Chapter 189: The Crippling Debt

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

When Chipango returned to the Reaper Mercenary Corps’ base, Han Jin was happily chatting with his companions. Chipango gave Han Jin a look and said, “My Lord…”

“Did you find something? No need to be secretive, everyone here is a friend.” Han Jin said lightly.

Chipango hesitated for a moment before retelling his meeting with Hallister, including the two plans they had come up with, as well as his opinion on his old friend. He described everything in detail, because he knew full well that he wouldn’t be the one making the final decision. If things were to go wrong because of information he had neglected to mention, his standing with Han Jin would suffer a great blow.

After listening to Chipango, everyone in the hall went quiet. After a while, Edison suddenly said, “Why do we need to go through all that trouble? If you are certain Eva will show up to the auction, we should capture her then and there. There is no way Manteco wouldn’t come out of hiding then!”

Han Jin looked at Gibran, but didn’t speak.

Majordomo Gail smiled. “Second Young Master, what if he simply refuses to come out of hiding?”

“Impossible!”

“If we employ this strategy against the Young Master… it probably would work,” Gail said half-jokingly. “But we might not get the desired result if we use this plan against Manteco.”

“Would he really do nothing when his sister is in our hands? Is he even human??”

Han Jin just wanted to take care of this threat and didn’t care whether or not Manteco was human, which was why he ignored Edison. He asked Gibran in a light voice, “If you are the one to follow Eva, how confident are you?”

“To be honest…” Gibran paused. “Even though everyone says a thief is every magician’s worst nightmare, magicians are also every thief’s worst nightmare.” At this point, Gibran paused and glanced at Yalina instead of explaining himself. A magician like Yalina who gave special ‘care’ to thieves were the nightmares of nightmares.

“In other words, you aren’t very confident?” Han Jin asked.

“Correct.” Gibran nodded. If Eva wasn’t on high alert, everything would be fine, but it would be extremely difficult to follow a magician who actively tries to avoid being followed. At that point, it would be easier to straight up assassinate her.

“Then the second plan is the only option,” Han Jin enthusiastically said.

“My Lord, Hallister said he would need your help. He has to have one or two powerful guards to display his power and influence.” Chipango said this to Han Jin, but was actually looking at Edison.

Majordomo Gail was a shrewd old man and immediately smiled. “Second Young Master, he’s trying to borrow some men from you.”

“Borrow?” Edison blanked, then immediately understood. “Oh right, this kid just said that Manteco knows your people. Ok then. Nildac, Myran, you two are idling around anyway; might as well go help them.”

“Understood,” Nildac and Myran answered uniformly.

“You know what, I might as well go with you two.” Edison suddenly slapped the table and stood up.

“NO!” Yalina and Majordomo Gail shouted unanimously.

“What? I’m just worried Nildac and Myran might blow their cover and won’t be able to handle the situation.”

“If even they can’t handle it, there is no way you can.” Yalina did not go easy on her brother.

“I…” Edison sat back down dejectedly. “I’m just trying to help you!”

“You are helping me by simply staying here.” Yalina rolled her eyes at Edison.

“A person of great power should at least have a butler of some kind, correct? I will accompany these two.” Majordomo Gail smiled. “I trust Second Young Master will be safe with all of you protecting him.”

“Uncle Gail, you are coming along as well? That’s wonderful!” Yalina’s face instantly lit up.

“It is good for a man of my age to stay active.” Majordomo Gail glanced up and down at Chipango. “Your friend must still be waiting?”

“He is,” Chipango immediately replied respectfully. He was a smart person; when he saw that Yalina’s face immediately lit up after Majordomo Gail volunteered, he instantly know that this was a person of power worthy of Yalina’s respect, and accordingly humbled his attitude.

“You two stay put for now.” Majordomo Gail turned toward Nildac and Myran, then looked back at Chipango. “Let’s go meet your friend. We shall see if he is worthy of my appearance.”

