Chapter 54: Lysa
Birsk was even further out in the suburbs than the neighborhood where the Oneal family settled and Brandon grew up. The streets were dirtier and busier, and there were more warehouses and suspicious alleys as well.
As police patrols were almost non-existent, Birsk eventually became known for illegal activities.
If someone wanted to hire a hitman, all they had to do was go to one of Birsk’s taverns. If they wanted to buy drugs, Birsk’s alleys were great places to do so — as long as they were careful not to get stabbed by a junkie.
Unfortunately, the alleys and streets of Birsk were also home to many homeless people and abandoned children who joined small gangs of pickpockets.
This was the kind of place where you couldn’t even let your guard down around children without risking losing something valuable, such as your wallet, pocket watch, or even your hat. After all, anything they stole could be easily sold on the black market.
It was for these and other reasons that high society avoided walking in Birsk, and even among ordinary people, you could be frowned upon if they knew you frequented a place like this.
So, as I walked through those dirty streets, I had a long cloak over my head, which I only took off when I entered the shop "Arcane Illusionism."
The shop was identical to the first time I had been here, except that Erich McNee, who was behind the counter, was not the only one here today besides me.
To the right of the entrance, a short, broad-shouldered man was examining a shelf of books.
He wore a brown cloak, but no hood. This was normal, as everyone knew that wearing a hood would be disrespectful and suspicious. The man’s hair was gray, and when he turned his face to look to his right, I saw that he was a middle-aged man. He didn’t seem like someone I needed to worry about.
I was only here to sell my items, so I made my way straight to the counter.
Erich McNee finally took his eyes off the book he was reading with boredom and smiled when he saw me.
"Boy!" he exclaimed, more excited than I imagined he would be to see me. "You’re the boy who sold me that item the other day, aren’t you?"
I scratched my cheek shyly before glancing briefly at the other customer in the store. The gray-haired man didn’t look back, engrossed in the book in his hands.
"Shhh!! Can you speak more quietly?" I asked McNee with an index finger in front of my lips.
McNee put a hand on his chin and continued to smile from ear to ear.
"But it’s impossible for me to contain my excitement when a special customer like you returns to my store."
"Special customer?"
"That’s right! That cloak you sold me is very rare in the market and was purchased by a marquis from the Kingdom of Oukiwa. The quality of the material was wonderful, and the unique craftsmanship of the cloak attracted the interest of many people. Being completely invisible in the dark is something that even those who are not Climbers desire!"
Finally, the man’s attention shifted from the book and turned toward the counter.
However, I was too busy processing the shocking information.
’How can a mere Dark Spider Cloak be so rare? It was a dungeon boss’s reward, but... Ah. I think I know what happened.’
Dark Spiders weren’t even close to being powerful creatures, but they were very difficult to find naturally in the Tower of Babel. There were only three or four caves from Floor 20 onwards where they could be found in large quantities. Naturally, a cloak made from the hair of such a rare monster would also be rare.
’I was so excited to open the Necronomicon that day to get my first Stigma that I completely forgot to consider everything else,’ I thought to myself as a drop of sweat rolled down my cheek.
"So, why did you come today?" Erich McNee grabbed my hands and looked at me anxiously. "Did you bring another book for me to open in exchange for items like that one?"
I quickly pulled my hands back and took a step back. "I don’t have any books with me this time, but I brought items even more impressive than that cloak."
"MORE IMPRESSIVE?!" McNee leaned on the counter and exclaimed.
Immediately, he saw that the middle-aged customer was watching out of the corner of his eye and composed himself.
"Khum!" He cleared his throat and straightened his spine. "Lysa, why don’t you join us in this conversation? As my apprentice, you should introduce yourself properly to such an important customer instead of continuing your disguise. I’m also sure that our glorious customer has already noticed that you are using my skill."
"Lysa? Skill?! Hey, what’s going on?!" I exclaimed internally, but on the outside, I just kept a serious expression as I looked over my shoulder.
The gray-haired man closed the book in his hands, causing a small cloud of dust to scatter into the air. At the same time, his face began to melt as if it were made of wax.
His clothes melted even faster. After a few seconds, where the man had been standing was now a familiar girl with blue hair and eyes. She was thin, young, and short, which contrasted in every way with the man I had assessed when I entered the store.
On top of all that, I felt like I had seen her somewhere else before.
"The boy from the police station," she said as she approached.
That immediately reminded me of where I recognized her from—she was the girl who ran away from the 99th Precinct Police Station the day I went to register as a Climber. Lieutenant Donovan tried to catch her, but she was fast and ran away with a stack of documents clutched to her chest.
"Do you two know each other?" McNee asked.
"I’d rather not say," the girl replied, and I nodded in agreement.
McNee took a deep breath. "In that case, let me introduce you. This is Lysa. She’s my apprentice at the shop. Lysa, this honorable customer is... Boy, what was your name again?" he whispered at the end.
"Just call me S, okay?"
Although I was doing business with McNee, I would never give even my last name to someone as volatile as him. A code name was more appropriate.
"Oh, S? I like that!" McNee wasn’t bothered by my caution.