Merchant association was like a tight-knit family of scammers. Most, if not all of them had their dirty secrets. Thus no one dared to go against the others in fear that their business venture would be ruined if their secrets got out.  That was also the reason why most of them ‘helped’ each other out in times of need. 

Right now, there was one such time of need. A silly good-for-nothing brat had dared to defame a merchant’s products! How could they let it pass without getting proper compensation first?

Obviously, all these reasons were bullshit, but it didn’t matter to the merchants as long as they earned some extra money.  Thus, Ashton became the target for the owner of the shop to extort some money.

“You boy, you dare say my stuff is trash?” A heavy-looking mountain of a man grabbed the back of Ashton’s collar and pulled him back inside the shop, “It’s one thing to criticise them but to say the things made by the sweat and blood of our artisans and weaponsmiths is trash is utterly unacceptable.”

It was the first time Ashton got a good look at the owner’s face and he looked exactly like a piece of shit would have. The shop owner’s hair looked as if the man had been taking an oil shower. Even his skin was awfully slimy and overall let out a disgusting scent.

If someone were to say that the man looked more like a ball with sticks inserted into it to make up limbs, they wouldn’t have been wrong. Other than that, there were no notable features of the man…

“Oi! I’m talking to you, you turd!”

“What do you want? I just said what I thought was correct. Why should I pay 1500 blue units for a bunch of stone arrows?” Ashton was getting irritated, partially due to the man’s repulsive smell and partially due to how he was behaving.

“You shit! You think you are some great merchant who can just tell what’s something worth just by seeing them?” 

Everyone present in the shop started laughing. In their eyes, Ashton was someone who had no idea about how the weapon effects and stat enhancement worked. In other words, he was simply a kid who didn’t know what he was talking about.

It was rare for fights to break out in the area of Merchants. Not because they were strong or anything, but because of their ‘unity’ of convenience. It was safe to say, if someone messed with one merchant, they messed with the entire merchant association.

It was also the reason why even though some of the buyers got cheated now and then, they kept it to themselves because they knew fighting would only get them into more trouble. Hell, they could even ban that person from entering the marketplace of Contingent altogether. 

Well, they technically won’t be able to do that. But they would stop selling the troublesome person any goods. Even food and water. For obvious reasons, Ashton did not know about it and was only avoiding trouble to not cause even more problems. 

However, unlike Ashton, it didn’t seem like the shopkeeper was going to let go of the matter so easily. 

“Oh, you thought they were shit… I see.” 

Suddenly the demeanour of the shopkeeper changed as he walked up to the nearest cabinet and took out a black sword. The sword had a thin one-edged blade that was curved a bit and appeared to be extremely sharp. It also had a long grip which suggested it was a sword meant to be wielded using two hands.

The eyes of everyone around them started shining the moment the owner walked back. All of them were behaving as if they had gotten to see some sort of forbidden treasure. 

The shopkeeper proudly brandished the sword as if it was the single greatest thing ever made. His performance was so good, Ashton almost wanted to believe him as well. At that moment, he realised why this shop was so famous.

It wasn’t because of the quality of things provided there, but how they were presented to the buyers. The shopkeeper was honestly born to do this. But just by one look, Ashton could see what was behind the curtain of all the ‘drama’ the man was doing.

It was a decent sword. Better than the rest of the things present in the shop. But it was still a common weapon with a low-grade defence boosting enhancement. That was all it took for others to start fawning over the weapon as if it was some godly relic that would save the world from Night creatures. 

“This is what the humans used to call a Katana!” The shopkeeper roared in a dramatic voice, “And now I will demonstrate what it can do, at the expense of this child.”

Without anyone could even process what the shopkeeper had just said, he swung to katana to rip Ashton’s overcoat apart. Everything happened in a flash. The shopkeeper’s swing connected with something, but it wasn’t Ashton’s coat. But to the armour behind him.

The steel-plated armour that was being advertised as having the rare ‘unbreakable’ charm on it, was slashed in half with a single strike. The merchant had thought he would teach a lesson to Ashton and then make him pay… but now, everything was ruined. 

Never in his darkest dreams would he have thought that Ashton would be able to dodge his attack. That’s why he went all-out and now he was fcked. Everyone who was present in the shop had their eyes fixated upon the broken ‘unbreakable’ armour.

“I-It’s not like what it s-seems! I a-assure you!” The shopkeeper let go of the sword and began stuttering as he realised what kind of mess he was in, “The armour did not break because it was a counterfeit or something… i-it broke because the sword was just too darn powerful. Y-Yeah that’s what happened.”

However, it was a bit too late for the shopkeeper to make amend and try covering his mess. Everyone had seen what happened with their own eyes. There was no freaking way the shopkeeper was ever going to make a come back after this mess. 

As much as Ashton wanted to know what happened afterwards, he knew if he stayed longer things would get messy. So he made a break for it along with Disha. As soon as they were out of the market, they started laughing uncontrollably. Knowing that the shopkeeper was fcked.

But what they didn’t know, was that they should not have messed with the merchant. Those people were neither forgetful nor forgiving.. Sooner or later, what Ashton did would get him in trouble.