The Goddess' Champion

The deal was done, Constantine held in his hand a guild badge and a thousand gold coins.

"T-That's so much money Constantine, I never expected it to be so valuable, the way you carried it... were you carrying twenty-five kilos all around as if it was nothing?!"

It certainly was something she could carry as well, but he did it so easily that she thought the stone weighed about two or three kilos.

"Yes, I am surprised as well but compared to the prices in this store... ten thousand coins might not be that much money." He ignored her surprise over his strength and continued to think what was it that he was proposing himself to do with that money exactly, he had to spend a thousand here, that's for sure.

"It is only the items in the guild, if we head to any other armoury around town, you will be able to gear up an army of a few thousand with that money."

Not having yet left the deeper end of the facility, the rejoicing keeper took the big stone to what Constantine could only guess was his lair and left them to look at the items distributed in this place.

"You can look at anything you want and tell me if you're interested once I come back, all prices here are negotiable by me, you won't know how valuable they are until I tell you. And if you ever think about taking anything from here in your sleeves hehehe~ let's just hope I don't catch you."

He disappeared amidst the shadow rooms and it became only Constantine, the treasures and Zamira.

Thankfully there wasn't any violin playing either.

'This bastard, he wants to judge how profitable an item is depending on who he sells it to.' He couldn't think of any other reason as to why the items displayed here wouldn't showcase any price.

It is an utter scam, but one that had become a business model.

"Here, have this, Zamira..." Constantine placed some of the coins in the rag where the rock had been in, three thousand coins.

!!!

"I can't accept this!" Zamira refused straight away, even going as far as to make some distance.

"You have already saved my life, how can I possibly take money from you?!" In truth, her body shivered, it was a battle between her honour and her greed, having lived in the streets most of her life, struggling, how could she not desire to simply take that rag and run.

But she believed by doing so she would lose something greater.

Constantine, however, was up to no games or explanations as there was no time, a knife called Ludmilla hung up his neck, their necks...

"It is an order, Zamira. Accept it and use it for the best of both our cases, to get what we need, you're a smart woman so I can trust you on this. If you're not willing to use the resources I give you in my assistance, if you're not willing to humble yourself to accept what I give you, then you have no use to me... if you can't accept this arrangement, then take a thousand coins for your help prior and leave."

His voice was cold and the kind and warm Constantine that she had seen so far, was nowhere to be seen.

If one thing he despised the most was insubordination, a war involving thousands of soldiers could be lost by the insubordination of a single one.

!!!

Zamira's eyes shivered, the way he said it, it was as if something inside her cracked.

"I-I'm sorry... I don't want to leave, please forgive me." with a shivering hand she accepted the three thousand coins and decided to stick around her saviour.

Constantine nodded in approval, "It is yours, but since you're my subordinate now, it is your job to use that efficiently in a way that will help us, and right now... what we need is to survive this place, understood?"

"I will do my best!" She didn't want to see those cold eyes again, 'Those eyes don't fit you...'

With that sorted out, Constantine's wave moved around to see if there was anything of interest in this room, but knowing that Inkseth was going to scam them for every single one of them, made him think twice before even placing an eye on anything.

Thankfully, however, aside from the obvious weapons, none of the two knows what exactly those treasures were, some looked like arrays, and some others were attires or clothing.

'There are even bloody thorn rags, who the hell would want to purchase that?!' He thought in outrage and decided to simply go up the lift to the level where they previously were, it was then that he noticed Zamira looking at something amidst the shelves.

"..." She simply frowned as if she had seen something interesting, but aside from some darkness on the front of that shelf, he saw nothing.

Zamira stretched her hand forward inside the dark shelf and grunted slightly when she grasped something.

Pulling, she took out something from the shadows.

It was a gigantic sword.

A red handle with black dots, it was some sort of sword he had never seen before, only a single edge and a curved design, the sword was so big that it was probably bigger than Zamira.

"Do you like that sword? how did you even know it was there?"

"I don't... know?" Zamira held the sword in awe, testing its weight, it was extremely heavy, but not something she couldn't handle.

"INKSETH! WE WANT TO BUY SOMETHING!"

"N-No! I was just looking at it!" Zamira hurriedly yelled but her hand wouldn't leave the sword.

​ In fact, Constantine didn't think about immediately buying it either, he only wanted to know the specifics.

"My-my, a person can't jerk off in peace it seems."

!!!

"Bastard, save your private life for yourself."

"I was trying to see if I found any trace of Dragon Blood in that stalactite, little elf, you weren't lying were you?~"

"Of course not, I managed to flee that place without injuring the dragon even once, if you find any blood, it will be mine, why would I lie, old man? it is not like you gave me anything more anyway."

"..." The dark figure furrowed his brows with his eyes locked on Constantine before sighing.

"What do you want to buy?"

"What is this sword about?"

"Oh... Kurohana's Odachi... now I wonder how that ended up here."

"Kurohana?"

"It is from a particular clan of the Wolf Empire, thousands of years ago, said to be blessed or cursed with its owner's soul, Kurohana... she was a were-fox... but there are several mysteries around her death, at least, that's what the rumours regarding this sword are."

"Why shouldn't it be here?"

"It was originally located in the Capital's branch, do you think this measly town is qualified to hold such a treasure? it seems some manager of the guild wanted to be funny and brought it here or something, you're lucky... I can sell it to you for three hundred gold coins."

!!!

"T-That's too much!" Zamira yelled straight away, even going as far as to put the sword back where it was, but Constantine held her wrist and stopped her while smirking.

There weren't leaving just yet.