Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

“You look terrible, Nol.”

“Haaa. I didn’t get even an hour of sleep. Of course I look terrible.”

Two ladies walked the streets of the capital city wearing common clothing. And their original physical appearances were hidden by special artifacts as well, so they weren’t as attractive to the crowd around them as they might have been in their original appearance.

“Of course I know that. But staying up late so that you can finish your work just to have a free weekend to go on a date?

That’s unlike the Nol I know.”

The area they were in had a large number of clothing shops and stores that sold materials used in the creation of clothing, including the various kinds of fabrics, decoratives, and accessories.

This part of the city was a favourite of the ladies of various backgrounds.

Not only the young and old ladies of noble households frequently visited certain shops of this street, there were various luxury stores dedicated only to nobles of certain status present here.

Common people had no permission to enter those places and the two of them weren’t here for those places today anyway so they had nothing to do with those places.

Today… they had come out to hunt a secret competitor that was disturbing the flow of this city’s fabric market.

“If you have doubts about this one as well, you should go and meet him, Sarah.

Go try your seduction skills you used on my last date and the one before that one and confirm that he isn’t some horny bastard that just wants to clap-.”

“Of course I’m doing that… though, this time, since you have worked so hard already, you should have your first date.

Who knows? That bastard might not be something you had expected him to be~.”

There were various kinds of fabric in a market and everyone knew the fabrics, the ready-made good clothing that anyone can purchase was an essential good.

There were some Luxury Fabrics that not many places sold in this city, and (Tarragum Silk), the object of their outing today, was one of them.

“Anyway, let’s talk about this adorable Red eyed hunter of yours later. For now, let’s focus on work.”

They stood before a big shop that didn’t seem like a place that the ladies wearing clothes like theirs would visit.

A place that only sold various kinds of fabrics and that too in fixed large quantities to the noble ladies and various famous boutiques.

It wasn’t the kind of place that even the two of them would visit since they would have no interest in purchasing back a bunch of fabrics from some reseller that didn’t even give the customers their bill receipts.

“Yes. Let’s finish this thing first.”

They went in with subtle smiles on their faces and looked around at the ship where various kinds of natural, artificial, and hand woven fabrics were laid out on various desks.

There were catalogues containing samples of various designs, types and kinds and there were a number of ladies chatting with one another while standing before these pieces.

They were wearing attractive clothings made with some of the finest fabrics present in this shop and many of them were dresses made from Tarragum silk, a natural material obtained from a rare (Green) rank energy beast.

It wasn’t a material that one could easily obtain, however, being the most popular item among the high society ladies that could be obtained in large quantities, it was used in most of the dresses that noblewomen wore for important occasions like— fabric shopping.

“Hello ladies~. How may we help you two today~.”

They were here because the price of something that was an essential good for these ladies, was falling unusually without any reason.

And it certainly was no good thing for the bigger businesses that were the real main suppliers of this good in this city, as well as the rest of the empire.

“Can we see the Tarragum Silk, please.”

“Ah~. You’re here for that as well~.”

The employee standing before them certainly seems to be having a good attitude, but his speech and the look in his eyes weren’t consistent with one another.

“Please, come this way.”

He had a subtle expression of anger in his eyes.

There was no one in this world that needed to see that double faced attitude of an employee so, even though she did not like him, both of them continued forward while ignoring his behaviour calmly.

The silk they were looking into was an important thing so, even they needed to play cool for now.

“Who are those commoners?”

“Do they just let anyone in nowadays? Don’t the guards before the store check them or anything?”

“Look at them… vulgar commoners.”

They were talking behind their backs, but the two ladies just ignored the show-off noble ladies whose husbands, fathers, or brothers had some money for them to spend.

They knew who most of them were and also what the financial conditions of their houses were to be present in a place like this one.

“There have been a of ladies that wanted Tarragum silk recently so they all have gathered there.

The owner of the store is looking after them himself, so you should go there and talk with him directly about the volume you might be interested in.”

The owner looking after a bunch of ladies was not a common sight, but the two of them had a sudden smile on their faces after hearing that.

“This is perfect.”

She smiled at her darling bestie, and with a simple nod, left the arrogant employee that at the very least did his job well.

He wasn’t a total jerk since he at least considered the two of them, who were wearing normal looking clothing, somehow connected to someone who could actually buy this thing.

Or perhaps he was following the order of the owner who might have told him to not send away anyone asking for this particular material, as Nolan anticipated.

“Hello mister owner.”

She was one of the only six main suppliers of this particular material that had a complete monopoly over it. So… the increase in prices of an essential commodity like this one increasing like this was not something that she liked.

Especially when the increase was happening because of some thief and scammer that was disturbing the reputation of a material her mother loved dearly.

*

The sudden drop in the price of a fabric that noble women desire greatly, despite being monopolized by only six main distributors, could be attributed to several factors.

One possibility could be overproduction, where distributors have flooded the market with an excess supply, leading to price competition among them. But as one of those six distributors, she knew none of them had dropped any large amounts in the capital’s market recently.

There were strict rules when it came to fabrics anyway and the [Tri-continental Textile Association] was strict with market manipulation of important trade areas like the capital city.

Another potential reason could be a decrease in demand, possibly due to shifting consumer preferences, changing fashion trends, or the emergence of alternative fabrics. But that wasn’t the case since the ladies of this city would never get tired of something as fine as this particular silk.