Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

In just the past few months, how many swords has Raslaufer lost? He himself can hardly remember.

"Twelve gold coins." The shopkeeper was a broad-shouldered man with a thick red beard, resembling someone from Eastern Inassis. After sizing up Raslaufer, he gave this price.

Not too expensive. The mercenary thought to himself as he tossed twelve walnuts onto the counter.

"Twelve gold coins!" To everyone's surprise, the shopkeeper's face immediately turned ugly. He tapped the counter with his hairy index finger and loudly repeated the order.

Raslaufer, whose hand was already on the hilt of the greatsword, stopped abruptly. He turned his head, pointed to his blue eyes, and asked, "How many do you want?"

"Twelve gold coins!"

With a sharp "thud," the shopkeeper drew a dagger from his waist and slammed a Valu gold coin into the counter: "Qingzun City is finished. Who are you trying to fool with this junk?"

Chapter 275 Forced Sale

"tattered?"

Raslaufer took the greatsword down from the wall: "You guys are really well-informed. Alright, where do you want to buy it? I don't know where to exchange money for you, so keep this and keep the change."

An Imperial Gold Coin was tossed onto the counter. After so much time, even a large sum of money would be almost gone, but it wasn't to the point where they couldn't afford a greatsword.

However, to Raslaufer's surprise, the shopkeeper's brow furrowed into a knot: "I said twelve gold coins, are you deaf or what? And don't bother with change, if you don't take out the other eleven, you'd better put the stuff back right now!"

Twelve gold coins?

With a series of crackling sounds, the eleven new coins finally found their purpose. However, the shopkeeper merely picked one up, glanced at it, and tossed it towards Leslaufer.

"Are you treating me like a joke? I won't accept this kind of defective product!"

"I'm making fun of you? I think you don't know who you are," the mercenary said, glancing down at the coins lying on the ground, then laughing angrily. "One Imperial Gold Coin is worth at least fifteen of any other gold coins. You don't actually want twelve Imperial Gold Coins, do you? You think I'm a sucker?"

"Everything in my shop is top-quality, twelve gold coins, no bargaining!" The shopkeeper was startled by Raslaufer's appearance and took a step back, but the next second he straightened his neck again, as if he was certain that Raslaufer wouldn't dare to do anything to him. "Buy it or leave it! I don't do business with poor people!"

Based on past experience, in situations like this, customers either have to endure his sarcastic remarks and leave in anger, or they have to put on a brave face and pay up. But today, this boss clearly made the wrong gamble.

"boom--"

The shop owner saw that it was just a flash, but the next second he was lifted into the air, grabbed by the collar from behind the counter, and then smashed towards the shop entrance, knocking down two racks wearing chainmail.

"W-what are you going to do? I know everyone on this street. If you dare to do anything, you—" The shopkeeper finally panicked. Although he seemed to be about the same size as Raslaufer, when Raslaufer raised his fist and kicked, he had no chance to fight back. His cries of pain and pleas for mercy echoed through the shop.

"I'm trying to be nice to you when I buy things from you, and you take advantage of my kindness! Where in the east are you from? I'll burn your whole house down, you believe me!" Raslaufer didn't use his sword, but even just his fists and boots were enough to give this man a run for his money. "Speak!"

"I believe you, I do—" "That's what I'm asking you!!"

"Havilerburg! My hometown is Havilerburg! Sir, please have mercy! I still have my elderly mother and young children back home. Please, have mercy on me..." This rhetoric is the same everywhere.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Leslaufer raised his greatsword as if to strike, and the unfortunate man on the ground hurriedly whimpered and covered his head. "Tell me, what are we going to do about this mess?"

"It's a gift, a gift from you. This is my first sale of the day. How about we become friends?" the shopkeeper stammered, as if he wasn't the one who had just been shouting "twelve gold coins!"

"No way!" Leslaufer slapped him on the back of the head again. "Do you think I'm a penniless wretch?"

"And here's another set of armor as a bonus! A whole set of armor! I just got a new set of scale armor, no, half-plate armor! It's obviously custom-made for you, so I've decided to give it to you!"

"Give it away? Are you looking down on me?" Leslaufer glanced up and saw that others outside seemed to have been alerted. He kicked the shopkeeper back into the house and slammed the door shut behind him. "I'm buying it from you today, no matter what!"

