In Akase, Wiz's magic item shop had completely blown up.
Lately, the stream of customers coming and going could only be described as packed to the rafters.
Sure, thanks to Ren Kuroda's… special marketing methods—and Aqua's and Wiz's bathwater—…ahem, no, thanks to "Gift of Frost" and "Blessing of Water," the shop had already begun turning a steady profit.
But crowds like this?This was a first.
Even when the Demon King's general Beldia had attacked before, the shop hadn't seen anywhere near this many customers.
And from Ren's perspective, every single person walking through the door today was loaded—real big spenders, completely incomparable to the perpetually broke adventurers of Akase.
Back then, most of the magic items in Wiz's shop—especially the unsellable junk with terrifying side effects—had ultimately been offloaded by Ren through bundled sales and clever packaging.
But people often forgot one important thing.
Aside from those disastrous, side-effect-ridden items, Wiz's shop also contained a stockpile of extremely high-grade magic items—ones with little to no side effects at all.
Logically speaking, those high-grade, safe items should have sold far better.
Reality, however, had been the exact opposite.
The cursed items, after being expertly dressed up by Ren, had sold surprisingly well.
Meanwhile, those pristine, high-grade magic items?
No matter how much Ren talked himself hoarse, he couldn't sell a single one.
The reason was simple.
For Akase's adventurers, those items were far too high-level.
Most adventurers in Akase were still hunting monsters like giant frogs and short-tailed crocs.
Yet some of the high-grade items in Wiz's shop were powerful enough to slay dragons.
Who in their right mind would buy something like that just to blow up a giant frog?
It was absurdly excessive.
And more importantly—
Even if they wanted to, Akase's adventurers simply couldn't afford them.
Recently, the high-level adventurers who had gathered to stop the Mobile Fortress—and were using Akase as a supply point—hadn't just heard once or twice about this mysterious magic item shop.
At first, most of them dismissed it outright.
In their eyes, the people of Akase were just country bumpkins who had never seen the world. How impressive could "high-grade" items from a beginner town really be?
That attitude lasted until one adventurer, whose strategic supplies were completely exhausted, decided to check it out—just in case.
And the moment he stepped inside, he froze.
Because it turned out the real bumpkins weren't the adventurers of Akase at all—
It was them.
When the high-level adventurers from other regions first saw the price tags, they nearly cursed out loud.
But the moment they read the item effects—
They went silent.
And then they exploded.
"Wait—this magic tool can cast the earth-element spell 'Earth Rend'?! Isn't that a skill only max-level mages can use?!"
"Earth Rend is nothing! This ring can cast 'Dragon Lightning'—that's a spell only archmages can handle!"
Without question, the very adventurers who had mocked Akase for being backwater nobodies instantly turned into wide-eyed yokels themselves the moment they entered the shop, their gasps of amazement echoing nonstop.
Naturally, Ren and Wiz made a killing.
To complete the commission to stop the Mobile Fortress—and secure noble status—these high-level adventurers didn't hesitate to open their wallets.
Compared to Akase's locals, who would haggle over a few hundred eris, these people were on a completely different financial tier.
The previously ignored high-grade magic items became hot commodities, even selling out faster than they could be restocked.
Wiz, happily counting money until her cheeks hurt from smiling, kept telling Ren how her brilliant long-term strategic vision had clearly been correct—that's why she'd stocked up on so many high-grade items in advance.
Ren didn't even have the energy to argue anymore.
Strategic vision, my ass.She hadn't stocked them intentionally—they just hadn't sold!
Still, credit where it was due.
Those dusty items that had been rotting in storage were now bringing in a fortune. Ren had quietly raised prices several times already, yet demand still far outstripped supply.
Of course—
Where there are people, there is conflict.
And adventurers, by nature, were rarely a law-abiding bunch.
Wiz's shop was packed with rare high-grade magic items, and thanks to scarcity, these adventurers were being charged a premium.