Chipango studied Han Jin’s face. He only smiled after he saw a slight nod and replied, “Of course. If you would please follow me,” before leaving.

Majordomo Gail followed Chipango out of the hall, and Edison shrugged. “Is that Manteco worth all this trouble?”

“That man is a viper. Since we have wounded him, we need to finish the job; otherwise, who knows when he will come back to bite you,” Gibran said flatly.

“Who are you talking about?” Winston suddenly interjected.

“Manteco. Who did you think I was talking about?”

“Oh… I thought you were talking about…” Winston glanced at Gibran, then shut his mouth.

Han Jin and his followers didn’t quite understand what Winston meant, but Gibran instantly reacted and coldly answered, “I don’t have a habit of making jokes.”

“This isn’t a joke,” Winston slowly said. “It was a year ago, and back then, the Reaper Mercenary Team and the Abyss Mercenary Team weren’t enemies yet. One time, I was chatting with Manteco, and somehow the topic shifted to you. Do you know what he said about you?”

“Not interested.” Gibran said with his usual coldness.

“Haha…” Winston laughed, then continued on as if he were talking to himself. “He said, Gibran is truly a malicious man – one that shouldn’t be messed with easily. If you do mess with him though, you must not stop until he’s dead; otherwise, who knows when he’s going to come back and bite you. Judging by your attitude toward Manteco, I would say the man knows you well.”

Han Jin and the rest of his team wanted to laugh, but also felt like it wasn’t very respectful of Winston to say those things in public. Gibran seemed to be struggling as well. He wanted to show his displeasure, but didn’t want to embarass Han Jin and his team. Still, he wasn’t satisfied with silently taking the insult either. Just then, Julia suddenly said, “Gibran has his own set of codes; how can you compare him to that bastard Manteco?!”

温斯顿听出茱莉亚的口气很愤怒,急忙摆手道:”抱歉,刚才我只是顺口重复了一下以前的事,没有多想,唉…一年前,我们收割者和深渊走得很近,你们红色尖兵和龙吟者的关系很好,现在呢?我们成了朋友,而曼特裘成了我们共同的敌人,这世界变化实在太快了…”

Winston detected Julia’s angry tone and hurriedly waved his hands. “My apologies. I was just telling an interesting story and meant no disrespect. I just didn’t… sigh… A year ago, us Reapers and the Abyss were close, while your Red Vanguards and the Dragon Singers often worked together. And now? We’ve become friends because of our common enemy Manteco. How fast this world changes around us…”

Gibran ignored Winston’s remark and even forgot about his disrespect. He stared at Julia with a mix of shock and happiness; did she really just defend him?

Julia, on the other hand, lowered her head in embarrassment. After all this time, she had already forgiven Gibran, but unfortunately, Gibran seemed to have suffered from too many rejections, and had acquired a fear of her; he didn’t dare talk to her, didn’t dare look into her eyes, and even when they ran into each other occasionally, Gibran would always be the first to break eye contact. That made Julia very distressed, which made her treat Gibran even more harshly, which in turn, caused Gibran to be even more awkward. It was a vicious cycle.

But Julia didn’t know what she was supposed to do. In her mind, Gibran was the one at fault, and all she was waiting for was a proper apology. However, because of an inopportune comment from Winston, she had become the one to break down the barrier first.

The only one left in Gibran’s eyes was Julia. He sat in his seat, dumbstruck, disregarding everyone else around.

Han Jin quietly stood up and whispered, “Let’s go; give them a chance to talk.”

No one was dumb, and they all knew this was a great opportunity for Gibran and Julia to reconcile. Moxinke and the rest followed Han Jin with a snicker. Winston seemed to have understood as well. He waved to signal his teammates to leave, then left as well, closing the door behind him.

Julia wanted to get out too, but her heart went soft for a moment, and her foot went soft with it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stand up. Before she could make up her mind, the door had been shut. The only ones left were the two of them.

