Walking down the road of Nercana, the two of them arrived at a fairly decent store that used glass as windows to display the products.
Although glass was much more common here than in Berum, it was still expensive enough to impress the common people.
"Is the merchant here?" Danzel asked.
"Yeah, that's the place " Nodding his head, he looked at him with an awkward smile.
"What is it..."
"Well, do you by any chance have another mask to wear? This one is a little..."
"What about my mask?" Upon turning his head to the man, the eyes of the mask swung left and right.
"Nothing..."Creeped out of the mask, he walked into the store
*Ding, Ding!
"Hey! Old man Honor! Where are you!?"
With sounds of steps coming from a door, a middle-aged man with a round belly and a mustache came walking in.
"I heard you loud and clear, you don't need to yell so loud! What would you have done if you scared the customers to be outside the shop Merrick!?"
"Bah, stop coplaning already and look what I brought you here. Rather than those so-called customers to be outside, I fetch a living one instead! Aren't you supposed to thank me!?"
'I am an undead though...' Danzel shook this head internally.
Turning his head, the middle-aged man names Honor observed Danzel from head to toe.
"Hmm...is that the guy that you talked about? I thought you will bring me to meet a magic caster from the academy by how you described these skills. But looking at him now..."
"Isn't he just a knight? And a tall one at that..." Honor said with a dissatisfied tone.
"Sir Honor, you promised me that you will at least hear us out before you decide." Merrick mentioned.
"Tch, since you helped me once smuggle some stuff inside that mercenary hole, I might as well return the favor and be done with it."
Turning his back, he gestured to follow him to the door he came before.
Falling down on the couch, he looked at the duo with indifference.
"Be quick with it, I ain't got all the time of the world to entertain you both."
"Yes, of course, I as told you before this man here..."
As Merrick was about to explain, Danzel moved forward and placed a piece of paper in front of the table.
"Sign this." Danzel said with a cold tone.
"Hmm? What is this?"
"A paper that you need to sign..."
"I didn't mean that..." Honor said confused before turning to Merrick for answers.
Seeing the nervous face of Merrick, Honor frown.
"Can you at least tell me what this paper is?"
"Didn't you say to keep it short? Anyway, it's a disclosure agreement. If you don't sign it there will be no discussion between us.
"..."
Hearing that, Honor's frown grew to match worse.
Although he was annoyed by the knight's altitude, his curiosity about the deal grew much more.
As even for a successful merchant like himself, deals involving a contract were either a pretty big deal or a scam.
Of course in that case he believed to be the latter one.
'If you think that you scam the great Honor, then you are seriously underestimating yourself!'
Picking the contract, he slowly started reading it without leaving the smallest detail unread.
When he finished reading it, he put it back on the table while having a much more confused face than before.
'What the heck is this contract? It is a disclosure contract for sure, but why is it so vague? The sole punishment mention there was of breaking the contract was that the contract will break.'
"Just to make sure, what will happend if I break the contract?" Honor asked confused.
"The contract will break..." Danzel shrugged his shoulders, which made Honor even more confused.
"Right..."
As he didn´t find anything to worry about, he picked the pen to the side and was about to sign.
"Ah wait, signing with a pen wouldn´t work." Danzel mentioned.
"Huh? Didn´t you tell me to sign it a moment ago? How do you expect me to sign it without my pen then?" Honor said with annoyance.
`Are those guys pulling a joke on me?´ He grumbled to himself secretly.
Straightening this back, he looked down on Honor and replied with a deep cold voice.
"With your blood."
"H-Huh!?" As if something exploded inside his mind, he looked at Danzel with wide-open eyes.
`Are they here to kill me!?´
Facepalming himself, Merrick quickly explained to Honor what Danzel meant by that.
"Ahhh, you meant that. And here you scared me for a second."
Dropping a few drops of blood on the place where Danzel pointed, he was about to sign this name on the dropped blood.
But before he was even able to do it, a dark green light came from the words of the contract.
"Wow!"
Shocked, Honor almost throw himself behind the couch.
"What is this!?"
With the light fading away, Danzel picked the paper and put it into a small bottle.
"That is the item that we want you to sell for us." Danzel said.
Seeing that Honor was all the more confused, Merrick shook this head before explaining what the contract was actually about.
After some demonstration and explaining that they worked with runes Honor went from shock to greed until, in the end, he went total silent while glaring at the two of them.
After staying silent for five whole minutes, Honor finally replied.
"What you guys want me to sell is way too big for a merchant such as myself..."
"I don´t care what kind of merchant you are, as long as you sell them without spilling out the beans I don´t care."
"Sir Honor, didn´t you tell me that your dream was to one day to become one of the big bosses of the Union? This is your chance! Don´t miss it!" Merrick tried to pursue him, Honor to agree.
Not because he wanted to help Honor, but himself too.
"When I told you and the guys back then I was drunk..." Shaking his head, he looked straight at Danzel eye´s (the eyes of the mask).
"If I am not mistaken, aren´t you..." Gulping this saliva down, he said with some hesitation.
"Rue Danzel?"
"..."
The room suddenly went silent.
Unconsciously, Danzel released a small amount of killing intent through the whole room for a split second.
Which was enough to make the two suck their breaths deeply.
Merrick on the side who noticed looked as scared as he was confused.
"Rue...Danzel?" He turned this head towards Honor.
`That idiot, to think he would bring someone that he himself didn´t know off!´ Cursing at Merrick´s internally, he began explaining.
"Rue Danzel, the second Runesmith know though all over the world that first appeared in the Kingdom of Berum."
"A recently wanted criminal that is worth a total of 8000 gold coins. Having stolen property from the army himself and was suspected of the murder of more than 30 civilians. Also associated with the selling of illegal items in the black market and other suspicious activities..."
The more Honor talked about Danzel, the more cold sweat was starting to appear on Merricks back.
He couldn´t help himself but look at Danzel with dread in his eyes.
`Have I been working with such a guy all this time!?´ Merrick thought as he pinched this thigh to stop himself from trembling.
Danzel in comparison who was listening to all his achievements like he was watching staring at a bone fire indifferently.
"So? Does it matter who I am? What matters is if you are doing it or not."
After staying silent for a few seconds, he looked at Danzel as he swelled a bitter pill.
"What will happend if I refuse?"
"Well, if you aren´t willing then I will let you just go. As I believe that someone would do a much better job if they are willing."
"But if the contract that you just signed is to be broken, I wouldn´t mind increasing the count of the people that I killed till yet." He says with a much colder tone in the end.
"Don´t forget that those contracts can make you a fortune." Danzel said as he pushed the contract slowly in front of him."
Staring at the contract similar to how one would look at the devil´s hand, he wanted to turn around and reject it.
But similar to how a devil´s contract work, the reward was too sweet to pass.
"I-I...will do it." Honor said with much difficulty.
"Good." Danzel said with a grin behind this mask.
***
After finalizing some of the smaller details, Honor suggests one thing.
That he should never meet him unless he is sure that they will be alone.
Since considering my identity as both a criminal and a runesmith, they agreed if he was to be found out then their deal would be over.
That was more of a reassurance for Honor that even if things go wrong, he later wouldn´t find himself being chased by him.
That rule though also brought a problem.
And that was that he needed someone to bring the products to him.
Merrick was a no-go as he was supposed to spy on me.
Thus, he needed someone who would bring the stuff to Honor.
And as for who that would be he already had an idea in mind.
