"Welcome to our shop," Khrom greeted as the two girls entered. They nodded towards him and then moved towards the shop with astonished expressions. Nefia looked at the carvings on the pillars with an amazed look. The flowers were beautiful and the leaves appeared real; wizards were fighting just in front of her, she felt. But then… she stopped.

The carvings of demons with two vicious horns over their heads. The fangs dripped with blood, eyes crimson and hair red. "Is-is that… no, it can't be them." She said and then shook her head.

"What is it, Mistress?" Her maidservant Cecilia asked.

"No, it's nothing," Nefia shook her head. "Let's go inside the shop." She said and then headed into the shop, walking on the red carpet. The maid followed from behind.

Kadyn lifted his head when he noticed someone entering the shop. He stood from his chair and smiled towards two ladies in a welcoming manner. "What would you like to buy, Misses?"

"Oh, oh, I'm just accompanying Mistress." Cecilia turned red when she saw Kadyn speaking to her, ohhh, so politely. After all she was just a maidservant. No one — Except Nefia — treated her politely ever before. This was the first time someone talked to her so gently.

"In my shop, it doesn't matter if someone is a servant or noble," Kadyn said nonchalantly, hearing her words. "You came here that means you are my customer. That means I need to respect you. Isn't that right my two lovely customers?"

Elora and Zelie sitting on the side of the counter rolled their eyes when they saw his exaggerated display. Elora had just asked him to be polite with everyone, not like before, acting haughty and arrogant. But now, he was making her cringe with his display.

"I would like to buy a dagger," Nefia said from the side. Her voice seemed somewhat annoyed when Kadyn ignored her and started to talk with Cecilia.

"Ahh, of course, you want." Kadyn once more said in his exaggerated politeness. "This way, please." He led the duo towards one of the shelves where daggers were arranged in a beautiful manner. Blue shining dagger, red dagger as if a fire was burning over it, the silver dagger with a beautiful hilt. All kinds of daggers could be seen.

Nefia shook her head as she looked at the daggers. "I need a Common Rank dagger. Do you have any?"

"Of course we do," Kadyn said from the side. He pointed towards the two shelves at the top, where one could see daggers lining and shining. Though they were inside the shelves so no one could tell their ranks, as also Nefia failed to recognise. That's why she felt slightly disappointed. She thought of them as Elementary Rank. "All of them are Common Rank Daggers." He said.

"All of them…" Nefia was surprised. She looked at the daggers, but failed to sense any fluctuation from them, she could not tell their rank. "Can… can I have a look at one of those daggers?"

"Feel free to take any dagger out of the shelf."

Nefia was surprised. No other shopkeeper would let his customers touch his goods freely. Who knows if he wanted to steal or had a bad intention towards the shop. However, when she eyed Kadyn, there was only a confident smile on his face. He wasn't looking worried about his goods.

Nefia nodded and took a dagger from the shelf. It had a silver haft, beautiful engravings had been etched on it. But no, they weren't Inscriptions, but just to accentuate the look of the dagger. After that, her gaze fell on the blad, where she saw some mysterious lines engraved. She looked at Kadyn and said. "There is a wind elemental inscription on it. Do you have any…. Ahhh, dark elemental dagger."

"How could we not have a dark elemental dagger? After all, the daggers are the most favoured weapon of dark elemental mage." Kadyn said as he eyed the girl in front of him. He thought that he felt familiar vibes from her. Now he knew why. She had the dark element. He had it too.

Kadyn took out a dagger from the shelf and passed it to Nefia. "Here, a dark elemental dagger, as you asked."

Nefia held the dagger and examined it. The dagger was dark; it wasn't shining like the previous one. Its hilt was also dark and its butt was made like a human skull, also black. After that Nefia started to channel her mana. The dark light suddenly burst out of the dagger. The girl dropped it on the ground and took a few steps back in shock. Her face turned somewhat pale.

"Wha-what happened, Mistress?" Cecilia supported Nefia from behind and asked urgently, but Nefia didn't talk. She continued to look at the dagger over the ground. "What have you done?" Cecilia demanded furiously. "Do you know who she is? Do you have any idea what kind of mistake you have made? You dare to sell fake artefacts!" her voice was sharp and quite uncomfortable to hear.

