Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-One: Supporter Interview 2
“Looking forward to working with you, Little Karen!”
“Yeah! I’m glad that with you as my supporter, Uncle Sepl, it’ll be easy to casually throw impossible demands at you.”
“Hey!”
“I’m counting on you too, Karen.”
“Yes!”
Urte smiled wryly at Karen, who gave her a well-mannered response.
“You’re the employer, so you can treat me the same as that Sepl over there. No need for polite speech. Also, I’ll pay properly, so I’d like to buy a panacea from you eventually.”
Taking Urte at her word, Karen dropped her formality and asked what she wanted to know:
“How much money do you have right now, Urte?”
Karen asked frankly, taking advantage of Urte’s words.
“You’re not going to give me a discount to match my savings, are you? Two gold coins. That’s my cash on hand. I moved again after that, and various things cost money.”
“Huh? Cash on hand means you’d have a bit more if you sold your possessions?”
“Sure, if I sold my equipment, I’d get some money for it, but what about it?”
“Right now, a panacea is five gold coins, you know? But I’m planning to raise the price. I haven’t raised it yet, so why don’t you buy one now?”
“What!?”
“Oh, Karen…”
Beside the stunned Urte, Natalia seemed to understand Karen’s scheme and smiled wryly. However, Natalia only smiled wryly and didn’t stop Karen this time.
“Are you kidding me, trying to sell a panacea at that price? I said I don’t need your pity. We’re adventurers who sell our skills too. Just as we take pride in the techniques we’ve honed, risking our lives, we won’t undervalue your skills either.”
“The most recent selling price for a panacea was five gold coins.”
In the dungeon investigation team, Karen had received payment from the royal family as a reward corresponding to her achievements. Judging from the amount, her panacea seemed to have been valued on par with an extra-large healing potion, but since the payment was officially for her accomplishments, she did not count it as the panacea’s sale price.
At Karen’s words, Sepl stuck his head in with a stern face.
“Hey, Little Karen. Who’s the bastard who tricked poor innocent Karen? I’ll give them a piece of my mind.”
“Sepl’s right, you should protest. Are you telling me to become the same kind of scoundrel who undervalued your skills? I refuse.”
“No, actually, I tried to negotiate it down even further, but they raised the price on me.”
“Huh?”
To Sepl and Urte, whose faces said they didn’t understand, Karen scratched her head with an "ehehe.”
“Back then, I was still an F-rank alchemist, so I felt bad receiving lots of money, and I didn’t really understand how the panacea came to be, and I also had the feeling like ‘it says panacea, but is it really?’ So I desperately negotiated the price down and got them to set it at the price of a medium healing potion.”
“What Karen is saying is true.”
Natalia supplemented Karen’s words.
“The other party desperately tried to raise the price too, but because they felt indebted to Karen, they eventually gave in. Even so, I somehow managed to avoid it being priced at a small healing potion.”
When Natalia said this, two gazes that said "Is this girl serious…" stabbed into Karen.
It might have sounded strange coming from Karen now that she had risen to B-rank, but at the time, she had still been an F-rank alchemist.
She wished the two of them wouldn’t look at her with such suspicious eyes.
“Since then, the other party has respectfully tried to compensate Karen at every opportunity.”
“So basically, after various things happened, right now a lesser panacea potion is a great deal at five gold coins, the price of a medium healing potion! But I’m being scolded from all sides to raise the price, so when I sell it in the future, it’ll be at the price of a large healing potion—meaning two platinum coins.”
Numerous nobles, mainly those who had witnessed Karen’s abilities in the dungeon investigation team, had been sending requests to purchase panaceas.
That was why Karen had been struggling to determine an appropriate price. Starting with Helfried of the Ehlertt Earldom, everyone she consulted only told her to raise the price, so she was planning to raise it unavoidably.
Lesser panacea potions at the price of large healing potions. Medium panacea potions at the price of extra-large healing potions.
Fighting against Natalia, who tried to make her raise the price even more, Karen achieved a mysterious victory by arguing that, unlike regular potions, cooking potions couldn’t be preserved, and brilliantly secured these prices.
However, she had not yet informed the nobles who had sent purchase requests. Right now was the absolute last stage where she could sell lesser panaceas at medium healing potion prices without being dishonorable to anyone.
“Karen’s words do have logic to them. So just this once, I’ll overlook it. That said, I’d like you to feel even more indebted than before.”
“Ugh… but to buy something I know has such tremendous value at such a low price…! My pride, my dignity…!”
Approaching Urte, who was wavering between reason and desire, Karen whispered in her ear:
“Hey, Urte. Aaron was acting tough, but his body is suffering, right? Wouldn’t it be better to get a panacea as soon as possible?”
“Karen, you’ve got the face of a villain trying to drag someone onto the path of evil.”
In the end, Urte succumbed to Karen’s wicked whisper—an expression worthy of Sepl’s jab—and immediately dashed to a pawnshop, sold off her spare equipment, and secured five gold coins.
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