While Lucy did not yet have the stats to go superhuman speeds, she had an innately high physical fitness, so she only had to satisfy a certain speed requirement to escape Everett.
There was no way she could just stuff a bag full of stuff and expect that she would only have to pay for the bag. It was nonsensical. However, she had managed to trick him into only giving her a price for the magical items he showed her, and not the 50-odd trinkets she had managed to get into the bag without him noticing. Her unsealed spiritual energy was also a massive boon for lesser telekinesis. But due to the value of individual objects reaching extraordinary heights compared to items on Earth, there was a system put in place by the System that allowed a shopkeeper to cancel the trade if the customer hadn’t owned the object for more than 15 minutes and was within a 5km zone.
There still needed to be physical people to enforce this rule, however, so now she had to either get outside the 5km zone or hold onto the object for more than 15 minutes while hiding from the guards. She could also just run for dear life like she was currently, avoiding both the guards and trying to get out of there as soon as possible.
She chose to expand her perception field, and in the meantime, she managed to see that the brown-haired adventurer and his black-haired female partner were watching her sprint down the street some distance ahead. The woman nodded to her and the brown-haired adventurer jumped up and down, waving his hands about, so she gave them the thumbs up as she ran past them, watching them both double over laughing as Everett hobbled out, cane shaking in a bony hand raised to the high heavens in demonic wrath. It seems he had noticed that the System reported a sale of several more items than he thought he had given her on his Status.
She noticed some grey steel and blue adorned helmeted city guards had wandered into her field of perception, and made sure to adjust for their path as she chose which way to run. Finding a staircase of white plastered brick winding up a squat building, she dashed up it to rush across the flat rooftops. Unfortunately, modern London lacked the facilities to practice fantasy parkour, so she enjoyed it while she had the chance.
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A brown-haired and green-eyed man grinned as he and his partner walked down the streets of the city. “That girl is my new favorite person, Larena. I want to be her when I grow up."
The older female adventurer next to him shook her head with a sigh. “You shouldn’t support her actions. That girl just made things difficult for the entire veteran adventurer society out here." She turned to watch Everett and the guards with her arms crossed. "Everett’s shop, while he is unliked, still has the best magical items we can get with any consistency, and will take out his anger on his frequent customers. Copying her will only have negative consequences."
Everett was verbally abusing the guards for ‘letting such lowborn rogues into this city where they could terrorise his livelihood.’
Garthe rolled his eyes. “Says the woman who almost strangled her brother just so that girl could make a fool out of the guy.”
Larena turned her head and didn’t make eye contact. “I was just interested in her ability to levitate those items. I couldn’t sense any mana in it and thought it might be a pathway to advance my techniques.”
"Uh huh...” Garthe gave Larena a flat look.
They both turned back to watch the guards talk with the shopkeeper as their ‘conversation’ reached a particularly heightened point before Everett turned with a huff after saying he would ‘do it himself’ and started walking down the street on his flimsy cane.
Garthe elbowed his fellow adventurer. “Hey!” he hissed at her as the grumpy shopkeeper wandered closer. “How about we mess with him a bit as well? We don’t need to do much, just prevent him from using one of his magic thingies to get to that girl. His anger could hardly get worse than it is now." Garthe attempted to persuade her, “Plus, how could he dare retaliate against my mighty sister, a member of the infamous Black Hand’s Mercenaries!”
“We need to get going,” she stated, arms crossed and face serious, although the slight twitch of her lips indicated she wasn’t as averse to the idea as she presented herself.
“Come on, we’ve hardly done anything in this city! Help me do this one little thing and I won’t bother you this week,” he suggested, tugging at her arm.
The older woman sighed but followed after her brother. They both stopped in front of Everett as he glared at them for having the audacity to block his path.
Garthe gave a loud cough before bowing to the man in mock politeness. “Garthe Barbosas, my dear sir. We happened to be in your store earlier this day, as you might’ve seen. We have something to discuss with you,” he said. He was close to bursting into laughter.
The look on Everett’s face indicated that no, he did not remember them from earlier, but he was professional enough to not say so. “What is it?” he stated bluntly with a heavy frown. “I’m a bit busy and don’t have the time for a long conversation.”
“I assure you I will make this worth it for you. Because this,” Garthe said, gesturing with both hands to the woman beside him, “Is one of the almighty members of the Black Hand Mercenary Guild, the powerful Raven’s Wing Shadow Blade!”
