One Piece: Mandala Swordsman

Chapter 96 Knowledge is priceless, what price are you setting? That's outrageous.

"It's all done, it really suits you." He combed Robin's slightly messy hair and tied it into a black bow.

"Come on, let's put this on too." Then, a small black cat mask was put on Robin's face, Roman put one on himself, and gave one to Buggy as well. However, Buggy refused it with great disdain.

He was quite impatient with the two brats: "Can we go now?"

"Don't be in such a hurry. We've finally come to a new place, wouldn't it be nice to take a look around? Robin, you're right, aren't you?" Roman winked at Robin.

"Anything is fine, you can arrange it," Robin said sensibly.

"Bucky, in that case, let's go check out the street stalls. A business that's highly profitable is what really interests us."

Roman wanted to snag a bargain.

Palomino is a member state of the World Government. From the king to the common people, everyone loves commerce, so the trade industry here is extremely developed, with many vendors and stalls, and a strong street vendor culture.

For example, in Quentin, where they are now, street vending is very popular.

Strange and unusual things often appear.

In a large forest, it's not unusual to find all kinds of birds.

Good merchants often find great deals at the market and make a profit, but many more people misjudge the market and end up spending a lot of money on a bunch of useless things.

But just like the rules of gambling, once you place your bet, you have to accept the loss if you make a bad bet.

Quentin is also one of the gathering places for gangs in the Palomino Kingdom. As long as you pay enough protection money, you will be allowed to set up a stall here, and they will even be willing to protect your life and property.

Although they are an illegal organization and the amount of money involved is relatively high, everything is relative. Compared to pirates who fight and plunder at the drop of a hat, they are already considered to have a conscience. At least you don't have to worry about dying here.

Therefore, having a unique perspective is an important thing for customers.

Although Roman didn't think she could necessarily snag a bargain, she had Bucky as her lucky charm.

At her urging, Bucky was finally persuaded, so the three of them went to Quentin’s street market.

The market was bustling with people. The roadsides were covered with carpets filled with bottles and jars, as well as some odds and ends. The slightly more presentable shops were mobile stores made from wooden carts, while the wide road in the middle provided ample space for pedestrians to move around.

In such a mixed place, wearing black robes and masks seemed perfectly normal; on the contrary, dressing without covering one's face seemed strange. So Roman and his group quickly blended in once again.

Despite his complaints, Bucky was the most excited guy once he arrived on the ground. His mind would quickly sharpen whenever money, treasure, or valuables were involved.

"Red agate? Dyed."

"Green jade? It has no texture at all, it's just glass."

"A broken antique vase? That looks too fake; it's obviously been altered."

……

With his sharp eye, Bucky complained about everything he saw, much to Roman's amazement.

Wow, he not only has the potential to be a scientist, but he's also an appraiser!

With such abilities, why would he be a pirate? He's ended up in such a miserable state. But if he chose another path, his talents would allow him to easily join a major merchant guild, which wouldn't be any worse than being a pirate.

While being a pirate might earn more, Buggy's lack of strength is a major weakness.

"Robin, is there anything you want? I'll pay for it." Roman patted his chest generously.

"I……"

"Don't be shy. You've been Bucky's bodyguard for free, so it's only right that we give you a little something. Besides, I still have some money." Roman winked at Robin.

Although Robin was somewhat interested, she was still a little shy, so Roman simply pulled her into the stall filled with books.

Compared to other dazzling array of goods, a simple and uninteresting book stall is naturally not very lively, especially in an era when the general level of cultural literacy in this world is not high.

However, Roman saw a light in Robin's eyes.

She knew she had made the right choice.

The stall owner was at least a seventy-year-old man with ordinary features but sharp eyes. He was holding a pipe and smoking.

Seeing the newcomers was a bit of a surprise. Although they were wearing masks, both of them looked to be young girls based on their height.

"I didn't expect to find a young girl at my stall. I thought you'd prefer those colorful trinkets." The stall owner looked the two of them over and took another puff of his cigarette.

Robin didn't reply, but instead focused on flipping through the books, while Roman also began to choose the books he wanted.

Although it was just a small stall, it had a wide variety of books.

It covers all aspects of agriculture, water conservancy, science and technology, humanities, geography, history, literature, and navigation.

After Robin picked up the book, he seemed to be elevated in spirit.

Roman also picked up a book of nautical charts and started flipping through it.

The drawings above are almost all hand-drawn and then bound into a book, but they don't look rough at all; they are even accompanied by a lot of text descriptions.

Even in an old lady's private library, it's rare to find books of such high quality, but to see them at such an obscure little stall, Roman was quite astonished.

"This book..."

“1000 million peles,” the old man said slowly.

"So expensive?" Roman was shocked.

"I'm sorry, I misspoke."

"That startled me, how much is that?"

"2500 million Pele".

"...How did it become more expensive?" Roman asked, his face filled with fear.

"You chose 1000 million Berries, and that girl chose books worth 1500 million Berries," the old man said slowly, pointing to the books Robin had selected.

Roman looked at Robin, and sure enough, the little girl was also holding a book called "Historical Chronicles".

As an archaeologist who studies history, Robin is naturally interested in history, but she was clearly taken aback by the price, hurriedly putting down the book and wiping the dust off it.

This embarrassed Roman. She did have some money, but someone going out to train naturally couldn't carry too much. Normally, a few million Berries would be enough, but the prices here were clearly an eye-opener for her.

This guy, is he thinking they're easy targets? Even if you're looking for suckers, this isn't how you do it.

"Can't you make it cheaper?"

Knowledge is priceless.

“You’ve already put a price tag on it,” Roman retorted.

"Giving you a fixed price for something priceless is already a bargain," the old man said, his words reasonable and well-founded.

This sounds so familiar; Roman feels like he's run into a shady dealer.

Roman wanted to give up, but seeing that Robin still couldn't take her eyes off the books, and remembering her previous boastful words, she couldn't help but have a plan.

I wonder if there are any wanted criminals on this island?