It's a glorious street. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

As night falls, the natural light is obscured by artificial light, and every part of the place seems to be enveloped in flames. The people who came and went were richly dressed and behaved calmly, and even the attendants and servants wore silk cloaks and tunics, and these precious fabrics reflected a dazzling glow in the golden glow of palm oil and whale oil. All the mansions, facing the street, were colonnades supported by countless thin columns, one after another, either white alabaster pillars supporting multi-colored mosaic arches, or jet-black ebony pillars supporting cascading cedar capitals, so that even if it drizzled, one would not get wet as anyone walked through them.

But the merchants you see here are nothing more than small fish swimming in this vast black water, and although thousands of gold coins flow between their fingers every night, they are only allowed to do ordinary trades - such as silk, wood, sesame oil, ordinary slaves, and so on. From time to time, there are newcomers who accidentally or deliberately make loud noises, accompanied by disgust and irritated eyes, but generally speaking, no one will go against those people because of this, and it is only new people standing here, it is not easy to find a place here, and the thieves and assassins who wander here will soon help them deal with any voices that do not understand the rules.

They trade as if they had met best friends, and if both the buyer and seller wore robes with wide sleeves, they would hold each other's hands in the sleeves and bargain by feeling the flexion of their fingers. The merchants of Grenada sometimes come up with goods at very attractive prices - most of them are looted goods, but for the merchants, the origin of the goods is not their primary concern, how much profit they can make from it, which is why many outside merchants are willing to pay large sums of money in exchange for the qualification to enter the black market, of course, this method is only suitable for buyers and non-Grenada sellers, only merchants who have passed the strict test of Grenada can have the honor of working for Grenada.

A Norman merchant of the Highlands smiled with satisfaction, he bought a shipload of silk for only one-third of the usual price, these silks came from Ceris, he had just paid a hundred gold coins to see the goods, every place produced silk, but only the silk of Seris was the most silky and bright, the heir of the Norman king had been born, and the Norman king held a banquet for this purpose for ninety days, and asked the merchant to bring out a large amount of silk, so that he could wrap the whole royal capital in silk, for the sake of the whole, the silk resources of the Norman capital of the Highlands had dried up, even if the silk was collected at the usual priceHe could keep the gold coins piled up in his room, not to mention that he had only taken out a third of the money he had expected.

But he was not satisfied, and in order to thank Gredi, he needed to welcome the icons and symbols of the great goddess, as well as the slaves, "I also need some ewes with cubs." He said, "Dedicate to the Holy and Wise Mother." ”

The merchant of Grenada looked at him, if it was only the first half of the sentence, the Norman merchant of the Highlands could have gone out and bought from the lord as he pleased, but since he had said that it was all for the mother, then all he needed was a slave, a pregnant slave, "Do you want a black ewe? or a white ewe?"

"Does the mother prefer black ewes, or white ewes?" asked the Norman merchant.

The merchant of Grenada smiled slightly, and waited until a beautiful piece of rhodolite garnet was stuffed in his hand before giving a slow answer: "That noble mother never minded the color of her skin, but her beautiful face and noble status would make her happy. ”

The Norman merchant frowned at once, if it was only a slave, a serf, or a commoner, of course it would not be a big problem, but a beautiful woman of such high status, either from a powerful family or from a family of blood, it would be difficult for him to even enter such a family, let alone take away the mother who was pregnant with her child—he groaned for a moment, and then simply took out a small bag of gold coins.

"I have some pure-blooded ewes here, and some of them have crowns on their heads. The merchant of Grenada laughed and said that Grenada's army had taken them captive from a neighboring principality, and that one of them was the niece of the Grand Duke, and her maids-in-waiting, all the daughters of lords and knights, with skin as delicate as congealed cream, and that they had been mercilessly ravaged on the way back to Grenada, many of whom were pregnant. When they become pregnant, the girls are gathered, given more adequate food and water, and do not have to be insulted again.

It wasn't that the people of Grenada finally had mercy - the Normans of the Highlands were already a pile of loose sand, and the news that the new king had a son had been brought back by the priest of Grenada, and the merchants of Grenada knew that someone would come to buy these expensive goods.

"How many?"

"Fifty. The merchant of Grenada said, their hands clasped together again, and the price quoted by the seller startled the Norman merchant, "This ......" He suddenly bit his tongue, but the scream of surprise had already attracted several malicious glances, and his sweat immediately soaked his back and palms, and the merchant of Grenada pursed his lips in disgust, but he needed this man, so he took the other man's hand, and drew his attention back to himself.

"I might only be able to buy five. The Norman merchant said dejectedly, don't count on the niece of the Grand Duke, her price is the highest.

"If you can come up with what we need," said the merchant of Grenada, "it's okay to exchange it, too." ”

"What do you want?" asked the Norman merchant expectantly.

The merchant of Grenada said the names of several goods in a row, but several of them had not even heard of the merchant whose name was Norman, and he sighed and shook his head, he wanted to trade this goods for a knighthood with the new king, but now it seemed impossible.

"And ...... black iron," whispered the merchant of Grenada, "and what about steel?"

The Norman merchant trembled, of course, the highland Norman has iron ore, so black iron and steel were originally one of the Norman productions, not only the output, but even the quality is also the best in the class, but from the founding of the Norman state, the sale of black iron and steel is not allowed to be written in the laws of the royal capital, and the merchant who dares to sell black iron and steel will have all his belongings confiscated, and then be sentenced to cage punishment, he does not want to stand in the cage and starve to death at all.

