The auction itself was a dull affair to Erik. Just horny men irresponsibly throwing too much silver at women after drinking too much ale, wine, mead or brandy. One by one the women were auctioned off for the night and taken upstairs.

Erik and Sven were very surprised when the usually taciturn, or slightly crazy, Scaldar splurged a large amount of silver to get his hands on TWO of the Roses auctioned at the last phase of the event. And when the old, but clearly still spry and vigorous, Vikti proudly marched to a room, Harald softly confided to the youngsters that Scaldar was actually a very well-known womaniser in his younger days. He just never bothered to marry and was either cursed or unlucky enough to never father a child with strong Norscan blood.

Maybe they thought auctioning her at the end would make it easier, but Yeying was the last item on the menu. Usually there would only be a very small group of people willing to wait till this late into the event, but for some reason there was actually quite a bit of competition.

In the end, Erik nonetheless won the auction by stubbornly continuing to increase his bid until even the most spiteful opponent gave way. The price approached 2.000 silver in large, Marienburg mint, an astronomical price for a single night’s entertainment. It was enough to buy a medium sized house in a decent neighbourhood , big enough to house a family of eight plus servants within easy walking distance of a nearby market.

The last rival-bidder must have felt Erik’s determination to win regardless of cost, so he’d monstrously drive up the final price.

Still, a couple of early-dropouts were now shit out of luck and no longer felt like playing in the Blooming Rose. They had set their sights on the place’s high quality goods and were now empty-handed. Some made due with the regular courtesans while others gave Erik the evil eye and angrily left outside.

Erik meanwhile looked forward to Yeying’s expression when she realised he had understood every word of complaint she said on stage as he began to walk to the room.

Yeying led the way while Skadi walked at Erik’s side, leading to a string of curses and insults aimed at them.

 “Some barbarian Norscan shithead should just steer clear of civilisation. Why doesn’t the Nightingale go up with me and let the Norscan fuck his slut!”

“Better yet, that slut isn’t bad looking either. She can no doubt pleasure my crew for a night at least before she breaks!”

Maybe a group of Yeying’s admirers had had too much to drink, but when the three people walked by one of them stuck his foot out to trip Skadi. He succeeded too. Skadi began to fall over but was luckily caught by Erik before anything could happen.

Blinded by seething, white-hot rage Erik punched the offender in the chest. He didn’t quite disintegrate into grisly bits, but he flew straight through main hall before connecting with the far wall with a wet *splat-sound.

A few screams later, the body was scraped off the wall and skilfully removed from the premise. The group of other offenders quickly ran out the door and Erik was hurried along to his destination.

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“Impressive feat, to throw a man across a building with a single punch. And don’t worry about penalties and whatnot, enough witnesses saw him start the thing so it’s over and done with.

Now, to business! What does your mistress want from me this time?”

In front of Erik sat a man best described as a stereotypical evil merchant. Expensive looking black & gold brocade clothes, high hat on the table and a large amount of gold or silver jewellery complete with huge gemstones sat on his fingers or hung around his neck. His face was podgy, bordering on fat and his eyes reminded Erik of a rat’s, beady and almost glowing with a mix of cowardice and malice.

“I’ll need to correct you on that, Bartholomeus. Helles isn’t my mistress, I am not her errand boy. I am her only daughter’s husband and thus a family member. I am called Erik, as mentioned through our correspondence before, and my companion here is Skadi, one of my other wives.”

A gleam flashed through the Burger’s eyes as his brain seemed to rapidly absorb and adjust the new information. Erik then simply continued on with the conversation as he presented a notebook.

“I am here primarily to obtain a number of ingredients as well as some trading. I’ve made proper lists of everything and compiled them in this booklet. Please, have a look.”

Direct and to the point, two aspects that Norscans and Marienburgers have in common. Neither saw much sense in endlessly skirting around the topic at hand and wasting time.

