บท 19: Deal

"A deal?" Zwark asked uncertainly. He was known for having a temper, yet he couldn't help but be interested in the prospect of gaining something.

After that, he quickly scanned through Kyle's body to determine his strength.

He looked at the weak-looking man with blond hair in amusement.

"What kind of deal can someone, who has yet to start cultivating, possibly offer me? If you waste my time, I'll turn you into my slave as compensation!"

Kyle remained unfazed and showed no signs of nervousness despite the imminent threat of Zwark snatching both his freedom and dignity.

His emerald green eyes that had a trace of azure inside them were staring at Zwark in confidence.

Since he had first set his eyes on Zwark, Kyle had figured out that the Nasga merchant was not easy to deal with.

Despite his weak cultivation stage, the merchant was still stronger than Kyle, and both of them were fully aware of this.

Nevertheless, instead of showing any signs of fear or hesitation, Kyle kept his feet firmly planted on the ground, and straightened his spine, indicating that he was not someone to be taken lightly.

As such, he cleared his throat before calmly taking off his backpacks and unpacking the Sra moose's antlers and several kilograms of meat!

Considering that meat was extremely hard to come by in the Nasga tribe, Zwark was a little bit astonished that Kyle, who had no cultivation strength, was able to procure food! The fact that the meat looked tender and fresh-made him discard his initial snobbish attitude.

This was something Kyle had expected to witness and he simply stated his offer.

"I will sell the Sra moose's antlers and three-quarters of my food! The meat is tender, tasty and I know that there is a food shortage. As such, I hope that the honorable merchant can give me some information in exchange!"

'Information?' Zwark thought, still taking labored breaths from having expended too much of his energy on the two female slaves.

"What information?"

Kyle just gave him a faint smile, waiting for a few seconds before he answered as he saw that merchant Zwark was starting to become impatient.

"It is pretty simple...give me the location of the surrounding villages, and tell me how to enter them without being seen as a threat!"

After Kyle finished stating his offer, Zwark fell silent for a few seconds. The pin-drop silence was only disrupted by the black-eared Lohar's coughing.

Zwark's temper flared at the sound and he executed most of his strength that was at the Pryr Mid Fortification stage to kick the young girl in her abdomen.

The kick looked painful and Kyle's lips twitched as he saw how the girl gasped for air, as foam and saliva dripped out of her mouth.

However, he regained his senses a moment later as merchant Zwark diverted his attention back to him.

"I only know…one village and another tribe in our surroundings. I want the antlers and the promised three-quarters of meat in exchange. I guess that's only fair, right?"

Now, it was Kyle's turn to be silent as he understood the shrewdness of the merchant. Thus, when the merchant took a step forward, extending his hideous claws to grab the meat, Kyle frowned and took a step back.

His eyes turned cold, knowing that the merchant was hiding information and trying to exploit him.

The information Kyle asked for could be said to be worthless for others and he was sure that the tribe Chief would give him more than just a little information in exchange for several kilograms of meat!

There were more than 10 kilograms of nutrition-rich meat in his entire backpack, after all!

This was enough to feed the entire tribe for several days in rationed portions!

Merchant Zwark noticed the small mistake he had made, of assuming Kyle to be a pushover, which he didn't seem to be.

As such, he hurriedly tried to make amends,

"I just remembered, there are a total of two villages and one tribe in our surrounding...the second village I forgot earlier is just a little bit further away…Is...that enough?"

From Kyle's perspective, the overbearing merchant instantly turned into someone like a hesitant Nasga, who was no better than a pushover himself.

This change of attitude was just too quick, and Kyle began to notice that everyone was staring at his meat greedily, including Tzc.

With that in mind, he understood that the food shortage was a far bigger issue than initially expected.

Despite that, Kyle remained silent and he stared at Zwark with cold eyes.

Zwark was afraid that Kyle would go to the tribe Chief to sell the moose's meat that looked extremely tasty, however, it was the truth that he only knew two villages and another tribe of the Nasga race.

There might be more, but it was too dangerous to venture far away.

As such, nobody knew more about the surroundings than he, and the tribe Chief did.

While he was trying to come up with a solution to rob Kyle of all the meat, he heard the black-eared Lohar gasping for air yet again.

This enraged merchant Zwark who was already annoyed and he was about to kick her once more when a sudden idea crossed his mind!

After that, he looked at Kyle's clothes that were nothing but a loose piece of hide sewed to look like shorts. He squinted his eyes and noticed that they were made of veins and a small piece of leather, and the boar tusk weapons seemed to be self-made.

"Other than information, I can also provide you with a set of clothes, a wooden scabbard for each of your weapons...and this slave of the Lohar race!"

He pointed at the young and sickly-looking Lohar whose eyes seemed to dart from left to right, screaming in fear.

Despite the fear, Kyle could also see a faint glimmer of hope, of escaping the clutches of the monster that called himself Zwark!

"She has no name, but that is not important, right? As you can see, she is sick, but it was only recently that her sickness worsened. Nevertheless, she still has her chastity intact and will be able to serve you in every possible way you desire for the next few days. After that, I can't really promise anything.

Nevertheless, the disease is not contagious and you won't have to worry about becoming ill because of her!"

This offer was something Kyle had not expected, but he was, fortunately, able to stop himself from throwing a fit.

He simply stared at the young Lohar who was shivering uncontrollably.

Her first thought was happiness mixed with relief because she found an opportunity to escape the merchant who had become their master during the last few years.

However, hearing that she could be violated by the young man with blond hair and emerald eyes, didn't seem to be any better than getting abused by Zwark.

At least, so far she had been able to retain her chastity because of her disease, after and before the Nasga merchant had purchased her along with the other slaves from the Aldra race's village!

Yet, this might change because of the merchant that had treated her worse than dirt.

Her last trace of hope was the half-naked man, but after hearing Zwark's words she was expecting the worst.

Kyle could only see tears streaming down the black-eared girl's cheek before he averted his gaze to Zwark, who smiled schemingly.

"Make it two sets of clothes and I'll hand over the antlers and meat!"

Zwark nodded and with these words, the deal was sealed. Not even five minutes had passed as Zwark used his strength to drag the young, crying girl towards Kyle.

After that, he took out a piece of smooth wood from one of the backpacks the other slaves had carried and handed it to Kyle.

Hardly any information about said villages was written on them, and Kyle could only frown upon reading it.

However, Zwark added further, "I found the villages and the other Nasga tribe with this piece of information too!"

This told Kyle that he had paid a large price for trivial information he could have received from somewhere else, but that didn't bother him a lot.

He refrained from commenting because it was great that the Nasga merchant was in a good mood.

He was confident that his interaction allowed him to gain a few merit points with the merchant.

Zwark's opinion of Kyle had become that of a generous fool, who was trying to act smart.

Fortunately, all of that was according to Kyle's plan!

After he had stored the two sets of clothes and both scabbards inside the large backpack, Kyle handed it to the shivering black-eared Lohar without showing any emotions.

This increased the young girl's fear even more, thinking that he might violate her mercilessly at the first chance.

The scenarios she visualized in her mind became worse with each passing second, yet, not even the other Lohar slaves threw a glance of pity at her.

Instead, they seemed to smile wickedly at her fate!

Even Tzc found this weird, while Zwark didn't seem to bother as he stared at the chunks of meat in front of him, with greed shining in his eyes.

A moment later, Kyle understood that the other Lohar seemed to ridicule one of their own, despite knowing that she might be violated and tortured.

However, instead of clearing the air he just turned to Tzc, hiding his desire to beat some sense into everyone around him.

"Are there any empty huts? I would like to rest now!"