“Ridiculous!” Jada shouted. “Both those Automata girls are gone? Who’s going to do the forgin’ for today’s products?”

Shiro looked around at the fully stocked store, loaded with unsold goods, but said nothing. Alfred raised his hands, defensively.

“We will be fine for today, Miss Jada. We have plenty of stock, and few customers,” he said.

“Well that’s true enough. Just my regulars from before I was run out of the Artificer’s Guild... We need some fresh customers. How’s that Automata, Prime, going to make that happen?”

“We need some unique products that people want but can’t find at other shops”, Shiro offered.

“Everybody wants that!” Jada snapped. “It’s the comin’ up with what that thing IS that’s the hard part. It’d be pretty easy to come up with something unique that no one wants to buy.”

“Miss Jada, are there any local toy shops?” Alfred asked, tapping his moustache.

“Toys? Hmm, not really. There’s a shop on the south side of the market district, close to the Upper Residential area that carries some toys, but I think that’s it.”

“Ah! So there’s a market! I’ve seen plenty of children running around Urd. Shiro, my boy, I do believe we need to take a field trip.”

“Eh, I don’t know,” Jada cautioned, “I’ve never really seen Loni’s shop do much in terms of sales for the toys they carry. This is an Adventurer town, so everything is mostly geared towards them.”

“Maybe that just means they aren’t selling the right KIND of toys. I’d like to take a look at what they have, if you don’t mind?”

“Why not! I got nuthin’ better ta do than babysit a couple of clankers. Ravage! Watch the shop!”

Ravage, for her part, completely ignored Jada and continued to stare absently out the window. Only the occasional twitch of her tail gave any indication of life.

The trio locked up the shop and headed out. Alfred got the impression that “Tibbins” the cat was probably left to “watch the shop” pretty often prior to becoming Ravage the Automata. Jada’s Junk was located several blocks into the “Low Rent” area and outside of the Market District. There wasn’t any law that said that a shop had to be in the Market District, but it was much more difficult to get any customers if you were located outside the main shopping areas.

When asked why her shop was so far out, Jada had said that she was once an artificer of Automata that specialized in “Free Range” Automata that only used “organic” souls, locally sourced from the graveyard. When the Trone Automata Factory started flooding the market with their mass produced Automata and got popular with the Royals, she and all the other small time artificers couldn’t compete.

When she spoke out against the Factory and tried to warn people about what they might be doing, she was kicked out of the Merchant Guild and forced out of the Market District. Shortly after, laws were passed, declaring that Automata were defined as magic tools and to say otherwise could be considered treason. Even the crafting of Automata had been strictly regulated to those with special permission from the Empire. After that she gave up and tried to just live her life selling simple magic tools to regulars and people in Low Rent.

As they walked through the Market, the usual bustle of people haggling and vendors calling out to people passing by with deals simply too crazy to pass up, Alfred took note of the kinds of items that were selling. Most things seemed to be magic tools or items that were useful for camping. Things that would aid the Adventurers on their quests or provide the “comforts of home” while away, were sold easily. On the other hand, things like magic shields and weapons were largely expensive and rarely worth the cost for the limited spell that they provided.

Maybe there would be an opportunity to improve on these sorts of things. With my [Developer] abilities, I was certain that I could improve on the spells embedded in the items at the very least. They continued through the market and were nearing the Guild Hall, and it seemed as if every vendor they passed would call out to Jada.

Most of the calls were friendly and casual, though one old man glared at her and told her to crawl back to her hole. As we passed his stall, Jada smacked an awning support pole with her cane, causing it to partially fall in and cover the man and his wares. Shiro looked stricken, like any second the Knight Watch would descend on us, but the other vendors laughed and told “old Joe Bib” that he got what he deserved. Alfred asked who the man was and his relation to Miss Jada, but she refused to answer.

At last, Jada stopped in front of a fancy shop front with large windows and a sign above the door that read “Tori’s Consignments”. In the window, stood a mannequin wearing a fancy dress with plate armor over top.

“This is the place,” Jada announced, as she planted her cane into the ground.

