Chapter 40: Goblet of Transformation (1)
A young lady appeared through the panel in front of me, I didn't notice her presence. It was Vega with her hands on her waist. Did I look like I was pacing out of here?
"Oh Vega, how are you? Since when have you been there?" I asked and removed my hood.
Vega observed me from head to toe then she kept her eyes on my face before frowning. "Huh? Red hair? Wait…! Are you one of my cousins?"
'…Oh! right, I forgot that I'm currently in disguise. Haa… I need to lie again.'
It's just a coincidence that I chose blood coloured hair because Tania's hair is a wine red shade darker than this, close to maroon. I never thought Uncle Trestan's family were red heads, but that's fortunate for my cover- Shit! I don't have time to leisurely chat.
"Yes. Ah, sorry but I have to go, I guess I'll see you later…" and without waiting for her reply, I ran to the direction where several shops were.
I only have 15 minutes. I ran towards the line of shops; a bake shop, clothing shop, pottery, etc.
'…where the hell is it?'
I turned to the narrow alley where I could spot some potion shops, herb and medicinal shops, there a glass workshop and-
"…-uwhhaaa!"
That sound belongs to a kid! I traced where the sound came from and I stopped at a Porcelain and Nestiary workshop. That fucking system didn't complete the shop's name, no wonder I didn't find.
"Whaaaaa! Eurkk… huhuhu!"
I entered the shop with the sound of door chimes. My face crumpled when I saw the interior. Scattered paper, uncleaned tools and a kid about 3 years old, sitting on the ground while holding a torn bear stuff toy. Then an old man with a crumpled shirt and messy hair came running after he heard the door chime. He was holding a carving tool and a milk bottle on the other hand.
He put down the carving tool and milk before greeting me, "A-Ah… W-welcome, customer. Oh… please pardon the mess in my workshop." Then he took the crying kid with him, "shush John, we have a customer"
The old man looked restless and anxious because every minute he was glancing at the other room then he looked back to either me or the kid.
"Uwaa…*sobs* huhu bewr bowken *sobs* whhaaa!"
'Poor old man…'
From my inventory, I took out clean cloth and wrapped it on my shoulder, before looking at the old man.
"…Give… Give him here. The child." I said with a serious face and waited for him to give the kid in my waiting arms.
"W-What are you…?" The old man quivered his brows, "You…! Are you here to take my grandson?! Are you claiming to be his father? You bastard! I won't give him even if I die! You dare leave my daughter to raise your child all these years?!"
"UWHAAAAA!" John's cries became louder after the old man's angry voice.
I was shocked that I couldn't think straight after all he said. F-Father? Did he just mistook me for the child's father? Hey old man I also have a uterus!
"Pardon?! No, you got the wrong person, Mister, I am not the child's father. I'm here to help you focus on your job while I lull the crying child. After all, you cannot delay the delivery of the product you haven't finished yet."
The old man's face slowly changed to surprise, before turning his head to the other room.
"…Perhaps, are you here to check if the product is ready? B-Butler Motia must've sent you. A-As you can see, I haven't finished it yet but I could definitely deliver it on time, don't worry and I apologize for mistaking you for someone else."
The old man bowed. I glanced at the panel and I could see the time was running out, John was still crying! There's no time.
Sub-Quest: Lull Cry-Baby John
Time Limit: 07:32
Emergency Quest Alert 4!
Time Limit: 02:52:32
"It's fine, give John to me and finish what you have to finish, I'll watch over him for you." I was the one to adjust and approach the old man, I took John on my shoulder before snatching the milk bottle from his hand.
With a confused look and hesitation, the old man had no choice but to accept my offer and bowed before going back to the next room. I don't know what item he was working on to cause the pub to close if this quest failed. But who is Butler Motia? There's no character like that in the book so he must be an extra.
…he must belong to someone with high enough status to have the power to close a shop just for having a delivery delay.
"…hello John, do you want to drink milk?" I asked the sobbing child.
But the child shook his head and turned to the torn stuffed bear and pointed to it.
"Do you want that broken bear? And It's on the ground so it's dirty already." I frowned and criticized the dirty surroundings. It's not even good for a child to stay here, it's not healthy and there's a lot of dust.
Sub-Quest: Lull Cry-Baby John
Time Limit: 06:43
Emergency Quest Alert 4!
