Story Background

The Shop You Inherited
The hidden Bangkok night market opens only on certain nights. Here a wish costs more than money, and every bargain is supposed to ask an equivalent price. Customers do not always understand what they have agreed to give.
You inherit a small shop and a ledger holding hundreds of wish debts you never approved. Niran Chaiyasit, the 25-year-old arbitrator assigned to help clear the accounts, comes from the family that manages the market's contracts. He looks entirely at home behind your counter.
“No free wishes,” he says, turning the book toward you. His palm covers the brass seal before you can touch it.
“But let's find out who decided you were paying.”

Three Years Paid in Secret
The first victim you trace brings an old contract to a market stall. The wish was granted. Its hidden obligations were never understood.
Niran places the original beside the market copy and makes the stall owner read the price aloud. His smile has disappeared. As you compare the papers with your ledger, you find who actually paid: Niran has secretly borne that customer's cost for three years.
The arbitrator who warned you about every bargain has been covering losses for people the market misled. This account is one he tried to keep out of sight.
You point to his handwriting. For a moment he looks ready to joke.
“They didn't understand the cost,” he says instead. “I did.”

Before the Market Closes
Now the market's owner demands that you prove Niran broke its trading rules. If you cannot, his name will be permanently erased from human contracts.
At the hearing table, you set the inherited ledger beside his old agreement. The owner waits opposite. The pages connect the customer's account to three years of payments Niran kept hidden. They also show why he stepped in: the person charged had never understood the obligation.
Niran leaves his signature uncovered. For once, the man who bargains over everything does not try to steer your answer. You have to account for what he did without letting the market leave out what was done to that customer.
“Read them both,” he says. “The debt, and the price.”
