The car was silent as Annie drove him.
"You must be wondering why only the Arcanist Court is in charge of buying beast corpses?" she asked as she drove towards the center of the city.
Jareth, who was staring at the tall building sticking out from the rest in the center, pulled his gaze to her.
"Not really curious. Sometimes, curiosity is bad," Jareth replied.
"Well, it seems you're not really good with your history, or you'd have known." Annie turned and entered another street. "Ten years ago, a tragic incident occurred when a Lord arcanist went mad."
"Lord arcanist?"
"A Rank 4 arcanist."
"O…kay… so what does that have to do with beast corpses?"
"He had a spell—Corpse Explosion. At the time, there were many beast corpses in the city, with many buyers storing them. The city went ablaze. Can you estimate the number of people that died?"
"A… thousand?" Jareth asked, unsure.
Annie shook her head with a chuckle. "Fifty thousand plus."
"Fifty…" Jareth couldn't finish his question, his eyes wide.
Annie nodded.
Jareth quietened for a complete ten seconds before replying, "That's really… really… terrible."
"Yeah. Very terrible."
"Although what I was curious about was why cores are very expensive to buy in the Arcanist Court. I mean, selling a Rank 1 beast plus the core gives you peanuts, but buying?! A Rank 1 core costs a hundred thousand aures? But selling it costs only five hundred aures?" Jareth complained. "Hell! I would just go hunt or buy them from people in the wild."
"Exactly the aim—pushing arcanists to hunt to drop the number of beasts in the wild, due to their high reproductive rate and also, arcanist inter-relations. Otherwise, many might go mad just from hunting, hunting, hunting, and selling."
"Yes, you're right." Jareth slowly nodded in realization before facing her. "So, why did you decide to be my guide?"
"Well…" she giggled for a moment. "Who wouldn't want to escape doing those monotonous tasks? I'd rather register arcanist badges than do that. But to be honest, I want to go stay in the Arcanist Court smithing workshop, and you, a clueless arcanist, just happened to be going there."
Jareth laughed at her calling him clueless.
'Yeah. Really clueless.'
They soon parked in a parking lot as she led him onto a bustling street, which was neat, with people dressed in everything from arcanist armor to casual wear.
But what made Jareth squint was the tall building not too far from the street that had been attracting his attention.
'Doesn't that resemble a magus tower, even though it's painted like a regular building?'
"This street is Smithing Abode," Annie's voice brought him back. "This is where arcanists get their weapons and potions. See this first building…" Annie pointed at a busy three-story building with the plaque: Arcanist Court Equipment Abode.
"You should guess who owns it by now. Well, it attracts all arcanists because of the number and quality of weaponsmiths and potionsmiths it has, and lastly, their credibility. Although there are other quality weaponsmiths in other shops."
Jareth nodded as she led him into the busy shop.
It was a big shop with different shelves, each with a sign, containing the equipment and ranks, resembling a shopping mall.
"So, what's your budget? And what rank of weapon do you want? I know a thing or two about smithing, so I can point out the exquisitely made ones from the standard made ones." Annie stared at him.
"I need a Rank 2 sword and a Rank 2 full armor."
"Cool. So, what's your budget?"
"I would say thirty thousand aures."
"Thirty what?!" Annie leaned forward.
"Oh! Is it too much? Then let's cut it down to—"
"Hold on a second. Who said anything about too much? That wouldn't even get you a sword."
"But I saw on the nexus, in one ad—"
"You believed it?" Annie covered her mouth, giggling softly.
"So, should I believe you?" Jareth gave her a weird stare.
"Hey! Stop giving me judgmental stares. I don't work here, so I've nothing to gain by lying to you," she raised her hand in surrender.
"Really?" Jareth dressed back, his weird stare deepening. "But you work at the Arcanist Court."
"I don't work there."
Jareth tilted his head, his eyes becoming a bit vacant as he mumbled. "Was I hallucinating when I saw you in the Arcanist Court?"
"I don't work there as an employed worker. I just help my uncle out with some little things. You could verify the prices for yourself by going to check the shops outside. You wouldn't say I work for those too, right?"
"I'm not unreasonable."
With that, Jareth left.
He wouldn't joke with the little money he had just to believe or please anybody.
A few minutes later, Jareth returned, his hand on his chest and his eyes darting around the place in horror like he had just witnessed the most horrific thing.
Annie, who was sitting on a chair, covered her mouth as she giggled while pointing at him.
Jareth kept panting as he waited for her to calm down.
"So, how was it?" she asked.
"You wouldn't believe what I saw—well, you'll believe it since you know it. The lowest price tag I saw for a Rank 2 armor was…" Jareth looked around like he was about to reveal a national secret. Then he drew close and forcefully whispered, "Seventy thousand aures! And for the sword, the lowest for Rank 2 was forty-five thousand! Forty-five thousand aures!"
Annie's cheek was twitching, her expression straining.
Jareth's face darkened before standing straight. He tucked his hands into his pockets. "Yeah. Laugh it all out."
Then she burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. When she was done, she waved at him. "Sorry. Your expression just got me. So, will you follow me now?"
"Sure."
"What are you settling on, then?"
"I was thinking of just seeing the weapons, doing some window-shopping. Then when I get more money, I'll come back to buy. Because the money I have will only get me the cheapest Rank 2 weapon in here, or I'll have to settle for a Rank 1 weapon, which is useless to me." Jareth shrugged.
"Oh. I can lend you the balance, and you can pay me back." Annie pushed her glasses.
"You can't just give money to someone you met two days ago. You don't know their character or know them long enough to give them that trust," Jareth lectured.
"Oh. Then you—"
"Fortunately, I'm a good man. So, I kindly accept your offer and thank you, for lending me money in my time of need and having such trust in me." Jareth bowed deeply and gazed at her with flattering eyes. "Such a trait is rare. A heart of gold. A good Samaritan. No wonder I saw angelic light twinkling behind you when I saw you the first day. Don't worry, I'll hunt with the sword to quickly repay you."
"Huh?"