Red didn’t want to believe it. He was richer than this man when he still was a mortal, so how could a middle-stage Lesser Ring Realm cultivator be this poor?

“What, are you surprised?” Aurelia’s voice reached his ears.

Red nodded. “I was expecting more.”

“Rogue cultivators tend to be quite poor.” She said. “I can only speak to how it was back in my time, but I can’t imagine things have changed much these days.”

“Still… Only five Spirit Stones?”

He could only buy a handful of weak talismans with that amount of money.

Aurelia snorted. “You got the wrong idea. Lesser Ring Realm cultivators would be lucky to carry a handful of Spirit Stones with them. Hell, most of them still rely on gold to buy cultivation resources! You’re the lucky one to have won as many Spirit Stones as you had as a mortal.”

Red sighed. “So it seems.”

Most of the Spirit Stones the youth used over the years came from the trial back then. It was hard to imagine that everyone would get the same opportunities as him, however.

‘No wonder even Hector was so poor.’

The Water Dragon Sect had plenty of gold, but not much in the way of Spirit Stones. As it seemed, even for Lesser Ring Realm cultivators, Spirit Stones weren’t something one could spend freely.

Aurelia seemed to guess his thoughts. “There’s no need to be disappointed. You know Arcane Scripture, right? Other than alchemy, that’s one of the best ways to make money, much more so if you’re a rogue cultivator.”

“That might be the case, but I still need enough money to buy the shop and ingredients.” Red said.

There always needed to be an initial investment. One couldn’t simply manifest formations and talismans out of thin air, and the ingredients themselves might cost several Spirit Stones depending on the intended final product.

“Bah! Don’t you have a merchant to ask for advice now?” Aurelia asked. “Who knows, maybe someone within the city will be willing to sponsor your efforts.”

‘Sponsor…’

Red wanted his store to be completely independent, but it was an unrealistic goal to begin with.

After stowing away the Spirit Stones, he went over the rest of Cassemir’s belongings. The talismans were simple defensive shields, and now that Red was at the Lesser Ring Realm, such weak spells lost a lot of their value to him. After all, what was the point of a defensive talisman when you could manifest a shield on your own in a much shorter time?

As for the dagger, there was nothing special about it either, no matter how much he examined it. It was made of strong steel, and it was certainly an excellent weapon, but it was an entire level below his Dark Iron Short Sword. It was strange for such a dagger to be kept among other much more valuable items, though, so Red assume it must have some special meaning for Cassemir.

He stored all the items away in his belongings before going downstairs once more. When he arrived there, he saw the imp snoring away face down on the floor, while the expressionless maid cleaned the fireplace.

Red approached the demon and nudged him on the side with his foot. Emer woke up with a start, looking around in confusion.

“W-What?” His eyes travelled up to see the youth standing over him. “A-Ah, my lord! H-How can I help you?”

The imp’s words were slurred, and it was clear he was still suffering from exhaustion. Red frowned at this.

‘I was hoping a demon’s recovery would be faster than a human.’

In this condition, however, he didn’t feel like the imp could give him the answers he wanted. This made Red change his mind.

“Can you show me where I can take a bath?” he asked. “And a change of clothes.”

…

An hour later, the youth had cleaned himself from all the grime and blood. He also made sure the maid burned away his bloody clothes, something that was easily done without the imp’s help.

He didn’t hesitate to throw away his ruined sect’s uniform, too. Red was never one to become attached to items, and someone could link these clothes of his to his previous town if they could study it.

As for the bath, the youth was very thorough in cleaning himself up. He was never bothered by being dirty or bloody, but he wouldn’t remain in that state if he could help it. A clean body made it easier to focus and think, after all.

For the clothing, however, things were more complicated.

“T-This is all we have, my lord.”

The imp brought him dozens of pieces of clothing for Red in the office. The youth, however, couldn’t help but frown.

It wasn’t because the clothes were of poor quality. Quite to the contrary. A glance already told him that these were all high-quality garbs. The problem was how they were adorned.

‘This is too flamboyant.’

Bright colors, shining lines, all kinds of decorations that symbolized the exact opposite of what Red liked to wear. It was no surprise, though, considering merchants always enjoyed flaunting their money and status through their clothing.

“I-If my lord wants to, we can try buying you other types of clothing.” The imp said with a fearful expression.

“It’s fine.” Red shook his head. “I’ll wear them.”

Since he wanted to change identities, wouldn’t it be better to wear something different?

In the end, he picked a large blue coat filled with golden threads, a buttoned leathery shirt, and dark silken pants. He also had no choice but to wear the shoes provided to him, even though it felt awkward moving in them. By the end of it, he looked at his masked figure in the mirror with a frown.

His medium-sized hair was slicked back at the imp’s suggestion and added to the rest of his clothing, he truly looked like an entirely different person.

‘I look ridiculous.’

“My lord looks amazing!” The imp clapped his hands. “You resemble a young master of a rich family through and through… B-But if I may offer you a suggestion?”

Red looked down at the imp. “What is it?”

“T-The mask… I feel like it doesn’t fit very much.”

The youth looked back at the mirror and at the bark wooden mask on his face. Indeed, it looked out of place with the rest of his clothing.

