Chapter 17

William had no idea if he would ever find the Delfringer. He didn't want the sword to use it as a weapon. He just felt that it was a very cool sword. Unlike normal swords with consciousness who communicated their thoughts using a mental connection, Delfringer actually spoke. Plus he had a very cool personality. Derf is one of the true bro swords out there.

'Master I found the source of killing intent. False alarm. It's a seven-year-old boy. Apparently, some noble kid from the academy crippled his father's legs because he wasn't satisfied with the decor of their shop. He happened to be wearing the same colour cloak as your friends.'

'Sigh! Some of these nobles can be a real piece of shit. I will be assassinating Count Mott tonight. Although I haven't become friends with Siesta, I don't want to see her in this kind of danger. Do you want to come?'

'I have complete faith in you. And I suggest not acting on emotions during the mission.'

'Thanks for the advice. I will make sure to do a proper assassination.'

"Hey, William! Why are you staring at nothing? Let's go inside this weapon shop. I need to buy something."

Gently moving out of Kirche's hug formation, William observed his first fantasy world weapon shop. It was an old building which had weathered the effects of time. As they walked through the rickety door they could hear the rotten wood planks beneath their feet creak. William had no idea how the building could still keep standing.

For the first time, William was completely taken aback the events happening in this world. He had always thought that the rat-like features of the shopkeeper, from whose shop Delfringer was found, were exaggerated for comedic purposes. But how wrong was he. If there was a little more hair on this shopkeeper's body, he could actually pass off as a true rat species.

On the flip side though, he was certain that he could lay his hands on Derf today.

"So, my cute master, why are we here? For what noble purpose does a noble like you need a melee weapon?"

"Hmph, shut up! Don't call me cute. And I have realized that you are good with a staff, so I thought of buying you a spear so that you can better protect me. I am buying this as a gift for you. Do you understand?

"Kirche, answer me honestly? If we leave aside the tsundere personality of my master, isn't she cute?"

Kirche took a serious look at Louise's body, mentally calculated somethings, best left untold to a sane person, and said, "I don't understand what you mean by tsundere but I can see that if Zero had a DRASTICALLY better personality, then she would be very cute."

William turned to Louise and said, "See cute master! Everyone feels that you are cute."

"You wench Zerbst! What do you mean by my personality, huh? Do you wanna fight, you cow? And William, I will warn you last time, you can't call me cute."

The anger and embarrassment within Louise's heart were about to boil over when William sneakily whispered, "Cute master, is this how nobles act in public? The shopkeeper seems to be enjoying the show."

Kirche completely ignored Louise after her comment and was searching for something that would fit William with a gusto.

"Dear, what kind of weapon do you like the most?"

"Hmm, I can use all the melee weapons with the same proficiency. Except I'm a bit better at giant cleavers and katanas."

"Ah, my dear William is truly a very special person."

The shopkeeper was silently observing the group of four. After a few seconds, he came to the following conclusion - a love-obsessed idiot, a competitive brat and a boastful brat. If he didn't use this opportunity to make a profit, then he might as well drown himself with a drop of water.

Clearing his throat and taking an awe-inspiring pose (it didn't work with his rat face), he started pitching, "Noble mistresses, I have a very interesting sword for your partner."

He took out a huge overly decorated, gold covered claymore from behind the counter.

"This was made by the best alchemic master from Germania, Goosefoot, himself. It cuts through steel like butter. It can even withstand a few strikes from line mages. Since I feel that this sword will be able to reach great heights within your hands, so I will sell it to you at a cheap price of 3,000 new gold coins."

As none of the girls were fighters, so they couldn't tell the quality of the sword, but it did look beautiful like high-quality wands and staves. Kirche felt that it would be very appropriate to gift a sword made by her own country to William.

Although William couldn't call himself master of forging, he could clearly feel the cheapness hiding beneath all the gold and glitter. It was just a poorly made piece of junk that someone had overdecorated to hide the imperfections.

"Girls don't bother buying something that expensive. I already have a main weapon. If possible I would like to buy some weird or old sword."

William also summoned Zangetsu as proof, so that Louise won't pester him later. All three girls were very surprised by the sudden appearance of such a huge blade. Looking at their surprised expression, William felt like beating his head onto a wall.

"I always thought that you didn't ask about my sword since you were respecting my privacy. But now I'm pretty sure that you completely forgot about it. And save the questions regarding it, I will tell them later."

Kirche and Tabitha quickly recovered from their shock. Kirche happily went along searching for something different and weird and Tabitha happily went back to reading. Louise, on the other hand, was completely embarrassed right now. She felt like a fool for coming to buy a weapon, when William already had a sword. William was very quick to realize this as Louise didn't exactly excel at hiding her emotions.

"Cute master, I will teach you something useful. Melee fighters like me can never have enough weapons. Different situations require different swords, so we are always on the hunt for something different and unique." Although it was complete bullshit, William felt that it was okay to spout such stuff if it could maintain Louise's confidence.

The shopkeeper had already realized that he won't be able to make great profits today, so his enthusiasm had dimmed down. But he still thought of another plan. He quickly went to the barrel containing the unusable and broken products and found a rusty looking old sword. Even he had no idea where he got this ancient trash from. But he still decided to pitch it.

"This is a family heirloom of a fallen noble family from the Kingdom of Albion. It is said that it is completely useless in the hands of a mage but a decent warrior can use it to gain control over the wind itself! When it first appeared in the market, it caused the city streets to be completely stained red with blood. I was secretly able to steal it. I will sell it for 5,000 new gold coins as I can see the potential within your partner."

William looked rather impressed by the bullshitting ability of the shopkeeper. He went towards him with stars in his eyes and said, "I really like this word. I will buy it for 50 gold coins. Deal?"

The shopkeeper was completely nonplussed. For the first time in his life, he had met such a ruthless haggler. He directly sliced the price by 100 times. What concept was this?

"Sir, I think I misheard-"

William put his best serious face forward and said, "Deal or No Deal? Do you want gold or iron?"

Although the girls were confused by the seemingly out of blue statement. The shopkeeper wasn't. He had been running this shop for over three decades, near a magic academy full of nobles. He had to be smart to survive! Swiping away the heavy cold sweat forming on his forehead he said, "Deal."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

***In a Dark Alley***

"Little boy, do you want to help your parents?"

The boy was very scared by the presence of this human-shaped monster in front of him. Whenever he glimpsed at those red eyes, he felt that his soul would be sucked in and destroyed if he was not careful. What else could he do except accept this man's, no, monster's order?

"I want to?" After the little boy said those words he felt like all his strength had left him.

"You made a good choice. I will be training you starting today. If you become successful, then your parents won't have to worry about a thing."

The boy didn't have the guts to ask what would happen if he failed.

(AN: I made a ko-fi page. If you care enough about me not starving to death, do go there and donate some. For some reason, I'm very confident that no one cares about my stomach, but a man can dream, right? ~shrugs~

https://ko-fi.com/nanosecenods

Also, as you may have noticed this is my first time writing a novel. I am gathering experience to write a good original novel. Don't worry I will finish this first before taking any other project. If you have time go to this quora link below, it actually helps me out :)

https://www.quora.com/Which-do-you-prefer-more-a-normal-couple-or-a-harem-reverse-harem-in-a-novel)