Exclusive Contract

I'd come out to the market on nothing more than a whim, and not even an hour in, the word fuck was already climbing the back of my throat.

"Fuck this. If you're not buying, get lost. You broke bastards."

Yeah. I probably shouldn't say that.

Fortunately, as if they'd read my mind, the pests shut their mouths. They just stood there blocking the front of the stall like dogs that desperately needed to shit. I wanted to tell the ones clogging the path to clear out too — other buyers had to get through — but this wasn't the kind of place where I could control that, so I left them alone. A crowd drew eyes anyway. People passing by always craned their necks for a look, and I kept both of mine wide open in case somebody tried to steal something.

"Hey. Look only. Just look. You touch it, you buy it."

"Damn. This stuff is seriously good. Where'd you get it?"

"Where do you think? From a dungeon."

"You struck gold. You actually struck gold."

"Sure did."

I had struck gold. It was the legacy poor Ruru's previous master had left behind, and both the grade and the effect were excellent.

The option had attached because I'd grown it in the Rift Dimension. A berry almost never came with an option of its own. It wasn't a map effect. It meant the land of the Rift Dimension, built into the place from the start, simply possessed that kind of potency. Which only made sense. Recovery Herb from a dungeon on Earth, a lower dimension, and Recovery Herb raised in the soil of the Rift Dimension — a highest-tier dimension, according to Ruru — had no business being the same thing.

Charging more wouldn't have been the least bit strange. Even so, the Recovery Herb was only meant as pocket money, so I'd set out to sell it at a reasonably fair price. The trouble was that this was a commodity with plenty of supply, plenty of demand, and a market price already set in stone. A little too expensive, and people started to hesitate. If it had been a truly rare item, they'd have snatched it up before anyone else could, however high the price. An option sitting on the berry itself was outstanding, no question — but for a material that went into an established product, what mattered in the end was the cost.

"Knock it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠down a little and I'd buy..."

"I could pay cash. All at once..."

They minded their step, seeing as I was standing there with a sword and a foul temper, but they still said their piece. They wanted it badly enough, apparently.

"Make potions out of that and the effect would be killer."

"Did berries ever come with options?"

"A tank could eat just that and be invincible, right?"

I didn't so much as twitch. If the merchants who looked like they lived in this market were reacting that way, it would sell. They weren't failing to buy because the price was too high. They just wanted to beat it down and skim a little extra for themselves. That much was obvious.

Right in the middle of that delicate tug-of-war, a pretty woman drifted over as if something had possessed her and started singing the praises of my Recovery Herb.

"This is incredible... How does something like this even... Did you grow it?"

This woman was different. She looked about my age, and she was genuinely pretty — well past the kind of pretty where you think, oh, she's a little cute, and move on. She wasn't wearing heavy makeup. If anything, the lack of it made her look clean and innocent, and that clear skin stood out all on its own. Her long, straight black hair was tied back in a single knot, practical for walking a market, and the comfortable clothes only proved that the innocence wasn't a look she'd put together. The purity showed in her face, too. Nothing she did was an act.

Want was written all over her. I could see I want to buy it reach the edge of her lips and get swallowed back down. Short on money, by the look of it. Not that it mattered. Pretty woman, middle-aged auntie, middle-aged man — everyone standing in front of me was the same on that point. I had to sell to someone eventually, and cutting the price was out of the question. Wait long enough, and a buyer would come.

But another option had just been placed in front of me.

All I'd thought was, why is this woman staring at the Recovery Herb so desperately?

And then the Farming Window for her — for Lee Jihyun — opened in front of me, and everything about her unfolded, neatly arranged, before my eyes. I was thrown, but she was a woman with a very decent ability. Alchemy was a noble-tier power, and she even had A-rank skills: two actives and one passive. That alone explained why she'd been staring at my Recovery Herbs so hungrily. An alchemist would. Brew a pile of potions out of good materials, and every last one of them was experience.

More convenient than I'd expected. I didn't even have to ask. Look at someone's information, and the reason behind what they were doing became clear enough. The useless physical data, though... height, weight, and whatever that last figure was — chest size? — I had no idea why the window felt the need to show me that.

"Excuse me."

"Yes?"

"Can I get your number?"

Something about it felt like fate. A good idea had come to me, too. So, with the purest of intentions, I made Lee Jihyun an offer.

"Could we talk somewhere else? I'll sell all of this to you."

Her face went scarlet. She stammered at nothing for a moment, then held out her phone, and I put my number in. After that I packed the leaves back into the pink suitcase, gathered the berries into the basket, and dropped the whole lot into my inventory for the time being.

