Well, our visitor sure looked suspicious. He was clad head to toe in white: white cape, white robe, and a white hood drawn so tight around his face that I could only make out his eyes. And he wasn’t alone.
“Well, well...”
I didn’t bother to hide my change in expression when I saw he was with the mummy man who’d sicced the trolls on me earlier. The two of them slowly stepped into the room. The mummy man was limping a little.
Gourry closed the door behind them. The mummy man looked over his shoulder in alarm, but the man in white was completely unfazed. They came to a stop in the center of the room, with Gourry and me flanking them.
“So you and Mummy Man here know each other, huh?” I said.
“Mum—!”
The mummy man’s eyes went wide in outrage, but before he could lay into me, the man in white stopped him.
“He sure knows how to make a strong first impression,” I added.
“I’m sorry about that,” replied the man in white. “His name is Zolf. He takes his responsibilities very seriously, but that inclines him to impulsiveness at times... I hope you can forgive him.”
“Sure, but it’s still gonna factor into my price.”
It didn’t dawn on me until about this point in the conversation that the man in white wasn’t human. I hadn’t noticed before in the dim lamplight, but what I could see of the area around his eyes looked like it was something more solid than skin. I mean, I wasn’t about to reach out and touch it, so I couldn’t be certain... but it sure looked like it was stone or something.
I thought he might be a golem for a second, but I dismissed that theory quickly. Golems were created to serve humans, and this man had the glint of self-determination in his eyes.
“Very shrewd of you... but fine. Let’s negotiate,” he said.
“Okay. You want to buy something off me, right?”
“Yes. Something you took from a bandit hideout a while back.”
“What something, exactly?”
“I can’t say.”
“You can’t say?” I questioned with a scowl.
“No, I cannot.”
“This isn’t how buying things works, in my experience...”
“Just hear me out. If I start by telling you what I want, you might try to overcharge me. Or you might get curious about why I want it and then refuse to sell, no? So here’s my offer: Put a price on all the items you’ve acquired recently. Then we’ll pay your asking price for the particular one we want.”
“I think I get it. But I’ve gotta say, you don’t really look like the type to be buddying up with bandits...”
“I’ve been looking for this item for some time,” the man in white said. “Zolf was one of several men I sent to search it out. He infiltrated that bandit gang, and one day, they stumbled upon the item in question. Zolf had the bandits steal it, and he planned to make off with it and bring it to me at his next opportunity.”
“But then I showed up, huh?”
“Precisely.”
“Still, using bandits to steal something, only to run off with it yourself... That’s kinda petty, don’t you think?”
“You’re one to talk about pettiness.”
Ahem!
“Well, your terms seem fair, at any rate. Let’s get down to business. My inventory consists of a statue, a knife, and a couple of old coins. I’ve got some gemstones too, but I figure we can leave those out of this. It’s clear they’re just ordinary gems; no one would let me name my price for them.”
The man in white nodded in agreement.
“Okay, let’s see here. Starting with the knife...”
I proceeded to set a price for each item, as requested. The man in white took a few staggering steps backward, the mummy man’s eyes shot wide open, and Gourry’s jaw went slack.
Men! They’ve got no guts and no balls. If you let the seller set the prices, you’d better be ready to pay a hundred times market value!
Actually... I just realized I’d inadvertently asked for about enough to buy myself a whole furnished castle. Whoopsie! Hahaha.
“I was prepared to pay double or triple the market price, but...” the man in white managed to stammer after a few moments.
“Yeeeah, I guess a hundredfold markup is a little outrageous. Aha, hahaha...”
“You didn’t even realize what you were asking?” the man in white asked, exasperated.
“Anyway, since that’s definitely too high... slash everything I just said in half.”
“Only in half?!”
“Th-This little brat is trying to take us to the cleaners!”
“Shut up, Zolf.”
Brat?! Rrgh!
Ooh, there goes that temper of mine again...
“I don’t suppose you’d agree to an installment plan or be willing to send an invoice later?”
“In your dreams. Why would I accept stupid conditions on top of the grief of being called a brat by a third-rate sorcerer who can’t tell Fireball from Lighting?”
“Wh-What?!” Apparently Mummy Man was just now realizing how he’d been duped. “I called you a brat because that’s exactly what you are! You little—”
“Zolf! That’s enough!” The man in white scolded Mummy Man so harshly that it left him shaking in his bandages. “All right, here’s my final offer. Would you work with me? In one year’s time—no, in half that—I can pay you two to three times your original asking price.”
“Hmm.” I folded my arms. “Seems like you want whatever this thing is pretty bad... So I bet if I say no, I go right from bargaining partner to enemy, right?”
