"Hey, you two brats over there! If you're not buying anything, get lost and stop blocking the entrance."

In a shop on the street that sold various enchanted swords, the robed owner, whose face couldn't be seen, waved impatiently to chase away the two girls standing in front of his door.

His bad attitude wasn't because the owner was a jerk, but because for the past five minutes, the two girls had been standing motionless in front of his door, staring at him with a strange look in their eyes. It made the owner feel uneasy, as if he was being targeted by some abyssal demon in the deep forest.

"Boss, I have something to ask you."

One of the girls, with white hair and red eyes, reluctantly walked up.

"Are you here to buy something?" The owner snorted.

"Um... no, we're not buying anything."

"Then get lost." The owner became completely impatient when he noticed that the other girl was still staring at him with a chilling gaze. He picked up an enchanted sword with a sheath nearby and waved it to shoo them away.

"Wait, hey, we're here to give you money!" Aya bit her lip and pulled out a Babylonian ancient gold coin from a small pocket on her waist.

The owner, being able to recognize valuable items, immediately recognized the significant worth of the ancient gold coin. He put down the sheathed sword and quickly took the coin, but his tone remained impolite: "Just to be clear, I'm not an information broker. If I don't know what you want, don't expect a refund."

"What? Is it that scammy?" Aya suddenly felt regretful. Was it still possible to take it back now?

She must be someone who's never been out before, right? Judging from her clothes, she should be some noble lady or something. The owner couldn't be bothered with her, so he pulled over a chair from behind and sat down, resting his elbows on the table: "Ask your questions quickly."

"We're looking for someone, a cute Orc girl around nine to ten years old. Have you seen her?"

"I haven't seen her." The owner's answer was straightforward.

"Why don't you think harder?" Aya was still not giving up.

"I haven't seen her. Who brings little kids to this place anyway?" The owner rolled his eyes. In fact, he didn't say the rest of the sentence, which was that only naive noble ladies like you would come here so foolishly.

"Oh, I see..." Aya felt a bit helpless. Upon careful consideration, it was indeed true. If Hermes had caught Chirp, he definitely wouldn't have walked in so conspicuously through the front gate.

"Well then, has there been any major events in the city recently? Something big enough to alarm the whole city."

The owner looked at Aya as if she were an idiot, thinking that she must have been confined to a greenhouse her whole life. If she wanted to know that kind of thing, she could easily find out by asking at a restaurant or hotel, without wasting so much money... Noble people really didn't care about money, huh?

So stupid, it serves her right to be ripped off. The owner suddenly felt a bit sorry for Aya when he looked at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that, boss?" Aya also noticed that the owner's gaze was a bit off and shrunk her shoulders.

"It's nothing, just ignore it. There have been major events of that level—", the owner was about to speak, but a large hand pressed down from the side and slapped on the counter where the items were displayed, causing the entire table to shake.

"Hey, Lao Sa."

As the deep and resonant voice sounded, Aya noticed that the surrounding light dimmed, and when she turned around, she saw a two-meter-tall strong man standing behind her, blocking a large portion of the light.

"Just wait a moment, can't you see that I'm doing business here?"

The owner looked up unhappily and waved his hand to chase away the strong man, seemingly not worried about angering him.

"Do business? With this little girl?" The burly man pointed at Aya, took a careful look at her, and his expression suddenly became surprised. "I didn't expect it, Old Sa, to hide so well. When did you catch such a pretty girl?"

"You, stop talking nonsense. She's just here to ask me something." The boss clicked his tongue. "But you, why do you have the time to come here? My dear 'Storm Son.'"

Storm Son? Aya suddenly felt familiar with this nickname... What the heck?

The chair suddenly sprang up like a spring, and Aya quickly stepped back and silently came to Tiran's side.

"Hey, did you hear... that guy... seems to be him."

"I heard." Tiran's expression was also fascinating. Baierich, the captain of the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group who attacked them on the way to the capital, Hesse Manor, actually met here...

................

Inside the shop, the boss and Baierich didn't notice Aya sneaking out and continued talking to themselves.

"Enough with the small talk. Just say it directly, I'm about to participate in a competition, so bring out all the good stuff."

Baierich casually picked up a pair of heavily crafted swords from the counter, easily held them with one hand, and casually performed a sword dance before putting them back.

