Chapter 176: A Strange Password!
"How do you deal with a giant rat?"
"Poison."
"How do you deal with the White Whale?"
"A fishing hook."
"...And how do you deal with us noble dragons?"
"Go eat shit!"
Standing before a sturdy single-story building nearly as spacious as a warehouse, Felt smoothly exchanged a series of questions and answers with an elderly voice from inside.
The password was admittedly rather crude.
But considering Felt's profession and the actual purpose of this building, Shiro suppressed the urge to comment.
The moment Felt finished giving the password—
Creak—
The old wooden door slowly opened.
Behind it stood a bald old man with a ruddy complexion.
The elderly giant was enormous, standing well over two meters tall and even towering above the entrance to the Loot House.
His massive, well-trained body was loosely wrapped in ragged clothes. With his head lowered, merely looking at him was enough to make an ordinary person nervous.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Old Man Rom."
"Something unexpected happened on my way back, so it took me quite a while."
Felt, however, was obviously very familiar with him.
After greeting the old man, she skillfully slipped through the narrow gap between his enormous body and the doorway.
Once Felt entered, the giant she called Old Man Rom did not move aside.
He continued blocking the entrance while repeatedly examining Shiro with an intimidating gaze.
"Oh, right. The guy behind me is basically a customer I brought you."
"Let him in too."
Only after Felt's voice came from behind Old Man Rom did he finally shift enough to create a path.
After entering the Loot House, Shiro examined the surroundings.
If one ignored the stolen goods scattered chaotically across the floor and the various pieces of armor lying around, the place looked more like an old tavern.
Before arriving, Shiro never would have imagined somewhere like this would actually have a bar counter.
Following Felt's example, he sat on a wooden stool in front of it.
Then—
Under Shiro's subtly strange gaze, Old Man Rom took out a bottle of milk and poured a glass for both him and Felt.
How should he describe this?
Imagine the Hulk standing in front of you and politely pouring you a glass of milk.
That was essentially what Shiro was experiencing right now.
"Hey, Old Man Rom, you mixed way too much water into this milk!"
"It barely tastes like anything. It's awful."
Felt casually complained while using her nimble tongue to lick away a drop of milk that had stuck to her lips.
Curious, Shiro took a small sip as well.
Rather than saying water had been added to the milk—
It would be more accurate to say someone had added a few drops of milk to a glass of water.
And Shiro had no idea whether the milk had already expired, but he somehow tasted both sourness and bitterness.
"Quit complaining."
"This old man brought it out because I was being generous."
"If it tastes that bad, don't drink it."
Old Man Rom placed his enormous palm on Felt's head and began to "pat" her.
From Shiro's perspective, the scene looked less like—
"A kindly old man affectionately rubbing the head of a troublesome junior."
And more like—
"An old man attempting to twist a little girl's head off."
"Anyway, back to business."
After completely turning Felt's already messy hair into a bird's nest, Old Man Rom finally withdrew his hand, which was nearly larger than her entire head.
He turned toward Shiro, who had been enjoying the show.
"People in our line of work don't ask too many questions about where a customer's goods came from."
"But I'll say this first."
"If whatever you're selling could endanger me or Felt, you can turn around and leave."
"Why are you starting from the assumption that I came here to sell something dangerous?"
Old Man Rom snorted at Shiro's question.
"I've seen plenty of finely dressed fellows like you before."
"If you could sell your goods through proper channels, why would you ever need an old man like me to handle them?"
"Don't worry. What I'm selling should be extremely easy to move."
"But I'm aiming for around one hundred gold coins."
"Are you sure you can afford that?"
"One hundred gold coins?"
"Do you even understand what you're saying?"
Old Man Rom now seriously suspected the white-haired boy was deliberately messing with him.
If Felt had not personally brought Shiro here, he might already have started throwing punches.
One hundred gold coins was an enormous sum.
Felt planned to leave the slums and move into the central capital once she had saved enough money.
The amount she had set as her goal was only around one hundred gold coins.
In other words—
What Shiro had just done was practically equivalent to walking into a pawnshop and announcing that he wanted to sell the house he lived in.
Perhaps that would not be especially strange somewhere in the outrageously expensive center of the royal capital.
But this was the slum.
The very bottom of the Kingdom of Lugunica.
Old Man Rom was beginning to suspect that one of his old enemies from the battlefield had somehow discovered where he lived and specifically sent this brat to torment him.
"Mm. I have the goods with me."
"If you can afford them, I can sell everything to you."
As Shiro spoke, several gold bars suddenly appeared in his hands.
Gold retained considerable value in most worlds, so he naturally carried some inside his Gift Card.
However, what he had just taken out was almost all the money he had left.
Money had been easy to earn in the Dungeon world, but it disappeared equally quickly.
Before returning, Shiro had converted almost all the wealth he earned there into rare materials.
These few gold bars were merely what remained after more than a year of spending the profits from selling those materials.
"Whoa, mister!"
"Is that some kind of special Divine Protection?"
"I'm seriously starting to want you as my partner!"
Seeing Shiro produce several gold bars as though performing a magic trick, Felt excitedly circled around him.
That ability seemed almost tailor-made for thieves.
If she possessed a similar Divine Protection, she would never need to sprint away in panic after stealing something.
Even if someone caught her in the act, she could simply say—
'I have no idea what you're talking about.'
After all, they would never find the missing item anywhere on her body.
Old Man Rom raised an eyebrow.
He stood up and climbed the stairs beside them.
Not long afterward, he came back downstairs carrying an old, battered pouch.
He placed it on the counter and opened it directly in front of Shiro.
"There are fifteen holy gold coins in here."
"They're worth thirty regular gold coins."
"This is basically all the money I currently have."
"I'll have to sell this batch of goods before I can pay you the remaining amount."
"If you can accept those terms, I'll take everything."
Shiro had no objection.
He did not urgently need a large amount of money right now.
Until the remaining payment arrived, thirty gold coins should be more than enough for him to rent somewhere to stay.
After some further discussion, the deal was settled.
Then—
Knock, knock, knock—
Just as the transaction finished and Shiro stood up to leave, someone suddenly knocked on the door of the Loot House.
…
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