What Did You Tell Him?

"So you came here because you ran away from that spoilt lord" Nikolai was thoughtful after listening carefully to Luck's explanation.

Luck nodded seriously "Yes, can you keep my staff here until I sort this out? I'll pay whatever it costs."

"Until you solve this problem?" 

Nikolai inwardly mocked Luck.

'That spoilt Aden Star...he won't stop until he gets what he wants...you can't solve this problem unless you give him what he wants or kill him...'

Nikolay looked at Luck's employees, who were suddenly changing their faces as if they were shedding their skin, and he had an idea.

 "I don't think we need to hide them, as long as they're wearing that plastic mask thing, no one will recognise them..."

Taking one of the plastic masks in his hand and examining it, Nikolay looked at Luck with interest and said, "If you can provide me with one of these masks, you don't have to pay any protection fee, what do you think?"

Nikolay was excited, thinking that as long as he could provide these masks to the guild members, it would be much easier for him to do his other secret missions.

His eyes lit up when he heard that he didn't have to pay any fees as long as he provided plastic masks

"You want masks? How many do you need?"

Nikolai put his hand to his chin and began to think.

'Even if he could organise a mask for each of his employees, such a thing would not be easy to obtain...'

"Give me ten plastic masks and I'll give your staff a year's free protection here."

Luck was dumbfounded.

'1 year of free protection for just 10 masks? That's cheap!'

Seeing that Luck was speechless, Nikolai thought he was asking too much.

'it can't have been easy for him to get such realistic masks, he must have already used all the masks he could find for his employees?

"If you can't find ten masks, you can give me the masks of your employees, I'll still protect them for a year."

Luck's mouth opened to the floor in surprise.

"For 4 masks...Ahh!!!" When Horace pinched his leg, he groaned in pain before he could continue his speech.

Rubbing his sore leg, Luck said, "What the hell are you doing!" 

Throwing his arm around Luck's neck, Horace started pulling Luck outwards.

With an apologetic voice, he said, "Guild master, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a word with Luck.

Without waiting for an answer, Nikolay followed Horace, who tugged Luck and left the room: ( °-°)/

'Do you realise I'm a starfighter with 5-star power? Have some respect?'

...

"Hey, what's going on why did you bring me here?" Luck asked Horace in confusion.

Even though he thought Nikolai couldn't hear them anymore, Horace still spoke in a cautious whisper.

"I didn't want you to show your hand like an idiot. If I know you at all, you could easily bring more of those masks, couldn't you?"

Luck stared blankly at Horace "Why are you whispering? Yes, I can easily get him the plastic masks for a protection fee."

"Just as I suspected... You never know the value of what you have, Luck."

"Huh? I don't know what I have? What do you mean?

"Hah...Luck where did you come from?" Horace sighed with regret.

'If I had what he had, I would have made a fortune,' he thought, but without any ill will towards Luck, he began to explain to Luck.

"Plastic mask...that thing is like a divine item for people who want to infiltrate somewhere! It doesn't contain any star power, so it's impossible to detect! Even though there are items that can change its appearance with star magic, revealing its true face is a piece of cake for powerful star mages!" 

Luck looked at Horace blankly, "So you're saying that the plastic mask is very valuable?"

"Valuable is an understatement! Imagine killing a nobleman with a plastic mask! As long as you wear that mask and run away, no one will know your true identity! The plastic mask is a divine item for thieves and criminals!"

Luck had never thought about this before, as a plastic mask was something very ordinary and detectable on Earth, but after listening to Horace's explanation, he had an epiphany.

"What about the things I sold before? Were they worth a lot?"

Horace shook his head "They're rubbish compared to the plastic mask... Although I thought you sold the hamburger cheaply at first, your later sales success proved me wrong... The clothes were sold by Halt and that noisy iron rod you used... Never mind."

"Why are you helping me? I could have sold the plastic masks cheaply and it wouldn't have affected you, and you put yourself in danger by bringing me and my employees here."

Horace realised the seriousness in Luck's eyes and decided to be honest with him "Do you want me to be honest with you?"

"Yes, please."

"I'm not a saint Luck, I realise that I can gain more money and power as long as I cooperate with you, ever since I met you, you've been bringing me hard-to-find things like spices as if they were nothing, if I fooled you I could make more money for a while, and then what? Would you do business with me after you realised I had tricked you?"

Luck cocked his head "So we're basically in a relationship of interest, aren't we?"

Horace shrugged "If you want to put it that way, yes."

When Luck looked up, contrary to Horace's expectations, he had a broad smile on his face.

"That's better! It means I can trust you as long as we have a relationship of interest! If you had said anything else, I would have thought you liked me! Ahahahha!"

Horace: (¬_¬) 

"What the hell are you thinking?"

Stretching out his hand to Horace, Luck said, "From now on I'm going to treat you as my partner, so don't hesitate to give me your opinion on whatever I bring, so we can make more profit."

Taking Luck's outstretched hand, Horace said, "Well, it's in both our interests...I don't want you to sell valuable things for free..."

...

Watching Luck and Horace enter, Nikolai looked at them curiously.

Luck's surprised expression on his face was gone, replaced by a confident expression.

Luck sat opposite Nikolay and said, "Shall we continue our conversation?"

Looking at Luck's face full of confidence, Nikolay looked at Horace and Luck.

"What the hell are they talking about?

"All right, what do you say? How many masks can you get me?"

Ignoring Nikolay's question, Luck asked, "How much gold would you normally want to protect my friends for a year?"

Nikolay was surprised by Luck's question "100 gold per person" 

"And what is the price of an artefact that changes appearance?"

Nikolai stared blankly at Luck, not understanding what Luck was getting at.

"It is not easy to find such an item... but such an artefact can be sold for an average of 300 gold."

Luck started to smile slightly "But unlike my mask, such artefacts can be easily detected, right?"

Nikolay looked at Horace out of the corner of his eye as he began to realise where Luck was going.

'Damn you, what did you tell him in such a short time?'