Wizard: I brought the wrong system.

Chapter 440 Owe

A few gold coins are indeed not much for a group of wizard apprentices with extraordinary abilities, but Yaro's situation is somewhat special, especially since he has a gold-devouring master—'Magic Strike'.

Upon hearing that Yaro was short of money, Harvey's expression immediately became wary: "I'm broke too. Look at my business, it's so slow! Right now... ugh, I have a terrible headache!"

Yaro was both amused and exasperated.

"Alright, alright, a few gold coins. I'm just a little short on cash. Hmm... I'll leave this cross-shaped longsword with you as collateral and borrow ten gold coins. I'll return it to you when I get back after delivering the goods. Is that alright?"

The cross-shaped longsword in Yaro's hand was a rare mortal sword given to him by the chubby boy Ketaen. Although it had fought alongside Yaro for a long time, it was well-maintained. If it were to be sold, it would be worth at least several dozen gold coins.

As an alchemist, Harvey, the shopkeeper, naturally had a good eye for business, and his shrewd nature immediately made him enthusiastic.

"Oh, Brother Yue, no, no! By the way, you want to borrow it for a day, right? Oh! A day is too short, isn't that making you run back and forth? Three days, how about three days? Okay? Alright, then I'll write it."

As he spoke, Harvey, the shop owner, skillfully began writing down the mortgage loan terms.

Looking at those rows and rows of meticulously crafted regulations, it seems he's done this kind of thing quite often.

Harvey, the shopkeeper, handed over the contract, the ink still wet: "Could you please sign here again? Hmm, it would be even better if you could leave a magic seal."

Yaro was both amused and exasperated: "I've already entrusted this sword to you, is this really necessary?"

Magic seals are similar to fingerprints, containing the unique magical energy fluctuations of each person, so Yaro naturally couldn't leave one.

As for the name... it's impossible to keep the name 'Yaro Garner', right?

Harvey, the shop owner, said with a bitter and resentful expression:

"So what if you pawned it? What if you don't come to redeem it? Am I supposed to keep it for you? What if you don't come back after a year or two? If I sell the sword then and you come back to cause trouble for me, am I supposed to give you the shop back?"

Yarrow was speechless.

"Alright, I'll sign. I won't leave the magic seal. It's okay if I sign my name with 'Moon,' right? You should know why."

"You can just sign 'Moonlight Dancer,' and everyone will know it's you just by seeing that name," Harvey, the shop owner, said very considerately.

"Row."

As Yaro picked up his pen to write, he suddenly noticed a line of text on the contract: 3 gold coins in interest for three days!

"Aren't the interest rates a bit outrageous?"

Yaro tapped the line of text with the tip of his pen, then looked up and said unhappily.

"What interest rate? It's just that I lend you ten gold coins, and you return thirteen. It won't be less or more. It's just that if it's been more than three days, the sword is mine." Harvey, the shopkeeper, spoke in a businesslike manner.

Wizard apprentices earn magic stones, so ten gold coins are nothing, let alone thirteen. At most, it's just that the two of them don't have any personal relationships, so thinking about it carefully, it's not really excessive.

Yaro glanced at the cross-shaped longsword beside him.

He fought with that longsword countless times.

He had slain evil spirits, living people, and skeletons... The longsword had also suffered some damage from repeated collisions, but it was all repaired by Yaro through alchemy.

During this process, Yaro also figured out the material of the entire sword—it was just a normal, high-quality ordinary sword. "So, shopkeeper Harvey just doesn't want any personal connections with me?"

"Heh, that's true. I'm a big problem to begin with, and I even extorted a large sum of money from him before. Naturally, he hopes that I'm as far away from him as possible."

“Even when I had someone send the ‘Ghost Orchid’ to him, it was still a big problem in his eyes.”

After a pause, Yaro carefully examined the contract and, after confirming that there were no abnormalities, left his signature as 'Dancer Under the Moon' on it, as Harvey had instructed.

Upon receiving the gold coins from shopkeeper Harvey, Yarrow sincerely expressed his gratitude:

"Thank you so much! Once I earn enough magic stones, I'll make up for the cost of the materials I got from you before..."

Harvey, the shop owner, kept yawning and waved his hand, saying:

"No need. Didn't we agree that those were for your... portrait fee? Is that the name? Yeah, we settled that matter a long time ago."

Yaro nodded and said no more.

He knows in his heart what he should do and what he owes.

Harvey was just a small alchemist in a remote alchemy workshop. He was simply following the trend and imitating what others were doing. It's impossible to blame him for all the mistakes just because he was the best at imitating.

If we're really going to pursue any 'image fees,' then the Jungle House, which issued the arrest warrant without Yaro's permission, is the real mastermind.

For Harvey, the shop owner, to be a lone shop owner, the punishment of forcibly taking a 'replica of the Demon Phoenix Golden Armor' was already too harsh.

However, considering that he was allowed to continue selling them later, and taking into account the 'fine' for taking them without permission and the subsequent real 'endorsement fee', it's still reasonable for him to take a set of 'replica of the Demon Phoenix Golden Armor'.

However, the subsequent modifications to the Demon Phoenix Golden Armor used over a hundred magic stones, which was a bit excessive.

"There's no point in saying more. Once I've earned the magic stones, I'll just put them in front of him."

"As for those gold coins, once we returned to the viscount's territory, we used some of them from the territory's treasury."

……

The Viscount's territory is right next to the Dark Plains, so even if Yaro wanted to send all these 'Ghost Orchids' to the 'Tree Demon Forest', he would have to pass through the Viscount's capital city, 'Lix City'.

Lix means thorns in the Sintian language, and also implies "flowers blooming in the bitter cold". According to the memories of some old people in the city, the area around Lix was indeed once covered with a sea of ​​flowers. Unfortunately, those flowers have long been dug up, leaving behind large tracts of fields.

That's where the most ridiculous thing is.

With so much fertile land, this city is now teetering on the brink of famine.

Upon hearing that Yarrow wanted 13 gold coins, Dylan immediately began to complain: "Lord Yarrow, the food shortage is too great. The money in the treasury is simply not enough. Recently, I have been arranging for people to strip the gold and silver inlaid in the Viscount's mansion, just to raise some money to continue purchasing food."

"No money?"

Yaro was stunned. Although he didn't manage affairs, he had checked the ledgers when he took over the viscount's territory. At that time, there were still hundreds of gold coins and tens of thousands of silver coins in the treasury!
"A hundred gold coins aren't enough?"

“Not enough!” Dylan asserted. “The surrounding lords are now raising prices on the spot. A pound of grain has already been increased to 47 pence a silver coin, and it seems likely that it will rise further.”

(End of this chapter)