Chapter 62

By the time Mali and Lievre walked into the inn, many merchants had already gathered here.

They had all heard about the Wealth Trial that started twelve days ago, and the bet between the two sides that was shocking in value.

Today, all this was finally about to be settled, and many people ran over to watch.

Compared to Baier-ta and his brother, who were constantly being greeted, the figures of Mali and Lievre looked a bit lonely in the inn.

When they entered the door, only Helun nodded to them, and others, intentionally or unintentionally, kept a distance from them, seemingly worried about being contaminated with the aura of a loser.

Iouli was sitting at a wine table, playing a small coin-guessing game with two merchants.

The priestess's winning rate was shockingly high, and in a short while, dozens of Silver Shields had piled up beside her hand.

Seeing Mali, she pushed all the money she won to her personal maid and asked the latter to find a bard outside.

In her words, "A Wealth Trial champion and new Rose Merchant will be born here soon. How can there be no one to sing about such a good thing?"

Baier-ta was overjoyed upon hearing this and said, "You are too polite, but don't bother yourself with this matter. A dwarf poet nicknamed the King of Joy recently came to the city, possessing a throat kissed by the gods. It is said that he has been singing for kings before, so I will have someone invite him over."

Helun coughed lightly and pulled the topic back to the main point, "Congratulations to both of you for completing this round of the Wealth Trial under the gaze of the goddess. I believe you have gained a lot on this trip. Next, you should show the goddess the wealth you have earned."

"We go first!"

Wolwen stepped forward, carrying a full money bag to the priestess, and poured the coins inside onto the table with a "clatter."

A burst of exclamation came from the crowd, because the golden light inside was more than they had imagined.

The facts were indeed so. After the personal maid counted them, she announced, "A total of 41 Gold Eagles and 66 Silver Shields."

The crowd was in an uproar again. Although Baier-ta and his brother were lucky this time and caught the dividend of the rise in iron ore after the war started, it was still a bit scary to earn more than double the profit in just twelve days.

Baier-ta held his head high, accepting the congratulations and praise from his colleagues.

His brother's ability had always been very strong. This time, the personnel arrangement, route selection, and the final transaction negotiation of the trade were basically handled by Wolwen alone.

However, Helun had been looking for various excuses to delay letting Wolwen become a Rose Merchant. Fortunately, with the help of this competition, he could finally send his brother into the guild in a justified manner.

The brothers exchanged a look, and everything was said without words.

"Don't be happy too early," the priestess's voice sounded, "Let me see if these coins are all from trade."

As she said this, she took out her golden balance, took off a piece of amber earring from her left ear, placed it on one side, then placed the coins offered by Baier-ta on the other end, and began to pray.

After a long while, the balance remained motionless.

Iouli stared at the pile of coins, took off a Silver Shield from the top with two fingers, threw it back to the fat merchant, and the next moment the golden balance finally moved again, and the end with the coins rose slowly to be level with the earring.

"There was one too many. The final result should be 41 Gold Eagles and 65 Silver Shields," the priestess said.

Wolwen took out the account book, flipped through it quickly, and nodded after a moment, "I'm sorry, I missed the entry tax."

Although there was one less silver coin in the end, it didn't matter.

Wolwen saluted Iouli, turned and returned to his original position, while Baier-ta held his head high like a victorious rooster.

Next was Mali's turn. He also picked up the money bag and walked up, but the money bag in his hand looked a bit flatter than Baier-ta's.

Seeing this, some people had already started to shake their heads secretly.

The priestess took the money bag but didn't rush to open it, instead asking with interest, "Did you really set off two days late because of the rain?"

Mali nodded, "The road was too muddy and hard to walk."

"I can't tell that you are quite picky."

"It's not me, it's the car that's hard to drive. There is an old saying in my hometown that haste makes waste. It's better to rest before setting off than to force it."

Iouli smiled, "Makes sense."

As she said this, she poured the money bag in her hand onto the table, and the coins with beautiful golden light rushed out, immediately attracting the attention of everyone present.

Although the number of coins in Mali's money bag was slightly less, the proportion of gold was obviously larger, and just a rough look exceeded Baier-ta's share.

The number reported by the maid at the end also confirmed this, "58 Gold Eagles, plus 25 Silver Shields."

After deducting the cost, the profit was close to double!

"This is impossible!" Baier-ta blurted out, "How could honey wine have such a high profit! He must have cheated, and secretly added money to it!"

His words also spoke the hearts of many people. Everyone was a merchant and was also very familiar with commodities like honey wine. In most city taverns, they could be bought. Except for celebrations and festivals, the price was very stable on weekdays, and this also meant that the profit was relatively transparent.

Someone said, "I remember Sheng Xia Ting seems to have held a celebration recently."

"That shouldn't be able to sell at such a price," someone soon retorted, "How many drunks are there in their city that they have to spend three times the money to buy wine?"

The priestess didn't care about the arguments around her, placed the counted money on one end of the balance, and the next moment, under the witness of dozens of eyes, the balance rose slowly until it was level with the earring.

"It seems there is no problem," Iouli giggled.

The priestess's words fell like a thunderbolt in the ears of the fat merchant, making him tremble uncontrollably.

"No, this is impossible!" he roared, losing all decency in his urgency, and even exposing himself, "I sent many honey wines to Sheng Xia Ting, and the honey wine there has fallen to 27 Silver Shields per barrel. No one in the remaining cities will spend a high price to acquire them. You couldn't have earned so much money at all!"

He turned to Iouli again, "He is an alchemist, he must have some means, some means, to deceive all of us!"

The priestess just looked at him coldly, "No one can deceive the Goddess of Wealth in the matter of trade."

"But, but I couldn't have lost to him! You ask others, how could honey wine sell for such a high profit?!" Baier-ta was already incoherent.

Just then, a dwarf wearing a lute and tight short stockings walked into the inn, and said with his magnetic voice.

"I heard that the champion of the Wealth Trial, the new Rose Merchant, is summoning the great King of Joy?!"