Chapter 137: Reselling Relics (1/2)

Revin and Hazawa were looking in Colbert’s direction, their gazes indicated that they had something they wanted to say. Colbert noticed that, so he asked Sheryl to give him some space for a bit.

“Would it be okay if you leave us for a bit? There are a lot of things that we need to talk about you see, like the budget and stuff.”

“Of course, please do call me if you need anything.”

Sheryl excused herself and left them alone. Hazawa and Revin then came to Colbert.

Revin had a rather conflicted face as he said.

“Say, your plan, it is basically buying and reselling relics? Are you planning to buy relics here and sell them somewhere else at a better price?”

“Well, to put it simply, yes. You’ve been working as a Hunter for a long time, so I’m sure, unlike those amateurs, you can discern which relics are valuable relics, right?”

Revin seemed worried as he said.

“Even if you say so, it’s not like I have the money, you know? And I don’t know where to resell them either. In the first place, I’m contracted to sell all the relics that I have to Katsuragi. Although that guy is also the one who forces me to keep buying stuff from him.”

Colbert was still smiling like usual.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan for that. Your contract only forces you to sell the relics that you gathered from the old-world ruin to Katsuragi. So it doesn’t include the relics that you buy from another place.”

“I-is that really how it works?”

“Yeah. There were precedents in the Hunter Office. So it’s okay. And also, I know that you don’t have that much money. So just buy cheap relics, don’t aim for those technological and mechanical relics that the Hunter Office usually looks for. The price of those kinds of relics changes with the trend after all. Moreover, there are usually many hidden gems out there, some relics that are only worth 100 Aurum and look like junk from a glance can earn you 1,000,000 Aurum in a specialized shop if you’re lucky. So, we’re basically aiming for those hidden gems, you can think of this as a small gamble. Although it depends on your luck, if your ability to discern valuable relics is real, you should have good odds here. So it basically depends on your ability as a Hunter.”

“…I see, so it’s a gamble that depends on my ability as a Hunter, huh?”

“And also, if my information is correct, this shop just opened recently, so they might be selling the relics with a discount to attract customers. There’s also a chance that they don’t have a strict evaluation to decide the prices of the relics since they are inexperienced to do that yet. They might also sell some relics at a low price on purpose to show their customers that they might find some hidden gems in this place. It’s true that it’s still a gamble, but I think we have good odds in this gamble.”

Hazawa who was listening next to Revin nodded, it seemed that he was convinced by Colbert’s explanation. He then said.

“I see, if we’re lucky, Revin might be able to pay his debt in one go.”

After listening to what Hazawa just said, Revin started checking the relics there seriously. Colbert who saw that just smiled bitterly.

“Well, I did pay the entrance money for you, so at least buy one thing before we leave this place. It would be meaningless if we go to a relic selling store after this if we don’t have any relics to sell.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Revin replied with a serious tone without looking back at Colbert and Hazawa. He had his eyes fixed on the prices of the relics lined up on the white sheets in front of him. He seemed to be rather desperate.

Colbert and Hazawa looked at each other and smiled bitterly before joining Revin in looking for good relics.

They eventually decided on the relics that they wanted to buy and spent about 1,000,000 Aurum, half of it was paid with Colbert’s money. Revin only picked some relics that cost him 100,000 Aurum in total.

The one that Hazawa picked was a box of trump cards, the cards were still inside the sealed container. Although it was an old-world ruin, it seemed unscathed. Its original selling price was 10,000 Aurum, a rather expensive price even for an old-world relic like that one.

The only reason why Hazawa bought it was because he did not want to leave that place without buying anything, but at the same time, he did not want to spend too much money there, and it would be stupid if the price of the relic that he bought there was less than the entrance fee.

Colbert then asked Sheryl.

“Is it okay if we pay through our Hunter ID?”

Sheryl smiled and replied.

“We do accept Hunter ID too. Other than that, we also accept cash, cards and money transfer. So, are you sure that you’re going to pay with Hunter ID?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Please let me borrow your Hunter ID then.”

Colbert handed over his Hunter ID. Sheryl received it, used a terminal to read Colbert’s Hunter ID, and operated the terminal to complete the transaction. After that, she politely returned Colbert’s Hunter ID.

Colbert checked his own information terminal and checked his account to see if the payment properly went through. After confirming that there was no problem, he smiled lightly since he confirmed that he got the information he was looking for, but his expression immediately returned back to normal.

After they finished buying their relics, they then left that room. Tiol was waiting for them outside the room, he then guided Colbert and his friends back to the back door of that building. Not too long after they left that building, Tiol asked them a question.

“Let me ask you one more time, is there really any need for me to guide you back all the way to the main street?”

Colbert answered that question.

“Nah, it’s fine… Wait, on second thought, please do.”

“Alright.”

All of them then headed back to the main street. Hazawa found that reply a bit weird, so he questioned Colbert.

“It’s not like there’s any need for him to guide us back, no? Although we’re in the back alley of the slum city, I’m pretty sure none of them are stupid enough to attack a group of 3 Hunters, you know.”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s a good thing to accept others’ goodwill. It would be really bad if we get lost here after all. Not to mention, the other 2 Hunters in our group were even hesitating to go inside that big building.”

Colbert was poking fun at Hazawa and Revin. Hazawa tried to defend himself.

“W-well, I was just being careful, you see. I’m someone who is really careful when it comes to something like that.”

“Just so you know, I was being careful too, yeah?”

“…O-of course, I bet you were.”

