A few days ago.
Many merchants started to get requests for setting up their shops in Nevan.
It was a direct call and request from the King Of Nevan.
But who would dare to place their trust in a fool, most of them neglected it but some thought about it and tried to get information about the recent affairs of Nevan.
No one wanted to take a huge risk as those who had previously been in Nevan had either run away to another Kingdom or suffered a huge loss from which they were unable to recover.But the information shocked them to the core. A month ago, the King had woken up from the coma.
The first thing he did was to kill and purge the corrupt nobles from his estate and gain control over the whole of Nevan by cleansing it.
But that was not the end of it, he suddenly started many social reforms and started to gather an army which caught some interest.
While some thought of taking a risk others thought and decided to wait and test the water after all they can set shop and negotiate any time they want after all they were the ones who would be making the call.
......
The merchant's burrows furrowed and they looked at Alex with confusion.
They thought that Nevan had discovered a new mineral but Alex's explanations of making the metal made them confused.If it was natural metal, they could pull some strings and manipulate things to get the mineral into their hands and that's the reason they wasted time coming here but things turned out quite different from their expectations.
"So, where were we?" Alex's voice snapped them out of their thoughts.
"Can we see a sample?" One of them asked.
Alex nodded and waved his hand.
A servant came with four fillets of steel and gave each merchant one of them.
As they observed the metal, Alex looked at them with curiosity.
Alex knew that they would heed over the heels to get the production method but he was not at least worried about it.
The steel that he had given to them was just cheap carbon steel with many impurities in it, still, it was much better than iron.
The steel that Alex wanted to produce was stainless steel which is much tougher and lighter than iron and used to draw out layers and made Damascus steel.
The Merchants held the metal in their hands and it felt quite light compared to other metals and thought that it may be weak compared to other metals used for weapons but they shook away the thoughts as they could feel its tensile strength and hardness.
Alex smirked seeing their subtle change in expression.
The Merchant looked at Alex and started to speak in a flower sugar-coated tone and buttered him up.
"Your Highness, Please give the commission to us?"
"No, please give it to us?"
The Merchants started to argue with them.
"What can you offer in exchange?" Alex asked.
One of them stood and spoke with a mighty tone"We will give you 10% of the sale along with many goods."
"Your Majesty, we will give you 15%."
"No, don't listen to him. We will give you 18%."
Alex listened to their offers, trying to contain his urge to snap their heads.
'My men will work day and night to produce them while you fuckers will just take and sell it and you expect me to agree to you taking almost all the profit of the sales.'
Alex looked at the last man who looked quite meek and asked him what he was offering.
The man got up from his seat and spoke in a respectful tone"Your Highness, our merchant group is not as big as them and still in the process of expansion. We are a recent group so people buying everything that we sell is still hard."
"So, instead of money, I wanted to propose you have a material exchange. Since your Nevan is working on its inner state it would be badly needed material so we promised to give you the things you asked for in exchange for granting the rights to sell it."
"Moreover, we also give you the sale of the profits along with it once we got to know about the sales of this metal."
The other merchants laughed at his offer and thought that it was bullshit after all who can stay away from the allure of money.
Taking things, instead of money, who will accept it.
Alex thought about the pros and cons with a solemn expression and said"You can't get exclusive rights for selling the steel and about the exchange, I think I need to have a private discussion with you."
The man's mood turned gloomy on hearing his beginning words about Alex but he was surprised to hear Alex's last words and said"Your Highness, Did you mean?"
Alex nodded, "Yes, we have a deal though it needs to be discussed further."
"What?" Everyone screamed.
"Foolish, this is utter foolishness!" One of them shouted.
"Crappy King, you are just a king of the small estate and you dare to show arrogance." Another one spoke.
Bassie was about to refute but Alex stopped him.
Alex got up and looked at the man and said"You said you I am Crappy King in this small estate. Then let me ask you?"
"Do you think you can take a step outside the castle without my permission?"
"You are forgetting that no matter what, I am still the king and I have thousands of people under me. Do you think your merchant group will give a shit about you if I kill you here and throw your corpse in the forest for the beast to feed?"
The man became frightened as he saw Alex's cold chilling gaze.
The moment his eyes met, he knew he had crossed his line.
"And you barking dogs. Who the hell are you to stop me from selecting which deal to take. Isn't this what you merchants do? Take the best offer."
"You two can head back while you.." Alex spoke, pointing his finger toward the man who was already in the cold seat.
"For disrespecting The King you are fined with 5000 gold coins," Bassie shouted beside Alex.
"What! Why don't you loot me?" The man shrieked in panic.
"Then you can just buy a grave for yourselves cause either you give the coin or die here," Alex spoke.
Alex knew these people are supporting Amidon and the material they are buying would mostly go to Amidon and Alex wanted to take a look at their attitude towards Nevan and see their disgusting attitude, Alex vowed that he would crush these merchant groups as soon as possible and what would be a better way to destroy the things in which they invested int.
Since the war is coming Alex would thoroughly destroy Amidon along with these merchants.
The man gritted his teeth in anger and finally nodded his hands and promised to offer the fine.
After the three left, Alex looked at the remains and asked with a smile"What is your name?"
"This humble one name is David, your Highness."
