"...I still don't understand how it's possible," muttered Glenn, sitting on a bench inside the Armory. He shook his head and moistened his lips, still unable to believe what Reginald had told them. Of course, the Cleaner refused to say anything more about his relationship with Redan, leaving them in the lurch too much for his taste. The young man glanced to the side, finding his Black Heir friend as lost as he was.

"That's already surprising for Sir Redan to have a subordinate," Sahro began meekly, his head clasped in between both of his hands, "...But Reginald isn't anyone, he's a Cleaner. Which means he's as strong as your sadistic teacher, Mary."

'...I really can't wrap my head around how the old man could be such an important figure in the past. Well, I'll just ask Redan about it when I find him. Reginald better honor his words or I swear I'll be taking him and his shitty rewards to court...'

Glenn sighed and smacked his lips loudly. He remained silent for a few seconds until he slapped his knees and pushed himself up, deciding to explore what the Armory had to propose to them. There were a few more items available compared to the last time he came here, but nothing caught his eye. Sahro escaped his trance, sighing in turn as he went to the shop's counter and leaned on it, waiting for the return of the owner.

"...Hey, do you think it'd look cool?" Glenn suddenly asked, forcing his friend's attention back on him. The Black Heir turned around and almost instinctively chuckled at the sight. Glenn was holding a massive two-handed hammer with spikes on each head, the weapon taller and probably heavier than its wielder. Sahro shot out a sarcastic thumbs-up, before turning back toward the counter while shaking his head dejectedly. Glenn laughed it off and carefully placed the weapon back on its stand when an interested voice suddenly rang in his head and made him almost drop the hammer.

'Hmm...I never thought about it, but it's possible, indeed...' Diamanes mumbled to himself, Glenn cursing at the entity living in his mind rent-free. He made sure the weapon was placed back correctly before glancing at his purple left hand, curious about what it realized.

'...You know how the statues guarding King's Rise four Gates are enchanted?' Diamanes slowly began, making his host nod imperceptibly.

'Well, all of the gear in this place is enchanted with it. Back when you first came here I wasn't able to check it over because you were way too weak—'

'Rude.'

'...But now that I can, it seems like you can take some of those for yourself. Of course, that would be considered stealing and all, but you do you,' Diamanes chuckled, '...After all, I'm not restricted by the same moral sense most humans seem to share.'

Glenn rubbed his chin thoughtfully, until the ginger-haired dwarf surged out of his shop's reserve, a huge sigh leaving his body when he understood who were his two clients.

"Sir Black Heir," He saluted respectfully, before reluctantly turning toward the other young man, "...Glenn."

Without even leaving him the chance to retort anything, Rusty Stoneheart passed his tongue over his teeth and held his hand out.

"Don't say anything. Just let me see." The dwarf grimaced, making Glenn suddenly very ashamed. He summoned his suit out of his soul, earning a gasp of awe from Rusty. The small man hurriedly grabbed the clothes, staring at them with horror-filled eyes.

"What—What have you done to the suit? It's supposed to fix and clean itself, and yet..." The dwarf patted the fabric with disbelief, "...You still managed to ruin it so much! This was one of my best pieces!"

Glenn raised his hands defensively, his jaws tightly clasped together.

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm fighting increasingly more horrible abominations everywhere I go, is it?!?" He hissed, earning a disapproving gaze from the shopkeeper.

Rusty snorted and covered the suit with his Mana, making it glow with a blue mystical light. Glenn squinted as he witnessed the suit fixing and cleaning itself to the naked eye, the enchantment doing its work without even being in his soul. After a few minutes, the dwarf was done, the suit entirely fixed, even though a light red tint was coloring the originally black vest, the white shirt that he wore underneath it was affected by the same fate.

"...And, done. Alright, that's the best I can do for now. Sigh, how many times has it been now? I thought you had calmed down on all the crazy business, but it seems I couldn't be more wrong. Tsk, tsk..." Rusty shook his head disappointedly, Glenn ignoring him as he went to grab the suit back.

"Can't help it there's so much evil that needs eradication in this world, anyway, many thanks to you— Hey!" Glenn exclaimed in protest as Rusty hurriedly hid the suit behind himself with the same protective stance a cheetah's mother would be with her children.

"Nah, fuck off!" He clenched the suit tightly, his Mana surging once more. Glenn suddenly felt something...break inside him. This was the weirdest feeling... as if something had just been taken away from him, a piece of himself...

'...The Soulbound enchantment...He broke it.' Diamanes realized, sharing his understanding with his host. Glenn's face paled and he shamelessly threw himself on his knees, basically lowering himself to the shopkeeper's face.

"NO! Don't take it away, it's part of me now! I swear I won't get covered in blood ever..." Glenn promised, his eyelids flinching when he heard Sahro sneer mockingly behind him.

"...For a few months at least..." Glenn admitted with a scowl, before tilting his head to look at the ceiling guiltily, "...Maybe a week?"

Rusty shook his head and brought the suit with him to the back store, Sahro openly laughing at his friend's miser.

