"Vicente, you have to change your current moves, kid. Do you think you can target all of our business?" A middle-aged man exclaid against the boy across the table in the Fuller family warehouse.
On the outskirts of this forr Jesse office, Vicente was sitting in an armchair, and Rory was standing next to him, both looking at the local rchant who had just arrived there demanding to speak to them.
Next to this man was a level 6 General, looking at them like an adult trying to scare a child who had ssed up.
Vice smiled at the words of this old local rchant and said. "Mister Damian Cohen, you are mistaken. I am not trying to steal anyone's business.
In fact, I would like to get closer to local rchants. If you are willing, we can make a mutually beneficial partnership."
"Partnership?" That man made a confused expression. He was there to talk about this boy stealing his business, but Vice had suggested a partnership out of the blue...
Was this boy crazy, or was there sothing else behind it?
"Kid, don't think I won't act against your group because you are a child." He said.
"Hmm, but mister, what do you want to do? I rely offered better prices to my suppliers and custors. It's not my fault if people I wasn't even doing business with found out about it and now want to approach ..." He said. "Or are you saying that they have an obligation to do business with you?"
"What? That's not what I'm saying!" This man raised his voice.
"Then what is it? If you are bothered by rumors from your suppliers, just lower your prices, and you won't lose any of your business."
"That's absurd! Are you telling to lower my profits?" He felt outraged.
Vicente grinned. "That's how the market works. There are already groups imitating us, so even if I get out of this business, those charging abusive prices would still have to lower their prices to stay competitive with other groups."
"But this is your fault. You started this madness!"
"Hmm, so you can beco my ally. You won't get the sa returns you had before, but you can profit greatly from ." Vicente spoke, negotiating more support for his group.
He had been lowering so costs that groups like his typically had in trading the products of their suppliers. For example, normally, groups of rchants traveling with their products had to hire warriors to protect these resources.
The cost of rcenaries was not cheap, so to maintain his profits, a rchant like this angry man in front of Vicente had to promise lower prices to their suppliers and sell their products at higher values to consurs.
However, Vicente had firearms on his side and people willing to take their chances with these weapons!
With these, he no longer hired rcenaries and had been using his own people to protect his wagons.
Through this and other actions, he was able to offer better prices to his suppliers and custors without decreasing his profits too much!
'Vice was very clever.' Rory thought as he looked at his friend talking to that rchant. 'With the advent of guns, he was able to increase the prices we pay to our suppliers and thereby please these people.
Now the risk of Andrew's forr suppliers leaving us has decreased significantly, and we can act with less worry of losing what we already had in the beginning.'
Vice continued to smile at that stressed man. "Mister, I will not tell you how I am improving prices for my custors and suppliers, but I assure you my profits are almost equal to what my father had in his ti.
If you join , I will guarantee you the sa profits I have been making."
"How?" That man asked, still agitated at dealing with this bold child.
"I won't say. You would have to sign a Magical Agreent with for to tell you that."
"Tsk!" Damian looked away and then tried to control himself a little.
He couldn't just hit this child. That would be an embarrassnt to him.
At the sa ti, rchants were not people who used violence at the first sign of disagreent. The opposite of this, people like him would try to talk and negotiate before drawing their weapons.
In this situation, Damian sighed and asked. "What would that be like? I don't understand what kind of partnership I could have with a boy like you."
Vice explained. "Very simple. Join my group. We will rge our rchant caravans."
Damian frowned his eyebrows. "Do you want to subordinate myself to you?"
"No. I will be the leader of this group, but you will have almost as many freedoms as they have now. The big difference is that you will be part of a society with several rchants under my rule.
I will provide you with the thods to offer better prices to your custors and suppliers, and in return, you will give a share of that business. Of course, you would also have to follow so rules."
Hearing this, such a man asked. "And why would other rchants join you? We can simply lower our prices and maintain our independence.
We'll have to give you sothing for it anyway, so we could simply give up so of our profits for our freedoms."
Vicente then said. "Yes, that is a possibility. But you should know not everyone will go along with it. And when I have more rchant groups on my side, I will naturally use my influence to put pressure on those who are not with us."
Vicente looked at that rcenary and said. "But if they are on our side, not only will they not have to worry about losing their suppliers and custors, but they won't have to hire rcenaries anymore.
I will provide protection, transportation, and more." He opened his arms, smiling confidently. "As our society grows, we can even achieve things we could not alone.
The influence of a group will always be greater than that of a single person."
There were societies like the one Vicente was planning to create in this place. However, associations and guilds in this model took away much more of the freedom of their mbers than this boy intended.
For this reason, many preferred to stay away from such groups.
Yet, what Vicente was promising was indeed tempting.
"And why you?" That man did not disagree with this boy's words, but he still had a hard ti accepting Vicente as a leader. "Why wouldn't we unite under the command of soone more capable?"
Vicente said at once, "Because only I have the ability to lead you. Besides being the only one with the thod to lower your costs, I already have 37% of the suppliers in the area.
Besides , counting you, there are six rchants who share the rest of the local suppliers. But none of you even cos close to my position.
You see, Mister Damian, I have prepared myself for this. Unlike you, I have been working to create this group for almost a year now.
None of you could replace and take this group to the position I will take."
This man knew that most of this business was in the hands of Vicente's group and could not deny the advantage of the ti this boy had been planning everything.
"Can you give so ti to think?"
"Of course. You have until the end of next month to think about it. After that, I will consider you have given up."
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