But, if not many, the new king did not trust the knights and lords who had been loyal to the old king, and they were stripped of their titles and driven out of the royal capital, and since they were no longer knights, their armor, shields, spears, and broadswords were of course useless, and could be bought at very cheap prices, and he could buy those swords and shields, and then send them to the Highland Norman in the name of scrap antiques or whatever, but he might not have that much time.

"Then let's make a contract. After thinking for a moment, the merchant of Grenada said, "I can allow you to take credit, but you must gather the corresponding black iron and steel within a year." ”

Of course the Norman merchants were willing, but the problem was that everyone knew that Grenada's contract was not established in the temple of Tyre, the god of fairness and justice, and that it was Grenada's red robes that secured this contract, and that every red robe was so wicked and cunning - he did not dare to sign his name on such a contract, maybe it was a contract to sell his soul to the devil?

"If this is still unacceptable to you," said the merchant of Grenada, "then I can only say that the cowardly will always be able to pick up the dregs and garbage." He said contemptuously, and then turned to receive another guest, who had come from the Dragonfire Islands, where he was going to sell cane sugar and beet sugar, and then buy back slaves.

"At least give me a glimpse of the contract I'm going to sign. The Norman merchant pleaded, and the object of his plea took out a piece of parchment from a box and threw it to him, and the Norman merchant was relieved to see that there was still a lot of parchment in the box, and he was relieved that the wicked and terrible contract would not be thrown into an ordinary box so casually, anyway, that evil and terrible contract would not be thrown away in an ordinary box, and he pulled open the parchment that was rolled together. There is no inlay with gold and no depiction of patterns, it looks like a piece of parchment that is similar to the one he used to keep accounts, and the content of the contract on it is also very simple, clear, and the blank part is used to fill in the content, he can understand, although the interest in the contract is very high, but he can only feel more at ease when he sees this, and the sudden kindness of the merchants of Grenada will only make people feel worried.

"How is the Dragonfire Islands now?" asked the merchant of Grenada as if unintentionally, but of course the guest from the Dragonfire Islands knew that if he didn't say anything, he might not be able to appear here next time, and this was part of the deal: "As always," he said respectfully, "it is almost a tradition that there will be fights sometimes, and the lords will always turn against each other." However," he continued: " The most recent war came from the side island, I don't know if you know, the owner of the side island is not on the island, he is a mage, so he recently went out on a tour, but he gave the side island to his friend to manage, it was a Norman, what a strange thing, a Norman, and his soldiers and their dependents became the ruler of that island, by the way, do you have Norman slaves here, they are very rich, every merchant of the Dragonfire Islands has received their call, if a Norman slave is sent to them, they are willing to pay twice the price of a normal slave。 At this point, he paused abruptly and showed a look of remorse: "Maybe I shouldn't have told you the news. ”

"The news is worth a hundred slaves. The merchant of Grenada comforted him, saying, "I will give you the same price as I was, yes, I have some Norman slaves here." ”

And at this time the heart of the Norman merchant standing by had begun to beat wildly, if that was the case, he also had thousands of serfs, if he could exchange them for the principal of the sale, then he could have made a great fortune from the black market of Grenada, and from the Norman king, and then if he needed serfs for his land, he could also buy cheaper and more docile ones from Grenada.

"I can sign this contract," he said slyly, "but I will add one, and if I can't get enough black iron, steel, you will allow me to compensate with gold." ”

The merchant of Grenada seemed a little reluctant, but after sending off the talkative guest, he took ink and a quill and revised and added to the contract. Norman's merchant had been standing by and watching, reassuring that the contract had not changed color or had any other strange happening, and then he looked around, but he didn't see any suspicious red robes, so after hesitating for a moment, he picked up his quill and signed his name at the bottom, he had the intention to make a mistake in one or two letters, but in the end he wasn't sure if he had actually changed it.

He did not immediately return the contract that belonged to the merchant of Grenada, but held it tightly in his hand, and if it changed, as if it suddenly flashed, or became hot, or crackled, he immediately tore it up or burned it on the candle, but nothing changed, and the Norman merchant reluctantly handed over one of them, and carefully placed the other in his robe, "May I see my little ewes?" he said.

"Of course, they're already yours. The merchant in Grenada said that soon a teenager had brought him into the back.

Then a red robe, as if out of the shadows, suddenly appeared beside the merchant of Grenada, and he took the contract, and scanned its contents with contempt, and when his finger touched the parchment, the letters on the parchment twisted and danced, and they recombined and changed into other meanings, and black ink flowed down from it, and it looked like a hideous mouth: "And you are ours." The warlock said to the Norman merchant, who knew nothing, and then he smiled wickedly along with his fellow merchant.

There are many more such contracts.

"If we can get Norman's black iron and steel," said the warlock, "we won't have to stand here dealing with those idiots." ”

"I hope so. The merchant of Grenada said that he saw his former mentor leading some men whose faces and bodies were obscured by hooded cloaks into the deeper part of the temple—the place where greater deals were discussed, and the reward he most hoped for—but not yet, and he told himself the need for calm and patience, though he felt a wave of jealousy gnawing at his chest like a viper. (To be continued.) )