Arc | Chapter. 17: Black Market (Patreon)

Chapter. 17: Black Market

Syd didn’t think he needed to go and check on the emergency, especially not today out of all days, but he always was a diligent person, even though he was only the leader of the Black Market of Blackcrest, he had great ambitions, which is why he always did things properly.

Though when he arrived at the location, he didn’t expect a wall to explode and bloodied chunks of flesh to fly from the other side. And so that’s when he entered serious mode, directing the people and his first command was to kill the weakest target first.

Syd watched as the archer took aim, their presence was hidden, no words were spoken. It was simply put, the epitome of a perfect assassination, and the archer shot.

The white haired girl immediately grabbed the black arrow mid air and turned to them with a frown, it was a simple gesture but one that somehow made Syd’s heart skip a beat, he immediately turned to the nearest person.

“Retreat⁠—”

And they exploded. A burst of ice sent Syd flying, the world spun around him as he hit the building behind with a grunt. Dust billowed around him, as he plopped onto the ground, he could barely register what just happened.

Syd shook his head and broke out of his stupor, raising his head he saw… death. A land of frost with small mountains where limbs jutted out and bodies were frozen inside. For a moment, he stared in disbelief, and then he heard the ice crackle.

His gaze trailed through the frozen ground, seeing the weapons of his comrades until he saw the white-haired woman slowly walking towards him holding a sword. The mere sight made Syd shiver⁠.

He had to escape⁠—

Syd thrashed only to fail to move from his spot, his heart palpitated as he realized that his hands and feet were encased in ice. What⁠— and the crackling of the ground brought him back to reality, the enemy was closer than ever, he had to move somehow⁠— he tugged to no avail as the crackling rang in his ears, thrashing desperately as he felt his muscles tearing.

And then he heard a much more distinct crack, one that brought him back to reality where he saw the woman standing over him, she slowly raised the blue sword in the air as Syd panicked.

“P-Please don’t kill me!”

However, his words fell on deaf ears as the woman continued to lift the weapon up, yet he couldn’t stop pleading.

“I-I’m the head of the Black Market, I have more usefulness alive than dead!” He saw no change, panicking, he continued. “I can source you anything from that place, all you have to do is spare me!”

She met his gaze as the sword reached the apex and that’s when Syd realized, whatever he had said wasn’t enough.

“P-Please, I’ll do absolutely anything, even if it means being subservient to you⁠— eek!”

And the sword was brought down, Syd screamed and⁠ a shattering sound resounded. There was no pain, there was nothing. His eyes slowly opened only to see the white-haired woman looking right at him, no sword to be seen.

“You said you’d do anything right?” she coldly asked.

Syd’s heart dropped as he slowly replied. “I did…”

The woman nodded and turned around, Syd’s heart palpitated as the ice around his feet and legs dissolved. He was free to escape, yet he knew it was the worst mistake he could possibly make.

And so, he waited for the woman to come back.

* * * * *

I had dealt with the threat as effectively as I could, and now I could relax, at least as far as anger went. I still felt guilty, especially as I saw Ceylon standing there looking at me with a concerned gaze while I walked towards her. It was odd to me that she didn’t flinch all that much to death, but I still felt it to be a responsibility of mine to ensure she didn’t see that many things.

And in this case, while I had blocked her vision with a pillar of ice, she could still see the aftermath of frozen bodies. But that small guilt was nothing compared to seeing the injury on her leg, it was akin to a sinking feeling; it was the feeling of failure.

Though, fortunately I knew better than to just feel bad about things, and so I had a number of priorities in front of me. The first one was healing Ceylon and ensuring something like this doesn’t happen again, the second priority was to apologize and the third was to… really really ensure it doesn’t happen again.

I shook my head, logically speaking I was just overly fond of Ceylon which made me feel much worse than what I would normally feel. It was just how feelings worked, fortunately or unfortunately.

Finally, I reached her as she spoke.

“Are you alright?”

“I am,” I answered simply. “But you are not, and we need to take care of that.”

“It’s really a small injury,” Ceylon shook her head. “And it occurred because of one of the throwing knives that exploded, it just hit me, that’s all.”

