値引き交渉と初乗り
「だーから、まとめて三頭買うんだからもっとまけてくれって言ってんの!」
「駄目だ! これ以上安く売ったら俺がカミさんにどやされちまう!」
結論から言うと、俺達は競りには参加しなかった。
ならどうしたかといえば、買い手が付かなかった売り手の所へ突撃。
競りに関しては、肉質を調べるために棒でラクダを叩きながら大声で値段を宣言するという俺達にとっては中々に刺激的なやり方だった。
予想通り、食用の取引が盛んで乗用は少な目。
取引を済ませた業者や買い手は、その足でラクダを連れてあちこちに去っていく。
何でも、今日は買い手に比べて売り手が多過ぎたらしく全体の値段が安め。
そのせいか、競りが終わっても俺と同じ様に個別に交渉している売り手と買い手がちらほら見受けられる。
この状況を利用して、なるべく安くラクダを手に入れたいところ。
というのも、売り手側としても、ここまでラクダを連れてくるのはタダじゃない。
餌代も掛かるし、聞けば遠方からここまで売りに来ている者も居るそうな。
なので、輸送には結構な費用が掛かっている。
更に明日以降も市場に出す場合、滞在費用に加えて出品料を新たに払わなければならない。
売り手としては、早く売れるに越したことはないわけだ。
俺達の予算は五人で200,000G。
今日の市場の平均価格は調教済みの乗用ラクダが一頭70,000Gで、普段はもう少し高いそうだ。
そのまま五頭買って合計すると350,000Gだから......足りないね?
ちなみにログイン直前にトビが調べたところロバが平均50,000Gで、馬はなんと1,000,000Gからだそうだ。まさに桁違い。
「なら五頭だ! あんたの手持ちを全部買うからもう一声、頼む! 五頭で
まあ、最初から五頭連れている売り手を狙ったんだがね!
三頭分の値段で地道に粘ってからの、全頭買いの提示。
男の表情が緩んだのを見て、こちらに流れが来ていることを確信する。
先程も言ったように、売れるのが延びるだけ相手は損をする可能性が増える。
そのため、上手く行けば在庫を残さず売り切れると思えば、向こうも多少の無茶を聞いてくれる可能性が上昇。
特に目の前の男のように、遠方から来ていそうな民族風の服を着ている者は狙い目だ。
いよいよ大詰めだ。
恐らくこれで200,000G以内に収まるかどうかが決まる。
男の顔が悩むように苦し気なものになる。
......どうだ? 交渉決裂か、それとも......?
「..................すぅぅ......ふぅー。切りよく200,000Gだ! それ以上は本当に無理だ! まからん!」
「――買ったぁ!」
しゃあっ! 買った、というか勝ったぞ!
男は頭をポリポリと掻いて「やっちまったかな」という顔をしているが、もう遅い。
今更、やっぱり無しは駄目だぜ?
男の気が変わらない内に支払いを済ませ、ごそっと渡されたラクダの手綱を纏めて受け取る。
「はあぁぁ......兄ちゃん、若いのにやるなぁ。小綺麗な神官服なんて着てっから、カモだと思ったんだけどなぁ......」
「ははっ、あんがとさん。でも、オッサンも良い仕事してるぜ。このラクダ達、大人しい割に手綱にちゃんと反応して立つし、満足行く買い物をしたよ」
「ああ、素直な奴らに育てたつもりだ。可愛がってやってくれ」
ラクダは調教時に酷く暴れるらしく、しつけが非常に難しいのだそうな。
なので食用よりも遥かに高いわけだが、まあそれは仕方ない。
こいつらは鞍も付いているし、直ぐに使えそうなので助かる。
交渉が思ったよりも長引いてしまった。
取引に五人揃っている必要はないので、他の面子は出発準備でアイテム補充。
俺がラクダを連れて集合場所に行くと、既に全員が揃って――って、こっちだって! 曲がれ!
よしよし、調教済みで大人しいとはいえ、さすがに五頭も引っ張ってくるのは大変だ。
しかし、何とも眠そうな顔だ......見ていると俺まで力が抜けていくような気がする。
この顔を見ていると、シエスタちゃんを思い出すな。
彼女、元気にしているだろうか?
