Merchant Crab-Chapter 211: Relaying

Night had quickly crept up on the bazaar by the time the archer and the baker entered it. Druma walked around, lighting the iron lanterns of the trading post at the crab’s request as everyone else started gathering around a large table.

Balthazar felt hesitant. He knew telling his closest friends the truth was the right thing to do, but that did not mean it was the easiest. It rarely was.

Back in the early days the choice was simple. He had no one close enough to trust, so he told no one about the Scroll of Character Creation and how he somehow gained access to the world’s system that was meant for adventurers only.

Later, when he made some friends, he still felt it was better to leave the subject alone. How would he explain it? Not even he really understood it. What good would it bring? If anything, it might lead them to reject him or be afraid of him. That wouldn’t have been good. For business, of course.

But now? Rye was right. Keeping secrets from those so close to him, after everything they had been through, just wasn’t right. Balthazar had no doubt they trusted him, so it wouldn’t be fair of him not to trust them back. As a merchant, he knew the value of a fair trade.

Still no clue how I’m going to explain it, but I guess I will do it like I do almost everything else—I’ll improvise.

“Hey, Balthazar?” Rye said in a hushed tone, approaching the crab away from the others. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

After making sure they were out of earshot of their friends, who were taking their seats at the table and chatting among themselves, the young man turned his concerned gaze to Balthazar.

“You know how I told you I was going to tell Madeleine about how I learned I’m not from this world and all that?”

The crab nodded. “Yes. How did that go?”

“That’s the thing. It didn’t.”

The merchant’s eyestalks frowned. “Huh? Did you get cold feet at the last minute and didn’t tell her? Because if you convinced me to do this and now it turns out you—”

“No,” Rye interrupted. “I did tell her. Everything! I told her about the tea and how it made me realize things I did not know before. That I am not from this world. That I came from somewhere else, but can’t remember my previous life. How there’s this system that we adventurers all have. The levels, skills. All of it.”

“And?” Balthazar asked, curiosity bubbling up in him.

“She… couldn’t seem to understand it.”

The crab’s eyestalks curved again, this time in slight annoyance at the adventurer.

“Are you calling Madeleine dumb?”

Rye’s brow shot up.

“No! No, of course not! What I meant is that none of what I told her seemed to faze her or register. It was like…” The young man paused and stared emptily at the floor for a moment. “It was like she was me when my mind was still fogged up by the system.”

Balthazar rubbed his chin in thought. “But I thought that stuff only applied to adventurers. Madeleine is just a local.”

“Hey, you boys coming or what?” the smiling baker called from the table.

“You will see,” Rye whispered to the crab as he walked to his seat.

Feeling even less confident about that whole ordeal, Balthazar made his way to his seat at the head of the table.

Everyone else had already taken their seats. Tristan in a chair with Henrietta sitting on the table next to him, Madeleine and Rye sitting next to each other on the other side. Druma was sitting cross-legged nearby on a pile of hay, both hands firmly planted down on his ankles, a big grin on his face as he eagerly waited for his boss to speak. Blue was a few paces to his left, laying on one of her many fluffy cushions, a lazy and bored look in her gaze.

As he hopped onto the stool, the crab let out a “brr” and shivered as a cold breeze from the outside passed through the open portions of the gazebo.

“Are you alright, Balthazar?” Madeleine asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just the cold hitting me harder this season. I must be getting old.”

“Oh…” the girl muttered, her brow knitting in quiet worry.

“Uh, anyway… Thank you for joining me here tonight,” the merchant said, struggling to find a way to start.

“Of course, partner!” exclaimed Tristan, a good-natured grin plastered across his face. “We’re so glad to have you back! Henrietta and I worked hard to keep your business going while you were away, but now that the merchant crab himself is back in his bazaar, I’m sure business will start booming even more!”

