I was a priest in the city-state era

Eteo, a large grain merchant in the city of Knossos, was obviously a royal or nobleman with great wealth.

His stone house was huge and luxurious, with walls made of smooth rocks, and two three-meter-high stone pillars at the door supporting the eaves.

Moreover, this stone house has two floors, upper and lower, and looks like a villa.

In addition to the stone house that serves as the main house, there are many wooden houses that serve as warehouses in the surrounding area.

Cuaron, the guide, took Roy and Aries to Eteo's stone house. After introducing Roy's identity to the four soldiers guarding the door, a soldier immediately entered the stone house to report the situation.

After a while, the soldier from before came out and said.

"Lord Eteo has agreed to receive the strangers!"

After hearing the soldier's words, Caron, the guide, looked at Roy and said.

"Lord Eteo has agreed to see you. Now you can go in. Foreigners! I must remind you that even if the deal with Lord Eteo does not succeed, you should not behave rudely."

Roy nodded to Caron, the guide, and then walked into the stone house with Aries.

Inside Eteo's stone house, there is a fully armed soldier every five meters.

Roy and Aries walked through the corridor and entered the hall behind the corridor. They saw a middle-aged man wearing colorful robes and gold and silver jewelry sitting on a stone seat.

Seeing Roy and Aries walking into the hall, Eteo locked eyes directly with Roy and said.

"Stranger! What goods have you brought? If your goods do not interest me, then there is no need for us to continue talking."

"Dear Lord Eteo, my goods are one hundred jars of olive oil. But I handed over five jars of olive oil as business tax, and gave two jars of olive oil as payment for the guide Caron. Now I only have nine jars left. Thirteen jars of olive oil.”

"olive oil--"

Eteo said with a serious expression.

"Since your goods are olive oil, I can trade with you. According to the price of ten pounds of olive oil in exchange for forty pounds of grain, your olive oil can be exchanged for 3,720 pounds of grain from me."

Ten pounds of olive oil can only be exchanged for forty pounds of grain——

After hearing the deal proposed by Eteo, Roy immediately frowned and said.

"Lord Eteo! As far as I know, in the city of Knossos, ten pounds of olive oil can be exchanged for fifty pounds of grain."

"My fleet took huge risks to transport grain to the port of Knossos. What's wrong with me raising the price of grain?"

"The city of Knossos has a strong naval protection channel. What risks do you take in transporting food from Egypt to the city of Knossos? After three days and three nights of sailing, we transported olive oil from our distant hometown to Knossos. Soth City is the one who truly risks his life.”

Hearing Roy's words, Eteo asked curiously.

"Stranger, where is your hometown?"

"We are Athenians from the Attica Peninsula."

"I heard some Phoenicians say that the Athenian tribe is the most powerful tribe on the Attica Peninsula, but it is also a group of indigenous people with backward civilization. I didn't expect that you, the backward indigenous people, can also conduct long-sea trade. You said That's right. You are indeed taking a big risk by bringing the olive oil here. I agree to trade with you at the price of ten pounds of olive oil for fifty pounds of grain. Now you can bring the olive oil and get it from me. 4,650 kilograms of grain were moved from the warehouse.”

After reaching a deal with Eteo for ten pounds of olive oil in exchange for fifty pounds of grain, Roy said with a joyful smile.

"Lord Eteo, you are really a good businessman of fair trade. We Athenians want to have long-term cooperation with you. In the future, we will transport more olive oil to the city of Knossos. We hope you can use the same Price to trade with us.”

"You have more olive oil-"

Eteo was surprised at first, then said with a faint smile.

"It seems that I have underestimated your olive oil production. I can purchase any olive oil your Athenian tribe has."

"Then let's sign a trade contract!"

Roy took out the paper, pen and ink he carried with him, and was about to start writing when he suddenly realized that Eteo could not understand Chinese characters, and he could not understand the hieroglyphics used by the Knossos people.

Since both parties cannot understand each other's words, there is no need to sign a trade contract.

Roy was about to put away his pen and paper when Eteo suddenly shouted.

"Wait!"

Then under Roy's surprised gaze, Eteo stood up and walked to Roy, looking at the paper, pen and ink curiously and asked.

"What is this?"

Seeing that Eteo was very interested in paper, pen and ink, Roy hesitated, put the paper, pen and ink on the ground, then dipped the brush in the ink, and said while drawing and writing on the paper.

"Lord Eteo, this is paper, a brush, and ink. With these three things, you can use a brush to write and draw on paper. I heard that you Knossos people wrote many hieroglyphics on clay tablets. But clay tablets are not easy to make and are not easy to preserve. Writing hieroglyphs on paper can be preserved for a long time, and the paper will not be damaged easily. "

Looking at the pictures Roy wrote on the paper, Eteo said in surprise with wide eyes.

"I can see that the brush is made of horsetail hair, and the ink is a dyed water, but how is the paper made? Foreigner! Can you sell me the brush, ink and all the paper? I am willing to pay a high price Get these things!"

"If Lord Eteo is willing to spend five hundred——"

Roy was about to use paper, pen and ink to exchange five hundred kilograms of grain with Eteo when his eyes were suddenly attracted by the two bronze belts hanging on the wall.

These are two belts carved with animal leather as the backing. One belt is engraved with two snakes devouring each other's tails. The other belt is engraved with two cows colliding together. The center point of the collision of the horns of the two cows is Belt buckle for this belt.

Eteo followed Roy's gaze to the two bronze belts and said with a playful smile on his face.

"Stranger! If you want to please your wife at home, I have a better gift here. Although the bronze is also golden, it is not real gold after all. I have a real gold belt that I can sell to you. The price of the gold belt is One thousand pounds of grain.”

A thousand kilograms of grain in exchange for a gold belt——

I'm afraid only the belt buckle of this so-called golden belt is made of gold.

Although Roy wanted the gold belt very much, Roy's personal wealth was simply not enough to buy the belt.

So Roy hesitated for a moment and said to Eteo.

"Lord Eteo! If you really want my paper, pen and ink, trade these two bronze belts with me."

"good!"

After Eteo readily agreed, Roy immediately walked to the wall, stretched out his hands and took off the two bronze belts.

After Roy took Aries out of Eteo's stone house, Aries asked cautiously.

"Master Priest! You bought these two bronze belts. Do you want to use them yourself, or do you want to give them to Princess Procne and Princess Philomela?"

Roy was not surprised that Aries could see his own thoughts.

After all, among normal people, only the blind would not be able to see that Roy's relationship with Procne and Philomela has gone beyond the relationship between ordinary men and women.

"Aries, you idiot, would I be so extravagant as to buy myself a belt with five hundred kilograms worth of grain?"