The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

Sylvia turned around, her little hands gripping Moran's sleeve tightly, her upturned face radiating eager anticipation:
"Mom! Why don't you... pick out some cards and put them in the shop too!"

Her eyes sparkled, and she spoke as quickly as bouncing pebbles:

"From now on, you can just sit behind the counter, drink tea, read books, and wait to collect gem coins! I'll help you sell the cards!"

Moran raised an eyebrow, looking at her daughter with interest: "Oh? That's so nice? What kind of reward do I need to give you?"

Sylvia had already thought it through; she extended one index finger and held it up in front of her mother.

It was probably the first time she was discussing "business" with her mother, and her finger trembled slightly, showing a lack of confidence.
"For each card sold, I'll only charge... 1 gem coin as a service fee, is that alright?"

After she finished speaking, she carefully observed her mother's expression.

The finger hovered in mid-air, as if if Moran hesitated any longer, she would quietly withdraw it and change her mind, saying, "Actually, it's fine without money."

Moran was utterly charmed by her daughter's bold yet guilty demeanor.

She suppressed a laugh, deliberately adopting a thoughtful expression, and lightly tapped her chin with her finger:

"Hmm... only 1 gem coin commission per card? That sounds like a pretty good deal."

She paused, looking at her daughter's eyes that lit up instantly, and then slowly added:

"Well... I'll reluctantly let you sell some cards on my behalf! But—"

She bent down, looking directly at Sylvia, her voice tinged with amusement:

"There's no compensation for unsold cards. Plus, you'll be responsible for organizing the cards, registering them, and routine maintenance. Can you handle that?"

Sylvia was taken aback at first, then puffed out her chest and said in a clear voice, "No problem! I can do all of these!"

"Then it's a deal." Moran smiled and extended her hand.

Sylvia immediately clapped her little hand on the spot, and the soft "smack" sounded particularly clear in the quiet grocery store.

Actually, while she was training her daughter, Moran had no intention of leaving the grocery store empty.

This trip was both a journey of growth for Sylvia and a way to fulfill her own desires.

Opening a small shop that you can stop and go anywhere, meeting all sorts of people, and listening to stories from afar is one of the parts of her travels that she looks forward to the most.

"Well then, shop manager, please step aside!" Moran walked to the screen and swiped her finger lightly. "I'm going to start selecting goods."

Without any hesitation, she directly selected a batch of cards from the card shop.

Cards fell as lightly as feathers, piling up into neat little mountains on the counter.

She chose cards that were level 5 to 10.

The continent of Valen is now a level 10 world, and the highest rank of the native spellcasters in the world can reach is level 5, which corresponds to the level of a level 10 card.

Cards in this range are neither too basic and lack appeal, nor too rare and cause unnecessary trouble, making them the most suitable category for the "travel general store" positioning.

Once she picked out the cards, she really didn't care anymore. She moved the shelf slightly, temporarily added a small window to the wall behind the counter, leisurely took out a small table and two rattan chairs, set up a relaxing corner, sat down and brewed flower tea, truly adopting the demeanor of a "hands-off manager".

Sylvia, however, didn't feel embarrassed at all; on the contrary, she was extremely excited and immediately started working. First, she picked up the catalog and turned to a blank page.

Then I picked up a stack of cards, examined them carefully one by one, pasted them onto the pages of the booklet, watched as the card information automatically appeared, and then wrote down the numbers next to them in neat handwriting.

After writing down the numbers, she tiptoed and jogged to insert the cards into the empty shelf compartments outside the counter.

The once empty wooden frame was gradually filled with cards of various colors.

Sylvia dusted off her hands—not real dust—and nodded with satisfaction, her little face beaming with pride. "Now at least when customers come in, all the shelves that are visible are stocked. Our Witch's General Store finally looks like a proper shop!"

She walked back to the counter with the thick catalog and flipped to the section on Moran Cards.

The booklet has automatically recorded images and descriptions of all the cards, except for the "Price" column, which is still empty.

This put Sylvia in a bit of a dilemma.

Please ask the squeaky chirps to help calculate the price; she doesn't have any gem coins to pay.

As for myself, I can't figure it out even if I try.

But then she thought about it again—she was just selling these cards on behalf of others, and her mother only let her register them. The pricing power was originally in her mother's hands!

Moreover, isn't this a great opportunity to learn?
Her eyes lit up, and she ran to Moran's side with the booklet in her arms, her voice sweet:

"Mom! The price of these cards hasn't been decided yet! How do you think we should price them?"

She tilted her little face up, her eyes filled with "I want to learn, I want to learn".

This is a good opportunity to learn from Mom's pricing strategy.

Why is this card worth this price, and how much should that card cost? There must be many secrets hidden here that she hasn't discovered yet!

Moran put down her teacup and took the booklet from her daughter. Although she could tell what her daughter was thinking at a glance, she had no intention of doing as she was told.

She opened the booklet, her fingertips lightly brushing over the blank price lists: "I'll price these cards at twice the price of those in the Witch Card Shop."

Sylvia exclaimed "Ah!" with a puzzled look on her face: "Twice? But Zizi said the Tatars themselves paid 1.8 times the purchase price. Wouldn't it be...?"

"Isn't it too cheap?" Moran chimed in, shaking his head with a smile. "It is cheap, but it's a rare stroke of luck to find our moving castle and general store in this mountain forest."

She closed the booklet and looked out the window at the mountains and forests:
“Mom doesn’t lack gem coins now. Earning a little less, making more friends, and reading more stories are more meaningful to me than the numbers on the ledger.”

Sylvia nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite. She could vaguely grasp the meaning behind her mother's words, yet it felt as if a thin layer of mist still separated them.

Moran noticed her daughter's confusion and gently ruffled her hair.
"When you're rich enough, you'll understand what I'm thinking now."

She waved her hand, and wrote down the corresponding prices for all her cards in the catalog:

"From now on, you'll be selling these cards on my behalf, but ownership still belongs to Mom, and the pricing will be as Mom says. Once you have enough gem coins, you can buy any card from me at cost price. At that time, you can re-price them and sell them however you like. All the profit is yours!"

Hearing her mother say that she could buy these cards at cost price and resell them herself, Sylvia cheered happily, "Thank you, Mom! When are we going to the Tatali tribe? I can't wait to open for business!" (End of Chapter)