Secret Agent Chapter 081 - Business Supplies (Patreon)

“Now granted,” Ivy continued, “having [Magic Control] and [Magic Perception] certainly help with other kinds of magic, but they’re not strictly necessary. They’re not even strictly necessary to summon and contract with a spirit, though you’d be a fool to do so.” She shot a stern look at Henrietta, but Zack turned only in time to see her flinch, not the expression that had inspired Ivy’s ire.

Zack turned back and furrowed his brow. “So what is [Alchemy], then?”

He recognized that he was getting off topic, and wasting time, but it was too tempting.

If it was a skill that he could learn…

But Ivy dashed his hopes immediately.

“[Alchemy] is the extraction, isolation, purification, intensification, concentration, dilution, transfer, and imbuement of magical properties from one material to another, using some several hundred alchemical processes. The tools do most of the work. Not all, but most of it. That’s it—just takes a lot of study and practice and following the processes, and some creativity. For instance, for your request I could have taken the essence of sturdiness from the shell of a rock tortoire and imbued it into paper: it would have made it nearly impossible to cut or tear, but also made it inflexible. So I’d have to add that property in as well, carefully balancing the effects so they wouldn’t just cancel each other out. Adding water-resistance on top of that would have been tricky. Shadowshrike feathers wouldn’t do it, I’d probably need Stygian Cygnus feathers. Anyway, all that would have run you over a thousand fortin in materials alone, not to mention labor.”

Zack’s jaw tightened. That was far too much. And if it wasn’t just a [Skill] that [The Learn] could help him with, it didn’t sound like [Alchemy] would be something he had time for, not if he was [Acting], Adventuring, and teaching kids how to read at the orphanage.

Ivy grinned when she saw Zack’s expression.

“Well, that’s to alter the paper itself. You’d get a nearly indestructible talisman out of that, but a hot enough flame could still burn it. But if all you want is to encase a piece of paper… Yeah, I can whip something up.”

“For how much, though?” Zack asked.

“Depends.” Ivy’s smile faded and she looked at him seriously. “These really are supposed to be disposable?”

“Well, I’d like them to be reusable, say, ten times? Ideally they’d go in an adventurer’s pocket, get pulled out as needed for reference, and then get put back.”

Ivy narrowed her eyes and looked up at him. “They making adventurers different these days? Since when do they read and use references?”

“Well, it’s a business idea.”

“Hah!” Ivy barked a laugh. “Wait, you’re telling me you’re gonna get adventurers to pay to use these card things? Bwahahahaha! That’s the best joke I’ve heard all week!”

The petite woman laughed raucously, eventually stopping and wiping a tear from her eye.

“Oh, that’s rich. So, you got an idea what price you’re thinking? I can try to keep in line with your projected material costs.”

Despite what she clearly thought of his idea, she was professional about her own business and service.

“I was thinking of a total cost per card of a few lindra, no more than five.” He held up his hands to give her an idea of the dimensions of the card.

Five lindra was pricey for a card a quarter the size of a piece of printer paper, but it was a more primitive world than Earth. He’d seen no signs so far of mass manufacturing or anything.

“Including labor? You gonna write up the card yourself?”

“Yeah, so materials of two or three lindra, less if possible.”

“And how many cards are you planning to make total?”

“Let’s say a hundred.”

“A hundred?!” Henrietta exclaimed.

Zack turned back to her. “Well, that’s the long term. At first I’m thinking of making five copies of one card, as a test run.” He smiled reassuringly.

Henrietta took a deep breath and calmed back down.

“Well,” Ivy said, “you’ll still have to pay for the whole batch of whatever I come up with.”

“They called it ‘laminate’ when I saw it out west,” Zack lied.

Ivy frowned at him. “Well why didn’t you say you knew what it was? Gimme the recipe for the laminate, then.”

Zack looked away. “I don’t have the recipe, it was just something I saw once.”

“Tsk, fine. I can figure it out myself, anyway,” Ivy grumbled pridefully. “That’ll be fifty lindra up front, for research costs, and I’ll give you the final charge once I’ve got what you want.”

“Fifty lindra…” Henrietta whispered with shock.

“Fine, but try to keep it under a fortin,” Zack said, pulling out his money bag.

“No promises, but I’ll try,” Ivy agreed, and she swept the money into her own money box, pulled out from under the workbench.

“Any recommendations on what kind of paper to use? I didn’t realize there were so many different kinds…”

“Well, parchment would be the most naturally sturdy,” Ivy replied. “But paper is definitely cheaper, especially if you consider it disposable. Since you’re not treating the paper nor the ink alchemically, you probably just want vimin paper and whatever ink is cheapest.”

“Vimin paper.”

“Yeah.”

Zack turned to Henrietta. “Is that what you normally use? For the posters?”

She nodded. “Yes, I believe so. We have to be careful with the watercolors, and put them up where they won’t get rained on, but the posters last a while.” Roxy nodded in agreement.

“Watercolors? You’re going to paint on the cards?”

Zack nodded. “Yeah, if it’s affordable. I think it should be, and color will matter.”

Ivy pursed her lips. “Tell whoever you buy from that the paints need to be alchemically inert, then. Might as well for the ink, too, just in case. You want totally mundane pigments, or the lam’nate’ll mess it up. Bring me a sample or five to test on as soon as you can.”

