Chapter 1013
Arsen’s Dark History
“…Alright, then.”
Arsen said reluctantly, “Any type of secret will do?”
“We’ll add more if it’s not enough,” Eivass said simply, “The Moon Deer will say it then—you’re not telling it to me, you’re telling it to the child. Children love hearing this.”
…Secrecy, shame, sin.
Meaning, dark history?
Arsen hesitated, racking his brain for a good while before he could barely recall a few secrets whose details he himself couldn’t remember.
“…When I was very young… when I was a sailor on a ship,” Arsen said slowly, “I accidentally discovered the smuggled goods that the second mate brought aboard. It was Elf Dew, an ingredient for love potions. The second mate hid them in some rum, and I realized when I was carrying them that they were lighter than normal rum, and sounded and felt different when shaken… so I checked them out of curiosity.
“But I didn’t report it to the captain; instead, I secretly took a portion of it. After going ashore, I sold it for money. That was my… first theft. And possibly my first murder.
“Because later… the second mate disappeared when it was time for him to board the ship. We waited for him for a day, but he never returned. At the time, I thought that perhaps because of the shortage, he was killed by the gang involved in the transaction. This made me very regretful, so from then on, I stopped keeping stolen money on me… The money I earned from selling Elf Dew on the black market before, I later anonymously donated to an orphanage.
“…Even then, I didn’t even have a place to live.”
“—Not enough,” the Moon Deer suddenly said, “Add another one, or elaborate on the existing one.”
Eivass thought for a moment, and instead of asking Arsen to tell another story, he pressed, “How did you take it? How much did you take?”
“They were rum in barrels, one gallon per barrel. When we were on the ship, we would mix these with water to quench our thirst. Otherwise, the fresh water was too difficult to swallow… so this rum was also part of the fresh water reserve.”
Arsen sighed and continued, “We had just passed the Church customs and were preparing to load the cargo onto the ship. This job was supposed to be done by the stevedores, but the second mate said that I had also worked as a stevedore, and he was afraid they would be clumsy and break the barrels, so he asked me to help load the cargo.
“I don’t know how he got them through customs… but as I was carrying these rum barrels, I suddenly realized that some of them felt lighter than they should. After secretly prying open one of them, I sensed something was wrong.
“Although the color and taste of the liquor were the same as other cheap rum, I quickly realized that these barrels had false bottoms—they were only two-thirds full. Each barrel had another compartment underneath. I took out this ‘barrel within a barrel’ and saw a liquid emitting a beautiful silver radiance below.
“—I didn’t know it was Elf Dew at the time, but I immediately guessed it was something valuable, and definitely smuggled goods… So I transferred them into my water flask. The Elf Dew in there was enough to fill about two flasks.
“By feeling around, I determined that the problematic barrels had a subtle triangular mark about three centimeters from the bottom. It was invisible to the eye, only detectable by touch.
“I didn’t dare stay in the cargo hold for too long and quickly left to continue moving the barrels. I made excuses to return to my own room twice, pouring the liquid from my water flasks into empty buckets in my room. There were only four problematic barrels, and I refilled four flasks. Pouring this liquid into the buckets reached about a quarter of their height.
“So I copied the second mate, making a false bottom for the barrel in the same way. I didn’t dare bring it ashore directly, but instead left it in my room. Under the cover of late night, I swam back to the ship and took the goods.”
“…Wait?”
Hearing this, Eivass suddenly realized something was wrong. He almost lost his composure, “A total of four barrels, each containing enough Elf Dew to fill two flasks, and you took away four flasks in total—good heavens, does that mean you took half of his share directly?”
When others stole, they took a little. This kid, on his first theft, dared to take half.
Truly a born Phantom Thief. As expected, seeing a part reveals the whole…
“I was afraid of being discovered, so I took evenly. I thought that if any barrel was missing a portion, he would immediately realize I had tampered with it. Because only I had handled them. But if they all had problems, perhaps he would think the source itself was faulty… I know that idea was naive, but I was young then.”
