Everyone in the village had already retired to bed, including the soldiers. Thus, no one except Rowan and Blaze was aware of the arrival of merchants from Cold-gin Village.
It was past midnight, and the half-moon hung in the sky.
A calm breeze drifted across the village, softening the deafening silence that enveloped it.
At that moment, Rowan and the group of men could be seen strolling toward the meeting hall.
Rowan and Blaze walked in front while the men followed quietly behind them, whispering among themselves, afraid to let a word slip out in fear that it might annoy Blaze.
Rowan noticed this but didn't bother to lighten the mood; he wanted them to remain as quiet as possible to avoid waking the sleeping villagers.
After a few minutes, they arrived at the meeting hall.
Rowan set down the glowing crystal, which quickly enveloped the room with its light. He then took a seat.
The Cold-gin men were still looking at him, fear evident in their eyes.
"Blaze, these people won't stop shitting their pants if you're around. Go help me patrol the village. When I'm done here, I'll come find you," Rowan suggested.
Blaze agreed immediately and left the room.
Only then did the men heave a sigh of relief.
"Have a seat," Rowan offered.
"Thank you," they replied.
They bowed slightly before taking their seats directly opposite Rowan.
"Once again, welcome to Winterseed," Rowan smiled.
"Thank you for trusting us and letting us in," one of them replied.
He was the fattest in the room and appeared to be the leader of the group. Among everyone, he also had the highest-grade merchant skill, which naturally made him the best in the group. His name was Obi.
Rowan and Obi had a brief discussion. Rowan asked a lot of questions like who told them about his village, how far their village was from his, and also made inquiries about their village.
Obi proved Rowan's intuition correct when he answered that D'Andre connected them.
According to Obi, their village was as far from Winterseed as Winterseed II, but in the eastern direction.
Also, from Obi's replies, Cold-gin Village was more developed and advanced than Winterseed and Winterseed II combined.
Even their population was much more than both of Rowan's territories combined.
"That's great," Rowan replied.
He asked other questions and got pretty reasonable answers.
When he was done questioning, he moved on to the main reason for the meeting—business.
"We heard you have some pretty interesting inventions that would benefit our villages, and we'd love to see them," Obi revealed.
Rowan nodded.
"It's true, I have many inventions that none of your people have ever set their eyes on," he boasted.
The men became quite excited and curious to see these inventions.
While they requested to see them, Rowan analyzed the current situation and realized how it could benefit him, not just financially.
"We brought a lot of money along with us. We are ready to buy as many of these items as you can offer, as long as the prices are affordable," Obi smiled at Rowan.
"The prices are affordable, but I don't think you guys would be able to afford them," Rowan replied shortly.
The men frowned. Is he underestimating the wealth of Cold-gin Village? they thought.
Of course, Rowan was able to read their expressions and knew exactly what they were thinking.
"Your village has tailors, right?" Rowan asked.
"Of course, we have lots of them, and they are pretty talented. The clothes we're wearing were made by them. Aren't they good-looking?" another merchant answered.
"Of course, of course, they look good," Rowan replied.
The merchants felt better with those words.
"However, what I'm concerned about is how long it takes your tailors to make these clothes. How stressful is it for them?" Rowan asked with a smile.
Obi was the one who answered this time.
Apparently, his wife was a tailor, so he knew about the process.
"Simple robes without designs would take them one day at most. The ones with designs would take two to four days, depending on the complexity of the design. However, robes for nobles and royals usually take more than a week," he replied.
Rowan listened to this reply, and a smile crept onto his face.
'This is going to be very good,' he thought.
"Those are pretty high numbers, don't you think? Spending more than a week on one robe is not a good thing at all," he replied.
Obi tried to defend this and stated that his wife and other tailors are skilled.
"You do not expect them to finish sewing the clothes of important figures in a short time. What if they make mistakes and ruin the fabric? Just replacing the fabric would send them into poverty. It's not a matter of speed; it's a matter of caution," he defended.
"I agree. But the time is still insane. What if they have a hundred important figures to make clothes for? Wouldn't it take them more than a year? Is that good?"
Rowan ensured they saw just how insanely slow their sewing was.
After he was done convincing them about that, he introduced his sewing machine.
"What! A device to make sewing more than a hundred times faster? Are you serious?" they asked.
Rowan nodded his head.
"With this machine, making clothes for nobles would take nothing more than ten hours once they've mastered how to use it," Rowan smiled.
The men became extremely curious and interested.
After piquing their interest, Rowan opened his inventory and brought out the sewing machine.
The men were dumbfounded when they saw him make the sewing machine appear out of thin air.
Some of them were so shocked that they even stood up, staring at him with eyes almost popping out and mouths so wide an apple could fit in easily.
"How did you do that?"
"This... this is impossible! First, having a powerful beast as your pet, and now making an item appear out of nowhere. Who are you really?"
They voiced their shock.
Rowan was pretty confused by their reaction. If they had met and done business with D'Andre, surely they must have seen him make things appear out of thin air.
But their reaction proved otherwise.
Rowan quickly noted to himself not to take items out of his inventory in the presence of strangers.
On the other hand, the shock of the soldiers was quickly transferred to the sewing machine's intricate appearance and design.