Bartholomeus swiftly scanned through the pages to get a rough estimate of what he was dealing with and Erik could faintly see his brows frown and relax multiple times. Whether the merchant intended to show this or it was a genuine reaction, Erik couldn’t tell although he suspected the former was more likely.

‘Merchants will always be merchants, after all.’ – He silently thought to himself.

“Alright, simple enough for the most part. Some of the items Helles requested are unusual but since this is Marienburg, I have no doubts whatsoever we can complete the entire order.

Be warned though, things like gryphon’s bile or a sprouting Great Oak leaf are rare and therefore expensive. The entire bill will be somewhere between 30.000 and 50.000 Marienburg silvers.

Oh wait, I forget you Norscans have little grasp on the concept of different currencies. Let’s see, in raw weight of either scrap or bullion, I’d say it would come close to a single ton of weight in silver? Gold, gems and trade goods can of course be used as well, but I understand gold is not considered valuable by your people and therefore not on hand in any large volume?”

“Gold is too soft to be useful for anything but jewellery or ornaments. Silver is more useful to us because most things can be bought easily with it, so you would usually be correct. Just that I anticipated you Southerners’ love for the metal so I collected a bit more of it back home.”

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t lump the people of Marienburg together with the likes of those of the incompetent Empire or the blindly arrogant Brettonians, thank you very much.” – Bartholomeus seemed peeved at Erik’s use of the term ‘Southerner’.

“Well then, why don’t you start calling us either Frost Wolves or Skaelings then? I don’t appreciate being lumped together with moronic Aeslings, mad Beornlings or mad Vanheimlings.” – Erik responded in kind.

“… Fair enough, Erik of the Frost Wolves. Fair enough. Well then, as for your ship’s inventory. I can take the lot, using my network of underlings. I can swear an oath that I won’t give you a bad deal for it either? I’ll still mark it up by at least double for most of it, tenfold for the ambergris, but that will include processing and stuff to make the raw materials into finished product. Agreed? I won’t offer to trade the inventory for your items, I’m well aware your goods are all individually owned by your men and I will just consider the two as different transaction.”

“Alright, I’ll see what you offer. If I agree, there’s no reason for us to stick around here and needlessly spend more money. Oh, and I will take that oath of yours since you’re offering.

Skadi? Can you help our friend Bartholomeus here with that?”

A short while later both sides were happy with their arrangement and the conversation almost came to a close.

“Well then, that concludes our business I take it? Or was there anything else?” – Bartholomeus said as he half rose up from his chair.

Looking at Yeying softly playing her zither in the corner, having provided a bit of background music during the conversation she didn’t understand a word of, Erik made up his mind.

“Yes, actually there are a three more things I could use your help with.”

“Oh? And what would those be? I can’t guarantee anything and there might be additional costs involved depending on your request, but I’m never one to let go of an opportunity. Ask away!”

Having received the expected answer, Erik pulled out a decorated silk bag and presented it to the merchant.

“Alright then. First, I want to know what this is. I’ve had a look inside, but I can’t tell more about it than that it’s some kind of monster’s claw. I would like to know what it is, maybe what its uses are and how much it’s worth.”

Bartholomeus took the bag, wondering where Erik had hidden such a large thing on his person, and took a look inside. Immediately, a look of astonishment appeared on his face as he excitedly turned to Erik.

“This is clearly draconic in origin! I will need to have a specialist look at it to know for certain, but it is most likely a young dragon’s paw with a complete set of claws and cut at the wrist. It will most likely have some kind of effect associated with it as well, but again I’ll need to have a specialist look at it.

Rare, truly rare and worth a lot!”

“I might be willing to sell it, unless it has some beneficial effects for me. Of course, I’ll pay for the necessary services to identify it.”

“Of course, of course. Marvellous. I’m quite the collector myself you see and I would love to know more about this myself as well.

Now, you mentioned three requests. What are the others?”

