5 Gold, 50 Copper
A keen eye is a tremendous asset. Nowhere is that more true than in this black market.
With a sharp enough eye, you can pick up rare goods for a song, and you will never be the fool who pays a fortune for garbage. Put the other way around, for anyone without that eye, this street is the biggest dumpster in the world.
The regulars of Shadow Street—Green Moon among them—all possessed a certain degree of appraisal skill. And among those regulars, Green Moon had the finest appraisal eye of them all.
"Blue Snake. Look at this. It's a pack from that card game that's all the rage in the Royal Capital. Masturbating Mad Skull? What a weird name. I didn't know they even made packs like this."
"Haha. That's a newly released Structure Pack. We're running a hemorrhage sale—ten copper a pack."
Green Moon was watching a couple: a boy and a girl he had never seen on this street before. The girl called the boy Blue Snake. The boy called the girl Red Snake.
"Blue Snake and Red Snake, is it."
A loaded pair of names. Green Moon's interest in the two of them climbed another notch.
"This is a fake pack. Nothing worth looking at here."
The boy swept the stall with a casual glance and delivered a precise verdict. The judgment came fast, and his voice was full of certainty. You could not make a call that quickly on instinct alone. The boy was clearly appraising the value of the goods.
Does he have a Trait related to appraisal?
Without one, it would be hard to possess an eye like that at his age. Of course, he could simply be a born genius. Either way, the boy's stride never faltered.
"This one's fake too. They gathered mana-stone dust and cobbled together a crude imitation."
"A water-vein compass. Not a counterfeit, but the value for the price is terrible."
"Barrier talismans! The price is decent. Should we grab a few?"
It was not only his footsteps that never hesitated. The boy identified and appraised merchandise without the slightest pause.
Every single one, correct.
And those judgments never missed. In sheer speed, he might even have been faster than Green Moon himself.
What the hell is this kid?
Had a customer like that ever existed on Shadow Street? Green Moon had no memory of such a boy. If a talent of that caliber had been walking this street, he would have known. Given that concealing one's identity was the default here, it was possible the boy usually came in a different disguise. Still.
The boy who had been sweeping the stalls without pause finally stopped in front of a shabby skill-book stand. Watching him, Green Moon let out a meaningful hum.
"Hmm..."
Behind his mask, the boy's eyes began to blink as he studied the stall with real care. This was a look he had not shown until now. The boy who had finished appraising goods with a mere glance was, for the first time, examining merchandise in earnest.
"Blue Snake. Did you find something good?"
Red Snake, equally curious about the change, asked the very question Green Moon wanted to pose.
"I'm looking. Most of these appear to be useless skill books. However..."
The boy let the sentence trail off. His gaze stopped on one skill book. Then he gave a small nod—the gesture of a man who had found what he was looking for. Green Moon focused his hearing and caught the boy's next words.
"This one... seems decent."
Where the boy's eyes had landed sat a single Unidentified Skill Book.
"Yo— I mean, Blue Snake. That's an Unidentified Skill Book!"
"I'm aware."
"Unidentified Skill Books are dangerous!"
Unidentified Skill Books. Dungeon-reward skill books, in the most literal sense: their contents could not be confirmed. Unlike ordinary items, they carried the property Cannot Be Appraised. The only way to learn what was inside was to use the book.
The problem was that the vast majority of them contained garbage skills of D-Rank or lower. A person could not learn skills without limit. Everyone had a maximum number of skills they could hold, and that made picking up a low-rank skill a potential millstone around one's neck later on.
But that was not why Unidentified Skill Books were considered dangerous. If it were only the odds of a low-rank skill, demand would have been overflowing. The world was full of people who would be grateful even for a D-Rank skill.
The real danger was that many of them were cursed. Learn a cursed skill book without knowing, and if you were lucky you were merely crippled. If you weren't, you died on the spot. In other words, using an Unidentified Skill Book was super-high-risk, high-return. That was why they traded so cheaply on Shadow Street.
"What if it's a cursed skill book?"
Red Snake looked at Blue Snake with worry. Blue Snake only smiled.
"I'm rather lucky, as it happens."
A voice thick with confidence. Green Moon's instincts told him this was not simple bragging about luck. Conviction like that did not grow out of uncertainty.
"Shopkeep. How much for this?"
"Ten silver."
"It says one silver right here."
"It just went up."
On Shadow Street, nothing had a fixed price until a deal was struck. Even if a tag was attached, the merchant named the price. Not letting a merchant read your interest was basic street literacy.
Sloppy on that front. As I thought—he's no regular here.
Anyone who had visited Shadow Street even a few times would never make such an amateur mistake.
"What kind of business is this?! There's a price tag written right here!"
The girl clearly did not like the merchant's behavior. She hiked her shoulders and scolded him—a classic first-timer reaction. Of course, raising your voice on Shadow Street earned you nothing but mockery.
"Heh heh. Miss, this your first time in a black market? Clean out your ears and listen. The price of goods is whatever the seller says it is. The tag's just there for reference."
The merchant bared yellow teeth and snapped at her in a jackal's tone. Then he grinned at Red Snake and added a line.
"So if you're not buying, get lost."
By this street's standards, the merchant's response was remarkably gentlemanly. That counted as very gentle here.
"W-what kind of thing is that to say...!"
The girl was furious, but the boy held her back.
"Those are the rules here. Picking a fight won't do us any good."
