Chapter 39: What is paper?
"Your drinks. They have become the talk of the city now," the man said. This threw Aric off as he had no idea that he even had a public presence. He always thought that he kept a low profile and people didn't know about him. It was better that way, at least for the time being. The man seemed to notice the change in Aric's expression, so he said, "You are quite intelligent for your age. Your face suggests that you didn't like that people are talking about you. Hahahaha... Someone of your age would love to see their name written in golden letters."
This made Aric more irritated, and he replied, "I am not like others. Don't lump me together with the rest of the people around."
"You talk funny, my boy. You don't need to be scared. Not many people know about your drinks, and everyone thinks it's that dear old Albert who is selling those drinks, but those who have connections... Hmm... Like me... know who is the original inventor. I have to tell you, I loved your drinks. Tell you what. Sell me 1000 cokes and I will give you a runic circle worth of 2 gold coins," the man said.
"Uncle Albert isn't that old," Aric said, now calming down a little.
"I spoke of gold coins and that was what you want to talk about?" the man said. Aric only shrugged his shoulders, and his attitude was enough for the man to understand that Aric didn't want to talk about the drinks at all.
"I didn't introduce myself. My name is Gopher, and you can just call me by name. Don't add 'Uncle' to it when you speak out loud or call me," Gopher said. Aric could see that the man was very sensitive about age. He even called Albert old even though the man had just crossed 40. But then again, the average age of the people around would probably be less than the ones in his world.
"What do you need?" Gopher asked this time as Aric seemed to have put on a thinking cap. Aric came back to his senses and then asked Gopher, "Do you sell paper here?"
"Paper? What is that?" Gopher had never heard that term before, and Aric suddenly realized that the people here didn't know of the word paper. They were just accustomed to parchments or hard slates, and that was what they were called. There were also fountain pens to write on the parchments and chalk to write on the slates.
Aric didn't waste more time and brought out a bundle of paper, which was tied from all sides with straw ropes that were locally made. He had gone to Echorysia and brought these A4-sized papers and bundled them using locally made thin ropes.
Gopher was intrigued by seeing the super white flimsy thing that Aric just brought out. He took out one sheet of paper and examined it. "What is this?" Gopher was confused as he could see the flimsy thing could be blown away by a small bit of wind. The parchments were a bit thicker and more yellow in color, so he couldn't associate it with them.
"Try writing on it using a fountain pen," Aric suggested.
"Fountain pen?" Gopher was still confused, but curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to follow Aric's instructions. He took out a pen and started writing on it.
"I am the original..."
Gopher's jaw dropped as he did so. He came to the realization of what this actually was. A parchment that they had been using all along, but this was more beautiful, well-crafted, and probably the best kind of parchment he had seen in his entire life.
No, apart from magical parchments, this was probably the best kind of parchment he had ever seen in his entire life.
"I am the original owner of Windy Runic circle shop and no shop is better than mine..."
The more Gopher wrote, the more he fell in love with the smoothness and how the rest of his hand felt on the thin, flimsy sheet. It didn't take a genius to understand what Aric wanted to do with it.
"How many of these are here?"
"How many do you want?"
"How many are there in this bundle?"
"About 200, but I can bring more," Aric replied.
This put a very wide grin on Gopher's face.
"Let's go now, and I will buy them all," Gopher said as he got up from his small chair.
"Not so soon. What about the price?" Aric asked. This stumped Gopher a bit, and then he sat down again to think deeply. He checked the pages again, and after a minute of thinking, he replied, "10 copper coins per page."
This almost sent Aric over the moon, but he tried his best to mask his feelings and rather asked, "If 10 is the price you are buying, then what is the price you would sell them for?" Aric asked, as he was also curious. He didn't have any idea of how much the parchments were sold for.
"20 copper coins and more," Gopher blindly replied.
"Nobody is going to buy them here at 20 copper coins," Aric reminded him. This city might have rich people, but not rich enough for many people to buy paper for 20 copper coins.
"Who said I will be selling them here?" Gopher gave a cheeky smile which showed his clear white teeth to Aric.
"You know my address?" Aric asked as he got the general idea of what Gopher wanted.
"Yes, now let's go," Gopher was getting impatient with the questions and just wanted to go and see how many of these parchments Aric had.
"No. Come to my place at night after 10 pm. The door will be open," Aric replied. Gopher looked at Aric for some time and then burst out laughing.
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