TWOD 05
Chapter 5: Bargaining
In the autumn courtyard, a few withered leaves occasionally drifted down.
Stepping out into the yard, Su Ye saw a middle-aged man in a white robe lying on a light brown recliner, leisurely flipping through a yellowish-brown papyrus scroll. Occasionally, tiny fragments of papyrus fell, which a nearby maid carefully picked up.
Su Ye’s nose twitched slightly. The faint aroma of tea led his gaze to a teapot on the table, which seemed out of place for Greece in this era.
The middle-aged head waiter walked over and whispered to Kelton.
Kelton looked up, handed the papyrus scroll to the maid, and quietly looked at Su Ye, a faint warmth in his brown eyes. Su Ye met his gaze without any fear.
Most Greeks of this time were slender, but Kelton had the tall, robust physique of a Greek statue. His deep-set eyes, straight nose, and dark curly hair made him a perfect model for a sculptor.
Su Ye’s eyes suddenly fixed on the silver ring on Kelton’s left ring finger. The ring, with its twin snake heads and a ruby, was particularly striking. The moment he saw it, his eyes stung slightly. What made his eyes sting wasn’t the large ruby, but one of the four emerald eyes on the two snake heads.
Kelton didn’t get up. He said with a look of nostalgia, “I heard about your parents; my deepest condolences. Your parents were true artisans, and I loved your father’s bread. If you need any help, I’ll do my best to provide it.”
Su Ye felt Kelton’s gaze quickly scan his entire body as he spoke.
“I don’t need help,” Su Ye replied, standing tall and projecting a stubborn defiance.
Kelton slowly sat up on the recliner with a kind smile. “Then what do you want?”
Su Ye sighed softly. “Since childhood, I’ve had a dream: to become a great mage and use magic to make the world a better place. Later, my parents spent all their money to send me to Plato’s Academy. Now, someone is taking advantage of their deaths to seize my house, which might prevent me from continuing my studies and becoming a mage. So, I’ve come to make a deal with you to let me continue my education.”
“What kind of deal?” Kelton’s expression changed slightly.
Hark, who had been staring up at the sky, turned his head to look at Su Ye, as if re-evaluating the boy.
“A deal that can make the Dolphin River famous, a deal that might even make your name known throughout Greece, and even the world,” Su Ye said.
“A good name or a bad one?” Kelton stood up, still smiling, but the powerful aura of a Silver Warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr silently spread out. Su Ye suddenly had the illusion that Kelton had transformed into a ten-meter-tall giant with a ferocious grin.
“I have a recipe for a dish left by my parents!” Su Ye said in a deep voice, a hint of sorrow in his tone. He lowered his eyes, shifting his gaze from Kelton to a low table nearby. He had practiced this gesture dozens of times on the way here.
Kelton was momentarily stunned. He retracted his aura and nodded. “Continue.”
Su Ye shook his head. “I don’t want to say too much. In short, I have a recipe for a dish my parents meticulously researched, worth thousands of gold, but today I am willing to sell it for one thousand Golden Zeuses.”
Kelton looked at Su Ye and smiled without speaking. He turned his right hand over, revealing a golden coin in his palm. The front was engraved with a majestic but blurred profile of Zeus, the King of the Gods. He flicked the coin with his thumb. It spun in the air with a humming sound, flashing with golden light, and then landed back in his palm, tail-side up.
“The Golden Eagle is always so charming,” Kelton said.
The back of the coin was engraved with an eagle with wings poised for flight, Zeus’s favorite animal and messenger. In common parlance, Greeks called the gold coin a “Golden Eagle,” while in formal settings, it was called a “Golden Zeus.”
This relates to a legend of the gods. According to the legend, the Greek gods decided on three types of coins but quarreled over whose portrait to use. Athena then said that the gold coin was the most noble and should bear the portrait of the King of the Gods, which pleased Zeus greatly. Next, she said that the silver coin was second only to gold, and no one was second only to Zeus except the Queen of the Gods, Hera, which also pleased Hera. Afterward, Athena asked which major deity would be willing to be touched by slaves, since the nobles would never handle the cheap bronze coins, which were destined to circulate among the lower classes and in the mud. The highest-ranking gods all gave up the fight, as their original targets had been the gold and silver coins. In the end, Athena’s portrait appeared on the bronze coin, with her beloved spiritual creature, the owl, on the reverse side. The goddess of wisdom did not lie, and the result was as she said: bronze coins circulated among the common people, and some great nobles never touched them in their lives. However, this also made Athena’s name the most widely known among the lower classes.
Many people didn’t believe this legend.
One Golden Eagle coin was enough to buy a sheep. Fifty Golden Eagles could buy any house in the poor district of Athens. Kelton himself only spent two thousand Golden Eagles to buy this land and build the Dolphin River restaurant.
“I told you, this recipe can be passed down for a thousand generations and even make your name immortal,” Su Ye said, his gaze fixed firmly on Kelton.
Kelton stared into Su Ye’s eyes, a long, hard stare.
The middle-aged head waiter, who had initially had a slight, mocking smile on his face, suddenly changed his expression. He quickly leaned in and whispered in Kelton’s ear, “Sir, could the reason his parents sold their old shop and borrowed money to get a bigger one be because they had this recipe?”
Kelton nodded slightly. He had considered this possibility from the start.
Kelton asked, “What kind of recipe is it?”
Su Ye answered with conviction, “My recipe can add a new dish to dinner tables throughout all of Greece, and even the entire world.”
“Congratulations, you’ve achieved your dream of using magic to change the world ahead of schedule,” Kelton said, his face beaming with enthusiasm.
The head waiter and the maid smiled in a very cooperative manner.
Hark did not smile.
Su Ye didn’t either.
“I’ve made my offer; you make your counteroffer,” Su Ye said, looking up at the tall Kelton.
“Ten Golden Eagles,” Kelton replied, still smiling.
Su Ye was stunned for a moment. He looked around with a bewildered expression and asked in feigned confusion, “Did a new, stingy Mr. Kelton appear in the workshop district? Did I come to the wrong place?”
The head waiter and the maid frowned slightly.
Kelton watched Su Ye, remaining silent.
Su Ye’s expression became sehttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgus. He continued, “I came here not because I heard you were generous, or wealthy, or kind, or easy to fool. I came because I heard you are one of the wisest people in the workshop district and one of the most far-sighted.”
“I will strive to have the ‘one of’ removed,” Kelton said with a confident smile.
Su Ye pressed on, “What do you think would happen if Plato himself patronized the Dolphin River?”
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