The black-haired woman next to him shot Garthe an irritated look but tilted her chin up, crossed her arms and looked down on the hunched man in front of her. The wizened shopkeeper gave her scrutinising glance, taking in the high-quality black leather outfit, sword strapped to her waist, and the embroidered crest found on the front of her light black cape, and quickly determined she was the real deal. He gave a scraping bow to Larena, ignoring Garthe, and summoned a bright smile to his face.
“If I had of known that someone of such high esteem was visiting my humble self, I would’ve prepared a greater welcome for you! Please, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
While Everett was polite, the twitching of his fingers against his cane and his frequent glances down the road Lucy had run down indicated he was not that happy about them stopping him from following after the thief, regardless of his ability to capture her.
Garthe smiled politely and slightly shifted his posture to block his view of the road. “As you would obviously know, a Guild of such power as the Black Hand needs to constantly expand to find talent and resources. The Guild has set its sights on the Beast Realm this year and has sent out an elite chosen few to find places of little fame but high potential. We have been considering making an outpost here, but we would like to ask you a few questions about ensuring our members are well-outfitted here in the Violet Luminosity Jungle,” Garthe said 'professionally'.
Everett gave a nod and kept the smile on his face, but the adventurer pair could see it was becoming strained. “I would love to discuss this in depth more, but I am a bit busy at the moment. Perhaps we could reschedule-“
Larena cut him off by stepping forward and glaring down at him, one hand on his hip. “What could be more important than discussing an important business deal with the largest Mercenary Guild in the Mystical Realm? Is there perhaps something you are trying to hide from us?” Her eyes narrowed and he blanched, aware of what would happen if his higher-ups knew he prevented such a lucrative contract with a big Guild.
He clasped his hands together and bowed placatingly. “O-Of course not. Be it on my own head if such a thing had come to pass. I have kept my branch in perfect working order, and have it in good assurance-“
“Actually,” Garthe interrupted, frowning, “There’s an awful lot of city guards in the area. There hasn’t been a robbery of sorts near here, has there? Perhaps we should ask them to stay informed. We would hate our discussion to be interrupted due to a common thief, wouldn’t we?” He set off to talk to the nearest guard.
Everett hastily ran after him as fast as he could. When he got in front of Garthe again, he widened his strained smile and raised his hands out in front of them. “Ah, come on now, please, don’t dishonour yourselves with such petty trifles. I’m sure the guards are just doing their daily rounds.” He glared at the nearest guard who was watching them as if daring him to say otherwise. He beckoned to the two adventurers and pointed to the Emporium. “Do come in and have some beverages at my humble store and we can discuss this deal in greater detail while perusing my stocked wares to see what your fellow mercenaries will need out here in this region.” He showed them to his store.
Garthe followed with a polite smile, but Larena gave a haughty, disapproving sniff.
“There better had not of been a robbery in your store, for if there was then I shall report your lacking security measures to my superiors myself, and I dare say they shall rather want to rethink their dealings with the Magisterial Treasure Emporium after that.”
Everett continued to keep a strained smile on his face but both Larena and Garthe could see how pale his skin was after that statement, and how the old man seemed to be entirely obsessed with accommodating their every need after that. The thought of furious superiors interrogating him on why the Black Hand no longer wanted them to store or supply them with items served as better motivation to ignore his original worries than anything else.
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Darvis McGarrod had a lot to say about this whole debacle, he realised, an opinion that had formed while watching his steel-plated subordinates wearing blue crests on their chestplates scurry about looking for information about the city's newest troublemaker. For one thing, Everett probably had it coming for years. The number of the city’s youths who had been tricked out of rare items that could grant them better lives in another region, or who had lost their lives adventuring with incompatible and sub-par items priced at a markup of 300% had to be somewhere in the near 500s. It had to be said that that, more than anything, indicated the sentiment most of the Factions of the Mystical Realm had about low-ranked Ascendant cities, and low-ranked Ascendants in general.
Another was the fact he just discovered that his guards had been dispatched due to Everett issuing a Trade Reversal Call, and not because he had literally been robbed outright, even if he had said otherwise. Therefore, the girl they were tracking was probably not a real thief and had just gotten caught in the full brunt of Everett’s wrath after she had played a fancy trick on the wrong person. He had to give it to her though, whatever she did to make Everett that angry would be something he would be willing to give a few levels to watch.
