By the time Ciel exited the black market, it was already dawn. Tying his blindfold back on, Ciel yawned.
He needed sleep.
It took around an hour to get back to the base. But Ciel couldn't go to sleep even when he arrived.
This was because of a certain eve wearing an eyepatch.
"Where were you?" Sitting on the couch in the lobby near the entrance, Jadiel's fingers were spinning his gun in irritation. His cold knightly demeanor from when Ciel had first seen him had completely degenerated into a gangster like aura.
He looked like a mafia boss.
"Exploring the black market." Ciel yawned again, not caring about the tense atmosphere.
The gun slipped out of Jadiel's fingers.
"Exploring the what now?" It was Ciel's first time seeing Jadiel this stupefied. Then again, he hadn't known him that long.
"The black market." Ciel patiently repeated his words with a harmless smile. Since they wanted to raise him, they should know what they were getting into.
"You know what that is?"
"Yep. Why wouldn't I?"
"Haa." Jadiel rubbed his forehead. Since Ciel had exploded that room of nobles from the auction house, he had known Ciel wasn't a normal kid. But what type of nine year old went to the black market?
Ignoring Ciel for a moment, he thought, 'What was I doing when I was nine?'
Ciel looked at Jadiel. 'This guy's making a super interesting face right now! It sort of resembles my brother's face when I got into trouble in the past!'
"...I get it. Go back to your room. You'll need sleep if you've been wandering around for a day and a night." Massaging his forehead, Jadiel waved Ciel back into his room. It was best if he discussed this with the others when they came back. He had no experience in raising kids.
Ciel cheerfully went back to his room. Then, remembering something, he poked his head back into the room.
"By the way, if a strange guy with emerald green eyes comes by, tell him that I'm sleeping and I'll contact him later."
The young man was a part of the information guild. It was a piece of cake for him to find Ciel's location.
If he didn't want to uphold the bet, then Ciel would put him in his list of debts for later. By the way, the Apache family was already in it. Ciel hadn't saved them for free after all.
Andrea, who would later on become the protagonist's loyal dog would also become a famous alchemist. His creations would play a major part in driving out the demons and he would be one of the few people who could create superior grade potions. That was the reason why Ciel didn't just kill him then and there to prevent future troubles.
Alchemists were a major force in the Srijan institution, a institution created jointly by eves and humans for researchers of all affinities. The institution's purpose was to invent and study various things.
In this world, alchemists could synthesize potions with various effects and were as useful as blacksmiths.
'I wonder if saving his whole family will get me some superior grade potions.' Ciel tapped his chin thoughtfully as he pounced on his pillow.
***
Minutes after Ciel left, the young man with emerald eyes arrived at the front door of Fatalite. Behind him stood a young man who had the lower part of his face covered with a dark blue veil.
The bell rang, and Jadiel opened the door. He stared at the pair at his door.
"So you were the strange guy with emerald eyes."
"Long time no see, little Jade. Can we come in?" The young man chuckled, his green eyes twinkling like gems.
"It was my fault for not managing him well. He bothered your family's kid." The veiled young man calmly pinched the other young man's ear, dragging him in. His hair was like snow, yet one could persistently make out hints of blue interwoven between those white strands. Although he owned a pair of foxy blue eyes, his gaze was extremely frigid, annulling any seductiveness they would give him.
Talking to the veiled young man, Jadiel closed the door.
"So what did Verdalite do?"
The veiled young man twisted Verdalite's ear one last time before letting go.
"He lost a bet to your kid."
"Ciel?"
"If you're talking about that black-haired blue-eyed kid, then yes." Verdalite raised his hand cheerfully.
—Smack.
"You can still smile after losing a bet to a damn brat?" The veiled young man controlled his urge to smack him again after seeing his silly smile.
"So Ciel had blue eyes?" Jadiel stroked his chin.
"You didn't know?"
Jadiel shrugged.
"He wears a blindfold all day long. Who would know his eye color?"
"Let's not talk about that, I came here because he told me to. Where is he?" Verdalite looked around.
"He's sleeping. He was out all night. At the black market." Jadiel rubbed his forehead again, driving away his headache.
