I Became A Black Merchant In Another World-Chapter 218: Gacha and Tulips (4)

As Fabio had predicted, the tulips quickly took over the trend in the Holy Empire.

At first, it was thanks to the advertisements claiming that tulips suited beautiful women, which led the noble young ladies to start purchasing them.

Noble families, who believed that failing to follow the trend meant certain doom, began buying hundreds, even thousands, of tulips, decorating entire corners of their gardens with them.

Seeing the nobles do this, ordinary citizens also began buying dozens of tulips at a time...

Following Fabio's orders, Orsini, who had started selling tulips, was quickly making a fortune.

However, his money-making venture was only just beginning.

“Hey, Orsini. This is a matter of His Highness the Elector of Saxony’s honor! Is there no way we can manage this?”

Orsini sighed deeply after hearing those words.

Then, as if to show how badly he was burning inside, he gulped down the black tea placed in front of him.

"I wish I could do something about it, but the tulips themselves are expensive, and the rare tulips, well, they’re worth whatever people are willing to pay... no, even if I offer a high price, it’s still hard to obtain them."

Though rare tulips were indeed hard to come by, Fabio had prepared for this situation in advance.

He had crossbred only tulips infected with the Mosaic virus and had stockpiled thousands of them in Guillaume City. Furthermore, he had bred them to produce bulb seeds that were highly likely to bloom into Mosaic tulips, which were then sold mixed in with the gacha draws.

But, when selling rare items, it was a merchant's tradition to pretend they were scarce and jack up the price by 100 times.

Orsini was determined to follow the "merchant’s code" for the revival of his family’s fortune and honor.

"Ha, and to make matters worse, the reservations are already piling up. Not just the Elector of Saxony, but Prince of Prague, His Majesty the Emperor, Her Majesty the Empress, and several other electors. When you add up all the other nobles, there are already over two thousand tulips waiting to be reserved."

In truth, fewer than one thousand tulips had actually been reserved.

But, just like how a woman will go to great lengths to look beautiful for the man she loves, a merchant often adds a little white lie to sell goods at a higher price.

Orsini was applying the lessons learned at the Rothschild trading company to the letter.

"Goods are precious, and if the buyer is desperate, the seller is king and god," he recalled.

Though he knew that Fabio had said tulips would soon be worth nothing, he was aware that if he didn’t sell them all, his prospects would be grim.

"I know, that’s why I came here myself."

The man before him was a baron, a vassal of the Elector of Saxony, and one of the highest-ranking men in his pyramid of power. The fact that the baron himself had come to negotiate with a merchant showed just how desperate things had become.

"But, how can I do anything about tulips that aren’t available?"

The baron gripped Orsini’s hand tightly after hearing his words.

"The honor of His Highness the Elector of Saxony is at stake. I’ll give you whatever money you ask for. Please, please get me some rare tulips."

If Orsini pushed him just a little more, the baron would probably bow his head in submission.

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Orsini considered making the baron do just that but quickly decided against it.

He realized that pushing too hard might make the baron resent him later.

That could lead to the worst-case scenario—becoming enemies with the Elector of Saxony.

“The baron also said that sustainable business is important,” Orsini reminded himself.

If he squeezed too much now, selling tulips at inflated prices in the future would become much more difficult.

Orsini placed his hand on his forehead and sighed as if the floor beneath him were about to collapse.

"Normally, this wouldn’t be possible, but alright. I’ll make sure we find some rare tulips by any means necessary."

The baron’s eyes widened in relief.

"Thank you! Thanks to you, I can save face."

“How many do you need?”

"Bring me whatever you can get. The Emperor and other electors have gone mad over these rare tulips. The more we get, the better."

It was obvious when you thought about it for a second.

The current price of tulips was insane.

But the Emperor and electors were driven by their greed, believing that they had to own more of these rare tulips than anyone else.

Meanwhile, ordinary citizens hoped that if they bought and grew a rare tulip bulb, they could turn their life around by selling just one beautiful flower.

None of them questioned it.

“Trust me, just leave it to us.”

With that, Orsini quickly sent a secret message to the Rothschild trading company’s employees.

"Send the 50 rarest tulips to the Elector of Saxony. Send another 50 to each of the other electors. 100 to the imperial family. The rest, distribute them as you see fit."

“Yes, understood.”

"And are the rumors already being spread about how rare tulips are being sold at high prices in other regions?”

Orsini had hired beggars and employees from the trading company to spread rumors about how rare tulips were commanding sky-high prices throughout the Holy Empire.

The more the rumors spread, the higher the price of tulips in Vienna would rise.

And when the tulip prices inevitably collapsed in Vienna...

Orsini had plans to stir things up in the major cities later.

"The baron said we would get 10% of the profits as a bonus. We’ve already made 150,000 gold coins in profits."

The bonus alone was 15,000 gold coins.

Of course, this wasn’t all going to one person. It would be split among 50 employees.

But it meant each employee would get 300 gold coins—a sum large enough to buy a mansion in Florence with a small garden.

The sales figures were rising madly in real-time, too.

"Don’t make any mistakes. Work through the night if you have to. Sell tulips, even if you feel like you’re going to die."

Normally, even slaves wouldn’t be forced to work through the night.

That would be a loss for the master if they died.

But what if the employees were paid a lump sum that could completely turn their lives around?

Like employees at a giant semiconductor company working seven days a week for years, addicted to dopamine, and somehow managing to survive?

That was the kind of life the Rothschild employees stationed in Vienna were living right now.

They worked like crazy with only a little sleep and food, but every day, they saw their performance bonuses growing in gold coins.

"I want to make it big, too."

With that thought, Orsini headed to where the tulip bulbs were being sold.

The people there were steeped in madness.

One person kept crossing themselves and chanting in the name of Deus while waiting in line.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Deus, please grant me just one rare tulip!"

Another person whispered softly to the tulip bulbs.

"You are rare tulips. Mosaic tulips. You must bloom into mosaic tulips, you hear me? I don’t want a big one, just a small one."

It was a chaotic, no, a full-fledged gambling den where people were throwing themselves into the tulip bulb market.

Here, all sorts of people were hoping for a big win.

"Give me 200 bulbs! I have plenty of money, so hurry and give me the bulbs!"

"Move, I sold my house to buy these!"

Houses, workshops, promissory notes already cashed in—everyone here was caught up in a speculative frenzy.

Orsini couldn't help but chuckle at the scene.

At first, Fabio had instructed to mix in a Mosaic tulip with a 1 in 2,000 chance, but as the tulip craze grew, he kept lowering the chances.

What had started as a 1 in 2,000 chance had dropped to 1 in 3,000 a week later, and now it was down to 1 in 4,500.

In a world where "probability manipulation" was a civilized practice, Orsini might have been burned at the stake, but in a world where lotteries weren’t even properly regulated, no one could resist the "probability manipulation."

Naturally, no one even realized they were being scammed.

"Thanks to our customers, we'll make all the money."

Of course, if you went out into the plaza, you would see people who had become instant millionaires by selling rare tulips.

But many of those people would come back to the gambling den again.

"Buy 50 gold coins, no, 70 gold coins worth! Just one, or maybe two, please!!"

Orsini couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.

If someone had made a fortune, they shouldn’t be jumping back into the game. But here they were, helping the baron fill his pockets.

What a merciful act of charity.

As the tulip craze continued, Orsini made huge profits, but in the end, a tulip was just a tulip, no matter how rare it was.

Someone in the capital city of Vienna finally realized this and shouted:

"Now that I think about it, this damn tulip is just a common flower growing by the roadside?!"

With that outcry, Orsini began to move for the final play.