He had also discovered that the ‘Black Hand’s mercenaries that were being entertained by Everett at this moment who had also been present in the shop just moments before the Trade Reversal Call, had abruptly rushed out of the shop and watched the shop for a while until the girl came out, something he found out due to an off-duty member of the guard being present to see it at the time. It was a likely possibility that they decided to distract Everett for fun, as the city records available to him revealed that the younger of the two siblings had a reputation for mischief.
All this did not mean he wanted to be the one to deal with it! Just because he was the only highest-ranking authority within the guards who could organise the Trade Reversal Call, and the one who had the most experience with the cranky miser of the shop, does not mean he should be the one to resolve Everett’s issues even if he was the only one capable of getting him to hold back his verbal abuse and the only person Everett had no leverage over to overcharge and... he had just explained to himself why he was here. Darvis sighed before continuing to issue orders to his guards as he followed the little dot indicating the girl on his mini-map of the city.
That was another issue he had with this. The girl technically didn’t harm anyone, and she did give Everett some well-deserved karma, but that put him in a bit of a tight spot. The Magisterial Treasure Emporium was a considerably big franchise, and while they gave Everett too much authority in the way of allowing him to set prices, they did have the highest quality magic items the city could get with any sort of regularity. The City Lord would also be in a difficult situation if his city had ruined a relationship with a medium-sized Faction from the Mystical Realm, and so as the captain of the guard, Darvis couldn’t just ignore Everett’s Trade Reversal Call.
However, if he aided Everett too much, he would be ruining his relationship with most of the local veteran adventurers, the main source of monster materials for the city, all of them hating the man’s guts. Catching the girl would also likely ruin her impression of the city and subject her to Everett, who had some particularly vindictive magic items to use on his enemies and he did not want that for any person, let alone an 18-year-old girl.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Darvis’s best bet would probably be to catch her and use his authority as captain of the guard to prevent Everett from doing anything else after they renegotiate the trade. By saying he’ll give her a private reprimand, he could warn her against doing anything to Everett again and give her some advice to get out of the city as soon as possible. That would probably be the best conclusion for the situation, no matter how much Everett deserved it, and would be unfair to the low-ranked girl.
That was another thing he had to say about this all. According to the shop’s System records, the girl was Rank-0. A. Rank. 0. How she even managed to trick Everett and the shop’s wards against magic usage while being so overwhelmingly weak was what nobody could find out! The max level cap for a Rank-0 was 10! Even a Rank-1 had a cap of 199, and Everett had to have been a good, what, Rank-2 if he was put in a frontier region for a mid-sized Faction? Either she was just incredibly talented or was from a dangerously strong Faction, which in either case meant Everett should not, at all costs, get his hands on her, for the good of the city’s future and its people.
He sighed once more and continued observing the mini-map. It was proving to be rather unhelpful for the first time in his 20 years of guard service and 39 years of life. For some incomprehensible reason, anytime a guard got within 300 metres of the girl, she took a detour and managed to miss being seen by them each time. He had received eyewitness reports that she was on the rooftops, but it was easy enough for the bird-type beastmen and magic beasts to get up there, so it’s not like his guards couldn’t access her. The only reason he could think of was that she had some type of large-field perception skill, an impossibility when Rank-0s rarely had classes with rarities high enough for that, or a magic item, but he couldn’t know what kind because none of the items she had taken from the shop could do that kind of thing.
With a groan, he straightened up from the wall where he had been leaning against to observe Everett and the two mercenaries. It seemed he may have to deal with it personally. He headed over to the Emporium where Everett glared at him for interrupting his extensive flattery. Darvis nodded to the two mercenaries and raised his visor to talk.
“You may as well stop now. I’ve decided to resolve this myself. Can’t have this mishap involving the higher-ups, so the fun’s over,” he declared, deciding it was better to reveal he knew what they were doing.
The younger brown-haired man groaned but chuckled good-naturedly while the woman just shook her head wryly and patted her partner on the shoulder.
“That’s unfortunate," The young man said with a slight grin. "There’s not a chance that you’re some rare Guard Captain class that doesn’t have his stats boosted unfairly high due to your job now, is there?”
Darvis raised a bushy eyebrow but shook his head. “If that girl manages to escape, I’ll buy you a drink myself.”
The mercenaries got up from their chairs while Everett watched on in confusion and nervousness as his ‘VIP customers’ were walking away.
“May I ask what is happening?” he asked as he followed behind them.
The brown-haired man turned to Everett and smirked. “It just so happens that the Black Hand is not planning on expanding into this region. By the authority vested in me, I decided it’s not worth it to stall you any longer. Good luck finding the ‘thief’."
