For a merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.

The handsome man who was probably a merchant, returned.

Zane and Xavier were talking but as soon as Xavier shared his health condition, the man came out of nowhere and popped his head between them.

He ignored Zane and focused only on the troubled Xavier.

Zane smacked his forehead and Xavier didn’t understand such a reaction.

And before he could, the handsome man asked:

"Do you want to cure your loose-motion..."

Xavier raised his brows. "Yes. Of course!"

"And Erectile Dysfunction?"

"Yes! No. No. What the hell?"

The merchant wore a long black coat and without acknowledging Xavier’s answer, he shoved his hand inside the inner pocket.

He brought out a white paper, wrinkled in a ball and unwrapped it in front of Zane and Xavier.

Both men saw it and quivered their brows.

"What’s this?" Xavier asked. "More importantly, who are you?"

"My name is Tesla Jacardi. I am also a student here. And I am an aspiring creator."

"Creator of what?" Zane asked.

"Everything."

"You create everything?"

"Well, not yet. But I will."

Xavier opened his mouth but Tesla raised his hand.

"Enough questions. Which one do you want to eat from them?"

Tesla leaned the paper closer to Xavier. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Which one? I haven’t even agreed to eat any of these."

Tesla rolled his eyes.

"There are just two pills. Red and blue. What’s so hard about this? Just take one of them and you will see the results."

"He won’t just eat the pills from a stranger. What kind of logic are you using?" Zane chimed in.

Tesla jolted his head at him.

"This is a matter between a merchant and his customer. Stay out of it. You don’t know how bad erectile dysfunction is."

"Hey! I don’t have erectile dysfunction." Xavier barked. "What are you talking about?"

"Fine. Your stomach is upset, right? Then take the pill for that at least."

Xavier eyed the pills.

He won’t deny that his stomach had problems. If the pills could help him then he saw no harm in taking one.

But which one?

"Which one of these two cures the stomach?" Xavier asked.

"Haha." Tesla laughed.

And went silent.

Xavier waited but nothing happened.

"Don’t just laugh. Answer me."

Tesla scratched his head.

"I forgot."

Xavier narrowed his eyes. "What? I didn’t hear you."

"I forgot, alright. I have so many pills. It’s tough to remember them all. The welfare of people is a rough road."

"Then why are you even walking on this road? I don’t want your pills. I will suffer more if I take them."

Xavier outright refused and Zane nodded in satisfaction.

But the next second, he faced a glare of red eyes.

"It’s because of you. You manipulated him to not trust me!"

He is really serious about selling things. Why?

Tesla’s anger appeared real to Zane and if someone gets angry over something, it meant it mattered to them more than the others could understand.

However...

"You are selling pills without any proof of their work. You are not telling their price. You yourself forgot which pill does what. You are taking pills out of your dirty damp pockets. And you are angry at me because someone else didn’t buy your pills? I’d be concerned if someone did buy them."

Zane laid out all the reasons he was skeptical about Tesla and his products.

Tesla heard all of it and went silent.

He wrapped the paper with the two pills and kept it inside his coat’s inner pocket again.

He stood up straight, turned to Zane and held his shoulder.

"It’s decided then." He said.

Zane’s brows twitch. "What’s decided?"

"You are my sales manager from this day forward."

"No I am not.."

Zane removed Tesla’s hands from his shoulders.

"Come on, friend. You have the brains for it. It will help me a lot."

"Why do you even want to sell all this?"

Tesla’s shoulder slumped.

"I will tell you about it some other day. Just accept my proposal."

"How do you expect me to accept something like that? I live in Ashen. I was a brickhauler. I know nothing about products and selling. Find someone else."

"I will pay you five bronze lumens per week. And extra if you sold many products."

"I will not do i—how should I believe you? What if you go back on your words?"

Tesla smiled.

His hand went inside his coat again, this time to his left as he took out a black shining wallet.

Zane gulped.

The wallet looked more expensive than his entire life.

"Is it leather?" He asked.

"What?"

"The wallet. Is it leather?"

Tesla shrugged. "I don’t know. I found it lying outside the bathroom."

Zane’s eyes widened.

"You stole it? I don’t want stolen money. Keep your job."

He refused right away.

And if the wallet belonged to a twisted Halocrat then Zane being a gutterborn would get in trouble even if he took only the money that was inside it.

He won’t trust his luck.

But Tesla shook his head rapidly.

"I only found the wallet. And I found it outside the bathroom of a diner two years ago. There is no need to worry. The money inside it right now is my money. I used the original owner’s money to buy materials for my medicines and creations. I didn’t use the money for my personal use. Believe me."

"Fine. I believe you. But tell me how you earn money? I saw no one buying your products so how do you have the money to pay me?"

Tesla sighed. "You don’t know men, little one. Most of them are suffering from infertility. My pills give them hope and sometimes they even work. So they keep coming back to me and pay me. But the people in this city are still unknown to me so I am having a hard time convincing them to buy my goods."

"People in this city? You are not from here?" Xavier asked.

Tesla nodded. "Yes. I am not from here. I came here to touch the slab yesterday. And somehow got admitted into the Halocrats batch."

"Then where are you from?" Zane asked and in a normal tone, Tesla revealed his origin:

"I am from the Vaelreth Continent."