Walking amongst the merchants and their prospective customers was a familiar experience to Shiira, but a new and interesting one for Adam.

He was born during the war, trained from a young and turned into a warrior so powerful that most average people worshiped him and his peers as gods. There was no semblance of normality to be found in such a life.

He looked around him, gazing at demons walking around and the merchants bombarding them with offers and deals, only to be ignored for the most part.

They were different than the ones he met in the capital, their most unique feature was obviously their four horns. Called a mutation and curse by most outsiders, but regarded as a boon by the locals themselves, a beautiful gift from their gods.

“mister, would you like to buy a sword? you look like the adventuring type. this here is the best you can get.”

It wasn’t long until the merchants spotted him, a man covered head to toe with a long robe and hood, an attire that usually screams “leave me be”, yet even he was targeted by their brutal sales tactics.

Shiira took charge mostly, asking all the merchants who look like they dabble in information trading while Adam followed behind and focused on not exposing his identity.

“morning fella, come’ere and check out this ore. It’s unrefined but so it might not look like it, but this is the holy anti-magic that the gods used, I’ll sell it to you for cheap if you buy some now!”

Another pitch was thrown his way, one that made him chuckle under his breath. He saw the ore the demon merchant was trying to pass as anti-magic, a dark blue metallic rock-looking thing with a slick texture. It had absolutely no resemblance to the real anti-magic alloy humanity relied on during the war.

Adam walked towards the merchant’s wagon and picked up a chunk, examining it closer and then laughing again, but this time it was just loud enough for those close by to hear it.

“oy, are you mocking my product?”

Unlike Adam, the merchant did not find the situation humorous, instead, he took insult to it.

“this is the real thing, it might not have its holy properties now but that’s because it’s not refined yet. don’t you dare mock me, I’ve been in this business before you were even born.”

“then you’ve been in the business of selling garbage to idiots for a very long time. the anti-magic alloy we-I mean the gods used during the war was made from a mixture of several different metals and substances, a few of which can’t even be found anymore. you might as well sell your own shit, that has about the same use as these rocks.”

The merchant shouted obscenities at Adam, drawing the eyes of the nearby customers and the sneers of his fellow merchants which only angered him further, but Adam kept walking away, merging with the crowd until he was rendered practically invisible.

Shiira and Adam went from one merchant to the next, offering coin in exchange for any and all information on the mist city and monster attacks, but they learned nothing new.

All the merchants told them practically the same thing. The beasts attack at night, they kill indiscriminately and return to the mist city along with the bodies of their victims after they had their fill of slaughter.

“can you tell us anything about the mist city? we are willing to pay for any new information you may have.”

Shiira approached yet another merchant, one selling gardening tools and tableware, an older demon with a wrinkled face and four withered, long horns. His wares were clearly handmade, not fancy and decorated but they reflected the respectable skill of their maker.

Unfortunately for the old demon, that alone isn’t enough to attract customers, and thus his wagon was one of the few places around where it was relatively empty and peaceful.

“hmm, I’m sorry but I don’t dabble in that type of trade I’m afraid.”

Shiira visibly deflated, tired from the redundancy and lack of success they were met with. She thanked the merchant and handed him a coin as a way of apologizing for wasting his time, only to turn around and walk away yet again.

“hold on young lady, I might not have anything for you, but there is someone who might.”

Shiira, exalted to finally hear some good news, turned around with newfound vigor, beckoning him to continue talking.

“it is no guarantee, but there is one person who knows these types of things. I don’t know his name, but he started coming to the gathering a few years ago, always setting a small table in the same spot just down there.”

The old demon pointed to the left, his bony, bruised fingers trembling as he did so.

“he tries to sell oddities and seemingly useless effects for obscene prices, claiming them to be ancient artifacts and such, not that I’ve ever known him to make a sale. but he knows things, things that he should definitely not know. most merchants believe he is an information broker in disguise who comes here not to sell his goods, but to restock.”

“thank you, friend, that was very helpful. here, consider this your payment.”

Shiira reached into her satchel and pulled out a handful of coins, enough to make every other nearby merchant stare in jealousy.

“...thank you for your generosity, but I’ve already received my payment. I hope you find whatever it is you are looking for, and may the ancients bless you on your journey.”

