Leave a comment

“Sorry, I was replying to a whisper message this whole time. I ended up making you wait without even asking for your permission.”

After half-giving up on the argument and agreeing to give up half of all the gold I had left to fund the war, I was finally able to escape Katalina’s clutches for a moment. Jasmine seemed to have been studying me the whole time, as she asked me a question with a curious expression on her face.

“Hoho, don’t worry about it. The way your facial expression keeps changing so much was very funny to me. Who was it, your lover?”
“No, not my lover but rather my fiancée.”

As I needed to make sure I didn’t say something wrong, I decided to omit some words.

“Your fiancée?”

Jasmine looked surprised as if she couldn’t believe that I would have a fiancée while looking so young.

“Yes. A planned marriage between families, one could say.”
“Ohh? Looks like nobles really are different in their ways. I thought that kind of talk would only exist in the medieval ages… Ah, I don’t mean to offend you in any way so please don’t misunderstand.”
“I understand.”

I answered her as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Phew. My heart sank for a moment because I thought I said something rude just now. Thank goodness you didn’t misunderstand. I was just really surprised since I thought that kind of thing only exists within movies or dramas. If you felt even a little bit offended by it, I will apologize again for my rudeness.”

I could have definitely taken offense if I were put in a bad mood, but today I was feeling extremely generous.

“It really isn’t a big deal, but since you keep apologizing, I’ll accept that apology. Please don’t worry about it anymore.”

Though I couldn’t guarantee that I wouldn’t feel a little peeved about it in my heart if she didn’t apologize like this.

“Yes, thank you for understanding.”
“Ah! Excuse me Miss Jasmine, but since the trade is all completed now, can I be so rude in asking for a request from you?”
“A request? I’ll do it if it is within my powers.”

Hearing that she will only do it if it’s within her powers sounded like she was a little hesitant, but it was definitely the right thing to say that.

“Well the thing is, are you thinking of converting that 3 billion gold into real cash?”
“Ah, you’re talking about the gold that we just traded? Hmm… I wonder, I didn’t have anything planned for it so far.”
“So you weren’t planning to convert it to cash? You’ll be charged a hefty tax for it now though…”

That’s right. It was 300 million euros in cash after all. Even just paying the tax for such an amount would be nearly impossible for the average mid-income households, yet she wasn’t planning to convert it to cash?

“Hoho, I can pay that at least.”

Jasmine covered her mouth as she laughed, it was then I realized I was having a huge misunderstanding. I’ve had a hunch about her this whole time. Now it definitely sounded to be true.

“If that’s the case, does that mean the rumor saying that you had sold off all your property to pay for the Orichalcum was a lie?”
“It’s a secret… But since we’re in the same affiliation, I’ll tell you. Yes, that’s right. It was just a rumor. On top of that, it was a rumor that I made up.”

Haha. I felt like she definitely got me good with that one.

“Why did you make up such a rumor?”
“So that others may think that I’m really desperate for money.”

Money, huh… So in conclusion, the money wasn’t her actual goal. It was still somewhat related, but rather than making money, the main point of her plan was to hit the 3 billion gold for the quest.

“So that’s why. I see now. You said it was a class advancement quest, right? So the goal of the quest was to raise 3 billion gold?”
“Goodness. As expected of you, Miss Artoria. You figured it out perfectly. Yes, that’s right. To naturally earn 3 billion gold after gaining confidence in my line of work. Funnily enough, that was the SSS tier quest that I received.”
“Than you mean that your efforts to win a customer was all just a show?”

She smiled as if her little trick had been found out, then opened up a trade window with me.

And in that window was an extremely low tier defensive equipment.

“Is this… Actually the one…?”
“Yes. Pfft. That was what I had actually crafted.”

Jasmine couldn’t help covering her mouth to stifle a burst of giggles. It must have been very funny for her to see me slowly revealing the result with both my hands shivering.

I wasn’t really sure whether to get angry at her or not.

“So this legendary item I received was the reward for the quest completion. Something that would appear with a 100% probability…”
“That’s right. The success rate was 100% as long as I had Orichalcum and a few materials prepared. Of course, under the condition that it was to complete the quest.”
“So the 3 billion gold was just to see what kind of person they are.”
“Hoho, you caught me.”

Jasmine stuck her tongue out in a teasing way.

“So why did you give this legendary item to me? You could have pretended that it was a failure, reveal the crafting result yourself, and give me this low-quality item instead of the legendary one.”

It was all round success in the end, but if Jasmine wanted to, she could have pretended to have failed and taken the legendary item for herself.

“Of course, I did think about doing that as well. However, the quest reward item is supposed to be given to the person who had funded the 3 billion gold after all. Meaning that I had no ownership of that item in the first place. Since I won’t be able to have it in any way, it meant that I was going to have to give this to someone else for 3 billion gold. If I had revealed that truth to the public, there would have been a lot of people wanting to buy it directly from me.”

I nodded my head. She was right. Even though it was indeed extremely expensive at 300 million Euros, it was still worth every penny if it was to buy a legendary item. If it had been sold at an auction, the price could be easily several times that amount.

“That’s why I wanted to have a customer that I could believe in. And the person who had satisfied that requirement was you, Miss Artoria. In conclusion, it wasn’t that I had tricked you into giving me 3 billion gold, but rather you had decided yourself that you were willing to invest that amount in me, which led us to how you own that legendary item now.”

What Jasmine said was right. So I didn’t really feel bad about this trade. There was some secret hidden from me during the process, but it didn’t bring me any harm either. In the end, I had even recruited Jasmine into my guild through this trade so it was all-around a much more favorable outcome.

“Does that mean I owe you now?”
“Hmm. Please don’t think that way. If you do, I’d feel burdened as well. Since I had lied to you for my own benefit, let’s just say we’re even now.”

She really had a likable personality. Someone who’s extremely practical when it came to trading but also generous and compassionate. It was a very rare personality indeed.

If I was in my original body and didn’t ever get to meet Katalina, I may have considered making my moves on her at least once. But then again, I probably wouldn’t have the chance to. If I had still been in my old body, I would never have the reason to come to England nor join their server at all.

“Then you’re saying you don’t have any plan to convert that 3 billion gold into cash anytime soon?”
“Of course. If by any chance you need the cash for the funding of the war, please tell me whenever. Though I may not give it to you for free, I’ll at least give you a generous discount.”

I was actually more relieved to know that she wasn’t willing to give that gold back to me for free. To receive something for free meant that you practically still owed them in another way, so it was much more stress-free to pay something for that amount.

“So that’s everything, right?”

Hearing Jasmine’s question, I nodded my head as I spoke.

“Yes. Now let’s shake hand as a formality.”

I held out my hand. Jasmine stretched out hers and shook mine back. Perhaps due to the fact that she was a blacksmith, her hands felt coarse but in a way, they had a certain charm to them.

“I hope to serve you well, my lord.” ¹

1. Robinxen: The oath of fealty appears!