11th chapter : Uduru .

“So to put it simply, are we going to sell these items that master Emilis dropped from a high leveled dungeon?” Carla said as she asked while looking at the items on Emilis' desk.

The Red Mermaid had a meeting after work to discuss their goals before they could start the training. One way or another, the sudden meeting when Emilis had put all the items he dropped from the dungeon of that day made Carla speechless to the point where she spoke first.

“So let’s see, these items cost at least 300million won for all of them. I honestly don’t want the money to be wasted, our training ground that Marco and Carla used is not equipped like the rest , barely a plain in the middle of nowhere” Alex said after evaluating the item drops.

Before they could speak again, Marco responded out of the blue.

“Well, leave me out of the selling thing. I guess I’m gonna help Eyezar a little in his shop, not like I’m going to Granddam but I’ll be out of service for a while, is it acceptable, master?” Marco asked as Carla was surprised by his decision.

“Uhm, yeah you can, I don’t think it’ll affect our work here” Emilis replied as he accepted Marco's suggestion.

Carla found it weird at first however she remembered that Marco had some relation with Eyezar as they’re old acquaintances, on top of that most of the other members didn’t mind a thing either.

After eating dinner Marco was laying on his bed thinking calmly as he heard a knock on his door.

“May I enter?” Carla calmly pleaded while standing in front of his room.

“As if I’d say no” He replied calmly as he sat up.

“You need something?” Marco asked as he saw her having some troubles while caressing her hair slowly.

“Sigh I’m being stressed for nothing. I was just thinking, why do you want to work with that old man? I didn’t found a proper answer…” she asked after taking deep breaths.

“Is that all? well, we are partners so I guess I need to tell you” Marco replied after getting a relieved reaction “honestly my family has a long line with the euro order thing, I didn’t say that before but I guess that old man knows where my parents are, what happened to them? whether they’re alive or dead? Honestly, I don’t think I have a good influence on Sophie and Arthur, I want to let them live with the sides of my mother and father or at least my grandpa, that’s why I’m gonna work with him a little, we still have time right? for the festival….What are you doing?”.

As he was talking Marco kept looking down with a desperate expression on his face. On the second he looked up to Carla’s face he saw her holding her tears, her cheeks were red and her nose was all filled with snort.

“No..nothing, I thought that you are much of the heartless guy not thinking about his siblings but it looks like you are quite the mama like guy” she keenly replied after wiping her nose, though she kept the teary red face.

Marco looked annoyed by her words, “Are you mocking me?”.

He asked in a tense voice as she giggled and smiled at him.

“Kind of!! Still, I was stressing for nothing. have fun, at least me and Xavier senpai will be in Uduru having a fun time” she said as she closed the door trying to tease Marco with a smug face.

The next day,

“heeh? Why is Carla nee the only one going? I want to go too!!” Sophie protested as she pouted a little bit.

“That’s not good, plus we're gonna have a lot of fun for today, so let them be, she has a few works to do” Marco replied to Sophie while holding her on his back.

Sophie pouted for a few minutes then sighed and patted Marco’s head gently, changing her mood.

“Marco nii!! I’m hungry, let’s eat something!!” Marco looked at her with a poker face as Sophie noticed him and she looked aside.

“Quite the quick change. Anyway, what do you want to eat!!” Marco put a smile on his face as they headed to the kitchen.

“Burgers!! double extra size!!” Arthur and Sophie said as they made Marco startled a little.

“Arthur, I told you, don’t play with the food balance when Hana comes around!!” Marco scolded the two of them as they grinned an awkward smile “Ok!! Big bro is gonna make you lick your fingers after that Extra double size Burger!!! let’s go!!” he said as he put Sophie down and wore his apron.

Marco was for the first time acting all friendly, Yuna and Selicia who were watching were surprised themselves as they admired his affection for his siblings.

Soon after leaving the house early and going with Alice and the other three to Uduru, Carla sighed as she was upset by the surprise she had.

“You’ve never been to Uduru that’s why I guess, though I guess Granddam is far enough and more good than Uduru, this place is rotten with royalties, and at least we can have these items gets sold with a high price” Xavier said as he patted Carla’s head trying to cheer her up.

