A humbling experience (part 3)

"..."

"..."

The two of them went silent, with the pixie-cut girl being the one to stare at the back of the hooded man's head while he remained indifferent.

"...s... haaa... six big silvers..."

Ava felt the urge to clench her fists, but she stopped herself and breathed out, trying to calm down – with that, the negotiations should be...

"Six big silvers and three small silvers."

"!!!"

...but the shady man continued, utterly stunning the reincarnated heroine...

|How long does he intend to continue this bullsh...! Ah...|

"...!"

Ava thought to herself, about to bite through her lips, but then she realized what was going on.

"...alright... I see how it's going – I walked right into it, didn't I?"

"Hmm~?"

The pixie-cut girl's shoulders dropped, and she groaned under her breath, causing the hooded man to hum playfully.

"You win. I agree to your price."

Ava said bitterly and started discreetly rummaging through her purse, collecting the coins and adding them to the pouch that originally had only the equivalent of one big silver coin inside.

"Just to make things clear – if I was smarter and started my betting price with one small copper coin – how low would you have been willing the end price to get?"

Ava asked after the vendor packed all of the cheap accessories and exchanged them for the inconspicuous but hefty pouch.

"For all my goods, I was interested in one big and one small silver ."

|Fuck...|

The man shrugged his shoulders and revealed without holding back, which caused the pixie-cut girl to close her eyes and lean back, trying to hold back the urge to scream.

"Now. Since you completed the purchase of the accessories... would you like to pay one big silver coin to renew our protection services, young Miss Ava?"

Carefully hiding the pouch within his worn-out clothes, the hooded vendor that sold out all of his goods reached out his hand and towards the flustered girl.

"..." |...wh-wha...?|

"Young Miss?!"

Ava's eyes widened at the sight of the vendor's hand, and his words matched up in her head as she got dizzy, swaying back and almost falling – if not for the intervention of the dark-brown-haired boy she was holding hands with.

"You bastard! What did you do to her?!"

|...what...? How...? How was I so outplayed...? He never said that we were haggling about the price of the protection money for this month...! It was always about his merchandise...!|

While Theo was pulling Ava away from the shady vendor, the hazelnut-haired girl re-evaluated the entire situation, and her own naivete made her feel faint.

"Theo... dore... I am okay... it's not this man's fault..."

Seeing, or rather hearing, Theo getting heated and getting close to launching an assault at the hooded man who could very well be the leader of the local crime ring, Ava gulped down her saliva and held onto the dark-brown-haired boy's arm.

"But, young Miss, you were feeling fine before – and only after this bastard...!"

"THEODORE!"

The dark-brown-haired boy glanced at her with a worried expression but almost instantly frowned and glared angrily at the slouching man – which prompted Ava to raise her voice at him.

"...y-young Miss...?"

Theo flinched and whimpered like a scolded puppy who wasn't even aware of what he did wrong.

"It has nothing to do with that person, Theo. I wasn't been feeling too well since this morning, but I was excited to go on a walk with you, so I hid it. Don't start a fight with an innocent person because of my mistake."

"...o-oh... I... I'm sorry, young Miss... I haven't noticed a thing..."

Ava took a few deep breaths to compose herself and said firmly, causing the physically older boy to tense up and back off.

It was clear that he didn't want to end the situation like that, but he somehow managed to suppress his own emotions and chose the correct course of action.

| That's the Theo I like. He knows when to hold back to keep up appearances.|

The outcome wasn't perfect, but it was acceptable, and Ava could breathe out in relief.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Ava, Theo, and the hooded vendor went silent, with the first two looking at each other and the shady man.

"I apologize for my guard's hotheadedness. My well-being is his top priority, but that doesn't give him the right to treat you like that. Here, take this."

The pixie-cut girl assessed the situation and decided on her next action – that being taking out an additional big silver coin and offering it to the hooded man.

"...this is not an apology money but the fee for your continuous protection... Understand?"

As the large coin ended up on the man's palm, the girl hissed at him through her teeth.

"Of course."

"Young Miss, th-there's no reason for you to do something like that...!"

The vendor hummed, pocketing the coin at the same time that the girl's companion cried out in exasperation, seeing that much money had just been handed out.

"...as for the money you scammed out of me... let's just treat it as a fee for the humbling lesson..."

"Oh? All of a sudden, you sound a lot more pleasant, young Miss. I will give you some advice, free of charge."

Ava sent Theo a scolding look urging him to keep his mouth shut before she whispered to the hooded man, who perked up with interest.

"By any chance, if you want to hire us for some joint operation, contact a boy with earrings like mine. He's our newest errand boy, quite innocent, so no one should suspect a thing if you begin hanging out around him."

"...we shall see about that..."

The man added and started tolling up his worn-out blanket even before Ava said anything back to him.

"Umm... young Miss...?"

"...?"

As the hooded man put the rolled-up blanket over his shoulder, Ava and Theo were surprised by another person calling out to them.

The voice turned out to belong to one of the stall owners – not only that, Ava realized that, actually, basically every merchant owning a stall was looking at her with concern.

|What is going on...? This way of paying for protection was established between the gang and me so that no one else would know about it!|

Ava felt her inside churring at the thoughts of her reputation getting tarnished with gossip that could impede future events...!