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Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 3

He has them? These two Skill Crystals are required for the skill 「MP Absorption」to be made, but they don’t always appear in the auctions. If you wanted to fuse them, you’d normally have at least one of them on you already.

「You got the Soul Sucking Staff, so you probably don’t need them anymore, right?」

「That’s right. It’s as you say.」

「While we are doing business, could I possibly buy those Skill Crystals off of you?」

「Hmm… I see. Well, I do have no further need of them now that I have gotten my hands on the Soul Sucking Staff. I paid quite a lot of Nars for both of them, but I was already prepared to sell them at a loss if I returned from the auction without obtaining any satisfying results.」

The man looked to Luke as he informed me. Luke gives him back a nod and says:「I don’t mind that」. Should I assume that it’s bad for a guest to make deals without permission? The brokers maintain their strength by standing together, after all.

「How about it?」

「I have both the Scissoresque Carnivorous Plant Skill Crystal and the Kobold Skill Crystal. You can have them for four thousand Nars each if you’re interested.」

「I’d like to buy both of them.」

He has them both? Then I’m in luck.

「Thanks, that will help me out. But since it’s already quite late today, lets handle this business in the morning the following day. How about it?」

「Okay, let’s do that.」

「I’ll see you in the morning then.」

He doesn’t seem to be carrying the Skill Crystals on himself it would seem, which is a shame, because I was sure that he would be carrying them in his Item Box with him at all times since he’s also a broker and all that.

After the time of their business meeting has been decided and our business was swiftly concluded, the other broker left the room.

「I’m sorry to have decided about doing business without permission.」

「No, there’s profit in being shrewd. Trust me, I have no problems with it.」

「Is that how it is? Very well then.」

I apologized to Luke when only the two of us remained in the meeting room.

「Now then, there’s a question that I would like to ask: what am I supposed to do with the order for the Kobold Skill Crystal that I have received from you?」

「Ah! Well, there’s no need to cancel it, so you can continue to go through with it. I am sure that I’m going to find some form of use for it sooner or later, so having spares is definitely not going to hurt me.」

「As you wish. More importantly, his house seems to be the one made out of quite the wealthy merchants. Was it alright that you didn’t have the item checked even though we could have done that without any issues?」

「Yes, I think it should be okay.」

「I’ve also heard that the people of their house are quite talented.」

「We should be fine without it. Really.」

「Of course. As expected, you seem to be a man possessing unparalleled confidence and trust in your own judgement.」

「Well, I guess I do….」

Ah….! Only after he said that did I realized. Is that what he meant with his words? Because for some reason, I have a feeling as if the conversation has taken a turn for the worse. Maybe I should have asked him for that after all? Or maybe we should have talked about it more beforehand?

There’s no problem for me to immediately know the name of the item that I want to buy because I have my 「Identify」with me, but precisely because I have it I am always acting like Luke and the other broker said, calm and collected no matter what. I have completely forgotten that I am supposed to be acting like someone who doesn’t have it in order to not stand out from among the rest of the people living in this world, but… but how the hell is the person who doesn’t have access to 「Identify」supposed to be reacting?

It’s good to check in a situation like this with someone I can trust a bit. That being said, no such thing as a 「perfect confirmation」exist in any world. Therefore, I think that the best possible thing to do might be the good old post facto retaliation, especially in this world.

What I meant to say by this is simply: payback. If it turns out that the item I have received is the legitimate one, then that’s great, but if it turns out that the item that I have received is a fake, then I could start retaliating against the one who was trying to scam me.

Retribution on a moonlit night… that is actually kinda romantic, now that I think about it…. Even if there’s no moonlight in this world. I mean, even if it wasn’t an especially moonlit night, I could always resort to challenging the offender to a duel because I’m a Freeman. If anybody tries to deceive me in any way, I am legally obliged to seek revenge for the damages caused to me.

This might be a common ideology in this world. Basically, if you try to screw with someone, you have to be prepared that you’ll be screwed with in return.

Let’s take Luke, for example. Could it be that he didn’t bring up the possibility of the Skill Crystals being counterfeits because he is afraid of what might have been done to him in retaliation? I guess this kind of thing is just normal in this world then.

However, this time the opponent is apparently a wealthy family. If I were to issue a challenge to a duel to them, it is more than likely that they would simply substitute the offender with a carefully chosen representative. In such a scenario, is taking a proper revenge even possible, or is it something that’s just going to forever stay out of my reach? Was that also what Luke was trying to tell me?

Even if he’s acting as my middlemen, I have made a first-time transaction with a partner I have never done business before, and I didn’t even require them to confirm the Skill Crystals’ authenticity. In his eyes, I must have been pretty confident of there not being any post-retaliation.

「I heard that they are a quite strong house, and they are likely to increase in strength more in the future. That’s why they want the weapon with 「MP Absorption」. To bolster their own potential.」

「I see.」

Even though I said that, I don’t really understand it all that much.

「By the way, have you fused those Skill Crystals a while ago?」

Luke asks me about it. That’s right. I said I made the weapon with 「MP Absorption」.

I didn’t buy the Scissoresque Carnivorous Plant Skill Crystal from Luke, so he probably thinks I made it before I started dealing with him. And if I’ve done dealings before, then it’s likely I’ve been fusing items and Skill Crystals for a long time. And If I’ve been fusing items and Skill Crystals for a long time, then it’s likely I’ll keep making orders with Luke.

If I’m skilled at it, then he can expect more dealings with me in the future. Is it natural that he’s interested in the continuation of doing business with me? Like the man who wanted a weapon with 「MP absorption」, there may be other clients who would request an item with a specific Skill. If he can use me well, then Luke would get a large profit. And as a result of all of that, I’d receive some of the profit as well.

「When it comes to my attempts at fusing… well, let’s just say that there was a lot of failures involved… and that not everything was going as smoothly as I hoped it would go.」

「Is that so?」

Those words of mine just now were obviously a lie, even if it wasn’t a very convenient lie. I had no choice but to deceive Luke like that, because I can’t allow myself to be seen as so useful by someone like him. If I did that, then he would definitely try to take advantage of me.

Also, if I marketed myself as someone who can achieve a one hundred percent success with the item fusions every single time, that would only create problems for myself in the event that Sherry would go through her first-ever fusion failure.