Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

To take out Master grade elixirs to heal someone he barely knows, naturally, it would come as a surprise to her. 

on the other hand, although Simon kept a composed exterior, even he was surprised internally.

After explaining till here, Cynthia looked at the provisional adventurer once again and beseeched.

"The number of people injured or have suffered grave injury after the last battle are quite a lot. They would inevitably lose their life if they are not healed. As the client for this job and also the mistress of the Serene Palace Merchant guild, I'm obligated to help those that have fought for me. That is why I ask if there is any chance that you can sell those elixirs to me. Of course, I will give you the best price for each of them".

From the gravity of her words, it was clear that she felt responsible for all the deaths and injuries that their convoy had suffered. Alvara too bowed her head, they knew that after the favour that Simon had shown them earlier, it was asking too much from him to sell his elixirs to them.

Nonetheless, they had no other choice. They cannot possibly discard these brave warriors who stood with their convoy even when the odds were against them. If they did not heal them, they cannot continue their journey.

Simon knew what they were thinking after the topic about his elixirs came; however, he still shook his head. His denial disheartened the two but before they could become any more depressed, the next words that came out from Simon's mouth, gave them a new hope.

"How about we do it like this… I'm willing to give you my elixirs but I am not simply selling it to you".

Cynthia made a serious expression and matched the adventurer's gaze "You mean to say that you want to do a transaction with my guild?".

Simon smiled, he knew that the woman in front of him was a cunning businesswoman, just a few words from him was enough for her to interpret his intention.

"That's correct, I will sell my elixirs to your Serene Palace Merchant Guild in return for a satisfiable sum of money and a promise" he added.

Alvara kept her quiet and observed the two parties, her mistress who she knew was a calculating woman when it came to business and the black-robed young man who had saved them multiple times and had enough prowess to even contend against Jeeves who she had lost to.

After pondering over it, Cynthia exhaled a deep breath of air and said "Since you are a benefactor of ours, my Serene Palace Merchant Guild will not argue with you, however, can I know what this promise is beforehand. If it is something beyond my reach, I would have to reject..".

"Don't worry about it, the condition isn't something beyond your reach. It's just that I want you to promise me that you will help me in the future no matter what when the time comes and I ask for your aid".

His expression was replaced by a stern and firm gaze. Since he was not a human, he did not have much attraction to these denominations of money that they use for transactions. Instead, Simon thought that it would be much for useful for him if he can make the mistress of the Serene palace Merchant guild owe him a promise.

<br/>He was a cautious person by nature and this would be his first time going to the capital of a human kingdom, a place filled with powerful people. There is no way to tell if his preparation would be enough at that time and hence he wanted additional assurance.

Since he was already entangled with the Serene Palace Merchant Guild, why not make use of them? Simon could tell that they held quite a bit of power back at the capital, it would not be bad to have such a backer behind him when he entered the capital.

Cynthia bit her lips and contemplated over her options, with her years of experience of doing business with a variety of traders and people, it is not impossible to guess the real intention behind the man's words but the problem was that…

"Alright, my Serene palace merchant guild promises you. You will be rewarded adequately for the contribution on top of the reward we already promised to give you" Her slender body made a graceful arc after she was done putting her words.

Simon nodded his head and without further ado, purchased thirty elixirs from the shop and brought it out on the table in front of the two shocked gazes.

"These are all the elixirs I'm currently willing to sell to your merchant guild please have a look" Simon smiled, he wanted to increase his value to them even more so that when the time ever comes when he asks their aid in return, they wouldn't be able to reject.

Thirty elixirs whose grade was at least a Master tier, was kept in the table in front of them so casually. Cynthia and Alvara couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw these many numbers, they had expected the adventurers to take out a dozen or so elixirs but never did they think that the man had this many bottles with him.

It should be known that Master grade elixirs are only available in the market of the capital very rarely and are always hoarded by those rich and influential ones first. Their Serene Palace Merchant guild also had quite a few of them in their inventory but the market for the elixir was always less supply and excessive demand.

Hence there was never a stock left after an auction. It could be seen from how even Cynthia did not have many master grade elixirs with her and the ones she had with her, wasn't for healing.

Although she was taken a bit for a while, she was extremely meticulous when it came to business. Her composure returned to her and she was back to her previous self.

"Alright I will calculate the price and give you an adequate form of remuneration" right after saying that, she handed him a purple card that had the number 1000 on it.

"There are 1000 black gold coins in it, you can use this card to store your black gold coins. As for the remaining sum of money, I would like to pay it after we reach the capital" Cynthia said tucking her violet hair behind her ears.

1000 black gold coins? Simon was shaken internally. From what he understood from Chuck back then, was that black gold coins were quite a bit of money for even the veteran adventurers. 100 gold coins= 1 Black gold coins and he had thousands of them inside this card. Didn't it mean that he had 100,000 gold coins?

Compared to the small amount of money he had plundered from Laris, it was like the difference between a small puddle and a large lake. After collecting his thoughts with the help of recently evolved [Super thought Processing] skill that increased the processing ability of his brain multiple times, Simon nodded and got up from his seat.

He was not particularly worried about not receiving the remaining sum of money since he didn't have much use for them as of yet anyways. Just when he was about to turn around and leave, the mistress of the Serene Palace Merchant Guild stopped him and handed him another emblem.

"This is?" Simon asked observing the emblem that was made of some unknown material, carving a mighty white palace in between.

"That is the VIP pass which would allow you to go inside in any of our auction houses in the capital without needing to wait in the queue. It also has various other privileges that the average populace of the capital cannot enjoy. Keep it with you".

Alvara answered the question for him as she led him outside. Internally though, even she was surprised to see her mistress give out the VIP emblem to the man. One must know that only a few influential families and noble houses in the entire kingdom had the right to possess a VIP emblem of their Serene Palace Merchant Guild.

After the two of them exited the wagon, a white illusory light drifted off from the jade ring on the woman's hand.

"Why are you trusting him that much? I already told you that man is a Demon noble didn't I?" King Leo's voice came from the white smoke-like substance.

Cynthia nodded her head and replied "I know but I feel like that Demon Noble is quite peculiar and different from the others".

"Huh? What is this naïve little girl saying? A Demon Noble masquerading as a human… what good intentions could they have?" the guardian spirit thundered.

"I know but after all the things that have happened; I just want to see where this development would lead to" she replied with a vague answer. Suddenly she knitted her delicate brows and remembered something.

"You told me you would tell me about the ability Jeeves had later".

King Leo became silent after those words and only opened his mouth after a while "[Beast Inheritance]....".

After Alvara led him outside, they strolled for a while before she thanked him again and went back. When he returned to his wagon, he found Adalinda who was excitedly waiting for him.

"Where did you go?" she asked without missing a beat.

Simon frowned "I should be the one asking you? When did you disappear from the campsite?". Earlier when he was recuperating from his injuries, he felt the presence of the little girl darting off to somewhere.

As if waiting for this question of his, Adalinda started beaming and excitedly told him about the thing that she found in the norther outlaw forest.