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Benjamin intervened in the conversation between Id and the clerk.
“I heard Tanya planned to visit the Icarus Wizard Tower to buy some magic items soon. When I meet her, I’ll ask her how much she sold the leather armor for.”
The clerk’s pupils shook as he spoke urgently.
“It’s up to us to decide the price of items we sell.”
Benjamin said, staring into the clerk’s eyes.
“Did you say the store owner prevented you from selling the leather armor at a price below five hundred golds? Call him. I’ll ask him whether it’s true.”
The clerk replied in a downcast voice. His plan to pocket part of the sales price without the store owner knowing was ruined.
“I’ll give it to you at four hundred golds. It’s impossible below that.”
“Three hundred and fifty golds.”
When Benjamin bargained, opening his eyes wide, the clerk nodded helplessly. Benjamin looked back at his party with a satisfied look.
“I’ll pay for Lara’s leather armor. If I make some more potions from the troll’s blood than planned, we’ll earn more than I spend on this armor. So you can say that Id bought you the leather mail, Lara. I consider you my disciple, so I’ll contribute a little to purchasing this armor.”
Lara embraced Benjamin and Id alternatively, rejoicing.
“Thank you so much, Benjamin. Thank you, Id. I’ll surely repay this favor to you.”
Benjamin patted Lara on the shoulder and said.
“You have to train hard with the spells learned from me as well as the swordsmanship learned from Id.”
Id said with a blush since Lara embraced him too firmly.
“We are friends.”
After Benjamin paid three hundred and fifty golds, Lara said, leaving the shop in her leather mail.
“Let’s go to the restaurant. I’ll treat you to a hearty dinner tonight.”
Lara ordered almost all the food on the menu. As the food kept coming out to the point where there was no open space on the table, Benjamin spoke as he took a sip of his beer.
“Who’s going to eat all this food?”
“What are you worried about when we have Sasha?”
Sasha, focusing on eating quietly, looked up at Lara’s remark. Id seemed to have stopped growing already, but Sasha was still growing little by little. As the large Sasha rarely left food behind, Lara’s comment was close to the truth. Sasha, covered with big muscles, exercised more than anyone else, and thus ate a lot. The dinner at the restaurant was satisfactory for the four people who spent a long time in the canyon. The clerk of the restaurant brought a bottle of wine to the party.
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“The manager told me to give this wine to you as a service because you posted a lot of sales at our restaurant. It was imported from the Kingdom of Mudria and is popular among the nobles of Scandia these days.”
As Benjamin nodded, the clerk put down the tray and took the cork off the wine bottle. He then proceeded to pour the wine into four glasses. Id shouted after taking a sip of wine, standing up from his seat, since his manna reacted as soon as the wine entered his mouth.
“Everybody stop. There’s poison in the wine.”
The clerk took a dagger out of his boot and tried to stab Id, but Id pushed the chair he was sitting towards the clerk and unsheathed his sword. Sasha and Lara packed their weapons and guarded Benjamin. The next moment, arrows, quarrels and daggers flew toward the party through the windows. Id struck some arrows away and stabbed his sword out towards the clerk. The clerk, who was about to wield his dagger at Id, pulled it back to block Id’s blade aiming his neck, but the tip of Id’s blade momentarily changed direction and stabbed the clerk in the right shoulder. Although the clerk, who dropped his dagger, stepped back to avoid Id’s next attack, the Aura Blade of Id, who caught up with him with a quick step, slashed into his neck.
“This man’s body movements are extraordinary. I think he was trained as an assassin. Be careful, everyone. Lara, check Benjamin’s condition.”
Under Sasha’s cover, Lara checked Benjamin’s condition. He was unconscious with an ashy face.
“Not good. I think he is poisoned by some sort of deadly toxin.”
Having glanced at Benjamin’s complexion, Id said,
“Sasha, focus all your attention on protecting Benjamin and Lara. Lara, cast Detoxication.”
