He looked at me with so much hostility, that
if stares were to be able to kill, i would have dead over and over .
I cleared my throat and continued to say :
I believe that you may be able to summon aid if i tried to kill you, but i also believe that i could make you suffer enough without having to kill you at all, you could try something like self destruct, but i don't believe that you have the guts to do so, after all that wouldn't be beneficial and might even lead to even more dire consequences in your current situation, so what will it be, will you empty out the content of that belt of yours, or should i began your rehabilitation already, the choice is partially yours .
He started at me with a bit of dread, his swollen cheek and his aching face were already enough proof of my ability to make him suffer even more, so he didn't answer in words but just lowered his head low in a resignation manner and directly began to empty the content of the belt on the ground without uttering a single word, but the hostility and his killing intent towards me still didn't subsided one bit, but i paid this no mind at all .
I was completely focused on the small mountains of blue Mana Stones stacked in front of me, i couldn't help but remember the first time i know about that weird stone, i also found myself reminiscing about Silver Wallace the shrewd guy, who ripped me off, but he did unintentionally give me a quite amazing skill book, one that i very much to this day still using and benefiting from .
I'm rich, was all that i was able to think of, i couldn't help but wonder how was that guy able to have so much Mana Stones, was this place really rish with Mana Stones mines, the amount was enough to fill the entire cave we were in .
After the initial shock of how many mana stones were in the belt, i turned my eyes to the ton scrolls and books that were tidily stacked on top of each other, i went to check on the said books, but one unexpected problem arose the books and the scrolls were all filled with words that were weird and incomprehensible in my eyes, even though the language barrier wasn't an issue back in Troland and from the start, the words shapes were weird but their meaning was still completely understood by me .
But that wasn't the case here, the words if i'm even allowed to call them as such, they were more like scratches on the paper with a few pages having pictures of what i presumed to be the anatomy of the demons, something that had me believe that the book in hand was something akin to a science book, one that i was falling to understand anything from, but i kept feeling that something was wrong with my way of reading it, but i still don't know what was causing me to feel as such .
I then began to fiddle with the other books and scrolls wanting to find at least one book that i can be able to read and fortunately or unfortunately i found one, but the content of the book wasn't related to anything useful, i looked at the confined demon strangely, wondering why was a demon had a literature book about romantic poems and songs in possession, that was the only book that i currently was able to read, the others looked to quite encrypted for the current me .
I wondered if i should ask him to tell me the content of each book, but it might be a bad idea, one that could blow my current cover as a Bloodlord, i might be overthinking it a bit but what if the books and scrolls were written in the common language back in the real world, won't me asking him to translate be the same as confessing that i'm not a Bloodlord, making it even more harder for me to get any more useful information out of him, or him directly trying to trick me with false information, so for now let's just continue going forward in the same pace .
Dropping the books and wondering what else was there in the pile in front of me, i was able to see some marked closed bottles which had some words inscribed on them, yet was still incomprehensible to me, but the aroma that came out of the few opened ones, gave me a bit of information about what was inside those ones .
Some were having a rejuvenating aroma that calmed my heart and soul, some were releasing a fool smell, like as if someone was releasing storing his farts inside the bottles, some even had a unique aroma, that aroused my curiosity to see what was inside, pills of red color were what came out of this particular bottle, they were giving out a quite unique aroma, there was even a weird aura surrounding them, but i won't be an idiot and try to taste one myself, there's no chance, i do something that reckless .
I once again searched the pile in front of me, wondering what other things were there, till this point i hadn't still found the thing that i used having a look on the content of the belt as an excuse to find, the strange item that the Demon got from the Dorell family member's spatial storing equipment .
But i stumbled on a few weapons of different kinds, there were spears, axes and i found one shortsword that had me look at it with some awe, all the weapons were glowing and had quite good artistic design, but the sword was just different than the rest of the weapons .
The blade was actually glowing in black and even though i didn't held the sword or cut anything with it, i kept sensing a rather quite sharp energy kept getting released from the sword edge, which was also marked with quite different weird runes and symbols .
Which wasn't like anything that i had seen before, as before appraisal didn't work on the said weapon, making me a bit more certain that the sword was actually a product from the Real World, i will cherish this gift of his, it even had a cool sheath made of some weird and unknown rogue blue colored leather, but the touch was still smooth, making me wonder how something like this came to be, but now was just not the time for these sort of inquiries .