Colbert was also keeping his eyes on his surroundings while talking as they walked with Tiol through the alleys of the slum city. He was checking how the people around them looked at Tiol and his group, and how Tiol was reacting to all the attention that was directed at him. From there, Colbert could more or less check how the people around that area saw Sheryl’s gang. All of these were valuable information.

At the least, the people in that area did not see Tiol or Sheryl’s gang as mere children. Some of them did look at Sheryl’s gang with contempt, but there was a trace of envy and caution mixed in those gazes. It showed that Sheryl’s gang had enough influence for other people to be envious and cautious of them.

Tiol and Colbert’s group went in different directions once they arrived on the main road. Colbert was in a rather good mood since he was able to gather valuable information. Revin was holding back his eagerness as he asked Colbert a question.

“So then, where to go after this? I bet you already have a plan where to sell these relics, right?”

“Yeah, I know just the right place to sell these relics, it’s the Kurogin.”

Revin and Hazawa looked surprised when they heard Colbert’s answer.

The Kurogin was a company that specialized in trading relics, it had multiple branches in the eastern district. It was also famous as a pawnshop company where Hunters with debt problems used to go to pawn their relics. Their ability in appraising all kinds of relics was top-notch and they had good reviews from people and companies who were looking for a certain type of relics.

The exchange centres owned by the Hunter Office basically existed to help the Corporate Government of the eastern district to gather and analyze old-world technology, thus it had the tendency to prioritized more for relics with technological value. As such, when the Hunters brought relics with artistic value to those exchange centres, in the end, the people who would appraise those relics were amateurs, not someone who was knowledgeable in that subject.

So, even if someone brought an old-world handkerchief with old-world design and made of a nanomaterial that the current era still could not replicate, the value of that relic would be decided by the quality of its material, the artistic value of it normally did not bring any extra value at all.

While on the other hand, the Kurogin appraisers simply decided the price of a relic based on whether there was any demand for such a relic either from individuals or from organizations. Even if it was a relic that looked like junk, if a collector was willing to buy it at a high price, Kurogin would buy that relic depending on how much that collector was willing to buy it.

Hazawa still sounded a bit surprised as he said to Colbert.

“…Kurogin, huh. Well, I do hear that Kurogin’s appraisers are real experts. But I also heard that their service is pretty expensive. Even if we take our relics there, we might end up in red if we consider the price of their service, you know?”

There were many Hunters who brought junks to Kurogin hoping that they could get lucky, thus it would not be much of a business if Kurogin did not charge them anything at all. So to prevent that from happening, Kurogin set an expensive price for their service. The Hunters could be considered to be lucky if the price of their relics were exactly the same as the price of the appraisal, after all, sometimes they even had to pay money to Kurogin after handing over their relics.

Colbert smiled confidently and said.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan for that too. In the worst-case scenario, it will stop at zero and won’t go to minus. So, let’s go.”

Colbert then just dragged Revin and Hazawa, who were still dumbfounded, to head to Kurogin.

The closer an area to the defensive wall of Kugamayama city, the safer it would be, and of course, the more expensive the plot would be. In the lower district, there was a Kurogin branch that was directly connected with the wall, it showed just how powerful the Kurogin company was.

When Colbert and his friends arrived, they immediately started the administration works to sell their relics. Colbert only submitted a portion of the relics that he had brought, while Hazawa and Revin submitted all the relics that they had.

Colbert then said to the Kurogin’s clerk.

“I’m here to appraise these relics in place of Viola. Do it as fast as you can, we’re already planning to sell them here, and please pay us with cash. Ah, and also, my relics and their relics separately, ok?”

“Certainly. We’ll take about 3 hours to appraise these relics. We’ll contact you when we’re done. This will be your receipt. Please make sure not to lose it, if you do, it might cause some trouble for the following administration work and you might not be able to receive either the relics or the money from selling the relics.”

That clerk then handed Colbert a receipt. It was a card with a high-level security technology that made it impossible to replicate or modify that card either physically or with hacking.

Revin then questioned Colbert.

“Who is this Viola? You said to appraise the relics in place of Viola.”

“Just an acquaintance. She’s a Kurogin employee, I heard that she gets free appraisal quotas each month and she still has some free quota for this month. That’s also why I told them to pay with cash. Since if they transfer the money, it’ll be transferred to Viola’s bank account.”

“…Well, I have nothing to complain about since we can get away for free here.”

The clerk also did not say anything in particular. In reality, it might violate some rules which in that case, they must have prior arrangements about doing something like that. Moreover, Revin had to pay for his debt, so if there was a way to pay it, he had no plans to complain about it.

Colbert and his friends then exited Kurogin and picked another place to hang out while waiting for the appraisal to finish.

—*—-*—*—

After Sheryl finished her business and Colbert and his friends exited the room, Sheryl returned back to her private room with Akira.

When they arrived there, Sheryl started changing her dress. She only wore that dress to serve the customers and she wore a different dress when she was not serving customers. She was being careful as to not get too used to that dress and get it dirty. Sheryl had decided to keep that dress dearly so that she would not forget that it was a very expensive dress.

Sheryl slowly took off her dress piece by piece. There was no need to rush herself, so she was taking care not to damage the dress. In the middle of that, she stopped and glanced at Akira.

Since there was no special partition in Sheryl’s private room where she could change her dress privately, she was basically in open view when she was changing her dress. But Akira was sitting on the sofa in that room while being focused on his terminal.

She then called Akira.

“Akira.”

“Yes?”

Akira’s gaze shifted from his terminal to Sheryl. He looked straight at Sheryl, who was in the middle of changing her dress, her half-naked figure was very seductive.