Ezra was riding the carriage oblivious to the curses being rained upon him, and wouldn't have cared even if he knew.
Multiple plans went through his head as he called the mute Knight beside him.
"John" which was Fredrick's codename.
"Yes, Kevin?"
"Why didn't you ask for a soul contract back then?"
"I…honestly don't have an exact answer. What I can say is that I saw the sincerity of your words, as weird as it may sound, and decided to follow you on instinct"
"How should I say this? My instinct is what allowed me advance to the Master rank despite being from a common household"
"Hmm, that reminds me, you haven't told me your life story yet. And how is it that you crossed paths with a grandmaster?" Ezra pointed out.
"All in due time my lord, it shall be known in due time" Fredrick said.
Ezra simply nodded and veered away from the topic since Fredrick didn't want to talk about it.
"But what about you? My lord" Fredrick suddenly said.
"What about me?" Ezra didn't get the question.
"Why didn't you ask for a soul contract?" Fredrick clarified.
"That's simple actually. I hold your weakness while you hold mine, and with the little I've seen, you don't strike me as a person who would betray or renegade on his promises" Ezra said.
"Hmm, that is indeed true, but does that mean my lord now trusts me completely?" Fredrick asked.
"Fredrick, we all have our secrets that make us who we are. For me, there is no such thing as completely trusting, for I always have a corner in my heart that suspects the intentions of everyone around me" Ezra paused before continuing.
"Yet, you are ever so close to letting me completely trust you, as you remind me of a man I once knew, and hopefully one day I might completely trust you" Ezra said.
"Hmm, I am thankful my lord thinks of me that way" Fredrick said.
"One more thing, did that ability of yours tell you to follow me?" Ezra asked.
"Yes, my lord. That was exactly so, as it seems I will see a lot of great things by your side"
"Then it was right, because I am planning great things to show you in the future, but for now, we must tread carefully, because one misstep could be our downfall"
"Hmm" Fredrick nodded, them both ended their conversation and the carriage drowned in silence once again as they moved to the next victi-*cough* chance store.
—-------
In a small shop filled with antiques was a boy with black hair and the attire of any normal commoner.
This boy was looking at a dusty and slightly rusted ring with a scrutinizing gaze as a blue glow shone from within his eyes.
"I've found it" Ezra said as he breathed a sigh of relief after accomplishing his objective.
In his hands was the reason why he even came to the chance stores in the first place.
'A space ring'
Yes, just as its name suggested, it was a ring with its own separate space that reduced the weight of the goods stored within to practically nothing.
It was the item a commoner had discovered and sold to a noble for a hefty amount of gold.
This was because the ring was an ancient relic.
A relic from a time that was termed the golden era because of the state of things back then.
Mana was abundant in the air and numerous scarce resources were commonplace at the time.
It was said that oranians witnessed the greatest advancement in all fields of knowledge during that era.
Yet, it was all snuffed out following an event called the great devouring.
The contents of that event had the knowledge of the golden era mostly destroyed, while what remained was spread across different continents.
This led to a rapid decline in the mana present in Orion's atmosphere, as well as greatly thinned down the number of able combatants for a time.
But…
'It'll all change soon. Twenty…twenty-two years from now'
Yes! Twenty-two years from now, the world would witness the opposite of the great devouring, but that was an issue for later.
Right now, Ezra knew that the only ones who could use space rings were Royals, Top-class Merchants, Great Nobles along with a few others.
The amount of those made was very low, because the resources needed were unbelievably exorbitant.
Yet…
'If I'm right, then those rings are failures compared to this'
This was the shocking truth, as well as the reason why the noble didn't hesitate to take out almost all the money in his family to pay for it.
Items made during the ancient era were far more advanced than anything of the current age.
It was said that the inventor of the magic circuit used by mages had done so by researching rune pathways of ancient relics.
Which meant…
'This ring should be worth…fifty thousand platinum? Or maybe even more?' Ezra thought, before shaking such thought out of his head.
He would never be stupid enough to sell such an item, especially when he was a prince.