Other than a few miscellaneous items, consisting of a bed and a table and few chairs and a few wine pots and some luxurious clothes their was nothing else in here, so i searched a few more times over, but me not knowing what i was even searching for, made it even more difficult for me to find what i want .
Seeing that nothing was able to catch my attention enough to suspect that it may be the item i was looking for, i still held the belt up close to the guy Ludo's hand and began to say with an urgent tone :
The item you took from the Dollar family member .
He raised his head up and said in an almost a pledging like tone :
Why are you interested in something like that senior, you have no needs for the mind nourishment method i had acquired, it won't be beneficial for you to start train in it now, nor i believe your race is in need for such methods right, but it would be different on my part, it would make me a lot more stronger than i'm currently is, so why do you need to cut my way forward, senior .
So he really was still hiding it in that belt of his and didn't took out with the rest of the items, so that could only mean that the mind nourishing method he talked about is more precious than all of the things in his belt combined, now my curiosity was insanely piqued, so i didn't answer him at first, but i instead looked at him in silence for a few more seconds .
And as the seconds kept passing, the mental fortitude of his was beginning to weaken, the nervousness and the pressure he was under were all quite apperant on his eyes and his current shuddering body, so i guessed that my plan of staying in silent, did work .
I unnerved him and made him more or less ready to begin our actual negotiation, working part time as a street vendor previously, allowed me to gain this much experience in handling situations similar to this one, i'm a bit glad that it works, but a bit disappointed as well, i expected to have the chance to slap him a few times more, but currently seeing him like this, i had no doubt that he won't gave me anymore chance to do so anymore .
After sensing that the time was right, i said knowingly :
I may not be interested but it doesn't mean that i have no use for a precious method like that and i could benefit a lot just by selling it, it's quite sought-for item as you know .
If money what you are after senior, i can give you all that you want and desire .
I replied by saying :
Are you an idiot, money of no importance to me, i will sell it for favors, something that you must be acquainted with its worth too, right ? .
He then replied in a hurry and a feverish way as if he trying to win me over before i change my mind again, saying :
You are absolutely right, senior, but if that's what you want, i can vow to be eternally in your debt and vow that i would always do my utmost best to help you in anyway you ask me to, no not only me, i'm willing to have my entire family to be in your debt for years to come, hope that will suffice, what do you say senior, can we finish the deal ? .
He took the bait, now, it's the time for me to really slaughter him, i stayed silent as if weighting the pros and cons of such a deal, but in fact i was rejoicing and also wondering why was he even willing to bet his entire family's fate for that mind nourishing method, but either way, luck was undeniably on my side, i'm beginning to feel that my initial plan have changed a lot of times today due to its inability to cope with the variables that kept happening, but this time i believe would be the last time it changes .
I devised the next move to take, my next move should allow me to take advantage of his eagerness and had him become wrapped around my finger, i believe he will have no objections, but to be on the safe side i will have him become the one to suggest how we are going to move forward .
I scoffed at the words he used as if displeased with the way he put it and sound a bit sarcastic and even released a soft chuckle as i began to say in a quite ridiculed tone :
Vows, like the ones that the late Dorell family member tried to make, did you take me for an idiot, then i would like to see how you at this point could convince me to hand it over, but i still don't see the item i want appearing, do you really liked to be humiliated that bad, fine by me .
I finished what i said and raised my hand up as if indicating what was about to happen next, but i saw the guy who received the intention of my movements, flinching and he hurriedly withdrawn two items from the belt in my hand, one was a black piece of paper which had quite strange letters all over it and looked to be quite ominous, the second item was a sealed scroll that appeared to be freshly written, so much that i believed that he was playing another trick on me, again .
I looked at him wondering why he pulled out two items and what should i say, but luckily there was no need for me to say anything at all, the guy took the initiative to explain what was exactly going on, saying with a quite unenthusiastic tone :
No, i would never took you for a fool senior, the vows will be written in a binding like contract, you will have to name your terms and i will release a drop of blood on the contract to make it valid and in return you will hand me the scroll, the binding effect will bind us to honor the terms that we agreed upon, if one willingly or unwillingly failed to adhere to the terms of the binding contract, then the consequences of doing so well be as what was written and agreed upon penalty between the contracted parties, if you agreed senior, i will activate the contract and the two sides will say their terms and the contract will add them to the agreement on his own .
