Tyler took a deep breath and sighed, he felt agitated and Nadine was starting to notice. He hadn’t expected all the money he hadn’t earned over the past few days to practically disappear in an instant, to the point that he was almost in dept.

He currently owed Ferl a whooping sum of more than 20,000 DC. Money like that wasn’t easy to earn even for him as right now he only held about 11,000 DC and that was already set aside for something.

He thought about the quickest ways he could make money and the first thing that came to his mind was the magic institute. However, joining the magic institute right now might actually be a hindrance. He had until the end of the week and he highly doubted the magic institute would give a request worth over 10,000 DC to a newbie.

He also couldn’t raise his rank in the guild within that period. He thought about sending Zelda back to the Darknar forest to gather up some more resources but instantly abolish that idea as it went against the merchant guild leader’s assumption on where they had gotten their wares.

Although there was still the request of those Hunters that called themselves Unrivaled. He still couldn’t be sure of what their income would be unless he actively interfered with the flow of events along the way.

With that train of thought, a plan slowly blossomed in Tyler’s mind and his agitation rapidly cooled off as a smile crept across his face.

Without wasting any more time, they quickly boarded a private carriage straight to Royal borough, where he could shop for some quality clothes for himself and the girls.

The carriage ride took quite a long time to get to the Royal borough than he had expected. When they arrived it was already late in the afternoon.

Tyler needed to shop for quality clothes for himself, and not just ordinary clothes, but also magic items (clothes). Since he didn’t want to wear any heavy or bulky armor, he would need to get clothes that had been made out of beast cores or high tiered fur.

Luckily he brought Nadine along to shop for the girls as he had no intentions of actually doing that himself. Magic clothes were expensive and after spending all the coins he had on hand for refined ores and Steel. He only had the 11 thousand plus DC with Nadine to rely on.

He also needed to request the merchant guild to provide him with food, spices, and utensils along with some necessities for the castle so he needed way more money than what he currently had on him and that was ignoring his recent dept.

Tyler came to a high-class clothing shop for nobles that wouldn’t attend to commoners normally, but with the VIP merchant license, he would be allowed in. This was one of the so-called perks the guild leader had told him about.

The shop was more than five stories and had mostly glass on the outside that showed a display of their fanciest outfits and recent designs. Tyler showed the guards that stood by the entrance his VIP card and they frowned but still allowed him in.

He could faintly hear them snorting at him, clearly in disdain. They were probably nobles who thought lightly of commoners and didn’t feel they should be given special privileges just because they were in a Guild. Tyler ignored the pair and gave Nadine the list from the girls and also received about 5,00 DC from her.

Leaving her to her thoughts, he walked over to the men’s section and made quick choices. Even for a high-class clothing shop, they didn’t have a lot of magic or enchanted clothes. Well if they were that common everyone would have at least one.

Tyler picked a few T-shirts made out of the threads of a Crimson spider and a giant goat’s core. Some high-quality long coats with hoods made out of various beast hides and cores. The same quality pants and boots.

They all had varying effects but none of them had skills. One of the t-shirts he bought was made out of the scales of a silver wyvern. It was also silver in color and for a simple shirt it had a lot of style to it, Tyler placed them all in his spatial storage when the attendant wasn’t looking and paid exactly 2,950 DC for them.

Meeting up with Nadine who was already waiting for him at the entrance which had actually surprised him as he had thought she would spend a lot more time picking out outfits for two. Turned out, she had spent more than all the DC she had on her and had to stop halfway and return with what she could buy.

That meant all they had on hand was now less than 2,000 DC. His pouch that had been filled to the brim this morning was now almost empty. Not wanting to think about this matter anymore he left the shop with Nadine in tow.

Walking out of the high-class boutique, they boarded another carriage back to the merryside Inn. The trip took them about an hour and they soon alighted in front of the inn. Walking into the inn they drew stares from the Hunters and merchants inside although since it was still relatively early in the evening, there were not that many people here.

Tyler walked over to the innkeeper and paid for another night in their previous room as well as for taking care of their mount and carriage. With that, they both disappeared up the stairs from the various gazes that were locked upon them.

Tyler also hadn’t noticed the Hunter party that had recruited him so he assumed they must’ve been out preparing for the job. Entering the room Tyler used several protection scrolls to prevent sudden attacks and remote spies.

He had done his best not to attract too much attention, however, his plan needed the attention of certain individuals and in his attempt to garner those people’s attention he might have drawn in the attention of some unwanted individuals.

