After the first exchange of "greetings" between the two of them and some tense silent staring contests, which the female merchant obviously lost since she got a better look at who she was swearing at, the woman almost knelt down to beg for forgiveness right then and there as she realized that she might be offending a noble or powerful individual, but Zarba just laughed it off and reassured her that he didn't intend to do anything to her, which relieved the female merchant and the two mercenaries who were about to make a run for it after seeing their employer's recklessness.
"Ahahaha, my esteemed customer, you, sir, are such a humorous one~!" The woman with short gray hair and gray eyes said with a simpering tone as she rubbed her hands together like a stereotypical merchant. The flattery is on full display as she is obviously trying to make a sale to Zarba, who is standing next to her.
"Heh, am I?" Zarba replied with a small smile on his lips while he was looking at the various merchandise that the merchant had, which was now being displayed beside the wagons on the tables and on the ground for her unexpected customers who came out of nowhere to see.
When he asked to see her wares, the merchant was pretty enthusiastic to sell her merchandise and immediately brought everything that looked expensive out, hoping to earn big money from him.
"Of course, of course, only someone with good humor such as you, esteemed sir, could brighten up my day of misfortune with a jest..." The female merchant was smiling brightly, like she didn't just swear at him earlier for poking fun at her and continued to flatter him.
Right now Zarba and his group are browsing her wares as Zarba notices that the female merchant has quite a variety of goods in her wagons. He wants to see if there are any interesting or useful items she might have since they somehow ended up meeting on the road like this, so they might as well take a look.
What about avoiding people? There's no point to that anymore since their location and destination are probably well known by most of the bounty hunters, mercenaries, and assassins of the empire by now.
"Miss merchant, what is your name, by the way?" Zarba asks as he turns to look at the woman, who has quite a pretty face and pale skin, which is quite rare in the empire. Zarba thinks that she might be a foreigner or a descendant of immigrants.
"Oh, my humble name is Louise, just an aspirin merchant, esteemed sir!" The woman quickly introduced herself as she placed her hand on her chest and bowed slightly at him.
"You can call me Zar-Bro then." Zarba hummed as he gave her his alias for obvious reasons before he turned his head to look at his slaves and the goblin girl.
"Oh my, this looks interesting..." Xin, who was browsing a couple of books with suspicious titles, said as she nodded her head after skimming through the content inside before she immediately added them to the pile of items she wants, and from what Zarba could see, there are a bunch of makeup products, some teas, papers, and ink.
And next to the half-elf who picking up dubious books there's the goblin girl...
"Hehehe, this should last me a week..." Mormon giggles as she grabs a bunch of bottles of expensive-looking wine from the open crate to add to the pile of items she wants, along with some child-sized clothes and shoes for herself as well as some basic alchemy equipment.
And lastly the muscular woman...
"Hmmm, too light..." Nadia shook her head as she put down an ornate short sword on the table after she felt it in her hand, then she grabbed the other weapons on display on the table and also didn't find them to her liking from how light and fragile they looked.
With a grunt, Nadia immediately gave up as she didn't find anything she liked and just walked towards the foodstuff instead as she grabbed some dried meat, smoked sausages, and eggs.
'They really don't worry about the expense, huh?' Zarba's lips twitch, as from what he could see, this would cost him more than ten gold coins, a number that would bankrupt any peasant family.
'Fortunately I have a mountain of coins...' Zarba shook his head before he turned to look at the magic items that were arranged on the table.
Among the magic items on display, he only found two of them more useful to him than the others: a magic ring that makes you see in the dark and a magic wand that can shoot out water like a hose that can only shoot out a squirt of water five times before it has to be recharged with mana.
"I can use these..." Zarba hummed as he thought about a way to make use of the magic ward, such as making the Zar-Bros become firefighters or just making them capable of washing up dirty stuff when needed.
'Who knows, it might actually come in handy in the future in some unexpected way,' he thought to himself.
As for the night vision magic ring, he could make his Zar-Bros become even more deadly when he has them operating in the night with it. Just imagine a group of expert marksmen that could accurately hit you with an arrow in the dark environment; that is enough to make anyone wary of facing them in the dark.
"I take two of these." Zarba then turned to Louise as he pointed at the two items, much to the woman's happiness, as the magic items are quite pricey, so they didn't sell easily, especially in this economy of the empire.
"Of course, of course, anything else do you fancy, Sir Zar-Bro?" Louise smiled wide as she grabbed the two items and put them in Zarba's hand while she shook his hand with enthusiasm.
"Well, nothing else. I'm only interested in these two magic items, and how much did those girls purchase and mine in total?" Zarba shook his head in denial before he jerked his chin at the three women holding on to the things they wanted as they gave their stuff to the Zar-Bros, who later transported them into the carriage for the Pro-Maids to sort out the purchased items.
"Well~! Let's see..." Louise rubs her chin as she glances at the items that are missing from her displays and makes a pretty fast calculation in her head.
"Thirty-seven golds and twelve silvers, but for you, good sir, I give you a discount: thirty-seven golds flat!" she declares with a cute pose and nice smile, totally not trying to curry favor at all...
"Haha, alright, alright, I'll remember you, Louise." Zarba nodded his head with a wry smile to her while mentally commanding one of the Pro-Maids to bring the coins to Louise. He understands what the merchant is trying to do, and whenever possible, he would consider using her service first rather than other merchants.
"Oh~ my thanks~!" When the Pro-Maid arrived with the money, Louise almost squealed in delight when she saw the gleaming golden coins inside the small pouch that was handed to her by the strange, white, doll-like maid.
"Pleasure doing business with you, sir Zar-Bro~!" With money in hand, Louise quickly turned around and bowed deeply with a gleeful expression towards her greatest customer before she turned to her mercenaries and yelled an order at them to put back all of her wares into the wagons while she herself carefully counted the coins inside the pouch just to be sure.
"Hey, Louise, do you have your own store somewhere?" Zarba asked curiously as he watched Louise holding the coin pouch to her chest like a precious newborn. The way she treats it is really telling about her years of financial difficulty, and this windfall probably meant she could take it easy for a while.
"Ah! Yes, yes..." Louise straightened abruptly, nearly dropping the pouch in her hands after hearing Zarba's question. She then gestured her hand toward the west as the road led to the horizon, where the nearest town is located.
"Three days' ride from here to the town of Emilio! The Ember's Song! Finest of goods from this side of the continent and the greatest store in all of..." Her enthusiastic pitch died down to a whisper as she registered Zarba's raised eyebrow with a skeptical expression on his face.
"Well... it's just an old warehouse near the south gate. But!" She was sulking before quickly recovering and jabbed a finger upward. "It's my favorite store with a legitimate business license! Notary stamped and everything! I guarantee that no store in Zenobia is more honest doing business than the Ember's Song!"
"Oh, alright, I'll visit it when I'm in the area," Zarba nods with a smile, watching Louise's hopeful expression transform into relief as she didn't seem to scare away such an esteemed customer.
"Thank you, Sir~!" Louise smiled sweetly to Zarba as she celebrated in her mind that she might have secured some future business deals with him.
"Ahem, ahem, my husband..." Suddenly they hear Xin clear her throat deliberately with her arms crossed as she tapped her foot beside the carriage, gaining Zarba's attention to her.
"We're losing daylight," she said, though the sun still has not even reached the highest point today. "So I suggest that we should be on our way soon..."
The half-elf feels that the female merchant has started to get too close to Zarba without her permission and has to put a stop to that nonsense...