ALL NOVEL Chapter 675 – Shopping for Luxuries
“A life deprived of enjoyment might as well be a life deprived of meaning. People need to enjoy themselves from time to time, no matter what others say about it. All work and no play just makes for tired, depressed, and angry people that might erupt into violence when provoked.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.
“Oh, you should definitely get some from old Georg’s place, then. He’s the one who supplies our mansion with those beds and pillows. Pretty sure he also supplies most of the expensive inns in town too,” said Queen Lowena von Ostmauer as she guided Aideen’s group through the merchant’s district of Knallgant. They were naturally in the area closest to the mountain, where the wealthiest merchants set up their shops and establishments.
From their chat earlier in the day Aideen had learned that the Queen was a distant grand-niece of Ginnie’s, which made her a cousin thrice removed to the king. Such marriages were quite common amongst royalty, though unlike others, the dwarves at least placed enough caution into the matter and avoided marrying too closely to avoid passing down hereditary defects.
The place recommended by the Queen was one that sold beds and other furniture, and was likely one of the best places in the city for its type given its location in the district. The group entered the shop and was immediately greeted by some staff who to their credit, only paused briefly upon the sight of their Queen entering their shop.
Before long an old dwarf Aideen assumed to be the master of the establishment himself came out from the back to meet them and chatted amicably with the Queen. Two of the shop’s staff showed Aideen’s group around in the meantime and presented their products with trained speeches and movements, showing that they were clearly used to this sort of situation.
It was commendable that not even a surprise visit from royalty managed to rattle them at all.
“These are the finest pillows we have, Milady,” promoted one of the dwarven staff of the shop as she lifted an example from one of the racks the pillows were displayed on for the group to touch and feel out. “The covering is made from fine silk imported from Alfheim, while we use nothing but the best eider down to fill it. To sleep on one is like sleeping on a cloud, supposedly quite addictive, according to our clientele.”
“According to your clientele?” asked Celia with some curiosity at the odd phrasing.
“Well, you know how we dwarves are, Milady. We prefer something more solid under our heads when we sleep, so this sort of pillow isn’t all that popular amongst ourselves,” admitted the saleswoman openly. “As such, we could only base our claims from the praises that our clients have given to our products, rather than use our own biased opinions.”
“Fair, I guess,” nodded Celia with some surprise. She was not sure whether the dwarves were too honest for their own good or to be jealous of them to be able to keep such honesty. Any human merchant she was acquainted with tended to wax poetic about the best sides of their products while hiding its flaws, so the brutal honesty of the dwarves was quite refreshing. “We’ll take… How many will we need again?”
“One moment… Three for the siblings, another two for their mothers, two for ourselves, Aunt Aideen would likely want one too…” counted Kino as she thought about who they would purchase souvenirs for.
“Don’t forget grandma, great-grandpa, and uncle Calais,” chimed in Eilonwy as Kino counter. “Maybe mister Mallard would appreciate one too?”
“Good point, that’s another, then. How many should we get for spares? Two?” asked Celia.
“Might as well make it five spares. It’s not like we’ll be coming to Alcidea that often, so that’d be… seventy two pillows in total?” said Rhys as he totaled up the number including the spares. Soft pillows like the ones they were buying would be subject to wear and tear as they were used, so getting spares were definitely necessary since everyone they were buying for – including themselves – were long-lived people.
“Seventy two? That’s a mighty big order, Milord. I’m afraid we don’t have that many in ready stock at the moment. That said, if Milord and Miladies could wait for two days, we would have that order prepared for you,” said the young dwarven saleswoman with some surprise. “Is that acceptable?”
“We’ll still be here for at least a week, so yeah, that will be fine,” said Celia for the rest of the group. “How much?”
“Each of these will be one gold, so seventy two gold coins, Milady,” said the young dwarf with visible eagerness. No doubt she would be getting a decent commission out of such a large sale. “Since you ordered in such large quantities yet are forced to wait, let us round it down to seventy gold in total as an apology.”
“Certainly, here you are,” said Celia as she counted out seventy gold coins out of her storage artifact. It was a rather princely sum for pillows to say the least. A gold coin would have been enough to feed a family for a good three months to half a year back in her old village, yet nowadays she could spend such a large amount without feeling troubled.
After all, the Lichdom was a rich nation, and it could be said that many of the people who lived there had a rather skewed sense of money. Celia had lived in the Lichdom for the past century of her life, so it was of little surprise that her sense of money had turned rather skewed as well.
A younger Celia, like when Aideen had just met her, would have likely balked at the idea of spending a whole gold coin on something like a pillow. After all, back then she was used to mostly spending coppers, and at times silvers when helping her grandfather deal with selling the harvest. Gold coins were not something she had ever seen at that time.
