A visit to the mortal's black market

Dominic exited the pawnshop holding a bag of coins. Stuffing it inside his clothes, he made his way to the main market road. As he walked through the throng of pedestrians, with an abrupt turn, he exited into a small alley.

The alleyway ended at a dead end, a small wall cut the narrow path short. Dominic simply leapt over the wall, disappearing behind it.

Just a few minutes after he had disappeared, rapid footsteps approached.

"Damn it, where did he go?"

"You really had to stop by the shop to lift off your things?! We are outside on a mission by the Casper, not for a stroll! He asked us not to lose sight of him, how are we gonna explain this?"

"Hey, don't get so worked up. Not my fault. The crowd's really heavy here. Besides, it's just a kid. He couldn't have run off far. You go straight forward, I'll take the right turn."

Receding steps reverberated. A long while after the silence returned to the alley, Dominic emerged from an obscure corner. He straightened and pulled over the hood of his cloak over his head and walked off.

Casper suspicions at his sudden change were understandable. But greatly inconveniencing for Dominic.

For the places Dominic had to visit, it would be problematic if Casper were to know. If the Duke called him forth and demanded an explanation, Dominic wouldn't be able to get out of this mess.

A few nights ago, Casper had personally invaded Dominic room, knocked him unconscious and placed his hands over his chest to inspect for any signs of anomaly. Possession. Enchantment.

Needless to say, Casper returned empty handed.

To take over this body had used a rank seven soul transference technique. If that rank three Mage thought he could sniff out something with his meagre ability, he should keep dreaming.

After that day, Casper lowered his guards. He would still send out men in Dominic pursuit. But they would be ordinary servants, level one mage at best.

As he made his way to the black market, Dominic stopped before a small shop. "Did you get the things I asked of you?"

In the centre of the shop, around a round table, a man with bulging muscles sat with his friends, drinking and laughing obnoxiously loud. Noticing Dominic, he excused himself and approached him. He had a heavy build, a bald head and a scar bisecting one of his eyes. With a black patch covering his right eye, he accessed Dominic with his left one.

"Aye, It's the same lad. I was beginning to think you wouldn't come."

"The goods," Dominic said, straight to the point.

"I got it. I got it, why so serious, loosen up some times." The man laughed before attempting to pat Dominic's shoulder. Dominic merely stepped back, evading the touch. At this, the man's smile dropped. He simply took out something from his bag. Instead of handing it over to Dominic, he placed it over the table. "It hadn't been easy this time around. I had to send my men to go searching for days, ya know? Those bastards didn't have anything else on them, we really took a loss this time."

Dominic had had this same conversation with a fair number of scavengers in the black market. He realized where this person was coming from. "Good thing you didn't get caught. For a mortal to disrespect a mage dead body, the punishment is severe."

Dominic made no attempt to go forward and pick up the goods from the table. There was no eagerness in his actions as he leaned back and made eye contact with the man in a quiet laid back manner.

He tsked and shook his head. "Truly a loss... If somehow the word got out in the market that you broke their taboo, you would not even have a place to sell your goods."

Whatever words the bald man had thought up he would say to raise the price died down before making it to his tongue. This bastard really was... something!

He had merely said a sentence, he had not even begun to haggle but that perceptive bastard sniffed him off from miles away!

How old he was again?! Ten?!

"Fine, we would go as decided." The man quickly said. Lest the bastard forced him to sell it at an even lower price. With all his hopes of earning a bigger profit evaporating off, only resentment seeped through his eyes. "Ten gold coins, hand it over and remember our deal. Not a word I brought you this. If something leaks out into the market, all our deals would be off."

He had no idea who this strange kid was.

Originally the bald man lived off by cleaning the battle sites whenever those mages had a fight. Such events were frequent, especially when those low-level mages went alone in the wild. with how densely populated the kingdom was, a few level one mages dying here and there was no big deal.

However, as a mortal doing something that could potentially offend the mages, the job came with its risks.

But as long as it put food in his stomach

Suddenly a few days ago, this mad lad came to him with strange requests. First, it was small items, worthless in that market eyes but the kid paid a good price for them so the bald man agreed to do his bidding.

However, a few days ago, the kid frightened him to death by asking him to retrieve a pint of mage blood. Needless to say, the bald man denied it on the spot.

If he got caught doing such an action, death would come swifter than this kid's money.