“Alex, Lua, what are you doing here? Do we have a problem?” I asked the two … intruders? Well, the guards at the gate did let them in, so probably not intruders.
“What do you mean? We were invited.” Alex said.
“Invited? For what? By whom?” I asked.
“Madam Watchman. She told us we were having a party.” Lua answered.
I turned to look at Alice and asked: “Did you know about this?”
“No. I just heard about it as well.” She answered.
“Ah. I see our first guests have arrived. Welcome.” Aneesa came outside and welcomed Lucia and Alex.
First? So there are more. … Actually, I think Zay muttered something about the evening, so maybe he is coming as well.
“Please enjoy yourselves for now. Madam will join you soon.” Aneesa said before making her way back inside.
“So, while we wait, Alex, I would like to give you a few cards. Is there anything you would prefer?” I asked Alex.
“Cards? Like the ones you use to summon monsters? You don’t have to.” He said.
“No. I will give you some. I’m not going to hoard them and have another Rico happen because I was too worried to give you all some.” I told him.
“I see…” He said looking down. “Then I will accept anything you want to give me.”
“Good. But is there anything you prefer?” I asked again.
“... I guess some cute girls…” he said quietly, but I still heard him.
Perv. Well, not really. There is nothing wrong with liking cute girls.
Fire Princess and Fire Sorcerer. Those are cute girls. They would work, but let’s check for others.
“Oh. These are perfect.” I said as I ran into an archetype of ladies. They aren’t exactly what I would call ‘cute girls’, but more off ‘sexy ladies’.
“Did you find something? Could you show me?” Alex asked.
I pulled out four cards. Harpie Lady, Harpie Lady 2, Harpie Lady Sisters and Elegant Egotist.
Spoiler
They aren’t my favorite cards, so I don’t mind giving them away. But at the same time, giving them to someone like Alex feels a bit like a waste. Having a sexy lady use them would fit better. But I guess Alex can be the master of a harpie harem.
“Yes. I do like these.” Alex said after looking the three monsters over. “But what about this?” He asked, pointing at Elegant Egotist.
“It’s necessary when you summon the Harpie Lady Sisters for the first time, but you won’t need it after that.” I told him.
“I see. Then please, would you give these to me?” Alex asked.
“Sure, just one thing first.” I said as I pulled out two sleeves and sleeved up Harpie Lady and Harpie Lady 2. I’m not going to place a toploader on Elegant Egotist as he only needs to use it once, and Sisters should get a sleeve when it is special summoned, so I don’t need to sleeve that one either.
And if something goes wrong, I do have a second copy of both Sisters and Elegant Egotist.
“Why did you place that thing only on those two cards?” Alex asked.
“Well, you’ll only need the spell once and the Sisters will get a sleeve when you summon them for the first time.” I told him.
“I see. Thank you.” Alex said.
“Take these as well.” I said as I pulled out two Red Medicine.
“These potions? Thank you.” Alex said.
“No problem.” I said.
“Brian. This isn’t fair at all.” Alice complained. “Why did you give him so many when I only got one?”
“... you know I can still go back on your deal. I don’t need to give you my cards if I don’t want to.” I told her.
“This isn’t fair. Why does everyone else get preferential treatment?” She asked.
“Because they aren’t planning on traveling with me, unlike someone not specified. And if you doubt me, just ask Lua how many cards she has.” I told Alice.
“Lucia? Then I will.” Alice said.
Good. That got her off of my case. Now I can check out the cards for Henry. And then there is that one guard as well, but I don’t know who he is or where he lives.
For the guard I made a small insect package. Hunter Spider, Insect Knight, Killer Needle and Insect Princess. I put a sleeve on each one and added in one non-sleeved Red Medicine as well. I’ll have to ask Henry or someone else to deliver it to him.
For Henry I decided on some machine monsters.
Slot Machine, Steel Ogre Grotto #2, Steel Ogre Grotto #1 and Overdrive.
The Slot Machine was a different copy than the one I used, as is Overdrive. I placed a sleeve on all four before installing one Machine Conversion Factory onto Overdrive to make it slightly better. And I never did give one to Christina, so having the butler have it should be good as well.
For Brandon, well I do have something for him, even if I’m not sure he deserves it. But he doesn’t deserve to die, so I’ll still hand that card over to him. It is super strong, but I don’t really need it anymore.
