Chapter 10: Sir Dante

Unbeknownst to father, I’m quite familiar with the western towns in his domain as well as those that lie outside of it. I’ve periodically made trips throughout those territories to sell the precious metals I’ve pulled from the mountains and built up a small fortune.

Today is the first day of my longest hunting trip yet, I told father I wanted to explore the area past the first mountain range, and he was surprisingly compliant, which bought me a week to myself. What I’m really doing is making my way to the furthest western point of this kingdom, where there are two small towns of interest.

My first stop is Agrele, a mining town built into the side of a mountain that has prospered in recent years. If you want to sell precious metals and gems, without drawing attention to yourself, this is the only option. I considered visiting my old groomer Sophie when I found a large diamond, but I’m afraid she would interpret that as a proposal.

The town is impressive from the skies, it’s significantly larger than most in the kingdom and its layout is unique. A number of buildings and roads start halfway up the mountain and wind down into the flatland a short distance north. In any other town, a small market and residential area would exist here, but in Agrele there’s a bustling city center adorned on either side with merchants and food stalls. The citizens are dirtier than most, but it’s a mining town, that can’t be helped.

I used to sell the precious metals I’d find to a man named Dante in a town bordering my father’s domain, but success drove his business here. I decide to approach a food stall selling meat skewers, this guy looks bored, perfect to striking up a conversation.

“Excuse me sir, two skewers please” I say.

“Coming right up, awful long hair you’ve got if you’re mining. Are you a merchant?” the man asks.

That’s because I’m in my Sio the hunter/traveler disguise.

“A traveler actually, I was hoping to find an acquaintance of mine named Dante, he’s in the precious metals trade” I reply.

“Hah so is most of the town. HONEY – do you know a man named Dante around here?” the man shouts over his shoulder.

His wife walks up from the cooking area and, she’s old? The man doesn’t look young, but his features are soft and his hair isn’t grey. This woman looks like she started greying while I was living my past life.

“Hmm Dante, there’s a new merchant in town named Dante. Short fellow, likes making crude jokes” she says.

“That sounds like the right Dante, do you know where I can find him?” I ask.

“Yea the newcomers get stuck towards the end of the block, prideful fellow so his name is above the shop” she says bitterly.

“Understood, thanks very much” 

I give the woman a polite bow, but no right hand across the chest. I need to look a little rough around the edges.

“Meat sticks are ready, 6 copper for the two” the man says.

Better be good meat, that’s pricey if it’s as chewy as I’m expecting it to be. Ah well, I want to make a good impression, I’ll leave a tip.

“Here’s 8, good information is valuable to me. Thanks for everything” 

With a wave I leave and make my way towards the end of the block.

*DANTES METALS & JEWELS*

The old lady wasn’t kidding about the sign, grammatical mistakes aside I think I found the place. I step in and am surprised by a full shop with a young lady at the counter. She’s a cute blonde with –

FUCK, oh ok, I thought that was Sophie. My heart feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest and a layer of sweat has formed on my head. Is this how veterans feel when they hear fireworks?

She’s cute, but it seems I’m afraid of blondes.

As I make my way into the shop I see Dante counting coins from his most recent transaction and make my way over to greet him.

“Sir Dante, it’s been a while” I call to him.

Still looking at his coins, he responds before turning to me.

“Sir Dante? There’s only one twerp who’s so respectful to a bastard like me. Ah so it is, Sio my boy, how are you?” he asks.

“Doing well Sir Dante, I have some items to sell – should I join the line?” I ask.

“No no, if you knew how much money you’ve made me you’d shit, never once tried to screw me either. Show me what you’ve got” he says with an evil grin.

I pull out a small bag and place it on the counter between us.

“I’ve got something new this time, I think you’ll like it” I say with a smirk.

“Oho well don’t just tease me kid, show me the goods”

I remove a mid-sized gold piece first then take the diamond I found in my hand and move it closer to Dante before opening it. His eyes widen before he reaches down and forces my hand back closed.

“Ahem right, come to the back with me. I’ll need to get a closer look at that” he says.

His eyes dart around the room before leading me further into his shop.

“Kid, how the hell did you get a diamond that big?” he asks.

Balls. I knew it was a bigger one, but he seems more worried than excited.