「すっげー! わっち、本当に二十万で収めたの!? ぱねえ!」
「わっち......? それとトビ君、口調が......」
「あ......ごほん! ハインド殿、グッジョブ! でござる!」
五頭のヒトコブラクダを連れている俺を見て、トビが喜びの声を上げる。
セレーネさんがトビの口調と俺への呼び方に引っ掛かりを覚えているが、それはそれとして。
「じゃあ、一人一頭ということで、順番に受け取れぃ。ほい、ほい、ほい」
「交渉お疲れ様だ、ハインド。――おおっ、でかいなラクダ!」
「確かに大きいですねぇ......」
全員に一本ずつ手綱を渡していく。
女性陣は思いの外サイズのあるラクダに少し腰が引けているが、気性が穏やかなので心配する必要はない。
ラクダの体長は約三メートル、体高が約二メートルと近くで見ると殊更に迫力がある。
最後にセレーネさんに手綱を渡したところで、何故か俺を気遣うように見てくる。
「ハインド君、本当に大丈夫だった? 私はまだお金に余裕があるんだし、言ってくれれば......」
「さっきも言いましたけど、そういうのは良くありませんよ。俺達はセレーネさんと対等な関係を築きたいわけですから、お金のことはしっかりしておかないと。ちゃんと予算内で全員分買えたのですから、もう気にしないで下さい」
鍛冶で一財産を稼いだセレーネさんは、俺達の中で最も金持ちだ。
ラクダの購入費用に関して、自分だけ多めに出す事を提案してくれたのだが、俺はその申し出を断った。
値段交渉には自信があったし、やっぱりこういうときは平等に負担しないとな。
今回の予算の大部分は、盗賊の頭領を捕まえたことによる褒賞金だ。
これは五人の共同作業の結果得た報酬なので、何も問題はない。
「......本当に出来た人だよね、ハインド君は。時々、私よりも年上に思えちゃう」
「そ、そういうストレートな褒め言葉は、ちと恥ずかしいですが......」
この人、良い意味でも悪い意味でもすれてないんだよな。
言葉に飾り気がなくて、素直に感情が伝わってくるから対応に困る。
いつもの三人とだとアホみたいな話ばっかりだからなぁ。
俺が照れていると、その三人のアホが同時に邪悪な笑みを浮かべた。嫌な予感。
「年上というか、私の同級生が実はこいつの中身はオッサンなのではないか? と言っていたぞ」
「小さい頃、私のお友達がハインドさんを間違ってお父さんと呼んでいました。あ、他の子はお母さんとも」
「ウチのクラスでは、女子が何故かハインド殿にばかり恋愛相談を」
「お前等なぁ! セレーネさんに褒められた嬉しさがどっかに消えていったぞ! どうしてくれる!?」
「あ、あはは......」
というか、ユーミルの発言が一番ショッキングだった。
オッサンって......まだ十代なのに......。
さて、気を取り直して。
橋がある側の街の出口まで進み、ここからいよいよラクダへ乗ることになる。
出口の少し先までラクダを引っ張っていき、谷に近付き過ぎない位置で俺達は初乗りを開始した。
足を折り畳んで座っていたラクダに跨ると、前足から先に立ち上がり、体が後ろに放り出されそうになる。
「アハハハハ! こわっ、こわぁああ! ハハハハハ!」
おかしな状態になっているユーミルの声を聞きつつ、落ちない様に踏ん張る。
今度は後ろ足を持ち上げ、前傾姿勢になった後にようやく水平状態になった。
おお、力強い......そして視界が――
「たかっ......!」
「おおー、これは中々に......」
「背が高くなった気分ですね。気持ちいい」
「思ったよりも座り心地が良いかも。コブが柔らかい」
そのまま各自、暫くは軽く乗る練習に移る。
互いにぶつからないように、ラクダに乗って近場をウロウロと歩く。
ゲームだし、多少は乗りやすいように簡略化されてはいるだろうけど......。
「ゆ、揺れる......物凄く揺れる......」
ラクダの歩き方は独特で、前後左右に結構揺れる。
慣れればいけるかもしれないけど......これは体調が悪いと酔うな、気を付けないと。
みんなは大丈夫かと様子を見ると、ユーミルだけが青い顔をしてラクダから降りていた。
近付いて俺もラクダから降り、背中をさすってやる。
「だ、大丈夫か?」
「ウプ......だ、だいじょうぶ......はぁ、はぁ」
さっきまで一番元気だったのに、何てざまだよ。
しかし、この様子じゃ心配だな......。
「ユーミル、橋は渡れそうか?」
「え?」
「だから、橋だよ橋。ここから見えるだろ? 谷にかかってる橋、吊り橋なんだけど......」
「......え?」
気付いていなかったのか......。
ユーミルは俺の言葉に、谷にかかる橋を視界に入れて益々顔を青くした。
Chapter 48 - Price Negotiation And First Ride
[Like I was saying, since we are going to buy three at the same time, gives us a discount!]  (Hind)
[Can't do! If I sell them for cheaper than this, Kami-san will yell at me!] 