"Oh, okay, okay! You say you'll buy it... buy it?" The shop owner was completely stunned. Hearing this, he thought he was hallucinating.

"Looking down on me?" Leslaufer sneered, standing before the shopkeeper, leaning on his greatsword. "Twenty gold coins!"

The boss was truly bewildered.

"Thirty gold coins!" "Fifty gold coins!"

Seeing that the boss was completely bewildered and had no idea what was going on, Raslaufer raised his greatsword and slammed it down on the floor between the man's legs again: "One hundred gold coins!"

"make a deal!"

The boss, finally realizing what had happened, cried out the word, but just as he scrambled to his feet to prepare the money, Leslaufer's words behind him made him wish he could just faint:

"One hundred gold coins per attempt, anyone offering a higher price?"

"No, sir, there's really none left! Please, spare me..."

“Alright then, there’s also a 30% transaction fee, remember to pay that too,” Leslaufer curled his lip. “I just came back from the Empire. You know, that’s why the Empire people are civilized and we’re just barbarians. They have a way of doing business called auctions, and they even have transaction fees. Isn’t that pretty sophisticated?”

"Yes...that's really too 'perfect'!" The shopkeeper trembled as he took out the money box where he had stored his accumulated gold coins. His face was covered in snot and tears, and he almost ground his back teeth to powder as he spoke. He hated himself for not being able to beat the robber in front of him.

He was just thinking, "Why not just rob them outright?" But the other side was actually robbing them outright!

Seeing the resentment written all over the guy's face and etched into his bones, Leslaufer didn't bother arguing with him any further. He was quite tolerant in this regard; after all, the other person's dissatisfaction didn't stop him from buying things.

"Next time, open your eyes wider. If you really can't let any light in, just poke a couple of holes," Raslaufer said contentedly, clutching six money boxes full of gold coins (a shop doesn't have that many Imperial gold coins, so they have to use other currencies). Wearing brand-new half-armor, with his greatsword tucked under his arm, he strode off, kicking the door open. "See you later! Come back if you find it useful!"

"Reslaufer, you—"

As Raslaufer strolled down the street and met up with Bella, who was waiting outside because she had nothing to buy, the druid's eyes widened even more than when she transformed into a giant owl: "Is the shopkeeper your long-lost uncle?"

"I'm his long-lost, non-blood-related uncle!" The mercenary laughed smugly, tossing the money boxes to Bella. "Put them away, put them away. If he weren't my nephew, why would he give me so many good things?"

When Bella opened the several money boxes with some skepticism, the glittering gold inside almost blinded her: "He's given you all his savings from all these years! What about him—is he really your nephew?"

The druid suddenly realized that Raslaufer's answer, like her question, might not have been serious.

"Of course it's true! She was crying her eyes out when she saw me," the mercenary scoffed. He turned around and saw Angelita and Margaret storming out of another shop, while Daisy, though seemingly calm, was flushed red. The worst off was Von Dahl, the poor dwarf who had been beaten and verbally abused and was now sitting on the ground, pounding his chest and tugging at his large beard.

“Uh,” Bella said with some concern, “it seems they don’t have as many relatives here as you do.”

Chapter 276 A Foreign Land, Relatives Everywhere

"This is simply unreasonable!"

Angrita, unusually furious, opened her hand to Raslaufer, revealing a ruby ​​that looked to be of decent quality: "I thought this one had some pigeon blood on it and looked pretty good, so I casually asked about the price, and she actually asked for a hundred Imperial Gold Coins! Did that witch think I was some ignorant country bumpkin?"

These rubies are far from flawless; they would already fetch a premium of sixty or seventy Imperial gold coins.

“But you still bought it.” Raslaw raised an eyebrow; he had no idea that Angrita had so much pocket money.

“I borrowed some from Mary and bought it for eighty gold coins,” the girl said, feeling frustrated. “I never intended to buy it in the first place, but that old witch—”

Raslaufer looked up and stopped Angelita from saying anything even harsher, but the feeling was still stuck in her chest and she couldn't get it out.

“You could have ignored her, but Margaret, you have to take responsibility,” Leslaufer glanced at the freckled girl. “What you should have done was stop her, not lend her money.”

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency Raslaufer, I... I know I was wrong." Margaret finally gave up trying to explain; this was not someone she could sway with a few words.

