Tricks of the Trade

After I made my first diamond, I kept pushing myself to continue the process as many times as I could fit in a day. At first, I was so exhausted that it was difficult to even eat the food the lady at the stand had so kindly given to me. It didn’t help that my first diamond was a fluke too. When I tried again with roughly the same power, I only got a shiner version of the coal I had just used.

While it reflected far more light, it was also brittle. Trying to bluff my way into selling something like this seemed almost impossible. I had been able to make one diamond from eight coal pieces, but I wasn’t sure what was changing between tests.

It seemed like I wasn’t changing anything at all, however, there was still a different outcome occurring. The fact that the result changed each time was something that defied general science. I guess magic in itself would be a complete defiance to science, though.

There are most likely two possible causes for the differing results. One of them could be that the coal pieces had something different to them, making it so some worked and some didn’t. This cause would be something I couldn’t even get close to controlling and would end up being just luck of the draw.

The second possible cause, which I may at least have a bit more control over, is the unstable nature of magic. The things summoned by me when I used magic tended to disappear after I ran out of power or just stopped supplying it. That also meant that I would end up putting in less power the more often I kept doing a trail.

If this was the case, the only thing I could even do to control that would be to do only one trial per day, but I don’t have that much time. It’ll be hard to convince anyone with one diamond. If I had multiple, I’d be able to make an easier bargain. For tomorrow I’ll do eight trials again, and then for the day after, I’ll use the remaining seven.

At least this way I’ll have been able to create three diamonds to bargain with. If I’m able to do that, then it should be manageable. But all of that is assuming my hypothesis is correct on what’s going wrong. If it really is the first possible cause, then I really have nothing to do but flip a coin and hope. The odds were probably much lower than a fifty percent chance though.

I think it's best to call it a day. While I didn’t enjoy the idea of sleeping in this alley, it seemed as though not many people went into it. After all, the whole day had gone by and I had only met one person here. Well, I’d like to support her for everything she had done for me back when we were being sold, but right now I need to protect those who have guided me through this world for the last several months.

With this thought, I finally fell asleep. My tired body fell asleep quickly due to all the energy I had burned through in the day. I knew I could always convert my life force into magic, but there would be no point in doing that since it wouldn’t speed up the process for me by too much. Not to mention it would also worry them if I did something like that.

The sun greeted me the next day. I was surprised to see that it made its way through the opening above me instead of through the usual window, but that realization made me feel sad for a moment. Brushing off the emotion, with the arrival of another day, it was time I had to go back to work and continue my tests. But first, I needed to check on something.

Getting up, I made my way over to the street where the jeweler was to see if the customer I was hoping to meet had decided to follow my will. Getting there, I hid behind one of the crates set out. It was probably some new products imported for the expensive shops on this street, but I didn’t care for the moment.

Staking out the place, I spent around an hour just sitting there. The waiting had caused me to get more and more impatient as I still needed to keep testing on the coal and this was taking far too long. Finally, as though my complaints had influenced the situation at all, the noble I had seen the other day came out of the store while yelling at the store owner.

It seemed they had gotten into an argument. This time he mentioned he would be back the day after tomorrow at the same time to see if the store owner had decided to conduct himself properly. Pumping my fist in the air at the words he had just sounded, I made my way away from the store in order to continue my work. I now knew when he was coming back. This was perfect to prepare myself to make a trade with him. I just needed to be sure to wake up ahead of time so that I could get to him before he entered the store.

I was slightly surprised when I saw him leaving the store today, but I wouldn’t be caught off guard this time. I was going to make everything work out. This time I would be able to help everyone and keep the hopes entrusted to me alive.

Reaching the corridor, I immediately took out a piece of coal and began working my magic on it. Like usual, when I had reached maximum output, I flopped to the floor, unable to get up due to the recoil time I needed. The steam had also still been in front of me, blocking my sight like always.

This time a gust of wind wasn’t there to blow it away either, and I was forced to lay there and watch. I’d try to blow it away with my lungs, but the magic had left me so breathless it felt as though that wouldn’t be a possibility for at least thirty minutes. Finally, the steam began to clear on its own and once again a diamond appeared before me.

While I wanted to be excited, it was still difficult to get myself off the ground. However, with two successful trials, it meant that my second hypothesis was more likely than the first. I had hoped that I would be able to get a third. Three was the best I could do if I wanted to make the deadline and still appear presentable to the noblemen when I meet him.

I continued the experiments for the rest of the day and tomorrow, always eating a bit between each experiment as the trials were now completely destroying my body. Like before, on the start of the last day, I was able to produce a diamond yet again.

At the end of the last day, during my last trial I was also able to produce another diamond. That left me with a grand total of four from the twenty three coal I had started with. But this was peculiar. If my hypothesis had been correct, it would have meant that getting a diamond from a day’s final trial would be impossible.

Yet it still happened. Does this mean my hypothesis was completely wrong then? Or could it just be that this was a simple outlier? While I’m not complaining that I finished with extra amounts, it still concerned me a little bit.

