Chapter 5 5

The city in which we lived was divided into three parts: the first - the area of ​​the poor, yesterday's slaves and visitors. It was inhabited by second-class people, like me and my family. The second part is located on the opposite bank of the river, closer to the sea and the port. The land there belonged to richer people, local and guild artisans, who were members of the city guilds, lived there.

Also there lived the guards and the aristocracy close to the local authorities, who watched from their residences as their few merchant ships with slaves and other nonsense arrived in our port town on the edge of the world.

The third piece of land that united us all was just this small island, erected by one of the past rulers as the only open trade zone in the city. Neither of the two parties had the right to build fairs or start street trading on their territory. Everyone and everything was obliged to conduct transactions on the market square. It sounded good, but in fact, only remnants arrived from the port area and the ships that brought everything necessary for ordinary people to our region. The best wood, silks and steel, along with the slaves, settled in the port, while we got only scraps, rotten, lame and crippled, which, in turn, made competition between the guild artisans and ours virtually impossible. The only thing we could answer the nobility with was the amount of goods produced and the best horses,

As one of the first arrivals, we settled in one of the best, as Sigrid said, places, namely in the center, not far from the scaffold, where demonstration executions were held in the city, slave auctions and public meetings, where representatives of the free city brought out the revealed them problems

The traffic here was one of the best, which means that the chance to sell the blanks prepared by the mother is much higher. First, unloading all their goods, and then turning the cart over, the girls laid out the goods they had brought with them on the bottom of the overturned transport. Shovels, pitchforks, axes, hoes, hammers, arrowheads and other rubbish: from failed forks to some kind of steel cans. Everything was here, in principle, as in the tent of our direct competitors, as if to evil, located just twenty meters from us. A real trading tent unfolded within an hour, after which a nice-looking showcase was brought and put up. The woman who stood at the counter was also not one of the simple hard workers: well-dressed, a pleasant voice and a pretty face seemed to attract her, but her condescending tone in communicating with the peasants had the opposite effect,

In the conduct of local affairs, I was, to put it mildly, not very good. Their terms, jargon were outlandish for me, as well as reactions to the same threats or insults. The only thing I could boast of was the ability to read emotions, hidden desires that surfaced on the faces of those I met. This skill was honed by me from the first moment of appearance in society to the last. The ability to predict the words and actions of an opponent was an indisputable advantage, using which a manipulator like me could calmly spread his own threads, pulling which I could control the situation that reigned around.

It was pointless to learn something from their narrow-minded sisters. The merchants of them are even more mediocre than I am, besides, for all the years of living in this city, they somehow managed not to acquire regular customers, connections and true friends, this alone led to a sad thought. Having quickly figured out the exchange rate and significance of the local currency, in the aisles of my sisters' visibility, I began to look for something to entertain myself with. I always have time to cut a couple of bags of silver from the poor fellows scurrying past, and besides, I did not feel much love for such a low occupation. I am a conscientious person, and rarely compromise my own principles, and besides, rather than stealing from the poor is stupid, isn't it better to borrow from those who are richer?

In addition, a competitor with a decent store and an experienced worker in the person of the seller turned out so well here, although, alas, that one, alas, turned out to be not without a flaw. The judgment about her aristocratic roots turned out to be erroneous, the hard worker was from the servants of the upper strata of society. Forgetting the place from which she got out not so long ago, she allowed herself too many liberties in relation to citizens below her in status. Rudeness is an unacceptable mistake in dealing with people, and I simply had to teach the arrogant girl a lesson.

So fortunately the first sewn "woe to the customer" fell under the arm. The poor fellow who came for arrowheads was sent in a mild form. In appearance, the peasant woman was not even offended, but in her eyes ... They did not lie - the woman was angry and at the same time helpless.

"Miss hunter, stop!" - Allowing her to move away from the competitor's shop, I called out to her with a smile on my face, not forgetting to wave my hand.

- Madam? - The woman repeated after me incomprehensibly, and then, smiling with her toothless smile, she asked: - Is it you for me?

Her tired, dirty and wrinkled face spoke directly of status and mental abilities. A simpleton, far from the city's intricacies, with a look embittered at the whole wide world - that's who she was.

All that this woman knew was such words as: work, food, home, well, entertainment, and therefore an appropriate approach was needed for her. Poor people are suspicious, moreover, they often consider themselves smarter than others. It was necessary to communicate with her at a level that slightly exceeded her development, not to play up and try to be as straightforward as possible, thereby relieving the target of the feeling of a hidden threat.

- Well, of course, from the crowd I noticed your stately image, you certainly shoot excellently with this wonderful bow. - Pointing a finger at a curved piece of wood behind her back, in a hurry pushing passers-by and approaching, I said.

Satisfied with the compliment, the woman cackled, and then, looking around me, answered with some suspicion:

"Mistress, I am only for the brood of pigs that graze in my paddock. What do you want, boy?

– Forgive me for distracting you, I know hunters are busy people, – Slightly embarrassed, showing fear from such a sharp answer, I began to back away. I just wanted to suggest...

It was the word "Offer" that intrigued her the most. She was an old woman in a world where there were fewer men and they were the weaker sex. She understood that if I offered myself, she wouldn't have enough money for the night with me, but she still didn't refuse to talk with the frightened young man, and she herself decided to continue our conversation.

"Sorry if I scared you, I'm not out of malice, it's rare that such handsome men pester me on the street. Winking, and then smiling again, she said. - What do you want?

"I heard you needed tips. - Still showing my indecision, I added. My sisters have...

- Oh, tips, then. Well, let's go and see what's there. She said slightly disappointed.

Sigrit, who was picking her teeth with a knife, was very surprised when I brought her my first customer. Watching her brother speak on business and without, the warrior, who quickly lost the essence of the story, tried to put in her five cents, but we were not up to it with the respected hunter Linda, nicknamed Beer Barrel. The woman, paying absolutely no attention to the sisters, cheerfully poisoned me with hunting tales when I poured the tips that had time to become covered with rust.