“Do you have another mask?” Red asked.

“N-Not that I’m aware of, my lord.” The imp shook his head.

“Then there’s no other option. I’ll find something to replace it later.”

He would never go out in public with his face bare.

“A-As my lord wishes.” The demon relented.

Satisfied with his new garbs, Red turned around to face Emer. “Are you sure you are well enough to answer my questions?”

“O-Of course, my lord! I feel fine and rested!”

The youth couldn’t detect a hint of a lie in the imp’s voice or in his fluctuation. It was strange to him, however, as barely one hour ago the demon was sleeping from exhaustion and now he seemed somewhat recovered.

‘Maybe they really do recover quicker than humans.’

“Then you are aware of my plans, right?” he asked.

“Y-Yes.” The imp nodded. “My lord wants to open a store to sell Arcane Scripture goods, correct?”

“That’s right. Formations, talismans, and rune-carving.”

Red had little practice in those last two, but the experience of areas of Arcane Scripture was transferable between each other to some degree. With his initial knowledge of formations, learning how to paint talismans and carving runes into treasures wouldn’t be that difficult.

This last one in particular was really important, as Red intended on crafting himself a genuine Spirit Artifact with his Dark Iron Short Sword as a basis.

The imp seemed to be in deep thought. “W-Well, as I see it, my lord has a few options.”

“What are they?”

“You could try opening a store on your own, or you could seek employment from a larger organization.”

“How would I go about opening a store on my own with limited resources?”

Red immediately discarded the second option. He could form a partnership with other people, but he would not work under them.

Emer hesitated. “W-Well, if my lord desires, you could use my household’s gold to open your store.”

“Forget that.” Red shook his head. “We can’t afford to draw suspicion.”

The demonic cults weren’t the only force in the city. In fact, they weren’t even the strongest forces in the city. The youth still needed to be careful about the kingdom officials and other people of influence in the capital, and moving too much money that didn’t belong to him would certainly draw more than a few gazes.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be a problem if the merchant brothers were still alive and able to appear in public, but one was dead and the other was an imp. What would Red do if someone wanted to speak with them about this outsider they were suddenly sponsoring?

It was strange enough he was living at their house, something he hoped no one questioned, considering Cassemir’s general secrecy.

“I need someone who will lend me the money or who will provide me directly with the ingredients and place for my store.” Red said.

He wasn’t afraid of being in debt, as he was confident that with his skills, he would earn that amount back in a short amount of time. If there was a need to pay a deposit, then he hoped his Spirit Stones were enough.

“W-Well, in that case, you can rent a store in the market district.” The imp said. “They are expensive, but with my lord’s skills, you can earn that amount back many times over.”

The demon, of course, had never seen Red’s scripture skills, but the youth ignored it.

“What about the ingredients or a loan?” Red asked.

“That… I’m afraid there are not many options for that. N-No, in fact, there is only one place that would be capable and willing to negotiate a loan for my lord’s need.”

Red sighed. “The Golden Hand Guild.”

The biggest merchant’s guild in the eastern half of the continent. It was also the group Gustav belonged to, and if the man’s actions back in Bestrem were any indication, then the youth could only imagine what the main kingdom branch was like.

The imp nodded. “T-That’s right. Only they would be able to provide you with what you need, my lord.”

“What about the Royal Court?” Red asked. “Will they not provide me with a loan?”

The youth was aware that the Guild and the Kingdom weren’t on good terms. He imagined they would be eager to take away business from the guild where they could.

“The kingdom doesn’t grant loans.” Emer said. “W-Well, at least not anymore. If my lord wants to, you can certainly approach them, but I imagine they will only help you if you agree to work for them.”

Indeed. It was hard to expect a merchant’s guild and a royal court to act under the same principles.

“Is there anything more I should know about them?” he asked.

Emer seemed reluctant to speak. “W-Well, I don’t mean to presume, my lord…”

“Speak freely. I will take any advice you can provide.”

“T-The guild… They are complicated. They always honor their contracts, but they aren’t good people.” the imp said. “They try to squeeze as much profit as they can from any transaction, and the lengths they will go to see their debts repaid makes even a lot of the people from our cult afraid of them… W-What I mean to say is that they will probably try to negotiate a larger loan than my lord needs, and maybe even add other terms. S-So I would advise my lord to be careful about dealing with them.”

Emer seemed scared of Red’s reaction to his advice, but when he was met with pondering silence, he let out a breath of relief.

The youth knew firsthand that what the imp said was the truth, and he wasn’t the type of person to get angry at receiving advice on a topic he wasn’t that knowledgeable about. In fact, his words reminded him of another matter.

‘Rimold’s sister.’

The sickly girl was supposed to be located in the capital somewhere. Rimold had taken a huge loan with the Golden Hand to pay for her treatment, something he was repaying even ten years later and that almost caused him to betray the sect. Now, however, the rogue was far to the east, in the middle of the Skycrown Mountains.

Would he still be able to send the guild his payments? If he wasn’t, what would those merchants do to his sister?

‘I need to check on her. I owe him at least that much.’

Red looked back at the imp. “Then, to the Golden Hand it is.”