Leon asked the question as he knew this was Aman's first time leaving Orsini, but Susan's answer surprised him
"I think he's in his natural habitat out here, he acts more like his dad every day, plus his skills as a merchant were top-notch after spending his life learning under one of the greatest in the nation."
Hearing that Aman was doing well, Leon gave a smile.
"Well, I guess we should go in."
Susan nodded and the two followed after the pair into the shop, when they got close to them Leon could hear what they were talking about. Aman had a floorplan of the building.
"So do you want to demolish the entire wall for one big space or just put in a large door?"
Dominic kept twisting the ends of his mustache as he thought.
"Well, I think a large door would be better just in case we want to make a VIP or other section in the future."
Aman hummed in approval at Dominic's thinking, until he saw the two enter.
"Ah Leon come on over."
With that, Leon walked up to the table where Aman had a picture of the floorplan.
"It look's like y'all are busy, so I won't try to bother you as much, but can I still exchange my cores here?"
Aman couldn't answer so he looked at Dominic, seeing Aman looked at him Dominic jumped off from his tall stool.
"Ah, don't worry Leon. Although almost everything was moved out for construction, I still kept the safe here so I can take your cores, come to the table."
Leon followed Dominic to the same counter he had sat down at the first time he came here. This time Domonic pulled out a cloth and spread it on the table and signaled for Leon to put down the cores on the cloth. Untying the knot on the bag, Leon slowly dumped all the cores on the cloth and Dominic gave a sound of surprise.
On the table were dozens of goblin cores, while the baseball-sized hobgoblin core stood proudly among the marble-sized hoblin cores. After a few minutes of examining everything, Dominic gave a thumbs up.
"The cores are all in relatively good shape, although some of the goblin cores have a few cracks or chips in them."
Hearing this, Leon could only swear at the hobgoblin in his mind as his brutish killing method probably damaged some of the goblin cores. Dominic finally got to the baseball-sized hobgoblin core.
"Hmm, although the core is still shabby as it's quite similar to the goblin cores, the size makes it a bit more lucrative. All in all, I'd normally give you two silvers and 80 bronze, but since I've been hearing that you are in need of money and since we are familiar, I'll give you three silvers."
Leon was quite happy with the money and smiled. To some people, three silvers didn't sound like a lot, but Leon was happy with a couple of bronze coins a couple of months ago. Plus that amount of money would be able to last him for a bit on his adventure until he found something else to do for money.
"You got yourself a deal."
As Dominic started to take out the silvers, Leon was intrigued as it seems like Dominic knew about his plan to leave Verin.
"How'd you know I was leaving?"
Putting three silvers in front of Leon as he put away the cores, Dominic merely gave a smile.
"Old man Jenkins told me of course, that old codger and I used to be quite close as he sold his stuff to me a while back."
With that Leon took his silvers and took his leave, Aman, Susan, and Domnic all waved Leon goodbye.
"Stay safe!"
"Don't get into too much trouble!"
"Make sure to bring back some stuff to sell to me!"
-Two days later-
It had been two days since the party inside The Chosen's guildhall had ended. Most people were finally able to move after resting, while others had been so intoxicated they were still resting and immobilized. Leon had spent a lot of the time in those two days sorting out his plan to journey to Mifis and spent time with his friends.
Standing at the outer gate, Leon sat on a horse that carried some essential dried foods for his trip with an extra canteen of water. Full of energy from a good night's rest, Leon felt like he was ready for the trip, but before he could officially depart. A whole series of people had met at the front gate to bid him farewell, as he could be gone for a while.
Leon turned his body around on his horse and a small group of people was standing in front of him. On the left were his three party members and friends, Tecia had to be propped against Tomoe since she was still hungover, while Arwin stood next to Tomoe. In the middle of the group, all the folks from The Chosen were there. Erik was easy to spot as he stuck out like a sore thumb, while Lucia, old man Jenkins, Agnes, and some other old-timey adventurers were also there to send Leon off.
Finally, on the right of the group, Emilia's guild master, Kyle, from the Phantom guild surprisingly showed up to send Leon, while Dominic, Susan, and Aman were also on the right side. Leon felt that it would be awkward to say goodbye from atop a horse since so many people had come out to send him off, so he slid off the saddle of the horse and walked up to the group.
When the group saw Leon walking towards them, everyone all subconsciously looked at each other as if to say, 'so who's going to go first?'. As Leon got closer, the group on the left decided to start saying their goodbyes first.
Tomoe and Tecia came up first, although Tomoe had to practically pick up Tecia and plop her down as she was still incredibly tired from the hangover. Tecia looked at Leon and it was quite obvious she was trying to hold back tears.
"To think you are leaving again, even though you just came back to us….just be safe!"
Tomoe gave Tecia a small hug to make her feel better and looked at Leon perfectly even though her eyes had been closed the entire time and spoke in her usual soft voice.
"Please come back to us safe."
Leon smiled and nodded with vigor to show that he would do his best. Finally, Arwin approached and the four of them shared a hug. Even though Leon was excited for the adventure, after feeling the warmth and gentleness the hug carried. He was having second thoughts, but after a couple of seconds, he willed his way out of second-guessing his decision.
As the hug broke up and Tomoe silently carried a Tecia who was still trying not to tear up, Arwin started to leave as well, but Leon caught up to him and managed to whisper something only the two of them could hear.
"Arwin, make sure to take care of the two of them. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, but if it's long. Make sure to get stronger as well, so we can have a proper adventure when I come back."
With that done, Leon let Arwin go back, but Arwin threw a glance over his shoulder and gave a nod. Leon knew the party was in good hands so he didn't push on the subject. With everyone on the left finishing their goodbyes, Leon turned to the remaining people in the group.