“I will be inspecting the surroundings for a while. You stay here and wait.”

“Huh, please let me accompany you. It is my job to protect you on this trip.”

Nadine had an unusually serious and slightly nervous expression on her face, it was like when he had first asked her to accompany him on this trip. Tyler firmly shook his head and refused.

No, I’m only looking around the neighborhood. There are also a few places I’d like to visit discreetly… and the other reason why you’re staying here is to ward off intruders. You must stay on your guard and never slack off. While I don’t think there are any vulnerabilities in our defenses for the moment, this place might well be considered enemy territory, so you must never relax.”

“O… Alright.”

“if something happens you can use the scrolls I gave you to escape, before attempting to contact me. Make sure you prioritize your safety first, understand.”

“Understood.”

After blabbering on and almost losing himself in his speech. Tyler finally convinced her to stay behind as he went out through the window that was on the fifth floor.

••••••••••

••••••••••

Corno Nigour awoke in a dark room after being healed by a healer. Even after several light healing was cast on him, although the bruises and broken bones on his body were healed, he still felt pain from the sides of his head. The place that man had gripped.

He was sure his skull had been fractured but the man that stood next to the bed he awoke on said he was fine and kept repeating the same thing no matter how many times he asked. Being paranoid he used a healing paste on the spot. It was a common item on this side of the continent. While not as effective as a low-grade healing potion, it was cheap and did what it was supposed to do.

Corno stared at the skinny blonde man that stood by the door with a gold-plated bracelet on his left arm. He was Carn Lockbrook his second in command. Corno Nigour was a mid-tier member of ‘Numbers’. An underground Organization that had roots in almost all of the major cities in the Zorak region.

He was in charge of running the organization operations here in south Borough. The organization had a group in each borough here in Winged city except the Royal borough. To think someone like him that inspired fear in others would meet a pathetic loss like that to an unnamed merchant. That was an insult.

He was only a member of the Hunter guild as a cover for the organization, but he was still a platinum ranked Hunter and had the employ of several gold ranked hunters at the time. So how could he be so utterly humiliated like that?

Corno Nigour is a lesser demon, a lower class member of the demon race, someone that would never be considered an equal to actual demons not to mention nobles. He was born to be at the bottom and up until a few years ago, someone like him wouldn’t have been allowed to rise in both the Hunter guild and the organization.

He had spent years working for the organization and was finally rewarded with a promotion last year. Being the boss of his own division that specialized in smuggling goods and even slaves.

Slave trading was illegal in most of the Demon continent. Although most noble households still had slaves, it had to be due to their own efforts. This meant that when a ruling family expands their region after defeating another family’s military. They were free to deal with the remaining family members as they saw fit.

They could allow them to join their family as an outer member. Allow them to keep their lands and become vassals or simply take them as slaves. Of course, they could also take anyone in that region as slaves. However, they were forbidden from selling or trading those slaves.

Strictly speaking, the act of buying and selling slaves was forbidden but not slavery itself. It was quite a conundrum for the common folks.

However, this was just a way to prevent former nobles from being owned by commoners which would end up tarnishing the noble title albeit just a lityl. Of course, there were still a few regions that were too far to be influenced by the Great Five so slave trading was still allowed. This includes the seven regions lead by the seven deadliest behemoths.

Corno stood up and asked the skinny blonde man what happened next as he wasn’t entirely sure. The man named Carn told him about the interference of the Platinum party, Unrivaled, and how they had to retreat after he was slammed into a wall and almost died.

Anger rose within him as he heard that story, it also intensified when he heard the name of that party that had saved the merchant. Corno stood up and asked: “Doesn’t that party have dealings with the north division?”

“Ah, yes boss, it was also why we had no choice but to leave. We weren’t sure what type of dealing they had.”

“Forget it, gather all our men then send some to track down that merchant… He’ll pay for this humiliation— also send a request to the west division, tell them I’ll pay 1000 DC for Mr. 99’s help in this matter.”

A look of hesitation and apprehension came upon the face of Carn the moment he heard that name and he asked. “Do we need to enlist the help of that person, we…”

“Shut up, have you forgotten what that merchant did to me? Even if I had my guard down, do you think he will go down easily! Just Shut up and do what I say!”

“Ah, yes boss.”

Carn hurriedly ran out of the small room and Corno turned to the other person in the room and ordered. “Cast another healing spell on me.”

“There is no need, I have already done what I ca—”

“WOULD EVERYONE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DO WHAT I SAY!”

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