"Well, of course."
"Actually, I have several such coins. What kind of goods can you sell me? Of course, I’ll only buy as much as you’re willing to provide and it doesn’t matter to me if I have to pay the normal prices. You can even freely check out the coins. Please— "
"Ainz Ooal Gown-sama!"
Ainz was startled by the village chief’s sudden shout, whose expression had become even more serious than before.
"…… Calling me Ainz is enough."
"So it is Ainz-sama?" The village chief was very skeptical at beginning, but after nodding several times he continued:
"I am well aware of what Ainz-sama is trying to say."
Becoming rather confused, Ainz wondered if a big question mark would pop up above his head.
This must be a misunderstanding, but since he had no idea what the village chief was planning to say Ainz had no idea on how to react.
"I am well aware that Ainz-sama does not want to sell himself short, since it is understandable that you expect a fitting reward for your hard work. To hire a person as powerful as Ainz-sama, we would need a lot of money, but you would like to receive something else in addition to the three thousand copper coins, am I right? "
Being unable to follow village chief’s train of thought, Ainz’s mind was in a mess and he couldn’t help being grateful he decided to wear this mask. Ainz took out the gold coins in order to estimate how much he would be able to buy with it since he wanted to roughly evaluate the market prices in this world. How did things turn out like this?
Without giving Ainz time to speak up, the village chief continues:
"However, just as I said before, the maximum amount this village can pay is around three thousand copper coins. You will certainly suspect there is more, but I can definitely assure you that we aren’t hiding anything from our savior Ainz-sama."
The Village Chief’s face was full of sincerity and it didn’t look like he was lying. If he was deceiving Ainz, Ainz could only blame for his own inability to read people standing.
“No, we would never be able to gather the proper amount of money to pay a person as powerful as Ainz-sama. If everyone in the village gathered all their money, perhaps we might be able to satisfy Ainz-sama, but… our village has lost many people, if we were to pay you more than these 3000 copper coins we wouldn’t be able to survive the next season. It is the same with material goods, many fields will be short of hands because of our losses. So if we gave our supplies to you now, our future would be quite bleak. Although it is rude towards our savior, but if it is remotely possible… could we pay you back via installments?”
Huh? Could this be a great opportunity?
Having a moment of enlightenment, Ainz pretended to go into deep thought. His objective was right in front of him, now he could only pray to be successful. After a few seconds, Ainz finally spoke:
“I understand. I won’t ask for a reward.”
“Huh? Wh-…. Why?”
The Village Chief and his wife were dumbfounded. Ainz gently raised his hand, signaling that he still had something to say. During negotiations one had to properly consider what to say and what not to say, this was really troublesome and he didn’t know whether it was possible to smoothly get the information he desired, but he still had to try.
“… I am a Magic Caster, after learning magic in a place called Nazarick I only ventured outside a short time ago.”
“I see. So that’s the reason you are dressed that way.”
“Ah, er. Yes.”
Ainz touched the Mask of Envy, casually wiping his brow.
If all Magic Casters wore these kinds of mask, how would the people on the street react?
The image of Bali’s bursting streets popped up in his mind.
Ainz who didn’t expect to land in this world, suddenly noticed another thing he couldn’t understand. He wondered why they used the same titles as in YGGDRASIL.
The title of Magic Caster was extremely common. It included Holy Hermit, Priest, Druid, Mystic, Sorcerer, Magician, Bard, Miko, Alchemist, Saint and other occupations. All of these classes in YGGDRASIL were known as Magic Casters. If it was the same for this world, that would be an incredible coincidence.
Ainz continued to observe their reactions while he spoke:
“… Although I said I don’t want a reward, as a Magic Caster I use a variety of different tools, and of course that includes fear and knowledge. These can be used as tools to make money. As I said before, because I was single-mindedly concentrating on my magic studies, I reached the point where I don’t really understand what is currently happening in the area, so I wanted to get information from you two. Furthermore, I hope you won’t tell anyone else about the matter of me buying information. I’d be willing to consider this as a substitute for my reward.”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If something is free, then there has to be a catch somewhere.
After demanding a reward for saving these people, he suddenly changed his mind and no longer wanted to receive a reward. This would obviously cause some people to become suspicious about him.
But as long as the other party believed they had paid a proper reward, even if it was intangible, they would still be influenced by it.
In other words, if the other party believes they sold information to Ainz as a reward, they would become less suspicious and feel more at ease.
In fact, the Village Chief and his wife gave off a firm expression and nodded their head:
“I understand, we definitely won’t tell anyone about this.”
Ainz clenched his fists and secretly celebrated. His real-life business experiences were actually useful here.
“That’s great. Since I don’t wish to use magic to restrain you, I will believe in your integrity.”
Ainz stretched out his gauntlet covered hand. At first, the Village Chief was stunned for a second and after realising the intention he firmly gripped Ainz’s hand in a handshake.
Ainz was relieved that this world also had a tradition of shaking hands. If the Village Chief had made an questioning face, he really would’ve cried.
Of course, Ainz didn’t trust them completely. Regarding matters you don’t want people to speak about, the moment they were offered better benefits they would certainly leak the information in question. Even if a secret was kept at first, it was still possible for it to be leaked after the person in question had a change of mind. Since there was no such thing as a 'best solution', Ainz just had to take a gamble, believing that the village chief’s integrity was strong enough to not leak the information. He couldn’t really do anything to prevent that from happening and even if the information was leaked, he could still use it as a bargaining chip for the next time he had to deal with this village
But after looking at their grateful expressions and their sincere attitudes, Ainz’s intuition told him they would probably never betray him.
“So… Can you clearly tell me about this place?”
“…. How could this be.”
“Eh! Is there a problem?”
“No, nothing, I was just talking to myself. Sorry for making strange noises, causing you to worry…”
Ainz instantly resumed his original acting. If he still had his human body, he would’ve broken out in cold sweat right now.
The Village Chief just said “Oh, so it's like this.” and didn’t pursue the matter.