* * *

As the night approached, Sunier pushed open Han Jin’s door after a day of shopping. Judging by her expression, Han Jin assumed she had a good haul.

“How was it?” Han Jin smiled.

“Bought around 170 or so fifth-grade earth element magic crystals, as well as 200 or so fire element ones.” Sunier sat in a chair beside Han Jin. “Also, here’s the sword you wanted.”

Sunier put all the stuff she had bought on the table. Two mountains of magic crystals shone brilliantly, one a faint yellow, and the other a fiery red. Beside them were seven or eight swords.

Han Jin held up the swords and carefully inspected them. He did not need magic swords – just ones that were well forged. Among all of the Daoist Arts he had learned, he was most familiar with his master’s trademark move, ‘A Stone Splashes a Thousand Waves,’ which was also the most powerful means of offense at his disposal. That meant that he needed a good stock of swords.

“Do these work? I went to the best weapon shop in Isolated Cliff City. If even these aren’t up to your standards, we will have to go to other cities,” Sunier said worriedly.

“These will do.” Han Jin nodded with a smile.

“Great,” Sunier said. “We also accepted a contract from the Mercenary Association to buy 2000 earth and fire element crystals each. Not sure if we will get that much, but we have time.”

“A total of 4000?” Han Jin was shocked. “Even if we actually get that much, where will we store them? My space ring won’t fit all of it.”

“We have Yalina; what are you worried about?” Sunier smiled. “You have no idea how big her space ring is. I saw her shopping; she had so much gold it felt like an endless river.”

“That can’t be right. We asked her when transporting the dragon bones, remember? She said her space ring was full.”

“That…” Sunier’s expression turned doubtful as she remembered the past. “Maybe she couldn’t fit the dragon bone, as a whole, in there, and they wouldn’t be worth as much if we were to smash them. Or maybe she had other reasons, who knows?”

Han Jin quickly dropped the topic. “How many magic crystals did you buy… and for how much?”

“I didn’t buy them; it was Yalina.” Sunier thought about it. “The swords for you cost around a thousand, and…”

“That expensive?”

“Expensive?” Sunier rolled her eyes. “We had to pay 20,000 gold coins as a deposit to even accept the contract from the Mercenary Association.”

“How much??” Han Jin nearly jumped up. You really can’t blame him; not long ago, he still had to count his silver coins, and the fact that he didn’t faint on the spot when he heard about the 20,000 gold should be proof enough of his mental fortitude. Besides, that was only the deposit!

“Let me break it down for you.” Sunier looked at her fingers. “Before, one fifth-grade earth element magic crystal cost ten gold. Now, the price has increased to around twenty, while fifth-grade fire element crystals cost twenty-eight. Think about it; we bought 4,000 magic crystals, how could they let us accept the contract if we couldn’t even give them 20,000 gold worth of deposit?”

“You sure you didn’t get scammed?” Han Jin said through gritted teeth.

“Impossible!”

“If only Keeyley were here.” Han Jin sighed.

Sunier’s face turned red at the mention of Keeyley. Last time, she was the one who had bought a batch of magic crystals without much thought. In the end, Keeyley had to step in, and had managed to lower the price. Sunier remembered Keeyley’s segmented buying method, which she had forgotten to use again.

“Edwina was with us the whole time. Even if me and Yalina might fall for a scam, do you really think Sister Edwina is that dumb?” Sunier tried her best to explain herself.

“How much gold would it take to buy all of the magic crystals?” Han Jin was so agitated he had forgotten how to do math.

“96,000, plus 960 in tax.”

Han Jin felt dizzy. What kind of joke was this? Even though he had a few eighth-grade earth element magic crystals, even those weren’t worth much. Eighth-grade fire or lightning element magic crystal did go up to tens of thousands of gold, but eighth-grade earth element ones were worth, at most, one or two thousand. There was no way in hell he would be able to muster up such an astronomical amount of wealth.