She looked at him with a bit of a cheerful face before another person spoke.

“Don’t rush inside so bluntly and remember that we can’t just go inside. We still don’t have the rights to sell these though I have a plan….Oy!! Listen to me!!” Alex said as she went on her day dreaming and started talking as everyone ignored her.

As she noticed that she was being ignored she saw Xavier approaching a chariot of one of the nobles there, it didn’t shock her but it put some cold chill down her throat.

“Hey!! May I have a moment my ladies? I’m just a passerby and I was caught by your heavenly beauty, so I want to offer this!! I’m a member of the red mermaid guild, sure you’ve heard of us, these people say that we are the worst but I can assure you that what….” Xavier started his flattery, therefore soon he was stopped by Zack.

“Hey, the chariot is gone for a while, stop the act” Zack sulked in a calm look.

The five of them had a pretty low spirit for selling the items that they were holding, on top of the bad reputation they got, what just happened was a K.O for them.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Sigh, it’s been two hours for now and we haven't found at least one buyer for these damn items, I mean who wouldn’t like an item that buffs your defenses, and can even be absorbed by their serment!!” Xavier yelled his words as the whole people heard him.

“So more or less, you say that these items are a high ranked dungeon item drops”, a sudden unfamiliar voice spoke out of the blue.

After hearing Xavier’s words a sudden butler approached the five of them and told them to follow him. the five had no choice but to go along, after some time they reached a big house in the city and got invited to go inside.

As they met the henchman and the owner of the house, they showed him what they got in hope of him buying all of them.

“Yeah, well more or less you know who we are, red mermaid is pretty hated by the council you work for. honestly, we ourselves don’t love the council, we have our reasons don’t get us wrong, also I’d like to keep it in word of business…” Alice spoke as the vice master of the red mermaid.

“Well, for now I don’t really have a thing on business too, the guilds aren’t something on the mood lately and the council has been gaining a lot of members too. No hard feelings but, I don’t believe the rumors about your master being the strongest or stuff. Still, I will buy what you have in your sleeves. Be it money or anything else, I’ll see what I can do.”

The henchman replied as he tried to provoke Alice and the rest, therefore it didn’t work as he saw them sighing. He found it weird before he zipped his mouth in shock.

“Well, the rumors are true. But you won’t believe our words since we are his members. As for the business, I’d like to have 500million won for all the items shown in front of you, otherwise we would be happy to use them ourselves” she replied with a cold voice after proposing a huge sum of money.

Carla and the rest giggled a little as they saw the guy having his forehead wiped of sweat because of what Alice said, somehow it wasn’t expected for his side at all.

After long negotiations, Alice had taken from the guy around 1.5 billion won for a bunch of buffing items and the orb on its top.

“You never change, Alice. we had this whole money, for now we can call it a day and return home?” Zack said as they were on the front gates of that house.

Seeing her reaction to how she was looking at all that money, they looked behind to see most of the butlers feeling robbed, they realized that even the red mermaid members use the fact that the council hates them for anything they use it on.

“Uhm, hehehmm!! I feel really refreshed after beating him in the negotiations. For now let’s return and we will have one other thing to ask for” Alice replied as she got out her phone “hai, hello!! Master, I hope you’re doing nothing, I sent you a message earlier. For now, I just want to make sure that you are doing nothing, come and take the money otherwise I’ll have the guys here do what they want with it, you have six minutes” Alice said as she had a scary smile on her face.

“Senpai never changes!!”.

Carla said out of the blue as she never spoke a word the whole damn day, the four of them looked at her with a bit of a surprised face.

“Not really, I guess we're gonna have to wait for him to show up. I mean he’ll be here in…three, no four seconds” Alice replied as she smiled at Carla.

Emilis took around three seconds to show up as he warped them all in one scarf as he said happily.

“Now, now, my dear children!! You’ve accomplished quite a lot for today, so let’s get back home. Papa will make for you a big cup of hot chocolate!!” Emilis was never serious with words.

The five of them looked at him as they sighed, seeing their guild master’s usual money face.

“We are not kids but I guess I’ll accept the cup of chocolate, for Sophie chan” Carla said as she was wondering what the three of them were doing at this hour.

