deals with such poor first impression…”

Merek and Hazel looked happy with the proposition, while Arthur felt a little offended and started checking his own clothes. Lana, of course, didn’t pay them any reed. Rupert nodded and said to the receptionist before stepping inside the inner circle room:

“Please ask if Ms. Inona could come to my store at her early convenience.”

When they stepped into the empty poor illuminated room, the door closed behind them, earning confused reactions from the guests, Lana looked inquisitively at Rupert, who gave a soft laugh and explained:

“This is an elevator… The mobile ground can be raised or lowered to any floor in the tower…”

The group looked amazed at the wooden floor until it started moving up. Initially, they were a little scared of being suspended by a wooden floor, Arthur even crouched instinctively, but the raise was surprisingly smooth, so they soon calm down.

“It’s amazing… Are they using a spell?”

“Oh no… How could they afford to pay a Mage just to push the elevator? Would they even find a Mage willing to do such a menial task…”

Lana couldn’t help but spare a quick glance to Arthur, who already looked offended by the remark.

“They use B... some servants to pull ropes tied to the floor and walls of the elevator.”

“How many servants do they use? To pull this much weight… We should weigh at least 300 kg counting the floor and walls…”

“That’s… Actually, they are using Beastmen slaves…”

Lana started coughing in surprise while the others let out sad understanding expressions. After recovering, she felt a little uncomfortable to be using the elevator service.

“I’m sorry… It’s just that I came from the Democracy, our Beastmen citizens have the same Human rights and… I knew about the Serion Kingdom’s laws but it’s still difficult to accept…”

“It’s OK, I also don’t agree with slavery… However, the tower slaves normally suffer less than the others. Although pulling is a tiring task, they only use Bull Beastmen. They’re strong and need to be well fed to pull the ropes without endangering the lives of the wealthy and Mages… Of course, I would prefer to pay them instead, but they do live more comfortably than other slaves…”

The explanation made Lana a little relieved, but she still decided not to use the elevator anymore. It wouldn’t make a big difference but that was all she could do. The awkward silence remained until Rupert started talking about some products she could buy to resell at Wind Castle. Wind crystals and basic goods wouldn’t do because the city was closer to the resource villages where such things came from, so she could only go for crafted and specialized products. He offered to give her a discount on some easy-to-sell wind jewels but advise her to not put her eggs in only one basket.

“Some specially crafted armor could also sell well, as well as some cloaks and coat crafted with pelts and other beast’s parts. The common cities seldom have good enough crafters to transform the beasts’ materials into high quality goods, so you can certainly profit from it… Ms. Inona can give you a fair deal for luxury garments and I can refer you to an honest armor crafter…”

.........

“Here, 30 gold coins, everytime you get ahold of some nice things be sure to look for me first… Oh, Ms. Inona, thanks for coming… I want to see if you could help my friend Lana and her employees to catch up with the latest trends in the Kingdom…”

The slander and middle-aged woman stepped out of the elevator gracefully, while giving Lana a friendly smile. Lana's eyes shined in first sight admiration, in her opinion, the woman could only be described as the model of well-dressed professionalism. She didn’t wear anything unnecessary, all the pieces on her body harmonized with each other while offering great mobility and elegance. Surprisingly, she only looked at the group with professional curiosity, like she was measuring and considering the best outfits for them, which made Lana’s admiration increase even more.

“Oh, dear Rupert, there’s no need to be so polite… Of course, I can help this gorgeous and very professional-like lady… Her employees look a little shy, but that should change after I give them some stylish confidence…”

Lana offered a lot of compliments to Inona’s outfit, while the woman danced around them taking measurements and explaining some fashion concepts to her. A servant brought some tea while they sat to discuss the options, they could have gone to Inona’s store, but Rupert seemed interested in mediating their exchange.

“I can make three respectful sets of clothes for 15 silver for the men and 10 silver for the girl… Now you, sweety, you could use an elegant, sharp and tidy first impression, it would do wonders for your deals… I could arrange a basic set on those lines for 30 silver, but how about going a little overboard and adding some matching accessories? They would be the final touch, 50 silver would do, one gold with want to add some simple fur…”

Arthur's eyes almost bulged, the amount was enough to buy a lot of food, he didn’t believe Lana would accept it. However, his Boss thought it was very fair, she was sure that Ms. Inona was giving Rupert some face and charging her a discounted price. Since Lana saw the receptionist on the first floor, an unusual idea had been forming on her mind. Now that she saw the impact of Ms. Inona's presentation, the idea was complete.

“Although I wasn’t expecting to spend much in garments, even less for my employees, seeing Ms made me reconsider the influence of personal presentation… But I would like a different arrangement…”

They looked at her curiously, Ms. Inona even exchanged a quick glance with Rupert, as it saying he had good eyes for interesting things and people.

“Instead of three I would prefer two respectful sets for them, but I would like to add another three different sets for each… For the girl, I want one set fitting of a high-class servant. For this guy (Merek), I want a high-class set too but more in line with a wealthy Merchant, I’m preparing him to negotiate with some wealthy Lords… As for Arthur, he’s Apprentice, so he could use one set befitting of a Mage… Oh, and another two basic sets for everyone to use on the road, we don’t want to draw any unwanted attention while traveling…”

“…”

Everyone was shocked by Lana’s request, what could she be planning to do with such arrangements? Inona and Rupert looked at Arthur, could he really be a Mage? Arthur only answered their staring with a proud expression. Fortunately, Ms. Inona was a professional and quickly recovered, only taking some minutes to give her a price.

“Your luxurious set would go for one gold, 20 silvers for the other two befitting sets. The Mage and wealthy Merchant sets would also go for one gold each… 30 silvers for the respectful sets for the employees and 15 silvers for the high-class servant set. The basic sets could be made of spare fabric, so I would only charge the work, 16 silvers for the eight sets.”

“So, three gold and 81 silver coins…”

“Deal! I also want to acquire some trending high-class clothes to exchange in Wind Castle… How soon can you finish the clothes?”

“Usually, three weeks, but I can give priority to your order, so two weeks would do…”

“How about…”

Lana's sentence was muffled by a pained scream coming from outside, sounds of whipping followed. She couldn’t control herself and ran to check the store exit, she was welcomed by many bridges connected to different towers. Fortunately, the sounds were easy to track to an open podium ten stories high and roughly positioned at the center of the towers. At the podium, several wealthy-looking and robed spectators scrutinized a line of chained Beastmen.

One of the bull-looking Beastmen seemed to be resisting and trying to break the chains, earning several whippings from the slave trader. She couldn’t bear to look at the cruel scene, every time they whipped him she would turn away and purse her lips. A stream of tears flowed in her face while the feeling that she hated the most spiked in her heart, powerlessness.

However, the pained emptiness in Lana’s eyes quickly changed to resolve. She turned to Rupert and said:

“Can you help me…”