Wait! Han Jin suddenly remembered the ninth-grade lightning element magic crystal Yalina had gotten from killing the ninth-grade Thunderbird. If eighth-grade ones could be sold for tens of thousands of gold, a ninth-grade one should be worth far more than that. That should partially take care of the debt, which calmed down Han Jin’s beating heart a bit. “Sunier, how much money did Yalina bring with her?”

“Not exactly a polite question for me to ask is it?” Sunier looked at Han Jin. She then comforted him, “Don’t worry about it. Yalina said we just need to make a dragon scale leather armor and sell it. That should be enough.”

“No, we can’t sell that.” Han Jin instantly rejected the proposal. He had talked to Yalina about the defensive power of a dragon scale armor, and at the moment, he didn’t know who was an enemy, and who was a friend. More precisely, he didn’t know who might become an enemy, and who might become a friend. If something as powerful as the dragon scale leather armor were to fall into the wrong hands, it would eventually put them in a predicament.

“Why not?”

“You will understand eventually.” Han Jin paused. “If anything, we should sell that Thunderbird magic crystal first, then think of something if that’s not enough.”

“We can’t sell that magic crystal!”

“Why not?” Now it was Han Jin’s turn to be confused.

“Did you forget something? Yalina’s area of focus is lightning magic – she needs that magic crystal!”

Han Jin froze for a moment, and the immense pressure he felt before came back in an instant. He did not have the same kind of background as Yalina or Sunier. They all came from powerful families, especially Yalina, as she was the daughter of the Duke of the Capital of Elements; there was no way she had to worry about financial stuff. But he was only a broken nobleman, and like the saying goes, kids from poor families grow up faster.

Of course, buying magic crystals was a good thing. If they actually managed to acquire those 4,000 magic crystals, it was enough for him to leap forward in power, enough for him to start absorbing sixth-grade magic crystals. The issue was, what should he sell to buy those 4,000 magic crystals? Would he actually have to sell the dragon scale armor?

“4,000 magic crystals is too much,” Han Jin said with a long face. “How about… we go cancel the contract?”

“And give up on the deposit?” Sunier glared.

Han Jin had forgotten about the deposit. The person he missed the most at this moment was Keeyley. If she were here, they wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, Han Jin thought. You had to know your limit when it came to purchasing things. Even though Keeyley acted very naive on many matters, and maybe it was because of the place she had grown up in, but she had a brilliant mind when it came to business.

“Sunier, can you just estimate how many coins Yalina has left?”

“I would say… not much. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have mentioned crafting and selling dragon scale leather armors.”

“Are gold coins the only thing people use around here? Isn’t it really inconvenient to carry so many gold coins around all the time?”

“You mean…”

“Is there something that’s easier to carry and would represent, say, 100 or more gold coins each?”

“Oh, you mean magic cards. Those were things from a long time ago. Almost no one uses it anymore.”

“Why?” Han Jin asked.

“Because the continent right now is too chaotic; no one trust magic cards anymore.” Sunier studied Han Jin’s face as she answered, and finally, tried to encourage him, “You don’t have to worry about the money. If all else fails, and you refuse to sell the dragon scale leather armors, we can borrow some from Gibran, or even Winston. Yalina’s second brother is here as well; he can’t have an empty pocket either, right?”

“I don’t want to owe anyone a favor. It’s better if we take care of our problem by ourselves.”

Sunier’s eyes suddenly lit up. “I know of a way! Let Yalina make her dragon scale leather armor, and then sell it to Gibran. He has been a mercenary for many years now and must have a sizeable saving. This way, no one owes anyone anything.”

Sunier saw Han Jin’s frown loosen, and she hurriedly stood up. “I’ll go get Yalina and talk to her about this.”

Han Jin watched Sunier leave, then sighed. No matter what, he should take it one step at a time. He carefully picked out two fire magic crystals from the pile. Aside from the flying swords, he lacked offensive Daoist Arts. He didn’t know how powerful the Three True Flame, concentrated from the fire element, would be, but… hopefully it would be satisfactory!

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