“I see some of our guests have arrived. Welcome.” Christina said as she came outside.
“Thank you for inviting us.” Alex said.
“Thank you.” Lua added.
“Of course. I do hope you will take good care of my daughter in the future.” Christina said.
“I apologize, but I wasn’t planning on staying in their party for any longer than our trip to Sawyer city.” Alex admitted.
“Don’t worry. I already heard about it. But I still hope you will help her if she ever gets into trouble.” Christina said.
“If that is an order from Madam Watchman, I will do my best.” Alex said.
“That’s the attitude. If you ever want to quit your job as an adventurer, I can get you a position in the town's guard.” Christina said.
“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.” Alex said.
“That goes for you too, Lucia. You can always come back here. This town needs skilled people like you.” Christina said.
“Thank you.” Lua said back in a tone that made her seem slightly embarrassed.
“I only hope the dungeon will bring in enough skilled people to fill the hole you two will leave.” Christina said.
Yeah. I have to agree with that. I hope the meat quality won’t drop too much after Lua is no longer here, perfectly draining the blood from the boars.
“Come on Zay. I told you we would be late.” I heard a female voice from the direction of the gate.
“You are the one that gave me more work to do just as we were about to leave.” I heard Zayaan say.
“No. Don’t blame that on me. You are the one that didn’t take care of it earlier.” The female voice said.
“You know I’ve been busy learning the ropes and I’ve never heard of an adventurer that doesn’t ask for their rewards.” Zay said before noticing us. “Oh. Good evening. Madam Watchman, I apologize for being late.”
“Oh, you aren’t late. Everyone else was just early. And as you can see, my husband hasn’t joined us yet, so you are fine.” Christina said.
“Thank the Goddess for that. Then, do you mind if we do some guild business now?” Zay asked.
“That’s fine.” Christina gave permission.
“Thank you.” Zay said before turning to me. “Now then Brian, we have some business to take care of.”
“Us? What is it?” I asked.
“... did you really forget? I really can’t believe that someone like you is an adventurer.” Zay said.
“Well, what is it? What did I forget?” I asked.
“Seriously. Lua, you need to instruct him on these things later.” Zay said. “You never picked up your money for either the wyvern sales or the rescue mission.”
… oh. Yeah. I didn’t huh. How did I forget something like that? Well, I guess I really didn’t have a major need for money or anything, but still. It’s probably Upstart Goblins fault. Or perhaps the dungeons. When I have easy access to money, things like rewards just slip my mind. heh. heh.
(Of course Master forgets actually important things while remembering the useless Yugioh facts you think about before going to bed.) Laura commented.
(... well, you also didn’t remind me, so what do you say about that?) I shot back.
(It was an experiment to test Master’s memory. I would have reminded you about it tomorrow morning, so you would have had to deal with it in a panic.) Laura said.
(You are evil.)
(Of course. I take after you, Master.) Laura said.
Fine. Have it that way.
“Well thanks for bringing that up, but I kind of thought you would have just put the money in my guild bank account thingy.” I said to Zay.
“... you really have no idea how things work, do you?” Zay asked.
“... no? How would I? No one has explained anything to me. How could I know?” I asked.
“Well anyway, we can’t put money into your account without your guild card.” Zay said.
“Okay, but it had some money in it when I first got it. How do you explain that?” I asked.
“Simple. We can put money into the card as long as we have the card. It was put in when the card was made.” Zay said.
“Oh. I see. Then can we take care of the reward now? Do we need to go to the guild for that?” I asked, ready to summon Overdrive to take us there.
“Don’t worry. We brought it here.” Zay said, before turning to his fiancé. “Kris, take them out.”
Kris opened the messenger bag she had on her and pulled out three medium sized sacks, placing them on the table close by. I’m not sure they would actually fit in a bag that size, so that messenger bag might be a magic bag.
“Here you go. 98 gold coins for the wyvern materials and 30 gold coins for the rescue mission.” Zay said. “These two bags have 50 gold each and the last one has the remaining 28.”
“I see. Thanks.” I said.
“Are you not going to count them?” Kris asked.
“Should I? Are you giving me a reason to count them? Are you perhaps a questionable guild?” I asked.
“No. Of course not.” Zay immediately said.
“Oh really.” Lua commented. “Then perhaps you would like to explain why the sale price of the wyverns was that low.”
