"Cough Cough Cough… Cough Cough…" the old man started choking so badly that I wondered if he would die today. But fortunately or unfortunately, he survived as he got back on the stool slowly.
I looked around to see the other people observing me with a rather tense look.
"You want to choose HIM for the job of protection for 2 months?" the old man Revius observed me with a tense look. He knew that I wasn't a man who really jokes, so didn't laugh at my request.
"You really sure about that? You know what kind of person he is, right?" Revius asked again, this time being more concerned about me.
"I am pretty sure about it. Don't worry. I came to decide that this was the best way out of all the other options," I answered him, assuring that I would follow through with my request.
"Well… You be the daredevil, I guess. Let me calculate the amount," he spoke as he gave up on me before beginning to look through the calculator. And after over a few minutes of calculations.
"That would be 180 Gold Coins," he spoke with a gulp as he took a peek at me. The others gulped as well, as I took out the Gold Coins and gave it to the guy before speaking,
"The target of protection is these two. Take out your veil," I asked as I looked at Leena while taking out Anna's as well.
He looked at them for a few moments before taking their pictures in a memory crystal. This way he can issue the quest to 'Morpheus' and I could be free of worry about a lot of things.
While I won't be exactly protecting them all the time, the name of Morpheus should decrease the number of incoming attacks. And in case the girls die, I can just restart.
"It seems you guys want something from us. How may I help you?" I spoke as I saw 2 horse-faced mercenaries blocking our way. One of them was red, and another was blue.
"We are just taking some entry passes. A rich man like you won't have any problems paying, would he?" the blue-faced horse spoke with greed in his voice.
"Consider yourself foolish for showing so much money when you don't have enough power to protect yourself," the red-faced horse spoke, following the blue-faced one.
"Should I?" Leena asked, but I smiled as I spoke," if I needed to worry about something like this, would I even take a step down here?"
"Oi! Are you ignoring us?" the red horse got a bit irritated, and I sighed as I spoke in a loud voice,
"Hey Revius. How much for these 2 idiots?"
Confused for a second, the horse faced duo was taken aback. And when they understood what I meant, they were about to shout at me again, but Revius spoke first.
"18 Silvers, if you bring them alive with minimum damage."
They paused for a second as they looked at Revius before they observed my calm smile. It was only then that they realised that other were looking and smiling at him without making any moves.
"Why… aren't you guys attacking him? He has… so much… money?" the blue horse finally understood that there was something wrong.
But it was too late.
Taking out a paper from my ring within a fraction of a second, I poured a bit of mana into it.
-Thud!!
-Thud!!
Both these guys got on their knees before they completely fell to the ground. They tried their best to break free, but the more they tried, the more the gravity increased around them.
"It's kind of futile. The array takes mana from your body the more you exert and applies it back to you. Now to make you unconscious-"
I was going to use another array, but then I saw them already unconscious on the floor. The pressure must have knocked them out.
"Hey Adriel," I called out a red eagle winged demihuman, who was greedily looking at those men, "you can take them, but can you make sure nobody else disturbs me again?"
It wasn't the first time it happened, but honestly it was boring now.
"Come on, Man! What's the fun about that? Don't we all love when people underestimate you and f*ck themselves over? No matter how many times wee watch it, it is always exhilarating," he spoke as he laughed out loud.
The others seemed to agree with it as they nodded with the same ugly smile as theirs, while I just shook my head before speaking,
"Just do as much as I told you to."
"All right! All right! No need to get irritated," he spoke as he moved to pick up the bodies. He took a look at Leena as he blinked at her in a flirting manner, but Leena was just weirded out.
"Let's go," I spoke to Leena before we both moved out of there under the curious gaze of the observers.
As we were moving out of the area, I heard Leena approaching me rather hurriedly from behind. Was she tense with what just happened?
"Hey!" she spoke excitedly, making me stop momentarily. Perhaps because she reached just behind me, she hit my back before being pushed a few steps behind.
"Ow!!"
I looked at her energetic yet pained face as she rubbed her head where she got hit.
"What?" she asked as I kept observing her.
"Searching for that 'oh so disgusted' face," I answered, with my eyes still surprised.
"Forget about that. Tell me. Who is this Morpheus?" She asked as her eyes gleamed with curiosity. And I stood there for a moment… wondering how I should answer this?
"Sigh. Let's get back up. I will answer all your questions there," I spoke as I decided that since we will be talking for a while, it would be better to answer everything at once.
She gave my words a thought for a moment before she agreed to it. And then we both began to walk out of the black market, back to towards the store.