“Then that just makes it even more of my responsibility,” I said. “So we will have that taken care of, and ensure it doesn’t happen again. Also, limping for a few weeks isn’t a small injury, Ceylon.”

She went silent for a moment before quietly nodding.

“I guess I was trying to downplay it…”

I sighed. “It doesn’t matter, let’s just get you treated.”

She nodded, and took a step only to flinch.

“Sorry, it’s a bit hard to walk right now…”

I shook my head.

“It’s fine, I’ll just carry you.”

Ceylon blinked as I approached her. “Wait⁠, what⁠—”

And I hefted her upon my arms in a princess carry, all while she blinked in confusion before hurriedly flushing and speaking up.

“It’s fine, I can⁠—I can force myself to walk, no need to carry me like this⁠—”

I ignored her pleas as I immediately began to walk to the door, where the assassin Black Market leader nervously waited. He blinked seeing me approach with Ceylon on my arms, but didn’t say much more as I simply informed him.

“She’s injured, so we need to cure her,” I said simply.

He nodded. “I can get some potions for you.”

“I also need an item or something to protect her from attacks.”

“I can get a protection artifact.” The Black Market leader nodded once more. “Anything else you’d like⁠— ah of course, I’ll always be in your debt. This is just for the time being,” he coughed.

“I also want the finest food you can acquire in Blackcrest, a dinner.”

He blinked and nodded. “That is not a problem, though today might be…” And he shook his head. “No, it’s not your problem to deal with.”

I raised my brow but he simply started to walk away.

“Do follow me, M-Master…”

“Just call me Arc,” I said. “I don’t care about humiliating you.”

“Right, thank you Miss Arc.” He stiffly nodded. “Right this way.”

And with those words he began to guide us to the Black Market.

* * * * *

Syd didn’t know if he was making a fool of himself, if he was making the mistake of his life, or something else. He simply followed his instincts which was to follow his word.

As for whether he would regret it or not, he didn’t know.

He shook his head. It was no use in thinking about whether it was the right decision⁠— he had survived and that’s all that mattered. All he could do was try to get out of this situation as soon as possible, and so, he guided the extraordinarily terrifying woman to the lair of criminals.

Could she wipe the entire place out should she want to?

Absolutely!

But he didn’t care. That was the thing. He was just saving his own neck, it didn’t matter if the Black Market suddenly burst into flames, which would actually be happening tonight. Hell, it didn’t matter if the noble girl was being carried as a princess by the monster or instead riding on her back like a kid as they were right now.

Syd only had one directive, and that was…

Survival.

* * * * *

I was carrying Ceylon on my back now, after she insisted for me to do so instead. The journey had taken more than I would’ve liked, but eventually, we stood before a dilapidated building. One that looked unassuming with torches illuminating the outside. There was a small pause from the Black Market leader before he approached the wooden door and slowly picked it open with some pins.

After a few seconds it creaked open as I heard a faint background noise. The Black Market leader gestured us in and we ventured into the building, it was broken down akin to a church except there were no chairs to be found, and in place of a podium there was a broken down staircase.

One with no lights, just a gaping hole of shadows in the ground.

“The Black Market has many entrances, but it can be said to be an underground cavity outside of Black Crest, so all of its entrances are in the west,” the man said.

I raised my brow. “Wouldn’t people asphyxiate?”

He talked as he descended down the stairs. “There are a lot of hidden vents, also artifacts that purify the air. However, in spite of being supported there is still a chance of the place collapsing.”

I nodded and followed after the man, igniting a flame behind us much to everyone’s shock. Though the first one to speak was Ceylon.

“I thought you said you had no way to cook things…”

“Yeah, the flame just freezes them,” I said without pause. “I still cannot cook them without a lighter.”

“Oh…”

The Black Market leader said nothing as we descended the stairs, the noise of a bustling market reached our ears and after half a minute, we saw an orange light. I extinguished the blue flame at my hand, and soon enough we stood at the side of what seemed to be an ever-extending flea market.

Yellow lights lined the ceiling, tarps and tables filled the cavity under the earth as I just stood there in awe for a moment. The Black Market leader walked forward.