But just before the old shopkeeper could react, the man turned back around to waggle a finger at him. “Ah, but that doesn’t mean you can retaliate. My sister here is actually the Raven’s Wing Shadow Blade.” And with that, the pair walked out the door.
While Everett froze to stew over the mixture of dawning realisation, confusion, embarrassment, and anguish the mercenaries had left him with, Darvis decided to get to work. 10 minutes had already passed, and he wasn’t about to let the girl get the other 5 minutes for free after all the trouble she had put him through.
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“Hey, Larena,” said a certain brown-haired adventurer to his sister. She looked at him, frowning.
“What is it?” she replied, feeling annoyed. Garthe looked at her and gave her a nudge with his elbow.
“Come on, are you still angry at me for using your title without your permission? What good is joining a large Faction unless you get to bandy their name around!” he said, spreading his hands dramatically.
Larena was not impressed. “The name of the Black Hand is not supposed to be used for trivialities. May I remind you that I took a break from work to help you train, Mr ‘I haven’t taken the entrance test yet so I’m not a member of the Black Hand’?” she told him, both hands on hips as she pointed out the fact that it was not his name he used.
Garthe shrugged off the accusation. “Minor details and besides, it will help you. Anyway, I have a question to ask you about that girl.”
Larena shot him a sceptical look but replied anyway, “What question?”
“Well,” Garthe began, “I’ve been wondering. This whole thing began because Everett thought she was some stupid noble girl with money. However, I still can’t work out if his conclusion was wrong or not. She was able to scam him, so she wasn’t as naïve as she pretended she was, but she could fork out enough money to buy all the most expensive items Everett had,” he thought aloud. “She was also good looking and had similar enough mannerisms that even I originally thought she was a noble. Now, I don’t necessarily have the experience to say she is for certain, but what about you?” He raised an eyebrow at his sister.
After considering it, Larena answered, “She is certainly an interesting case. I could tell she was low-ranked, but if she had the money at that rank to buy all of Everett’s most expensive items, it means she has backing." She held her chin. "That would also mean she could’ve bought the items she tricked him out of too, which means she didn’t do this to obtain valuables," she mused.
“That could point to her being a noble in the sense that only they would spend money for entertainment or sport as it seemed she did. But looking at her capability to vault over rooftops,” she continued, nodding up to the roofs above them, “That’s a skill I would expect to find in those found on the underside of cities, such as assassin circles and dark guilds, which certainly does not suggest ‘young noble girl’.”
“So, in conclusion: you have no clue,” Garthe stated blithely.
His sister glared at him. “No, my conclusion is that she’s either a noble, or has had enough experience with them to act like them, and in either case, it would mean she’s someone with higher status than us who we do not need to hang around.”
“Except to steal her manipulation technique.”
“Except to ask for her manipulation technique,” she acquiesced. She gave her brother a curious look. “However, now that I answered your question, what was this about telling the world my title being helpful to me?”
Garthe blinked in incomprehension, before remembering what she was talking about and gave her a big smile. “So, you have no boyfriend.”
Larena stared at him for a moment before nodding slowly. “Yes…?” she agreed, confused as to where this was going.
“And me, I’m in the prime time of my life, 24, single and handsome, but I always have this clingy parasite by my side that is scaring away all my potential lovers. I was thinking it was time to get rid of it. She’s gorgeous, strong and has a great figure, but she’s already 28 and so I thought desperate measures were in hand.” Garthe had his eyes closed while nodding along to his statements, so he didn’t notice Larena’s hands had started balling into fists.
“Due to her scary position as a member of the Black Hand, all the weak noble boys get frightened away, and so I thought someone from the frontier cities, who had grown used to the harsher ways of life would be perfect. And so, by telling everyone your title, I get to brag about my connections while showing your potential suitors this woman, and it might’ve worked, if only someone would take her!”
That last section Garthe yelled unnecessarily down the street with his hands cupped around his mouth, and so, unfortunately, he did not manage to see the mana-clad fist hurtling his way where it landed squarely on his abdomen, sending him flying a good twenty metres to crash against the side of a building.
His semi-conscious state may have prevented him from fully hearing the furious roar of the female dragon named Larena shout “Garthe!”, but some while away, a trenchcoated young woman turned her head in slight bemusement when hearing the noise before continuing to run towards the end of the 5km zone, a very disgruntled guard captain hot on her heels.
