"Twice my weight in copper for every day of work, plus 75% commission on each of my sales."
"And the occasional bonus."
Taking in Hank's expression for a moment, Mac delivered the knock-out blow.
"Twice her weight in any precious metal, she can still switch to gold or some other kind of metal."
Mac knew Hank was about to declare the entire situation preposterous, so he got in front of it by lifting up his left arm, and with a soft thud it split open to reveal his gravity furnace.
"Ever seen something like this before? No? Believe me now?"
Getting his hand back together and letting Hank calm down, the two men redid their introductions with renewed respect on both sides.
"Nice to meet you Mac, my name is Hank and I'm the master of this forge and blacksmith by trade. Thank you for saving my daughter, we are both in your debt."
"It is nice to meet you Hank, my name is Mac. I've traveled across an ocean of stars to be here today. I've heard from your daughter that you're a skilled blacksmith, so I bought a product Tia will be selling that we will be happy if you tried out and recommended."
Bringing up his faux wooden box filled with 'coal', the first thing Mac pulled out was 10 kilo's worth of copper bars and stacked them on the table.
"You will, of course, be paid for this service."
"I-I see."
Just glancing at the metal bars Hank could tell that they were real, so he took a moment to steady himself before inquiring further.
"What do you need from me?"
At this point Hank had to admit that Mac was a strange one, but he had also saved his daughter's life. In the face of that, there was really no way Hank could ever pay Mac back for saving Tia's life.
"It's simple really, just test this coal derivative, and if you find it usable recommend it to your peers."
"Okay, I can- wait what? That's it?"
Prepared for something absurd, Hank found the idea of losing his forge in return for having his daughter alive and well so easily to agree with that it caused some whiplash.
"You might start rethinking that when you see this actual 'coal'."
Tia understood her dad's confusion, but unlike him she had seen what she was supposed to sell already.
Opening the wooden crate Mac had brought with him, Tia handed her father one of the uniformed pieces of 'coal' to explain.
"... What the fuck kind of… Now I understand."
Just holding the strange material in his hand was enough for Hank to figure out what the real crutch of this deal was.
"You do understand that very few people are actually going to buy this, even if I claim it's the best fuel I've ever come across?"
"Sure, most people will avoid it like the plague, but when somebody desperate finds out I'm selling it at a fifth the cost of normal coal they'll try it out, then from there they'll also start recommending it."
Mac knew from Tia's reaction alone that not many people were going to trust this new product, but he had the confidence that it would become popular once people overcame their suspicions, or just preferred how much coin it was saving them.
Even believing he was about to lose his forge, Hank went ahead and tested the 'coal' in his forge, starting the long process of fueling it and letting the heat stabilize as the coal burned before he started using it.
"What is this heat!?"
Although Hank had followed Mac's instruction of only using half the fuel he was used to, he was still stunned by the amount of heat he was getting as the 'coal' inside the forge burned with a slight blue tint.
"Higher relative energy density from improved combustion isn't all either, these fuel pellets will last anywhere from twice to three times as long due to the first stage igniter bonded to the molecular honeycomb structure."
Hank hardly understood what Mac was talking about when he commented on his astonishment, but Hank didn't need fancy words to convince him of what he was seeing; this 'coal' lasted longer, burned longer and left no toxic dust. Simply put, it was revolutionary.
(They're going to ruffle a couple of feathers by selling something this good at such a low price…)
"... How are you going to protect my girl when she's selling this stuff and powerful people start losing business?"
Hank wasn't worried about monsters for the moment, or adventurers even, what he feared seeing the effectiveness of this product were the merchant guilds who had built themselves on coal, and what they would do when their lucrative business started failing.
"Dad, I'm-"
"No, it's okay."
While Tia wanted to cover or explain the security briefings she barely understood herself to reassure her dad, Mac stepped in as he stood up.
"Let's go outside, follow me."
Walking through the forge, Mac led Tia and Hank out into Hank's backyard where a dropship quietly hovered just above the grass, filling the yard almost entirely.
"W-what in the hell is that!?"
Vaguely being able to distinguish the dark craft's outlines from the dark sky above, Hank shouted louder than he had intended to this late at night as he took a step back.
"It's a 'dropship' dad, it's how I traveled back here…"
Reassuring her father that he hadn't just come face to face with some sort of monster, Tia was also slightly unnerved at the fact that Mac's crafts could just float around quietly like that and appear without warning.
"Correct, it's a dropship. At least one of these will be following Tia from above at all times, if need be they'll intervene and deal with any kind of threat, be it people or monsters… I can guarantee a 20 second response time, but as my presence in this country increases I'll arrange for a guard to be with her around the clock."
