Chapter 9: 0009 Nobleman
An hour later, Lorraine returned to the dock with two Benjamin's robust workers and a magical sight in her eyes.
Lake stood spiritedly on the deck, talking and laughing with three well-dressed gentlemen.
There were also about ten dockworkers on and off the ship who were busy unloading the cargo.
Their movements were standardized and sharp, a group of people lined up in long rows, like an assembly line, lifting out the vegetables from the bilge, transporting them off the ship, and delivering them to the large wagons parked off to the side, stacking them neatly into the carriages.
Lorraine squeezed aboard with a head full of questions and walked over to Reich with the workers he'd hired, "Sir, this is ..."
"Little Lorraine, let me introduce you." Lek smiled broadly and dragged Lorraine into the circle of people, "Mr. Martin, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Pete. They are generous local merchants who have just bought our entire shipment."
Lorraine bowed to each of the three gentlemen, apologizing after only a few polite pleasantries and pulling Lecrae aside.
"Sir, you said just now?"
"Uh ..." Lake's face reddened slightly, "It's just that I just got off the boat ... Mr. Pitt happened to be on the side. "
"And then what?"
"He apologized for the carny laughing at me and invited me to his restaurant. I heard he was in the catering business, so I tried to tell him that our boat was loaded with a whole load of fresh vegetables."
"And then he ate the whole load?"
"We're a little overstocked for him." Lek corrected Lorraine seriously, "So he contacted his buddies, Mr. Martin, who owns a tavern, and Mr. Thomas, who is a loan shark ..."
Lorraine said incredulously, "And they borrowed from loan sharks in order to buy groceries?"
"Say what!" Lek was busy panicking and dragging Lorraine further away, "Mr. Thomas keeps over thirty fighters and needs ingredients too. He's the buyer!"
A boatload of vegetables, three buyers, and Lek used his seasickness to sell his handful for a whopping thirty-six pounds, money and goods.
Considering that the shipment cost less than twenty-eight pounds, Lake spat out nearly thirty percent of his profit on this spit.
This is too easy money ...
Lorraine looked at Lake with a complicated face, "Sir, you may be a born businessman ..."
"Yeah?" Lek liked the compliment, "Little Lorraine, what were you doing?"
"I'm going to get some men ready to clean up the traces of your spell casting along the way ..."
Unfortunately, as a devout Protestant, Lake flatly denies his connection to Wicca.
In his opinion, Mr. Pitt was his first nobleman in Blackport, not only buying up all the food in the Artisan Chamber of Commerce, but introducing him to a second nobleman, Mr. Thomas, the loan shark.
Lake inquired from Mr. Thomas that a black-market merchant had recently been offering a quantity of china from the East, of a superior quality and at a low price.
This coincided with the information Lake had bought from the fixer.
He was so excited that he instantly left Lorraine to watch the ship, and excitedly took Mr. Thomas's carriage into the harbor, ready to take advantage of the demon wind, buy fine Oriental porcelain from the black marketeer called Old Barry, and go back to Plymouth to make a fortune.
Lorraine could only report a bitter smile.
So, into the night.
The ship was emptied, Mr. Martin and Mr. Pitt left with a full load of workers, and the workers hired by Lorraine also finished their work, and the transom cabin was clean and tidy, and the fragrance of seawater overflowed everywhere, and there was not a trace of a strange smell to be smelled.
Lorraine was pleased with the results of the cleaning.
He paid each man a shilling for his labor with alacrity, then stowed the boards and sat down on the deck, bored, staring up at the clear sky.
The marina is quiet at night.
The harbor was not alive in the daytime, and the moored ships were left with sporadic lights, no sound in all directions, and no one near or far.
People are running to the harbor.
There was solid land, voluptuous women and spicy spirits, each of which was a demon enough to make a sailor sell his soul.
They would never be able to board a ship and leave the harbor without spending the last penny they had on them.
Lorraine suddenly missed the Heirloom a little.
There was Sir Layton, who never had to worry about having nowhere to give vent to his exuberant energy, unlike now ...
He actually wanted to tie the knot again.
Are you crazy?
Obviously hit it once just two hours ago ...
Annoyed, he got to his feet and scurried up the sail net in a few giant strides, climbing all the way up to the high lookout.
Being at a height of twenty-two meters, with the moon in the sky within reach, it was then that Lorraine felt a trace of peace.
"It's so weird ..."
He held out his palm in a circle, circling the brightly lit harbor not far away in the center of the circle, frowning in contemplation.
From the time he returned to the sea once more, his energy had become unusually high.
For the previous three days, he had maneuvered the standard eight-passenger Atis Beauty at sea alone, with the added distraction of taking care of Lake, a dryad, on less than two hours of sleep a day, and yet he had never felt a loss of energy.
It had been a good day, and there was nothing to do when he got to Black Harbor, so he simply began to get annoyed in the dead of night.
It was like there was a fire in his heart, and in the midst of that fire, something was crying out ...
Are you sick? Or are you in a hurry?
In the midst of his thoughts, Lorraine saw a trio of carriages pulling out of the harbor, the first of which had the obese Lek sitting on its yoke, waving to him from a distance, excitedly.
"Little Lorraine! Lower the ship's boards! Open the bilge! We're going to be rich!"
...
Be rich ...
