For the first time in his life, Shark Hunter felt as if he were a helpless puppy thrown into the middle of a pack of hungry wolves.
Since Beals and Rossum were still looking at him while treating another customer, Shark Hunter could tell that these two men might have mistaken him as Angor’s friend or bodyguard.
Of course, he would like to avoid being exposed right now, so he tried his best to pretend that he was actually Angor’s company while hoping that Angor wouldn’t ruin his plan too fast.
Meanwhile, Angor and Beals were enjoying a nice and friendly conversation. Angor was wondering why Beals was being so warmhearted. But still, he would return the courtesy for now since Beals looked sincere.
“I’ve placed Miss Seeley’s items inside one-use storage capsules. Do you wish to confirm them?” Beals offered three space capsules to Angor after exchanging enough formalities.
Angor inspected the capsules and recognized them as standard models designed by Floating Mech City. The space in each such capsule equaled that of a small cottage.
Three of them? He then wondered, Whatever did Eureka buy from here?
“I need to check the goods first!” Brulee spoke.
“You know what to look for, right?” Angor gave the owl a suspicious look.
“Of course I do! The master ordered me to make sure myself!”
Angor nodded and left the owl to its job. He was also wondering what he would be carrying.
“This way, if you would.” Beals pointed to an intact stone house nearby, which was a rare sight among the ruins. There were several large beasts for transporting goods leashed beside the house.
Apparently, Beals asked Angor and Brulee to look at the potentially valuable goods somewhere private so that they would not attract coveting attention.
When walking past one of the cages, the black cover was partially lifted by a gust of wind, allowing Angor to see a tender human hand beyond the iron bars.
He expected as much—he saw the same slave cages back at Twilight Auction. It seemed these Ashen Traders were another group of slavers.
Slavery was common in the wizarding world where the strong were not bound by any rules. And since there were always people in need of slaves, there would be people selling them. Since “slaver” didn’t sound very noble, these dealers would usually give themselves better names like trading companies or such.
Behind them, Shark Hunter was still trying to find a chance to slip away until Rossum gave him a “why aren’t you following your master?” look.
Shark Hunter had no choice but to keep moving. However, he did not enter the stone house together with Angor. Instead, he acted as a loyal servant by waiting outside the door.
One of the traders moved to Rossum and whispered, “I think that’s ‘Shark Hunter’, a notorious robber wandering around Gully Sector. Guess he’s here to do his filthy business again, but it didn’t go as he planned.”
Rossum grinned. “I know. But since our dear guest has an interesting plan in mind, we’ll help him put up the show. Shark Hunter, huh? He’s pretty good, getting into his character so fast.”
“Uhh, chief? Who’s that customer anyway? No offense, but both you and Mister Beals looked so...”
“Over courteous? It’s quite simple, this is all worth it. Let me put it this way. This man holds more value than every last man currently living in Lloyds combined, including that wizard who’s currently sitting on the city’s throne.
“Getting him onto our customer list means endless profit for us,” Rossum emphasized. “Go and tell everyone that we are to show our best manners to this mister. Anyone who causes trouble will get thrown into a cage as a slave!”
“Understood, sir!”
“Wait, one more thing. Tell me, how was my act? Am I good?”
...
Angor was leaning against the wall while looking at all the materials that took up most of the space.
Eureka asked him to carry crafting materials, most of which were magical plants found from foreign planes. Many of these were used for brewing healing potions that mended one’s mental injuries.
Since Eureka seemed unable to fully use her aura power during a fight, then she was likely going to use the potions on herself.
This was bad news. Angor could escape from Eureka only because she couldn’t use her aura pressure of a wizard.
Even though their relationship seemed peaceful enough for now, Angor wasn’t sure how long this would last. He couldn’t sit and watch Eureka returning to her top condition. At least not too soon.
Is there something I can do to hinder the potion’s effect, or even better, completely nullify it?
Brulee was getting pretty pissed off while checking through the items. “Hey, Mister Beals, this is all you got?!” The owl pointed a wing to a pile of bottles while yelling, “These are all low-tier junks. You can’t give us one single mid-tier potion?”
Beals glanced at Angor first and noticed that Angor didn’t seem interested in Brulee’s reaction.
“You were there when Miss Seeley reached an agreement with us, no? As I said, potions are becoming scarce when many organizations have entered alert and are preparing for conflict. Unlike public auctions, we did our best to get our hands on what is available. Miss Seeley did tell us that we can give her raw materials if we can’t find enough potions.”
Beals looked at Angor again and felt relieved when he noticed Angor appeared to be glad to hear these words.
“Potions! We need good POTIONS!” Brulee hopped in place, furious. “My master told you to use enough materials to compensate for insufficient potions, not the other way round!”
This meant the traders did not provide enough materials either. The low-tier potions were of little use to Eureka.
But just as Beals said, they tried their best.
“We finished our end of the deal. As for what is missing, we paid.” Beals pointed to a small pile of magic crystals. “Yelling at me won’t help us find what you need. I’m afraid Miss Seeley has to go and ask other wizard organizations.”
Brulee didn’t respond this time. For one, Eureka definitely couldn’t go out there and shop for stuff in public. They might ask “Red Hair” Thewis for help, but Eureka didn’t wish to owe Thewis too many favors either.
The Ashen Traders did not break their promise since they found what they could by using Eureka’s payment. However, getting too many raw materials and brewing everything herself was not Eureka’s intention.
Yet Brulee couldn’t terminate the trade without Eureka’s consent.
“Miss Eureka agreed to accept raw materials, which means she knows how to produce potions, right?” Angor asked.
“My master can’t do alchemy. She has a helper, but he’s not home right now.”
“You mean... Leon’s teacher?”
“Yup. He’s not a professional alchemist though. He might fail a lot when making the most basic potions, and my master needs some potent ones...” Brulee sighed in distress.
Angor was more than happy to know about this. It seemed he didn’t have to do anything in particular to prevent Eureka’s recovery.
The truth was, he was partially responsible for causing the potion shortage around the wizarding world by bringing nightmare monsters into this world. However, he had not realized it yet.
“So what are you going to do now?” He waited for Brulee’s decision.
Whether to accept the materials or not didn’t make much difference to him. But of course, he wished that the trade was fully canceled. Without the materials, Eureka would have zero chance of getting her potions.
Brulee looked at the piles of materials, then at Beals, who was inconspicuously displaying a terrifying aura into the room.
“Fine-fine. We’ll take these.” Brulee nodded. “I’ll just explain everything to her later. She-she will forgive me. Right?”