Kadyn frowned and the gentle expression on his face from before had vanished, and anger started to build in its place. As he was about to reply, Elora walked from behind and said to Cecilia in a neutral tone. "Miss, can you please ask your mistress about what happened before reaching any conclusion?"

"What is there to ask about, huh? You sold a fake artefact that hurt my mistress," She seemed furious, far from her previous docile appearance. "Now, you even dared to justify yourself. Aren't you being too shameless?"

"Don't be rude, Cecilia." At this moment Nefia broke out from her shock and gestured towards her maid to stop causing trouble, as she grabbed the dagger from the floor.

"Miss…"

"I'm fine," she replied. "I want to buy this dagger."

"Fifty thousand dollars," Kadyn replied. Though the standard price of the dagger was just about twenty thousand, Kadyn was selling it just a little below the market price. Around ten thousand dollars. Though it sounded quite a loss, it would benefit him in the future. Furthermore, the money wasn't that important to him. The Energy Points were, so he didn't think much about it.

Nefia gestured towards her maid. Cecilia also realised that she had misunderstood the situation. Her face turned red. Then she apologised. "I'm sorry."

Kadyn calmed down when he saw an embarrassed expression on her face and said. "For the sake of your beautiful mistress, I will let you go. If you made that face no one would marry you so smile."

Zelie and Elora rolled their eyes at him while Nefia smiled. She had never met someone like him before. Strange boy. Then she flicked her hand and a bundle of notes appeared. "Here, fifty thousand dollars."

Cecilia wanted to speak something as the fifty thousand seems a huge some for an ordinary Common Rank dagger, but was silenced by Nefia's glare.

Kadyn took the money and a smile appeared on his face. "Thank you. Please, be free to check out our potions as well. They are also of the finest quality."

"You have already robbed the entire money from the mistress and you are still being so greedy."

"Don't be rude, Cecilia," Nefia said helplessly, her face also turning somewhat red when her secret was revealed. Cecilia realised her mistake and bit her tongue under her teeth in embarrassment.

Nefia knew Cecilia sometimes could be really annoying. Though she was her servant, she was also her best friend, even closer than that, like her sister. Therefore, she could only sigh helplessly when she acted grumpily. She looked at Kadyn and others apologetically. "I'll come later to buy more artefacts… and the potions," she looked around as she said. Then went on. "But now, we need to go."

Then she grabbed Cecilia's hand and headed towards the exit of the shop. Kadyn stared at the girl and murmured. "She has a Spatial Artifact." His eyes were glued on her right hand on which she wore a shining ring. "She must have a strong background." He muttered. The two girls beside him nodded in agreement.

"What happened just now to that girl?" Elora asked after a brief silence.

Kadyn smiled and started to walk towards the counter as he told them what happened.

——

"Dagger is too powerful to control?" Cecilia asked in shock and bewilderment.

Nefia nodded. "Yes. Not only that but the dagger is at the peak of the Common Rank. The artisan who crafted this dagger must be at the edge of advancing." Nefia paused and then continued. "I'm just an Elementary Rank Mage. If it was a normal Rank 1 artefact I would have controlled it without a problem, but not this one, when I tried to control the dagger, it backfired. I could not control the Inscription on it." She glanced at the dagger in her hand incredulously.

"I thought they…"

"They conned us?" Nefia rolled her eyes and Cecilia turned red once more in embarrassment.

"Alright," Nefia patted her on the shoulder. "I know you did that because you were worried about me. You don't need to feel bad. But remember to think before acting in the future."

The maid nodded and the duo walked away.

As they vanished into the distance, a figure walked out from behind a tree, holding a long staff in his hand. He was Ish. At this moment he was frowning. Then he murmured. "What is she doing here? I need to inform Jefor about it. Though he is just an idiot, he is a rich idiot with a powerful background. I need him to trample that arrogant boy for me." He gritted his teeth when he remembered Kadyn's words and then he also vanished.