The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 35

32. Let’s Share the Good Stuff

The black market.

Tatur, an artificial island in the middle of the great river Pona, which runs through the continent, boasts three unique attributes.

First, freedom.

Second, information.

Third, goods.

This is a city where a lawless kind of freedom reigns. Located at the crossroads of the empire, the duchy, and the three kingdoms, all information, both overt and covert, converges here. Finally, countless goods that even the imperial family cannot acquire are traded in the shadows.

Therefore, for one day each year.

Every year on January 1st, even nobles from other countries secretly visit the black market.

In fact.

This was also the reason why this free city could exist.

The nobles tacitly agreed not to invade Tatur, a potentially strategic point, for their mutual benefit.

“What’s going on, Kamma? You’re bringing someone here, and so suddenly? Do the other managers know about this?”

“Sh… Shut up. I’ll talk to the others separately. More importantly, you take care of this person.”

“Hmm?”

The shop owner couldn’t help but be puzzled as Kamma, one of the managers, who had arrived late at night at a small building in an alley without even dressing properly, pointed to Karil behind him and trembled.

“What on earth did you do to make you so agitated?”

The shop owner looked at Karil with a nonchalant expression. He was just a child who barely reached his chest.

“What, have you been having too much fun with the girls lately? Don’t tell me your tastes have changed… Cough!!”

“Sh, shut up! Don’t say crazy things!!”

The owner shouted, hitting Kamma’s hand as he hurriedly tried to silence him.

“It’s a joke!! You crazy old man!! Kekeke.”

He laughed at Kamma as if they had known each other for a long time.

However, Kamma seemed to be sweating profusely at the sight and hurriedly whispered.

“Shut your mouth and listen to me. Benkley is dead. So stop flapping your gums and hand over the key.”

There was fear on his face.

The shop owner then realized that something was wrong.

‘Benkley? Could it be the winner of the arena?’

He hurriedly looked at Karil behind Kamma again. No matter how he looked at him, he was just a young child.

‘Could it be….’

He had also heard rumors about the lawless port.

Suan standing behind him.

Watching his restless appearance, the owner slowly nodded.

“Ah, I see. Geez, it’s my first time reopening the black market in just three months. How many times a year do you open it?”

It was late summer, welcoming autumn.

As the owner said, three months ago would have been spring, which had nothing to do with winter.

“What’s so strange about it? It just means someone like you was here three months ago too.”

“Nonsense. According to that old man, it can’t be opened unless three managers approve it. Gold Lion would have been alive back then, too.”

Karil looked at Suan and said.

“And that guy with the hooked nose was the winner for three years, right? Isn’t that right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Benkley? Ah… of course, that guy won every year. He doesn’t have the guts to aim for the winner’s benefits anyway. Gold Lion manipulates the matchups anyway.”

“So?”

“You said it yourself. If there’s a manager’s approval, the black market can be opened. There must have been someone who could get approval, so they opened the door. Isn’t that right?”

“Who is it?”

The owner pulled on the door hidden in the floor, and stairs leading down to the basement appeared.

“Well, how would a low-level guy like me know what those high-ranking people do?”

Kamma’s face hardened at his words.

“I, I don’t know either. It was approved by the other managers except for me.”

“Hmm… is that so?”

Karil slightly narrowed his eyes.

But only for a moment.

Karil’s worries were put to rest by the shop owner’s confident words.

“Come on in and take your pick. It was prepared in a hurry because the door was suddenly opened, so it might be lacking…”

The sight that unfolded before his eyes.

“Hmm.”

Karil unknowingly let out a low exclamation.

Coming down the stairs, it was as if another world had unfolded. Countless weapons visible between the long rows of torches.

‘It’s been a while.’

The owner said with a confident face.

“I don’t know what you’re looking for, but if you can’t find it here, you won’t be able to find it anywhere on the continent.”

* * *

‘You can buy anything in the black market if you have money. But the time limit is one hour. Opening the black market, which opens only once a year, is already a significant benefit.’

Karil slowly walked down the hallway.

‘Time doesn’t matter anyway. I already know where I’m going.’

He recalled what the owner had said.

-But you should choose carefully. You can’t change your mind. You have to buy something from the store you enter.

-What if you buy more than that?

-You’ll die. At the hands of the black market owner.

He answered Karil’s question without a care.

-Me?

-…….

But the shop owner couldn’t say anything to him when he asked back.

Of course.

He couldn’t say anything to the one who killed Gold Lion.

‘The owner of the black market….’

Remembering, he thought of a woman.

A hijab [a veil worn by some Muslim women] covered her face, but underneath was snow-white skin with no blood and eyes like a viper.

