The black stone was just… stone.
Rough uneven surface,good durability, and moderate weight with good structure, but every ordinary stone was just like that. There was really nothing noteworthy about it other than its colour properties. The shade was darker than any other stone he'd seen, with limited light reflection, that was the only noteworthy detail about it.
But other than that? Just another useless stone.
Niel tossed it to the side, remembering the charlatan's words made him pissed.
According to him, the stone was sold by an infamous dealer who was known for auctioning illegal and stolen objects. He managed to get the stone for one copper coin since no one knew what it was good for, or why it was there in the first place. The charlatan actually bought it out of pure curiosity, but later claimed the stone to have magical properties no one had ever seen.
Niel assumed that the man just wanted to empty his pocket.
Magical properties wasn't a far-fetched claim. At this period of civilization, arcane arts have been normalised to the point it became a basic in every children's education. It's rarer to find those with no magical abilities nowadays.
But the stone? There was no symbol, no energy, no weird foreign carving, nor was there anything special about it.
The sky began to darken as night approached, crows cawing in their nests. He snapped back into reality, realising how late it was. Swiftly, he started to gather his belongings over the desk, ready to return home.
In haste, he didn't realize he'd put the stone back into his pocket.
—
A man gasped for breath, eyes watering in pain as he struggled to stand. His nose broken, blood smearing all over his bruised, broken face. The silent alleyway filled with his desperate whimpers.
His throat felt tight when he tried to speak, but not a single word managed to come out before another hard blow came crashing to his face.
He heaved, his dilated pupils looking up at this person in front him, who'd been gripping his collar and raising a bloodied fist.
Long silver hair blowing over shoulders, fierce red eyes glaring down in disdain. The young lady was quite pleasant to the eyes, if it weren't for her savage expression. She was about to swing another punch before a voice stopped her.
"Tia"
She stopped at the warning and turned around to see the other girl who was standing nearby, with the same hair colour as her and the same face as her, with half of that face hidden under long messy bangs.
The man groaned, his vision of the two girls disoriented. Just moments ago, he was about to head back home after spending the whole day as an auctioneer in an underground market, but was stopped by these people asking all sorts of questions about a stone. He just dismissed them, and that proved to be a fatal mistake.
"This bastard doesn't want to tell us crap" Tia seethed, pushing the weak man to the wall "Maybe I should knock out another tooth so he-"
"You're taking too much time" The other girl stepped forward, her voice cold with disapproval. She was taller in stature, with a greatsword tied onto her strong back "Stop playing around. I'll handle it"
Tia tensed up, gritting her teeth and stepped back.
Millie took another slow step, before grabbing the man by his jaw to force his eyes on her. His breath ragged, a chill shot up in his spine as he felt his insides mixed up."Have you sold a black stone?" She whispered.
He realised death was looking straight at him.