Chapter 22: Negotiation

"Your Grace, Vicente Fuller is here to meet with you."

After announcing these words, Butler Mason opened the office door, allowing Vicente to enter while being accompanied by his guard.

Vice and Wesley entered that luxurious room featuring a beautiful balcony that overlooked the beach. There was a large sofa in the center of the chamber, flanked by two armchairs on the sides, and a table facing a fireplace between the armchairs.

All the armchairs and the sofa were holstered in light brown leather, helping very much in keeping with the vintage ambiance of this place.

Before the balcony overlooking the beach, there was a desk where a middle-aged man sat, engrossed in reading some papers. A man stood behind him, exuding a sharp and imposing look on his face with a sword hanging at his waist.

Vicente had no means of gauging how strong this person was. Nonetheless, he judged such a man was definitely far from being weak since Wesley had immediately focused his attention on this individual right after entering the office.

However, Vice knew the one whom he had to attend for this business was the man with a mustache and black-gray hair who was reading at that desk.

"Your Grace Baron Nate Murray, it is a pleasure to meet you. My father couldn't make it because of a problem, so I'm here to represent him," Vicente conveyed as he approached the man.

Hearing the boy speak, Barron Nate Murray briefly took his eyes off the papers he was reading. He shifted his attention to Vicente's youthful countenance. "You don't resemble your father much... It seems that you must have inherited more traits from your mother's side."

"Hmm, I've been told that quite several times. Unfortunately, I never met my grandparents or uncles, to be certain," Vicente responded, suppressing his sad thoughts, which had started to come to his mind after she was mentioned.

This world's typical family did not consider distant blood ties. After the second degree of kinship, many no longer hold as much importance to blood ties as they did on Earth.

For example, except in cases where a daughter was married in order to generate benefits for her family, they would typically move away from their family of origin to integrate into their new home, the husband's family.

Therefore, it was common that grandchildren would take years to get to know their maternal grandparents, and neither would they normally give so much importance as to make some great sacrifices for ANOTHER family member.

Vicente was aware of these social customs and did not consider contacting his maternal relatives for now.

That man noticed Vicente didn't seem disturbed by this comparison and added. "I heard that your mother passed away recently... I am sorry for your loss. It must be a challenging time for a boy like you to go through."

"Hmm," Vicente said nothing beyond that, closing his eyes momentarily and nodding to the Baron.

"In any case, I hope you won't allow this to deter you from embarking on your own journey. Your father has spoken highly of you, Vicente, so I hope you will continue along the promising path you have been treading. You'll triumph if you are determined to keep it up, kid."

"My father has mentioned me to you?" Vicente repeated in surprise.

The Baron chuckled, "Andrew and I come from different backgrounds. However, during our youth, we were partners on a journey...

At that time, we were still trying to discover our magical ways.

Andrew had escaped his master and had distanced himself from merchant affairs while I sought a respite from the pressures of inheriting my father's position.

We stayed in touch thereafter, and our paths eventually led us to do trade. He told me about you on a few occasional business talkings in recent years."

"I see... So you have known each other for quite a long time," Vicente did not know this since his father had not told him of all his business partners and contacts. "Anyway, thanks for the words, Your Grace. I am determined to try my best."

"Hmm," Baron Murray nodded and then addressed the man behind him. "Sir River, take that item and give it to Vicente."

Vice looked at that man and was surprised by the Baron's way of address.

It was not easy to be referred to as 'Sir' in this society!

Aside from those granted to the nobles, there was another prestigious title, which the king conferred. That was the title of Knight.

This title of KNIGHT was typically given to people who had served the royal army and had earned merits during their time in such a force.

Sooner or later, they might have the opportunity to ascend to the nobility and receive the title of Baron.

Anyway, the proper way to address Knights was to call them 'Sir.'

Upon seeing the first of these warriors, Vicente immediately understood why Wesley was staring at that man.

He was probably powerful!

As Vicente's gaze remained on that Knight, he placed a small chest on the table in front of Vicente.

"Vicente, I would like you to give this to your father later." The Baron commented. "This is a mere token of my condolences for your loss...

Anyway, you're here to take care of business, so let's get down to it. How is Andrew's resource situation? He and I were on the brink of finalizing a deal concerning 10,000 bags of wheat and 5,000 sorghum."

Vicente acknowledged the Baron's request and asked Wesley to hold up the item that was meant for his father. He responded, "We have the required amount, but due to our recent problems, it will take us a little longer to make the shipment.

In the meantime, we can lower the price of these resources by a tenth to compensate for the delay.

How about 92 gold coins for the entire quantity? We can deliver the resources in a maximum of 5 weeks."

Ninety-two gold coins were not a small amount. Fifty silver coins, equivalent to half a gold coin, would be enough to support a family of five to live well for an entire month.

However, with that amount of grains, Baron Murray would be able to feed many animals and people in his family for several weeks or even months.

Among many other contacts the Baron had, he would have to pay at least 110 gold coins for those amounts of goods, so upon hearing Vicente's proposition, the Baron immediately liked it.

But then Vicente continued, "However, as Your Grace must know, the pricing we charge is significantly influenced by the transportation. If we trigger another 5,000 bags, the transportation costs would not substantially increase.

Why don't we consider negotiating an even larger transaction? I will certainly keep the discount for Your Grace."

"What other types of grain do you have?" The Baron inquired.

"We also have barley and rye. Regrettably, we have already concluded deals for our other crops, so we don't have much else available for the trade." Vicente replied with sincerity.

"Hmm, very well, then. I'll take an additional 2,500 bags of barley and 2,500 bags of rye. How much would that cost me?"

"An additional 12 gold coins in total," Vicente quickly calculated, figuring a profit margin that was good enough for his family without making the product expensive for the customer.

"So the total would be 104 gold coins."

The Baron agreed to that price and raised one of his hands to Vicente, not taking the time to hesitate and wanting to close his deal with this boy.

"I will pay a quarter of the amount in the next few days and the remaining balance when you make the delivery."

"All right, I'll advance the matters in the meantime by sending words to my father's men."

With that said, Vicente finalized his first utterly solo business transaction and experienced the feeling of signing a Two-Party Agreement, the type of guarantee that was commonly used in Polaris Realm.

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