Chapter 261: Selling [4]

261 Selling [4]

"You want to see what's inside?"

George was already ecstatic. It hadn't even been more than an hour since the seller left, and he had already found someone who was interested in the sword.

'Looks like today is my lucky day..!'

"You have a good eye for things, sir."

George went on to say as he moved behind the counter to retrieve the wooden box. Rubbing his hands, he was just about to open the box when he was stopped by the man who pressed his hand against the box.

"Yes?"

Confused by the action, George raised his head to look at him.

'What is he doing...?'

"..."

Despite the question, George remained silent and waited for the customer to finish whatever he was doing. Perhaps he wanted to have a feel of the box. George had seen his fair share of unique customers so he wasn't at all fazed.

Costumer was king in his book.

George didn't have to wait for long. Soon, the man in gray lifted his hand away from the box as he began to mumble.

"The scent, it's the same."

His voice was quiet, but it managed to reach the ears of George who felt his mind grow blank.

There was something about the voice that was hard to explain. It seemed to suck the very energy out of his soul, and George felt himself blinking slowly.

"Can you open the box?"

The voice asked slowly, almost like a whisper.

George stood still before nodding.

"...Yes, most certainly."

He seemed to be moving on his own. As if he couldn't refuse the words at all.

George moved ahead and pressed his hands on the lock, unlocking it.

Click—

A gentle click resounded throughout the area as the frame of the sword was revealed.

A musty scent spread out immediately, and the surroundings fell quiet.

It was odd.

There used to be so much noise. Where did the noise go?

"....."

George blinked slowly, looking around. He was surprised to see that everyone had stopped moving besides himself.

'Just what—'

"You."

His thoughts were broken by the calm voice from before. It was different from before.

It was a lot more chilly as if it was trying to swallow him up whole.

No...

It had already swallowed him up as George found himself unable to move at all.

Ba... Thump!

He felt the beat of his heart echo loudly within his mind, forcing him to look up at the figure.

That was when he met his eyes.

They were blue, black, green, orange, red... what color were they?

George found himself unable to tell. He just lost himself in that strange gaze.

"What is this?"

He only came to when a small pearl was brought close to his face.

"This..."

George's eyes turned clear for a brief moment as he recognized the pearl. That was the pearl that the student had told him to keep inside in exchange for a bigger commission...

He knew what it was.

It was merely a recording device. Although it was a bit weird to have something like that, for the commission he didn't mind.

But...?

"....The seller of the sword put it in as a requirement for the sale of the sword."

George found himself speaking on his own. It was a creepy sensation, one he had a hard time describing.

But right now, all he could do was stare at the man in front of him who stared at the recording device with a small smile on his lips.

"....How clever."

He mumbled slowly, squeezing the recording device with his fingers.

Crack—

A small cracking sound echoed, and shortly after his figure disappeared.

The noise returned, and George could finally breathe again.

"Haaa... Haaa.."

Everything seemed to have returned to normal, all with the exception of...

"Uh? Ah...?"

George reached out with his hands, trying to grasp something within the world of black before him.

"Why is it dark...? What's...!"

His vision.

It was gone.

***

Crack—

The pearl in my grasp shattered. The last thing I saw were two obscure eyes that I couldn't see the depths of. The same was true for the face.

I wasn't able to see a thing.

But that was fine.

"So he took the bait."

I didn't feel happy with the development. Rather, I felt my heart skip a light beat as my mind started to process the situation.

The sword... I hadn't really sold it.

It was merely a replica that I had gotten manufactured by a famous blacksmith over here. I used all the money that I had managed to gather in order to get it done.

It wasn't anything mind-blowing, but so was the real sword at first glance.

The replica was perfect, but that wasn't what I was going for.

"This confirms it. He doesn't know who I am. He is tracking me through the scent of the sword."

This had all been a test to confirm this.

...It had always been bugging me how I had never been confronted directly during the award ceremony.

The claps were vivid, and so were the whistles. I could tell from a glance that the person tracking me was stronger than me, and yet, they let me go?

It made no sense.

For that reason, I believed that it was merely some sort of play to implant 'fear' within my body.

Whoever I was dealing with was an Emotive Mage.

Once a seed was implanted into someone, arousing fear out of them was a lot easier.

I understood this concept all too well, being an Emotive mage myself.

What had happened at the award ceremony was all a rouse to implant a seed of fear in me.

"It was risky, but it paid off."