“Ah, yes,” Balthazar awkwardly answered. “I suppose between all the chaos of our arrival and the eruption I forgot to thank you both, but now that—”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all!” the older man quickly said. “We both have enjoyed it so very much. Personally, I’m just glad to be back to being a merchant. I didn’t know how much I missed it until you gave me a chance, partner.”

The crab nodded along as the man spoke. Displays of appreciation were still not one of his fortes.

“Right. And as for why I asked you here tonight—”

“Oh, yes, yes! Sorry, I was getting carried away,” Tristan exclaimed, reaching down into a satchel on the floor next to his and rummaging through it. “I swear I have them right here, just one second…”

Balthazar cocked and eyestalk at the former drunkard. “You swear you have… what?”

“The documents,” the other said, retrieving a large folder from his bag and placing several scrolls and papers on the table in front of the crab. “Reports, ledgers, inventory lists. Everything we logged during your time away. I figured that’s what this meeting was about, right? You wanted us to report and get you up to speed on everything to do with the business?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The merchant glanced down at the documents in front of him. He was all about business, but he had never been one to keep documentation, mostly preferring to keep it all in his trusty thinking box. That and because using a pen with pincers wasn’t really an option for him.

“That wasn’t really what I—” Balthazar glanced down at the papers. “Oh. Oh, wow. These are very thorough. Is this how many trades we made while I was away? You logged each transaction?”

“Of course!” Tristan said, his chest swelling. “Recordkeeping was one of my favorite hobbies back before… you know.”

The crustacean held a piece of paper in each pincer, his eyes going between those and another one on the table, his mouth half open.

“This… This is all very impressive work, Tristan.”

“If you check the next document, you will also see we went through all of the bazaar’s wares and underwent a full reorganization of the inventory in a way that maximizes the selling potential with browsing clients.”

“Huh. So that’s why I couldn’t find any hats to wear earlier.” Balthazar asked.

“Hats?” said Madeleine. “I’ve never seen you wearing a hat.”

“Well, I couldn’t wear them before. Now I can.”

The baker tilted her head, puzzled. “You can? How come?”

“I… Well, about that…” The crab piled the papers together and passed them to Tristan. “Here. I’ll definitely have a look through those later, but this was not the reason I called you guys here.”

“It wasn’t?!” the other merchant said, his cheeks jiggling with surprise.

“No. I wanted to talk about something else.”

“Oh no…” muttered Madeleine. “Please don’t tell me this is about the market spot.”

The crab turned his attention to the baker. “What are you talking about?”

Madeleine’s eyes darted between Balthazar and Tristan. “I-I thought he told you.”

In turn, Balthazar’s gaze jumped between her and Tristan. “Told me what?!”

“Err, it’s my bad, partner,” the human merchant sheepishly said, lowering his head. “I may have forgotten to mention it.”

“Mention what?!” the irked crustacean said.

“It’s nothing terrible, don’t worry!” said Madeleine, waving both hands in front of her chest. “It’s just that when I went back up to Ardville, I found out that my usual spot on the market where I sell my baking was now occupied by someone else. A young girl selling flowers. She was actually so nice and—”

“You rented Madeleine’s market spot?!” Balthazar exclaimed in outrage, glaring at Tristan with indignation.

The spot in Ardville’s market had been a gift from Balthazar months prior, after Antoine had tried to upset the crab by making his baker’s life difficult through ludicrous rent prices. It had cost him a considerable sum, but given who it was for, it had been a purchase the merchant did not regret. The baked returns on the investment were more than worth it to him.

“It was only a temporary thing, partner!” Tristan said, his eyes widening with a pleading expression. “Miss Madeleine was gone for a while and the maintenance costs from the town offices for her market spot were piling up. So I figured it would be best to just rent it to someone else until she returned, to make some money to cover them.”

“Please don’t get mad at Tristan!” the young woman pleaded. “I totally understand why he needed to do it. I was gone for months. He was looking after your investment, Balthazar!”