Sasha nodded and lifted his shield, but Lara said in an uneasy voice.
“I’ve never succeeded in completing the spell yet. How am I supposed to succeed now? If it goes wrong, Benjamin could lose his life.”
Looking into Lara’s eyes, Id said in a clear voice.
“I believe you can do it. Even if you fail, I’ll save Benjamin after dealing with the assassins. So don’t worry and just do your best.”
Lara thought Benjamin wouldn’t be alive until then, but she did not say her thoughts aloud and tried to concentrate on reciting the spell, holding Benjamin’s magic wand. Id swung his sword at the assassins rushing in through the restaurant’s entrance and windows. In an instant, five assassins were killed by Id’s Aura Blade, which hit their vital points accurately without any mercy. Sasha blew away the heads of the two assassins who had bypassed Id. As the assassins’ attacks faltered, Id told Lara.
“Lara, recite the spell, while circulating manna. It’ll help you concentrate on manifesting magic.”
Having listened to Id’s advice, Lara sat on the floor and started manna circulation. As she calmed down, circulating manna in her body, the spell of Detoxication learned from Benjamin came to her mind instinctively. Lara, whose anxiety subsided, forgot about the surrounding situation and began to focus on casting the spell. Then the door behind the restaurant's counter opened, and three people walked out and approached Id. He recognized one of them who belonged to the tracking team of Ur Thieves’ Guild who had survived after encountering Id’s party previously. The fat figure on the right looked aristocratic, and the tall and thin figure in the middle was new to Id, but somehow his face looked familiar. The man in the center said,
“I wanted to complete this mission easily, but you’re not an easy one. Are you Id?”
Id did not answer the question and asked back.
“What relationship do you have with Dima, the mercenary?”
“You are a quick-witted boy. Dima, whom you’ve killed, is my brother. I’ve never been very close to him in my life, but as long as I’m his brother, I think I’ll have to avenge his murder.”
“I don’t understand how you knew what happened in the deserted forest. Your intelligence structure must be very competent. Are you the boss of this assassination organization?”
The man in the middle was the boss of the Red Scorpion, the killers’ organization. Hit squads of the Red Scorpion were notorious in the Scandia Kingdom, the Ur Kingdom and the northeastern region of the Icarus Empire. The inn Id’s party dropped in at was the headquarters of the Red Scorpion. Residents of the village behind the inn were also mostly members of the assassination organization. Located in the transportation hub connecting the northern part of Scandia Kingdom with the Ur Kingdom and the Icarus Empire, it was easy to collect information and send assassins all over the place, so they used this place as their headquarters. Only a handful of people knew it was the headquarters of the assassins since Anton, the boss of the Red Scorpion, controlled his subordinates fairly well.
“I am Anton. The leader of the Red Scorpion. As we didn’t meet to have a conversation, let’s wrap up now.”
Even before Anton finished speaking, four axes flew in from either side of Id, and Anton rushed to him with a battle ax in his right hand and a dagger in his left hand. The collaboration of the assassins was quite threatening as they had evidently been training together for a long time. Id rolled on the floor, then swung his sword aiming at Anton’s ankle. Anton jumped into the air to avoid the attack, and Id, who bounced up from the floor, rushed to the survivor of the Ur Thieves’ Guild, not slowing down. Before the thief’s head could float up in the air and fall to the floor, Id, who made a big turn, approached the chest of an assassin who threw an ax at him and struck his solar plexus with the tip of his sword hilt.
As Id attacked the others without dealing with him, Anton rushed to Sasha and swung the battle ax. Holding up his shield to block Anton’s battle ax, Sasha stretched out his sword to stab Anton in the face. Astonished by his opponent’s swordsmanship, Anton hurriedly stepped back. He was only concerned about Id’s sword skills, but he was taken aback by the fact that Sasha’s swordsmanship was at the level of an advanced Knight. At that moment, Lara shouted out in a clear and ringing voice.
“Detoxication.”