Volume 23 Sidestory 3, Pirates? (Part 2)

Reus of the Minerva Chamber of Commerce was surprised to see Schmidt, the head of Crown’s merchant division, at the negotiating table.

Although it was a big deal in its own right, the deal between Crown and the Minerva Chamber of Commerce was only one of many.

No one in Schmidt’s position would have bothered to appear for such a deal.

In fact, in the many transactions that had taken place in the past, negotiations were always conducted with the person in charge accompanying Schmidt.

But why would Schmidt appear at a place like this, Reus thought.

On the contrary, Schmidt’s appearance made him think that he came out of the woodwork because he had some grasp of this case.

The question was to what extent Crown had a grasp of the situation, but even if everything was known, there would be no particular problem.

Reus did not know who was behind the pirates.

Reus negotiated with the pirates, not their backers.

It was a common occurrence to negotiate with pirates and limit the damage.

That was why Reus was confident in accepting the offer this time.

He had suffered a great deal of damage as a result of the pirates.

To make up for it, he had no choice but to lower the price in this deal.

At least, that’s what Reus was willing to do.

Although he may be a bit pushy, Reus was confident because he understood that the Minerva Chamber of Commerce’s sales channels were beneficial to Crown as well.

He also believed that Crown would be willing to accept a lower price because it would not be so easy to find another sales channel that could replace it.

At least, that was what Reus believed was natural… until negotiations with Schmidt began.

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Reus couldn’t help but to repeat what the Crown representative said.

“Can’t you agree to a price reduction?”

“No, Crown cannot accept any further reduction in price.”

“No, but that’s…”

The unexpected words made Reus impatient for a moment, but he quickly recovered his composure, thinking that this was part of the negotiation.

The other party knew that he would be demanding a reduction in the price.

If that was the case, they were probably aiming to suppress that price reduction as much as possible.

“I see. What should we do then? As long as we are suffering from the damage, we can’t send out the next shipment without reducing the price to compensate for the escort fee….”

“No. No, you don’t have to send out the next shipment.”

“….Huh?”

“As I mentioned, it is not necessary for you to purchase our products under the current circumstances.”

Reus was perplexed inwardly, but he managed to keep up appearances and ruminated on the words of his contact person.

“Under the current circumstances, what do you mean?”

“Until the damage from the pirates is over, I suppose. Of course, once the pirates are gone, we can trade again at the same price as before, right?”

“No, but that’s…”

Reus was at a loss for words at this unplanned turn of events.

The person in charge was right. If the damage caused by pirates was eliminated, there would be no extra costs.

Then there would be no reason to demand a price reduction.

Reus’ hope was that he would succeed in negotiating a lower price this time and continue to trade at that lower price when the pirate damage had been eliminated.

That prospect would be destroyed by the current course of events.

“… Even if the pirates are stopped, there may not be enough space left to load your goods then, right?”

Realizing that negotiating directly for a lower price was a bad idea, Reus decided to play a game of bargaining.

If the ship could not accommodate the cargo in the first place, there would be no way to buy goods or anything else.

“Well. if that would be the case, I’m sorry to say that we would have to cut off our connection.”

Hearing those words, Reus became impatient.

That was to be expected.

For Crown, the Minerva Trading Company’s sales channel was something he really wanted to secure.

However, he was willing to accept the loss as long as all sales channels were secured.

“Um… I’m going to ask you a question, but are you saying you don’t mind if you lose our sea routes?”

“I don’t mean that we want to lose our sea route, but we have a land route as well. There is no advantage in us lowering the price in consideration of the overland route.”

Hearing these words, Reus immediately thought of Crown’s own large trading convoy.

Crown was making full use of its large-scale trading force, which other trading companies had not yet succeeded in doing, and was spreading it throughout the continent.

He realized that it might be possible to achieve such a result by using a large-scale trading force.

At the same time, the advantage that Reus had until now would disappear.

After all, they were saying that they could do this without having to go to the trouble of putting Reus and the Minerva Chamber of Commerce between them.

Reus realized that the scenario he had envisioned just before the start of these negotiations had completely fallen apart.

Reus regretted why he had not thought of the overland route, but it was already too late.

For Reus, not being able to transport Crown’s goods would be a huge loss.

He could not go back to the time when Crown was not involved, but the materials and other products Crown was providing were bringing considerable profits to the Chamber of Commerce.

There was no way he could give it up now.

In the end, he had no choice but to continue trading at the same price as before.

He thought that it was going well, making a deal with the pirates. However, he would have to lose everything if he mentioned it.

He was thinking that he had to cut off ties with the pirates as soon as possible, etc., when he suddenly remembered something.

All the negotiations up to now had been conducted by the person in charge.

Schmidt hardly ever said a word, except for an initial greeting.

If he was not here to negotiate, then what was he doing here?

Finally, it dawned on him.

***

“Um… Why did Schmidt-san visit us?”

The size of the Chamber of Commerce he controlled was far superior to that of his competitors, so his attitude was reasonable.

He used to be just a peddler, but that had nothing to do with his current achievements.

“Oh, well. I heard a rumor that you made direct negotiations with the pirates. I wanted to hear about that if it was alright with you.”

Schmidt said this with a smile on his face, and Reus inwardly broke out in a cold sweat.

At the same time, he was glad he didn’t do a bad job of turning the tables on the pirate.

If he said something bad here, it would have blown up his precious business, so he decided to tell the whole story.

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“In the end, we didn’t get the other side’s tail, did we?”

The person in charge came to him after the negotiations at the Minerva Chamber of Commerce.

The place they were at now was not the Minerva Shokai, but the building that Crown owned.

“I guess that means they are that wary of us.”

After all, if they were to show themselves in a bad way, Tower’s offensive weapons might be sent at them.

It was natural for them to be wary.

“Anyway, we pushed through without discounting this time, but the situation will change if any real damage comes out, so please be careful.”

“I understand.”

There was actually more than one company that negotiated a discount like Minerva Chamber of Commerce.

Although not all of the trading companies that Crown had been doing business with were affected, several of them were in the same situation.

In some cases, those merchant associations could really be affected without any underlying dealings.

At that time, the way to deal with the situation would change again.

Schmidt was prepared for the possibility that this case might drag on for a while.