“I didn’t spend any money,” Daisy said, spreading her hands as if she were completely shameless. “I still owe Annie a huge debt, and no matter how much she curses me, I can’t conjure up any more money.”

The bards only cared about trivial things, and it didn't matter whether they had them or not, but compared to them, von Dahl seemed much more pitiful.

“That’s a rare Chromium alloy ingot! My eyes can’t be mistaken!” The dwarf had never been so agitated. “I must get it… With it, my chances of opening the path to Forge City will greatly increase! I must…”

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ray, Daisy, and all my friends, it seems my journey will have to end here for now. I need it like a baby needs its mother's milk! At least I have hands to work with, and I hope that shopkeeper still hires long-term workers. I'd be willing to serve him for a century if I could get that piece of metal in return!"

As the dwarf spoke, he turned to rush back to the shop, but no matter how hard he tried, the distance between him and his destination remained unchanged. The dwarf turned his head in surprise to see Raslaufer grabbing him by the back of his collar.

"Old Lei! You don't understand—"

“I don’t understand,” Raslaufer released the dwarf who had become unusually agitated, “you know, you don’t have to work for him for a century to get what you want.”

“…I still have a sum of money that I can’t break,” Angelita said, assuming Leslaufer wanted to use her gold pound. “I just hope they can recognize its value.”

Fontaine was a good elder and friend, and Angelita could not stand by and watch the dwarves suffer like this.

“That would require at least two hundred and fifty Imperial gold coins, and that guy offered three times that price,” the dwarf said gloomily, not believing that Angrita could come up with such a huge sum.

That's more than the deposits Leslaufer received this time, but... it's okay.

“Don’t mention the ones that can’t be opened, I have some that can be opened.” Leslaufer gave Bella a look, and she immediately understood and took out the money boxes that numbered half a dozen.

“Uncle Raslaufer?” Angelita was taken aback. “Where did you get this money? From your previous savings?”

But Reslaufer is from East Inasas, shouldn't his savings be in his hometown too?

“It’s my savings,” Leslaufer nodded. “My nephew had been managing it for me, and now I’ve gotten it back with interest.”

"But although there are many of them, when converted into Imperial Gold Coins, it's probably..."

“I never said I only have one nephew,” the mercenary grinned wickedly, lifting his foot. “Annie, which shop did you go to earlier? I’d like to go and make an acquaintance; maybe I lent him money sometime in the past!”

“You’re not even sure if it’s true or not, how could you have lent money to someone…” Daisy muttered under her breath, but it didn’t escape Raslaufer’s ears.

“This is Inassus, Daisy, this is my homeland!” Raslaufer spread his arms wide. “I might have distant relatives in the Empire, so of course I’m even more numerous here.”

"And you should know, I'm a great philanthropist. I enjoy supporting people's businesses, doing business and lending money."

As he spoke, Raslaufer had already arrived at the shop's door. With the door panel now freely departing from its hinges and disappearing into the distance, Raslaufer's voice grew rougher at that moment:

"Open the door! It's time to pay back the money!"

Faced with Raslaufer's stature, which was twice his height, the owner of the jewelry store had no choice but to recognize a relative as his uncle at the age of seventy. He then offered up the store's most valuable jewelry and money, and had to send off his "relative" with profuse thanks. Naturally, the store visited by Daisy and von Dahl was not spared either.

Since the two people in charge didn't have the same physique as the old lady, Leslaufer didn't give them any extra care and simply took away most of the broken teeth from each of their mouths.

"This one! And this one too! Old Lei, I need this one too!"

When the dwarf first robbed the old woman, he tried to persuade Raslaufer not to be so thuggish. But when what he had longed for but could not obtain was placed in front of him, von Dahl Banchos was willing to risk his glory and dignity of two or three centuries and pointed out every piece of hard-to-obtain mineral without hesitation.

Anyway, I didn't lift a finger, Old Lei took them all! I just... accepted a gift from a friend! The dwarf shouted in his heart, trying to justify himself while clutching each piece of material tightly, afraid that this was all a dream and that they would slip away and disappear in the next second.

“I have a question, Old Feng,” Daisy looked at the dwarf curiously, “and the materials from before too. So much stuff, and all solid metal ingots, how are you going to carry it all? I’ve never seen it in your bag.”

"If I kept it in my bag, I would have risked my life in it when I was in Qingzun City," the dwarf chuckled, in high spirits. "I always keep it with me."

