Chapter 86: Fragile Alliance

The White Sugar Trade was discussed in Su Lun’s Lord’s Castle. Early the next morning, managers from eight merchant guilds arrived together.

Chris lazily sat on the sofa in the host’s seat. Her charming style made several guild managers stare blankly, and some caravan managers behaved even worse.

“Ahem!” Fernand, who recovered first, saw the others’ embarrassing states and reminded them with a dark face.

The others felt somewhat awkward when they snapped back to reality, but as seasoned veterans, their faces were thick enough. They continued talking as if nothing had happened.

“Welcome, caravan representatives, to our Northguard Keep. The conditions are simple, so please bear with us,” Chris said with a smile.

“We have five hundred jin of white sugar to sell this time…”

“Five hundred jin of white sugar is quite a lot. How will the transaction and pricing work?” Fernand nodded and spoke. Without waiting for Chris to answer, he continued, “We can take all these goods. After discussing, we can offer you a high price.”

His expression seemed to suggest they had already decided the other side had to accept.

Chris picked up the teacup on the table and took a small sip, showing no particular reaction. This situation was already anticipated by Su Lun, and they had even discussed the solution beforehand.

Seeing Chris show no response, Fernand thought they had silently agreed. He continued in the same tone, “Your town is too far from Karlt City. The cost of coming here each time is very high, so you need to give us a discount on the price. Of course, we will also offer you some compensation. If your town needs any goods, we can help transport them here. The price is negotiable.”

“Our eight merchant guilds control sixty percent of the trade in Karlt City. We have enough strength to meet your requirements.”

“Oh, so what price do you think is suitable for the white sugar?” Chris asked with a hint of mockery at the corner of her mouth.

Fernand and the others exchanged glances, feeling secretly pleased. They thought, “As expected of country nobles, these bumpkins. As soon as we show our strength, they give up directly.”

“Ahem, we discussed it. Eighty-five Gold Nar per jin of white sugar is a suitable price,” Owen beside him spoke up.

Chris did not answer but looked at the other caravan managers. None of the others spoke up.

“Very well, I understand your meaning,” Chris nodded, then put down the teacup. “However, we have a better way.”

She stood up and said with a smile, “This batch of five hundred jin of white sugar will be divided into five portions. Managers of each guild can bid. But this time, we will use a sealed bid auction.”

“Each of you has a card on your table. Write your price on the card and hand it to me. Finally, we will choose the five caravans with the highest prices for the transaction. As for the three caravans with the lowest prices, we apologize—you made the trip for nothing.” Chris played with a small whip with her fair, jade-like fingers, speaking with a smile.

“Oh, and a reminder—you only have one chance,” she said, playfully blinking her eyes, then calmly returned to her seat.

“Impossible! We will never agree to use this method for the transaction! Never!” As soon as Chris finished speaking, the previously elegant Fernand could not help but shout.

As the manager of the largest merchant guild in Karlt City, the price he set had always been the final word, and no one had ever dared to oppose him. He never expected to be tripped up in this remote, backward place today.

“Mr. Fernand, are you dissatisfied with our arrangement?” Chris said with a smile, but her tone was like a cold wind from the far northern Wasteland, sending chills down one’s spine.

“Uh…” Looking at Chris’s flower-like beautiful face, Fernand opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.

“Does anyone else have an opinion? You may leave now.” Chris looked around, exuding a sense of pressure. The air in the living room became unusually heavy. After waiting for a while, no one stood up to leave.

“It seems no one has any objections. Then let’s begin. Write your prices on the cards. In a moment, we will have someone collect them.” Seeing no one leave, Chris let out a light laugh and returned to her seat.

The eight caravan managers exchanged glances, then forced polite smiles and picked up their pens to write their prices on the cards. However, it was not easy to decide on a price. If they wrote too low, and the other guilds wrote high prices, they might end up making the trip for nothing. If they wrote too high, they felt somewhat unwilling. So, these people hesitated and did not start writing immediately.

Chris leisurely watched the merchants’ troubled expressions, feeling immense admiration in her heart for the bidding method her master Su Lun had devised. With just a sealed bid auction, he easily shattered the alliance of these eight merchant guilds.

The sealed bid method prevented these people from having a chance to unite. Moreover, it had another advantage: those guilds that were originally intimidated by the Flamingo Guild’s influence and dared not compete with them now had no reservations at all.

About fifteen minutes later, several Barbarian girls came in and collected all the sealed bids from the merchants. Chris picked up these bids and began reviewing them.

Chris did not announce the results directly. Instead, she asked all the guild managers to return and wait for news, then left the living room with the sealed bids.

“Owen, how much did you write?” one caravan manager asked, pretending to be nonchalant.

“Eighty-five Gold Nar. We agreed to give them this price, and it cannot change!” Owen said with unusual firmness.

“Robert, what about you?”

“Of course, I firmly support the price we agreed on earlier! Not even one Copper Nale more.” Robert spoke with righteous conviction, his expression like that of a Knight expressing loyalty to the King during a knighthood ceremony.

“Right, we should unite and not let these bumpkins take advantage!” another caravan manager said loudly.

Hearing these words, Fernand nodded secretly, thinking that this time it was secure.

…

After the caravan managers left, Chris began reviewing their sealed bids. The highest bid was one hundred eighty Gold Nar. Chris saw that it was from Owen of the Violet Flower Guild. The second highest was Robert, with one hundred seventy-eight Gold Nar.

The lowest bid was one hundred twenty Gold Nar, more than double the eighty-five Gold Nar they had mentioned earlier.

The lowest price among the top five guilds was one hundred seventy-three Gold Nar, and the average price was about one hundred seventy-five Gold Nar. This batch of five hundred jin of white sugar would sell for at least over a hundred thousand Gold Nar.