"You want what?"
"I want to work here as a cleaner."
"We don't need a cleaner. I have the apprentices for that."
"You see this place, you know your apprentice, you know they don't clean the place well. I'm also guessing that things go missing for a long time and you find them in the weirdest moment."
"Ugh"
"It seems that I am right. How about it, want to give it a try? It might make things easier for work."

The market doesn't have anything good that I can sell for a higher price. The items don't change that much because outsiders rarely visit this town. I don't have a choice but to find other ways to make money right now.

Things aren't going well, so I will fall back to what I know best, which is smithing. Supply is an issue and I don't want to be known as a blacksmith, so I am trying to join a smith here in the town.

I don't want to work as a smith but as a helper. I know my way around the forge, so it should be easy to do. I also thought that I could take home the scrap metal, so I could make some trinkets to sell.

"Ok, sure but just so you know, I don't have much to pay you."
"I don't need much, a few coins and some scrap metal."
"Scrap metal?"
"I have some use for them."
"Hmm, Ok that's alright. However, you need to show me the scrap metal before you take them. I can't allow you to take some of the expensive metals."
"Good, thanks for hiring me! I can start now if possible!"
"Come back tomorrow. I have some things I need to finish. You will be distracting me if you start now."
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow."

Good, now I have a sure way to make money. This isn't the kind of job that will take most of my time too. They don't need me to tidy up while they are using the forge. I only need to show up at the start and at the end of the day.

As for the scraps, I could only think of toys and trinkets. I don't want to be known as a good smith, at least not yet, so I can only make small accessories. I can excuse it as me being a good jeweller, which is often something merchants pick up because they have free time in between travels, at least in the dwarf continent.

It won't sell for much but I will be receiving the scraps for free. The labour is the only thing I need to do. It is pure profit.

The 'items' I have are already sold but I haven't really found any treasure among the thrash of the market. It hasn't been that long since I started, so I just need to keep looking.

"Why so glum, you bum?"
"That is not how the expression goes."
"Yeah but you are certainly a bum, so I changed it."
"Leave me alone."
"Fine, how are the starting funds for our merchant empire? Did you earn more than what we started with?"
"...Barely increased."
"Did you find an item to sell for a higher price?"
"...No."
"Did you sell your little trinkets?"
"...barely a thing."
"Can you pay for your share of the rent, along with some of the food?"
"...not yet."
"Who is a bum?"
"...I am....."

I failed.

My initial thought was to use this new skill of mine to scour the market, find diamonds in the rough, and sell them for a high price along with a slight mark up.

However, I failed to take into account other merchants. Well, they aren't officially a merchant but that is only a technicality.

The other merchants have more experience, they have more knowledge, and they have a better eye for those hidden gems. I frequently patrolled the whole market for those hidden gems.

I eventually found a couple but every time I saw them, the other merchants were already in the process of bargaining for it. It was sold for a cheap price but they were still bargaining for it. As expected of them, they really are merchants.

The only edge I have against them in their own field is my skill to appraise the value of items, the rest is dominated by them.

It wasn't entirely a waste though. I learned how to bargain thanks to them. I'm still not sure I can replicate what they do but I found a few useful tricks, along with what kind of clues to look for.

"The tax collectors are going to arrive in a week. Regardless of whether or not you earned enough, we need to join them when they leave."
"I know, that is why we need to do something a bit drastic. I'm going to need your help. I'm not fast enough to do this."
"Are you sure? I earn a lot at my current job. Wouldn't we have more starting money if I just stick with my current job?"
"It's fine. We don't really need a lot of money to start a merchant group. It would just be easier to earn more money if we have a lot of starting funds. We could make it work with the amount we currently have now."
"Really? Ok, what do I need to do?"
"Well, we can discuss that later. It's about time for dinner. Let's go grab something to bite."

The tax collectors won't stay long, which is good for my plan. This plan is something I learned when I was working for the princess. It's a bit drastic and I would either earn money or lose it all.

