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Chapter 99: Loanshark

Arwin glanced out the window of the smith. The sun was shining outside, but it had shifted back from where he last recalled it.

It must have been a bit less than a day. I think I missed the night and am back in the morning.

He picked up the two breastplates and stepped out into the street to make his way over to the tavern. Muted conversation from within greeted him as he ducked into the darkness. Reya and Anna sat at the counter, dimly cast in the light of a flickering orange lantern.

“You’re back! Faster than I was expecting. It normally takes you longer to make stuff, doesn’t it?” Reya hopped out of her chair as she spotted Arwin and headed over to take a closer look at his armor.

Arwin handed her a piece so she could bring it to the light at the counter and get a better look, then followed her over. “These didn’t have any magic. That makes them a lot easier to make. [Soul Flame] makes everything considerably easier and faster.”

“Does that mean we’re going to the market again?” Reya asked. “We should get a sign for it at some point.”

“Once we’ve got money to spare, we will,” Arwin promised. “But yes, we’re headed back to the market. I was going to ask you to come since I’m pretty sure you’ll have a lot more luck selling my work than I will.”

“Sure,” Reya said. “What about you, Anna?”

“I’ll probably pass. Rodrick and I were going to go and get lunch pretty soon. It’s been a while since we’ve had time to spend alone. Unless you needed us for something…?”

“We’ll be fine.” Arwin shook his head. “I take it Lillia is out looking for ingredients or cooking?”

“The latter. She’s in the kitchen and Rodrick is currently out getting her some ingredients.”

“Sounds good. Could you let the others know where we’ve gone, then?” Arwin asked. “I want to get this over with as soon as possible so we can get some gold to work with.”

“Sure thing. Good luck,” Anna said.

Arwin gave her an appreciative nod and took the breastplate back from Reya. They headed out of the tavern and over to the side street, where the cart sat in wait for their return. He hung both pieces of armor up in it, then dragged it out onto the road. Reya hopped into it and pulled her hood low over her head. He couldn’t summon his helmet without revealing its abilities, so he copied her idea and pulled his own hood low. Then, activating [Scourge] to make things a bit easier for himself, he pulled the cart up and set off.

***

They arrived at the market a short while later. The crowd parted before Arwin and he found an open spot at the edge of a square that didn’t have too many people in it. He brought the cart over to it and set it down before climbing inside and giving Reya a nod. “All set up. Not that I had much to set up. How much do you think I should sell these for? They seem a bit nicer than the scale plate, and we only have two of them. Maybe 100 a piece?”

“I think that’s probably good.” Reya scratched her chin. “Maybe even a little low.”

“150?”

“That’s probably what they’re actually worth. You might have some trouble selling them at that when people don’t know who you are much yet. I’d go something like 120 and let someone bargain you down to 100 at the lowest. If you start at 100, they might try to pull it to 80.”

“Seems smart to me,” Arwin said with a shrug. “120 it is.”

He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall of the wagon. It creaked under his weight but thankfully held firm. People passed by on the street, a few of them glancing at the armor hanging on display, but none stopped.

“I think it might be about time to deploy the secret technique,” Arwin said.

“You have a secret technique?”

“Yeah. It’s called Reya luring adventurers over to the cart.”

Reya scrunched her nose. “Lame. I thought you were going to show me something cool.”

“Have I literally ever been able to so much as get a single person’s interest without my, ah, special gear? That’s why you’re here.”

Grinning in response, Reya hopped down to the ground, keeping her hood low over her head. “I suppose I did get a free ride. We just might have to be fast. I don’t want to get recognized by someone that doesn’t like me, and there are a lot of those.”

“So we found out,” Arwin said.

Reya turned toward the crowd. But, before she could even take a step in their direction, a young adventurer with messy brown hair and stubble growing along his chin ground to a halt whilst staring in their direction.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He nearly got run down in the process but didn’t even seem to notice. He hurried over to the cart, practically tripping over his own feet in his haste, and squinted up at the armor.

“Is this Ifrit armor?” he asked, throwing a glance over his shoulder and fumbling with a bag at his waist. “It is, right?”

“It is,” Arwin said, his brow furrowed beneath his hood. He was pretty sure he’d never seen this adventurer before.

“I’m Leon. You sold my brother armor a little while back,” the adventurer said, speaking so fast that his words felt like they were overlapping each other in their haste to escape his lips. “It saved his life. The dungeon he and his team went into was a lot harder than they were expecting and he went down under a Renlion. You know, the big cats with the nasty looking claws?”

“Ah… yeah,” Arwin said, blinking. “I know of them.”

“One of ‘em got on top of him and did its best to rip his heart out for a solid ten or so seconds from what I heard.” Leon paused for a brief instant to suck in a breath before it could try to escape from him. “His armor got torn to shit, but he somehow survived. I’ve been checking the market every once and a while hoping you’d come back. I want to get him another set. His name is Ted, by the way.”

Arwin dug through his memories. He was pretty sure the first person he’d sold a piece of gear to had been a man that had introduced himself as Ted. A grin crossed his face.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. It’s always good to know that I was of service. I hope your brother’s injuries weren’t too serious?”

“No, not at all. Some nasty cuts, but the guild healer got him patched up once they got out of the dungeon,” Leon said. He looked up at the armor hanging by Arwin’s head. “Are these sized roughly the same as the last pieces?”