A merchant refusing money was an odd sight, but one that Shiira had to quickly accept as she was both strapped for time and could feel Adam is starting to get impatient, thus she nodded and walked away, leaving the old demon to his one-sided staring contest with his jealous neighbors.

“I don’t know much about your currency but I assume that was a lot from the reaction, isn’t it weird for him to refuse it?”

A calm but incentive Adam asked as they made their way through the sea of demons.

“I would usually think the same, but the demons of the north are different. their manners and customs are derived from those of humans, not their own ancestors. I don’t believe that was anything to worry about.”

“…I see.”

“…if you don’t mind me asking. what you said back there…about anti-magic. Is it true?”

Adam sighed under his hood, annoyed at her unrelated question but not enough as to not answer it.

“yes, anti-magic metal is made by mixing precise amounts of other metals and radioactive substances. rumors say that the guy who discovered it was trying to a living metal armor, one of the many insane ideas to get funding during the early days of the war. the ingredients needed to make it were a closely guarded secret, but I know for a fact that only a few of them were in low supply.”

Shiira was sucking in the information like a sponge, infinite in size and always yearning for more.

“and what about—”

“it seems that we found our guy, a small table, only a few things for sale, and absolutely no customers, bingo.”

“bin-go? is that some kind of human spell.”

Adam approached the table of the merchant, a middle-aged demon with long black hair and the welcoming smile of a veteran merchant.

His clothing was very normal, he wore no expensive-looking jewelry, and even his four horns were tightly wrapped in worn-out, black cloth. He did not look like a scammer who tried to exchange garbage for gold, but a genuine simple merchant.

The merchant noticed them approaching and stood up, turning his contagious smile towards them.

“greetings valued customers, welcome to Yassu’s humble emporium. could I perhaps interest you in any of my artifacts here?”

Yassu waived his hand over the table, showing off a number of what could only be described as broken garbage. Shiira, out of pure curiosity, even checked to see if there was any magic aura coming off of them, but the results were, as expected, disappointing.

an old tooth, a broken sword hilt, a damn rock, and other trash…seems that old guy was right, this fool is a glorified garbage seller.

With a disappointed, exhausted sigh and slumped shoulders, Shiira went to ask him for information regarding the mist city, expecting nothing but more garbage, but Adam had a different attitude towards Yassu’s so-called artifacts.

“what’s so special about this thing?”

Adam picked up a small, metal disk. It was less than 2 inches thick and about as big as his palm, but other than its unusual proportions it had no apparent use, however, Yassu’s reaction did not reflect that.

“hahaha, dear customer, you have the eye of a true collector. this is the ring of erudition, if used correctly it can grant you all the knowledge you seek in an instant.”

“pfft.”

Shiira let a small laugh escape her lips, unable to hold back after hearing the long-haired merchant’s ridiculous explanation, but once again Adam seemed to not share in her reaction, instead, he just stared at the disk with a serious expression for a moment.

“…how much?”

WHAT!?!?

Adam’s words left Shiira stunned but kept her words to herself out of fear.

i-is he an idiot? n-no, that’s not possible, then…does he see something that I don’t?

“for you, since you’re a first-time customer, I’ll say…2000 Duri.”

THAT’S HALF OF THE COIN WE GOT FROM THE DEMON LORD!

“give it to him Shiira.”

Adam didn’t try to barter nor did he even look at Shiira when asking her to pay. His eyes were glued to the disk, examining every inch of it absent-mindedly.

Shiira held back her doubts and handed Yassu the amount in full. She worried about the possibility of them being unable to afford the information, but she understood better than anyone that if Adam wants something, he’ll just take it.

“if I could suggest, dear customer, you seem like someone who values a good weapon but has trouble finding one that truly fits him, would I be correct.”

Adam finally stopped fiddling with the disk and looked up, his face almost visible from behind his black hood.

“maybe.”

“then may I present you with a weapon that I believe would be perfect for you? I’ll even give it to you for free since you just handed me such a large sum of coin.”

Adam grew quiet for a moment, pondering the merchant’s words and trying to pinpoint a reason behind them, but nothing he could think of made sense, and thus it was not worth the headache that it might bring.

“no thank you, but now to what we are really here for, the mist city, we need information that we haven’t heard before, anything will do.”

The smile on Yassu’s face disappeared and reappeared in an instant, this time even wider and more elated.

“how about a secret passage into the city, would that interest you?”