Chapter 23 - Chapter 23: "I Knew You Would Come."
Greetings. I am Violia Nico Fortesia.
I am currently living my days as a drug dealer and a raw material supplier!
The 1,000,000-fold diluted blood made by diluting my blood to the extreme, commonly known as 'Mystic Ruby,' has successfully taken flight into the underworld. It has been 20 days since I first thought of it. It was worth preparing while experimenting, as it went on sale quite quickly!
'Mystic Ruby' is a completely new drug, unlike anything else in this world.
It consists of a single spoonful of 1,000,000-fold diluted blood placed inside a small ruby-red glass vial, sealed with red sealing wax, and stamped with an expiration date and a crested seal. Its high-class appearance should not be poorly received by women either.
...And its effects are guaranteed by numerous test subjects and Chesta!
What everyone says in unison is... 'A tremendous sense of euphoria.'
Others say things like, 'An elation like spending a night with the world's most beautiful woman,' or 'Like pouring cold, pure water down a parched throat,' or 'I saw heaven.' Well, there are various descriptions, but overall, it is well-received.
By the way, Chesta's impression was, 'The guy who sleeps with you might be satisfied even if his parts rot off...' I couldn't care less about that!
"...And so, I'm the salesman."
"It cannot be helped. You are the most suitable as the point of contact! Or rather, if you do not sell it, the enemy will not attack us!"
By the way, there are currently only two ways to obtain this 'Mystic Ruby.'
One is to buy it from a drug dealer in a mask and hooded robe, carrying a staff, who occasionally wanders the backstreets... in other words, from me.
And the other is to buy it at Giovan's shop.
"Even if the first customer buys from me, if they think to buy a second time, many seem to prefer coming to this shop where they can surely buy it, rather than trying to buy from me, who appears unpredictably. This judgment was correct."
And as expected, Mystic Ruby is quite popular.
Since it is a magic-poison type drug, which is a very expensive category among drugs, I have set the price at a somewhat exorbitant level. One dose for one gold coin.
...Even so, it is selling like crazy, so it truly is ridiculous. In just the last few days, I have earned about one large gold coin's worth...
"Good grief, it's been nothing but dangerous tightrope walking since the Young Lady arrived. Honestly..."
"But you don't hate it, do you?"
"...To the point where I hate myself for it, yes!"
That is better than anything.
...Now then.
"By the way, I have come up with a good idea."
Yes. Since my 'good idea' received Giovan's endorsement of "Heh. Nice. Quite diabolical," I shall set to work immediately.
Then, Doran returned to the hideout. That means Chesta is currently at Giovan's shop. Lately, one of us always stays in the shop with Giovan.
"Hm? What is that paper?"
"A coupon ticket."
And what I was diligently making in the hideout was a coupon ticket.
It is a slightly thick piece of paper with stamps in gold and red ink as proof. It has eleven slots so one can see how many times it has been used.
The gold ink is a mixture of various things. In short, it is a fake. A 'fake anti-counterfeiting measure,' so to speak. I think it would be incredibly difficult to analyze and reproduce this. After all, it is truly nonsense. Ohohohohoho.
And the red ink is dragon's blood. (Ah, of course, it is the blood of the dragon Doran slayed.) If you hold up a scale from the same dragon, you can tell if it is the same dragon's blood by the magical reaction.
Such a thing is possible only because it is a dragon with high magical power. With a mere human, even if you stamp it with blood, it will only react to the living body. If the blood is diluted, it won't react at all.
...In other words, human blood can, conversely, be used for identity verification.
Using this mechanism, the coupon ticket will be made unusable by anyone other than the purchaser. It is a resale prevention measure. If we take the purchaser's blood and record it in our ledger, then we just have to record how many times they have used it in the ledger, and the resale prevention measure is perfect!
"A coupon ticket?"
"Yes. We shall sell eleven doses for the price of ten of Mystic Ruby. It is a bargain. Furthermore, the ticket has no expiration date. Every time the ticket is presented, we shall provide fresh Mystic Ruby."
"...Won't that result in a loss?"
"Not necessarily. Certainly, when we sell a coupon ticket, we lose the price of one dose, one gold coin. ...However, the opponent will, in exchange, buy ten gold coins' worth 'all at once.' In short, this is a means of making the opponent pay for a 'future with no guarantees.'"
In short, thugs who become junkies have no guarantee of their lives tomorrow. Even less so in six months or a year.
Since they are such people, I expect that at least one in several will end up unable to use up their coupon tickets.
"Besides, if they buy it all at once, their frequency of use will likely increase."
"...Wasn't the ticket supposed to have no expiration date, and a new Mystic Ruby would be provided every time the ticket was presented?"
"Oh. Just think about it, Doran. ...If there was a glass of delicious wine in front of you and you were told you could drink it, what would you do?"
"I'd drink it."
"I thought so. Then, what if there was 'one bottle' of that wine?"
...At this point, it seems Doran realized what I wanted to say.
"I see. If it's there, they'll drink it all. If they 'have it,' their frequency of use will increase accordingly. I see. ...And with a coupon ticket, the awareness of having 'gotten a deal' will likely increase the frequency of use even further."
That is exactly it. Those fellows are fools, so they should increase their consumption with the mindset of 'I got a deal, so it's fine if I use one extra bottle!'
"The cost of Mystic Ruby is only about the price of the vial and the sealing wax anyway. In that case, it is better to move toward high-volume, low-margin sales. It would be troublesome if the price collapsed, and the efficiency of earnings would drop if the price was lowered too much, so I shall maintain the line of one gold coin per dose."
"...Are you alright, having so much blood taken?"
"I am fine. ...After all, if I take one spoonful of blood, I can make a million bottles with it."
Of course, the 'raw liquid' is difficult to handle unless it is diluted, as fine adjustments cannot be made.
However, a 100-fold dilution does not seem to deteriorate much even if left for several days. A 100-fold dilution remains stable in quality for about ten days.
Therefore, for now, my blood loss is limited to 'taking three spoonfuls of blood a month,' considering 'making a 100-fold dilution once every ten days.'
...By the way.
There was one wonderful point about this Mystic Ruby.
...When it is in the vial, it looks like just plain blood. Because it is blood. Yes.
Therefore, even if this small vial were to accidentally catch someone's eye, no one would realize it is the raw material for the drug 'Mystic Ruby'!
Ah, by the way, the reason I carry a staff when I go out to sell Mystic Ruby is not only to escape with illusion magic in an emergency, but also because it is not strange for a mage to possess blood in a small vial.