My feet shuffled back, inching away from the table. Seven altogether, six slowly approaching. Three rounding around each side, and one remaining behind, the one referred to as Hugo by Jude. The six brandished batons and took their time advancing. It made sense: their goal was purely to “persuade” us, not to beat us to the ground senseless. Was it from some sense of honor despite their, or maybe, because of their criminal nature?

“What do you think, you two?” Jude said, grinning wickedly. “Still of the mind to decline my favorable offer?” He remained relaxed in his chair, seemingly in no hurry to go anywhere.

“I don’t know, your friends don’t seem very convincing,” I said in what I hoped was a steady voice. I knew that the supposedly threatening six ruffians in front of me were nothing to be afraid of. In fact, if I wanted too, I could blow away this whole room and escape into the sky with Shara, and that course of action seemed more and more tempting. But I was determined to get something out of this, most preferably gold, especially after this long, tiring day. Flying away certainly wouldn’t get me that desired something.

On the other hand, another course of action was possible, almost obvious in hindsight in the way my thoughts crawled towards it. Intimidation. Not the intimidation of rugged highwaymen robbing unfortunate merchants, or of the intimidation of the warden warning petty criminals. I meant the sort of intimidation I knew the best: the cruel, twisted, uncaring intimidation of a Demon King.

If I desired, I could will it. To materialize flames from my fingertips and incinerate them alive. To freeze the smug leader of this den and entrap him from neck down in ice. To cause pain to get what I want. Even more, deluding myself and making excuses to shake off guilt wouldn’t be too difficult; these people didn’t exactly seem the most virtuous bunch. But it was for that reason that my breaths were nervous, that my body was tense. I could do exactly that. I could fall into that slippery slope once more if I wasn’t careful. And even the thought of one more corpse of an undeserving victim on my back felt all too heavy.

Busy in thoughts, even in the face of a potential beating, I chuckled. Perhaps there was something to gain from this. Perhaps this was a chance to practice a bit of restraint and prudence, one virtue the Demon King Malachi could have sorely needed. I could play nice, right?

“Do your job, boys. Don’t get too crazy but don’t underestimate them as well,” Jude said with a tone of finality. It seemed to him that our discussion was over. After he stood from his chair, gathered the scales, rewrapped the pile into its bag, and slung it over his shoulder, he kicked the table, launching it straight at us. “No hard feelings, dear Ersham and Clara! You’ve at least made our day more interesting!”

With a punch from my right fist, the table shattered in an explosion of splinters, breaking in two. In the second that followed, I could see their eyebrows raising in surprise, their mouths opening in a gasp.

“Take the ones on your side! Don’t get crazy yourself, though!” I quickly commanded to Shara.

“That was the plan from the beginning,” she said. The charming smirk that her lips had twisted into told me that she was having fun. That made one of us, at least.

My feet sprung me forward into an assault against the three men on my left, reaching them before they could even snap out of their surprise to make a move. I launched myself at the one nearest to me, kicking him across the chest. He flew backwards, colliding and falling against the wall. With a stomp, ice formed at my feet and crawled towards him like a tendril, entrapping his legs in ice grounded to the floor.

From the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the other two. One to my left and the other to my right, both in the middle of swinging their batons at me. With a duck, I dodged both of their attacks and swept the one to my right off his feet with a low kick. He tumbled over, and I quickly grabbed his foot, anchoring it to the ground with conjured ice. My eyes then turned to one to my left as I rose back up. Mana began flowing out from my reservoir.

Suddenly, a powerful gust blew towards him, sending him hurtling towards a wall. I almost felt pity, seeing the wind knocked from him, the painful gasp escaping his mouth as his body met the wall with a harsh thud.

Before I could claim victory, my eyes caught a projectile flying towards me. I felt it cut through the air as I side stepped it. I traced back to the projectile’s source: Hugo, Jude’s subordinate who had stayed behind. His arms were outstretched towards me, visibly trembling even from this distance.

“…o steadfast earth, bring the might of your fastness…” Under his breath, the chanting of a spell was audible. But he would never finish. A large water ball formed in front of me and hurtled towards Hugo, the speed of my spell execution leagues beyond his. His attempt to jump sideways came too late, and the inertia of the water ball, bursting on impact, threw him back and rendered him unconscious. A long groan of pain escaped him as he lay on the ground.

The three other men I had fought still remained down: two half-conscious but hindered by ice, and by no means eager or in any state to fight me, and the one I had subjected to wind magic fully unconscious, sitting with his back against the wall. My sight flew towards the Shara’s side of the room to find the smug gryphon with three men at her feet, no visible sign of a scuffle on her. The two of us exchanged thumbs-ups.

“So, mister Jude,” I said as I looked once more at him, “it doesn’t seem like your friends were convincing at all. Do you mind stepping in to convince us yourself?” His knife-like eyes remained as they were, and he retained his easy smile. But it was now less assured confidence and more a strained mask to hide panic behind.

“Huh,” he could only say. “You two were more… able than I thought. Well, it happens! Here you go then.” He started walking towards me, more slowly than I’d liked. His hand offered the large bag of Lindwyrm scales, dangling it like a food to a wild animal.

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“Yes, I would really like that back,” I said, walking towards him at a fast pace.

“Of course, of course– ah oops!” His fingers dropped the bag, and he bent over to pick it up. “I’m real, real sorry about all of this. I’ll even be willing to talk over the table again.”

“Somehow you don’t sound very sorry about it.”

“Do you think so?” The way he remained bent over, his hands lingering on the bag, made me even more impatient… and even more suspicious.

