Chapter 138: The Basis of The appraisal (1/2)

Colbert, Revin, and Hazawa were guided to another room, not too long after that, a Kurogin employee came in with a transparent case.

The trump card set that Hazawa just sold was kept inside that case, the case itself looked so secure to the point that the trump card set seemed like an expensive article.

That employee placed that case above the table and started explaining the details of the appraisal to Colbert, Revin and Hazawa.

“So then, please let me explain the details of the appraisal process. We’ve brought the relic in question here to help with the explanation, but please bear in mind that the ownership of this relic is already on us. So please don’t touch the case.”

The employee was sitting face to face against the other three Hunters. Colbert was the one who was the most relaxed among all of them, so he replied to that employee in place of his friends.

“Alright, go ahead.”

Revin was listening very closely so as not to miss even a word from that explanation, while Hazawa was listening out of pure interest.

There were many Hunters who pawned their relics in Kurogin only to complain later. So the people who work for Kurogin were already used to facing those kinds of Hunters. Even if Revin was staring at him, or even glaring at him, that employee was able to keep his calm as he calmly explained.

“We have a lot of indicators that we use to decide the value of a relic. There are 2 big reasons why we value this trump highly. First is that the Engazan convention is close, and secondly, this trump card set is a still-sealed old-world relic. We used these 2 factors to decide the price of this trump card set.”

That employee continued his explanation, Colbert and his friends were listening closely to it without saying anything.

The Engazan city in the Eastern district held a huge-scale gambling event regularly. A lot of people were swayed by the dream of winning the jackpot and decide to join that event to test their luck and skill.

People who dreamt for riches, people who got their dreams granted and became rich in one night, people who failed and lost all of their possessions; Engazan was a city filled with dreams, even if some of them were nightmares.

Colbert suddenly asked a question to that employee.

“Ahh, so basically, they’ll use this trump card set for that gambling event, huh? That’s also the reason why you need a still-sealed set of trump cards, right? But I still don’t see how it’s valued at 1,500,000 Aurum, isn’t that just too high no matter how you think about it?”

That employee nodded and said.

“That’s indeed true if it’s only used for gambling with the corporation-issued currencies. But in Engazan gambling event, there are even important individuals and organizations partaking. In the past, some of them even made 100,000,000 Chrome as bet and the big companies even put their relics as bets too.”

It was common for big companies to fight over old-world relics. But fighting over it using force would warrant them to spend more money on the war than what they could get from the relics they were fighting over, while on the other hand, it was not like they could give up just because of that either. So in that situation, in order to reach a conclusion that both sides could accept, they often fought over the ownership of the relics through gambling.

“But the bigger the bets, the bigger the organization or the people who are partaking in the game, the harder it is to guarantee the fairness of the game. For example, when 5 big companies try to win over the ownership of a certain relic through a game of poker, there is no company in the world that can provide us with the trump card to use in that game. After all, those goliaths are the companies that hold power in the eastern district. It’s fully understandable that they might scrap their hard-earned trust that they’ve built for years just to produce a single special trump card in order to win that gamble. Of course, there’s no end to it if you start questioning other companies, but as long as that possibility is not zero, it’s hard for them to trust each other. That is, of course, if the trump card used in that poker game is only from the current era’s companies.”

Hazawa nodded deeply, it seemed that he was fully convinced by that explanation.

“I see, so that’s why they need a trump card from the old-world, huh. It’s true that even the 5 biggest companies in the eastern district can’t reproduce the same old-world trump card. I see how it’s highly valued now. But then, does that mean this trump card might be used for such gamble?”

“If asked whether it’s possible or not, the answer is yes, it might be used for such a gamble. It’s really something grand if you think about it.”

Hazawa just asked a question that came up in his mind out of imagination, and then that employee replied back with an answer that filled Hazawa’s mind with more imagination.

Although Hazawa was fully convinced by that explanation, that was not the case for Revin.

“Wait for a sec, if it might be used for that kind of gamble, doesn’t that make 1,500,000 Aurum pretty low?”

The employee answered Revin’s question.

“That is indeed true if this trump card is good enough to be used for that level of a gamble. Which in that case, it might even worth a few billion Aurum or maybe a few Chrome.”

“Then-“

“But to ascertain it, we would need more investigations. We need to make sure if it’s really an old-world relic, if it’s really still sealed. We need to check if there’s any problem with the article by comparing it in case someone excavated the same article in the past. Only after that long time-consuming and money-consuming process, and after it has been confirmed that it’s good enough to be used for gamble between big companies and big people, only then, it’ll be used for such a level of gambling. You asked us to do the investigation as fast as possible, as such, we can’t do a full investigation. We’ve appraised the article in a short time per your request, and from that short investigation, we find that it might have the quality to be used in Engazan gambling events. The 1,500,000 Aurum is basically the price of that possibility.”

Revin nodded deeply.

“I see…”

That employee then moved on to end his explanation.

“Are there any other questions? If not, I will end the explanation here. After we close this session, we will not accept any more questions regarding this subject. In case if you want to inquire again later, you’ll need approval from Viola-sama as well as pay the information fee. So, if there’s no more question, is it okay to end the session here?”

