The first thing that Walter did was size up his ‘customer.’ A relatively short but stout man with a strong build and a five o’clock shadow beard on his face. He wore a typical blacksmiths outfit which was dirtied by black ash. Although he didn’t look particularly smart, he did seem to be the type of person who participated in these types of deals before.

By the blacksmith’s side were two others, both of whom were armed with a hand axe and a dagger strapped onto their waists. Like the city guards, they both wore metal sallets and gambesons but it was instead black in colour while the Eikthyrnir family emblem was absent. One of them was male while the other was female.

None of the three didn’t seem to be particularly young but they definitely weren’t old either. Perhaps they were in the same age range as Johnathan if only younger. Regardless, it was apparent that only the blacksmith will do the talking. The other two were just hired muscle whose only role was to protect their employer.

The blacksmith himself had a warm and friendly smile on his face while his two guards simply held straight faces with their hands hanging casually by their side.

It was only after one of the men of Johnathan’s platoon closed the door behind them did the blacksmith speak.

“If it isn’t my favourite captain. What have you got for me today? I would tell you that I only accept high quality or rare materials but since it’s you, I won’t bother.”

The blacksmith broke into a short laugher as he spoke before he quickly regained his composure and turned his gaze towards Walter.

“Oh and… who is your friend over there? You’re not… selling me here out here are you?”

Both of the blacksmith’s guards grabbed the hilt of their daggers when the blacksmith addressed Walter’s presence. While he still had a friendly smile on his face, his eyes told a completely different story. Walter could even see that the blacksmith was slowly sliding a weapon down his sleeve. Judging from the tiny glimmer of silver peeking out, it was most likely to be a hidden blade.

Apart from Walter, the others also gripped the hilts of their short swords while one even grabbed hold onto the handle of the backdoor. With just that one phrase from the blacksmith, the atmosphere within the room has suddenly become tense, with each person carefully observing the actions of the other party.

Excluding Johnathan, there were only two other guards standing by Walter’s side and since Walter himself can’t really contribute much to a fight within a small enclosed space, the balance of powers was actually quite even. Because Walter couldn’t judge the fighting ability of the blacksmith, he could only assume that he was on the same level as the others.

Fortunately for Walter, he predicted the possibility of this scenario and had already prepared for it with Johnathan.

“You can relax Bolnar, he’s just a relatively rich acquaintance of mine. He’s just here to ‘assist me with the transactions’ as he likes to call it.”

Walter smiled and nodded in affirmation of what Johnathan said before he too spoke up.

“I am known as Walter Faust. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Bolnar.”

“Uhhh… a pleasure to meet you too Lord Faust.”

Although Bolnar still seemed to be a bit cautious and wary of Walter, it wasn’t to the same extent as before. Soon enough, he gave hand gestures to his guards, beckoning them to put their hands away from their weapons. Seeing that the other party was no longer hostile, Johnathan and his guards also let go of their swords. A few seconds later, Johnathan proceeded with the negotiations.

“Now that that’s over... Ivern, show him the crate.”

Johnathan paused speaking for a short moment as the guard holding the crate; Ivern walked forward and dropped it in front of Bolnar. Soon after, Ivern opened the crate and presented its contents to Bolnar, the blacksmith’s eyes could only widen in shock.

“I-is this what I think it is?”

“Yes it is exactly what you think it is.”

Walter’s response to Bolnar’s stutters was similar to that of a sales pitch. Mainly because that was exactly what it was. Since it was a sales pitch, he of course, had to try and ‘sell’ the items to Bolnar.

Taking a few steps forward, Walter casually reached into the crate and pulled out a small cultist dagger. The dagger’s blade was serrated and had odd, strangely patterned red markings inscribed onto it. Holding it by the hilt, Walter then spun it around and presented it to Bolnar who promptly grabbed it by the hilt.

It was only when Bolnar held the weapon in both of his hands did Walter continue pitching the weapon to the blacksmith.

“All of it was pried from the cold dead hands of deceased Crimson Cultists. As of today, their production is not only unknown to those outside the cult, but is also illegal in most parts of the continent. Serrated blades mean maximum blood loss as long as the target is unarmoured but most importantly, according to the clerics, these weapons still held some daemonic energy within them.”

Walter started by implying the difficulty of obtaining the weapons. After all, the harder it was to get something, the more scarce and rare that ‘something’ will be, thus increasing its value as a something.

Then he went in depth into the actual inherent values of the weapon itself, thus making this ‘rare’ weapon all the more appealing, especially since there was a crate full of similar weapons right in front of Bolnar.

‘Supply and demand,’ those were the two main tenets of commerce, marketing, economics and whatever other subject is related to those things that dictated the value of an item. And Walter was putting these two main tenets to good use through his sales pitch right now.

“Apart from this crate. We now have two carriages full of similar crates waiting outside for a new owner. Evidently, the Cultists who owned these weapons didn’t put them to good use.”

