It was already ten midnight, and the tavern was gradually becoming deserted, except for three or two drinkers hiding in a remote corner, three or two of them gathered around a table, quietly drinking ale.Yerkes and I sat in our seats near the bar and watched as the bar owner split the bottle of golden cider in two.In the eyes of the tavernkeeper, as if burning with a kind of frenzy caused by fine wine, he very carefully poured out half of the golden cider in the glass bottle with a thin neck and round belly, and the golden liquid slowly flowed into the bottom of the glass along the wall of the decanter, watching the golden cider in the decanter keep rising, the fat on the tavernkeeper's face was shaking, and he said to the scholar of Yerkes with a painful face: "Enough, enough, such a good wine should be tasted slowly, but it can't be drunk like ale, so much is enough, enough!"
”Scholar Yerkes stubbornly shook his head, the hair on his head was a little messy, and he took a charcoal pen from his coat pocket and drew a black line on the outside of the decanter, making it clear that the wine must be poured to the scale.The tavern owner had a bitter face, and according to the request of the Yerkes scholar, he poured most of the golden cider into the decanter, and kept sighing on the side, saying that the two of us drinking like this is simply a tyrannical thing, but Yerkis didn't think so, and reached out to help the tavern owner hold the funnel, and put the rest of the wine into three ordinary glass wine bottles and covered them with cork.The tavernkeeper then waved over to Eve and told her to put the three bottles in the cellar cellar.A good bottle of vintage wine is more precious than gold in the eyes of an alcoholic, and the tavern owner is undoubtedly an old drunkard, although he is better at making ale, but he has no resistance to other kinds of good wine.He turned the thin-necked bottle upside down, poured the remaining wine in the bottle into a wine glass, the tavern owner drank the small half glass of golden cider, and a wonderful look burst out in his hazy drunken eyes, he licked his lips, savored the taste of the residual wine in his mouth, and then sighed to the Yerkes scholar: "If you just want to find the kind of golden cider that is old, you can still buy it in the Imperial Capital Wine Store, but there are not many high-end goods like this kind of brewing technology and cellaring that are very sophisticated in the market.
The supply and marketing channels of those wines are in the hands of a few big nobles, there are high-end wines, and they are also circulated among the upper nobles, as for us commoners, we can only drink those ordinary ales or medium-quality golden ciders. ”The Yerkes scholar asked with great interest, "Is this wine really so good?"
”The tavern owner nodded without hesitation.For the study of wine, the Yerkes scholar is obviously a layman, although he usually comes to the tavern for a drink in his spare time, but he likes the combination of barbecue and ale, maybe he has stayed in El City for too long, and he thinks that there is nothing special about golden cider, but he does not expect that for the tavern owner, a bottle of fine golden cider is also very precious.Yerkis was obviously a little drunk, otherwise he didn't want to talk about anything other than the magic pattern construction, he took a sip of the wine glass with a red face, supported the table with both hands, looked up at the tavern owner and said, "Since you like this golden cider so much, you didn't want to go to El City to see it, and over there, this kind of good wine is probably not too difficult to find!"
”The tavernkeeper rubbed his temples lightly with the thumb of his right hand, his expression a little pained, probably because he had calculated some mathematical problems, and then straightened his tongue and said slowly to the Yerkis scholar: "Not to mention how inconvenient it is to go back and forth between the imperial capital and the city of El by airship only twice a month.Speaking of the round-trip ticket for this airship, it costs two gold coins, plus the cost of food and lodging, and the cost of a trip to El City, how many barrels of wine do you think I need to buy and transport it back to the imperial capital to earn this fee back?
”Obviously, the tavernkeeper was telling the truth, only the wine merchants would organize large caravans to transport hundreds or thousands of barrels of golden cider out of the city of El Eyre, and it would be impossible for a simple drinker, or a small business such as the tavernkeeper, to go to the city of El to buy wine in person.It is precisely for this reason that the channels of alcohol are firmly controlled in the hands of some trading houses, and behind these trading houses there are often big aristocrats."
