Sometime later, within the blackmarket of Belmud, a lone man stood near the backdoor of an inn. The sun had already set and the last of dusk’s light could barely find its way into the blackmarket’s pathways. But despite the lack of sunlight, the man still wore the hood of his cloak over his head. His back leaned against the wall while his arms were crossed.

People like him weren’t too uncommon within this particular area of the city. If he were to give a quick glance around the general vicinity, he would spot many people adopting a similar posture to him with their hoods over their heads. It was the quickest and easiest way for one to show that they were not a dealer or vendor who were peddling contraband.

Although it wasn’t creative by any means, the man went by the simple name of ‘Broker.’ That name alone should be enough to tell anyone what he did as his occupation.

“Oi. There’s someone who wants to see you.”

The inn’s backdoor opened as another man peeped his head out and whispered loudly enough for Broker to hear. In response, Broker only silently nodded before entering the inn. Not many patrons were present at this time of day, most of them either finishing the last of their meals or concluding their conversation.

Broker ignored them and followed the man who called him to the second floor of the inn. From there, the man lead him to the leftmost accommodation room before opening the door and beckoning Broker to enter.

Unsurprisingly, the ‘accommodation room’ actually did not contain a bed or any other items required for shelter. All there was within the room was a single table with two seats and a lamp on top of it, giving light to the rest of the room. At the seat facing the entrance, there was single man awaiting Broker’s appearance.

His appearance was akin to that of a rich noble, wearing the typical black aristocratic coat with a dark green cravat tied around his neck. However, his lack of jewelry told Broker that this noble was either a ‘modest’ or low-ranking noble. Either way, he didn’t really care. This noble has requested to see Broker and that could only mean one thing.

There was a clandestine transaction that the noble needed Broker’s aid in completing.

With that in mind, Broker nodded his head at the man at the door and entered the room. The door behind him was silently shut while he made his way towards the unoccupied seat. But he soon noticed something else when he took a seat opposite the noble. They weren’t the only two people in the room.

At two corners of the room, where the light of the lamp waned, were two people covered head to toe in rusty steel plate armour. Their left hand casually rested on their sheathed swords while their faces were completely obscured by the visors of their armets. Both of them stood perfectly still, as if they were statues made of marble.

Obviously, they were the nobleman’s guards. However, their slightly dilapidated armour made it clear that they were more likely to be merceneraries rather than knights. Not only that, but Broker just felt that the guards were… unsettling.

Even if he ignored the fact that it was extremely uncomfortable for one to wear plate armour, especially rusty armour for extended periods of time, Broker was surprised that they managed to remain so silent that he didn’t even notice their presence at first. It felt more as if they were mannequins rather than real human beings.

“Don’t mind them. Let’s just say that they are ‘uncompromisingly loyal.’ I trust that you are aware of a little thing called ‘confidentiality?’”

As if having read his mind, the noble gave a quick explanation about the guards to Broker. Although the explanation did little to actually explain anything, Broker has already concluded that there was no point in inquiring more about them. Meanwhile the noble began to introduce himself.

“My name is Walter Faust. I hear that you go by the name of ‘Broker’ yes?”

“Yes, my name is indeed Broker, my lord. Since you know my name, I assume that you have a proposition?”

The nobleman, Walter leisurely leaned back onto his chair and kept a friendly smile on his face as he responded.

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. There is a particular good that I want to sell. Unfortunately, I currently lack the resources to sell said good at the scale I desire. This is where you come in.”

“I would be more than happy to provide my assistance.”

Broker felt his mouth subconsciously curve upwards into a smile when he heard what Walter was offering. From the implications of the nobleman’s words, this could potentially be some large-scale operation. That meant only one thing for Broker. Profit. However, there were some details that he needed to confirm first.

“But before I could offer you my assistance, I will need to know exactly what kind of good you want me to sell. I also need to know what kind of profits you predictions from my sales as well as your own terms and conditions.”

Snap!

Walter only snapped his fingers in reply to Broker. In reaction to his snap, one of Walter’s guards began to take action, moving towards another corner of the room and picking something up. It was a decently sized crate, with its width, length and height all being about the same length as a typical man’s forearm.

However, when the guard moved to place the crate on the table, a horrible smell invaded Broker’s nostrils.

Why does he smell so bad? It’s as if someone died within his armour.

Nevertheless, the guard still placed the crate down, took off the lid and then quickly withdrew to its original position. Thankfully, he took most of the bad smell away with him.

But Broker was once again surprised when he saw the contents of the crate. He couldn’t help voicing out his confusion as he stared at multiple green leathery skins that were neatly stacked inside it.

