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Chapter 10: Finding a blade

When morning came, Curo and Jack went to the armoury to pick out a blade for Curo to use with the Phantom Song Sutra. They looked through the armoury but couldn't find a blade that Curo could use. It was not that there weren't any good blades but they didn't feel right for Curo. When selecting a weapon, you had to pick the right one from the start because you started switching between weapons like socks, you couldn't completely master any of them. When they didn't find a suitable weapon for him, they exited the armoury, they were quite dispirited though. They decided to go to an auction house in a nearby big town and see if they could find a good weapon there. Jack didn't rush or curse Curo at all for picking none of the blades in the armoury, he knew better than anyone that a good weapon is what makes the man and Curo needed to find a good weapon for himself.

They mounted flying Heaven Beasts and flew towards the nearby city of Raule. The flight lasted for 2 hours. When they reached the city they had to dismount outside as flying mounts were not permitted inside. When they reached Raule's auction house, they sat through the auction but couldn't find a good blade for him. Jack gave Curo a few thousand gold coins and told him to meet up with him at the front gates of Raule in 6-7 hours. Since it was currently noon, it was the busiest time of the day for the merchants in Rauel.

Curo kept strolling around town, visiting every weapons shops there is. When he reached a certain shop in the middle regions of Rauel, he had also given up practically all hope for finding the blade, “Finding a good blade requires luck and fate, you can't find something like that just because you want to.” With that in mind he stepped into the next weapons shop.

The inside of the shop was nice, beautiful wooden floors, the walls were adorned with weapons, next to them their price tags and origin stories. Behind the counter was a teenaged young lady, who was currently completing a transaction for a halberd. Curo just glanced through the blade section. Because there weren't a lot of people there, everyone were surprised that a little boy of the age of 7 was looking for a weapon like this but everyone guessed that this little boy must be from a powerful clan, to walk around with a Spacial Ring alone at such a young age.

When Curo was glancing at weapons, his interest was picked by a bit of a peculiar blade. The blade was pitch black, it didn't have guard separating the blade from the hilt. He looked at the clerk and asked, “Mind if I try this blade out?” It was bad manners to just up and grab a weapon on display without acquiring permission first. The people, who were present, praised in their minds, “This young lad has good manners.” The clerk was confused for a second before giving permission.

Curo, having gotten permission now, took the blade from the wall and tested it out. As he slashed the blade, a weak humming sound emerged whenever he did. Everyone's eyes were now on the young boy with the blade, at an unknown time, a middle aged man had appeared on the doorway that led to the back room. As he looked at Curo, a smile formed on his lips. From the emblem on his clothes, the man knew exactly which clan he was from, he also was an experienced warrior, he could feel the presence of 7 extremely strong people in the shadows. “Seems like this little guy is the new Young Master of the Shadows clan that I have heard so much about.” The middle aged man though to himself while sizing up Curo.

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Curo had a smile on his face as he stopped swinging the blade, it was exactly what he had been looking for. He eagerly turned to the clerk and asked, “How much for this blade?”, everyone were still dumbstruck about the perfectly executed movements but this sentence brought everyone back to reality. Before the clerk could answer, laughter broke out behind her and the voice said, “For you it is free my little friend. I owe quite a lot to your father and grandfather, it would be blasphemy on my part to ask for money for a single blade after everything those two have done for me.” As everyone heard that, they looked at the man and were shocked. The man who was talking, was the owner of this shop.

Everyone exchanged a glance and looked at the now annoyed youth. “Give me a proper price please, I don't have a habit of accepting charity or living off the favours done by others.”When everyone heard that, the respect towards the little boy grew, if someone asked what the problem with the young generation was these days, they would only get this answer: “They live as though they had done all the deeds of their ancestors.” For a young boy to say something like that was extremely rare.

“Well then, how about you give me 500 Gold coins, the rest is a friendly discount on my part.” The man said with a smile, Curo agreed and paid for the blade. Just as he was about to walk to the door to take his leave, the door flew open with a big bang. A snob looking young man with 4 men dressed in expensive armour walked in.

The youth took a quick glance around and his gaze stopped at Curo, a wicked smile formed on his face as he walked closer to him and said, “Little twerp, I took a fancy to that blade of yours, give it to me now and you can leave with your limbs still working.” When Curo and everyone else heard him, they were just speechless, they didn't know what to say to that. Curo's eyes turned colder as he asked in a low voice, “And if if I refuse to give my blade to you, are the soldiers or you going to take this blade from me?” Everyone could hear the mockery hidden beneath those words, while inside they were thumbs upping Curo on the outside they were a bit panicking, the middle aged man however had a smile on his face as he looked at this turn of events.

The youth's face looked ugly as he almost spat venom at Curo, “Of course it is going to be done by the soldiers, who do you think you are to get the son of the City Lord to deal with you personally?” When Curo heard that he just shook his head and started walking past the young man. When the soldiers saw that they started to move to block his path, something that none of the people in the shop, except for the owner, thought would happen happened. The moment they started moving to block Curo, a blade appeared on everyone of the soldiers throats. Out of nowhere, 4 people, dressed in ninja clothing and wearing masks had appeared, everyone present recognized them with a glance, they were the Empire's special ops operatives. Dread was evident in everyone's eyes as the looked towards Curo who had just reached the door.

Curo turned back and looked at the youth with a smile and said, “I honestly don't care who you are if you think that your City Lord's clan can fight against my Shadow Clan, then I'll let Gramps know that you guys wanted to fight.”

“No, I didn't know you were from the prestigious Shadow clan, I am terribly sorry for not recognizing you.” The youth said hurriedly with a pale face, he practically fell to his knees when he said that. Curo quickly lost interest and left, he despised presumptuous brats like him the most and he left before he seriously decided to kill the twerp. Everyone in the shop were still shocked at what had just happened.