The crab let his carapace relax back down onto his seat as his flaring outrage subsided.

“Alright, fine. I get it. Paying out of pocket for a spot nobody was using would have been a waste of coin. But now that Madeleine is back, you will just have to kick whoever is using it out of there.”

Tristan nodded, his head still slightly bent down in shame. “I will take care of it first thing in the morn—”

“No, you will not!” the baker interjected with determination in her tone.

The two merchants turned to her with surprised expressions.

“I mean…” she continued, her cheeks blushing as she shrank slightly in her seat. “I met the flower girl renting the spot earlier. She’s a nice young lady who is just trying to help her mother pay for food since her father fell ill. I would not feel right kicking her out of the spot. Tristan rented her that turf for a fair value that I doubt she could find anywhere else on the market, so I will not let her lose her livelihood because of me. I will… figure something else out.”

“But…” Balthazar started. “What about your baking business? You need somewhere to sell your goods too!”

The young woman whipped her blonde braid back and crossed her arms.

“I just told you. I will figure something out. Later. You didn’t bring us all here to discuss my business, did you?”

After a muttered groan, the crab gave her an affirmative grunt.

“No, I did not,” he said. “In fact, what I wanted to talk to you about is a lot more serious.”

Henrietta, who had been sitting on the edge of the table next to Tristan that whole time, her eyes darting between everyone while listening quietly, finally spoke up, her voice croaking higher than she likely intended.

“Is this about the witch?! Did you find where she is?”

Balthazar’s eyestalks stood to attention at the toad’s sudden exclamation. She had clearly been holding that in since they sat down.

“Uhm, no… Sorry,” the crab replied hesitantly. “Still no idea where Velvet went after fleeing Marquessa.”

The look of sad disappointment on the amphibian’s face made him feel an uncomfortable tinge of guilt. It was the same as when he told her soon after his return home that while they had encountered the evil witch who put a curse on her, she had escaped before Balthazar could find out anything about reversing it.

“Don’t worry, Hetty,” said Tristan, offering her a smile as he gently patted one of her front limbs with his hand. “If someone can find a way to turn you back into a human, it’s Balthazar. I have no doubt about it.”

The former innkeeper returned his smile, hers being far… toadier.

“I know, I know. For now, I’ll just have to be content with knowing that vile witch has lost her charm thanks to Balthazar. What I wouldn’t give to have seen her wrinkly face when it happened!”

The crab cleared his throat, trying to move on with the meeting for the umpteenth time that evening.

“Right, so, about why I brought you all here tonight for this small meeting…”

“Wait, is this supposed to be a meeting of The Pie Council?!” Tristan suddenly exclaimed. “Fiddlesticks! I should have worn a tie! Are Tom, the orcs, or the lizardfolk coming to join us too?”

“What?! No, this has nothing to do with that or with them.” Balthazar smacked the back of his pincer against his face in frustration. “Will you guys just let me speak?!”

The other merchant lowered his gaze to the table and muttered a “sorry” under his breath as he slumped his shoulders. Everyone else remained quiet as well, except for Blue, who let out a long yawn from her cushion as she lazily glared down at the group.

Now that everyone had gone quiet, Balthazar realized how unprepared he was.

How do I even start explaining this?

“I…” he started, hesitating under the stares from his friends.

Nice, Balthazar. Really showing off those speech and charisma skills.

“Well? What is this about?” said Henrietta. “I’m starting to get worried here.”

“No, it’s nothing bad. It’s… you know adventurers, right?”

Madeleine glanced at the archer next to her. “Well… yes?”

“Right. And you know how they are… different from everyone else? They have this… thing about them that… This…”

Frustrated, Balthazar threw his pincers down onto the table.

Ah, hell. Just come out and say it! He thought.

Taking a deep breath, the giant crab straightened himself up on his seat and faced his closest friends with a fierce look of determination in his eyes.

“I… I have a system!”