And then Walter concluded his pitch with a joke that also indirectly revealed how much of the weapons they actually had.

“Wow… Johnathan, this acquaintance sure does have a way of words doesn’t he?”

Bolnar didn’t respond to Walter. He instead made a comment aimed towards Johnathan who only made a relieved sigh as he responded.

“I let him do the talking for a reason. I’m just a soldier.”

“And what is the soldier’s thoughts on this? Weren’t warriors of the Crimson Cultists supposed to be fearless and vengeful warriors who relentlessly cut down all in their path? How did you come to harbor so many of their weapons?”

Bolnar quickly latched onto Johnathan’s last statement, clearly he was attempting to figure out the process of how they obtained the weapons. Any piece of information could be vital to a negotiation and Bolnar was definitely attempting to rest some control of the discussion back into his hands. Walter would be lying if he said that he wasn’t slightly irritated.

Johnathan, being the person that he is, answered Bolnar’s question without even seeming to have given it a second thought.

“If I had to take a guess, I believe that the attacking group was filled with relatively fresh cultist recruits. Although they still fought with the same vigour and ferocity of typical warrior cultists, their martial ability was clearly lacking in comparison. We have yet to uncover their motives behind the attack but I doubt that the Eikthyrnirs will seek further investigation.”

Bolnar’s eyebrows rose slightly when he heard Johnathan’s answer. His voice had a slightly more surprised tone when he spoke.

“Oh so you all got lucky is what I’m hearing?”

“Well, from a certain point of view, you’re lucky as well.”

Walter immediately seized the opportunity to take control of the conversation the moment he saw it. The quicker he can seal the deal, the better.

“Hmm? How so?”

“Think about it. Not only are we lucky to have encountered such ‘good fortune’ on the road, but you too are lucky for being our first choice to sell these goods. Besides...”

Snap!

Both Johnathan and Ivern stepped forward the second they heard Walter snap his fingers. The former snatched the dagger back from Bolnar while the latter closed the crate and picked it up. Although Bolnar and his guards were taken aback by this sudden action, they didn’t do anything to retaliate.

“We can always sell to someone else if you’re uninterested.”

“No no wait! I’m willing… willing to pay.”

Well that was quick.

Bolnar appeared to have conceded in the face of Walter’ unexpected ultimatum. It would seem that he didn’t expect for Walter to be so willing to sell to another party if the negotiation fell through. Regardless of the case, he now knew that Bolnar was dead set to buy the goods.

Now that the deal was set and confirmed, Walter felt a sense of relief, at least for now, he knew that he had some money to live off. All that’s left for him to do now was to milk as much money from the other party as possible. A task that he believed shouldn’t be too hard for a man of his talents.

“It’ll only cost one upfront payment of 400 gold franqs for the entire package, including the carriages carrying the goods... for legal reasons it would be better for us if those carriages ‘disappeared’ from our possession.”

“400 gold franqs?! I don’t mind paying upfront but that is way too high a price, even for what you are offering me!”

Bolnar seemed to have ignored the majority of Walter’s words and instead focused on the price that was presented to him.

“Perhaps we could lower it to 300 gold franqs or perhaps even 350 gold franqs? That is a much more reasonable price no?”

“Bolnar, please think this over.”

Walter shook his head in a slightly dismissive manner as he attempted to persuade Bolnar to pay the amount that he originally suggested. While he already knew from Johnathan that 35o gold franqs was probably the maximum that Bolnar was willing to pay, Walter was confident in his ability to raise that ceiling even just by a little bit.

“This is an extensive collection of multiple weapons who we are willing to hand ownership over to anyone. As long as they pay the right price of course. The key word being ‘the right price.’ Wouldn’t you prefer to be the person who we hand ownership to?”

Bolnar was left momentarily speechless by Walter’s words and he was forced to cup his chin as he contemplated for a few short moments. However, his response disappointed Walter.

“I-I’m sorry but… This deal… I don’t think that I can accept it.”

Seeing that Walter couldn’t raise the price with what he currently has on the table, he couldn’t help sighing as he replied.

“Hmm… in that case.”

Walter took a thin slender object out of his inner pocket as he spoke. When he presented it to Bolnar, everyone in the room except for Johnathan widened their eyes in shock. Bolnar’s voice stuttered somewhat in disbelief as he reacted to the object in Walter’s hands.

“By Jumar’s name... i-inconceivable… is that… is that really...”

This ‘slender object’ was a blood-red arrow, even the arrowhead and the fletching were crimson in colour. The fact that the arrowhead was also covered in dried blood only emphasised the colour of red.

“Yes this is indeed a ‘Blood Arrow.’ If you somehow couldn’t tell from the red colour which gave it its namesake, then the testimonies of the clerics who reported the ‘stench’ of daemonic magic emanating out of the damn thing should be enough.”

Walter chuckled as he fiddled with the arrow, as if the object he was holding in his hands was not as valuable as it actually was.

“Oh and did I mention? There are many more of these from where we found them.”