"A summon tomorrow?" Ferris asked the maid who bared in their room after they took their dinner.
The maid nodded, hiding her contempt behind a stoic face. "Yes. His Highness Drake Bryon, Princess Cecily's father, would like to see you two tomorrow."
"Hmm . . ." Ferris didn't respond. She was busy fiddling with her thoughts, thinking how to enter the auction tonight.
She couldn't use high-level spells inside the Kingdom since she would be detected. The Kingdom has placed arrays to detect fluctuation in mana and magic. What's more, there would be dispelling gate at every entrance of the auction house.
Ferris bit her thumb while Ryu was still playing with his traveler's ring. And the first items he had were two bottles of Mermaid Breathing Potions and a Crystal pass to Faux Oriculum."
The maid's eyelid twitched from being ignored, and without a word, she left with a disgruntled face and a loud bang of the door.
The only way to safely enter the auction house was using an Appearance Changing Potion that not even a dispelling gate could detect. Ferris thought.
But those potions were very rare to nonexistent, and there were only three shops where she could access them.
Ferris brought it up with Faux a moment ago, but the shrewd woman used all her potions. Brewing another like those would require seven days because of the potion's scarce ingredients and cauldron time.
Ferris sighed. "Where is Lizzaforth when you need that lizard," she grumbled.
I guess I have no choice but see that stinky barman. Ferris mused to herself.
She counted her passes left. She had four Crystal balls, two Lizard's eyes, and two Oroborough Ale. These passes were hard to come by, and she didn't know how those three handed them to the others. But they said that only a few in the entire realm have their passes.
She's one of the lucky ones. She got Faux pass when she sold a rare item on an older woman while she was gifted a Lizard eye when she freed a Greater Dinoboa accidentally.
As for the Oroborough Ale, it just appeared behind her one time.
All these passes were only given once. To continue patronage to these three shops, you need to either buy the pass or they gift them to you as a bonus for your purchase.
Ferris popped the Oroborough Ale in her hand. The bottle was dark in color with engraved runes on its crystal glass. Its content was undiscernible, but the taste and smell were enough to send their soul to euphoria. Literally.
"What's that?" Ryu asked nostril enlarge to smell the sweet, enticing aroma of the Ale.
"We're going to someplace I don't like." In every pass, you could bring one person. But you couldn't bring in the same person next to the same tavern. He either had to buy the pass if he wanted or try his luck to get a pass.
Ferris drank half the content of the bottle before she handed the rest to Ryu. "Drink this. We're going to Oroborough Tavern."
Ryu knew of that name from Ferris and Faux's exchange. "You don't like . . . the barman."
Ferris hiccupped, and a tipsy smile blossomed on her flush face. "Well . . . I don't need to like 'em to do business with 'em."
Ferris shoved the Ale on Ryu and forced its content onto his mouth.
"Now dwink up!"
Ryu's eyes bulged when the soft thick taste of liquid slide into his throat –– burning his lungs and stomach before he slumped on the wooden floor with a silly smile on his face while liquid dripped from the side of his lip.
"Heh." Ferris hiccupped. Her eyes rolled on her head, and she crashed on top of Ryu. Their souls left their bodies and were sucked in by the Ale bottle before it disappeared.
. . .
. . .
Waking up, Ryu and Ferris found themselves in an isolated space of nothing but fog and a lone solid wooden door just in front of their faces.
Ryu took a whiff, but there was nothing. There was no smell nor sound, or vibration.
Ferris opened the door, and she held Ryu's hand and entered inside. It was currently empty, and only one being was beside a wooden bar counter, cleaning wine glass.
Ferris's eyelids twitched as she saw that familiar jokester of a demon. Dark purple skin. Long pointy nose. Sharp jagged teeth when it smiled that reach almost its monocle-covered eyes.
However, Ryu only saw a beast with a reptile's head and a human-like scaly body garbed in a bartending coat and vest. Its tail protruded from its back, tongue sliding from its lips as his sharp claws clean every crevice of the wine glass.
"A beastman," Ryu mumbled.
"No," Ferris countered. "Be careful. Don't be deceived by its appearance. The barman's appearance depended on who was looking at it."
"Oh . . ." That's . . . awesome. Ryu thought.
Ferris walked towards the counter. The counter was tall for a kid her size that Ryu had to scoop her up and put her on the stool.
"Ah. Ferris. Glad to see your alive. How's the Demon Realm?" the barman said. Its voice was deep and light, but for Ryu, it was slithering with the barman's tongue sticking out every second.
"Didn't make it. Still stuck in the Mortal Realm." Ferris drank the drink that the barman handed to her.
"And this one is or your guest?" The barman gave Ryu a bottle containing juices of all sorts of fruits. "On the house."
Ryu sniffed the bottle's content. When he found lemon, berries, tangerines, and nothing lethal, he drank it in one gulp and licked his lips. It was refreshing and sweet!
"Do you want more?" the barman asked.
Ryu nodded like his head would fall off.
The barman huffed a laugh and poured another Juice into Ryu's bottle.
Ferris tapped her hand on the table and said with a scowl, "Anyway, we're pressed out of time, and we need any item that changes appearance for two hours. Do you have anything?"
"Hmm . . ." The barman rubbed its pointy chin. "I do have an item with the same effect."
"How much is it?" Ferris asked, and Ryu had to wonder why Ferris hated the place and the barman.
It was cozy enough, and the barman was kind enough to offer them free drinks. So far, Ryu liked Oroborough tavern and the barman.
"I heard you defeated our failed experiment. We want its soul back that merges with the demon."
". . ." Ferris's face darkened. "I thought so. They also have the pass and they bought that monster and Enchanted talisman from you."
Comprehension dawned on Ryu and his head whipped in the barman's direction. Did that mean that the monster in Corpse Mountain was purchased here? Then Dorian and the other's death . . .
A growl rumbled in Ryu's throat, and Ferris placed a hand against his chest to stop him.
The barman just grinned. "We provide our clients whatever they need to the best of our abilities. For the right price, of course. Whatever they do with it, it's out of our hands."
Ryu was wrong. This place was a scam. Worse than the gutters.
Ferris sighed. "Whatever. It's not like I have any use of this soul." Ferris flicked her hand, and Asad's soul appeared before them.
The barmen inspected the soul, and his grin widened. "He still owes us for not upholding their contract."
The barman placed the soul in a cage with another dark hazy soul, which Ferris deducted would be Eoi's.
"Do you also need another one for him?" the barman asked, eyes on Ryu.
Here it comes. Ferris thought and nodded.
"It will cost him . . ." The barman's sharp nails tapped each other.
Ferris gulped.
Ryu frowned.
The barman grinned. ". . . his hair."
". . ."
". . . Huh?" The side of Ferris's clothe slip from her shoulder.
The barman arranged his monocles. "All we need is his hair. I'll also give him an Oroborough Ale for free."
Ferris couldn't believe her ears. The stingy, scammer, capitalist, barman was just asking for Ryu's hair in exchange for a rare item?
Ferris was having none of it. "What's the catch?"
The barman chuckled. "We just want his hair. Nothing more."
Ryu cut some of his fringes without a second thought and gave it to the barman. The barman carefully placed Ryu's hair on a handkerchief and meticulously folded it, and hid it inside his breast pocket.
"I'll go and get you your items," the barman said in satisfaction as he tapped his breast pocket.
"What are you going to do with his hair?" Ferris asked when the barman turned his back to enter a back door.
The barman didn't face Ferris as he said, "It's no longer your business."
And he disappeared behind the wooden door.