"You fool! Not only did you fail to retrieve the family treasure, but you got swindled on top of it! And to add insult to injury, they raised the demand to 1,200 gold coins and told you to deliver them personally?! You still dare call yourself a butler for a noble house?!"
Messi Julius, the head of the Julius Count household, was absolutely livid.
He swore then and there that he would eliminate that outrageously insolent adventurer no matter what.
"But Master Messi, if I may — this adventurer named Alan knocked five of the estate soldiers unconscious using nothing but the force of his gaze. From what the soldiers report, he may rival orihalcum-class power. When I first heard he'd single-handedly taken out an entire bandit gang, I thought he was blowing smoke, but I now believe his abilities are quite formidable."
Having faced Alan in person and witnessed his threat firsthand, the butler wanted nothing more than to punch his past self for ever underestimating the man.
If he could turn back time, he would have offered 300 gold coins on the spot to settle things peacefully.
The more valuable an item, the higher the buyback rate — that was standard practice. But when the price got too exorbitant, the usual approach was to tacitly lower the rate and offer something else in exchange.
If the other party was an adventurer, the reasonable thing would have been to pull some strings at the Guild for a rank promotion.
With someone that powerful, gold alone wouldn't do — you'd have to offer something money couldn't buy.
Yet the Count, never having faced Alan directly, still chose the worse option.
No — perhaps even a direct confrontation wouldn't have changed his decision.
"Use the dark guild 'Sanctum.' It'll cost less than 1,200 gold coins."
"But, sir..."
"Enough!! Go hire them already! Three hundred gold coins should be plenty, right?"
No — there was no way that would suffice.
The butler barely managed to keep those words from leaving his mouth.
In the end, the butler followed his master's orders and arranged a deal with the dark guild 'Sanctum' for 300 gold coins.
Sanctum balked when they heard it was Alan, but they eventually agreed on the condition that everything except the ceremonial sword would become their property.
'
Fierce
gem guild.' They figured that if the other side had the gems that guild had collected, they'd more than recoup their costs.
◇◇◇
I can sense someone watching me...
Looks like I've got a tail.
All I've been doing is steadily taking on requests to rank up to Silver, though.
For two or three days now, I've been spending my nights feeling those eyes on me.
Not wanting to cause trouble at the inn, I step outside.
I slip into the darkness near the slums.
A short knife comes flying at me with a whoosh.
I dodge it, and liquid seeps from the knife embedded in the wall.
Poison, probably.
It came from the roof diagonally above.
Realizing their attack failed, they try to flee, but I bind them with Dark Magic: Dark Bind.
Black hands sprout up from beneath their feet and quickly entangle them.
I jump and land in front of the struggling figure.
Using Divine Eye... they're a member of the dark guild Sanctum.
Ah, so that's why they didn't come to take it back themselves.
No need to confirm with this one—it's the doing of Count Julius's household.
For now, let me try out some skills on this Assassin in front of me.
Dark Magic — Snatch Skill.
This is a skill that steals other people's skills.
And the stolen [Assassin] was absorbed by the [Gentleman Thief] I possessed, then vanished.
Apparently, it gets absorbed if I have a superior skill.
If you want to get it back, your only option is to kill the caster.
Not that I have any intention of being killed, though.
And so, I lopped off the assassin's right hand and left leg, then left him there.
If he's lucky, maybe his comrades will come to rescue him.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
Skills: [Reverse], [Divine Eye], [Sword God], [Gentleman Thief], [Dark Magic], [Rock-Iron Magic], [Holy Magic]
Rank: Bronze
Thank you always for reading!