“Just about,” Arwin said. “If it doesn’t fit him, you’re welcome to find me at my smithy and I’ll modify it for free.”

“Really?” Leon’s eyes lit up. “That’s kind of you! How much for the piece?”

“These are 100 gold,” Arwin said.

“120,” Reya corrected.

He coughed into his fist. “Ah. Right. 120.”

Leon snickered. “You’re not much of a salesman, are you?”

“Is it really that obvious?”

“Yes,” Leon and Reya said at the exact same time.

Arwin rolled his eyes. “Here. Feel free to take a look before you buy anything. These aren’t the same material as the previous pieces I had. By the way, what guild are you two in?”

“Jumping Tigers,” Leon replied. “Why?”

“Curiosity.” He reached up and took one of the sets of armor down, holding it out to Leon. The adventurer took it from him and looked over it for a few seconds. He rapped his knuckles on the metal, then nodded in satisfaction.

“I can’t say I’m an expert on armor, but this looks nice. If your last piece was good, I don’t have any reason to believe this one won’t be. Ted’s been raving about how it saved his life ever since he got back from the dungeon.”

Leon set a pouch of down on the edge of the wagon, then counted out twenty more. “Here. One twenty.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.” Reya nimbly plucked the pouch and the money up. Both vanished into the folds of her clothes.

“Likewise,” Leon said. “Where was it that we could find your smithy again?”

“Do you know the old, haunted street?” Arwin asked.

Leon’s brow furrowed. “Yeah. Why? You don’t mean–”

“There’s a tavern at the end of it. Monster themed,” Arwin said. “You can find me there. If I’m not around, just ask for the tavern-keeper, Lillia. She’ll be able to get a hold of me.”

“A monster themed tavern?” Leon raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“It’s pretty neat. Don’t knock it until you try it,” Reya said. “Haven’t you ever wanted to get your meal served to you by an imp?”

“Not really – wait. You have actual imps employed?” Leon’s eyes widened.

Arwin let out a snort of laughter. “What do you think?”

Leon joined in, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “Fair enough. Costumes, then. That does sound like it could be fun. Well, I’ll keep that in mind if we need any modifications. Thanks again, Ifrit. And…”

“Reya.”

“Reya,” Leon finished. “Have a good one!”

He waved, then turned and headed back into the crowd.

“That went well,” Reya said. “I think we’ve gotten some attention again.”

She was right. The crowd had already been slowing a little as they passed the wagon, but the people in the area were definitely looking more intently at the wagon than the had been before. Nobody had approached the wagon yet to avoid getting an unwanted sales pitch, but it looked like it would just be a matter of time before someone else came up.

“I think we might owe Ted and his brother some thanks,” Arwin said. “Small world, running into both of them.”

“Well, it sounds like Leon has been coming around the market pretty frequently to try and find you. That’s a pretty good review of your work.” Reya paused, then tilted her head to the side. “That’s genius.”

“Genius? What is?” Arwin asked.

“Reviews. We should get a board and put it up with testimonials from people that have bought your work,” Reya said eagerly. “They can sign it to prove its real.”

“Huh. Interesting thought. It definitely couldn’t hurt. Maybe something we can look into after we sell this last piece,” Arwin said.

“Speaking of which,” Reya murmured, nodding over Arwin’s shoulder toward the crowd. He turned as a young woman came to a stop before their cart. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties.

Strands of red hair poked out from beneath a dented metal helm like tongues of flame. Deep scars ran along her chest piece, layered over each other from dozens if not hundreds of battles. A sword hung from her right side – and, noticeably, the arm above it was cut off just below the elbow.

Her approach spurred the crowd, and a man jogged over. He wore considerably nicer armor and was probably around ten years older, with muscles from years of work and a small goatee framing his lips.

“How much was this?” the woman asked in a soft voice, looking up at the armor hanging beside Arwin.

“120 gold,” Reya said before Arwin could speak.

The woman grimaced and pulled out her pouch, counting through it. “Could you do 80?”

“Sold,” the man said as he drew up to them, setting his hand on the pouch. “120.”

A twinge of annoyance passed through Arwin, but it wasn’t like they had an official line. He needed the money. His own feelings toward the matter were irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was–

What’s that insignia on his armor?

“Are you with a guild?” Arwin asked.

“Yeah. Iron Hounds,” the man said with a smug grin as he held the pouch of gold out.

“Ah. I’m afraid I can’t sell to you,” Arwin said.

“What? Why not?”

“Your guild leader and I have a bit of a disagreement,” Arwin said. He drummed his fingertips on the wood. This man was part of the Iron Hounds, but that didn’t necessarily mean he knew what they’d done. There was no reason to be overly rude – but he wasn’t selling anything to him. “Feel free to take it up with him.”

The man’s brow furrowed and he stuffed the pouch of gold back into his pocket. “Damn shame.”

He spun and headed off. The woman made to do the same.

“Hold on,” Arwin said. “You said 80?”

She glanced back at him in surprise. “I – yeah. Is that enough?”

My reputation is more important than gold. The more legends there are about Ifrit, the more people will want my armor. I know I can’t save everyone. That doesn’t mean I can’t do my best to help where I can. And I think there’s a way both of us could benefit from this.

“How do you feel about a loan?” Arwin asked, a small grin flitting across his lips. “I’m in a generous mood.”