'Now, my preparations to enter the royal treasury are completed'
Yes, this was the main reason why he asked for the gift day to be postponed.
The treasury was filled with too many things, but was also the most fortified place in the empire.
(Un)Fortunately, Ezra knew a way around it.
The empire didn't have many defenses against spatial magic, since it wasn't at all common due to the exorbitant amount of money and research needed for it.
They would definitely have some, but Ezra was betting that they didn't have anything that could detect an ancient spatial relic.
He needed capital to fund his organizations before they could make any money. Hence, he planned to fill the ring to the brim with gold and platinum.
Ezra felt exhilarating at the thought.
What if the ring was discovered? Ezra would hate his bad luck, because he already has plenty of plans for the ring.
Why would he only think about taking money when there are so many things there? Tell me, do you think the ones who made the treasury were idiots?
When even defective merchandise is stamped with a rune mark to indicate that it wasn't stolen, what do you think would have been done to the variety of priceless books and artifacts kept In the Empire's treasury?
After all, you think it hasn't been broken into before? It has! Multiple times in fact, across different centuries, with the royal magicians fixing the flaws used each time.
Mind you, more than half of the people who broke into it died. So you can understand just how many times it would have been fortified. All by peoples of at least Master rank.
Nevertheless, Ezra had a few plans that might be assumably feasible, but only that, assumably.
Nothing had been tested, so nothing was certain.
Ezra could only hope his hunches were right as he cashed in the other items he found to be valuable.
Eye bags could be seen under his eyes due to his lack of sleep.
He had woken up very early, met James about two hours before noon, before fighting Dark tooth members for a good ten minutes, then the boss and his minions for about twenty minutes.
All this before conversing with the gang leader and signing the soul contract, which took another three hours. By the time they were done, the sun had set.
Then he started clearing out chance stores for close to five hours now.
This was the fifteenth chance stores he would rob-*cough*, I mean, buy items from.
He planned on going to all the popular chance stores before stopping for the night, because he wouldn't be able to do this again anytime soon.
Especially considering that the news of a small boy taking all the items in chance shops overnight would spread by morning.
He needed to move with haste and caution, well he was already doing so, but he needed to move even faster, and so he did.
He quickly bought the things he wanted from the shops, then called one of the few remaining carriages to take it to the Dark Tooth bar, before boarding the same carriage as Randy, who pointed the way to the next chance store.
Ezra decided to pay the coachman carrying them all around the city from chance store to chance store a gold coin, which apparently motivated the coachman as he hadn't complained since.
Ezra had Randy and the coachman drink a rejuvenation potion to push back his urge to sleep, as he did the same.
Fredrick was a Master Knight, so he could go on without sleeping for a week. Of course, it had side effects, but nothing too nasty.
It would soon be midnight and the criminals, as well as the degenerates of society, would soon come out to play.
It was also the time gangs were most active. They didn't like having people witness their bad deeds after all.
The horses were also given potions, which made the trip go smoother and faster, as Ezra sped through the city, clearing out every chance store he came across. He even destroyed a store because the owners misbehaved and enslaved another one.
Giving him two slaves in one night.
The commotion he caused would be handled by Dark Tooth once various guilds poked into the matter.
Ezra almost felt sorry for the amount of work Cabrera was going to have to deal with in the coming days, but when he remembered that he was the one sponsoring them…
All that melted away, after all, what else were they being paid to do?
And so the trio of Randy, Fredrick and Ezra blazed through the city with a coachman and horses on steroids as they cleared out more than half of the city's chance stores, before finally stopping as they had the coachman take them directly to Fredrick's house.
Randy was dropped at an inn with two silver as payment for services The coachman was given an additional gold coin as Ezra advised him to lay low for a while before he continued doing business, to buy a new carriage and sell his current one.
Thankfully, the man, who seemed to be in mid-forties, readily agreed before Ezra could even elaborate.
Ezra didn't want people who were looking for him to cause this man harm, and it seemed he wouldn't need to worry
Ezra fell into his bed immediately after he entered Fredrick's cottage and slept off before he knew it.
While he was in la-la land, things were playing out in the city just as he expected.