"Participate in a competition?" The boss furrowed his brows in confusion. "I heard that you struck it big recently and made a lot of money. Why do you still need to participate in this kind of competition?"

Not mentioning it would have been better. As soon as he mentioned it, Baierich's rough and square face immediately became miserable.

Yes, he did strike it big, but he was tricked! After attacking Princess Xue in Hesse Manor that day, he had a bad feeling about the situation. Sure enough, just two days later, the name "Snow Wolf Group" became an S-rank wanted across Milanía and other countries friendly to Milanía, forcing the entire mercenary group to leave their homeland where they had been making a living and seek refuge in a foreign land.

Although the reward of two hundred thousand gold coins was equivalent to several previous monster hunts by the Snow Wolf Group, it was not worth it to be hunted by multiple countries simultaneously with the highest arrest warrants just for two hundred thousand gold coins.

In their recent mission, due to operating in an unfamiliar area and insufficient intelligence, the main team made a mistake in hunting the monster, resulting in more than half of them dead or injured, and all the purchased equipment was lost. Not only did the initial preparation funds go to waste, but the subsequent equipment repairs and treatment of the wounded also depleted the remaining funds of the group, bringing the Snow Wolf Group to the verge of collapse.

"I heard that the highest reward in the competition is a valuable alchemy core. If it can be obtained, many alchemists would be willing to pay a large amount of money for it." Baierich placed his hands on the counter and said lightly.

"The official announcement stated that if it falls into the hands of a capable alchemist, its value would be around five million gold coins, which would be enough for the Snow Wolf Group to get through this crisis."

After listening to Baierich's words, the boss nodded. "No wonder you came to compete..."

"So, my dear old friend," Baierich's tone suddenly changed, and a mischievous smile appeared on his honest face as he pointed to the large sword hanging on the wall behind the boss. "I have my eyes on this treasure. Sell it to me, please?"

"You..." The boss's face was full of frustration. Indeed, he was still the Storm Son he knew.

But even so, he allowed Baierich to take down the most valuable enchanted sword in his store.

"Eighty thousand gold coins, thank you for your patronage."

"Eighty thousand gold?!" Baierich, who was originally caressing the greatsword with some joy, almost spat out blood. A legendary-quality knight sword crafted by a grand alchemist would at most cost ten thousand gold coins. You suddenly raise it eight times, isn't that just outright robbery?!

"I've given you a discount because we're friends. Don't take your good fortune for granted," the boss lazily said. "The Storm Butcher, a relic found by the legendary mercenary group 'Skyfire,' originally starts at a price of at least one hundred thousand. I've made it cheaper for you."

"Since that's the case... I'll put it on credit."

Bayinrixi patted his hair, which was as sharp as steel needles, and chuckled.

"Hey, hey, your credit score isn't enough to put such an expensive item on credit with me," the boss twitched at the corner of his eye.

"If you add my friendship value, it should be enough. Look, when I get five million gold, will I care about this small amount of money? I'll even give you back two hundred thousand. How about that?"

"You're that confident? What if you die in there and I get nothing?" The boss still had a grim expression, but finally relented and waved his hand helplessly. "Forget it, forget it. Take it if you really plan to participate in the competition..."

"Haha, thanks!"

"Go, go, go as far away as possible, and also, send me the money back before you die!" The boss kicked this bastard out with one foot on his butt. Only then did he remember that the noble girl from before seemed to have disappeared.

"Forget it, that guy already paid. Since he didn't ask, don't blame me," the boss muttered.

............

Just a short distance from the shop, Beinrich was stopped by someone.

"You are... the little girl who was in the shop just now?"

He recognized Aya, but still felt puzzled. He didn't have any impressions of these two people, and he didn't think he was the kind of person who could attract beautiful women with just his appearance... Could they be enemies?

With this thought, Beinrich cautiously reached his hand behind him to his large sword.

"I am Tiran, Tiran Elysian. Nice to meet you, Captain Bayinrixi," Tiran embraced Aya's shoulders, waved his hand in greeting, and held a shiny Elysian royal emblem in his hand.

Beinrich froze for half a second.

Tiran?

Wait, could this name possibly be...

The captain immediately broke into a cold sweat, splattering all over.