“I thought we were going to see someone named Loni,” Shiro wondered aloud.

“Yep. No idea who Tori is or why Loni named her shop this.”

They walked inside and were greeted by a well coiffed goblin wearing what looked like lederhosen. “Hail and well met, dear customers! Might I interest you in— Oh, it’s you.”

“Nice to see you too Loni,” Jada said, looking over her glasses.

With the potential for sales evaporated, Loni’s entire demeanor changed from bright and bubbly to tired and annoyed. “Yeah? So? Whaddya want Jada?”

“Nothin.”

“Nothin?” Loni repeated indignantly.

“Nope.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing at all.” Jada repeated back.

“Then why are you here?!” Loni yelled.

Alfred delicately cleared his throat that he didn’t have. “Miss Loni, I presume? My name is Alfred, and if I may, my associate Mister Shiro and I, would like to see what you have in the way of children’s toys.”

Loni looked like someone had slapped her and her head whipped around to look at Alfred. Confusion crossed her face for a moment before being replaced by her bubbly salesperson-ness.

“But of course, dear customer, right this way.”

Loni showed us to a group of shelves that were probably too high for most children to see. On the shelves were the typical soft dolls in dresses for a wide range of different species, some cast pewter figurines of soldiers in armor, and some simple wooden toys like blocks and balls. On the lower shelf was a collection of Illusion stones, like the ones that the kittens Jacob and Joshua had.

Alfred tapped his moustache as he considered the items. “There isn’t much here for the poor children of this city, is there. Yes, there is clearly a market opening. Mister Shiro, what do you think?”

Shiro put down the doll of a baby lion person and looked over at the Illusion Stones. “Ah yes. These are the items that Master Prime came across and has improved upon. Oh look, this one has a Drakin Knight.”

“Maybe we could purchase these on behalf of Master Prime?”

“Hmm, I see. Miss Loni, we would like to purchase the entirety of the collection here.”

“All of them?” she said suspiciously, “what will you do with all of those Illusion Stones?”

“Sell them back to you, of course.”

Again, Loni took a step back and her jaw dropped. “Sell them? To me?! Why would I buy them back from you?”

“Our benefactor, Master Prime, is a highly skilled artificer. He has developed a method to improve upon these Illusion Stones in such a way as to make them interactive and provide a simple game for the children to play with them. We will take them, enhance them, and then sell them.”

“Why would you tell me all this? Aren’t you giving away your sales plan?”

“Yeah! Why would we sell them to her when we can sell them to more customers?” Jada demanded.

“Ah,” Shiro held up a finger, “Miss Jada, which would be better for our little out-of-the-way shop? Having a popular new item but very poor customer traffic due to our location, or having a single, regular customer that buys as much stock as we’re able to produce?”

“You really think the Illusion Stones will be that popular?” Loni asked with a smirk. “Sure, they’re my best seller for children, but that isn’t saying much.”

“We do. These currently sell for fifty coppers per piece. With Master Prime’s improvements, they will sell out at a silver per piece. If you sell them to us at twenty five coppers, we will sell them back to you at fifty.”

Loni thought it over for a while, a range of emotions playing across her face. “I can’t do twenty five for all of them. The lowest I can go is thirty for ten of them.”

“Very well, but the price to buy them back will be seventy five.”

“Seventy five?! That’s considerably more of an increase than my offer.”

“True, but you’ve limited the purchase to only ten stones. Thus the amount of product we will have to sell back will be much more exclusive.”

Loni tapped the tip of her long nose, “you’re sure they’ll sell out at a silver per piece? What about you Jada, what do you have to say in this?”

“Eh, if Prime can do it, it’ll be worth it.”

“Just who is this Master Prime?”

“Prime is this new kid I’ve got working for me, has a lot of experience with magicode and automata fabrication.”

“Oh, is he a licensed expert?”

“I doubt it, but he has a lot of first hand experience. Don’t worry, we’re not planning to get into the Automata game. Just magic tools and I guess toys.”

“Alright, ten for twenty five, but I want to buy them back at sixty.”

“Deal,” Jada said as she grabbed Loni’s hand.