“It’s impressive if I say so myself, though we aren’t here for that, please do follow me. We’ll be getting everything you requested in order.”

I nodded and followed after him, all while Ceylon looked around with surprise. We trekked through the market, seeing numerous weird things, and other disturbing things, all while being under the scrutiny of the shoddy bystanders whenever we were too close.

The most surprising thing to me however, was the occasional gore, especially body parts of humans for potion making. Yet, Ceylon didn’t react to it.

We eventually found a stand of potions, though I just stood by as the Black Market leader bought a couple for us. After storing them in a ring, we headed to a different part of the Black Market, and at that moment I made conversation to Ceylon.

“Ceylon, I can’t help but notice you’re very numb to killing, corpses, and all these other things. Wouldn’t most people be startled, especially if they see it happen before their eyes?”

She let out a small chuckle, though it sounded rather empty. “I guess so, but well, I’ve seen… things. I suppose. Sometimes you can startle me, but for the most part, everything else is.” She shook her head. “Not something that bothers me.”

I slowly nodded, thinking about what Ceylon could’ve possibly seen. Though, she was still a bit of a scaredy-cat when it came to attacks or monsters, so it was a weird polarity.

“I’m sorry for what you had to see.”

“I mean… it’s still horrifying to see you freeze people to death,” Ceylon said meekly. “It’s just, organs or gore, the death of my guards, it’s not something that unsettles me. I suppose that torture would⁠—”

A scream echoed across the Black Market, the leader paused as we turned to look in the distance where we saw a man being dragged. Then, he disappeared into one of the tunnels before some screams resounded and abruptly ended. I blinked, as seemingly everyone else went about doing their business.

“Now, that’s pretty unsettling…” Ceylon quietly said, let’s hurry to get everything done.

I nodded as I turned to follow the man once more. Who bowed lightly.

“It’s a pretty normal occurrence here, please don’t let it bother you. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

He got a few weird gazes but no one said anything as I nodded.

“Right, let’s just hurry.”

And with that, we resumed the trip. It didn’t take too long before the man stopped at another stand and immediately began to negotiate for the best protection relic. After a negotiation, threatening, and a fisting, we went somewhere private where he handed us two rings.

“This is what I promised, my name is Syd, if you need anything more don’t hesitate to contact me.” He nodded as I looked towards the rings.

[ Storage Ring. Tier. D ]

[ Ring of Protection. Tier. C ]

I handed Ceylon the first ring. “This is a D Tier Storage Ring.”

I held the Ring of Protection within my fingers for a moment, before I inwardly chanted.

[Blessing of the Ice God]...

The ring shone blue for a moment, as it revealed what it was to me.

[ Ice Blessed Ring of Protection. Tier. C ]

“And this is a C Tier Ring of Protection that I blessed.”

She blinked while receiving it. “C-C Tier…?” She breathed for a moment before her shoulders slumped. “I guess I'm forced to take it, huh…?”

I nodded. “It’s so that it doesn’t happen again.”

With a small sigh, she slid both rings onto her fingers. And then activating the Storage Ring one of the health potions was brought out.

“Now I have to…” She sighed.

“I’ll remove the metal from you,” I said decisively as I crouched. “It’ll take just a moment.”

Ceylon nodded for a moment, and⁠— I instantly yanked it with a burst of speed. Ceylon let out a small yelp as her wound began to bleed once more, but immediately drank the potion, and I saw a rather instant effect to the injury recovering.

I stood back up, Ceylon meekly thanked me and then, I heard a small cough from Syd, the Black Market leader.

“Now that she’s cured, we can go for the third request, the finest food, which means leaving the Black Market as soon as possible since we don’t have much time left.”

I nodded, though couldn’t help but note the weird way he said things. I gestured for Ceylon to get up on my back once more. And at that moment, an explosion occurred at the center of the Black Market.

I heard a sigh come from behind me as black armored knights stormed from a hole in the ceiling.

“I was really hoping it wouldn’t happen while you were here…”

And at that moment, an arrow with a misty purple aura was shot at us.