Old One-Eye's Basement (1)

By then, the carriage had turned off Landon Street and entered a commercial street. Vendors lined both sides, caught off guard by the sudden rain. And the downpour was growing heavier. People packed up their stalls, ran about, and shouted, throwing the street into chaos.

Green frowned at the sight and told the Coachman to be careful.

Green and Lola were sheltered from the rain inside the carriage, but the people outside scurried about like headless flies. Something felt wrong. Sudden rain might cause some confusion, but it was not as if knives were falling from the sky. There was no reason for such panic.

"Stop!" Green called suddenly. The carriage did not stop, and the Coachman at the front gave no reply.

An ominous feeling rose in Green's heart. He exchanged a glance with Lola and saw the same grave look in her eyes.

Green lowered his voice. "I think we've run into an Eerie."

Lola had encountered Eeries before and remained fairly calm. She nodded and drew the long-barreled revolver from her waist. As she gripped it, a faint white glow spread across her wrist and the back of her hand: her Fighting Aura had been roused. It flowed into the gun's grip, Runes surfaced on the revolver, and a sharp gleam flickered at its muzzle.

The temperature around them suddenly dropped. Frost even formed on some of the carriage's metal fittings.

Outside, the people who had been wandering like headless flies stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly. A low, grating wail sounded in the distance.

Green tightened his grip on his Magic Staff and exchanged a look with Lola. Neither made a rash move.

Meanwhile, the low, grating wail drew near, then receded, passing directly over the rooftops along the street.

A moment later, the wail vanished, the clouds parted, the mist cleared, and the rain stopped. The people on the street returned to normal, though they looked listless, as if they had been ill.

Inside the carriage, Green and Lola both let out a breath, but their hearts still raced. A powerful Eerie had passed nearby. There was no doubt about it.

Yet merely passing nearby, it had altered the weather in a small area and left an entire street of people dazed. With power like that, had a Formal Rank Eerie come to Landon City?

Fortunately, it seemed to bear them no ill will, at least not just then. Otherwise, probably no one on that street, Green and Lola included, would have survived.

Green looked in the direction the Eerie had gone. It was toward the Rose Cafe, where he and Lola had met earlier.

Trouble upon trouble. Baron Lonanks's murder still hasn't been solved, and now an even stronger, more brazen Eerie has appeared. Green pondered. I wonder whether it's friend or foe to the one from before. With Eeries appearing here one after another, Landon City really is getting more dangerous.

The incident had not changed Green's plans. A little over ten minutes later, he followed Lola to the Lower District, where they got out of the carriage before an unremarkable building beside the street.

"Miss Claudi is here!" As soon as they entered, a quick-witted young woman came over and greeted Lola warmly.

Lola introduced her as Cindy, One-Eyed Kerry Jin's lover and business receptionist. Born a commoner and university-educated, she was a shrewd young woman who had grown up fast.

"What's Old One-Eye doing?" Lola asked casually as she led Green inside.

Cindy gave a helpless look. "Darling, your timing is bad. The mayor called the old man away. Said he had some business for him."

"What sort of business? Can you say?" Both Lola and Green were curious.

"Who knows? It's all terribly secretive," Cindy said with a shrug. Anyone could see that, after learning Green was a Wilson and held the title of knight, she had deliberately mentioned the mayor to show that her connections ran deep. They did business even with the mayor and were no less well connected than the Wilson Family. But the hint was too obvious. For all her shrewdness, she was still young.

Lola knew Cindy's ways. While Cindy was not looking, she shrugged at Green to show they were not of the same mind, then silently asked whether he wanted to wait for Old One-Eye.

Green had no objection. He could wait.

Cindy then led them to a tastefully furnished reception room, made two cups of hot tea, and treated them with great warmth.

"By the way, Cindy, has anything new come onto the market lately?" Lola asked after a sip of tea. By "the market," she meant the black market.

Cindy smiled bitterly. "What new goods? Things have been downright strange lately. Several crews of those grave rats have been wiped out. With so many dead and injured, the rest hardly dare go underground to work."

"Grave rats" meant tomb robbers, the black market's main suppliers.

"Oh? What happened exactly?" Lola and Green were both intrigued.

"I only heard about it," Cindy said without hurry. "Starting half a month ago, rain kept falling out of nowhere on sunny days around Landon City. Within the rainy areas, people became dazed, as if they'd lost their souls. Some even went mad on the spot. Those grave rats ran into it several times, and it scared them out of their wits. They said they'd encountered an Eerie."

Rain! Green's heart sank as he recalled what had just happened. Has that Eerie been roaming around Landon City all this time and finally entered the city? Or did it come here with those three Elves?

Unfortunately, Cindy knew little beyond what she had heard secondhand, and the conversation soon moved on.

About half an hour later, a burly one-eyed man in his fifties, wearing a black trench coat, came in from outside.

Kerry Jin had one eye and a scar on his face, but paired with his bald head and bulbous red nose, they made him look faintly comical rather than fierce. He hardly looked the part of an underworld boss.

After some pleasantries and an explanation of why they had come, Kerry Jin proved eager to help. He had been worrying about what to do with that junk. It seemed a shame to throw away, but nobody wanted to buy it.

"Since you're interested, Mr. Wilson, why not look at the goods before we discuss the price?" One-Eyed Kerry Jin led Green and the others farther in and down a wooden staircase into a basement.

Despite being a basement, it was neither damp nor dark. Once the gas lamps were lit, they illuminated the whole room, some seventy or eighty square meters in size. More than a dozen shelves were crammed with all sorts of odds and ends.

"It's all here. Take whatever catches your eye, Mr. Wilson. We can discuss the price." Kerry Jin sounded accommodating, but he wore a merchant's look and was clearly waiting to see what Green would offer.

Green was no fool. He swept his gaze across the basement, shook his head, and smiled. "Old One-Eye, let's agree on a price first. We both know what we're looking at. These are all damaged pieces, and some are just fragments. To put it bluntly, if you dumped them outside, they'd be trash. Don't try to raise the price once I start picking. Let's keep it simple: two Gold Pounds per piece, whatever it is, and I choose what I want. How does that sound?"

One-Eyed Kerry Jin blinked his remaining eye and thought for a moment, then nodded with a laugh. "That works. Profit or loss, it'll come down to luck and a keen eye. But not two Gold Pounds. I want three per piece."

"Deal!" Green agreed at once. The difference would only amount to a few dozen Gold Pounds, hardly worth arguing over. If he chose so many items that the extra Gold Pound each cost him dearly, he would be delighted rather than upset. It would mean more Psychic Energy for his Graveyard.

With the agreement made, Green began searching the basement under the eyes of the other three. He did not inspect anything closely, merely touching things here and there. He passed three shelves without taking a single item. Kerry Jin frowned. Green had not come all this way just to make a fool of him. If he could be so casual, he must have some special way of telling whether these damaged antiques or Magic Artifacts held any value. Clearly, not one of the hundred-odd items on the first three shelves was worth taking.

Green was about to pass the fourth shelf as well when he stopped at the end. A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes, followed by a smile. He pointed. "This counts as one." With that, he picked up half of an old, rust-covered broken sword.

The three watching him were surprised that, after all that careful choosing, Green had settled on half a piece of scrap iron. Cindy lost interest altogether, turned around, and left.