[Archived Short Story] The Merchant's Bet (Patreon)

Daryl stood at attention. Daryl had been standing at attention. Daryl had been standing at attention so long that his skills [Sleep Resistance], [Pain Resistance], [Concentration], [Etiquette], and a ton of others had all leveled up multiple times. He even gained more niche skills such as [Bladder Control].

That was crazy to him. With his various resistances, he only needs a cup of water every day and when needed can go for a long while without if he drinks enough beforehand. So the fact that it got this far meant he might need to give in and switch out. Not the worst thing, but the nameless guard across from him was still going strong. Well, not nameless, the guy was a knight just like him and neither of them were included in the introductions. It makes sense as they are meant to be interchangeable for this situation so as to not affect the outcome.

Daryl stops himself from fidgeting as he remembers when this all started. It was a simple enough situation. His kingdom had been at war with the kingdom to the south. This wasn’t new, the war had been on and off again for the last hundred years ever since his kingdom had a princess married away to a kingdom that was at war with a kingdom the southern kingdom was vaguely allied to.

He vaguely remembered that the agreement between the two kingdoms had expired, but recently enough that the other kingdom was able to call the southern kingdom in to help. The kingdom had expected this though, so not much came of it besides death and levels. The serfs and peasants didn’t even get involved with the mess.

So yeah, the current kings had decided that had gone on long enough and so after the southern king married his daughter to Daryl’s kingdom’s crown prince, peace was declared. That, of course, meant the two kingdoms needed a new trade deal. After all, when the war started both sides broke the previous one.

Of course, a new trade deal meant the two kingdoms’ merchant guild masters needed to meet up and hash out the details. So after the diplomats spent a little over a year going back and forth, a small town on the border was decided to host the meetup. This was because the town had managed to stay out of everything and remain neutral. Well, “neutral”, it was the largest smuggling hub between the two kingdoms.

Daryl, being captain of the castle guard, was elected to be the first to guard his kingdom’s guild master. The first day was simple enough for him and the two masters didn’t even talk to one another once. Instead, the entire day and night was spent on various assistants using skill after skill.

There were representatives from various churches laying down blessings of [truth]. Assistants specialized in detecting poisons using so many variants to detect the stuff that not a single piece of material managed to escape lighting up at least once. Not because they were truly poisonous, but rather someone somewhere had the possibility of reacting to it badly and each side had to acknowledge the risk. It kept going on and Daryl suspected that if there hadn’t been a deadline for the event to start, they could have kept it going for at least a week.

Then the real pain started. At first, it was slow as the two masters laid out the ground rules with only a few skills being used. Simple things like tracing glowing lines onto a map. Though the map was scarily accurate as both kingdoms had been tasked with providing the map for the opposite side’s territory. A fact that Daryl filled firmly under “Not My Job”.

As time went on, though and day turned to night and back again more than once, their very words became intent laden. Both masters had been around since before the war started. In fact, Daryl had heard rumors that both had been seconds for the previous trade deal. Though he suspected that rumor as the last deal was made around five hundred years ago.

Though listening to them made him suspect it might not be completely false. If not for his grueling training with the spy master a month ago, he might have been dazed from the sheer volume of skills being used. It was like listening to a master musician.

Northern Master, “If we [trade] the iron at [market value], your kingdom will need to release certain restrictions to help [boost the profits].”

Southern Master, “A little [foresight] will [reveal] that those restrictions are in place for a [reason]. The [cost vs. gains] such a [deal] would be heavily in your kingdom’s favor. I will need much more to [bargain] around.”

Northern Master, “I can [sense the motive] behind your deal. Under the light of truth, you even attempt this? A simple bit of [logistics] reveals the actual goal here.’

Southern Master, “So we both agree that the restriction has choked [trade]. I [propose] that we [settle] on only using restrictions in this [bargain].”

On and on the two went, using at least one skill, if not more with every sentence. Daryl even suspected that they were also activating some extra skills silently. When most people have to start with a skill hoping to be able to use another by the end, they are spending more power than some peasants might use in a month.

Though worse is that they don’t stop. The two masters aren’t talking fast, each word slow and measured, but they didn’t stop. Day followed night followed day followed night. Over and over through good and bad weather. Neither master eats a single crumb or drinks a single drop, despite talking and gesturing.

It would honestly be an interesting exchange for Daryl to watch if he had any clue on the intricacies going on. After all, the various aides needed to constantly be shaken awake. The rapid use of skills and depth of knowledge on display would constantly tug at their minds and draw them into a daze. Daryl not only wasn’t capable of actually understanding the intricacies and hidden moves, even if he could, his job required that he didn’t fall into a state of inspiration.

He does respect the fact that this little event would likely boost the skills of both kingdoms merchants across the board. Even those who aren’t present will experience a boost from those who are, but it is the merchants off to the side who are all being allowed to remain in a state of inspiration who will experience the most gains. It wouldn’t be strange for all of them to reach mastery in at least three mercantile skills.

Daryl could appreciate this, really, he could. Yet he was bored out of his mind. At the moment, the only reason he was even attempting to hold on was because the other kingdom’s guard hadn’t given up yet. So, despite how bored out of his mind he might be, Daryl wasn’t going to be the first to give up!

-----

Of course, the two masters weren’t ignorant of the problem that both knights were facing. In fact, they had long since decided on what the trade deal would be, even before they had arrived at the location. A proper mix of various skills based around scrying and foresight. As both of them well knew, coming into a situation like this without a planned outcome or thirty is just asking to be taken advantage of.

So instead of trying to hash things out “in the field”, everything was figured out. That just left what they should do with their meeting. Neither kingdom was willing to agree without the two meeting face to face and they couldn’t really blame them.

Even they probably wouldn’t have been willing to agree to something like that. Despite knowing exactly what the agreement said, they both spent the first few minutes of the first day to read over the agreement and confirm it was what they expected. That just left all the time the two were expected to take and of course their duty to raise the next generation of merchants. It was rare for two guild masters to visit each other and so too good of a chance to give up.

Still, just throwing skills back and forth while speaking at a level that their proteges could barely follow would get boring after a while. That meant they needed something to spice things up. A good thing this was the first time something like this happened and so they had a time-honored tradition they could follow.

It was simple enough, the two made a bet on which of the main guards set to watch them would bow out first. This involved many interesting twists and turns that started well before they got the location, but at the moment was reduced to the two using their words. From discussions of various water routes to detailed descriptions of some of the most boring topics.

No skills involved, the two knights were skilled enough to detect if either attempted that. Instead, it was all purely a matter of psychological manipulation. Records of past such events proved that both kingdoms had done a good job of raising their knight captains. In fact, it took twice as long as most recent such bets, though with a twist.

There wasn’t a winner. Both knights managed to step out at the same time. Even more amazing, it wasn’t planned. The two knights just gave out at the exact same time.