"I-I see. I guess that's better than any kind of security I could've thought of.."
With Hank reassured that his daughter would be safe working for Mac, he quickly introduced the old blacksmith to human-type drones as a group of them unloaded faux wooden crates marked 'RED import consortium' filled with coal and yet more copper bars Tia would sell to buy a new wagon and start her new business.
"As you start selling to not just blacksmiths but middlemen and merchants be sure to inquire about their interest in luxury goods like fabrics, jewelry and gemstones, the forges are barely utilized at this point, so I have spare capacity for whatever you think would sell."
"Right, I'll spend the night here and start working tomorrow."
Eager to earn her ridiculously high salary, Tia wanted to get right to work.
Sadly there were a few more things Mac needed to set up before that.
"Nope. Take the week off, paid of course."
"Why? What's going on?"
Not exactly from a culture where it was normal to receive pay for time off, Tia was confused at Mac's sudden reluctance at letting her do her job.
"I still need to obtain a ledger of trade or at least make some sort of first contact with this country, if I don't and they find out I'm selling things inside their border it would create a diplomatic incident."
Mac liked this planet, and this country for very little more than emotional reasons, so he didn't want to fuck things up early and decided trough somewhat proper channels to avoid getting in trouble later.
"You don't really need any sort of permission from the country to trade non-restricted goods, but most merchants won't touch you unless you have a membership in good standing with the merchants guild."
As long as one didn't trade in weapons, gold or high purity mana crystals the country itself didn't really care about what you sold. On the other hand, selling to anyone who redistributed your goods, such as boutiques, shops or distributors required a degree of trust, so guild membership was required.
"While I don't know about any fancy trading like my daughter, I don't imagine the country is going to give a damn if you just show up knocking on the door, unless you want to show up in that 'dropship' of yours."
Hank didn't imagine Mac was after such a grand entrance, given he had arrived late at night with a vehicle that made no sound, so he started stroking his beard as he thought out loud about other options.
"You could bribe some of those fancy nobles to get an introduction, of course, or show up at a border station?... Of course, if you got the spunk you could sign up for the sword fighting tournament."
"The what now?"
Feeling like he had misheard Hank, Mac felt a smile creep up on his face.
"The yearly sword fighting tournament. It takes place in the capital in a few days. I heard the winner can get a wish fulfilled by the crown, usually they just make the winner a knight or something, but couldn't you get a whatchamacallit from that?"
"An audience dad. Even if you don't make it far in the tournament most of the participants are nobles… Could get an introduction like that."
Agreeing with her dad even if she figured it wasn't a great plan, Tia saw the whimsy build up in Mac's smile and felt a headache coming.
"Nah, I'd win."
28 hours later Mac found himself standing in a long line of people almost literally dressed to kill in front of a large open air arena. People around him wore leather and metal armor, branded shortswords, maces and shields that looked at Mac like he was free lunch. Compared to the mercenaries, knights and adventures around him, Mac didn't seem like he would be worth anything in a fight, wearing no armour and only armed with a single unassuming sword.
The sword wasn't in any way normal, of course. Likewise Mac had no need for amour, as his synthetic body could survive a nuclear holocaust if need be. The only reason Mac would ever wear anything which could be considered armour was for cooling, but that's a story for some other time.
"Name and occupation."
Finally getting to the front of the line, Mac barely got a glance before the clerk asked for what he needed to write down. As this tournament was open for all to enter, there were at least a few jokers who didn't know what they signed up for each year.
"The name is Mac, and believe it or not but I'm a diplomat."
"I see. Go to the right, waiting room number 3."
Lying through his teeth, Mac got little response from the clerk, so he wordlessly went right to find his assigned waiting room. The nondescript waiting room in question was filled with even more burly dudes and gals, most of which only scanned Mac over once before deciding he wasn't a threat and not worth paying attention to.
(Perhaps I should have worn a bit of armour… Nah, not worth the trouble when my plan is to stand out.)
The kind of fencing Mac started out practicing didn't integrate any kind of armour, it had been a brutal and mostly ceremonial way his father had used to beat the shit out of Mac and his other spawn while pretending to parent in a non psychotic way. Building on that base by integrating whatever other styles he came across traveling through the universe, what Mac was left with was a style tailored to his synthetic strength and lightning fast reflexes. Standing out is what Mac wanted, and stand out he did; he just didn't quite get the attention he was looking for, at least not at the moment.
A blonde woman wearing shiny plate armour had entered the waiting room, scanned it and gotten a foul look on her face when she saw Mac, although she looked away when Mac blew her a kiss.
(What? Don't stare if you're not interested.)