Low? Was it? I think they said they would give me the sale price of 5 wyverns. And if the total is 98 gold that would mean right about 20 gold per wyvern.
“Is twenty gold coins per wyvern really that low?” I asked. “If I recall, I got five gold from the bison when I first got into town. And that should have been half of its price. So if a C-rank monster is 10 gold, a B-rank should be 20 right?”
“... I really need to help you with this.” Lua said. “The price of the monsters grows faster than the rank. Just because it is one rank higher, doesn’t mean the price doubles. And your example is just bad. A horned bison’s price comes mostly from the high quality meat it has, whereas wyvern's price comes from its hide, poison glands and magic stone.”
“Okay. So how much should I have gotten for the wyverns?” I asked.
“Usually, a complete wyvern carcass goes for 22 or 23 gold. And if taken apart, a little more.” Lua said. “I also drained the blood from them, so they should have gone for the 23 gold price.”
“But you didn’t consider the transport fees.” Zay said. “And the butchering fee. They even had burn damage. After all of that, the price we paid is fair.”
“Just stop. Or more like don’t even get to it. This is fine for me. Zay is my friend and friends get better deals.” I said.
“I’ll take these to my room. Better not to leave them out here.” I said as I took the money bags and quickly visited my room.
After I shoved the coins into my fanny pack, I picked up the two I made for Lua and Alex yesterday and headed back outside.
“.. a guild master should never do that.” I heard Lua argue.
“But I really didn’t. That really is the value of the wyverns.” Zay defended himself.
“You two. I said don’t even start.” I told the two of them.
“But…” Lua tried to argue.
“I said it is fine. It’s fine because it is Zay. If it was someone else, then I would accept your complaints, but as it is Zay, just let it go.” I told her.
“... fine.” Lua said before taking some distance.
“Thanks Brian.” Zay thanked me.
“No problem. I really just don’t want to see you two fight on your last evening.” I said. “But I do actually have a question. Isn’t 30 gold too much for the rescue mission?”
“No. It’s actually quite little. Not only did you save a noble, you also rescued a guild master and high ranking employees of Bakula company.” Zay said.
“Oh. Is rescuing people worth that much money?” I asked.
“Of course it is. Actually, Diamond Sword wanted to thank you as well for your part, but I said you wouldn’t want to take it, so I had them drop it.” Zay said.
“... well, that’s not entirely incorrect.” I responded.
I mean, I would take the money and then probably install a card into each of them in return. It just feels strange to demand money from someone you saved. I saved them because I could, not because I want money from them. I get the money from them when they buy something from me and if they are dead, no more business.
Well, I don’t really have a business yet. I could always sell some of the LoBY commons to people as one time use monster summoning devices. That might help people save their lives when they are in trouble.
… Well, it could also cause some major problems. Like what if they are used for terrorist attacks? Or assassination? Yeah. Let’s not sell them. At least not until I have a way of controlling where they end up. And even then, I should probably talk about it with a high ranking noble or something first.
A minister of defense? Wonder if this country has something like that.
Or perhaps it should be the master of the central adventurer’s guild.
“Alex, Lua. Here are the magic bags I promised.” I said as I handed them over.
“Thank you, Brian. How much is this?” Lua asked.
“You don’t need to pay for it. At least not now. That can wait.” I told them.
“Just give us a number.” Alex said.
“80 gold.” I said. I think I sold the one to Lawrence for about 110 gold, considering the trade items. And I got 130 (minus the things I bought) from Bakula, so 80 from a friend should be fine.
“I see. I’m sorry, but I don’t have that much at the moment.” Alex admitted. “Is it really fine if I pay later?”
“Yes, it’s fine. Because if you don’t, I will find you and get my money.” I jokingly said.
“And how would you do that?” He asked.
“I don’t know. Would be a shame if I just gave you multiple things I can track.” I said.
I can’t actually track the cards I’ve given them to that point. I do know who holds them, but I can’t actually track down their location.
“Then I’ll make sure to pay as soon as possible, so you won’t send any dragons on my tail.” Alex said.
“What about you, Lua?” I asked.
“I can pay now, but if possible could you wait. If I pay now I’ll have nothing left.” She said.
“Yeah. I can wait.” I told her. “Better not to give away every penny after all.”
“Not that bad. I would have some silvers left.” She said.