Time Limit: 02:51:43
'Tch. How should I lull this kid? I only have his milk, and it's not like I have toy in my inventory-'
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Right. I have those low-star artifacts with me. I could sell it for a cheap price but it won't be lost even if I let a child play with it. I pulled out a 2-star artifact, Snow Crystal Ball.
♤Item Information♤ Name: Snow Crystal Ball Classification: 2-Star Artifact (Normal) Attribute/s:
This one's fine. The child should get entertained by the colorful lights. I put the child's tiny hand atop the crystal and the lights activated. Blue, yellow, green, red, purple, orange, etc. In addition, this could help him memorize the colors. I sang the ABC alphabet while racking him in my arms. This child remains silent with the glowing artifact in his hand.
Sub-Quest: Lull Cry-Baby John
Time Limit: 02:11
Emergency Quest Alert 4!
Time Limit: 02:47:11
"-R, S, T, U, V…"
I saw him yawn. Thank god he stopped crying. I put the milk in his mouth and racked him to sleep. It's my first time putting a child to sleep since Alice, it's so nostalgic.
After a while the child finally slept. I knocked on the other room where the old man was staying and opened it. Yea yea, it was rude opening it without permission, but I need to go now because it'll take more than 2 hours and thirty minutes just to get to Gabid Village using the carpet at its maximum speed.
"Excuse me old man but where should I put this child?" I asked and my eyes wandered to every corner of the room, there're so many porcelain plates and tea cups on display. So this is what he's been working on. Those designs are high class, maybe the client is a Royal for him to be pressured like this?
"Ah! Sir thank you for taking care of him for a while, it's really thanks to you, I already finished the product Butler Motia told me to make." The old man was so happy that cried in tears. I don't know whom that Butler belongs to, but for him to give a hectic deadline for a customized product is unreasonable.
"To be honest, I don't know who you're talking about. I'm only here to lull this child from cryin-"
The old man cut my sentence with his shocked voice, "W-What is that on John's hand? Isn't that a magic tool?"
- Tsk, Tsk, tsk.
I heard Dearby's voice in my head. But I ignored him.
"Yes? His toy was broken so I made him play with this instead."
- You! How dare you think my magic core (treasure) is cheap?!
- Shut it, Dearby, it's just a low-star artifact.
- That may be a low-star but that's valuable, it's underrated because they don't know how to use it!
"P-Play? Oh God, I can't understand how youngsters these days. Playing with a magic tool worth a hundred gold coins."
hundred of gold coins? This low-star?
Duh. Prediction of the future isn't even normal for a magician, so what makes you think that tool is that normal?
I saw it on the item information, it's said 'Normal'
"If you're that dismayed, I'll give this to you and this child… I have no use for it anyway." I shrugged my shoulders, "So where should I put him?"
The old man with his gape mouth before pointing at the far corner of the room, there's a crib. I gently put the child down and beside him is the toy gave him.
"Alright, I should take my leave now, gramps. Thanks for trusting my words." I wave my hand and went to the door
"Wait a moment sir, are you really going to give us that magic tool?" The old man ran after me with a worried face. Is he thinking that I'm waiting for something in exchange?
Sub-Quest: Lull Cry-Baby John
Time Limit: 42 seconds (halted)
Emergency Quest Alert 4!
Time Limit: 02:45:37
The sub-quest stopped but the emergency quest is still running. I ran my hand across my face and turned to the old man. "Look here, gramps, It's up to me whom I give it. So if you don't want it then you should throw i-"
"Old man, is that product ready?" A deep voice asked after the door chimes.
Again with cutting my sentence. Tch. I looked at the man behind me with a glare. He looks like a delinquent wearing decent clothes.
"S-Sir Roda! The product is done, I could deliver it anytim-"
"Yea yea, I came to get it. Butler Motia said there's no time so he sent me." The bored tone can be detected from his voice.
"You're going to pay the rest, right? I have prepared the receip-'' The old man took out a piece of paper and hand it over to the man
"No. About that, Butler Motia only asked me to get the item, he also said to pay for it after he saw it with his own eyes."
The old man's eyes shook by the man's statement, "What do you mean? You know the rules in my shop, right? Every item should be paid first before leaving this shop. No exception."
