I saw Jack’s eyes cloud over with greed and Lisa’s smile widen even further. "That is quite the offer," the young woman commented.
"It is." I nodded my head.
"We’ll take it—" Jack began, his speech still slightly slurred.
Then I scooped the pouch back up and placed it. "But since this isn’t that kind of a situation, I think my friend and I will be taking our leave."
"Wait, but…" Jack exchanged a glance with Lisa, and he quickly straightened. His tone of voice changed when he spoke up again. "We’ll do it for… three quarters the price?"
I stood up, but Lisa put up a hand to stop me.
"A half," she said. "Give us a half of that, and you’ll soon find yourself on a ship heading straight to Jahar’taw."
I paused to consider this for a second, then I nodded. "Deal." I brought a hand forward and shook with the young woman.
And with that, it was over. We decided to meet two days from now at the docks, just before dawn. We agreed to pay half of the cost upon our next meeting, and the rest when we arrived in the Taw Kingdom.
Then Lisa grabbed her drunken companion by the arm and left the table. As they did, I could hear Jack whispering angrily at Lisa about how she lowered the price so quickly; he seemed like a man who only cared about money once it was a large enough sum, and I was right.
"Lass, are you sure you should’ve paid them so much?" Gennady quickly asked once they left. "That’s over 70 gold!" he exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes. "I paid you half as much just to escort me to Taw, don’t act like it’s a ridiculous sum now that I’m paying someone else the same amount."
"Well yeah." The Dwarf scratched the side of his head, frowning. "But you’re paying more than two times what I was offering to pay them. Don’t you think you jumped the gun a bit?"
"No." I shook my head. "This is the reason why I save my money, Gennady: money is to be spent, and I’m spending it to guarantee my safety. We’re not just buying passage through the sea with that, we’re also buying their loyalty. If they know we can pay them more, they would be all the more incentivized to make sure nothing happens to us."
"But—"
"And don’t pretend that I’m paying it all," I said, cutting him off. "We’ll be splitting the bill since it’s for the both of us."
Gennady’s jaw dropped.
"That’s just for the payment to go to Taw, not for the drinks tonight. That’s on you."
After all, while we were both going to Taw together, he was the only one to have consumed all those drinks.
Chapter 24: Smuggling Job
"You’re spending more money?" Gennady asked me, frowning.
"Yes," I said, turning back to face him. I raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong with that?"
"No." He shook his head and sighed. "But you barely spent any gold since I met you other than the time you paid me, and now you’re throwing it all around. I was just curious why the sudden change."
"I told you didn’t I? Money is supposed to be spent, not hoarded." I raised a hand up, cutting the Dwarf off from pointing out the obvious. "And," I added, wagging a finger, "this is all for my safety and protection."
After all, what was the point of money if you were dead? That was simple logic— at least, to me. Gennady didn’t argue, and he simply followed me as I entered the Alchemist shop.
It wasn’t the biggest shop in the world; there weren’t a vast array of potions available for me to pick out, nor were there anything truly high quality being sold here. I had seen powerful alchemical potions back when I was with the Dark Crusaders and back when I briefly met Felix: the potions here were relatively unimpressive.
I glanced past a glowing green vial of acid that seemed incredibly dangerous. I’m not getting close to that, I told myself, fearing that I might accidentally drop it due to some clumsy mistake.
I took a look through the selection of healing potions they had available; I remembered being informed of how their potency was determined by the brilliance of their glow. I narrowed my eyes as I carefully inspected one, finding there to be nothing more than a weak dim coming off of one of the more expensive vials on the shelf.
Seven and a half gold. I shook my head. That was expensive, but I needed some reassurance that if anything happened to me, I could at least try to undo the damage. This healing potion probably wouldn’t regrow a lost arm or anything of the like, but it could at least stop the bleeding. And that was better than cauterizing whatever wounds I could possibly suffer from.
I grabbed a few more potions of the shelves— I took mostly healing potions, but I found the concept of a stamina potion interesting and snatched one as well— before heading to the counter and paying it for it all. When I asked Gennady if he wanted to get any, he gestured at a pouch around his waist.
"Already got some," he said. "Always gotta be prepared in case something bad happens. I’m surprised you didn’t already own a few given how paranoid you can sometimes get."
"I’m not paranoid." I rolled my eyes. "And I did buy some back when I was still in the Free Lands. I only ever got to use one vial after… an incident there. I have another packed away in my bag which I always have with me on dangerous outings."
The Dwarf snorted. "She says she’s not paranoid as she walks out of an Alchemist shop with four healing potions."
I shrugged. "I’m just being