"As for how it was done, it's a magic trick, do you believe it?"

But then Feng Daer tugged at his long beard and put the metal ingots behind it. When he pulled his hand out again, all the rare materials had vanished without a trace!

"You put something this heavy in your beard?!" Daisy was immediately astonished by von Dahl's audacity.

“It’s his arm, you silly boy,” Zheng Ling’s voice rang out at the right moment. “He’s a one-armed dwarf, haven’t you noticed? That left arm is a special dimensional magic artifact, he must have put everything in there!”

"You see, just like I said, everyone has their own little secrets, so why be fixated on a devil who talks to you through a piano?"

Chapter 277 The Forest Ranger of Ersore

As Raslaufer and his companions left the entire street of shops, a wide carriage pulled by two Loss beasts followed behind them, the pleasant clinking of gold coins filling the air, and almost everyone's face beamed with happiness.

"Did we...go too far?" Only the druid hesitated. "While it's wrong of them to ask for exorbitant prices, what we're doing..."

“You have to pay taxes according to how much you earn, Miss Bella,” Margaret said, her face flushed. “You may not know the ins and outs, but my family has been in business for a while, and I’m sure it’s a legitimate part of the cash flow.”

"Funds need to circulate. Keeping them in purses and boxes to rust will cause them to lose their value and meaning, so we brought them out. Are we planning to dig a hole and bury these things? No! This is about restoring the rightful value of stagnant currency!"

"It's just that the lords collect taxes in a different way than we do."

She's not doing business now, and besides, when the family was still operating normally, the caravan paid a lot of money to those soldiers who became bandits. Now it's time for her Lister family to make that dirty money!

“Those guys can make a fortune selling a gem that costs twenty or thirty to produce and is worth fifty or sixty on the market for a hundred gold coins. Sister Bella, there’s no need to pity them.” Angelita played with the gem for a couple of moments before tossing it into the carriage. To be honest, if she hadn’t been put on the hot seat, she would never have intended to buy goods of this quality—the palace had plenty of these little trinkets.

“It’s not just that I pity them, I’m just thinking,” Bella sighed softly, what could she say? “This is a town, right? If we make such a scene, I’m afraid…”

“No need to be afraid,” Raslaufer stopped and waved for everyone to stop. “The person in charge has shown up.”

Looking up, they saw dozens, even nearly a hundred people pushing and shoving each other as they poured out of the surrounding streets. The clothes of these people were familiar to Raslaufer and the others, very similar to those of the spotted cat-like siblings, Sistine and Rosso. Further away, Raslaufer could see even more figures, including many townspeople, and the mercenaries also spotted two guys who had just been beaten up.

"Looks like you're not convinced," Leslaufer sneered, tilting his head to look at the few guys who were crossing the crowd and standing at the front of the line. "Good dogs don't block the way. If you don't want to die, stay out of the way."

He reached out and took the greatsword, twirled the massive weapon twice in the air between his right index and middle fingers, and then slammed it into the ground with a thud.

This move was enough to startle a collective gasp from the crowd on the other side.

"You're... from the East?" A burly man with a scar running across his face scratched his thick chest hair and asked warily, "Some people say you trespassed on our territory and stole the 'street guards' that were supposed to be handed over to us. Is that true?"

The burly man, like the other rangers, wore a cloak, but that was the only fabric covering his upper body.

Leslaufer nodded. It seemed that there was no "official" organization like a mayor in this town of Ersore, or perhaps it only existed on paper or in the past. In any case, these rangers were in charge here now.

“Who did that? I’ve never seen it before,” Raslaufer said, leaning on the hilt of his greatsword. “I came here to find my family. I gave away all my savings before I joined the warband last time. Now that I’m back alive, I’m going to collect my debts with interest. Someone tried to renege on their debt, so I had to teach them a lesson.”

"Is there anything wrong with a maternal uncle disciplining his own nephew?"

"Old Dara of the jewelry store is seventy-two this year..." "I'm of a higher generation."

Raslaufer spoke with such audacity, without even blinking – what uncle is forty years younger than his niece, unless they are both half-elves?

But Leslaufer is clearly not one of them.

"...What evidence do you have?" Even the burly man who had spent years roaming the streets was speechless for a moment. "You can't just say it is because you say so."

"Bring those guys to the front, and see if he cries out or not."