"Do we really have to do this again, Kayn?" Marcus complained quietly.
"What choice do we have? Since we accepted the gold already, unless we plan to leave the church, we got hold of our end of the deal" Kayn said with a bitter tone.
"But..."
"No buts Marcus, unless you are confident on winning against that knight Danzel." Anna said with a small grin on her face.
"Like anyone could win against this guy..." Marcus rolled his eyes at Anna´s comment.
`I will probably be cut into pieces before I even throw a punch of my...´
Closing the door of the church, the three made their way towards Honor´s store.
Having already received the storage from Danzel, they just had to bring it to Honor, but the closer they got to their destination, Kayn in particular had a weird feeling.
`Something is wrong...´
Staring to his surroundings, his eyebrows knitted together.
At first, he thought it was him imaging things, but once they arrived at Honor´s store he realized what was wrong.
`They weren´t so many people before...´
Compared to other times where they were here, although they were around five to six people in the street doing their business, that number had by now increased by three times that amount.
Usually, he would consider that the store suddenly become popular for some kind of reason.
But once he realized that many of these people were stealing glances at him and the other two he knew something was wrong.
"Marcus, Anna, we are being watched, don´t react~."
Hearing that, Anna frowned slightly before her face turned back to of a smiling little girl that she was.
Marcus in comparison turned his face 90 degrees left and looked at Kayn with surprise and an opened mouth.
If it weren´t for Kayn looking like when he was punching him mercilessly in their training, Marcus would even turn his face and make eye contact with those people watching them.
`I shouldn´t have mentioned it in the first place..." Sighting to himself from Marcus' behavior, he stared in front of him without showing much emotion.
One of the people who noticed Marcus behavior a moment ago blocked the door of Honor´s store.
"Hey brats, what the hell are you doing in this shop, huh!? Did your guys by any chance lose you, mama and papa?" A man with an intimidating look said as he moved closer to Kayn, Marcus and Anna.
"Huh? What di-" Before Marcus had the chance to get angry, he received a swift yet deadly hit from Anna´s elbow to his ribs.
`Gwaagh!´
"We aren´t lost! We are here get grandma healing herbs!" Anna said with a cute voice.
In contrast to Marcus habit of brute force this way through problems and Kayn's overwhelming talent in combat, she prided herself on her memory.
Though she mostly found such a talent of hers useless compared to the boy's combat ability, at times such as this she felt grateful for having a great memory.
The moment Kayn warned them about the man watching them, a flow of information flowed through her mind in hopes to find the reason for it.
And with a little strain on her mind, she soon realized or rather saw a scenario as to why the man in front of them was questioning them.
For her, it felt like a thousand-piece puzzle to finally come together, though piecing every single piece together was tiresome, in the end, she was rewarded with an image.
`That knight and his contract, the merchant who traded with him...´
At first, when she saw the concept of the contract able to see through lies, she was quite amazed, but the cause of her lack of knowledge of magic and the world itself, she subconsciously put the contract as a convenient item made from magic.
Something that everyone could get his hands on if they wanted.
That knight used a bunch of those on some brats like them as it was nothing.
Such a mistake was common to everyone.
Even with her memory, if she were to label something to be right at first glance to in actuality being false without even trying to question it, she would end up gaslighting herself.
Turning the lie into the truth.
Unlike others who would stick to the lie even when given the truth, she was different.
Picturing that this lie detector contract was extremely rare and precise, she could easily think of it making a big profit with others wanting to monopolize the source.
`If my suspicion is right, then that guy isn´t asking us because he is concerted about us or being purely pissed of. He must be someone who wants to find the source of these contracts...in other words us´ Anna thought to internally.
Since she had to find a reasonable cause to justify that a bunch of brats with rags covering their body enter the store, she remembers how Honor sold a few herbs that improve the condition of some everyday illnesses.
Thus coming up with the idea of buying medicine
The man hearing that showed a frown on his face before softening back.
"Oh yeah, the report also mention that he was selling such stuff..." Covering his mouth with one hand, the man mumbled to himself.
"Can we pass, please~?" Anna said with her cute voice.
"Hmm? Yeah, whatever. Just be quick with picking does leaves or something!"
`Idiot´ With a bright smile on her face, Anna and the others walked inside the store.
Honor who was writing something on a piece of paper, raised his head to look at his new customers.
"So you are here again..." Honor said with a nervous tone.
Kayn who noticed that noticing his distress was suddenly pulled by his sleeve by Anna.
"Hey Kayn, go pick some of those herbs from over there and give him the ring together with them."
Realizing what Anna wanted him to do, he quickly picked up some random herbs and went towards the receptionist's table.
"We would like to buy these good sir..." Kayn said as he quickly hid the ring in the herbs and handed some coins.
Honor who was at first considerably confused was surprised to see what those brats were doing.
"It seems like you guys learned your lesson that stuff is not for free...but it seems like those herbs were mixed with some bad ones too, give me a second to bring some new ones for you."
Taking the herbs together with the ring to the other room, Honor shortly came back with some new herbs in where the ring of spatial storage was hidden together with a small piece of paper.
"Thanks for the herbs..." Hiding the ring into his sleeves, Kayn picked up the herb and left the store with Marcus and Anna.
The moment they left the store, everyone who was standing around the area looked at them for a moment.
"Tch, they really went in for some stupid herbs..." The man of before grumbled to himself.
Distancing themselves with each second, Marcus soon turned to Anna and Kayn with a confused look.
"Since when did the grandma from the bakery become ill and why doesn´t I know of anything of it?" Marcus asked cornered.
"Idiot."
"Idiot"
"Huh? Why are you guys suddenly calling me that..."
"We will tell you once we reached the chu-" Before Danzel was able to finish, from the corner leading to a dark passageway came a cold voice.
"Hey you guys"
"!!!"
Suprised from the voice, they made a step back and looked in the direction of the passage with wary.
The man as if blending with the shadows of the dark passageway and only the silhouette could be seen asked with a softer tone.
"Ah, please. There is nothing to be warry about. I just heard about your guy's ill grandma and couldn´t help but feel concerned."
Looking at the kids who were staring in his direction ready for a fight a small smile formed in his mouth.
"I really mean it, seeing you guys with rags on and medicine by itself being expensive. I thought I could pay for your medicine, even if you already got it..."
"...Why would you want to help us?" Kayn said with a harsh voice.
Kayn imminently doubted the man's goodwill without a second thought.
"Well...consider it a donati- or rather the goodwill of someone who got more wealth than he could spend on. If you don´t trust me I can just give you the coins right now, just tell me the side effects that your grandma is having and I will provide you with enough coins to get the best possible medicine by yourselves..."
Kayn who was about to refuse his offer saw the look in Annas' eyes that mentioned accepting.
`Right, if that man is like the other one watching us, then for kids like us refusing free money would look just more suspicious.
"Our grandma recently got some high fever..." Kayn said loud enough for the man to hear.
"Hmm...fever you say? That´s too bad to hear. Here, catch that..."
Throwing a shining gold coin towards Kayn, the man said.
"With that, you guys can probably buy whatever you want, be it medicine or whatever you want..."
Catching the gold coin, Kayn looked at the dark passageway with a frown before him and the other two took another way towards the church.
Seeing the trio left, the man hiding in the shadows with two dark gauntlets scoffed.
"Since when do herbs used to help with diarrhea cure fever..."
Cleaning the blood that stained his dark gauntlets the man disappeared into the shadows.
