The market was busy when Arwin and Reya arrived. But, unlike the last time where not a single person had glanced in their direction, their entrance drew a fair number of eyes. Arwin wasn’t sure if that was because of his mask or the cart at his back, but he didn’t care.
He scoped out an empty area beside a merchant selling dumplings and brought the cart over beside him, setting it down with a grunt. Reya hopped down and gave him a grin.
“You think?” Arwin asked dryly, brushing his hands off on his shirt. “I can’t tell if I want to sell everything as fast as possible, or if I want to find the right person for the armor instead.”
Reya rolled her eyes. “Maybe worry about selling anything at all first? And this is just normal gear. Don’t be picky about that stuff. You can be picky once you’re famous.”
“Good point,” Arwin admitted. He picked up a set of scale mail and hung it from one of the hooks, holding his hands out to catch it in case the hook failed. Fortunately, it looked like the metal was in good condition and it held firm.
Reya helped him hang the rest of the armor, and then they settled in to wait. It was still somewhat early in the day, and the market was just starting to get to its busiest hour.
Minutes ticked by, turning to an hour. People walked by their cart, a few of them craning their necks as they passed, but nobody was stopping by. Arwin frowned behind his mask.
“Why is nobody stopping by? They aren’t even trying to take a closer look.”
“Seriously?” the adventurer grinned and held his hand out. “I’ll keep that in mind, mate. What’s your name? You must be new around here.”
“Ifrit,” Arwin replied, shaking the man’s hand.
“I’m Ted. Pleasure, Ifrit. If your armor is half as good as it feels, you’ll be seeing me again.”
The adventurer strode off, raising a hand in farewell. Arwin looked down at the bag on the counter, then over to Reya. “What was that?”
“When did you become so good at being a saleswoman?”
“Good? All I did was cut him off a bunch of times and sway my ass when I walked back here,” Reya said with a snort. “You did everything else.”
That’s one way to completely undersell yourself.
“I’m not so sure that was it. You definitely–”
“Eyes up ahead,” Reya said with a grin, looking past Arwin’s shoulder. “You’ve got some more interest.
Arwin turned to find that several other people had walked over to the cart and were studying the armor hanging around him. Now that one person had bought something, he’d functionally proven himself and drawn the attention of other passersby.
“Good luck,” Reya said, crossing her arms behind her head and closing her eyes. “And don’t forget to leave me a cut.”
About five hours later, they sold out. Even though a lot of people came by to look at the armor, most of them didn’t end up buying anything. But, even so, with the small crowd that Reya had summoned, there was enough interest to sell every piece of armor they’d brought.
Arwin found his purse had gone from a mere 10 gold to a hefty 362. In the span of five hours, they’d gone from destitute to well off. If a meal cost around a silver or two, then one gold was roughly equivalent to five meals at worst. They weren’t exactly rich, but they had a very healthy amount of coin.
He wasted absolutely no time in counting out one hundred gold from his profits and tossing it to Reya.
“This much?” Reya asked, staring at the bag in disbelief. “I barely even did anything!”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t have sold anything at all if you weren’t here. You earned that.”
“You made the armor.”
“Are you really asking me to give you less gold?”
Reya blinked, then shook her head. “You know what? Never mind. I deserve this.”
“You’re going to have to make a bunch more of that. I think I’m going to get addicted to having this much money,” Reya said.
“I think I’m going to end up spending almost all of this immediately,” Arwin said, feeling the bulging bag at his waist. “I need some more of that metal you bought me as well. Could you say how much it was?”
“The whole lot was eighty gold, and I got it at a huge discount,” Reya said. “Someone ordered a bunch of it and then didn’t pick it up. I think it’s normally around thirty gold a bar.”
“Could you get me three bars of it?” Arwin asked, pouring another hundred gold into Reya’s bag. “I need some to work with.”
Reya blinked, then shrugged. “Okay. What about you?”
“I’m going to bring the cart back, then go shopping for some supplies to upgrade the smithy. Come tomorrow, we aren’t going to have any more cracks in the walls.”
Reya grinned. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ll see you back at the tavern, then?”
“Sounds good,” Arwin said, hopping down from the wagon to lift it by the handles. He nodded to Reya, and the two of them set off, their spirits high from a successful day.
“He was right here, Jessen,” Tix said, thrusting a finger at the open space in the market. “I swear.”
“I believe you,” the man beside her said, running a hand through his dark beard. He wore heavy black armor with spiked pauldrons and carried a huge greatsword on his back that shimmered with poorly hidden magical energy. “Unfortunate. I had hoped to speak with him. Our guild needs a new crafter.”
“I’ve been trying to find the street that I heard he lived on, but I haven’t had any luck thus far. I’ve sent out some feelers to see if anyone has heard anything, but so far, the only ones that have claimed to know anything are a bunch of worthless grubs.”
“Grubs?” Jessen asked, tilting his head to the side and glancing at Tix. “I believe I told you to spare no expenses.”
“Yes, but they’re a gutter trash thieves guild,” Tix said. “They’d lie through their teeth just to get our coin. There’s no point–”