The man in white didn’t respond beyond slightly arching one eyebrow.
“As for me, I’d like to limit my dealings with your ilk as much as possible. I can’t exactly say why... Let’s just call it women’s intuition.”
“Hmm.”
“And right now, my intuition is telling me that I’d be better off dead than working with you.”
Zolf leaned forward angrily. He clearly had something to say, but he stopped dead in his tracks mid-breath. He seemed to lose his nerve the second he noticed the air of hostility swirling between me and his companion. The sheer force of the man in white’s aura told me that he wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
Our staring contest lasted a few good seconds, but it was the man in white who eventually backed down. He let out a deep sigh.
“We’re at an impasse, then... But I suppose that’s life, strong-willed girl.”
“Yeah, it’s too bad.”
“I will withdraw peacefully for today, as promised. But I will return to take the item, by force if necessary. The second you leave this inn tomorrow morning, you and I are enemies.”
I gave him a small nod. He then turned to leave.
“Let’s go, Zolf.”
“B-But...”
The man in white ignored Zolf’s protests and made for the door. Gourry opened it just in time. Zolf lingered a minute, then hurried after his companion.
“Oh, I forgot to mention...” Just on the other side of the door, the man in white stopped and said without turning back, “My name is Zelgadis.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Gourry promptly shut the door behind our visitors.
“They’re gone,” he said after a few minutes. “So, why’d you put those outrageous prices on everything?”
“Would you have been happier if I’d sold them what they wanted at a reasonable price?”
With a wry smile, Gourry shook his head.
“Ahh, what nice weather...”
I was currently stretched out on the ground, gazing up at a perfectly clear sky.
The sunlight was like heaven, warm and toasty. The road we’d been following mostly ran through forest, but we’d come out into a relatively open plain for now. The sky was bright blue, the birds were singing, and... the smell of blood was in the air.
“It doesn’t get much better than this...” I murmured.
“Say, Lina...” Gourry said, heaving for breath as he collapsed next to me. “You can’t just leave a guy to do all the fighting... while you lounge around enjoying yourself...”
I glanced back at the mounds of berserker corpses Gourry had left in his wake.
“Aha, sorry ’bout that. But hey, I did chip in a little...”
“Only at the start and only a tiny bit. But then, instead of casting even one attack spell to help me out, you just said, ‘You take it from here.’”
“...Yeah, I guess I might’ve done that.”
“No, you definitely did,” Gourry argued, using his sword to struggle to his feet.
“You should rest a little while longer,” I encouraged, but Gourry shook his head.
“We need to reach the next town by nightfall or they’ll come after us again. Let’s get moving.”
I couldn’t blame him for being frustrated. I’m sure he wasn’t pleased that I’d sat the fight out, and his own exhaustion seemed to be fouling up his mood. But I continued to just lie there instead of responding.
“Lina,” he said in the tone of a scolding father as he walked up to me with surprisingly steady legs.
“C’mon, just a little longer. The sun feels so nice...”
“Enough already!” he shouted, grabbing my right arm and yanking.
No, not that!
“Urgh!” I unwittingly groaned in agony.
“Huh?” Gourry stammered as he released me.
I curled up into a fetal position, pressing my forehead against the ground. I don’t like to admit this, but I have a really low pain tolerance.
I whispered a faltering Recovery spell, focusing the power in my right hand into my wound. Bit by bit, the pain began to recede. Normally a wound this size would’ve healed a lot faster, but this one was especially slow going. I had to wonder...
“...Lina?”
“Hmm?”
I looked up at Gourry, trying to remain as calm as I could... even though I knew there was no hiding it now.
“Are you... hurt?” he asked.
I gave him a little smile, which probably didn’t do much to reassure him.
“Just ate too much.”
Gourry moved around in front of me, sat down, and looked at me hard.
“...What?”
I stared into his eyes. He stared back into mine.
“Urgh!”
I groaned again as a new jolt of pain ran through me. Gourry had thrust his hand into my cape, incidentally brushing the wound on my right side. He quickly pulled his hand back when he saw how I responded, however.
“You...” he whispered in a hushed voice. “You’re covered in blood...”
“...I’m fine.”
I was doing my best to grin and bear it, but I was also telling the truth. The pain was still steadily receding.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I said I was, so I am. I’ve got a Recovery spell going, so the wound will close soon.”
“But...”
“You know, this is exactly the kind of fuss that I was trying to avoid when I decided to ‘lounge around enjoying myself.’”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. But I really will be better soon, so you should take it easy until then too.”
“S-Sure...”