"Let's go."

"...What?"

"To talk."

"H-hey — you're not selling?"

"Selling what? Didn't you see? It just sold."

The people who'd been hovering and waiting lunged to grab me, but I had a sword in my hand, and nobody actually laid one on me. Lee Jihyun and I headed for a café along the Han River nearby.

"You want me to make the potions and sell them?"

"Yes. You're an alchemist, aren't you? You're making potions to build experience, right?"

"...I am, but..."

"You have to sell what you make anyway."

"...That's true..."

"And you couldn't buy any because you don't have the money. Isn't that it?"

".....Yes. That's true, but..."

"So I'll let you take them on credit. Make potions and ointments and sell them. Price them high. The split is nine to one. I get the nine, obviously. For the first deal I need the cash, so the condition is that you buy the whole lot. I'll take ten percent off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in return."

"..."

"Not for you?"

"No. It's really, really good, it's just..."

I laid the plan out for Lee Jihyun without pausing to soften it. Talking in circles, or talking in circles while minding someone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠else's feelings, was a hard task for a twenty-six-year-old bum. More than that, I was the one holding the leverage in this conversation. I could have taken the cash and sold every last piece. This was the only reason I'd folded the stall and come to talk to her. If she turned down the terms I was offering, I'd go back to the market and spread the mat out again.

"..."

Lee Jihyun sat with it for a while. Then she asked, carefully.

"Um... did you actually cultivate these? I know that can't be it, but..."

Cultivating Recovery Herb was impossible. At least, that was what came up when you searched. The climate it grew in was fairly lenient. The problem was the seed. Recovery ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Herb grew inside dungeons and nowhere else, and getting hold of its seeds was impossible. Given the impact the herb had on modern society, the very first thing anyone had tried was analyzing the seed's DNA and producing it. They failed. There were plenty of dungeons with a biome that could grow the stuff, if only a seed existed. There was no seed. So asking whether I'd cultivated it was the wrong question.

And yet she'd asked. It must have sounded to her like a proposal for regular trade, and that had made her suspicious. Faced with a question that seemed to rest on some instinct of hers I couldn't quite name, I dodged it, and gave her an answer she could accept instead.

"I can supply it on a regular basis. Think of it as an ability along the lines of an herb gatherer."

"Then I'll do it. What should I do?"

The hesitant look from a moment ago was gone. Her expression was firm. All that remained were the practical problems.

"I don't have any money right now... Would it be all right if we sold and bought a little at a time?"

"How much do you have?"

"...What I have on me is about five million..."

"Hmm."

Credit was still credit, and not all credit was the same. Even with a contract, running the entire deal on credit was far too much risk from the seller's side — and in this deal, the seller held the leverage. She knew perfectly well that buyers were everywhere, with or without her. She also knew she didn't have to bow her head to enter an arrangement like this. The opportunity was simply too good, and that was why it refused to come together cleanly.

"I came out here to sell because I need the money too. Putting the whole thing on credit is a little rough."

"I know. Of course. Eighty-eight at D+, twelve at C−. Leaves: two hundred twenty-four at D+, seventy-six at C−... That's 57.4 million won. With the discount, around 52 million."

"When did you—"

I didn't even know the exact count myself. Seeing that Lee Jihyun had already worked it all out, I got the distinct feeling I'd picked the right person to deal with.

"I'll pull in everything I can pull in. I should be able to come up with thirty million."

The resolve in that was enough to satisfy me.

"Oh. But..."

The ambition arrived with a worry attached. She asked, uneasy.

"Were you planning to sell the potions at a premium too...?"

She must have asked because she'd watched me moving the raw stock close to cost. I nodded, because of course I was.

"They have to sell high. That's the whole reason I'm contracting an A-rank alchemist."

"Right...? They'll sell high, of course, but... recovery potions can take a while to move if you don't already have buyers..."

"Worried the inventory will pile up?"

"Yes... I have to sell quickly if I'm going to pay you the balance, so I wondered if I could just carry that part as my own loss..."

I was pretty sure I understood what she meant. So I turned her down.

"No. Both sides have to win, or it doesn't last."

Picking an A-rank alchemist up off the ground of a flea market was an absurd stroke of luck. If I wanted that luck to last long enough to become a reliable stream of money, I couldn't let her take a loss. Lee Jihyun would be bleeding on her ten percent. I'd be bleeding on my ninety. She was offering to make up the difference, but go down that road and bankruptcy arrived in a heartbeat. A way for both of us to profit existed anyway.

"Let's not do it that way. Just follow my plan."

I placed a call.