-Ooooooooong!
Strange golden strings appeared before the wolves' mouth, blocking them right when they were about to attack their prey.
"Now now, there's a 33% tax from your second purchase so you all owe me 33% of what you paid earlier." The merchant announced with a bright smile, his voice sounding the same as a devil's.
Chiika watched him walk forward towards them, her legs shaking uncontrollably.
Her body had frozen in place. If anything, this person right here seemed more dangerous to her than the beasts with blood dripping down their jaws.
"You… you!"
"Help!"
"Save us! Please save us!"
There was one on the verge of death. The rest of them were covered in deep wounds. Their captain who had been wearing the simple armor was also wounded.
There was a wolf standing right before him so when the golden strings appeared, his body moved instinctively and threw him a few steps back.
"Of course, of course~." He smirked at them, his fingers with the strings attached at their tips moving subtly.
"Awoooooooo!" More strings appeared and covered the bodies of the beasts completely. The strings didn't seem that strong but they were strangely effective against these creatures.
"I must collect my payment. And for that, you must live momentarily, at least."
The tone in which he had said those words confirmed that this person, this wandering merchant, was not here to save them.
There was not even an ounce of compassion in those deep red eyes.
All they could see, all that they could sense from him was Greed, as well as a strange, twisted sense of duty.
They did not understand what this person was, but it was no coincidence that he had appeared before them three times at the most crucial moments they had faced until now.
The time they had spent inside the tower until now had not been anything less than a pile of misfortune.
Regardless of how greedy they had been until now, they wanted to get out of there. Every one of the members of that party wanted nothing more than to get out of this place… but, those red eyes informed them it was not going to be possible.
"Pay up, dear customers." the merchant announced, his voice sounding menacing to the rest.
-Swish! Swish! Swish!
-Thud! Thud!
"AWOOOOOOOO…!"
-Swish. Swish.
-THUD!
One by one, in the matter of seconds, as if raindrops cascading down a rooftop, the creatures that stood as an insurmountable threat to the party, fell down to the ground.
Their bodies, ones that no spell or blade could cut through, chopped into pieces that did not even splatter blood.
They fell down right where they had been standing. Most of them did not even get to howl at the unreasonable deaths that they were receiving…
"Hmm~. There's no one to hinder us either. We can talk without any disturbances now~."
The scene that they just witnessed seemed to be right from some kind of game.
The way all those powerful creatures died did not make any sense to any of them… but they weren't blind.
The golden strings that killed them, strings that ended at the fingertip of this strange merchant, were the reason for their deaths.
And if he had killed them so easily, there was no need to even doubt the fact that he could very well kill any one of them without hesitation just as easily.
"So? Who's paying first? Party leader?"
-Tap. Tap. Tap.
He walked towards the party leader who had a horrified expression on his face at that moment.
He could feel it… his lower half was wet right now.
There was a kind of horror in his eyes that one cannot put into words. He himself could not understand what he was feeling… but he knew one thing.
He must not mess with this person, with this Being.
"Captain?" Standing before him, the merchant looked at him with question and wonder in his eyes.
"33%. That should be around 400 coins." He repeated to the captain once again, and crouched down right before his face.
The golden strings were still present on his fingers. His eyes were still looking straight at the captain, a twisted smile present on them.
"I… I don't…" He wanted to say something, but, even words weren't coming out of his mouth anymore.
The primordial fear that he felt from this person was unreal. But, it was valid.
"I don't have… I don't have that much." He had spent everything he had on the potions he last purchased from him. He only had around 100 IX left on him.
The rest of the party did not have even that much.
"Oh? You don't have it~?" His voice dimmed a little.
He looked at the party captain with an emotionless gaze for a moment, and then patted his shoulder.
"Well…"
The captain was certain he felt his soul leaving his body when the merchant touched his shoulder. But, when he opened his eyes… he was still alive.
And, the merchant had also walked a few steps away from the rest of them.
