The carts soon arrived in a walled storage house a distance away from the market.
’This seems to be the place where they will meet that Connor guy. Tsk. Is there no way to see him before he comes here?’
Oriana was worried. From her understanding so far, Ron and his group were amassing all kinds of precious herbs. If she failed here, even if she were to travel to other cities, she probably would never find even a single stalk of black nightshade. Ron’s group was supported by a large merchant group and by corrupt nobles. More guards would be deployed once they secured the banned herbs. It would be impossible to steal directly from them.
Her only option was to get black nightshade from Connor, the source.
The carts entered inside the huge wooden double-sided doors which opened into a two-storey storage house.
Since the sun had set, Oriana skillfully climbed through the walls unnoticed and found a place to hide inside.
Soon, a man in his late thirties arrived. He looked like any ordinary merchant, his clothing luxurious but not ostentatious. He looked servile even, the kind of face no one would think would do shady business.
"Welcome to Port Hope, Mister Ron," the man greeted. "Is Merchant Finn doing well?"
"Of course. Mister Finn sent over a gift for you, Mister Conor," Ron informed and signaled his men to bring something out. "He said the last transaction made him very satisfied."
At this point, Oriana had approached them, hiding behind the stacks of crates within the storage house.
She saw Ron’s men opening the crates unloaded from their cargo. They removed the animal hides and pelts, and Oriana’s eyes widened at what came after.
Under all those tanned leather, there were smaller boxes which contained... gold coins! And there were dozens of such boxes!
’What the hell? For so long, I was sitting on the pile of gold and I didn’t even know it? This is what we call rotten luck!’
Not copper, not silver but real gold coins! A commoner could live through his entire life without even touching a single gold coin, but within those boxes, there were hundreds upon hundreds of them.
’No wonder the escorts guard the wagons so strictly! How dumb I was to not think there must be something more valuable than leather inside those crates.
’Grandpa, I am such a disappointment to your teaching! No wonder you said I am not fit to be a mercenary. If I was a little smarter, we could have been spending the rest of our lives in some small villa without needing to work till we die.’
She felt like crying over the loss of something which didn’t belong to her in the first place.
Ron rubbed his hands. "Mister Finn looks forward to more business in the future."
"Rest assured, I am selling all the banned herbs I have in stock to you." Connor gave a satisfied laugh as he got his servants to gather the gold. "From here on, my men will take over. Just rest and enjoy your stay. When morning comes, all you need to do is head back to the harbor. My men will have the goods moved to the ship within the night."
Ron left with his men while Conor instructed his men on what to do.
"Work fast. The special items will be kept at the bottom of these crates, one box per crate, then fill the rest of the crates with the local produce as well as the spices from Southern Megaris. Put in the various gifts I also prepared for Merchant Finn on the other crates."
Oriana realized the stalks of black nightshade were all packed inside sealed palm-sized boxes. There were about thirty of such boxes, but there were about a hundred crates, meaning not all crates carry banned herbs.
Each crate was large enough to fit an adult inside. With the banned herbs cleverly hidden under ordinary herbs, it was almost impossible to discover unless the officials at Selve ordered all crates to be dutifully inspected.
Conor also left, leaving only his right-hand man behind to oversee the porters.
"Keep these leather and all the stuff in the second storage house. You, you and you, bring the gold to the master’s safe—"
The men started to follow their orders. Oriana secretly followed the men tasked to carry the gold. As the storage house was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of crates, the layout formed by about a dozen rows of goods as tall as a person, it made it so easy for her to hide and move around without anyone noticing.
Her gaze could only longingly stare at those boxes filled with gold. She sighed at her bad luck and shook her head.
’Focus on the herbs. Don’t be greedy, Ori.’
Just then, a box of gold slipped from a thin man’s hand, spilling coins on the ground. The thin man hurried to pick them, but one could see the desire in his eyes—that he was tempted to pocket a gold or two. After all, it wasn’t like Conor would count all the coins one by one, right?
The other three felt the same, but one of them warned.
"This belongs to the master. Don’t think about it."
That thin man immediately followed, but his eyes showed he wanted to secretly keep even a single gold coin. Why would he not, when the poor man could only touch it but could not have it?
From watching his greedy expression, Oriana got an idea.
’This man might be of some use.’
Oriana then returned to where Conor’s right-hand man was overseeing people. One porter opened the palm-sized box. Her eyes shone, as if she was seeing the most precious thing in the world.
Black nightshade!
As per instruction, one box-worth of banned herb was put at the bottom of the crate. There were only five stalks per palm-sized box, and it was then covered with layers of ordinary spices like coriander, rosemary and bayleaf.
No one would have guessed under these leaves were hiding stalks of black nightshade!