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Lucille had gotten into a rhythm. Jump across a gap in the rooftop, sprint for a bit, before changing her direction 90 degrees left, then repeat with 90 degrees to the right, forming a zigzag. Oh, and occasionally throw the random bucket, broom, or rug in the direction of a giant fly known as the city guard captain that decided to follow her. Considering his tendency to dash for her in a straight line, it was deceptively easy to hit him with the things.
They didn’t do much but make him swear on his mother or such, but they did block his vision for a few seconds where she could change direction in a split moment of interruption. She almost had to laugh at one stage when a bucket landed on his head, and she thought about asking him if he was okay when a rather sharp stool managed to nick him above his eyebrows, drawing blood, but she decided not to as it wouldn’t contribute to increasing her chances of making it out of there. He kept his visor down after that.
Nothing had really interrupted Lucy’s rhythm until she heard a scream of a woman that sounded suspiciously like the war cry of a fire dragon, but it didn’t make her do anything but turn her head slightly. One of her thought strands informed her when she checked that roughly 10 minutes had gone by.
She focused on her perception and clicked her tongue when she noticed the guard captain was about 5 metres closer and was now 30 metres away from her. She knew he would’ve eventually gained on her with his speed, but she could only use his inexperience at running with high agility stats against him. She knew he had only been a guard captain for a month and that this would be his first real attempt at using them because they had met before, but he couldn’t know she knew that.
She decided she had to mix things up. Considering she had 5 minutes left, and how far she had travelled, she believed she could afford to change her plans. She jumped off the side of her building, landing in an alleyway. Her fall broken by the multicoloured silk overhanging between the buildings, she slid off it and dashed through the narrow streets. Darvis McGarrod cursed and jumped down as well, his heavy armour making him take longer to get back up.
Abandoning her zig-zag pattern, she weaved through the populated streets, occasionally knocking over some barrels and wooden boxes. Her plan, if it could be called that, was to abandon any attempt at hiding her position from the other guards to confuse them and get them lost in the narrow streets. She could already see it working as the guards got themselves stuck due to their heavy armour, and how they kept bumping into each other.
Although, as she looked closer, there were fewer guards than she expected. She compared it with Darvis’s actions and inwardly nodded, realising why. He had become guard captain for a reason.
Use the major threat as a distraction and coordinator while getting his less important subordinates to trap me. It’s a reversal of what normally happens, and most of the time it would’ve worked. If you hadn’t revealed this favourite tactic to me while you were on a victorious drunken spiel in an inn after capturing a criminal with a huge bounty. Unfortunately, other factors in play will make all your efforts null and void.
Now aware he was trying to herd her in a certain direction rather than catch her, she made sure her general direction was still in a roughly straight line she had been aiming for originally. She jumped over a fallen pole and grinned when a following guard faceplanted in an attempt to do the same. Dashing for a bit more, she ended up on a main street and ran full throttle to make the last stretch. It wasn’t the true 5km mark yet but-
She came to a screeching halt. Forming a semicircle in front of her were 50 guards, all lined up to prevent her from getting through. There were no gaps. She quickly turned to find guard captain McGarrod behind her.
He lifted his visor to peer at her. “Your luck’s out, kid.”
Instead of making some last dash to try to escape, she nodded to the guard nearest to her. “Catch.”
At the same time as the guard scrambled to stop the dimensional bag packed with items worth several thousand silver from falling to the ground, Darvis caught her by the front of her coat. She raised her hands in surrender. It was all over-
[Lucille Goldcroft has escaped the 5km zone at 12 minutes and 14 seconds. Trade Reversal Call Order is automatically dissolved]
Or it would’ve been if not for that.
Darvis looked at something in the air, clearly seeing the same message she did, and then looked back at her.
“Everett used his illegal basement to place the ‘official’ Emporium’s Shop a little to the left of his business,” she stated. He stared at her.
“It allowed him to pay less for the building when the System scanned only half his business,” she added. “So… I got out sooner than expected.”
The bemused guard stared at her for a little longer.
Then the guard captain let go of her coat and she smoothly brushed off the dust, straightening it up. Taking off his visor, the bearded dark-haired man just ran an armoured hand through his messy hair, watching her for a second before looking up at the skies and sighing. He sighed again. After a long moment, he waved the other hand at the others.
“Guard dismissed.”
Shuffling around a bit, the guards gave him a salute before slowly moving away from the strange situation. The guard holding the dimensional pack awkwardly walked over to place the bag between the two of them, looked at them both, and quickly jogged away to catch up with the others. They were left alone.
Lucy spoke up first, “I suppose you have questions.”
