After spending an entire day there, we returned to Delcour carrying a large quantity of merchandise. We then headed to the Merchants’ Guild to rent a place on the market street.
When we entered, several people looked our way and whispered among themselves.
“That’s the Mushroom Doctor everyone is talking about.”
“He doesn’t have any mushrooms today.”
“He’s amazing, isn’t he? He must be very intelligent. Even his bearing seems somehow refined.”
It appeared my title as Mushroom Doctor had firmly taken root. For some reason, my reputation had improved along with it. Perhaps I ought to study mushrooms. Neon paid the whispers no attention and approached the receptionist.
“We’d like to rent a spot on the market street for no more than one gold coin per month.”
“I see. Under those conditions, we have roughly three sections available. Which would you prefer? The stalls around the first section primarily sell inexpensive goods. The second section focuses on somewhat more costly merchandise, with most purchases ranging from silver to gold coins. The third section contains the market street’s most expensive goods.”
‘Should we rent a place in the second section?’
‘Yes.’
The second section was really the only reasonable choice after eliminating the others, but Metis’s confirmation allowed me to rent it with confidence.
“We’ll take the second section.”
Neon looked at me when I suddenly interjected, but apparently realized I had consulted Metis and accepted the decision.
“Then I will prepare the paperwork for the second section. The fee will be approximately 100,000 G per month. We require the first two months in advance, so please make the payment shortly.”
One hundred thousand G… A single stall’s space was not especially large. That made the price feel rather steep, but the initial cost of setting up was low, and the street had heavy foot traffic. A somewhat high rent was unavoidable.
Once we had paid, the receptionist guided us to the place we would rent. Naturally, it was a part of the street we had passed before.
My own shop would stand here… Even though it would only be a stall, I couldn’t suppress my excitement.
“Why are you standing there in a daze? We have to build the stall now. We don’t have time to relax. The rental officially begins in two weeks, and it needs to be ready by then.”
I hadn’t considered that at all. Even for a stall, we couldn’t simply place our goods on the ground. We needed display shelves and many other things.
The days that followed were dizzyingly busy. We hired carpenters to build the stall, commissioned a sign, and handled one task after another.
Two weeks later, our stall was finally complete. It was about three meters wide and two meters deep. The counter holding the merchandise stood roughly one meter tall. Everything was made from wood, and I found its appearance full of character—though I was probably biased because it belonged to us.
It even had a proper roof, allowing us to operate on rainy days. Written across that roof in colorful letters were the words:
NEONBIL GENERAL STORE
“It’s finished!”
“We did it!”
Neon and I clapped our hands in celebration. To be honest, it had cost more than expected. Of the one hundred gold coins we once possessed, less than ten percent remained.
“Now we’re respectable merchants!”
“Yeah!”
Although I said that, I had not even registered with the Merchants’ Guild yet. I had only wanted to stop living hand to mouth, yet somehow I had opened a stall. How exactly had that happened?
Still, the finished stall looked irresistibly charming to me. This was a shop we had won through our own efforts.
“We’re out of money, so we start selling tomorrow!”
“Understood!”
At last, we had taken a major step forward as merchants.