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Volume 1 Chapter 12-6: GO TO Tower

「Sistina, if we think about the future it seems like a necessary item. What do you think?」
「Indeed…it seems to be a necessity.」
「I think so too, if you look around at those who are reasonably well equipped they are all wearing party rings ja.」

I see. We were fairly well equipped but we didn’t have any party rings. That’s why the peddler called out to us.

「There are also two smaller advantages. First, the master magic stone uses very little magic power itself so it functions semi-permanently. The other is that it doesn’t deteriorate so when the time comes and you add a new party member, you can simply sell the rings to someone else at cost and buy a set with more rings. This makes the upgrading cost quite minor.」

Right now our party only had three members so we would only need a set of three. However, if we added another then the set would need to be increased to four. At that time we could trade in the set of three at the price we paid and simply pay the difference in cash making it quite inexpensive.

「The only real drawback is that since it needs a certain magic stone the price is quite high. The party ring needs a certain size of magic stone to function properly, so the more it needs to split the larger the original stone needs to be, and the higher the price.」
「That seems reasonable. How much would a set of three cost?」
「Alright, a set of three? That will be 300,000 mars.」

3 million yen!? Isn’t that almost as much as we got from the thieves? It’s a bit out of reach for the money we have on hand right now.

「Unfortunately it’s out of the question at the moment. We shall have to wait for another opportunity. Is that alright Soujirou-sama?」
「Of course. We don’t have enough so it can’t be helped.」

I decided mentally that I would save up some money and come back to buy it later. We turned Will down and started to turn away and head for the first floor door.

「….Please…wait a moment.」

At that moment Will calmly called after us.

「Do you require anything else?」

Sistina asked and Will approached us while lowering his voice.

「It may be impolite, but please allow me to ask…is it possible that you are an Acolyte-sama?」
「….Soujirou-sama」

Sistina gazed at me and I nodded back. Since this man was considerate enough to come close and whisper the question so others wouldn’t bother us, I was fairly certain he wasn’t someone to spread this fact around.

Actually in the first place I didn’t even know if it was necessary to hide her identity as an Acolyte.

「Yes, I am the Acolyte Sistina. This is my Master, Fujinomiya Soujirou.」

Will’s expression seemed to say ‘as I thought’ and he bowed slightly without causing a scene.

「It is as I suspected. So then the three of you will be entering the Tower for exploration?」
「That is so.」
「Then please allow me to present you this three person party ring set.」

Will said as he took out a set of three rings from his case and offered them to us.

「Please wait a moment Will-dono. We can’t possibly accept such expensive items for nothing.」
「I see. Then how about you consider them a prior investment?」
「Prior investment….?」
「Yes, in exchange I would appreciate you favoring my company in the future.」

Hoho…a bribe of sorts? Thou art such a dirty merchant~ (TN: said as if he’s talking to a merchant back in 17-18 century Japan)

If I’m going to be honest I don’t think we have as much value as all that. It’s too much to have a 300,000 mars ‘prior investment’.

Either way, we can’t accept this bribe. Personally such a thing gave off a real ‘bad guy’ vibe that made me shy away from it.

「We do not have the achievements or ability to accept such a high investment, and we do not want something that can be used as a pretext to bind us into an undesirable situation so we will have to refuse.」

As expected of Sistina. She seems to know just what I was thinking. It’s just that I don’t remember the subordinate contract giving her a ‘Master mind reading’ skill…

「No, it truly cannot be considered a bribe. What I am asking is that if you are considering buying a product from A or B and they both have the same price and function, I ask that you buy the product from A which is my Base Company. That’s the extent of it.」

Will-san is really hanging onto this. Does he really want to create a bond with us so badly? If he was going that far it might be alright, actually….

「Sistina, make a contract.」
「Eh, Soujirou-sama?」
「We’ll make it a promissory note. We will buy these rings from him. We will repay the debt within 300 days. There will be no interest and no other conditions. If you’re still willing to do this, then we will buy the rings.」

In truth this was a contract with only benefits for us, but thanks to Sistina’s 『contract』 the repayment was guaranteed. The benefit for Will was making a faint connection with us and that was all.

However, Will smiled and without hesitation, nodded.

「That will be perfectly alright.」
「Alright then, Sistina.」
「Very well Soujirou-sama.」

Sistina used her skill to create the contract and asked me to check it. Obviously Sistina wouldn’t create a contract that disadvantaged me so I looked it over quickly before passing it to Will.

「Then you can sign here.」
「Yes」

Will wrote his name on the signature line.

「『By the name of Acolyte Sistina, this contract is established. If this contract is broken Acolyte Sistina swears to accept punishment.』」

Crap! I didn’t realize that if we didn’t get the money together Sistina would endure the punishment herself…but taking it back now would be bad. The light had alright emerged and established the contract.

「Thank you for the good trade. Now once again, I recommend this set of rings.」

He said and handed the party rings to Sistina.

「When the time for repayment comes around I do not mind if you were to find me personally to pay the money, but as I am a peddler I move about quite often. I will also accept repayment if you go to one of my Base Company shops which can contact me and convey the payment. If you ever find yourself near the Tower of Zachil (The chill?) and the chaotic city Fresberg, then I recommend you visit the Base Company main store. The main office there is run by my father.」
「Understood, we’ll remember that.」

Will bowed politely and went back to peddling his wares.