If I can come up with a little high-end wine, I don't know how many taverns like yours are willing to pay for it, I am also from a civilian family, I don't want to belittle civilians, I just know this large group better, I know that many civilian families can hardly afford this expensive wine, no one wants to carry a heavy bag of money to drink, this kind of wine is a little too expensive for civilians?""
Of course, even if you are an alcoholic, you can't get drunk every day, this grade of wine, in the imperial capital, a bottle is worth almost ten silver hammers, of course" The tavern owner picked up the glass on the table with his hand, squinted his eyes and continued: "It is impossible for every drinker to drink a full bottle of wine, you can also buy it by the glass, such a bottle of wine can be filled with six wine glasses, then the price of a glass of wine can be sold for two silver dollars, in this case, even if it is a civilian like me, drink one or two glasses of wine, there will still be no problem, That one, you just said you still have this high-end wine in your hand?
”"Yes, I've got some wine like this."
I put my hand into my magic waist bag again, felt for a bottle of golden cider with a thin neck and round belly, and then explained: "In El City, I and another of my classmates may not know, my classmate Ma and I both graduated from the El City War Magic Academy, and the two of us have partnered to open a small grocery store in El City, and there are many kinds of goods in the store, including some high-quality golden cider, which I brought to the imperial capital just before coming to the imperial capital. ”"I know that, too, but I thought the store was bankrupt, but it looks like you're running it well!"
Yerkis proved that what I said was true, and with Yerkes's words, the tension on the tavernkeeper's face gradually eased.The tavernkeeper's face was full of smiles, and his eyes always involuntarily glanced at the other bottle of golden cider in my hand, and then said very tactfully: "It's a great honor to meet you tonight, and I hope to have the opportunity to cooperate!"
”"Of course!"
I smiled at the bar owner and said, "About the wine." ”"Golden cider!
Of course, if you want some good and cheap fresh barley wine, you can also tell me. ”The barkeeper held out a large, hairy hand on the back of his hand, shook it with me in a friendly way, his palm was warm and rough, but it looked very powerful, and then he said his name, which was Djokak.I didn't think that these golden ciders would suddenly become so valuable in the imperial capital, when I was in the city of Eyre, the price of such a bottle of vintage golden cider would never exceed two silver bells, otherwise no one would buy the best golden cider, because it was too expensive, almost all the aristocratic families in the city of El had their own golden apple orchards and wine cellars, and no one wanted to spend a lot of money to buy them outside, even if the wine outside tasted excellent.The wine merchants, who keep the price of golden cider to the lowest price in El City, and they grade every barrel of wine, and there are different prices for different grades and different vintages, and I hate those philistine wine merchants, so I never deal with them.Soon, I signed a magical contract with Djokak, the so-called contract, and in the Grimm Empire, the magic contract has supreme authority.The tavernkeeper Zokak has very limited purchasing power, and although I have lowered the wholesale price of golden cider, it is still difficult for him to eat a large barrel of golden cider.A large oak barrel can usually fill nearly 200 thin-necked round-bellied bottles, such a thin-necked round-bellied bottle can have a capacity of about one liter, that is to say, the total capacity of a barrel of wine is about more than 200 liters, according to the price of wine in the imperial capital, the wholesale price of such a bottle of golden cider should be eight silver rings, then a barrel of wine needs about sixteen gold coins, although I reduced the price of a barrel of wine to forty gold coins, but this is still beyond the purchasing power of Zokak.Zokak rubbed his hands together and asked Eve to move out the cash box he hid under the bed, but unfortunately even if he stacked all the silver bells in it together, after all the counting, all of Zokak's savings were only more than twenty gold coins, and after all, he still needed some working capital to run this tavern, and it was impossible to take out all the property, just to buy such a barrel of expensive high-grade golden cider, Eve on the side also glanced at Zokak with some concern, Secretly pulled the corner of Rachokak's clothes, although he didn't say anything to dissuade him, but there was also some worry in his eyes.Rubbing my scalp slightly, I didn't expect that the tavern that could come up with such high-end food actually didn't have much working capital, obviously even the tavern owner wouldn't have the luxury of eating this expensive food often, maybe the magic box in the back kitchen just kept such a delicacy.I don't think there are too many people who can choose to eat a big meal here, and it's no wonder that Eve, who still looks beautiful, would rub the oil of the Yerkis scholar and take the opportunity to taste the food on the table, but apparently the Yerkis scholar didn't care at all, but was very generous.Looking at the embarrassed Zokak on his face, an idea moved in his mind, and he suddenly thought of a marketing model for wine in his previous life, which I only knew a little about, but it was enough to deal with the problems in front of me.I thought: since everyone in the Grimm Empire respects the magic contract very much, then I can think differently, so I gently tapped the wooden table with the hand holding the magic carving pen, and the sound on the table made a dangling sound, which brought the deep contemplative Zokak back to his senses.I mentally organized the language, thinking about how to say it so that the tavernkeeper Zokak could understand it, and be willing to accept it."