"Just give it. It's not like you won't get paid, this is for the Lord so if you don't want your shops to close down, just do as I say." The man showed his veiny knuckles as if he'll beat the old man if he refuses one more time.
"Hey, could you please be at least respectful to your elder?" I calmly said and looked back to the room where the child was sleeping.
"Shut up, pip-squeak. Are you this old man's son? Convince him to give the item if you don't want all your shops to close down."
'W…What did he just call me?'
- He called you a Pip-squeak. Pffft…
- Shut it.
"Hahaha What makes you think that I'm his son? Hah. Even if I was, I won't convince him like you wanted me to." I said in an arrogant manner. "If you want the item then please follow the set rule, and don't go around threatening people."
"Why you! Don't you know who my master is?! When he learns that you are doubting his capability he won't let this pass, you'll definitely hope you should've just comply when I'm asking nicely." He was pissed off that he tried to reach for my collar, well, that's only if he's lucky enough to touch me, but he's not. Because I dodged his attempt.
"I don't know who your master is nor am I interested to know, could you please refrain from touching?" I fixed my untouched collar and looked at him like he was disgusting… ehem, he does look disgusting.
"You're really testing my patience!" The man pulled out something from his pocket and it turned out to be a dagger. "Old man, do as I say or I kill this pip-squeak. I really don't want to resort to something like this if not for Butler Motia's order."
"P-Please sir don't fight here." The old man pleaded and he looked anxious. "Sir please, I really can't give you the item without paying the full amount first. Please understand the situation."
"…Hey. I really don't have time for this, but who do you say your master was? Butler Motia or whatever? Hahaha. You're so proud that a mere Butler is your master?" I smirked and observed the changes in his reaction.
"Then let's see. I'm not very fond of using my status but… are you aware that you've been disrespecting a noble, you low life? Have you ever heard of the Cavelier Family? Oh, of course you have, you'll be an idiot if you're not." I feint a look of worry and turned it to a smug look, "I forgot that 'Uncle' won't ever forgive someone who looks down on his family, especially the one who threatens his precious 'Nephew'. Well, maybe he'll let it pass if I stop him, so you better piss off while I'm being nice, swindler."
- Ha. You're good at lying, what a scammer.
- It's not all a lie. It's true that I'm a noble that he disrespected and I'm also part of the Cavelier family.
- But you are not precious at all. From what I've witnessed back in Dabe, he's angry and was about to explode just by seeing you.
"C-Cavelier? H-Hahaha you're joking, right? The Marquess had no 'precious' Nephew, none from his brother's children even visited Cartania so how are you precious? Now that I think about it, none of his own children are even precious, so what makes you think that you are? You don't even have a proof that you are noble like you claimed to be- "
"Gramps, how much is it?" I asked by cutting the man's work. I couldn't refute. That, I admit, but I can't just let him keep on insulting my family and me based only on what he sees. Opinions of others will only turn to baseless gossip, accusations, and poison to the victims if it persists.
The old man turned to me with confusion, "W-What are you asking about?"
"The item this guy kept on asking. From down payment to its original price, if you must include the prices of the materials you use then do so. So how much is it in total?" I asked, fixing my gaze on the delinquent. The old man returned to the room and took out his abacus and computed everything.
"A-Are you planning to buy the item instead? Haha, you must be kidding right?" Asked the man and sweat formed on his forehead.
*smirk*
"It's approximately 5,000 silver coins, sir. They were the ones who provided the materials but I also included their market price." The old man answered. 5000 silver coins is equivalent to 50 gold coins… whatever that item is, it should be close to 1-star artifact price.
"How much did Butler Motia offer to buy it?" I asked confidently and my smirk grew larger.
The old man answered straight away like he memorized the offered price. "It's 6,500 silver coins (65 gold coins), Sir."
"Pfft! Hahaha. Seriously? How cheap. Too bad, the Butler of yours couldn't even offer much higher than that, and you have the guts to threaten my life?" I laughed so hard and held my stomach I could cry, I couldn't really laugh as hard because John could be awakened.
'…6,500 silver coins is plenty enough though' - old man
'…Does he even know how to count? That's 65 gold coins if you convert it to gold.' - delinquent man
'Hahaha… It's really nice to be rich. I might be the wealthiest person in this kingdom already…' - Randall
"I'll buy it 10x the offered price of Butler Motia. Is that okay, gramps?"