55 Red Hall!
( has been edited: Arthur’s explained some of what happened at the border. About 300 words were added. So if you read it just when it was published, you may like rereading it
…
“Welcome to the Red Hall, Sir Roy!”
Knowing full well who he was, a pudgy man greeted Roy, who had just entered the shop where beasts are skinned and dismembered.
‘Red hall… what a fancy name for a butcher’s shop.’ Roy muttered under his breath.
He turned to the fat man with a smile and spoke.
“Forgive me for not recognizing you. Who are you?”
Roy was from the lower ranks of the upper class; of course, he wouldn’t know of him.
Thus, the pudgy man wasn’t annoyed with him.
“it’s understandable that you wouldn’t know of me.”
The manager stabbed the name tag on his chest with his finger thrice and thumped his chest in pride, and spoke again.
“I’m the manager of this place.”
Roy’s gaze fell on this person’s name tag, and he memorized his name.
“Oh, so you’re Debra. It’s great to see you.”
“I am usually called Deb by my colleagues and friends. That’s my nickname. I don’t mind getting called that from you, Sir.”
“Then… I’ll call you that too, Deb.”
They shook hands.
The first meeting between these two went quite pleasant.
“Have you completed my order?”
“Yes. You were our top priority, so we worked extra hard to finely skin, de-bone, and cut the meat of all 120 goods. They are preserved in the storage room. The beast cores we got from them are set aside on the shelves of that very room. Now, please allow me to guide you there.” Debra said as he walked inside the Red Hall.
“Alright, lead me there.” Roy gave him a nod and followed after him.
The manager was being suspiciously humble to Roy.
He felt that Debra was up to something.
But he soon realized that he was being suspicious of an honest and humble man for no reason.
『You’ve gained materials extracted out of the corpses of the Snow Wolf Leader and the Lunar Wolf and more than a hundred snow wolves.』
『You’ve gained 27 low-level beast cores.』
“What do you want us to do with their innards?” Debra asked after completing Roy’s order.
Roy patted the manager’s shoulder. Debra saw a satisfied smile on his face. Then, he heard the words he had been waiting for. “I’m satisfied with your performance. Your guys did a good job at handling my goods. Just treat it as my reward to you guys.”
“Thank you for showing us kindness.” Debra thanked him.
Innards might not mean much to Roy now that he had hundreds of thousands of gold coins in his pocket, but they could be sold for hundreds of silver coins, which was a lot for these guys who made a living doing honest work and had families to take care of.
Roy’s goods were stored in several dozens of boxes. It was impossible for one man to carry them. Thus, Debra kindly extended a helping hand to Roy. “Should we help deliver these items to your house?”
“No need.” Roy refused him calmly.
‘But why?’ The butchers around the steel stable, who were cutting various goods, and Debra were taken aback by Roy’s words.
Even an inter-spatial ring wouldn’t have enough storage to store all of them!
How was he planning to take so many things with him?
“Open.”
At this moment, they all heard a word.
The next instant, what they saw filled them with a sense of absurdity.
A black hole opened and devoured all of Roy’s goods on the table in the split of a second before closing and disappearing into thin air.
It all happened so fast that if they could no longer see the goods, they would’ve thought their eyes were playing tricks on him.
“Unbelievable!”
“W-what… the heck did I just see?! Are my eyes playing a trick on me? O-or, Did that really happen?!”
“Facts prove it did.”
Debra composed himself quickly. Roy expected nothing less of a person in the position of managing others.
Debra smiled at Roy and said, “It was pleasant doing business with you. If you ever need labor to dismember a batch of monsters, please think about us. We’ll always put you above the others. You’ll be our top priority.”
As they say, a customer is a god.
But a customer who brings in years’ worth of wealth is far above a god.
Roy was bringing them business.
That’s why the manager was treating him so grandly.
Hearing his suggestion, Roy’s eyebrows jumped. “Now that you mentioned it, I do have a few corpses of beasts that you can take care of. But the question is, are you willing?”
“Anytime.” With a merchant smile, Debra excitedly rubbed his hands together.
“You… won’t go back on your words, right?” Roy gave him a look that urgently asked for his confirmation.
“I-I wouldn’t dare lie to you, Sir Roy.”
Debra was fully confident that no matter how hard a task he forwards their way, he and his guys would be able to complete it.
Roy smiled.
“This is what I had been waiting to hear.”
With that said, Roy snapped his fingers.
Debra felt a weird premonition in his heart.
A black hole made its appearance out of thin air, attracting many gazes.
Under the watchful eyes of several people, corpses of monsters spewed out of it, piling up to the size of a small hill.
The jaw of every onlooker widened to the point where it threatened to drop to touch the ground.
At the sight of it, Debra also couldn’t stand still, and his body trembled out of excitement.
Roy watched his eyes widen beyond the size of saucers. They were bulging out so much that it made someone fear they would pop out of their sockets with a gentle tap on his back.
Debra had the most intense reaction to Roy’s casual actions.
Why?
Well, these were the corpses of ferocious beasts, not magic beasts.
How can one bring so many of them wherever he goes?
“Sir Roy, did you loot the county’s treasury?” Debra asked Roy in a shocked voice.
Roy chuckled, “What a silly question. I still value my head? Count’s son or not, that’s a capital crime. Why would I do something that’ll get me hanged?”
He turned to leave immediately after. As he walked away, he left behind these words: “Get them done in three days. I want to put their cores up for sale in the auction that is soon to take place in the county. You’ll be paid handsomely.”
“You won’t be disappointed!”
“We’ll overwork overtime to get it done!!”
“Thank you for trusting us with this matter!!!”
The butchers exclaimed as they watched him leave.
The business he had brought them would help them a lot.
They would be paid extra.
They were good at handling different types of beasts, but knights tended to avoid this place.
Rather than entrusting their game to others, knights liked to do all the hard work themselves.
But Roy, who did not want to waste his time dismembering hundreds of beasts, entrusted his hunts to them.
He had used inspection on them and knew they could be trusted.
Since he trusted them and brought them cash, he earned their gratitude!
“Have a good day, Sir Roy!” Debra said while bowing in Roy’s direction.