Arsen sighed, “I thought about it and recalled that they were weighed when they were loaded onto the ship. I clearly remembered the weight of each barrel, and knew how much water to add to restore the weight, so I even secretly took fresh water mid-way to replenish the missing part. They also emitted a silver glow after being mixed with water, and looked normal to the naked eye… So I was quite glad at the time that I had done it flawlessly.
“I also thought that if the second mate confronted me, I could just say something like, ‘Aren’t the weights the same when they are loaded and unloaded?’… Moreover, my craftsmanship was excellent, and I restored every detail to its original state. The ‘barrel within a barrel’ and the outer barrel also had a mark, which I discovered and realigned to their original angle—perfectly.”
“…I won’t even mention that your reason is equivalent to a confession.”
Hearing this, Eivass could no longer hold back, “You turned high-purity Elf Dew into low-purity Elf Dew contaminated with impure water… This is basically useless! How could you take half and ruin half?”
That unfortunate second mate probably really did perish. Low-purity Elf Dew wasn’t worth much, let alone being contaminated by the stale, insect-ridden, and mossy fresh water sailors drank at sea. It had lost most of its power, its purification effect was less effective than Holy Water blessed by an ordinary Priest. If this stuff were made into a love potion, drinking it might turn one into a berserker.
“I couldn’t help it,” Arsen spread his hands, “I don’t understand Alchemy yet.”
“…How much did you sell this for back then?” Eivass asked, “This is a quarter gallon of high-purity Elf Dew. In Star Antinomy, it would be worth a manor.”
“Well… I was probably ripped off. Or maybe my storage wasn’t very good. But in the end, I sold it for four hundred Iris Flower Gold Coins.”
Arsen recalled, “I remember this amount very clearly. I didn’t dare bring it back to the ship, so I had to bury it somewhere. I spent three Gold Coins in total—one of which was used to buy a new Dagger, which I later lost.”
Iris Flower Gold Coins are slightly smaller than Star Antinomy Gold Coins, and four hundred Iris Flower Gold Coins are roughly equivalent to over three hundred and twenty Star Antinomy Gold Coins, which is about five hundred White Crown Coins.
“…Hmm, you really did lose out.”
Eivass nodded, “Just the raw material for this half-barrel alone would be worth about eight thousand Gold Coins—the unit for this stuff is ‘drops’, and it could make over four hundred bottles of love potion. I won’t even count the finished product. After you diluted it with dirty water, this barrel is probably worth about fifty Gold Coins… This second mate didn’t die unjustly.”
Rounded up, it was an eight-thousand-Gold Coin scam… Given his status, this couldn’t possibly have been his own smuggling. He was likely contracted by some organization. Losing eight thousand Gold Coins worth of goods for them—if he had survived, Eivass would be astonished by the politeness of the local Iris Flower gangs.
However, given that he didn’t implicate Arsen, the second mate probably didn’t even realize it had been tampered with by Arsen. After all, Arsen was just an ordinary stevedore-turned-sailor, and he had perfectly restored the barrel’s ‘anti-theft measures’. He probably truly believed the supplier was at fault.
Thinking this, Eivass glanced at Arsen.
He really knew how to stir up trouble…
If the black market merchant who bought the Elf Dew from him didn’t belong to this gang, then more than just the second mate would have died in this incident. Eight thousand Gold Coins is not a small sum even for nobles, let alone underground gangs. If they investigated the supplier, it was likely that both sides would clash.
Arsen also seemed to realize something, and his expression turned grim.
“Hehehehe…”
The Moon Deer suddenly let out a mad laugh, one that evoked images of a Clown or a madman, “Enough, enough…”
Having savored Arsen’s inner pain and regret, the Moon Deer took a deep breath like a gourmet, his expression ecstatic.
Then, it leaped high into the air.
Turning into a streak of moonlight, it instantly tore through the Sky.
As if at the speed of Light, or the speed of longing—
In just an Instant, they had reached their destination.
(End of Chapter)