But if I dwelled on it further I wouldn’t be able to sleep for the day. I had to sleep now if I hoped to wake up on time. More so if I hoped to be competent during the bluff I was about to pull. Forcing myself to sleep, I was finally ready to reach the end of my plan. It was finally time for the last stages of my plan to come through.

Once I finished this, I would finally be home free. The thought of this had caused me to start shaking in anticipation. I would need the best poker face I could ever have in my life. But after everything I’ve been through, if I didn’t at least have that by now, then what would I have?

I awoke to the darkness being pushed away by the light. It seemed that the sun had only just started to rise, but I had to leave now to make sure I didn’t miss my chance. Grabbing the four diamonds I had hid underneath me while sleeping, I dashed over to the library so I could return the books without having to deal with the jail penalty for being late.

I reached the door and knocked, but no one answered. I guess it was really early in the morning, but it would take way too much time to wait for the librarian to come. I looked at the door and saw a small hole which looked as though it was for books. Bingo! I shoved my books through the hole and made my way over to the jewelers so I could stake it out.

Unlike last time though, this time I had some business. My business was not with the jeweler, but the noblemen whose horse carriage seemed to have just arrived. While he said he would be later than this, he must have come early to avoid people and possibly shake up the store owner.

However, it would be I who would get the drop on him. As he got out of the cart, I rushed towards him. His guard began to block my path to him, so I obliged the guards and stopped my approach. After all, I wasn’t trying to start with a bad impression.

“Who are you?” He questioned me, taking note of my appearance.

“Me? I am but a simple merchant looking to sell my wares.” I louded, trying to sound extravagant.

“Oh a merchant, huh. Well I doubt you have anything I want.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

“Oh really? Then what do you have that I would want?”

“I own magic crystals, clear ones at that.”

“C-Clear!”

“That’s right.”

“Show me your information card then. Are you really a merchant?”

Damn, I was hoping he wouldn’t ask for that. My information card only said “citizen” and not “merchant”. There’s no way I could show him that. If I did, he wouldn't even trust me. There would be absolutely no way I could win this negotiation if he saw that.

There’s something I could try but it would be risky. I wasn’t sure if diamonds even existed in this world, and I was hoping he had no idea of their existence. If he knew it was a diamond then I’d be completely defeated, but this was also the only chance I had.

“Take a look at this!” I showed four large diamonds in the palm of my hand. The sight of which caused him to raise his glasses in disbelief.

“L-l-let me have it!” He demanded.

“Obviously I can’t just give this to you. I would go bankrupt!” I spoke while hiding the diamonds behind my back.

“W-what do you want for it?”

“Hmm, how about three hundred silver each?”

I’m not sure if that’s too low for a transparent magic crystal. I know Flint had paid fifty silver for the ring which also had an actual transparent magic crystal. But for Flint to pounce on something like that so quickly must have meant it had to have been pretty cheap. Hopefully this wasn’t too low. It might’ve even been better if it was too high.

“Three hundred silver each?” He repeated.

“That's right.” I confirmed.

His eyes went off to the side and he put his right hand to his chin. He started muttering to himself, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Please just take the deal! What if he wanted a different type of magic crystal? Wait, I don’t even know what type of crystal I could pretend this was!

“So you want one thousand one hundred silver for all four of them?” He was trying to get me into agreeing for the lesser price.

“No, it would be one thousand two hundred silver, sir.” I replied to his sly trick.

“Ah yes of course, my mistake.”

“Yes sir, it would greatly inconvenience me to miss such a large amount. Please understand.”

“Well, this deal is not something I can let go of so easily. You win. I’ll take all of them.”

“Thank you for your purchase sir.”

“No, thank you. With these I’ll be able to help the kids with disabilities in the orphanage I’m running.” He told me with a smile.

His words caused an overwhelming disgust to build inside of me. The disgust wasn’t at him but at myself. These “crystals” I was giving him were just a sham. They wouldn’t help him with that purpose at all. I almost wanted to cancel the offer due to how terrible I had begun feeling.

I’m sorry, but I needed to do this so I could help Flint. It’s the only way I can help him at all. I know your cause is noble, but unlike you, I don’t have the position to only take the noblest of options. At least after this, you’ll still have the money to help them, but I wouldn’t. While I can’t say any of this out loud, at least I can say I’m sorry in my thoughts.

“Get this fine gentleman his money.” He commanded his guard with a snap of his fingers.

Almost immediately the guard went into the horse carriage and brought the bag of money out. They handed me the bag which was far heavier than I had thought it would be. I began counting the coins inside, making sure he wasn’t conning me like I was to him. After confirming that all the money was inside, I handed him all four diamonds.

He waved to me as he got into his carriage, his smile piercing me as though it had been a bullet. As soon as he took off, I made my way out of the street as fast as I possibly could. The heat I was feeling while lying had felt as though I had swallowed the sun.

While I wanted to go to Flint’s directly after the trade, I instead decided I needed to take a break so that I could cool off. I made my way to the garden so that I could rest for a bit and regain myself after everything. I was still feeling sickened by what I had done.