'A currency that is considered to be used only by the nobles and rich families.... I feel sorry for her, but oh well... I'll make good use of this.' he thought as he put the three notes in his inner pocket before he began to count the silvery grey Zen notes.
'-even eight and nine... damn she's rich. I should probably become a priest...' he thought to himself before shaking his head, 'Nah I'd rather not sell my soul and body just for money.'
"A total of three chrons and ninety Zens. Oh well, going for her directly will simply cause me trouble if I continue doing it. I'll have to find other ways... and maybe I'll take a look at the black market. If possible, I'll issue a bounty on her."
His walking pace increased until he reached the smokery. The place didn't have any customers at the moment, and the shop was pretty small. It was merely a 5m x 5m room that had multiple cloth sacks filled with various jerky.
On top of each sack was a thin wooden board with prices written on them.
Keith took a look at each and every one of them before looking at the older woman who was sitting on a worn out stool.
"Can I try each one of them before I decide on buying one?"
After hearing his words, she nodded, "Only if you promise me that you'll buy. If none of them are to your liking, then pay me one brak and leave."
"Thanks." he said and began to eat the different types of jerky. The shop only had beef, pork and chicken jerky, but there were different types of each animal.
Keith simply ate each one of them to get a feel for their texture and taste as he noted down the ones he liked. It took him around 5 minutes to make up his mind.
"Miss, I'll buy two kilos of pork loin jerky and hmm... I guess I'll buy another kilo of top round beef jerky." he said as he pointed a the two different jerky that he wanted.
The woman stared at him for a second before hastily shaking her head, "That'll be two zens young man, are you sure?"
"Absulutely!" Keith responded with a smile, making the woman shake her head. She then silently grabbed three large tin cans and carefully measured the weights.
Once everything was perfect, she grabbed an extra handful of jerky for each type and tossed it in before she took out three tin lids that perfectly fit the tin cans.
She then tossed the tin cans into a large cloth bag and gave it to Keith, "Here you go."
"Thank you." Keith replied and gave her two zen notes before leaving the shop.
He didn't have anything else to do for the day and he was feeling slightly sleepy, so he went back home and plopped onto the bed directly. He woke up almost ten hours later and freshened up before he headed to the Clangson Mansion.
To his surprise, there were a bunch of police patrolling around the mansion and this included his brother in law, who was lazily picking his nose while staring at the opposite side of the street.
Keith went straight to Adam, "What's going on?"
"Oh you're here. I didn't tell Rebecca about this because well... you know how she gets when is comes to safety. Anyways, someone attacked this place a few hours ago and the knights from the Church of Protection are inside the gate.
I don't even know why they want us here when they can do everything on their own. Oh yeah, the important part. Your boss wants you to head back to your headquarters as your job here is done."
"Is that so..." Keith muttered as he looked up at the mansion and then sighed, "Okay, thanks. I'll head there."
Adam nodded and patted Keith's shoulder, "Take care of yourself, okay? If something happens to you, Reb will become a huge mess."
"Understood, but well... you do know what kind of job I'm in right?"
"Yeah, being a sheriff is relatively safer but I do know what your job is all about. Anyways, I'll see you in the morning, yeah?"
"Yup. See ya Adam."
Keith then rushed to the inn and the first thing he saw was Brandon sitting on his desk with a thick layer of bandage wrapped around his arm.
"Was it that serious?" Keith asked as he took a step inside and closed the door behind him.
Edward nodded, "Exploding bullets... never seen one of those in my entire life. Looks like there's someone new in town. We were lucky to have Clara's protection, but even with that, there was a limit to how much damage Brandon could take.
His stone skin got absolutely destroyed and if the guy's revolver hadn't run out of bullets, then there was no way we could have survived. Anyways, now that the bad news is out of the way, let me tell you the good stuff.
The church from the capital has sent out one of their inquisitors to take care of this case. The danger was too much and since we technically did protect Sir Clangson, we received out bonuses."
Keith nodded as he glanced at the others in the room, only to see every single one of them other than Clara grinning like idiots. Even though Clara wasn't grinning, she still had a smile on her face.
"Just why are you guys so... how do I put this, happy?"
Hearing his question, Brandon chuckled before pointing at Clara, "Why don't you explain?"
"Yes sir." she replied and looked at Keith, "Sir Brandon was indeed attacked and yes, he did sustain injuries. But we must look at the bright side. The important thing is that he survived."
Edward nodded, "Right. Both of you, listen to me." he said as he pointed at both Keith and Amelia, "No one knows when we'll die. Most of our jobs are mild compared to the Baronet's case, but there is always a chance for things to go wrong.
I've seen eight of my colleagues die right in front of me... and well, it's important to celebrate the fact that we survived instead of crying over an injury that will heal over time."