“I see that everyone has arrived. We can begin then.” I heard Brandon say before giving a signal to Henry to bring out food and drinks.
After that, we had a small garden party with drinks and food. I kept the alcohol to a minimum, so I wouldn’t have a bad time tomorrow.
Amid the party, I gave the cards I prepared for Henry to him. I also handed him the the four insects and the Red Medicine I wanted to give to the guard with Card Summoner, after he told me he could deliver them.
“So Brian, what about me?” Brandon asked after he saw me giving cards to Henry.
“... really? That’s how this is going to go? At least I know where Alice gets it.” I commented.
“I could order Henry to give me the ones you gave him.” Brandon said.
“Don’t worry. I do have something for you.” I said.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave me without something. So, what is it? Perhaps a mighty dragon? Or a great sage?” Brandon asked.
“No. It’s just a fiend.” I told him as I pulled the card out of collection. Well, then again, it is the Ultimate Obedient Fiend.
Spoiler [collapse]As I handed it over to him, he asked: “Do I really get only one? I know we don’t have a perfect relationship, but still.”
“No. That’s not why.” I instantly defended myself. “That monster is super strong. But you cannot use it at all if you hold any other cards anywhere on you, so I can only give that one to you. And having a monster stronger than any other one I’ve given away makes you the last line of defense.”
“I see. So you want me to be the hero that saves the day when all hope is lost. Good thinking.” Brandon said.
“...yeah. That’s totally it.” I said.
Probably better not to admit that Master of Oz is stronger with none of the downsides of Ultimate Fiend. Well, to an extent having Ultimate Obedient Fiend does make Brandon the hero. Or perhaps a raid boss. Let’s just hope Ultimate Fiend doesn’t get seen as a demon. I totally don’t want to see Brandon in prison. No I don’t. Really.
Why don’t you believe me?
For the rest of the evening, we drank and ate. When the party was over, Alex and Lua tried to leave, but Christina made them sleep in the manor’s guest rooms, saying it will be better if we can go together tomorrow.
With that, I headed to bed for the last time in the manor. Well, last time for now. I’m decently confident that I’ll come back here at some point. And Christina did once say that this is now my home.
“Alex, Lua, what are you doing here? Do we have a problem?” I asked the two … intruders? Well, the guards at the gate did let them in, so probably not intruders.
“What do you mean? We were invited.” Alex said.
“Invited? For what? By whom?” I asked.
“Madam Watchman. She told us we were having a party.” Lua answered.
I turned to look at Alice and asked: “Did you know about this?”
“No. I just heard about it as well.” She answered.
“Ah. I see our first guests have arrived. Welcome.” Aneesa came outside and welcomed Lucia and Alex.
First? So there are more. … Actually, I think Zay muttered something about the evening, so maybe he is coming as well.
“Please enjoy yourselves for now. Madam will join you soon.” Aneesa said before making her way back inside.
“So, while we wait, Alex, I would like to give you a few cards. Is there anything you would prefer?” I asked Alex.
“Cards? Like the ones you use to summon monsters? You don’t have to.” He said.
“No. I will give you some. I’m not going to hoard them and have another Rico happen because I was too worried to give you all some.” I told him.
“I see…” He said looking down. “Then I will accept anything you want to give me.”
“Good. But is there anything you prefer?” I asked again.
“... I guess some cute girls…” he said quietly, but I still heard him.
Perv. Well, not really. There is nothing wrong with liking cute girls.
Fire Princess and Fire Sorcerer. Those are cute girls. They would work, but let’s check for others.
“Oh. These are perfect.” I said as I ran into an archetype of ladies. They aren’t exactly what I would call ‘cute girls’, but more off ‘sexy ladies’.
“Did you find something? Could you show me?” Alex asked.
I pulled out four cards. Harpie Lady, Harpie Lady 2, Harpie Lady Sisters and Elegant Egotist.
Spoiler
They aren’t my favorite cards, so I don’t mind giving them away. But at the same time, giving them to someone like Alex feels a bit like a waste. Having a sexy lady use them would fit better. But I guess Alex can be the master of a harpie harem.
“Yes. I do like these.” Alex said after looking the three monsters over. “But what about this?” He asked, pointing at Elegant Egotist.
“It’s necessary when you summon the Harpie Lady Sisters for the first time, but you won’t need it after that.” I told him.