"Hahaha, well, Mr. Stoneheart seems to hold you in his heart!" The Black Heir chuckled, patting Glenn on the shoulder as he pushed himself up from the ground. The young man sighed deeply as he went back to sit on the bench, his head leaning back loosely.

"Damn it, I can't help it if I'm the unluckiest guy of the bunch..." He muttered, earning not one, but two sneers.

'Unlucky? You're lucky to be alive considering your lack of survival instinct.'

"You're just needlessly always looking for trouble, you're the only cause of your unluckiness, Glenn..." Sahro mocked, before pointing at himself with a angrily contorted face, "...I, am the unlucky one because I'm always sticking with you and shoveling the shit with you!"

"Tsk, why are you even venting on me?" Glenn pouted when the bell over the door rang as a new client entered the shop. With a hooded robe of great quality and a lingering scent of mint, Milena worriedly looked at both Sahro and Glenn.

"What are you guys spending so much time on? It's been over an hour since you entered the damn shop!" She complained as she shot a paranoid gaze around. Glenn shook his head tiredly, not even bothering to look up at her.

"What can I say, the shopkeeper likes testing the patience of others—"

"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!" A thundering voice echoed from the back store, Glenn shrugging dismissively.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"—and as you can see, he isn't in a hurry. Anyway, do you fancy yourself something?" He asked to try and make the conversation as Sahro began to test every weapon in the shop out of boredom. Milena's worriedness instantly disappeared as she looked at the products displayed, blinking without any expression when she noticed the price tags.

"...Y, Yeah, there certainly is something that I could use here..." Milena fiddled with her fingers as she stared intensely at a dagger that seemed to be carved in obsidian with a bone handle sculpted into the jaws of a beast. She looked back and forth between the weapon and Glenn, pinching her lips. The young man looked up slightly and noticed the object of her interest, nodding with acknowledgment.

"Cool dagger, for sure. No idea what it does, but it looks great."

Milena made a wry smile and approached him, her hands hidden behind her back.

"Do you think you could—"

"You certainly should buy it..." Glenn cut her off, his head leaning back as he looked at the ceiling while thinking of new spells he could create, "...With your own money, that is."

The woman's grin froze, melting away to be replaced by disappointment as she summoned her Gold-rank identification dagger, checking out her contribution points alongside the coins she already owned.

"...I'll think about it," She sat silently, sad and disappointed.

'...Well, that's one missed opportunity for a nice gesture,' Diamanes remarked, forcing a smirk out of his host.

'What, what nice gesture? She's the daughter of a noble family, she probably bathed in gold and diamonds,' He replied sarcastically, his snorts earning him a strange look from Milena. Sahro, in the meanwhile, was busy playing around with a long greatsword meant to be two-handed, seemingly struggling to come up with a way to use it with his sole right arm.

'But what about the romantic prospect of it? Offering gifts and all, isn't that how you used to start relationships?'

Glenn's smirk disappeared, replaced by a confused frown.

'...No? First of all, that's the last thing I'd be seeking with her, of all people, and secondly, who the hell would consider offering a dagger a romantic gesture? What the fuck?'

Diamanes hummed thoughtlessly, sounding like he would shrug if he could.

'I don't know, I'm just trusting your memories on that.'

'What memories? I'm pretty sure I've never offered a WEAPON to any of my adventures.' Glenn questioned back, certain that he would never do such a thing.

'I mean, flowers and maybe jewelry for long relationships, but I don't think you should consider that remotely similar to a dagger...'

'...Well, I just thought, with flowers being poisonous and all, it might have a link, but my bad.'

'What—No, I don't want to try and understand your twisted logic. Whatever way you took for those things, I'm not interested. No, no, don't even try to talk to me about it, I don't want to know.' Glenn smacked his lips, earning a chuckle from the entity sealed within him, just in time for Rusty to come back, dragging a small cart behind him.

Glenn stood up with an interested look, recognizing the black fabric of his clothes. Only, they seemed a little...thicker, maybe?

"Alright, so I've remade the enchantments and tried to purge whatever blood contaminated your suit, but as you can see, it didn't work. So, instead, I chose another option, which is to add an enchantment to draw the blood and make it color the fabric like an actual dye and not the result of your failures..." Rusty explained as he lifted the clothes and threw them at their owner, who caught them with a surprised expression.

"Is it me, or they're heavier than before?" Glenn asked, looking at the suit suspiciously. The dwarf nodded as he dusted his hands off, heading off to go and see Sahro.

"Indeed, I've added some extra paddings to make it tougher. They're a bit of an experimentation on my part, with the pads being half-metal-half-leather, but it should protect you a bit more. I've noticed you grew a little more muscular, so it shouldn't bother you much." Rusty cleared his throat, stopping Sahro from swinging the greatsword around awkwardly, "Hey, stop touching that and tell me what you need."