Some adventurers with a sense of decency chose their items, paid honestly, and left without complaint.
Others, however, just had to stand out.
A few morally questionable high-level adventurers, after sweeping large amounts of merchandise off the counters, suddenly decided to play the "credit" card.
Normally, as a merchant eager to make money, Ren wouldn't have minded accepting an IOU.
But when the signature on the slip read "Lord of Akase"—
That crossed a line.
"This customer," Ren said politely, smiling as he held up the slip, "if you don't intend to purchase these items properly, please return them to their original places. We don't accept IOUs like this."
His calm tone only seemed to enrage the hulking adventurer in front of him—a muscular brute with a bright green mohawk.
With a snarl, the man reached out, grabbed Ren by the head, and lifted him off the ground like a chicken.
"Huh?" the man sneered. "Say that again. I didn't quite hear you. You don't accept what, exactly?
"Don't be stupid. We're here to save you rookies. And once I take down that Mobile Fortress, I'll be the lord of this place anyway. So what's wrong with signing 'Lord of Akase'?"
The mohawked brute looked at Ren with open contempt.
And truthfully, adventurers like him weren't rare these days.
Akase's lord was gone. The guards had vanished. And being a remote border town, it was practically lawless.
Ren and Wiz were young, looked harmless, and somehow possessed an absurd stockpile of priceless magic items—of course that would attract greedy eyes.
There were no guards to maintain order.
And in the eyes of these elite outsiders, Akase's adventurers were nothing but weaklings.
So some people naturally began acting without restraint.
After all, many of them already believed the position of lord was theirs for the taking.
And even if they failed?
They could always loot what they wanted and disappear. What could Akase possibly do to them?
"…This is really a pain," Ren sighed quietly. "I just wanted to live peacefully as a shop clerk. Why are there always people who won't let things be easy?
"If your ears don't work properly… then I guess there's no need to keep them."
The mohawked adventurer was about to tell the pretty-boy shop clerk to watch his mouth—
When a flash of white light cut through the air.
Blood sprayed.
An ear flew past his face.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
Agony struck like lightning.
The mohawked brute collapsed, rolling on the floor in unbearable pain, staring at his severed ear in sheer disbelief.
And it wasn't just him.
The other high-level adventurers in the shop stared in shock.
Even as bystanders, they hadn't seen Ren do anything.
One moment the ear was there—the next, it was gone.
At the same time, many of them felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
Quite a few had entertained thoughts similar to the mohawked brute—but thankfully, none of them had acted first.
As the injured man writhed on the floor, a chestnut-haired boy rushed over, eyes gleaming with excitement. He'd clearly been watching the situation unfold.
"Hey there, mister adventurer!" he said cheerfully. "We offer medical treatment here! Fair prices, no scars—interested?"
The boy was, of course, Kazuma—infamous throughout Akase for his morally flexible business sense.
After a brief negotiation, Kazuma wasted no time hoisting the wounded man onto his back and hauling him outside, where a blue-haired girl was already waiting.
"Aqua! Got another customer! Ren sliced off this guy's ear—treatment fee, one hundred thousand eris!"
With the influx of high-level adventurers into Akase, incidents like this had become increasingly common.
Some adventurers assumed that because this was a beginner town, they could throw their weight around.
The outcome, however, was always the same.
Kazuma, ever sharp-eyed, had quickly spotted a business opportunity.
He partnered up with Aqua—Kazuma handled planning and transporting injured adventurers, while Aqua provided the healing. Profits were split fifty-fifty.
At first, many scoffed at the so-called "medical service."
After all, every party had a healer—or at least healing potions.
But it didn't take long for the mohawked adventurer to realize that his one hundred thousand eris had been exceptionally well spent.
Other "high priests" might stop the bleeding—
But an ear? That was gone for good.
For Aqua, however—someone capable of resurrecting the dead—
Restoring a single ear was child's play.
Missing arms? Missing legs?
Easy.