The old gentleman curiously glanced around after entering and took the environment in: old furnishings, murky windows, and cheap shelves with random "antiques" strewn randomly along the cabinets, the perfect representation of what this business dealt with.
Likely aside from the money collected thus far, there's nothing but fakes in the whole store!
But even so, the old gentleman, who was dressed well for the lower city, remained interested in what he saw. That was until Duncan's voice came from the direction of the counter and interrupted his thoughts.
"A humorous way of selling," the old gentleman chuckles, "to take away what one is destined for… ignoring the items involved, that's a beautiful phrase in itself."
"Actually, fate and destiny aside, you must also have money." Duncan smiled back, "Fortunately, the things here are not expensive. Do you want anything?"
"Eh… I'm not here to buy anything," the old gentleman sounded hesitant, "actually…"
Due to this opening, Duncan had cut in and played salesman: "One doesn't have to buy. Just having a look is good too. Anything that catches your eye?"
The old man's face couldn't help but show a trace of helplessness: "This… everything here are counterfeits."
"Yes," Duncan said with a reasonable look, "why would anything here be real? I don't even have security in place for the store. That's so the thieves would lose more than they gain by robbing me."
The old man's cheeks noticeably twitched over that explanation. He probably didn't expect that the antique store's owner could have such a calm attitude when saying something so blunt. After choking for several seconds: "That…"
"Those that are good at persuading themselves will take this as an antique shop and get a pleasurable experience. Those that can't will take it as a grocery store to look for good deals. Unless you're good at deceiving yourself, who would honestly believe they've found a gold brick inside a garbage heap? Look at that bowl over there. For a simple few coins, you can enjoy a moment of pleasure that only those with immense wealth can experience. What's there to complain about? The bowl? That's the crystallization of our modern industry, you know."
The old man listened to Duncan's crooked reasoning and found himself too stunned to respond. For the longest time, he kept looking back and forth from the man and bowl until he broke out into a chuckle again. Then his sight noticed something shining next to the counter, which caused his expression to freeze and turn serious.
Duncan was seriously immersed in the pleasure of doing business when he noticed the change in the old man's expression. But before the shop owner could react, the old man had already stretched the hand over and grabbed onto something.
"This thing…" The old gentleman had pulled out a well-preserved dagger in the middle of a debris pile.
It was an old item from the Vanished that Duncan had hidden here—one of only two genuine items in the entire antique shop.
The other was the cast iron cannonball placed deeper in the pile of debris.
Duncan wanted to divert the old man's attention at first, but then he noticed the light coming from the fella's eyes. It's the look of a professional who found something worthy of their time.
Duncan frowned at the thought and eyed the dagger with a perplexed gaze
It's actually not a big deal if he sold the dagger. It's not a supernatural item like some of the other things aboard the Vanished, nor does it corrupt those who use it. In essence, the dagger was no different from the bowl he just mentioned.
"This thing…" repeated the old gentleman, who had raised his head to meet Duncan's face, "Is it also a 'good' in the store?"
This gentleman said that very tactfully, but the implication was quite obvious: Why is there a real thing in your pile of trash? A mistake on the job or what?
If Duncan couldn't figure out this old gent was a person of a specialized profession then it would be him that's a fool by this point. Retracting his smile, the crummy shop owner puts on an air of mystique: "See, didn't I say you might find something you are fated to have?"
Then he cleared his throat and got serious: "Most goods in the store are discounted, except for a few, such as this one in your hand."
The old gentleman immediately glanced back at the shelves and confirmed the majority of the items were in fact products of modern society. The prices are marked in the hundreds of thousands like some real antique, but after the discount by the cross with a marker, it's only a few coins. This caused the new customer to become increasingly more amused and interested in this seemingly dilapidated antique shop.
However, before the old gent could ask for the price of this dagger, the bell hanging from the doorway rang again.
Duncan looked up and saw Nina's figure.
"Uncle Duncan I'm back!" Nina didn't raise her head when she entered and shouted like its common practice, "Has Mr. Morris arrived yet?"
"Not that I'm aware of," Duncan glanced inside the store, "I'm entertaining…"
Before he could speak, he saw the old gentleman in front of him coughing dryly to interrupt, "My name is Morris."
Duncan: "…..?"
"Mr. Morris!" Nina immediately exclaimed in surprise after noticing her teacher's presence. Then like every student who bumped into their teacher after school, she became visibly antsy and straightened her back, "Good afternoon!"
Duncan looked at Nina, then back at the old man in front of himself, then repeated that gesture three more times before going haywire.
"I had wanted to introduce myself from the beginning," the old man spread his hands helplessly, "you kept interrupting me so I wasn't able to."
Nina had come back to her senses then and promptly noticed the dagger in her teacher's grasp. Hurrying forward: "Teacher, don't buy it! Everything in our store are fakes!"
Duncan shot a weird look at his niece, complaining how overly honest she must be inside to oust her own uncle in a situation like this. Although with the level of knowledge this history teacher has, Mr. Morris would likely be able to figure out that much out on his own regardless of the young lady's warning or not.
On the other side, Mr. Morris shook his head after hearing Nina's warning, then raised his hand to place the dagger on the counter: "This one is real."
Nina was stunned: "… Ahhhh?"
"This dagger most likely came from a century ago, and it was one of the favorite tools of seafarers in the city-states of Pland and Lansa at the time. But due to the bankruptcy of the central forge and the vulnerability of the items at sea, few remain in existence today. The ones that did survive are in very bad condition…." Morris said while carefully picking up the dagger and drawing the blade from the scabbard. "I… I've never seen one so well preserved. It almost looks like it was still in use not long ago. The blade is sharp and glistening with light. I can't find a single flaw in the blade's body…."
"It also has an original scabbard too," Duncan added. "If you look closely, you'll see that it even has an original buckle on the back of the scabbard."
When Morris heard this, he quickly examined the scabbard and accessories attached to it. The surprise in his eyes couldn't be ignored because it was literally beaming: "This… I really didn't notice just now… Oh, heavens! It's like this had just come off of a sailor yesterday! If I weren't so confident in my own knowledge, I would suspect this is an amazing imitation…. But it even has the flawed patterns at the handle…"
Speaking of this, he suddenly began to doubt himself: "Is it really not an imitation?"
Upon hearing this, Nina quickly waved her hand: "Uncle can't imitate something this real…."
Duncan twitched from the corner of his eye while watching his niece: "Go upstairs and do your homework!"
Nina was stunned for a moment: "I don't have homework today…"
"Then read a book!"
Nina stuck out her tongue and walked towards the stairs in small steps, but then glanced back at her teacher before going up the rails: "Mr. Morris, don't forget that you are here to visit…"
"Of course, I have a lot to talk with Mr. Duncan," Morris radiated a smile, "you go upstairs and read first. Don't worry, I won't snitch on my own student."
Nina shot both men a suspicious look like she did not believe either of them but then knew better than to die on this hill.