"No problem. If you do not have the money, there are other ways to pay, you know?"
Just like their captain, the rest of the party had also been just as horrified.
They all believed they had made a mistake by interacting with this person. They shouldn't have purchased anything from him in the first place.
But then again, he was also the one who was keeping them alive in that moment. They all would have died a moment ago to the beasts otherwise.
"Equivalent exchange. Give me something of equal value to the money you all owe me and then, you all will be free to go." Announcing that, he walked towards the creatures that he had just hunted to look for any drops.
There was one item, a charm that increased one's Mana by three points.
It was a good item, so he kept it inside his inventory as he started piling up the dead bodies in one place.
The rest of the party was simply looking at him with horror while he did that.
"Captain…"
"What… what do we do now?!"
They turned to their captain for the answers. They knew they were in a complicated situation right now.
If they were talking about their cumulative debt, then they were talking about thousands in Coins.
To earn that kind of money, they would have needed to hunt for a few more hours, but they could not do that under current conditions.
They were not in any position to offer anything that would be worth that much.
There was nothing that they could use as a payment option. At least, there was nothing material that they could offer.
"What if…"
The party captain looked at a certain individual at the back, the one who was the least of their concern right now.
"...!"
"Oh, right!"
When his eyes landed on the young girl, the rest of the party looked back as well.
There was a certain unity in the eyes that were looking at her right now. A kind of unity that the young girl found gross beyond belief.
"No! Hey! What are you…?!"
Chiika could instantly read their intentions as well. She knew that look. She thought they would take care of her as long as she guided them well, but that look sent another shiver down her entire body.
"It's her fault that we came here in the first place!"
"If it wasn't for her, we would have left the tower without going through something like this!"
"You almost killed him as well!"
"You must take responsibility, Chiika!"
"That's right! You must take responsibility for your actions!"
All of the members of the party gathered around her.
She felt overwhelmed just seeing those twitching smiles on their faces.
"No…"
She knew it in her heart. She did not have any choice in this matter.
"Please don't…"
If the wandering merchant was a demon, these teammates that she had guided until now were backstabbing sons-of-witches!
She had helped them, she took care of them even though she did not like them, but ultimately, they were showing their true colors in the worst possible situation.
"If you go with him, we can… we can go back."
"We will remember you, Chiika. Please, just this one time."
"I won't live after this you bastard!!!"
The scream came from the bottom of her soul. However, even that was useless in that moment.
"Do this for your Big Brothers." Dragging her by her hair, the party captain threw her before the merchant that was patiently waiting for their dispute to get over.
"Will she be enough? She has this special ability-."
"Certainly." As if to have known about her power already, the merchant agreed to the exchange without hesitation.
"All of you can leave now." He smiled at them sweetly, Telling them to get lost.
They were throwing one of their own under the bus to get out of this situation. And he had not even threatened them or anything.
'The human nature of assuming things.'
KiRA had not asked them for a person. He simply wanted something of equal value as their debt.
They were the ones who sacrificed her for their own safety.
"..."
She was devastated. Even KiRA knew she didn't deserve this after helping them so much.
"You must never trust a survivor until you know of the lengths that they went to survive, Chiika." He watched them leave and vanished out of sight, exiting the tower without turning to look back at her.
She was on the ground, crying. Unsure of what was going to happen to her now.
"Am…" Her tears were obvious even though she wasn't looking up at him.
"Am I going to die…?"
She had a bad feeling about this person from the start. But now that things had come to this, she did not know what to do anymore.
She knew she couldn't win against someone like him even if she gave her all. And, she did not want to become a slave for someone else anymore.
She considered taking her own life at that moment.
"No." However, an unexpectedly warm hand petted her head.
"You won't die."
The voice she heard this time was far warmer, nothing like the shady merchant's that she had been hearing this entire time.
It was something completely different… something that made her look up with a new light in her tear filled eyes.