In a flurry of motion, his hands reached into his clothes and threw four daggers at me, with a swiftness I could even admire. They never reached me however, being deflected by an invisible barrier formed from my mana. The look in his eyes now became dark, and his smile dropped into a wrinkled frown. He slowly backed away from me, one nervous step at a time.

“Are you out of tricks, mister Jude?” I said while reclaiming the Lindwyrm scales.

“H-hey, I told you, no mister needed, just call me Jude, okay?” he responded, his hands raised in surrender.

“Then, dear Jude,” Shara joined in, appearing behind him. He flinched at his place and turned around, not realizing she had been there. “Do you remain yet willing to ‘talk over the table’, as you suggested with your words? By the way, apologies for your table’s destruction.” Her hand reached to lay on his chest and pushed him backwards, guiding him to sit back down in his chair. Jude’s spirit seemed too broken to even resist against her. She stood the other chair back up, knocked down some time during the fighting, and met my eyes meaningfully, signaling to me to sit by her.

“Hahaha… of course… of course…” he said, scratching his head.

“Then, back to negotiations about the price!” I exclaimed, taking my seat. “Clara, what would you say is a fair price?”

“I’d say 600… no, 750 gold coins would be a fair price,” she said. She rubbed her hands together excitedly, like a greedy merchant. “Add on 60 gold coins for a forgiveness fee, but I’m willing to give you 10 gold coins back to spare you some kindness after the hurt we lay on your ‘friends’. Altogether… 800 gold coins!”

In reaction, Jude gulped in silence, nervous sweat forming on his forehead. I could almost see his thought process, visible in the expressions his face scrunched into. It was strange to see the confident, unflappable man moments ago turned into this.

“P-perhaps, um, 700 gold coins? Those scales aren’t that valuable, mind you,” he said.

“800,” I said.

“For a more refined p-product, maybe 800 gold coins would be suitable, but for raw materia–”

“800. Jude, you don’t have any room to negotiate here,” I asserted firmly. “Just be satisfied we’re willing to let you solve it all with 800 gold coins.”

Hearing my words, the last trace of resistance seemed to disappear from him.

“I-I… alright,” he croaked. “Hugo? I know you’re awake, get up.”

The unconscious man in the background was decidedly not unconscious. As if Jude cast a spell of necromancy, Hugo sprung back up, putting on damaged spectacles.

“Sorry boss, I just didn’t want you to order me to keep fighting those two monsters,” he said apologetically, rubbing at his bruises.

“I wouldn’t do that to you Hugo. Now, fetch the stash, please. Enough for 800 gold coins,” Jude said.

“Of course, boss,” Hugo said before exiting through the only door of the room, the one through which we entered.

“Are you sure you aren’t screwing us over or trying to pull any tricks?” I asked moments after Hugo left the room. “We’ll be less forgiving if you pull another one over us.”

“No, no, no more tricks,” he said, a smile finding its way to him again. Though it was not a mocking smile or an impish smile, but one of defeatedness. “I’m all out of those unfortunately. Look, let’s just all pretend this never happened, okay?”

“Why? So you can send assassins after us the moment we think we’ve made it out of here?”

“No. I know when to pick my fights,” he said. “We make this deal, and the both of us still make it out with something. I’ve got no more hard feelings against you, really, I mean it.”

“Hmph, you’ve not exactly made yourself easy to trust with your words,” I said.

“Well, how about this? You two are capable, capable beyond what I imagined. Though, it’s to be expected for people who can gather up Lindwyrm scales, whatever the hell a Lindwyrm even is. This doesn’t have to be our last deal. We’ve got reason to learn to trust each other. We could have… a beneficial relationship, you and I,” he said.

“Is that so?” Shara said, her tail rising up in intrigue. “What say you, Lu- Ersham?”

“No.” My quick, harsh reply caused even Shara surprise. I didn’t even have time to find her name slip-up amusing. “I’d rather not dirty my hands with people like you more than I need to. After we finish this deal, we’ll never see each other again.”

“Alright, it was just a suggestion,” he replied. “We’re not as bad as you think you are, but I won’t push it. Have it your way. Though, word of advice, that’s not a mindset I’d suggest. You’re never going to get anywhere, being afraid to get your hands dirty.”

“Then I’ll keep them as clean as I can, avoiding dirt like you,” I responded, “and wash them off when it’s too dirty for my liking.”

“Sheesh, are you a devout follower of the Goddess or something, boy?”

“No, just someone who wants to have common decency.”

“Common decency?” His eyes bore into me. “Don’t fool yourself, boy. You’re sitting across from me, not even caring to know where these scales end up or who will use them. Besides, I know that you know that what you call common decency is overrated.”

“Enough, I don’t take advice from people like you,” I growled, the edge in my voice more harsh than I intended. It annoyed me. He had regained his twisted confidence, speaking as if he looked deep into me and understood the clockwork of my being. In response, he simply raised his hands and shrugged, keeping his mouth clamp shut.

The tense silence was broken by a few hurried knocks at the door.

“Is that your friend?” Shara asked. “Quick of him, no?”

Jude didn’t respond. His eyes widened into… terror?

“That’s not him. Damn it, shi–”

The door slammed open, and men in armor burst into the room. One wore a surcoat bearing an insignia of a fortress flanked by lions, resembling the symbol on the silver coins I received. A sinking sensation set in as I realized who these men were and what that insignia meant.

“Halt! Hands in the air! You are all under arrest for transgressing the law!”