"So, what do you think?" The man asked
"Yeah, the contract looks legit but I have questions. Why would you decide to give me a contract now? And why does it say Guild instead of house?" Colin asked, by this point he has already calmed down and the tattoo on his chest has stopped glowing, which allowed Lily to draw a few conclusions on what it does.
"It's probably because he realized that you are strong. Leprauchauns aren't exactly a battle oriented demon subspecies and since most of the house of Greed is made up of Leleprechauns, they mostly make contracts with other demons to stay alive and make a profit. As for guilds, well, unlike most of the other houses, the house of Greed is far from united and most of the Leprechauns form subgroups called Guilds. But since they are from the same house, the guilds can't eliminate each other so competition is pretty strong and so is the hatred." Lily replied, causing her to get a glare from the short man.
"That's basically it, the Bartus Guild is new, only about two years old and we haven't been able to get a contract even though ours is one of the few reasonable ones." The man said dejectedly
"So in other words, you guys need someone to gather resources for you, because you can't do it yourself." Colin sneered
"You could say that." The man chuckled dejectedly
"So why shouldn't I go and find an older Guild to sign with? It seems they would have more resources and information since your's is so young." Colin asked
"Simple really, the house of Pride has put a bounty on your head and the house of Wrath is pretty invested in finding you and there are a lot of Guilds who have contracts with the house of Wrath and a few of them are even controlled by members of Pride. They would more likely trade information for your whereabouts than give you a contract." The man replied
"Then, why don't you do the same?" Colin asked
"I look at things in the long term and although the house of Pride is offering a lot of cursed ores for you, that amount won't last us a hundred years and we aren't strong enough to defend that amount of cursed ores. We would likely get robbed and killed, by other demons before we could spend it. But with you, we could get both protection and someone to trade with and gather resources." He said
"Who said that I'll protect you?" Colin said
"Think of it as protecting your interests, if we die, you are more likely to die as you won't have access to our knowledge or the resources we can provide. So, deal?" He asked with a smile and Colin begrudgingly nodded and clicked yes on the contract.
"Perfect, now once you establish a Territory for your family? We can establish more permanent trading, until then, just tell me through [Telepathy] if you want anything and I'll give you a corresponding price." He said and turned around, but just before he leaves, Colin called out.
"Wait, you haven't told me your name?" He asked
"How rude of me, it's Bartus." He said
"Mine's, Colin."
"I know." He said and jumped off the roof of the building.
"Well, that was interesting to watch, but we need to get back on the road, so put some clothes on and meet me back at the buses." Sera said and flew back towards the buses.
"I guess I'll meet you there." Lily said, but before she can fly away, Colin called out to her.
"Wait, I have no idea how to use these or which of them is a regalia or a storage ring." Colin said pleadingly and Lily sighed.
"The ones with the thick bands and the purple runes inscribed in them is the storage rings while the ones with the thin black bands and the transparent crystals are cursed regalias." Lily said and he placed a storage ring and a regalia on his right hand.
"To activate the regalia, all you have to do is channel your demonic energy into it, ince the crystal change colour, just channel your demonic energy into it again and imagine the clothes you want." Lily explained and Colin followed her instructions, after channeling his demonic energy into it, the crystal slowly became red. Channeling his energy into it again, he imagined the clothes he wanted and instantly, orange red flames surrounded him and disappeared a second later. He was adorned with black shirt along with black pants, black shoes and a red overcoat.
"Not bad, now for the storage ring, just channel your aura into it to imprint onto it and make it yours so that no one else can access it. Then you just have to channel your demonic energy into it and think about what you want to place inside." Lily said and Colin did exactly that. As he tried to place the extra rings in the storage ring, he could sense a type of energy extend from the ring and wrap around them before they disappeared.
"You can also look inside the ring to see what is inside, but I think that should wait." Lily said and Colin nodded his head before the two of them flew towards the buses.