“These are… goblin hides?”

In response to his question, Walter nodded in a satisfied manner before he explained himself.

“Yes they are. I have many more crates like them stored elsewhere and with more being created everyday. Of course, the exact details are also confidential. I want you to make use of your connections to sell these goblin hides at both the official marketplace as well as the blackmarket.”

Although Broker quickly developed some worries upon hearing the first part of Walter’s proposition, the nobleman continued speaking without giving Broker a chance to reply.

“I am willing to be generous and allow you to keep one third of the profits made. I just need you to sell them at a rate under the market price, at most a tenth bellow the price should do. At the current rate, I will be able to supply you with at least twenty crates full of goblin hides a day.”

While Walter’s disposition was blunt and direct as he spoke, his words carried an underlying aspect of friendly goodwill as well as an oppressive aura of absolute authority.

“Other than that, you must also ensure that your prices are always proportionally lower than the market rate. If the market rate drops, then you will drop your prices accordingly. You must do this no matter how low the market price drops unless I say otherwise.”

Broker was left utterly speechless by the time Walter finished speaking. He wasn’t didn’t even care about his split only being a third of all profits made, that was a lot of money compared to the scraps others offered him. What concerned him was Walter’s condition that he may only sell the hides at the price below the market rate.

And that was because–

“My lord… what you want me to do… That’s going to aritifically deflate the price of goblin hides…”

Walter responded in a nonchalant manner to Broker’s statement, as if it was nothing to be worried about and it wasn’t a big deal if Broker declined the nobleman’s offer.

“Is there a problem with that? I could easily find someone else if you’re not interested.”

“No-no, of course not my lord!”

Broker quickly blurted a quick response to Walter’s casual threat before he proceeded to explain himself.

“I’m just concerned that we– I mean you, may not be able to support such a plan. The price of goblin hides are already low as they are, are you sure that you want to deflate the price any further? I’m not even sure if I will be able to pay off my dealers in the long term with this sort of plan…”

When Walter heard what Broker had to say, he only let out a light chuckle before he gave his own explanation.

“You can rest assured. I have already taken everything into consideration. Like I said before ‘You must do this no matter how low the market price drops unless I say otherwise.’ Someone such as yourself should be able to figure out what I want you to do after that.”

Broker’s eyes widened as a realisation flashed within his mind. He now knew and fully understood what Walter intended to do. Broker just didn't know why. However, that detail was also inconsequential and as such, held little importance to him. He just pushed those thoughts to the back of his head as he replied.

“That… Is a very bold and risky plan my lord. It will take time, a fuck-ton of goblin hides… and a bit of luck.”

“I don’t care what it takes. I only care if you are willing to accept my offer.”

Walter didn’t seem to be concerned by any of Broker’s worries in the slightest. That meant one of two things. Either Walter was extremely confident in his plan or he was just plain insane. However, Broker didn’t care whichever one it was. It was made apparent during this entire negotiation that Walter was willing to bear the brunt of the expenses incurred.

All Broker had to do was facilitate the sales. As such, he could only give one answer.

“I am willing to work with you my lord.”

“Good, then we are in business.”

Walter’s mouth curved upwards into a placid smile when he heard Broker’s answer. Not long after, Walter stood back up as he bid his farewell to Broker.

“I will return here tomorrow at this time. We will finalise the finer details then. But until that time arrives, I hope that you have a good day Broker. Farewell.”

“And I hope the same for you my lord.”

Once the two bid each other farewell, Walter stood up from his seat and begun to take his leave.

“Now if excuse me...”

His two guards followed behind him as he said his final words as he exited through the door.

“I have some other business to take care of.”

…

“Please stop! It was just a drunk rant!”

Bolnar whispered loudly as he was pinned down onto the floor by two men dressed in rusty plate armour. His claim was the truth. He was only in the ‘Strutting Stallion’ tavern making a drunk rant about a person who scammed him in the past. After sobering up, he left with his two guards to relieve himself in an alleyway.

He didn’t expect to be ambushed and pinned onto the grimey paving.

Nor did he expect for his two ‘veteran’ hired sellswords to go down so easily.

But most of all, Bolnar didn’t expect that the leader of the ambush was the same person who scammed him.

“Regardless of whatever it was, anonymity is one of my greatest assets at this moment.”

Walter’s voice echoed a short distance away from Bolnar while the two men unrelentingly continued to pin him down. He wanted to say something back but he was interrupted by the pain of cold steel in his back.

As Bolnar felt a sticky liquid clog his throat, he heard another voice spoken in a casual tone.

“Unfortunately for you, that also makes you a liability.”