“Same as always Sir Dante, I check out the mountain areas on hunting trips. This was lodged in some stone near the base of one of those mountains” I reply.

“Right.. the mountains. I normally don’t ask, because I don’t care – but this isn’t stolen, is it?” he asks, still looking concerned.

“Like I said it was stuck in a mountain in the middle of nowhere, you and I are the only people to have ever laid eyes on it” I reply calmly.

“Ok right ok, well there’s a small problem” he says while moving his lips backs and forth.

I see neuron activation in Dante, this is a good sign for a deal.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“I can’t afford that diamond, it’s probably worth 1000 gold coins and if I spent my entire day mustering up funds I couldn’t pay that for it. Also, a gem of that size is expected to be sold to the royal family..” Dante says with an odd expression.

I love Dante, he’s perfectly devious. Maybe the royal family thing is true, but if it is then I need to get this diamond all the way away from me. It’s an attention magnet and Dante knows that, I bet he’ll make me a lower offer on the condition that he conceals where this came from.

“I see, what kind of price could you pay for it?” I ask with a smile, knowing I’m about to get fucked.

“Oho my boy you’re a wonderful business partner! If you come back tonight I could probably get 400 gold and 1000 silver. It sounds like I’m pulling one over on ya, but I’ll have to come up with a legit source for this thing before I can sell it in the capital ermm to the royal family you see”

Yep, he’s screwing me, it must be worth an insane amount of gold. I’ll be paying for his grandkids education, but I don’t mind if Dante screws me. His reputation is awful, if he tried to out me as his source someday no one would believe him. That’s a quality I just can’t find in anyone else.

“Well, I’d be happier with 500 gold and 1000 silver, but I’d rather not deal with the royals..” I reply with a hum.

“Boyo what would you even do with that much money? You could’ve already retired five times over with the money I’ve paid you – ah but you have your secrets, it’s fine. I’ll try to get a few extra gold just for you. Do we have a deal?” he asks.

“We do Sir Dante, anything you’d recommend doing in this town now that I have a day to waste?” I ask.

“Hmm all anyone does is mine and trade what they mine, to mine the mountain just south you need to pay for a pass from the domain lord. But a little further west there’s a mountain that’s supposed to be stripped bare, costs nothing to work it and with your luck maybe there’s something good you can bring back” he suggests with a chuckle.

“Aha alright I’ll take a look at it. Thank you Sir Dante, I’ll come back just before sundown”

I left Dante’s shop and walked outside of town before kicking off into the air. I’m pretty comfortable with heights now so I can fly close to the sound barrier without making noticeable wind for those on the ground.

I arrive at the mountain, but Dante wasn’t joking, it’s full of old shafts and garbage. I don’t think anyone has been here in years.

I let magic pour out of my feet to find which shaft goes the deepest. The upper part of the mountain looks like swiss cheese so I doubt it’s worth running magic through. Once near the bottom I place my hands on the floor and start my process, sending magic through the rock to see if it has any weird reactions.

When I send magic through my body or tools my goal is getting it to stay there, so I slow it down and condense it a little. When I’m searching for something it’s more akin to flinging it in high speed bursts and focusing on where it likes to go and where it doesn’t.

These poor bastards.. not 20 meters below me is a fruit sized lump of something that hates magic. It must be another gem. I condense magic to fine points and move it through the rock between me and that lump to skewer and break up the rock. Before long I’ve created a sand tunnel that I can easily pull the lump I want through.

I activate earth magic to pull the goods from the mountain, and it flies up into my hand. I’ve gotten better at overloading small pieces of stone around what I’m mining so they disintegrate instead of exploding. With a few bursts of magic the stone falls away revealing a diamond at least three times larger than the one I showed Dante.

Sigh. It’s cool and all, but Dante put on his best swindler performance for the last one. I can’t show him this, he’ll try to have me killed before taking it for himself.

And so I mined what could be the greatest gem on the planet, that no one will ever see.

Into storage you go my shiny little friend.

I made the exchange with Dante later that night, and to his credit he got me more than 400 gold. He gave me 402 to be exact. The little shit.

Still, I’ve got enough money saved to buy my way into lower nobility if I ever wanted to. I don’t know exactly how much money father and the estate have, but I imagine it’s a few thousand gold plus owned assets, which is at least as much for a domain lord.