Glenn smiled and infused his Mana into the suit, feeling the connection to his soul reappear. It truly was a strange feeling and made him wonder whether there was some application of soul magic. After all, the Soulbound enchantment already touched his soul to tie the suit with it, so there probably was some kind of stuff going on with that. That raised the question of whether souls were usable for something, but that question was quickly solved when he remembered the Fallen Mother's plan to harness Palancar's inhabitants' souls by destroying the whole village in some kind of weird ritual.

'Y...Yeah, there probably is some kind of evil magic using souls as energy. I mean, why wouldn't there be? As if Mana wasn't enough to do crazy shit...'

'You do remember the Seed of Darkness was feeding on the energy of the prisoners, no, rather of the monsters imprisoned there?' Diamanes mentioned, making Glenn nod in understanding as the sour memory surged back.

'Indeed. I suppose the soul is a powerful fuel for sick and insane spells, then. Crap, could I have harnessed the soul of that Abbot bastard for some cool tricks?'

'...Well, I don't think you're at the level to do so already, but it should be possible, yeah,' Diamanes hesitantly replied. Glenn frowned and stored his suit back in his soul, unable to stop pondering over the matter.

'...I guess that wouldn't be too morally acceptable, though. Well, if I ever come in possession of some sort of soul magic or whatever, I'll just use it on the Thorn's Church bastards, if I ever find some. Oh, no, I got a better idea! Wouldn't it be a great idea to create a customized hell to put the Baron's soul in? Shit, I could call myself Lucifer or something, that would be cool...'

'Yeah, well, find some soul magics before that, if you don't end up killing Howard before that.'

"...Alright, I have a good idea of what I'll tell the Smith." The dwarf patted Sahro's waist, unable to reach higher, before turning toward Milena, "What about you, young lady? I don't think I've met you before, did I?"

Milena shook her head, her hands in front of her with an awkward smile.

"Oh, yes, I'm with them, but I can't—don't want to buy anything, s...sorry." She apologized, Rusty snorting in reply. He glanced at the obsidian dagger she seemed interested in and picked it up, before shoving it in her hands.

"Here, I'll just put it on that asshole's tab," He grumbled as he pointed his chin at Glenn, who didn't spare a second to protest.

"Hey, no, don't use my money on her, she's much richer than me!"

The dwarf shook his head, dismissing him with a wave of his hand.

"I've been told to be kind to you because they couldn't find any fitting rewards for whatever bullshit you've done, so let me offer that to your friend, alright? You're practically drowning in contribution points anyway..."

Glenn shrugged, not bothering to continue the fight. If Rusty wanted to offer Milena something, so be it.

As long as he didn't pay for it.

'Stingy bastard...'

'What?! Hey, you do remember she used to treat me worse than the dirt on her shoes at some point, right?'

'So did Sahro.'

'...Did I kill the son of a fucking god with her?'

'...I don't think so, no.'

Glenn and Diamanes' banter was interrupted when a tall, but very thin man entered the shop, his hands covered in calluses and a dark metal hammer hanging from his waist. His hair was long, covering the entirety of his face, and scars were covering his meager, almost sticks-like arms. His tank top was covered in soot and coal dust, the scent of metal and fire hanging around him.

"Mr Smith?" Glenn asked curiously. The Smith turned toward him, before grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him out of the shop. Sahro and Milena watched without saying a word, Rusty staring with wide-eyed eyes and his jaw on the floor.

Smith pulled Glenn inside the burningly hot area he worked in, the heat instantly submerging him. The young man wiped his forehead, finding it already drenched in sweat as he continued to follow the Smith, curious about what was going on.

"So, uh, where are you bringing me?" Glenn asked hesitantly, the smith not bothering to reply. The young man sighed and let himself get carried away until he arrived in the deepest part of the forge, where a fire burning with blue flames was heating the zone with deadly temperatures. Glenn tied his hair behind his head as they began to stick to his skin due to how sweaty he was becoming. He summoned his Mana and created a small wave of Nitrogen, only for the Smith to look back with bloodthirsty eyes, his grip on Glenn's wrist tightening until it pained the young man.

"Don't." His voice was hoarse, almost silent, but the young man heard the message loud and clear.

Glenn deactivated the spell, in awe at the Smith's strength.

'I mean, with arms like that, I thought it would be hard to even wield a hammer, but shit, my bad.'

The Smith finally let go of him and grabbed a hammer from a tool rack hanging on the wall. He quickly verified it, before handing it to Glenn. He took it, feeling the same thing as when he was reconnected with his suit's Soulbound enchantment.

'This thing is very, very deeply connected to your soul. Crap, thank Limbo that you didn't grab it with your left hand!' Diamanes cursed, earning a curious gaze from his host. But before Glenn could ask anything, the Smith pulled out an ingot shining with a bright white light and placed it on an anvil, before grabbing his hammer and looking at Glenn.

"...What, you want me to forge the thing?"

The Smith nodded, his thumb rattling against the handle of his dark hammer. Glenn contemplated for a few seconds, before shrugging and tightening his hold over the hammer.

"Well, I've never done anything of the like, but..." He grinned, raising the hammer above his head, "...I'm not against trying it, after all, it looks pretty fun!"