"Keh. Your boyfriend knows a thing or two. Learn a few more of this street's techniques and you'll make a fine customer."
"B-boyfriend?! He's not my boyfriend, he's—"
Before she could finish, the boy stated his intent to buy.
"I'll take it for ten silver."
"Keh-heh-heh. Fine choice. I'm sure that skill book's got an A-Rank skill in it."
If the merchant truly believed there was an A-Rank skill inside, he would never sell it for a pittance like ten silver. His face said he was delighted to have landed a sucker.
Green Moon's assessment was the opposite. This boy was no sucker. He was the real thing.
It was not a baseless hunch. The way the boy saw through the value of goods was on par with Green Moon himself. The mere fact that he had casually avoided the mountain of trash hidden on Shadow Street already proved it. The boy clearly possessed the power to judge the worth of merchandise. Whether that was a Trait, a skill, or simply knowledge and instinct, Green Moon could not say—but he had that power. That was an undeniable fact.
"I'll buy that skill book for twenty silver."
Deal-snatching. A common technique on Shadow Street. Green Moon stepped in front of the boy and girl and executed it.
"Who are you? We were going to buy this!"
Startled by Green Moon's sudden appearance, the girl bristled and spoke.
"Well, well! If it isn't Lord Green Moon!"
Recognizing him, the merchant's manner flipped completely. He greeted Green Moon with a warmth he had never shown the two kids. Naturally. Green Moon was a famous regular and a known big spender on Shadow Street, and these two brats were suckers he had never seen before today. The difference in treatment was only normal.
"We already agreed to buy this for ten silver."
The girl puffed out her chest and said it with confidence. It had nothing to do with reality. The merchant cackled and set her straight.
"What are you talking about? I never once said I'd sell this to you."
"What?! Just a moment ago you clearly—"
"I said it was a fine choice. I never said I'd sell it. And this skill book was originally twenty silver. Ten silver? Preposterous."
The merchant fed her the line with a perfectly straight face. The girl clenched her fists until they shook and ground her teeth at his shamelessness. But the merchant's attitude was, on this street, perfectly ordinary. On Shadow Street, a merchant who cheerfully handed goods over was the one who got called a fool.
"Urgh...! So that's how you're going to play it?!"
The girl snapped four fingers out toward the merchant.
"Then we'll pay forty silver!"
The boy beside her cried out in shock.
"Red Snake. I don't have that kind of—"
"Don't worry about the money! I'll pay!"
She thumped her own chest. From that, Green Moon confirmed once again that the girl was a noble's child.
"Ever heard of a girl who prints money?!"
She said it with a triumphant smile. Doubling the price in an instant was, to Green Moon, barely an itch.
"One gold."
The Unidentified Skill Book that had been ten silver shot up tenfold in a heartbeat. The merchant's smile grew even brighter.
"Two gold. I don't know who you are, but give it up. We spotted this first."
The instant she finished, Green Moon raised the bid.
"Two gold, thirty silver."
The girl did not back down.
"Three gold!"
The price rocketed toward the sky. A nerve-shredding game of chicken had begun. The merchant watched, whistling. When competition heated up, the merchant was the one who profited.
"Nngh...! I don't have enough on me right now.... I'm sorry...."
In the end, it was the girl who surrendered first.
"Sorry? You've got nothing to apologize for, Red Snake."
The final auction price was five gold. The Unidentified Skill Book had become the most expensive item the merchant had ever sold.
"A pity. But that's the way of Shadow Street."
So saying, Green Moon paid. He laid down five gold in a lump sum without so much as a blink.
In truth, his goal had not been simply to snatch the goods. The deeper purpose was to make his presence felt—to leave an impression on the boy. He was picking a fight with a future rival. It was also an admission that he recognized the boy. On a street where hiding one's identity was the default, the best ways to display superiority were power and money. Green Moon had chosen money.
"I'll settle for this skill book, then."
The boy pointed at a skill book lying on the stall. A fifty-copper skill book.
"Here's fifty copper."
Blue Snake paid the fifty copper without complaint. That was when Green Moon saw it. Behind the mask, Blue Snake's eyes curved into a graceful smile. Those eyes seemed to say, Just as planned.
Wait...
Green Moon looked down at the Unidentified Skill Book in his hand. The most expensive Unidentified Skill Book in the world, at a staggering five gold. This had clearly been the skill book the boy had first targeted—and yet the boy showed not a hint of disappointment.
Don't tell me... the one he was after from the start was that skill book?
If so, the boy had played him perfectly. Jacking the price of a worthless skill book into the stratosphere and looking pleased about it—that was not a deal. That was a clown show.
Getting conned, on his own turf, as a regular of Shadow Street? Not a single merchant had ever managed that. And his opponent was not even a merchant. He was a fellow customer.
No matter how he turned it over, the scenario was absurd. He could not tell where the design even began. Green Moon felt as if he had been put under a spell. This was already beyond reading the board. It would be more accurate to call it fortune-telling—logically impossible, no matter how he thought about it. And yet the boy's easy composure told him he had been thoroughly, completely taken.
One of Green Moon's greatest strengths was his composure. He admitted it. The boy had landed a hit.
This one's no ordinary player.
Every move reeked of foxlike cunning. It was not a performance a first-time visitor to Shadow Street could possibly imitate. Green Moon walked, step by measured step, up to the boy.
Asking for someone's identity was a taboo on Shadow Street. For the first time, Green Moon broke it.