The man gave her a grunt before sitting down on the ground, helmet placed between his legs and his dark eyes watching her. Eventually, after seeing she wasn’t about to run off, he ran a hand down his face. “You do realise how much trouble you have caused, don’t you?”
Lucy definitely did not look smug when she told him no. She earned an exasperated groan from him for that.
“You girl,” he said, pointing at her with a metallic finger, “Have given the entire cohort of this city’s guards a wake-up call on how much trouble one post-Tutorial brat can cause if they had the means. You’ve also given me a wake-up call on how bad my utilisation of agility is,” he said, rubbing his hairy chin in thought. He shook his head.
“You better be thankful you had those Black Hand mercenary siblings to take the brunt of Everett’s wrath for you because otherwise, I might just arrest you for your protection,” he told her.
“There are a few issues with that, firstly being the fact I’m not a resident of this city, so I’m not subject to your policies,” she interjected.
Darvis just looked at her before putting his head in his hands. “Of course, you’re not,” he grumbled. He placed his armoured palms on the ground on either side of him.
“What’re you going to do now? Planning to stay in this city for long?” He frowned as the rather unpleasant possibility came to mind.
She shook her head with an amused smile. “Luckily for you, I’m going to be using at least a quarter,” she explained with a hand on the pack, “of these new items when traversing to a nearby serpent beast enclave, 5 days hike south of here.”
“A quarter,” he stated, unamused. He looked at her to see if she was genuine about leaving, before nodding when he saw it was true, and getting up with his helmet. He must’ve seen something in the look she gave him, however, because he raised an eyebrow.
“What?” he said, puzzled.
She smirked. “I don’t suppose you would like any of the magic items I ‘acquired’ while in there?” she asked him.
He barked a laugh and shook his head. “I don’t take bribes,” he said as he went to put on his helmet.
Lucy turned the pack upside down and 11 magic items fell out. She pointed at them again and tilted her head. “Not even these?”
He was about to shake his head again but paused after looking down. In that split second, Lucy could’ve sworn his eyes bulged.
“Actually,” he murmured, reaching down, “I might just accept them.”
In his hands, as he stood back up was the silver shield and sword pair crest that Lucille had sneaked into the bag. He wordlessly ran a metal hand over the glossy white-silver surface of the shield and the sapphire gemstones running down the centres of each sword. He looked up at her in shock.
“This was behind Everett and was the centrepiece of the shop! How-,” he stopped himself, raising a palm, and shook his head.
“No, you should never ask an Ascendant what their abilities are,” he muttered, continuing to admire the ornament. Eventually, he looked down at the others.
“What are these?” he asked, curious as to why she poured them out.
She pointed them out one by one. “This snow blossom staff was a gift from the pure-blood members of a beast clan to one of their lesser clan member’s bonds. The girl should still be working as a lookout with her Crystal Thorn Swan for the guards on the city walls.”
“This hammer was an inheritance award one of the blacksmiths of the armouries gained when he was young but had traded it for a weaker longsword. I believe he is a master smith in the industrial district.”
“This sword was crafted for the fiancé of the young City Lord. It, unfortunately, had to be sold to Everett so the family could get out of debt, ruining the family’s reputation on her birthday night when they couldn’t provide her with a gift.”
“This talisman…”
“This spell tome…”
Lucy continued to tell Darvis the origins of each of the magic items. This wasn’t actually because she knew all their information, but rather because her fancy shard worked from behind her mask, giving her their item sheets.
She called out the descriptions of ten items. 2 magic staves, a hammer, a longsword, 2 shortswords, a spell tome, a talisman, a shield and even a mirror. She picked up the last item and tossed it up and down with her hand. The guard captain’s face was thunderous by the time she finished telling him about the items. He looked up at her.
“I assume you’ll want these back to their owners?” he asked, picking them up and putting them away in his dimensional skill.
She shrugged. “I can’t use them anyway, so may as well.”
He nodded. “I’ll see to it.”
She showed him the knife in her hand. “I don’t suppose the young City Lord would want this back, would he?”
Darvis chuckled and shook his head. “No, when the young lord lost it, the City Lord treated it as a life lesson for him and replaced it not three days later. You can keep it.”
He took another look at the shield and sword crest. “This is very precious to me, but I think you could see that. As thanks, can I treat you to a drink?”
She grinned. “I don’t often drink alcohol, but I haven’t had dinner yet?”
He laughed heartily.
“Sure, the inn I know does great roasts. Actually,” he said, considering, “It seems I owe some mercenaries a drink too.”