Standing side by side with Lek on the stern deck, Lorraine watched seven or eight burly men clumsily walk around the ship, carrying bags of spices into the bilge, with more than just suspicion, but also alarm.
Spice was the takeaway from Lake's trip.
He had gone with Mr. Thomas to Old Barry's warehouse to talk business, and had intended to select a set of Oriental china at the right price to go back to Plymouth and make a great deal of money.
Lorraine never thought Lake could make a lot of money.
Although he could not discern the authenticity of the porcelain ancient or modern, Lorraine knew better than ninety-nine percent of Europeans the depths of the porcelain business.
What blue and white porcelain, cloisonné, even cellar, fixed cellar, doucai porcelain ...
Porcelain is a work of art, and its value is never based on portion size. Reich is nothing more than a competent tanner, what could he possibly know?
The best result of his trip was to find a set of tea set favored by England's high society. Because the tea set had the attributes of both a luxury item and a daily necessity, as long as it sold better, it would not make them lose money in any case.
But who knows, Lake actually plucked three whole large carloads of spices, nearly five hundred pounds ...
Things got weird for a second.
Lorraine subconsciously touched the sword on her waist and lowered her voice to ask, "Sir, don't you think that today's events have gone a little too smoothly?"
"It's all because God is blessing us." Lake gratefully drew the cross on his chest, "Little Lorraine, over four hundred pounds of spices ... even if they are just inferior goods soaked in seawater, and shipped back to Plymouth, we can easily sell them for a hundred pounds. That's over two hundred and fifty percent profit!"
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Lorraine frowned deeply, "Spices aren't as easy to trace as china, and if they can be sold for a hundred pounds, why would old Barry sell them for forty?"
"He doesn't have a boat!"
"Wouldn't it be enough to sell it to the French?" Lorraine pressed, "It's a spice, in short supply and in demand throughout Europe!"
"This ..." Lake finally woke up a little, but still can not avoid the fluke, "Little Lorraine, Mr. Barry is a black market merchant, and specializes in pirate supply and sale. I guess his status should be a wanted man, once he leaves Black Harbor, he will have to go to jail."
"How dare you do business with him when you even thought he was a wanted man?"
"This is Black Harbor. ..."
Lorraine felt a threat.
Dunninger said that when profits reach 10 percent, businessmen will be foolish; when profits reach 50 percent, businessmen will be desperate; when profits reach 100 percent, they will dare to trample on all the laws of the earth; and when profits reach 300 percent, they will dare to risk hanging.
Reich is now clearly over the top in terms of desperation, whereas Barry Sr, on the other hand, seems a little too sensible ...
"Sir, I think ..."
"Two distinguished gentlemen."
A humble greeting suddenly came from behind his ears, and Lorraine was so creeped out that he subconsciously shielded Lek behind him, and his hand clutched the hilt of his sword.
He turned back to see that the speaker was the leader of the spice workers, who seemed a little startled by Lorraine's reaction and took a half step back, cautiously on guard.
"Sir, I'm a worker under Mr. Barry, you see ..."
"We know who you are." Lorraine interrupted him with narrowed eyes, "May I ask if your work is done? Why is it that I see a large portion of Spice still on the wagon and you are loitering in front of us?"
The leader gulped and crossed to Lorraine, looking honestly at Lek.
"Sir, there is too much cargo, and the workers have had a hard day ... Can you ask the ship to help? We are willing to share the appropriate reward."
Lek shook his head apologetically, "I'm sorry, it's just me and little Lorraine on this ship, no other sailors."
"Really?" The leader took a few steps back, and even his voice trailed off.
His voice, his response steeped the scene, and Lorraine drew her sword with a clang, ignoring Lek's objections and pushing him until the stern of the ship was too far back to retreat.
Struggling and nervous at the same time, and distracted from his most cherished credibility, Lake muttered along the way, "That's rude, educated people shouldn't be questioned!"
"Sir, that's enough!" Lorraine guided her sword, sinking her shoulders and slamming her head, "He doesn't care if you're lying, he just wants to know if there are any more of us on board."
"Eh?"
The leader in the shadows laughed.
"What a smart kid, and brave."
He paused, and seven or eight large men with swords came out behind him in a line.
They were all previous spice workers.
The leader took the scimitar from one of the men, swung it twice, and looked at Lorraine with a sardonic smile.
"A boy who doesn't know how to die has met a master who is so stupid that it's no wonder you dare to do business with the merchants of Black Harbor without the consent of the Black Harbor Council ..."
"What are you ... going to do!" Lake was incoherent with terror, "Mr. Barry ... Mr. Barry ..."
"Your friend Mr. Pitt is bankrupt. In order to keep his beautiful wife and daughter from falling into disgrace, he has given you and your ship against your creditors, namely Mr. Thomas."
The chief explained with a smile.
"Mr. Martin of the Commission is a witness to the fact that you have traded in Black Harbor without the permission of the Commission. In so doing, you lost the protection of the laws of Black Harbor."
"Mr. Thomas sold you to Mr. Barry, not expensively, with the men and boat, for a hundred pounds, just enough to pay off Mr. Pitt's arrears, and Mr. Martin's required gratuity."
"So, on behalf of Mr. Barry, I declare that you and your property belong to the Barry Chamber of Commerce from this moment forward." The leader raised his knife and said in a single word, "Be good and resign yourself to your fate, Englishman. Those who are obedient will prosper, those who are disobedient ... will die."
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