"He knows the code?" Verdalite asked in surprise.
"..."
Jadiel, who didn't know there was a code needed to get into the black market, sensed his headache coming back.
"Did you two have this much trouble raising me?"
"Nope. You were a normal kid." Verdalite shrugged. "Got into a lot of fights, but still pretty normal. At the very least, you didn't go to the black market and gamble." He snickered. "And by the look of your face, you still haven't visited the black market. Has acting as a knight actually made you one?"
Jadiel glanced at the veiled young man, who had taken off his veil, revealing a beautiful face that was akin to a woman's.
"How would I have the guts to go when Azar—wait, Ciel can gamble? The gambling I know?"
"Gambling is gambling, what else can it be? I wonder how you raised that kid." Verdalite smiled.
Jadiel, "..."
His headache just got worse.
"I just took him in a few weeks ago because of certain circumstances." He tried to explain, "I don't know how he was educated before."
"Wow, you took in a random kid without any prior investigations?" Azar snorted coldly, glancing at Verdalite, "You two aren't blood related, but I see many similarities. Why don't you just take in all the human orphans in the capital then?"
"Isn't that what Verdalite's orphanages are for?" Jadiel shrugged, "If Ciel was a normal human boy, I would have given him to the orphanage. If he was a eve, I would pass him to his own kind. But he's not a normal human boy, and I can tell that he'll escape immediately if he was put in an orphanage. He's also not a eve."
"Just let him be then." Azar replied, leaning on Verdalite's shoulders.
"You know I can't. That's another similarity with Verdalite isn't it?" Jadiel smiled wryly.
"Well then, it was nice seeing you again. Verdalite and I have more matters to attend to. If that boy of yours wants to collect debts, tell him to go to White Night." Azar put his veil back on. "We'll be working in Anatol for the time being."
"I won't see you off then." Jadiel waved them goodbye. He then sighed as they disappeared from his sight.
'It's gonna be hard raising that kid. Those guys better come back quickly. Me and Lilian won't be able to deal with him.'
***
After Jadiel's firm warning, Ciel strictly came back before dark, but that didn't stop him sneaking out after he returned. Fatalite had a severe lack of people, while the area it resided in was large. Ciel's room was far away from Jadiel and Lilian's rooms, so he could slip out easily. As for Verdalite's bet, he had already etched it into his little list in his heart.
His daily routine became helping Jadiel out with whatever he was busy with in the mornings, wandering around the gambling hall in the afternoon, and spending one or two hours of his nighttime at the black market.
If he wasn't gambling in the afternoon, he was training. His goal was to use his 'combatant's blessing' to its fullest. That was something the nameless prince in the novel didn't have.
Although he would prefer having fun to training, he could only continue to have fun if he was strong enough to survive his predestined death in the novel. He should at least be strong enough to survive in a demon horde alone.
In the meantime, he would check the striped blue and white stall daily in hopes of finding the relic. After visiting the black market for long enough, he knew there was only one place that fit the novel's description, and that was the place he had found on his first visit.
Before he knew it, he had become a familiar face in the black market, especially with Taq and Lapin, the bunny masked man.
~
Tonight, Lapin greeted Ciel especially enthusiastically.
"Carmine! You come everyday for a staff antique right? My friend recently found something like that in some ruins. Is this what you were looking for?"
Lapin raised the staff in his hand. It was long and spear-like, with a round bottom and a large celtic shield knot at the top. The original color was dulled into a pale shade of gray, and the inscriptions that ran from the top to the bottom seemed old.
It fit the description in the novel perfectly.
"Thanks!" Ciel gave a bag of gold coins to Lapin, who patted Ciel's thin shoulders as he took it.
"I should be the one thanking you. A old staff like this, only fanatics of the church will buy it. And the holy land is pretty far from here."
Lapin shook the bag of coins happily, mentally counting the money in his heart.
'So I'm the only one who would buy something that looks so trashy like that around here.'
Ciel nodded understandingly as he bid him goodbye.
As he entered the front door of the base, he was met with a familiar scene.