“I see. Then please, would you give these to me?” Alex asked.
“Sure, just one thing first.” I said as I pulled out two sleeves and sleeved up Harpie Lady and Harpie Lady 2. I’m not going to place a toploader on Elegant Egotist as he only needs to use it once, and Sisters should get a sleeve when it is special summoned, so I don’t need to sleeve that one either.
And if something goes wrong, I do have a second copy of both Sisters and Elegant Egotist.
“Why did you place that thing only on those two cards?” Alex asked.
“Well, you’ll only need the spell once and the Sisters will get a sleeve when you summon them for the first time.” I told him.
“I see. Thank you.” Alex said.
“Take these as well.” I said as I pulled out two Red Medicine.
“These potions? Thank you.” Alex said.
“No problem.” I said.
“Brian. This isn’t fair at all.” Alice complained. “Why did you give him so many when I only got one?”
“... you know I can still go back on your deal. I don’t need to give you my cards if I don’t want to.” I told her.
“This isn’t fair. Why does everyone else get preferential treatment?” She asked.
“Because they aren’t planning on traveling with me, unlike someone not specified. And if you doubt me, just ask Lua how many cards she has.” I told Alice.
“Lucia? Then I will.” Alice said.
Good. That got her off of my case. Now I can check out the cards for Henry. And then there is that one guard as well, but I don’t know who he is or where he lives.
For the guard I made a small insect package. Hunter Spider, Insect Knight, Killer Needle and Insect Princess. I put a sleeve on each one and added in one non-sleeved Red Medicine as well. I’ll have to ask Henry or someone else to deliver it to him.
For Henry I decided on some machine monsters.
Slot Machine, Steel Ogre Grotto #2, Steel Ogre Grotto #1 and Overdrive.
The Slot Machine was a different copy than the one I used, as is Overdrive. I placed a sleeve on all four before installing one Machine Conversion Factory onto Overdrive to make it slightly better. And I never did give one to Christina, so having the butler have it should be good as well.
For Brandon, well I do have something for him, even if I’m not sure he deserves it. But he doesn’t deserve to die, so I’ll still hand that card over to him. It is super strong, but I don’t really need it anymore.
“I see some of our guests have arrived. Welcome.” Christina said as she came outside.
“Thank you for inviting us.” Alex said.
“Thank you.” Lua added.
“Of course. I do hope you will take good care of my daughter in the future.” Christina said.
“I apologize, but I wasn’t planning on staying in their party for any longer than our trip to Sawyer city.” Alex admitted.
“Don’t worry. I already heard about it. But I still hope you will help her if she ever gets into trouble.” Christina said.
“If that is an order from Madam Watchman, I will do my best.” Alex said.
“That’s the attitude. If you ever want to quit your job as an adventurer, I can get you a position in the town's guard.” Christina said.
“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.” Alex said.
“That goes for you too, Lucia. You can always come back here. This town needs skilled people like you.” Christina said.
“Thank you.” Lua said back in a tone that made her seem slightly embarrassed.
“I only hope the dungeon will bring in enough skilled people to fill the hole you two will leave.” Christina said.
Yeah. I have to agree with that. I hope the meat quality won’t drop too much after Lua is no longer here, perfectly draining the blood from the boars.
“Come on Zay. I told you we would be late.” I heard a female voice from the direction of the gate.
“You are the one that gave me more work to do just as we were about to leave.” I heard Zayaan say.
“No. Don’t blame that on me. You are the one that didn’t take care of it earlier.” The female voice said.
“You know I’ve been busy learning the ropes and I’ve never heard of an adventurer that doesn’t ask for their rewards.” Zay said before noticing us. “Oh. Good evening. Madam Watchman, I apologize for being late.”
“Oh, you aren’t late. Everyone else was just early. And as you can see, my husband hasn’t joined us yet, so you are fine.” Christina said.
“Thank the Goddess for that. Then, do you mind if we do some guild business now?” Zay asked.
“That’s fine.” Christina gave permission.
“Thank you.” Zay said before turning to me. “Now then Brian, we have some business to take care of.”
“Us? What is it?” I asked.
“... did you really forget? I really can’t believe that someone like you is an adventurer.” Zay said.
“Well, what is it? What did I forget?” I asked.