They looked at her as they all tilted their heads to the side a little, they took a hunch of what she finally was thinking.

“You started to take care of her more than you do to yourself. seems like you two are getting along” Alex said as she saw Carla smiling.

Carla replied “Well, what can I say, I’m starting to love living like a family with them”.

Keeping a smile on her face, everyone giggled a little as they didn’t think that the first months of her partnership with Marco were peaceful.

“Aah! The work finished early today! and there’s nothing to do already, Marco! Are you listening?!” Carla shouted while laying on the ground around the living room.

The four of them were watching TV together on a day off.

“eh? I’ve bought the TV. I thought that was enough? and plus we are on a day off, master Emilis told us to take a rest so just keep watching TV” Marco’s reply was on its place making Carla pout.

“Don’t be that gloomy Marco nii, I guess Carla nee wants to play something, such as video games!” Arthur was unusually talkative for that day with a pumped up face wanting something instead of sitting the whole day doing nothing.

“Video games!?” Following after them Sophie got triggered too.

“That's right!!! Let’s go and buy some video games!!!” Carla said enthusiastically.

“Are you some kind of child? Sigh, I’ll see what I can do” Marco looked at her with a dark pale face as he saw her having a smuggly face.

The next thing he realized, Marco found himself entering a mall at the games side to buy for the three of them what they wanted.

“I never thought that you could do such a thing?!” Carla tapped Marco on his shoulder pointing to Sophie and Arthur who were hooked on the games at the stalls.

“Shut up already, I’m not that gloomy to begin with and I guess making them have a good life is my objective” He replied.

“Heeh ?! I’m more surprised that you accepted my offer. Are you sure that you will buy me a new phone?” Carla responded with a smile.

Apparently Carla broke her phone at the restaurant when they were working, Marco was there too so he felt somehow it’s wrong not to let her have a new phone.

“Partners need to stick together, also I had some pay ups from other lines of work with Eyezar so I’m using them. The thing that I’m happy about, is that the gold won currency is really high when it gets changed. so I’m fine with having you buy a phone and….Sigh, and I was talking to myself ”.

Marco seemed to be enjoying the shopping with his siblings. Though he found himself talking alone, he grinned after seeing the three of them really close to each other. Within that moment Marco felt a sudden vibe in the air.

“Yes!! We’re going to take these!!” Sophie and Arthur said after choosing some of the games around.

“That will be around 1.5k! please proceed by debit card or cash in the case there” the employee said with a smile at the two little siblings.

The Employee looked at Marco getting hesitant to pay for everything they bought, he also felt like he made him step on a landmine with these words, but that’s what business is all about.

“Th-Thanks, I’ll choose cash directly” Marco replied as he made the employee put everything in the bag.

“That’s a lot….” Carla said but instantly shut it up as Marco looked at her with dead glares.

He went ahead to pay for everything they got.

“1.5k won. that’s sure a lot, are you going to be ok, mister!?” the employee spoke to Marco before she took the money.

Marco looked at her to see a smile on her face, typical for this line of work but that didn’t catch his attention. Instead, Marco looked to be wondering about her hair color which seemed to be dark red.

She had a very long hair for a girl.

“Sir?!” The employee waved to Marco who spaced out for a second.

“Ah, yeah, right. I’ll be ok for sure, as long my little brother and sister are fine with what they want, I’ll be good” Marco responded after a second of silence.

“Huh? o-ok” the employee was a little bit flustered herself to see him responding in such a weird situation though he paid a lot he still acts like nothing happened.

After that huge spending of money,

“Sigh, you really went and bought all of these. And I was talking about it more than hundreds of times” Hana complained,

“Shut up already, if it wasn’t for Sophie and Arthur you know I wouldn't buy a thing” Marco typically answered her complaints.

“You two really tend to fight like this all the time” Carla tried to meddle in the conversation.

“Of course we do this always. tch, I’ll be in my…a phone call, right now, really ?” Marco suddenly switched topics as he looked at his phone.

“What happened?!” Carla and Hana asked.

“We’ll speak up later, so let me take a rest first” Marco responded as he pointed to Sophie and Arthur giving hints that he doesn’t wanna speak about this work until they go to bed.

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