With that said, she put on a bright smile again and stuck out her hand. “Pleasure doin’ business with you, Jack!”

Zack’s hand engulfed hers, and he carefully didn’t crush her hand in his own. “Same to you, Ivy.”

With that, they stepped back outside.

“Hey, she didn’t comment on Sienna at all, did she?” Roxy pointed out as they walked away from Ivy’s Alchemical Atrocities.

Sienna’s tongue flicked at Zack’s ear.

“Huh, you’re right. Sienna, what did you think of her?”

Normal woman.

Zack furrowed his brow. Really? Sienna thought the tiny Ivy was normal?

“Uh, Mister Jack, you talk to your snake?” Henrietta asked hesitantly.

“Hm? Yeah.”

“And she talks back to you?”

“That’s how it is with [Familiars],” Roxy answered confidently.

“Oh, okay…”

“Follow me, Jack! I know where Sister Paula normally buys the supplies for the posters.”

Roxy took the lead, pulling Henrietta along by the hand, and took them a few streets over to the edge of the craftsmen’s district where it bled into the slums, and there was a small shop carrying parchment, paper, ink, paints, pens, sticks of charcoal, and brushes.

Basically, a stationary store. Zack introduced himself and Sienna, and once it was made clear that Sienna was his [Familiar], he was able to get down to business.

“Oh, St. Bella’s is doing another project?” the old proprietor said. “Yeah, I got some of the lower ranked vimin paper in the back.”

“It’s a bit different this time,” Henrietta interrupted. To Zack’s mild surprise, the shy girl explained the order, having heard Zack explain it several times by this point.

“...and can you cut the paper to order, too?”

The old man smiled like it was his own granddaughter asking him for a favor. “Of course, of course. A standard sheet will get you about sixty-four sheets of that size, so would you like one or two standard sheets?”

“Uhm, just the one, for now.”

“Alright then. As for the ink, standard will be fine, and the watercolors St. Bella’s normally gets are already alchemically inert, though…” He looked up, eyeing Zack suspiciously. “Why is that a concern now, exactly?”

Roxy answered. “Jack here is a friend of the orphanage, and he had an idea for treating the paper to make it sturdier.”

The man grew even more suspicious and protective. “Oh? I ain’t never heard of any Jack being a friend of St. Bella’s before now…”

“Well, did you hear what happened the other night?”

The old man paled. “The thurgenrats… No, don’t tell me! They made it as far as the orphanage?”

Zack stood back while Roxy told the tale of what had happened with the thurgenrat swarm and how Jack and Sienna had cleared out the swarm and saved all the children and Sister Paula. She notably left out her own role in the story and instead hyped up the Adventurer and the Snake.

“By the Goddess… I hadn’t heard anything… Thank the Goddess for you, Jack, and you, Sienna. It would have broken my heart if, if…”

He sniffed loudly and wetly.

“Oh my, excuse me.”

He retreated to the back of the store out of sight, and there was a loud honking sound as he blew his nose. Then, there was another sniff, followed shortly after by the sounds of chopping and slicing. When he returned a few minutes later, he had a stack of paper in his hands, the size Zack had envisioned.

“Here, take this, Jack.” He thrust the paper forward. “It’s the least I can do.”

Zack frowned, uncomfortable. “No, mister…”

“Edward. But you can call me Ed, Jack. No, I insist on it.” He pushed the paper forward again. Tears were welling up in his eyes again.

Zack sighed softly and took the paper. “Okay, but just this once, Ed. I don’t want to put you out of business later on, if this idea works.”

Ed scoffed. “Please, if thirty-six lindra were enough to put me out of business, I’d be a failure of a merchant.” His face grew deadly seriously. “And that’s nothing compared to a child’s life. Tell me, where were the Cartelones in all this? Why even pay them protection…”

“I saw one of them,” Zack answered. “He was hunting down thurgenrats, too, but there were a lot.”

Ed frowned angrily. “Even so, they should have done more. I’ll have to have words…”

Roxy’s eyes went wide and she shook her head and waved her hands. “Oh, Mister Ed, please don’t. I don’t want to get Jack in trouble or anything.”

“In trouble? He’s practically a [Hero]! The Cartelones should be thanking him!”

Oh, the irony.

“Please, Ed, I’d rather not start anything,” Zack said.

Ed sighed heavily. “If you’re certain. I won’t mention your name.”

Zack smiled. “Thanks.”

“And if you need any more paper or ink or supplies, you come here, alright?” Ed faced Henrietta directly. “I’ve got you covered.”

“Thank you, Mister Edward,” she said softly.

“And don’t worry, Jack. I’ll bill you for it later.”

“Good.”

Zack and Edward shook hands, and they set off in the last hour of sunlight back to Apothecary Row, to visit Kathy Virgrim’s shop and show Henrietta the flower samples.

When they arrived, they found the apothecary seated outside her shop at a small table, taking some late afternoon tea with Zinnie, the witch from the Adventurer’s Guild. Their witch’s hats were pushed back a little, and when Kathy spotted Zack approaching she cocked and eyebrow and set down her teacup elegantly.

“There he is, the slacker. Hey, you! Zinnie says you never passed on my message!”