“Seriously. Lua, you need to instruct him on these things later.” Zay said. “You never picked up your money for either the wyvern sales or the rescue mission.”
… oh. Yeah. I didn’t huh. How did I forget something like that? Well, I guess I really didn’t have a major need for money or anything, but still. It’s probably Upstart Goblins fault. Or perhaps the dungeons. When I have easy access to money, things like rewards just slip my mind. heh. heh.
(Of course Master forgets actually important things while remembering the useless Yugioh facts you think about before going to bed.) Laura commented.
(... well, you also didn’t remind me, so what do you say about that?) I shot back.
(It was an experiment to test Master’s memory. I would have reminded you about it tomorrow morning, so you would have had to deal with it in a panic.) Laura said.
(You are evil.)
(Of course. I take after you, Master.) Laura said.
Fine. Have it that way.
“Well thanks for bringing that up, but I kind of thought you would have just put the money in my guild bank account thingy.” I said to Zay.
“... you really have no idea how things work, do you?” Zay asked.
“... no? How would I? No one has explained anything to me. How could I know?” I asked.
“Well anyway, we can’t put money into your account without your guild card.” Zay said.
“Okay, but it had some money in it when I first got it. How do you explain that?” I asked.
“Simple. We can put money into the card as long as we have the card. It was put in when the card was made.” Zay said.
“Oh. I see. Then can we take care of the reward now? Do we need to go to the guild for that?” I asked, ready to summon Overdrive to take us there.
“Don’t worry. We brought it here.” Zay said, before turning to his fiancé. “Kris, take them out.”
Kris opened the messenger bag she had on her and pulled out three medium sized sacks, placing them on the table close by. I’m not sure they would actually fit in a bag that size, so that messenger bag might be a magic bag.
“Here you go. 98 gold coins for the wyvern materials and 30 gold coins for the rescue mission.” Zay said. “These two bags have 50 gold each and the last one has the remaining 28.”
“I see. Thanks.” I said.
“Are you not going to count them?” Kris asked.
“Should I? Are you giving me a reason to count them? Are you perhaps a questionable guild?” I asked.
“No. Of course not.” Zay immediately said.
“Oh really.” Lua commented. “Then perhaps you would like to explain why the sale price of the wyverns was that low.”
Low? Was it? I think they said they would give me the sale price of 5 wyverns. And if the total is 98 gold that would mean right about 20 gold per wyvern.
“Is twenty gold coins per wyvern really that low?” I asked. “If I recall, I got five gold from the bison when I first got into town. And that should have been half of its price. So if a C-rank monster is 10 gold, a B-rank should be 20 right?”
“... I really need to help you with this.” Lua said. “The price of the monsters grows faster than the rank. Just because it is one rank higher, doesn’t mean the price doubles. And your example is just bad. A horned bison’s price comes mostly from the high quality meat it has, whereas wyvern's price comes from its hide, poison glands and magic stone.”
“Okay. So how much should I have gotten for the wyverns?” I asked.
“Usually, a complete wyvern carcass goes for 22 or 23 gold. And if taken apart, a little more.” Lua said. “I also drained the blood from them, so they should have gone for the 23 gold price.”
“But you didn’t consider the transport fees.” Zay said. “And the butchering fee. They even had burn damage. After all of that, the price we paid is fair.”
“Just stop. Or more like don’t even get to it. This is fine for me. Zay is my friend and friends get better deals.” I said.
“I’ll take these to my room. Better not to leave them out here.” I said as I took the money bags and quickly visited my room.
After I shoved the coins into my fanny pack, I picked up the two I made for Lua and Alex yesterday and headed back outside.
“.. a guild master should never do that.” I heard Lua argue.
“But I really didn’t. That really is the value of the wyverns.” Zay defended himself.
“You two. I said don’t even start.” I told the two of them.
“But…” Lua tried to argue.
“I said it is fine. It’s fine because it is Zay. If it was someone else, then I would accept your complaints, but as it is Zay, just let it go.” I told her.
“... fine.” Lua said before taking some distance.
“Thanks Brian.” Zay thanked me.
“No problem. I really just don’t want to see you two fight on your last evening.” I said. “But I do actually have a question. Isn’t 30 gold too much for the rescue mission?”
“No. It’s actually quite little. Not only did you save a noble, you also rescued a guild master and high ranking employees of Bakula company.” Zay said.