I wasn't sure why I was the one being targeted when considering that the sword was in Haven.

'Could it be that whoever is hunting me isn't the faceless man but someone else and they're scared of Delilah?'

It would make sense considering that she was an Emotive Mage's worst nightmare.

Regardless, the real sword was in my ring. My plan was to use the box that the sword had been resting in from the start to attract him and gain as much information as possible.

It was fair to say that I was able to gain enough information.

"...I'm still safe, but not by much."

The scent of the sword was still with me.

The only reason he went to the box first was because the scent was stronger, but there was no denying that I was next.

I needed to figure out a way to escape its grasp.

...If there was one thing I was sure about it was the fact that I wasn't going to let myself be hunted like that.

"Hoo."

Taking a deep breath, I tossed what remained of the monitoring device and headed toward the massive wooden door that stood before me.

Clank—

Cold air wafted in the moment I opened the door as I was greeted by the sight of several dozen individuals.

Clank, clank—!

The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed through as the potent smell of sweat reached my nostrils.

"You're here."

Greeting me was a familiar face. It was one that I hadn't seen in several months, and as our gazes met I lowered my head.

"It's been a while, Professor Hollowe."

***

Every representative of the Nurs Ancifa Empire was present. A training room was given to all to train in order to get familiar with the other members from the other Empires.

There were some old faces and some new faces.

Clank—

Leon, alongside Kiera, Aoife, Evelyn, Josephine, and Luxon were currently battling against a team formed from the other Academies.

The numbers were equal, and the two sides were close to even. It was mainly due to the fact that this was merely a friendly spar, and both sides held back, but there were some that did try harder than the others.

"Die....!"

A flame burst forth, charging directly toward the opposing group with a powerful blast.

It was abrupt and came fast.

...It was so fast that hardly anyone had time to process what had happened before it was already upon the other group.

Bang!

Thankfully, one of the more reactive members of the opposing teams stepped forward and took the brunt of the attack, but it wasn't without any injuries as they skidded back before crashing against a nearby wall.

Bang—

"Ryan!"

The team members shouted in worry as they turned to look to check on him.

His body was filled with light burns, and blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth.

His condition wasn't great.

"What's your problem?!"

A girl with long green hair asked as they turned their head to glare at Kiera who was picking her ear.

Seeing the girl glare at her, she glared back.

"What are you glaring at?"

"...Are you kidding me?"

The girl, an elite cadet from the Central Academy of Bremmer glared even harder at Kiera as several people appeared behind her.

"This was supposed to be a friendly spar. What are you doing going so hard?!"

"Uh..."

Kiera looked around her with a frown.

"Was that hard?"

"It was."

Aoife answered for her, glaring at her just like the other group. She was feeling a little embarrassed, but it couldn't be helped. She should've seen this coming considering Kiera's personality.

In any case, Aoife tried to apologize.

"Sorry, she's a bit cra—"

"That's not going to cut it. This was reckless of her. Suspend her, and we'll call it even."

"Uh?"

Aoife's mouth hung open as she looked at the one speaking with wide eyes.

Did she just hear correctly?

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to team up with someone so reckless."

He was a tall and burly cadet that Aoife knew. He was pretty strong, and with long brown hair and blue eyes, he was somewhat handsome.

But that wasn't her cause of concern.

It was the moment that he revealed his intention that she realized what was going on.

'This is probably an act.'

She looked around, noticing that the professors were standing still without doing a thing.

Aoife understood then this was probably something that often occurred at each summit.

'They're probably scared they won't get any spots to perform during the summit.'

Aoife sighed, this made sense. Had she been in her position, she would've acted the same.

This wasn't actually a serious situation.

So long as she gave them a little leeway, everything would resolve.

Thinking thus far, Aoife opened her mouth to speak, when she was suddenly interrupted.

"Oy."

Aoife felt her entire face freeze at the sound of her voice as her head snapped back, pausing directly at Kiera who was staring at them with a frown.

11:04

'Oh, no.'

Aoife felt her stomach sink as she hastily reached out with her hand to stop Kiera from speaking, but it was too late.

"No—"

"Lick my balls."

***

update : So, I know the reason why I felt so tired these past few days. I have covid. Don't ask me how. I tested positive this morning. If there's no chap tomorrow, it's probably because I'm too sick to write. So just like last month I will make it up with a small mass release halfway through the month. I apologize in advance.