‘Dushala.’

The face vividly drawn in his head.

One of the four managers.

But she was the one who could be called the real owner of Tatur.

For some reason, Karil felt a chill when he thought of that woman.

‘It’s really a city with too many owners. I’ll probably meet her soon.’

Her troublesome personality.

If she heard that he had come to the black market, she would definitely do something by the time he left this place.

‘She’s someone I’ll meet anyway. There’s no point in worrying about it.’

Of course.

As much as she would do something.

He wasn’t just going to sit still either.

Karil smiled lightly and thought.

‘First, the item I want.’

It was a place where countless items were piled up, but Karil didn’t even turn his head and continued straight ahead.

Already.

He had what he wanted in his head.

Thud- Thud- Thud-

Clunk-

His footsteps stopped.

He was now in front of one of two possible destinations.

* * *

“Where is he? Where did he go in?”

“4-GJ-73, I think? Where is that?”

“What? Really?”

“Do you know where it is?”

“Of course, I know. Wow… How did he know to go there? No, did he even know when he went in?”

“Where is it?”

“You guys haven’t been to the black market long enough to know. That’s Kalipsonne’s shop.”

“That door actually opens. How long has it been since he had a customer?”

“I don’t know. Did he open the store in the middle of the night for a kid like that? He went into a useless junk shop.”

“He has no eye for things. None at all.”

As soon as Karil, who was walking down the hallway, opened the door of the store, noisy voices were heard through the small window gaps.

“Shh…!! Be quiet. Even though he looks like that, that kid just sliced off Kyuran’s head-! Clean off.”

“That’s right. And Benkley died without a trace.”

“So what? He’s just going to get junk with the reward he got. Did that old man’s store even have anything decent?”

“You never know. It’s the oldest store in the black market.”

“Come to think of it, when did the old man come to Tatur?”

“I don’t know, he was already there when I came.”

“Me too.”

“Oh, yeah. Me too?”

“Old man… Come to think of it, is he even alive?”

Everyone’s eyes were on that place.

No one knew.

Of course.

It had been decades since Kalipson’s store door had opened.

* * *

“I’m doomed. Of all the stores, you chose this one.”

“……”

“That’s broken. Hey, don’t touch that. It’s just standing there because it’s broken.”

A voice like scraping metal was heard.

The old man, who was as small as a dwarf, leaned back in his chair and said annoyedly.

“Kid, you’ve been looking in the wrong place. The black market is suddenly busy, and I thought something was up, but you must have used up all your luck coming here. Your first move is a complete bust….”

He said, putting a large cigarette in his mouth and lighting it. However, despite his words, Karil said with a calm face.

“There’s one thing I’m looking for.”

“Yeah. There’s nothing that doesn’t exist in the black market. But not here. It has everything except what you’re looking for. It’s all just trash that’s over 100 years old.”

“That’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

“……What?”

The items in the store were all covered in dust.

Karil lightly brushed off the dust with his finger and said to him.

“What humans don’t know.”

“……”

“Kalipson, or should I call you Gnome Kalip?”

At that moment.

The look in his eyes as he looked at Karil wavered.

“What do you mean……”

He was a perfect human.

Kalipson coughed in disbelief and turned his head away from him.

“Don’t worry. I’m not an ordinary human either.”

“……!!!”

Instantly.

Karil’s eyes turned black.

“No, way.”

Kalipson couldn’t close his mouth as if he couldn’t believe it.

There were many items that could change one’s appearance.

But all magical items had usage conditions.

That is.

The wearer must have magic power.

Whether it was magic or a magical item, whatever method he used, it meant that the boy in front of him had magic power.

‘An alien…?!’

He looked at Karil with trembling eyes.

“I didn’t come here to reveal your secret. If it becomes known that the gnomes, who are known to be extinct, are alive, there will be chaos everywhere.”

“……”

“From magicians who like dissection to nobles who believe in the nonsense that jewels fall from the gnomes’ eyes.”

Karil laughed lightly.

“I have no intention of ruining your retirement. I’m in a similar situation. Showing you my secret is a sign of trust. The price for getting what I want.”

He raised the corners of his mouth towards the bewildered old gnome.

[Gnome? Ah… I remember. They used to offer treasures to dragons from long ago. When it comes to the skill of making magical items, they are much better than dwarves.]

-Really? That’s a shame. I heard that gnomes are now extinct. It would be nice to see one sometime.

[You can see them.]

-……What?

[Until recently, there was a guy who occasionally came to Lair and brought something quite interesting…….]

He recalled what Nardie Maugh had said.

“Take it out.”

Karil said to him.

“The item to be offered to the Platinum Dragon.”