The Ruined Death Knight-Novel

"What!?" Hannes yelled surprised, or rather shocked.

Seeing the contract being devoured with those strange flames for nothing to be left, he really doubted if what he saw had just happend.

Reaching his hand to touch the place where the contract was, his eyes widened slightly.

"It's hot..."

Retrieving his hand, his gaze landed on the other two contracts placed in front of him.

"Honor, are those two things the same as the one just now? Is what you said really true?" Hannes said in quick succession.

"I would never dare to lie to you. I still value my life you see."

"And yes, those are the same. As you just seen by your own eyes, those things could be used similar to a notification to when someones break the contractor and..." 

"...to see if someone is lying or not." Honor said.

"Seriously... You did well using that coin to discuss such an item with me. If you haven't you probably wouldn't be able to live much more than a week." 

"..."

Taking a sip from his wine, he pulled out a masked coin and threw it at Honor.

"Here, take it back."

"I appreciate it, Mr.Honor."

Finishing his wine, Hannes's face turned serious.

"Now, let's talk about business. Since you want to sell those, does that mean you got a supplier?"

"Yes, the person that is making those promised me 40 runed contracts per week." Honor nodded.

"Hmmm, that's too few, can't he make more of those?"

In response, Honor shrugged at him.

'If I hadn't asked him in the first place I wouldn't even know the number of items that he will be sending per week!'

"He told me that this should be the minimum amount that he will give me..."

*Tik Tik, Tik Tik

Silence befell the room, with only the sounds of Hannes gauntlets tapping the table could be heard.

'Is he angry..?' Honor thought nervously.

Starting at the sharp fingers of Hannes gauntlet that could probably cut him into pieces, he couldn't help but gulp to himself.

"Honor, can I meet this person?" Hannes said with a cold tone.

"..." With a pitiful smile, he pointed at the contracts in silence.

Seeing that, Hannes frowned before sighing in understanding.

"Sigh...So that's how it is. If you tell me something about him, your contract with him will notify him."

"...I apologize Mr.Hannes, but that's how things are." 

"It's alright, if he wants to hide so be it. I can guess who the man you are referring to is anyway."

Leaning his body closer to the table, with a quiet yet firm tone Hannes said.

"Is he threatening you?"

"Huh? I mean..." 

After explaining to Hannes about his relationship with the runesmith, this frown of before turned much worse.

"So he is planning to make a run of it the moment the contract breaks. Tch, annoying guy" Hannes shook his head dissatisfied.

'Tch, if I were to force Honor to spill the beans, the guy behind this will know. Using him either to find that runesmith will according to Honor break the contract.'

Though Hannes was cursing internally, that exact situation made him realize the usefulness of the contract effect.

'Finding that should be a matter of time, now I got to think how to deal with those things...'

"Since we only get 40 runed contracts guaranteed and I acknowledge the item as a high tier item, it would be popular. Any price that you have in mind?"

"I have been thinking that..." Remembering Danzel's words this morning. He hesitates.

'Hmm, the price? Since it's the first item that you will be selling I should be a little generous with the price, right? How about 1000 gold coins? Yeah, that should be enough for now.'

1000 gold.

An amount that could buy you is a nice piece of land in the busiest of streets or for a commoner to live comparable for the rest of his life.

Usually, he would start up high and begin to haggle with the other party for a price.

Not only did this method bring the other party to believe that you are giving them a big discount, but also brought forth the true spirit of how a merchant should be.

But for this item, he just decided to drop the bomb early on Hannes.

As in his opinion, the item was worth as much.

"The price will be 1000 gold coins. It´s nonnegotiable."

Hearing that, the tapping on the table stopped as Hannes stared at Honor.

"Are you serious Honor?" Cold dark mana was sipping out of Hannes's body which made him look all the more ominous.

`If I were to get out of here alive, I swear I will feed that damn Merrick rat potion down his throat!´ Cursing the cause of all these problems, he tried to seem composed.

"I ain´t making the prices, Mr.Hannes. Please calm yourself down..."

"That damned guy, once I find out..." Whispering something to himself, he recalled his mana and seated back to the couch.

Refilling his glass with some wine, he looked at Honor with annoyance.

"Fine, that will be the price. But we will cut 20% as our winnings for using our name."

"Excuse me Mr.Hannes for being so frank, but..." 

With that, a war between two merchants began to fight for the highest amount of their own winnings.

Honor received clear guidelines from Danzel before coming here.

One of them was that 700 gold will go to Danzel and the rest will go to his own pocket.

Basically, Honor was currently fighting for his own payment in front of a branch manager of the union!

While some knights would consider it honorable to die in the cause of protecting their lord.

For merchants, fighting for the cause of receiving gold wasn´t just worth their life, but was their own virtue!

...

"Alright...we will stick at 10% of the winning. Anything more at the union you are a part of will make losses." Hannes said looking as wanted to split at Honors face.

"Now, had over the bag. We will be buying those that you have now and wait for the other batch."

Appearing from thin air, bags full of coins fell to the table.

"Yes, of course." Giving Hannes the bag full of 42 scrolls, he looked at the gold coins with an awkward look.

"Don´t worry, I will prepare a carriage for you to carry those back to your place. You can leave now, I ain´t in a good mood."

"Yes, thanks for taking the time to meet me, Mr.Hannes."

"Leave..."

Nodding his head, Honor gather this stuff and walked towards the door to leave.

But as he remembered something, he turned around and said.

"Ah, I forgot to mention that soon, other than the contracts, the man will be selling weapons too. Let´s have another discussion when the time comes.

Without the energy to be surprised, he waved this hand at the leaving Honor.

Hannes had already enough work on his plate that needed to be taken care of. And those contracts would bring another storm upon the market which spelled even more work piling on top of him.

Just the idea of having to deal with the shit storm that runed weapons would bring made him already want to puke his guts out.

Though he was a 3rd-tier nearing the stage of the 4th-tier, one of the powerhouses of the whole city of Nercana with incredible combat capabilities and stamina, even he was starting to get tired from all this overwork.

`If I knew that after accepting the position of a branch manager only to be shackled with those things called work, I would never have accepted the job in the first place!´

Shaking his head in bitterness, he took another sip of his wine and looked at the ceiling.

"Sigh...I guess it´s time to search for a replacement." Hannes said, trying to forget the work awaiting him in his office.

****

A week later in Nercana, in the morning...

The door of the church that Danzel had purchased opened slowly, with three small figures with brown cloaks looking slightly worn out came out.

With each of them having a small bag multiple runed contracts.

"Alright guys, this will be our first job starting from now. Act normally without attracting unnecessary attention, you got that Marcus?" Kayn said to Marcus beside him.

"Huh? Why are you pointing at me!? What about Anna!?" Marcus said, offended by his brother's lack of trust.

Shrugging her shoulders, Anna walked in front of them.

"It´s because compared to you, I ain´t yelling early in the morning and attracting all the attention to us."

"Wha-!" Marcus closed his mouth as he realized that he had just proven her statement

Although he wanted to prove her wrong, he would just be embarrassing himself.

Grumbly to himself, he followed after Anna.

Kayn who was watching them walk forward turned to look at the church suddenly.

`Is what we are doing really worth it...´

"Hey, Kayn! We will leave you behind~"

"Hurry up!"

Hearing Annas and Marcus he shook his head out of such thoughts.

"Comming!"

`It will be found, we just need to carry some things back here without anyone following us´.

Following Anna and Marcus, they made their way towards Honor´s store.