Master and Slaves

"Ah, next is that shop."

Where Azret pointed, a small old house stood alone, as if left behind among the large mansions and shops around it.

"There?"

Our plan from the afternoon was looking for a house.

Which meant I thought it was a candidate house, but someone still seemed to live there.

Smoke billowed from a chimney that was quite large and tall.

"This is a weapon shop. A familiar shop of a warrior among my companions. They handle quite good things."

Ah, right.

The first clothing shop had taken longer than I thought, and there had been the unplanned visit to The Merciful Shepherd, Enrico’s shop, so time had pressed and we had not been able to go in the morning.

Even so, a weapon shop, no, it did not look like a shop.

No sign was out.

Pass in front of this, and would anyone even notice?

But Azret went in through the door of that house as if it were his own.

I followed after and went in too.

"Hello. It has been a while."

"What. You."

From a workbench in the back, an older man who looked stubborn called out, ill-tempered.

Then he glared at me, who had come in behind Azret, as if appraising me, and was about to say something when the Dules came in one after another, and his eyes went round.

The inside of the shop was cramped. Azret, me, and a few of the Dules filled it to the brim, and the rest could not enter.

"What, what. You mean to break my shop?"

The shop’s owner, recovered, said it in a low, thick voice, as if threatening.

"Ah, no, sorry. Uh..."

Azret apologized to the owner and looked at me with a troubled face.

"For now, let’s go out once."

I nodded to Azret, then went outside with the Dules.

"Now then, who needs a weapon?"

I asked the Dules.

"I have this."

Muriel set her palm on the pommel of Caladbolg, hung at her waist, and answered.

"I make my own bow and arrows, so I do not need one."

Sophia refused too.

"I do not need one either."

Rosina shook her head too.

Hmm. Had weapons not been necessary?

"I... want one..."

Gejia muttered, reserved.

True. She did not have one.

"Then me too!"

Lilli moved to jump on that, but raised her hand more energetically than Gejia.

"Lilli! You have one, do you not?"

"But I only have this one."

Scolded by Muriel, Lilli drew the short dagger at her waist and started spinning it skillfully on her hand.

"Stop that. It is dangerous."

"Cheh."

Cautioned by Muriel, she pouted.

"Well, if you need one, buy it."

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Really? Yay!"

When I gave permission, Lilli threw up her arms and rejoiced.

Truly like a child.

I ended up smiling wryly.

Muriel was smiling wryly too, but was that at me?

Anyway...

"Then, only the two of you?"

I looked at each face, but no one raised a hand, and they nodded.

"Then Gejia and Lilli, come into the shop. The rest, wait here."

I took Gejia and Lilli and entered the shop again.

The owner of this shop was talking with Azret.

"Decided?"

"Yeah. I heard the talk from this one. Well, look at what you like."

Azret turned this way and said it with a wry smile, and the shop’s owner said it bluntly, but with a better attitude than before.

"Then I’ll have a look. Gejia, Lilli."

"Yeah." "Got it."

The two answered, then each headed for the place where the weapon they wanted was set.

I headed for where Azret and the shop’s owner were.

"I don’t sell to Dules, but it’s an introduction from Freit and the kid there."

The owner frowned his stern face and said it to me.

"Thank you."

I did not like that sort of thing, but I thanked him to save Freit’s and Azret’s faces.

I looked at Azret. He was smiling wryly.

Then I turned my eyes to Gejia and Lilli.

Lilli had gone to where the short daggers were set, and was taking them one by one and checking the feel.

Gejia, maybe not finding what she wanted, looked over the shop’s things once, then walked this way without taking anything.

"Do you have a scythe?"

Then she asked the shop’s owner.

"Hah? A scythe, that, a scythe for cutting grass? This is a weapon shop. Go to a hardware shop for that sort of thing!"

The shop’s owner flew into a rage and spat it out.

"No. Not grass. A scythe for reaping necks. I think it is a weapon, for form..."

But Gejia was unmoved, denied the owner’s words, and said something similar, yet entirely different, as if it were nothing.

"...I see. Then I am not unwilling to make one. What will you do?"

Maybe convinced by Gejia’s talk, the owner put away his anger and asked not Gejia, but me.

"Right, then have one made..."

"How much is it?"

Just as I was about to ask, Azret cut into the talk in a fluster.

"Hm? Right. Well, I am not the one making it, so I will have to talk, but... ten gold coins, I should say."

The owner set a hand on his chin and answered while thinking.

"T-ten!? ...H-Hiroyuki, over here a moment..."

Azret took my arm and led me outside the shop.

"Mas... ter?"

Muriel and the others, waiting outside, moved to approach me, but maybe they caught the air between Azret and me. They stopped without calling out and watched.

"You mean to buy that!?"

"Eh? Yeah, she needs it, so I thought I’d have it made."

At Azret’s force, I answered while drawing back before I could stop myself.

"Ten gold coins! You can buy a village! Will you put out that much for one Dule!?"

"...Compared to Gejia’s life, it is cheap."

I felt irritation at Azret’s words and said it in a slightly strong tone.

But I also understood that what Azret said was right.

No, not the part about that much for a Dule. The part about whether a weapon worth enough to buy a village was necessary.

...Could a village be bought for ten gold coins?

"But true, something that far is not necessary."

"It is not necessary!"

Azret said the same thing as me and stressed it.

"The old man here has a craftsman’s nature, and tries to make a good thing without minding the money. Ah, the old man here is not the one making the weapons, though. He likes looking at good weapons, I am told."

Azret, cooled after a breath, told me about the shop’s owner, late as it was.

"Late as it is, I did not think you would have one made."

True. The plan had been to buy what was in the shop.

"Understood. I’ll be careful."

I made peace with Azret and entered the shop again.

Then I went to the front of the counter, and Azret talked with the shop’s owner.

"Ah, about the talk just now, we want something cheaper."

"It is a weapon you entrust your life to. Nothing beats a good one."

The shop’s owner said the same thing I had been thinking.

I ended up thinking people of a craftsman’s nature were bad at business, but maybe this man was actually good at it?

"I think so too, but I do not have it on hand..."

"...Well, if that is how it is, it cannot be helped. I will make it cheap. How about nine gold coins?"

After looking over my face and body as if appraising me, he lowered the price.

While I was being looked at I was hit by a chill enough to raise the hair on my body, but he might be a good person after all.

"Then..."

"No, no, no, no. Ordinary material is fine, so can you not make it for two or three silver coins?"

Just as I was about to agree, Azret put his mouth in.

"Why is the kid cutting into the talk?"

Ill-tempered, he snapped at Azret.

"I have been asked by Freit to keep an eye."

"Guh..."

When Azret said that without a change of face, the shopkeeper choked on his words.

Had he been asked that much by Freit?

"...If it is Freit, it cannot be helped. But I will have the material be poor. This is business on my side too. I had thought to use magic mithril silver, but I will have it be steel. How about three silver coins with that?"

It had become quite cheap.

0.3 percent of the first asking price.