Colbert, Revin and Hazawa looked at each other to confirm what the others were thinking. Since it seemed that none of them had any more questions, the employee thought that it should be okay to end the session, so he then lightly bowed and said.

“Very well then, let me finish my explanation here. Thank you very much for using our service.”

Colbert, Revin and Hazawa left that building. Colbert then said to Hazawa and Revin.

“Alright then, let’s hit the pub.”

Revin was fidgeting there, he then said.

“Sorry, but I have something to do. See you around.”

Revin only said that and quickly left Hazawa and Colbert.

Colbert saw Revin take off and mumbled.

“…That guy… I bet he’s going to the slum again to look for expensive relics…”

Hazawa sighed exasperatedly, he could understand Revin’s feeling as he spoke.

“I bet you’re right. But it’s not like you can easily find that kind of relic again. And even if he does, he doesn’t have the money to buy it nor to get it appraised in Kurogin. I wonder what he’s planning to do about that.”

“No idea. You’ll need extra money to be a member of Kurogin too. And you’ll only get the free monthly quota after bringing enough relics to Kurogin. I’m sure that he’ll call us when he realizes that. Well, let’s just leave him be and go for a drink.”

It was not like they had the duty to tell Revin the problems that he might have to face later, so instead, they chose to enjoy the sudden influx of cash that they got that day and headed to the entertainment district. Revin left on his own volition, and so, Hazawa did not give Revin a treat.

—*—*—*—

Over the last few days, in order to help Sheryl’s gang, Akira always went to visit her base during the day. Akira basically had two roles there, first of all, was a bodyguard for Sheryl when she was selling relics, and secondly to help the gang to open stands somewhere inside the gang’s territory.

The people who bought Sheryl’s relics were those who had enough economical power to do so, and of course, a fighting power suitable for their economical power. Basically, they were Hunters like Revin and his friends. If they tried to use force to break into Sheryl’s base, it would be hard for the gang to fight them back.

They were basically people who regularly fought monsters out in the wasteland, although the gang had more people and Sheryl could arm her gang with rifles, there was a limit on how far they could fight back. These Hunters might look down on the gang, thinking that the gang posed no threat at all against them, and use their position to threaten back. And of course, if it really ended up in a fight, Sheryl’s gang would have zero chance to win it.

Because of that, when Sheryl was dealing with potential buyers, she asked Akira to hide behind one of the sheets in that room just in case anything bad happened.

Akira was just another small kid like Sheryl. But he was using an augmented suit and carrying heavy weapons that normal people would not be able to carry without an enhanced strength, so people would not just mindlessly pick a fight against him. There were indeed some difficult customers, but when Akira came out, they would obediently withdraw.

The reason why Akira was not showing himself was simply because Sheryl told him to do that. It was to make an impression that even if it seemed that Sheryl was all alone there, a heavily armed Hunter might be hiding somewhere, it was to make that kind of illusion just in case if Akira was not really present. It was an important precaution since it was not like Akira could be there all the time.

The small stands opened by her gang were basically serving as a filter to get suitable customers for the main shop in Sheryl’s base as well as a source of spare money. They were looking for customers who seemed to carry enough money and would not cause harm to Sheryl before telling them about the main shop.

There were also multiple stands, so Akira could not guard all of them all the time. Because of that, when trouble came up, they would contact Sheryl and she would go there with Akira.

Each stand was manned by at least 2 people and one of them would be armed as a guard for the stand. Most who lived inside the gang’s territory knew that Akira was supporting Sheryl’s gang, but not many of them knew Akira’s face. The armed kid was basically standing guard there in place of Akira, which for that one stand that Colbert and his friends visited, that would be Tiol.

The people who came to the stands were not only people from the slum, there were Hunters too. And among them, there were bad Hunters. When Sheryl’s men could not handle them, they had no other choice but to ask for Akira’s help.

Sheryl was also not always dealing with customers and it was not like there were always problems happening in one of the stands. She herself sometimes had her own job to do in her private room, so it was not like she was always with Akira either. Akira basically had nothing to do when Sheryl was doing something in her private room.

Sheryl was working on her desk, she had a lot of jobs to do, distributing jobs for the gang’s members, compiling all the relics for her shop, and many other jobs too.

Akira was sitting on the sofa while working on his information terminal, he was just silently operating his terminal without saying anything, or at least, that was how it looked from Sheryl’s point of view. He sometimes made a confused face as he was focused only on his information terminal.

Sheryl glanced at Akira and threw a question.

“Akira, what are you doing there? It seems that you’re so focused on it.”

“Ahh, it’s just game…”

“Is that so? Is that game really that fun?”

“It is… Well, at least, I think it’s an interesting game.”

Sheryl thought that there was something strange about how Akira worded it out.

She then made some guesses from what she could see.

There were many games that could be played on an information terminal. The theme was also various. Some of them were games that you could not really tell a girl. Since Akira was a boy, Sheryl thought that it was understandable for him to be interested in that kind of game and she could not help but get suspicious of him.

She wondered if it was the right choice to ask Akira. If it was really that kind of game, it might help her understand Akira’s preference. It might give her a good reference to get him interested in her. So she decided to casually ask Akira.

“What kind of game is that?”

“Hm? It’s a relic hunting game. You basically control a Hunter character to safely carry old-world relics back home.”

“I-I see…”