104: A SWINDLER

A SWINDLER

There were around eleven rocks on the table after this old man tipped the package upside down and grinned at both of them.

"Pick! Pick!" He said excitedly, as he nudged the rocks toward them. "I will give them to you below market price! I got these from the Red Claw pack."

Red Claw was the richest pack in this continent and had the biggest mines, bigger than what Howling Wolf pack and Blue Moon pack had combined. Most of their magic stones had the element of fire, unlike their mines, which consisted of earth and water elements, though the latter type was hard to find.

Iris looked at Cane, who nodded at those rocks.

"Pick," he said.

She felt that he wanted her to pick the water magic stone to replace the one that she gave to Ania during their journey to the Howling Wolf pack.

Iris looked at the eleven rocks, the magic stones were still inside these rocks and it would need a tool to take them out, unless you had Cane's skill, as he could do it with bare hands.

However, it was only a little inconvenient to get the magic stones out of the rocks, but the problem here was; Iris couldn't feel any magic stones inside the rocks, not even a single one of them.

She touched all the eleven, but there was nothing.

"Young lady, you must have a great sense, you must know that these rocks contain a great magic stone in each! You don't need to waste your time and just pick whatever you want," the old man grinned from ear to ear, trying to coax her to choose quickly.

On the other hand, Cane looked calm and waited for Iris to choose patiently.

Iris didn't say anything, she only shook her head subtly, indicating that there was nothing inside the rocks.

"Are you sure?" Cane mouthed, but since Iris could only read lips, she could understand him perfectly.

"Yes."

Only then Cane shifted his attention toward the old man. "There is nothing inside," he said calmly.

"What? Of course, there is a magic stone inside, you can take a look!" He said hastily. His expression flustered, as he looked at Cane and Iris back and forth.

"There is nothing inside." Cane repeated his answer, but he didn't stand up, instead, he ordered two drinks for himself and Iris.

"Oh, seriously, how can you know there is nothing inside."

"Do you want me to prove it to you?" Cane tilted his head.

"Sure, you need to prove it, but you need to buy it first." The old man became indignant because Cane snickered at him mockingly.

"I will not give you a dime, old man." Cane leaned his back against the seat and waited for their drinks.

This left Iris confused. If he didn't want to buy it, why didn't they go back to the inn? Why did they still stay here if Cane didn't want to buy anything from him?

Not long after that, their drinks arrived.

Iris watched the red color of that drink and was curious enough what that was, as she sniffed it. It smelled so sweet, it was a cold drink with chunks of ice in it to keep it cool.

She then glanced at Cane and the old man again, they seemed to be in a conversation, but she didn't pay much attention to that, as she took her glass and tried it.

Hm! It tasted nice!

The drink was in a tankard, thus it was a lot for her, but she liked the taste, she had never tried something like this before.

Within a second, she had drunk half of it and then glanced at Cane's drink. He didn't drink it and she realized the drink was in a different color. It was in golden color.

Iris was intrigued about its taste, but she didn't dare to take his drink. In the end, she enjoyed her own drink, while catching up with their conversation.

However, all of a sudden Cane pulled out something from his pocket and tossed it to the old man in front of him, as he took one of the rocks.

Narrowing her eyes, Iris was sure that it was not a gold coin, the color seemed the same if you saw it in passing, but close up, she was sure that it was not.2

Cane then took the rock and crushed it, showing it to him that he was a swindler.

The man was stunned, yet it was not because Cane called him out on his fraud, but to see the coin, which he took very fast and hid it behind his travel worn cloak.

"There is nothing here," Cane said.

The old man needed a few seconds before he regained his wits and looked at Cane again. "This…" he knitted his brows, trying to think of an excuse. "Oh, my bad, I think I brought a wrong package."

Cane said nothing and looked relaxed, as he sipped his drink, while the old man in front of them blabbered about how he had a lot of magic stones in his house and they could follow him home to choose some, because Cane had paid already.

"Sure," Cane said.

Sure? Iris was surprised that he would agree so readily to that. Even she herself knew to not go with a stranger. She looked at him questioningly. Unfortunately, Cane didn't look her way.

Hearing his answer, the old man rejoiced, he gathered his rocks and put them into the package and stood up. "Let's go, let's go."

Cane also stood up, but Iris tugged at his sleeve. "Are you sure you want to go with him?" She asked in a low voice. "You can't go with a stranger." She quoted what Hanna always said to her when she was a child, even though she had never gone anywhere at that time.

But Cane didn't reply to that, he only held her elbow and lifted her to her feet. "Get up," he said curtly and took her hand to follow the old man out of the tavern.

pqdm.com