100: Back to the market

"Ron Weasley—" I performed a standard wizard's bow in front of the bronze mirror, the sunlight from outside the window casting dappled shadows on the freckled youth's face.

The name of this character, once seen in a certain fantasy film series, now became real with the tremor of mist in my throat.

Aside from his hair color, the young man in front of me was seventy to eighty percent similar in appearance to that young actor.

Currently, only Old Hather, Randall, John, George, Bore, and Ever, a total of six people, knew that I was Lord Lion Black.

The west side of Feld's Inn, unlike the noisy front entrance on the east, was a quiet, deserted small forest.

The inn's west wall seeped the musty smell peculiar to cellars, and dust-laden spiderwebs clung to the hinges of the secret door.

As John's leather boot crushed half a beetle, the crisp sound of a drunkard smashing an earthenware pot came from the tavern on the east side.

The dampness on the edge of George's cloak was from the snow he'd picked up in the snow before changing clothes that morning.

After John and George covered their faces with their hoods, they were the first to exit through the secret door.

When the second hoot of a night owl pierced the dry branches, John, outside the secret door, raised his finger and waved it outwards.

The muscles beneath Randall's chainmail suddenly tensed; as he bent down, his shoulder armor scraped the doorframe, his tall figure struggling somewhat to pass through the narrow frame.

Twelve paces away, a broken beech tree lay across the ground, and a raven lurking in the pile of decaying leaves suddenly lifted its head.

The westward sunlight cast a shadow behind Randall on the snow, which was twisting and expanding.

I entered stealth mode, and the Qiankun Ring simultaneously released a wisp of energy, adding a second layer of invisibility, my boot precisely embedding itself into the snow pit Randall had just left.

Bore and Ever quietly closed the secret door, walking last, and used pre-prepared brooms to sweep away the footprints left by the six of us in the snow.

The six of us split into three shadowy groups, walking in batches from the southwest of the small forest onto the deserted street.

As we passed the main road of the town center, which ran north-south in front of Feld's Inn, I saw quite a few people still gathered at the inn's entrance, discussing topics about Lord Lion Black.

Following the south city wall eastward, brushing past scattered groups of people, after about fifteen minutes, we arrived at the market outside the city.

According to Old Hather, ten years ago, Gorebest's Midwinter Festival market was outside the North Gate, but in recent years, with more and more merchant caravans coming from the land of Amn to the south, the market naturally moved outside the South Gate.

Although Amn had only been established as a nation for a little over two years, commerce in that land was already very developed before it formed a country.

On our plot of land, the side facing the street was already cordoned off with cloth to block the view.

From deep within the distant forest came a continuous sound of axes, as laborers with Gorebest accents were felling trees; these were the local laborers hired by Old Hather.

Huge tree trunks, stripped of branches and leaves, were neatly stacked on the west side of our plot of land.

According to our prior planning, the workers were already prioritizing the construction of stables.

Near the street, our caravan was setting up its tents in front of the cloth wall.

Seeing everyone busy and organized, I appeared in an unnoticed corner, calling Randall to join me, to first accompany John and George for shopping, and then I would return to build the wooden house after the workers had left.

Of the eleven tents to the north, only two were from the north: one was a fish merchant from Gray Harbor, and the other was a horse merchant from Sobar.

The only large wooden house belonged to the Seven Suns Trading Coster from Baldur's Gate.

The remaining nine were all merchant guilds from Amn.

The merchants at this temporary market primarily engaged in large-scale wholesale trade among themselves, and also provided a small quantity of retail goods to local customers. After the Midwinter Festival, everyone would leave with large quantities of purchased goods and orders for the new year.

Local merchants, taking advantage of the good weather today, also set up some stalls in the gaps between the tents.

Feld's Inn only displayed an advertisement sign by the roadside.

The Red Scroll Inn and the Burning Mage Inn had stalls selling drinks and meals.

There were also some local clothing stores, leather goods stores, bookstores, bakeries, general stores, hunters, and so on.

As well as artisans: tailors, tinkers, blacksmiths, and armorers, etc.

Although most of the caravans had not yet arrived, the current scale was already quite lively.

We walked around the entire market, getting a general understanding of the trade forms and types of goods available here.

Here, one could either purchase with coins or barter.

John and George bought many new clothes, bread, and other agricultural products for their families.

I lent them each a carriage so they could load their things and go home early.

Watching them drive away, I also went to a bookstall and bought a pile of books; Randall helped me carry most of them.

After confirming the bookstore's address, we returned to our plot of land.

Everyone's tents were already set up.

After dinner, the laborers also left.

I went to the opposite side of the road, where I had someone apply for a small plot of land that afternoon.

I had people move many three to four-meter-long logs from the convoy, and Sphere Professor and I cast Mage Hand, working with the pits drilled by Dragon King in the ground, to begin building a small wooden house for recruitment.

About twenty minutes later, a three-by-four-meter wooden house was completed.

The wooden house was over 5 meters from the road, and a queuing passage was enclosed between the road and the wooden house using branches and ropes.

Then, several wooden signs were erected by the roadside, with pre-written recruitment notices in common language, elvish, and Halfling.

The main content was to recruit salespeople, promoters, business stewards, accountants, errand runners, warehouse managers, stablehands, cooks, bartenders, waiters, cashiers, etc., for "Black Panther Commerce."

Positions such as security guards and escorts were not listed; for security work, besides our own military force, I planned to entrust everything else to Flame Fist.

The Flame Fist mercenary group was established in DR 1300 by 10 high-ranking military officers, including Grand Duke Iltan, in Baldur's Gate, with Grand Duke Iltan serving as Marshal.

It has a history of 35 years to date.

Flame Fist has a clear military rank system, such as Flame Fist (private), Iron Hand (corporal), Elite Guard (sergeant), Blazing Flame (lieutenant), Fuel Flame (major), etc.

According to Randall and Old Hather's accounts, the current Flame Fist is disciplined, upright, and fair, and is in a period of actively expanding its business.

The current Flame Fist mercenary group has a good reputation in Baldur's Gate, Gorebest, and other places.

They have become local peacekeepers, and when facing external threats, they act as defenders.

Old Hather sent someone to say that the highest-ranking officer of the local Flame Fist, Commander Kovenreid Fuel Flame, would come to Feld's Inn to meet me tomorrow afternoon.