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

*Creak* *Open*

"Come in."
"I bring back the money and I still have to buy the food? How about going down to buy food and necessities in my place?"
"I did that the last time but you complained that I was too slow."
"Tsk, when are you going to be useful."
"Just when I thought that you mellowed out a bit living in the town, I see you still have that edge."
"That's because I had a fight today, a greedy foxkin thinks he is so smart to leave the heavy lifting to me while he collects the same pay. I roughed him up a bit and earned a bit of extra gold. I'm more aggressive when I fight. You must remember this during our travels!"
"You are a rabbitkin yet you are very violent. It's a great thing since you will be doing all the fighting between the two of us."
"Hmm? Don't you know anything about rabbitkins? We are generally calm but we get whipped up into a frenzy when things get aggressive. My mother wasn't a fighter but when I was young, I felt like she was going to eat me when she was scolding me."
"I see. Well, don't worry I won't aggravate you after battles."

I always thought rabbits are fluffy tame creatures. I guess wild rabbits are different, or have they always been like that?

"Ok, the food is here. Why don't you tell me your strategy to make last minute money."
"I want to buy a large amount of herbs. The basic healing herb would suffice. I will go around trying to buy a lot of them for a low price. Once the supply is low enough, I will announce that I want to buy bulk for a price twice the market value."
"Wouldn't we only lose money at that rate?"
"We will be selling the herbs I bought for a lower price back into the market. I would basically hoard a large amount of the herbs, and with the news that someone will be buying them for twice the market value, greedy merchants will raise the price until they collect the majority of the items. This will push the price up higher."
"Hmm, I don't really want to do that. It would just make a lot of merchants lose money. Even a few common people might get over eager and explore the woods just to find the herbs. We will cause a lot of trouble by doing that."
"That would happen in a normal town. However, normal people won't venture out. This is the tigerkin's territory. They won't take that risk. The herbs might be twice the market price but the actual cost itself isn't that much for common people to make money."

It would be a cheap change if you buy a few herbs. You won't be able to make a lot of money. However, for merchants they would be able to make a decent amount if they do a bit of work.

"We would be targeting the peddlers stationed in this town. They have the most money, the most connections and the most 'muscle' to collect the herbs. They'll be collecting the herbs for us. All of those who want to sell a few will probably be taken by them. They will hold up selling the herbs to raise the price a bit more. Once we sell the herb I gathered for cheap, we can double our investment. The only problem is that those peddlers would probably go after us, so we have to delay their patience until we leave. It would be better if we had more people to make it less suspicious."
"This is their territory. From your plan, we are picking a fight with them. It's not smart to start hiring people here. We don't know which one is a spy from them."
"I know that is why here!"
"Fake Horns?"
"Yeah, wear this along with a large cloak. It would be suspicious if the cloak was plain, so I added some decorations. Also, wear these clothes. It's luxury clothes with an insignia. You won't blatantly show the insignia, hide it in the cloak. Whenever you talk, don't forget to move your arms slightly. This will show the corner of the insignia enough for an observant person. This will create an illusion that a wealthy person sent out the peons to collect something they need. This is our cover. Also, frequent bars in different clothes and disguises to create a rumour. It doesn't have to be everyday. The details are about someone wanting to buy the herbs for twice the price. I'll also do the same and once the rumour gets some traction, we can leave it alone."
"Would this really work? Also, all of these things seem expensive. Are you sure we can make enough money back?"
"I told you this will be drastic. It would either work or we would lose some money. Don't worry, I already set aside a minimum amount of money to start our merchant journey. If it's not enough we can just earn more. As long as we aren't locked in this territory, we can make money just by bringing goods to another town. Those horns are something I made with the scrap materials I received from my job at the smith. The clothes are bought with the money I made selling toys and trinkets. I didn't spend the money for the starting funds for it, so it's fine."
"Ok, You are the expert. I'll leave it to you."
"Ah, don't do any of this until I tell you to. I still need to collect enough herbs to starve the market and create a demand."
"Ok, I'll continue with my moving job for now."

The main plan now is to buy as much of the herbs as possible. However, if I just go around buying the herb in bulk from store to store, the others will catch wind of it and raise the price.

I'll try to schedule my purchase, so I can buy all of the herbs from almost all of the stores in a few days. I also won't buy more than half of their whole inventory to avoid suspicion.

Once I have accumulated enough, I'll start the plan. The rumours will fly that someone is buying herbs all over the place and is willing to pay double the normal price. The supply will be low, so those peddlers would gather the already low supply, so they can earn the profit.

I'll sell the herbs I then collected all over the place and then escape when the tax collectors leave the town, along with my earnings.

It probably means I can no longer make decent business in this town but with the tigerkins roaming this area, I won't be coming back here again.