11 The Reques (1/2)
It is morning in Lurep Village.
Rose and Thorn are heading to a branch of Zelu's Blacksmiths to sell Dani Zelu's armor. Besides his armor, he had 230 gold coins with him. Evidently, Rose is happy about this, considering that these spoils of war will speed up her plans by a few weeks of time.
”You'll have enough money after selling that armor?” Thorn asks.
After remembering how many gold coins she has to accumulate, Rose responds somewhat downcast: ”I wish it could be that cheap to contract a great ship designer. *Sigh*… We need at least 50 000 gold coins…”
”50 000 gold coins. We've received just 20 gold coins for a day of job… It will take us quite some time to reunite such quantity…” Thorn says calmly, he actually doesn't mind it.
They arrive at a beautiful eight stories high building that has the shape of the torso of an impressive white armor, and they go directly at the eighth floor because, in the eighth floor, there are the best blacksmiths of Lurep Village.
Once there, they choose a random shop and go into it. The shop isn't that big but it is full of B-class zenanium suits, armors, and weapons. In it could be found suitable equipment for any Civilized Race.
The owner of the shop is a dullahan blacksmith who is wearing blacksmith clothes, and his light jet black smoke cloud has the shape of the plus sign. Seeing that some customers have entered his shop, he says with the characteristic dullahan's vibrating voice: ”Welcome to Tom Zelu's Shop, are you searching for something in particular?”
”Well, actually we just want to sell this.” Thorn says giving a big sack to Tom Zelu.
This doesn't surprise him, there is a lot of occasions where something like this happens. After placing the content of the sack on a table, he inspects carefully the armor that appears before him. A while later he says impressed: ”A noteworthy A-class zenanium armor in perfect conditions, this is a rare sight in Lurep Village.”
”How much are you willing to pay for it?” Rose asks with a businesslike expression on her face.
”Umm… before that, I need to ask, why there is a blood stain on the armor?” The shop owner asks nonchalantly while pointing at a very small red mark that the armor has.
Without losing her cool, Rose says: ”Oh, there is indeed.”
Then she puts on a thoughtful expression: ”What could it be…? Oh! Perhaps…”
She quickly grabs Thorn's hand and secretly uses her nail to cause him a tiny wound in one of his fingers.
”Just as I thought! You must have hurt yourself by accident when you put the armor in the sack!” Rose exclaims, and then she turns her gaze toward Tom Zelu, and says smiling innocently: ”Well, mystery solved!”
Tom Zelu: (To who is this woman trying to deceive!? Really what a shameless scoundrel! Is she looking down on my brain? Is she actually looking down on my brain!? Hehehe… She doesn't need to recur to such means! Because doesn't matter where they have got this armor since I have the Zelu family backing me! So whatever its provenance is, there shouldn't be any issues if I just buy it… Unless that this armor belonged to a Zelu family member, but that is impossible, after all, how could they have the guts to rob and offend the Zelu family, and above all, the guts to sell what they robbed from the Zelu family in the Zelu family's territory! Jajajaja there is not enough courage in the world to do such a thing, not with that pathetic level of cultivation of them!)
After thinking up to this point, he says: ”I'll be fair, 500 gold coins. I won't pay more than that.”
”Ok, yes, it is fair enough to me.” Rose doesn't bargain because she has grasped that her lame excuse has been seen through it with ease.
She takes the money and without looking back, she gets away from the shop with Thorn.
After some time of walking, Thorn can't hold his curiosity back anymore and asks: ”Why was he wearing blacksmith clothes? I mean, it is just a shop and not a blacksmith factory.”
”Ah, it comes with the job. Usually, the customers have the preference to buy their equipment from someone wearing blacksmith clothes rather than from someone wearing another kind of clothes.” Rose responds showing off her knowledge.
Thorn says smiling: ”Oh! It makes sense.” But then he frowns: ”Wait a moment, doesn't that means that he uses devious psychological tricks to sell his goods? Humph! What a shameless scoundrel!”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Lurep Village's Library
The name of the elderly gargoyle librarian who wears a white librarian uniform, the gargoyle which attended Rose some days ago, is Blan Ton. He is sited at a chair reading a fist-thick book with the demeanor of a sage.
”Hello.”
Suddenly, a voice interrupts his concentration. He cast his gaze upward slowly. (Oh, she is that girl from a few days ago. Mmm!? Second Level Initial Awaken!?) Chuckling, he says: ”Hehehe… Hello. It seems that you manage to breakthrough, congratulations!”
Of course, that girl is Rose, and Thorn is by her side. She beams proudly: ”Well, actually it was very easy. Hahaha…”
”Was… it?” Thorn murmurs indolently.
At that moment, Rose puts on a solemn face: ”Anyway, today I am here to buy a copy of The Mountain of Rose, by Lin the Lonely Adventurer.”
”Mmm? There was a book by Lin the Lonely Adventurer with that name…? Wait here please, I'll go to look for it.” Blan Ton then walks to the stairs that go at the underground of the library.
Within the underground of the library, there are copies of every single book that the library has.
After walking for some time flanked by immense bookshelves, he finally finds the book Rose is searching for. ”It truly exists! It seems that I am a big shame as a librarian!” He critics himself, feeling incompetent.
It must be known that Lin the Lonely Adventurer is one of the top three best writers of this era, so his feelings are well-founded.