Basically, we were participating in the auction now.
Regarding what happened, we went to the seller that was unable to find a buyer in order to strike a deal personally.
Regarding the auction itself, it was quite the stimulating experience, seeing how the sellers shouted the price in a loud voice while hitting the camels with a stick to show the quality of their meat.
As expected, while buying them for their meat was popular, buying them as a mount wasn't so much.
After finishing the transactions, the buyers and sellers take their camels and go their own ways.
Seems like the number of sellers is way higher than the number of buyers today, so the price is on the cheaper side.
As a result, you could see people like us that were negotiating with the sellers even though the auction was over.
I want to take this chance and get a camel as cheap as possible.
Because even for a vendor, bringing the camels here is not free either.
They have to feed them and I heard that some travel great distances to sell them too.
That being the case, the travel expenses must have been pretty high.
Furthermore, in the case that they want to appear in the auction tomorrow, they will have to pay a fee to show their goods again.
As a seller, it's better to sell as soon as possible.
Our estimated budget is 200.000G.
Today's average price for a camel that's been trained to be mounted is 70.000G, it's usually a bit higher.
If we bought five of them it would be 350.000G so...we don't have enough?
Just for the record, Tobi investigated and the average price for a donkey is 50.000G and a horse was a whooping 1.000.000G. You could say they are on a league of their own.
[In that case I'll buy five! I'll buy all the ones you have right now, so please! Sell me those five for 180.000G!]  (Hind)
Well, I was aiming for a vendor with five of them from the start!
After sticking a price to 3 of them, I suggested buying all of them.
Once I saw the man soften his expression, I believed the flow was in my favor.
As I've previously stated, for a seller, having to stay for longer periods of time raises the chances that it'll turn unprofitable.
Because of that, I made him think that he would be able to sell everything he had, increasing the chances that he'll listen to my demands.
Particularly someone like the man in front of me, I looked for someone like him in tribal clothes that looked like he had come from far away.
It's finally time for the finale.
Most likely, he'll settle for a price around 200.000G with this.
The man's expression turned bitter and troubled.
...What will it be? Will he stop the negotiations, or...?
[...Suu...fuh. 200.000G is the final price! I can't go lower than this! That will be all!] 
[-I'll buy them!]  (Hind)
Alright! I bought them! I mean, I won!
The man started to scratch his head as if he was thinking [Have I messed up?] , but it was too late.
You can't really say it doesn't count at this point, you know?
I paid the man before he changed his mind and he handed over the reins for all of them.
[Hah...you are good for someone so young, kid. Since you were wearing lovely Shinto priest clothes, I thought you would be an easy target...] 
[Haha, thanks. However, I think you've been doing a great job, uncle. These camels are really docile and obedient and react properly when you pull the reins, I'm satisfied with this purchase.]  (Hind)
[Yes, I raised them to be docile. Take good care of them.] 
Seems like camels get really violent when they are being trained and it's very hard to discipline them.
That being the case, it costs a lot more than using them as food, but that can't be helped.
They also have saddles on them, so it's a life-saver that we can ride them immediately.
The negotiations took longer than I thought.
There was no need for the five of us to be there in order to complete the transaction so I had the others go and replenish our items.
Once I got to the meeting place, everyone was already--wait, it's this way! Turn this way!
There there, even though he said that they were docile, it was still hard to pull all five of them.
However, they sure look sleepy...just looking at them makes me feel as if I'm losing strength.
Looking at their faces remind me of Siesta-chan.
I wonder if she's doing fine?
[Amazing! Wacchi, you really bought them for 200k!? That's quite the discount!]  (Tobi)
[Wacchi...? And Tobi-kun, your way of speaking...]  (Selene)
[Ah...Ehem! Good job, Hind-dono! Degozaru!]  (Tobi)
Seeing me pulling the five dromedaries, Tobi shouted in joy.
Selene-san learned of Tobi's way of calling me, but let's leave that aside for now.
[Well then, there's one for each one of you so take turns in getting one. There, there and there.]  (Hind)
[Good work on the negotiations, Hind. Ooh, this camel is so big!]  (Yumir)
[You are right, they are big...]  (Riizu)
I handed everyone their respective reins.
The girls were unexpectedly taken aback because of the size of the camels, but since they are calm there's no need to worry.
