Chapter 75

Chapter 75 \n“I really admire leader Davos, he is not only good in commanding, but also has good business ideas! He put forward a lot of valuable suggestions, such as, at the entrance of the market, I was originally going to put two fully armed soldiers to guard it, but the leader said, ‘that won’t do, we would scare the customers who have come to buy and sell things. Therefore, we also need to consider the feelings of the customers.’ Therefore it became what you see now and it seems that the customers are responding well to it by now…hahaha…by the way, it is also his suggestion to include these scales. There are many such suggestions, but the main reason why this market can be so lively within 20 days is mainly due to his contribution! I think that even if he is not a mercenary, he can certainly still become a successful merchant with his talent!” Mariji’s words came from the bottom of his heart.\n“Yeah, he is really surprising.” Answered Burkes, while thinking about something.

He turned and went to the market, and Mariji hurriedly followed him as his guide.

As the crowd of people moves foward, the first stall is of course owned by the mercenaries, and so the area is very huge, and there are many strange objects and exquisite gold and silver wares placed in different categories…there are many people who had stop, look and ask about the price.

“Mersis!” Mariji shouted.

The fatty who was commanding the slaves to move things behind the stall, had turned around and proudly said, “Mariji, are you here to congratulate me?! I have sold a lot today!”

Before waiting for Mariji to answer, he had then notice Burkes, and a smile immediately appeared on his face, “Burkes, you have come to buy things as well. You are just in time, since I have good stuff here. Guess what it is?” As he said that, he held up the things in his hand, which were glittering and shining, it was a thin silver rope, and filled with small pieces of gold as thin as cicada wing in the middle, forming an inverted triangle and another silver rope at the top…

When Mariji’s eyes narrowed, he then heard Mersis shouting, “Mariji, don’t talk!”

“What is this?” Asked Moras curiously.

Mersis saw that all the people had gathered around curiously and he put on a dirty smile and said mysteriously, “This is the gift of Cyrus the Younger to his most beautiful concubine. This wonderful thing was specially request by Cyrus the Younger to the best goldsmith in Persia, which can provide joy in that respect! Guess where would Cyrus the Younger’s concubine wear it?”\n“Is it…down there…” Someone shouted with uncertainly.

“That’s right. You seemed to have a lot of experienced!” Mersis finished talking, and there was ambiguous laughter around him.

“It was said that Cyrus the Younger’s concubine wore it every night, and together with Cyrus the Younger…well…when Cyrus the Younger died in the war, his concubine was captured by the king of Persia, and this thing was left in the camp and was picked up by our soldiers.” Mersis held it up and flashed it in front of the crowd, “You can smell it, it may also have the body fragrance of the concubine of Cyrus the Younger! I wanted to keep it, but I don’t have a wife. If you think about it, you can buy it and take it home, then enjoy the life of the Persian royal family with your wife or lover!”

After hearing this, Burkes also got moved.

A man besides him, has shouted, “How much is it? I’ll buy it!”

To his surprised, Burkes recognize that this man is a merchant of the city-state of Scylletium.

“It’s not expensive at all. Look at how exquisite this stuff is! Moreover, these are made out of pure gold!” Mersis shook the gold in his hand and it made a “swoosh swoosh” sound, “The lowest price is…hmm…50 Daric gold coins.”

“I have 55 gold coins. So I will take this!” Shouted the Scylletium merchant.

“I have 60!” Shouted another one.

“Hey, I bought it first!”\n“But I offered more!”

“65 Daric gold coins!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mariji didn’t expect Mersis to make such a huge profit by turning the rare ornaments of Persian nobles into an object of royalty. But he didn’t want to remind Mersis that once Cheiristoya heard about it, I am afraid that her opinion of him would turn badly.

He hurriedly followed once he noticed that Burkes was squeezing out of the crowd.

“It seems the merchants of the other city-states are coming here to do business.” Said Burkes.

“There are quite a few. Taranto, Scylletium, Caulonia, Crotone, and other city-states.”

Burkes was startled when he heard Crotone.

At this time, Moras pointed to a dozen strong men in front of him and said, “Are all of them soldiers of your camp.”

Mariji looked at them and replied, “They might be the soldiers of the mercenary camp next to us.”

\n“It’s just a small shop that receive orders. Thurii won’t let us into the city, but we need to purchase weapons and also we must repair them.” Explained Mariji.

“And this one clay pots?”

“We can’t make soup with just our hands.”

“Cloth shop?”

“The clothing of the soldiers haven’t been change for half a year. You can’t expect them to wear armor on days that they don’t fight.”

“Then stone shop?”

“We can’t just use trees for our camp, the key places still need to use stones in order to keep it firm.”

“What about this boat shop?! Don’t tell me that you mercenaries needs to build a fleet!” The expression of Burkes was full of rage and shouted, “You robber! You are robbing the market of Thurii and stealing the wealth of Thurii!”

Mariji lowered his head and argued in a low voice, “The amount of goods being bought and sold is not much-”

Note: Scylletium, a city-state in Magna Graecia, it is located south of Crotone.