Chapter 166: Escape Plunge
Suze lay fast asleep on Clovis’s chair as the guildmaster and the crab both stood on opposite sides of a table covered with papers and all sorts of random items.
“You drive a hard bargain, but you’ve got yourself a deal!” the thief declared with a smile and a slap on the table.
For the past half hour, the two of them had been enthusiastically discussing a trade deal for the Scroll of Potential that Balthazar had spotted in the vault. Offers and counteroffers were presented, arguments over what would be a fair trade for it were given, and plenty of tongue wagging was made before reaching an agreement.
Clovis had proven a skilled negotiator, and as much as Balthazar would not willingly admit it, the crab was greatly enjoying the verbal sparring he had been lacking since leaving the pond.
“Great! Glad we got to an agreement,” the merchant said as he used his claw to push the piles of bottles, papers, and a few kitchen utensils back into his backpack.
“And I’ll be taking this to my people. We will put it to great use,” said Clovis as he rolled up the map of the Onion Crew’s stashes.
The guildmaster seemed very interested in the locations marked on it, and Balthazar was more than happy to trade it away, since it was of no use to him now that he already knew where the stolen mangoes were.
In the end, the merchant managed to walk away with the scroll and even got Clovis to share a map of the floors of Damask Manor that he had one of his agents “procure” from the local building offices under the cover of night. All in exchange for the Onion Crew’s stash locations and a bottle of the extremely rare “Oceanic Essence Perfume.”
The bottle was actually just full of fish liver oil. But since the thief lord seemed delighted enough with its smell and certain that all the ladies would fall head over heels for his new scent, who was the crab to deny him what he desired? He was more concerned with wondering why someone back home had packed a flask of fish oil of all things in his backpack.