In that case, I'm really sorry, I don't have that much money in my hand to buy a whole barrel of golden cider, if I can, I think I can buy fifty bottles, oh, a hundred bottles is actually not impossible" The bar owner counted the stack of gold coins in front of him, hesitated for a long time before saying euphemistically, hearing Zokak say this, Eve who was guarding the side was slightly relieved.I don't think he had thought that a barrel of wine could fill 200 thin-necked round-bellied bottles before that, and his math was a bit terrible.I waved my hand, then quickly picked up the magic pen and wrote a line on the contract scroll, placing it in front of the tavern keeper Djokak, and said to him, "I think it would be more appropriate to write the contract like this." ”Zhuo Kak still looked sad at first, but when he saw the last line of the magic contract, he widened his eyes and carefully re-read it, confirming that in fact, I just changed the transaction form on the magic contract to the consignment model, that is to say, after signing a magic contract, I put a barrel of golden cider in the tavern of Zhuo Kak for free, and asked him to help me sell it, and then collect the wine fee every month according to the sales volume of the golden cider, of course, if within the specified period, If Zokak fails to sell the required amount of Golden Cider, the contract will be automatically cancelled at the end of the month, and Zokak will need to return all the remaining Golden Cider.This is just an ordinary consignment contract, but it is of great significance in Djokak's seriousness, and this will directly solve the embarrassing situation of insufficient working capital in his hands."
What a generous magician you are."
After signing the magic contract, Djokak said to me with a lot of emotion.Although this transaction is just a barrel of golden cider, but it gives me a new idea, maybe I can open a trading firm specializing in golden cider in the imperial capital, specifically find these street taverns in the imperial capital, and sign an agreement with them, maybe this should be a trade route, for this royal city of the Green Empire with a total population of more than 10 million, I think the demand for these high-end wines should be a daily number, and in this way, it can also avoid the commercial power of those noble and wealthy families, It's a good way to protect yourself.I never imagined that the golden cider in the underground caverns would be worth millions of gold coins for me.Seeing that Djorkak was happy to pull Yerkis to continue drinking and celebrate, Yerkis waved his hand and said that after eating these delicious foods, he would go home and go to bed, after all, it was late, and I still had class tomorrow morning.It wasn't until near the end of the meal that Yerkis patted his forehead and remembered the purpose of his trip, although we had come to drink to celebrate the success of making the magic pattern of the Wind and Waves Boots, but there was something else going on.The Jerkes scholar then pulled out a cloth bag sewn of demonic cloth from his magical fanny bag, which bulged with a small half-bag of content, and rustled it when it was dropped on the wooden table.I reached out and fumbled around my pocket suspiciously, only to find that there were some small round particles inside, I looked at Scholar Yerkes with wide eyes in surprise, and then barely suppressed the joy in my heart, forced myself not to laugh out loud, and asked Scholar Yerkes softly: "Yese, this is the seed of a magic plant." ”The Yerkes scholar nodded slightly, a drunken blush on his face.