“Oh. Is rescuing people worth that much money?” I asked.
“Of course it is. Actually, Diamond Sword wanted to thank you as well for your part, but I said you wouldn’t want to take it, so I had them drop it.” Zay said.
“... well, that’s not entirely incorrect.” I responded.
I mean, I would take the money and then probably install a card into each of them in return. It just feels strange to demand money from someone you saved. I saved them because I could, not because I want money from them. I get the money from them when they buy something from me and if they are dead, no more business.
Well, I don’t really have a business yet. I could always sell some of the LoBY commons to people as one time use monster summoning devices. That might help people save their lives when they are in trouble.
… Well, it could also cause some major problems. Like what if they are used for terrorist attacks? Or assassination? Yeah. Let’s not sell them. At least not until I have a way of controlling where they end up. And even then, I should probably talk about it with a high ranking noble or something first.
A minister of defense? Wonder if this country has something like that.
Or perhaps it should be the master of the central adventurer’s guild.
“Alex, Lua. Here are the magic bags I promised.” I said as I handed them over.
“Thank you, Brian. How much is this?” Lua asked.
“You don’t need to pay for it. At least not now. That can wait.” I told them.
“Just give us a number.” Alex said.
“80 gold.” I said. I think I sold the one to Lawrence for about 110 gold, considering the trade items. And I got 130 (minus the things I bought) from Bakula, so 80 from a friend should be fine.
“I see. I’m sorry, but I don’t have that much at the moment.” Alex admitted. “Is it really fine if I pay later?”
“Yes, it’s fine. Because if you don’t, I will find you and get my money.” I jokingly said.
“And how would you do that?” He asked.
“I don’t know. Would be a shame if I just gave you multiple things I can track.” I said.
I can’t actually track the cards I’ve given them to that point. I do know who holds them, but I can’t actually track down their location.
“Then I’ll make sure to pay as soon as possible, so you won’t send any dragons on my tail.” Alex said.
“What about you, Lua?” I asked.
“I can pay now, but if possible could you wait. If I pay now I’ll have nothing left.” She said.
“Yeah. I can wait.” I told her. “Better not to give away every penny after all.”
“Not that bad. I would have some silvers left.” She said.
“I see that everyone has arrived. We can begin then.” I heard Brandon say before giving a signal to Henry to bring out food and drinks.
After that, we had a small garden party with drinks and food. I kept the alcohol to a minimum, so I wouldn’t have a bad time tomorrow.
Amid the party, I gave the cards I prepared for Henry to him. I also handed him the the four insects and the Red Medicine I wanted to give to the guard with Card Summoner, after he told me he could deliver them.
“So Brian, what about me?” Brandon asked after he saw me giving cards to Henry.
“... really? That’s how this is going to go? At least I know where Alice gets it.” I commented.
“I could order Henry to give me the ones you gave him.” Brandon said.
“Don’t worry. I do have something for you.” I said.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave me without something. So, what is it? Perhaps a mighty dragon? Or a great sage?” Brandon asked.
“No. It’s just a fiend.” I told him as I pulled the card out of collection. Well, then again, it is the Ultimate Obedient Fiend.
Spoiler [collapse]As I handed it over to him, he asked: “Do I really get only one? I know we don’t have a perfect relationship, but still.”
“No. That’s not why.” I instantly defended myself. “That monster is super strong. But you cannot use it at all if you hold any other cards anywhere on you, so I can only give that one to you. And having a monster stronger than any other one I’ve given away makes you the last line of defense.”
“I see. So you want me to be the hero that saves the day when all hope is lost. Good thinking.” Brandon said.
“...yeah. That’s totally it.” I said.
Probably better not to admit that Master of Oz is stronger with none of the downsides of Ultimate Fiend. Well, to an extent having Ultimate Obedient Fiend does make Brandon the hero. Or perhaps a raid boss. Let’s just hope Ultimate Fiend doesn’t get seen as a demon. I totally don’t want to see Brandon in prison. No I don’t. Really.
Why don’t you believe me?
For the rest of the evening, we drank and ate. When the party was over, Alex and Lua tried to leave, but Christina made them sleep in the manor’s guest rooms, saying it will be better if we can go together tomorrow.
With that, I headed to bed for the last time in the manor. Well, last time for now. I’m decently confident that I’ll come back here at some point. And Christina did once say that this is now my home.