So that was what a binding contract is, i guess i already have encountered much stranger things than to be stunned at something like this existing, but anyway now that he was the one to suggest it, all the preparation are almost done .
I motioned him to activate the contract, i cautioned myself a bit, thinking that with that shrewd guy mind, he could probably pull a stunt like making the piece of paper which he said that it was a binding contract, a rescue signal sent to one of his elders, the moment he activated, but sensing no impending danger coming from it, i cautiously began to utter the conditions i wanted to set in the contract, my terms were :
1- The other party under no circumstances was to leak the information of this deal ever happening to anyone .
2- The other party has to always lent a hand to the one whom he made this contract with, without asking for anything in return, under the premise that he is able to .
3- The other party under the binding of this contract, can't cause the one with whom he contracted any kind of damage intentionally, that include spreading his secrets to others .
4- The other party has on his shoulders the obligation to convince his family to lend their help to the other party in this contract, they can refuse, but his need to try and pursued his family to help is a must .
Penalty for breaching any of the terms of the contract is INSTANT DEATH .
He looked at the sentence INSTANT DEATH with a quite frowning look as he said :
Is there really the need to go that far ? .
Which i was able to confirm the authenticity of the piece of paper in front of me with, so to answer his inquiry, i said fiddling with the scroll that surprisingly was completely sealed with no way of forcing it to open :
That's how i do things, if you don't like it, you can still walk away, I'm beginning to become a bit more interested in that method .
I said as if fueling the fire a bit more and he reacted just as i expected or even more than i expected, he wasted no time as he gritted his teeth and began to say his terms as well, saying :
1- The other party must hand over the designated scroll the moment that the binding correct in effect .
2- The other party must not misuse the terms of the contract to force this party to self harm or indirectly leak top secrets, as long that the said party is unwilling to .
3- The other party must not cause any harm intentionally or unintentionally to this party, if any harm were to befell this party due to the actions of the other party, it will be considered a breach in the contract .
Seeing the ridiculous issue with the 3 term he presented, i directly stopped him from continuing to say anything else and said :
I can agree with the other two terms, but you will have to change that third one of yours, i don't want to fall victim to the penalty of breaching the contract terms, over something as vague as this, so change it to something else otherwise there's no deal .
He was about to retort but i continued to say resolutely :
I'm not asking, i'm ordering, there is no way that i would accept such a lousy restriction to be put on me, change it or the deal is off .
He nodded his head weakly in understanding and changed his third term to be :
3- The other party must not cause any intentional harm to this party, if any kind of harm were to be done, the contract will be considered invalid, Slaps included .
He looked at me and seeing that it was an acceptable to some extent, even though i felt it was a bit of a loss, but i still nodded my head in an approving manner, i thought he was done but then he continued to say :
4- The other party can't ask this party to betray his race for the sake of the Bloodlord race, or else this will be considered a breach in the contract on the other party's side .
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but i settled on having an impassive face after hearing the last term he wrote on the binding contract, i was also more or less proud of the fact that i played the role of a Bloodlord well enough to even force the guy in front of me to acknowledge me as such, i really wonder what he will look like, after finding out that i was a human all along, i was beginning to break character just thinking about what will his reaction going to be .
I'm also a bit lucky that the binding contract need only my voice to document the conditions i wanted to set, if i was forced to write them down myself, i would have probably been found out, i also was wondering about the penalty he was going to set upon me if i were to break my part of the deal, but without much surprise he wrote that the penalty of breaking the contract terms to be : AGONIZING DEATH .
I guess that this was his way of expressing how much he hated me, but he wasn't aware that the moment the contract become valid, he will be in for quite the surprise, one that will possibly blew his mind away .
I will have my own inexhaustible source of information in nothing but a mere seconds from now on .
After we both confirmed that there is no more changes to be made to the contract, i allowed him enough room to puncture his finger and drop a droplet of blood on the contract, but then he handed me the contract and said, you too .
~SLAP~ .