Chapter 16
Why was the price suddenly increasing? Did he have some kind of ulterior motive?
Ceres furrowed her brow slightly, and the shopkeeper, sensing her suspicion, hurriedly continued.
“Y-You seem to be in difficult circumstances, so I can offer you 300 gold.”
“……”
“Hm, 350! You won’t find a better offer anywhere else.”
“……”
“…400?”
What was with this man?
Each time Ceres silently scowled, Rons, the shopkeeper, upped the price. Watching him, she picked up the magic stone she had placed on the counter.
It seemed it would be better to look for another shop.
“1,000! I’ll give you 1,000 gold!”
At this, Rons practically screamed.
“…1,000?”
Then what was that initial offer of 200 gold?
Ceres narrowed her eyes.
So, you were testing me, huh?
“1,000 gold, seriously?”
At that moment, a new voice casually interjected into their conversation.
It belonged to a young woman who had been browsing the shop earlier.
“Just look at it—it’s clearly a high-quality magic stone.”
“Ma’am, please, don’t interfere in this…”
“Wow, and it even looks like a special attribute magic stone. Ice, perhaps?”
The woman, seemingly a magician herself, showed immediate interest in the magic stone.
“A normal magic stone with high purity starts at 5,000 gold, minimum.”
“5,000 gold?”
“Yes. And if it’s one with a special attribute, the price can skyrocket. It’s essentially priceless.”
“……”
Ceres turned her sharp gaze to the shopkeeper, silently asking if the woman’s words were true.
“Well, uh… You see, magic stones with special attributes need the right buyer to fetch their true value, and even if you go somewhere else, they might not offer…”
“Still, offering just 1,000 gold is absurd. Sir, don’t you have any conscience? This is highway robbery!”
“R-Robbery?”
As the shopkeeper’s face turned red with embarrassment, the woman addressed Ceres again.
“You’d be better off selling this directly to the Magic Tower.”
“The Magic Tower?”
“Yes. They’ll definitely offer a much better price than this place.”
The Magic Tower, huh…
Ceres let out a short sigh and decided that this shop wasn’t the place to sell her magic stone. She placed it back in her belongings.
“By the way, if it’s not too much trouble, could I record it with my Recording Orb?”
As Ceres prepared to leave, the woman stopped her, clasping her hands together as though in prayer.
“I want to show it to my mentor. I’ve never seen a special attribute magic stone like this before… Could you please let me?”
“…Do as you like.”
Since recording wouldn’t harm the magic stone, Ceres placed it back down and allowed the woman to proceed.
“Wow, the quality of this magic stone is incredible. I’m still relatively new to being a magician, so I can’t be sure, but this seems to have an extraordinarily high magic density.”
The woman repeatedly admired the stone as she rotated her Recording Orb around it, capturing every angle.
After thoroughly filming the magic stone, the woman nodded with satisfaction and smiled brightly.
Ceres picked up the magic stone and prepared to leave.
“Wait! Please wait! I’ll offer you an even higher price!”
Rons, who had been nervously lingering nearby, hurriedly attempted to renegotiate.
But Ceres didn’t even look back, quickly leaving the shop without hesitation.
“…Ah.”
Rons let out a regretful sigh, running his hand over his face.
He should have offered a better price from the beginning.
She seemed naïve about the world, so he thought he could lowball her and get away with it.
Despite running the shop for years, he had never seen a magic stone of such high quality and purity.
If he had managed to close the deal, he could have made a fortune…
“Excuse me, sir, could you help me find the items on this list?”
“……”
Turning, Rons saw the woman who had ruined his deal earlier. Smiling brightly as though nothing had happened, she handed him a list of items she wanted.
Rons glared at her resentfully.
***
“Hey, you’re seriously not drinking?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not drinking with you, that’s why.”
“But why?”
“Because every time you drink, you turn into a dog, that’s why.”
“What?”
The mercenaries’ spiritual sanctuary, their cherished refuge.
As usual, the shop was packed to the brim with customers, not a single empty seat in sight.
But something had changed—there were far fewer people ordering alcohol.
“Don’t you see that?”
“See what?”
One mercenary pointed to a piece of paper pinned to a corner of the wall.
{{Shop Rules:
- Anyone causing a disturbance after drinking will be banned from the shop for three days. This also applies to companions who fail to intervene.
- Fighting inside the shop is strictly prohibited. Offenders will face a one-week ban.
- Anyone banned three times will result in their entire mercenary guild being prohibited from entering for one week.}}
“…What’s that?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’s that?’ You saw it, so why ask? If you want to drink, do it alone when I’m not here.”
“When did that get put up? Does that mean I can’t drink here anymore?”
…You seriously can’t even promise to behave?
The mercenary gave his companion an incredulous look, then pointed at the paper again.
“You see that? If it happens three times, everyone in our guild gets banned for a week.”
“Yeah.”
“You know our guild leader can’t survive a day without eating stew here, right? He said if you plan to cause trouble, quit the guild first.”
“Ugh…”
Since the warning was posted, the mercenaries had begun watching their behavior under the sharp eye of their new proprietor, Ceres Drow.
How fascinating.
Oddly enough, Mark, the chef who had been with the shop the longest, found himself the most surprised by the change.
When Ceres had first written those rules and pinned them up, he doubted they’d have any effect.
He couldn’t imagine the unruly mercenaries following a set of rules written on a single piece of paper.
But lo and behold.
The mercenaries seemed to treat the rules with a strange sense of duty, as if breaking them would lead to dire consequences.
Was it because of that line?
At the bottom of the notice was a single sentence:
“If these rules aren’t followed, the shop will close.”
“Close the shop?!”
“What? No way!”
“If this place disappears, where will I eat breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?”
“…Wait, do you eat here for all three meals? You’re insane!”
“Look who’s talking!”
“At least I only eat two meals here!”
“What?! My hangover stew—gone?”
“Hey, stop that guy! He’s about to order alcohol!”
This actually works?
Even as Mark witnessed the shop’s atmosphere shifting before his eyes, he could hardly believe it.
He had always known the mercenaries liked the place, but this much?
“The old boss used to say it too,” he recalled.
“The customers who come here are all good people. They cherish and care for this shop deeply.”
Back then, watching the mercenaries constantly wreck the place, Mark had doubted that they truly cared about it, even if they liked it.
But now…
Seeing the mercenaries quietly sitting at their tables and eating peacefully, all because of a single piece of paper, Mark felt his eyes sting.
To think such calm could be possible here. If the late proprietor could see this, how proud they would be.
Of course…
“You bastard! That’s my order!”
“What nonsense! First come, first served!”
“Alright, you’re dead today!”
“Screw you! Bring it on!”
The shop was still filled with their coarse language.
But the absence of flying weapons alone was enough to keep a smile on Mark’s face.
“I swear, I’m going to send this jerk to heaven today—!”
Creak.
Even the rough language ceased at one particular moment.
Peek.
The door gently opened, and a small figure peeked inside.
“……!”
The shop, which had been filled with incessant cursing, fell silent in an instant.
“Oh! Lady Yulia!”
Her hair, neatly braided into two plaits, looked especially adorable.
Mark immediately approached Yulia, whose round eyes were scanning the shop.
“Where’s your sister?”
“She stepped out for a bit. Did you come here by yourself?”
Shake, shake.
Yulia softly shook her head, and it was then that Mark spotted Jay, the maid, cautiously entering the shop behind her.
—
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