Chapter 7: Barbarians
Seeing a group of shabbily dressed men heading straight toward them, the burly man at the forefront immediately became alert. He could clearly sense the faint aura of danger emanating from the lead man, though the smile on his face didn’t seem malicious. Yet in the city of Cyprus, he dared not trust anyone. These greedy mortals were filled with filthy desires, greed seeping into their very blood. It was obvious what they were up to without even thinking. A few men around him even quietly reached for the heavy knives at their waists.
When he reached the group of tall guests, Komer showed no signs of nervousness or restraint. He casually pulled over a chair, sat down with his legs crossed, and said, “Can we talk?”
His fluent Mountain dialect surprised the several extremely burly men, especially the leader, who was utterly astonished. It was rare to find a mortal who could speak Mountain dialect these days. Moreover, the guy across from him, with his unsettling smirk, had a quite standard accent—so standard that even he couldn’t tell it differed from his companions’. The leader instinctively nodded, but his eyes remained fixed on the other man, trying to figure out his intentions.
“Hehe, big brother, don’t look at me like that. I’m not a bad person. I’m just an ordinary guy who wants to be friends with you. Maybe we could even become good friends.” Komer smiled carefreely and explained casually, “I heard there was another disaster in your area?”
With caution in his eyes, the leader frowned and asked sternly, “How do you know Mountain dialect?”
“Hehe, what’s so strange about that? I learned it from someone else. Can’t mortals learn Mountain dialect?” Komer retorted. He understood their doubts. It was unheard of for a mortal to learn Mountain dialect, so their motives were indeed suspicious.
Shaking his head, the leader gently stroked the beautiful metal bracers on his wrists and said calmly, “Please don’t avoid the question. If you want to be our friend, answer my questions honestly.”
“Hehe, I learned it from my teacher. He died a year ago. He wasn’t a barbarian or an orc—he was also a mortal, just like me. As for where he learned Mountain dialect, I don’t know. He never told me.” It seemed Komer could see through their thoughts, so he blurted everything out to satisfy their curiosity.
“Mortals? How could mortals know the mountain dialect?” he muttered to himself. The burly man at the head and a few of his companions exchanged puzzled looks. He knew he wouldn’t get any more useful information from this guy, but his expression softened considerably. “What do you want?”
“Nothing much. I heard you came to Cyprus for business and seem to lack experience, getting scammed quite a bit, right?” Comer remained indifferent, casually picking up the red mugwort liquor on the table and taking a sip. The intense flavor made his face heat up instantly. He shook his head. “Good liquor, but too strong for me.”
The burly man was surprised by Comer’s bold behavior. Though he didn’t show it outwardly, he felt a sense of closeness. Mortals rarely wanted to share a meal with barbarians. Even for business, they avoided sitting at the same table as their own kind, let alone eating and drinking together. Such behavior from the other side might seem rude, but it actually narrowed the distance between them.
“The liquor you mortals drink is bland and tasteless, almost like plain water. How can it compare to something so strong and flavorful?” One of the men beside the burly man couldn’t help but speak up, clearly dissatisfied with Comer’s words.
With just one glance, he made his companion shut up. The burly man didn’t waste words. His sharply defined face showed straightforwardness and openness. His gaze settled on Comer as he said, “If you have something to say, just say it directly. I don’t like beating around the bush.”
Comer nodded and spoke plainly, “I may have a bad reputation, but I like to get things straight. You barbarians aren’t very good at business. It’s likely your goods won’t exchange for enough food. If you trust me, let me handle it for you. I think it might bring you a pleasant surprise.”
An idea struck him, and the man who appeared to be the leader once again fixed his gaze deeply into the other man’s eyes. But to his surprise, the other man remained as indifferent and slightly mocking, showing little sincerity. Instinctively, the leader wanted to reject him—he never trusted ordinary people, and even such a reluctant deal was something he was only doing out of necessity. Though he didn’t know exactly how much profit those greedy merchant commoners were making from this deal, he knew the food they promised was far from enough to meet his needs. No matter how much he demanded or tried to find other merchants, his appearance made it clear to them that he was a barbarian, as if the word “easy target” were carved on his head. The merchants unanimously refused to raise the price, even bluntly telling him that prices across Cyprus and the Homer region remained unchanged forever. It was precisely this situation that had pushed him and his companions into a corner, forcing them to go to the bar to drown their sorrows and relieve their frustration.
The words of refusal that rose to his lips were withdrawn. As a leader, he couldn’t make decisions based solely on personal preferences—that would be irrational. The man with the broad face thought for a moment before saying, “Why should we trust you?”
Shaking his head, Komer showed a look of regret on his confident face. “It’s simple. Because you have no other choice. The merchant guilds in Cyprus have long formed a tight-knit organization. You can’t break their monopoly—at least not yet. I’m afraid trusting me might be the only wise choice. Though I’m not entirely sure either, what I offer is much more attractive than what you can get now. And once I do this once, it will be difficult for the merchants to maintain their united front. In the end, it will be you who benefit. So I hope that for this first time, you’ll give me the best you have.”
Finally understanding the meaning behind the words of this seemingly idle man, the leader silently accepted his proposal in his heart. Of course, since they didn’t know each other well, they could only judge him in such a straightforward way.
“Hehe, merchants are indeed powerful, but they won’t bother us. You needn’t worry about that. Cyprus is still part of the Kingdom of Nicosia, under the rule of Grand Duke Philip. This is a land governed by the law, and it won’t tolerate any illegal acts.” With a sly smile, Komer gave an evasive answer, not directly addressing the question, but his confidence reassured the other party greatly. After hesitating for a while, the chief finally nodded in agreement, reluctantly accepting the deal. Seeing that the other party had agreed, Komer wasted no time and immediately asked Puten, who had been standing by watching the negotiation between him and the barbarian, to draft a sales agreement. Then he asked the barbarian chief to follow him to a secret place to sign it. Although the barbarians used a mountain dialect as their language, they had no writing system, so sales contracts were always written in the language common in the buyer’s region. Taking advantage of the barbarians’ ignorance of legal details and their lack of literacy, most merchants would trick them, causing them great suffering. In Homer’s region, no one wanted to genuinely help these barbarians, and legal officials despised them as crude and ignorant. Every time the barbarians filed a complaint, they only received whips as punishment. Seeing the other party explain the terms of the contract seriously, the barbarian chief felt deep down that perhaps his decision was correct. If he were being deceived, he could only accept it—after all, the other party’s seriousness at that moment made it impossible for him to tell right from wrong. After discussing the details, Komer asked the other party to wait a week for a response and instructed them to spread the word that the goods had been bought by the second son of the Lessor family, the second young master of the Lux family, and the third young master of the Mordo family. They didn’t need to worry about anything else and should just wait patiently for good news. Initially, the barbarians were somewhat worried, but seeing that Komer and his men had no intention of taking the goods, they felt much more at ease and obediently followed their instructions. After arranging everything, Komer knew that once he had done this, it would be impossible to back out. But he never intended to live a quiet life in Cyprus City anyway—such a life was far too dull.