The camel's body is about 3 meters long and 2 meters in height, it was quite the impressive sight.
When I gave Selene-san the reins at the end, she was looking at me with worry for some reason.
[Hind-kun, was it really fine? I still have more than enough money, if you asked...]  (Selene)
[I already told you this a while ago, but that sort of thing is no good. We are trying to build a relationship of equals with Selene-san, so we have to take money matters seriously too.
Since Selene-san earned a fortune via blacksmithing, she's the one with the most money among us.
Regarding the matter of buying camels, she offered to have her part be bigger than the rest of us, but I refused that proposal.
I did have confidence in my negotiation skills after all, in times like this, you have to share the burden equally.
Most of the money we spent this time was from the reward from capturing that bandit boss.
It's something we earned as a group, so there are no issues.
[...Hind-kun, you sure are mature. At times, it makes me think that you are older than me.]  (Selene)
[I-If you compliment me directly like that, it's quite embarrassing...]  (Hind)
This girl...is for better or for worse, a naive person.
She doesn't really mean anything by it, but it troubles me when she frankly expresses her feelings.
I mean, if it was the usual three, we would talk about stupid stuff after all.
As I got embarrassed, the three idiots made an evil smile at the same time. I got a bad feeling about this.
[Instead of someone older, a classmate of mine asked me if he wasn't actually an old man, you know?]  (Yumir)
[When we were kids, some of my friends mistakenly called Hind-san dad. Ah, others called him mom.]  (Riizu)
[For some reason, the girls in our class always ask Hind-dono about matters regarding love.]  (Tobi)
[You guys! The happiness from being complimented by Selene-san is all gone! How are you going to repay me for this!?]  (Hind)
[Ah, ahaha...]  (Selene)
That being said, Yumir's statement was the most shocking.
An old man she says...I'm still in my teens...
Anyway, let's get back on track.
We advanced to the exit of the town that had a bridge, from here it'll finally be time to ride the camels.
We pulled the camels a bit past the exit and started to mount them at a spot not too close to the valley.
Once we mounted the camels while they were sitting down with their legs folded, they started to stand up with their front legs first making their bodies bend backwards.
[Ahahaha! Scary, so scary!! Hahahaha!]  (Yumir)
While listening to Yumir, who became all weird, I braced myself in order to not fall down.
This time it raised its back legs and finally stood in an even manner.
Ooh, they are so strong...and this view...
[This is so high...!]  (Tobi)
[Oooh, this is quite...]  (Hind)
[It really feels as if you had grown taller. It feels good.]  (Riizu)
[It's more comfortable than I thought. The humps are soft.]  (Selene)
Like that, we practiced how to mount them for a while.
Without crashing into each other, we started walking around the place.
It's a game after all, it's probably simplified so that it's easy enough to ride them but...
[I-It's shaking...it's shaking a lot...]  (Selene)
Camels have a unique way of walking, so it does shake in all directions.
It's fine if you get used to it...but there's the chance that you'll get sick, have to be careful about that.
When I checked if everyone was fine, I saw Yumir getting off the camel with a pale face.
I got off the camel after approaching her and placed my hand on her back.
[A-Are you all right?]  (Hind)
[Ugh...I-I'm fine...hah, hah.]  (Yumir)
Even though she was the most energetic one of us until just a moment ago, what a sad state.
However, this is worrying...
[Yumir, think you'll be able to cross the bridge?]  (Hind)
[Eh?]  (Yumir)
[I mean the bridge. You can see it from here right? The bridge hanging in the valley, it's a suspension bridge...]  (Hind)
[...Eh?]  (Yumir)
So she didn't notice...
Because of my words, Yumir looked at the bridge hanging in the valley and her face turned gradually paler.
VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～
ＶＲＭＭＯの支援職人　～トッププレイヤーの仕掛人～
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/vrmmo-no-shien-shokunin-%ef%bd%9etop-player-no-shikakenin%ef%bd%9e/
Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Harem Slice of Life
Adventurers Beautiful Female Lead Blacksmith Brother Complex Calm Protagonist Childhood Friends Clan Building Cooking Crafting Curious Protagonist Dense Protagonist Elemental Magic Fantasy Creatures Game Ranking System Gamers Hard-Working Protagonist Healers Level System Love Interest Falls in Love First Love Rivals Male Protagonist Misunderstandings MMORPG Ninjas Possessive Characters Priests Siblings Siblings Not Related by Blood Sword And Magic Virtual Reality Younger Love Interests Younger Sisters
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4014ds/
二階堂風都