“Yes, the second thing I wanted to ask is this: We are on our Second Raid of the year and I wanted to use this opportunity to make some money and hone the skills of my men with a lot of challenging but not too difficult fights. Do you perchance have political or mercantile enemies and specific targets we could seek out and deal with for you?

Thirdly, I’m interested in the Nightingale, Yeying, sitting there in the corner. My father-in-law has a couple Cathayan chattels and since I have the chance, I wanted to procure one for myself.”

A glint appeared in Bartholomeus’s eyes. He seemed very interested in Erik’s proposal and took a short moment to think it through before answering.

“Yes, I definitely have plenty of targets you could deal with for me. A certain Tilean Guild has been competing with me on multiple of my core businesses, that bastard Johan has been snooping around and looking for my backdoor deals and there are always pirates or privateers attacking our traderoutes.

I can get you some Privateer papers and a couple of flags to wave. Real Reikland papers with which to legally attack the pirates and Tilean vessels should you later be caught by Marienburg vessels as well as fake Tilean papers and a flag to use during your attacks on Johan’s ships. Don’t want to stretch relations with our eastern neighbours too much.

If this works out, there is no doubt in my mind I will absolutely become the next Stadhouder!”

Excited, Bartholomeus took a map from his pocket and took a deep breathe before continuing.

“Yes, Erik. I will gladly make use- er, agree to your proposal. I will even pay you handsomely for your feats. But we can’t have you show up to Pampus again after you complete it…

Hmm, I suppose that place will do. Yes, when you caught and beat a target and you find your ship’s hold is becoming a bit full and heavy, come to a hidden cove here. I have a private shipyard there and enough warehouses for you to drop off your unnecessary weight. You get first pick through the spoils and that which you don’t want to keep for yourself, you sell to me at 70% of market price.

Agreed?

Oh and about the entertainer girl, sure I’ll throw her in for you. As far as I know, nobody has touched her before since her value was to be that ‘pure, untouchable Rose’ of the establishment but the trick was about up. Her first time could have earned us a lot, but if we pull this off that little bit won’t matter at all. Bloody girl doesn’t even speak a civilised tongue so her value would drop considerably soon regardless. If you want her, take her with you now and it’s all good.”

“Alright then, we have a deal. I take out your rivals, my men get training and we all get rich when I drop the spoils off at your private harbour. Plus Yeying leaves with me tonight.

Oh, but how will I recognise our targets? Do you have a man to help with that?”

“Ah, yes. I will send someone tomorrow so we can avoid you attacking the wrong targets. Got a few close contacts in Tilea too after all and wouldn’t want them to suffer. Or my own ships, for that matter.”

Finally truly finished, the two men shook hands to seal the deal. More oaths were made to empower the agreement and both sides were more than satisfied with their arrangement.

Erik was in a great mood, but as he was about to lead Skadi and the not yet understanding Yeying out of the room, that mood instantly turned sour.

An interruption had appeared in the form of one of Erik’s men bursting through the brothel’s door shouting for Erik.

“Chief! Thane, Chief! Boss! Bad news, Olaf fucked up and got stabbed in the guts by some Southerners at a bar. Said something about ‘can’t get him now, can still get another one’ or something. Demanded you show up to go collect your brother-in-law’s corpse in person.”

After learning what the commotion was about, Erik couldn’t help but feel happy again and laughed out loud.

“Haha-haha!”

‘This night keeps on getting better! Seems like that dead twit’s friends heard Olaf boasting and thought I cared about him? Nice, I got rid of the pest without needing to stage an accident myself and I can even blame someone else entirely. Might get some money or a good fight out of it too!’

“Haha-haha! This might turn out to be fun!”

And with that, Erik took long strides to get to the incident just a little faster as he anticipated a quick, bloody fight.

Silently following from behind, Bartholomeus too followed along.

‘I may have agreed to him doing some dirty work, but I still need to see whether he’s capable enough. He punched a drunkard through the lobby, but how will he deal with this?’