NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 66 Shell Cleaning
Tinen and Chelna looked at the dagger containing the coat of arms for the Etria Imperial family with surprise before Tinen said, "I'm surprised you managed to acquire it. I heard that the idiot Breral's caravan had been attacked on his way through the forest and that no one survived, only bloody trails of corpses being dragged away by animals."
"When the guards arrived they found that Breral's secret safe had been ransacked, I assumed thieves must have got there first and taken everything of value including the dagger."
Liza chuckled as she placed the dagger on the table before the ladies and replied, "Oh there was a thief, however I managed to negotiate a trade to recover the dagger."
"A member of Black Noir conducting a trade." Chelna said in surprise before adding, "I'm surprised you didn't just kill the thief."
"I considered it originally, however after witnessing his skill while he took down some local thieves in the city I thought better of it, a good thing too otherwise I would have ended up joining those criminal leaders in the ground." Liza replied with a knowing smirk.
"What!" Tinen and Chelna said in surprise before Chelna asked. Are you saying Tommy was the thief and he had the dagger in his possession the entire time?"
"While I can't say if he had it in his possession the entire time, I can confirm he was the one who took it from the caravan and I whom I traded with for it." Liza answered
"All that time I was speaking with him and he had the dagger on him and I didn't know." Chelna mumbled.
"Explain what happened if you would please," Tinen asked seriously before adding. "Since this involves the mission I gave to Black Noir I believe I have a right to know."
"Indeed you do." Liza replied before explaining to Tinen exactly what took place from the Jaguar attack. However unlike with Third and Eighth there were some parts she left out, she also didn't reveal anything about their most recent meeting.
"I see, so he didn't lift a finger to help a noble who requested assistance." Tinen muttered.
"Nope he just stood back and watched the show as Breral and his guard got killed." Liza replied with a smirk.
She would finally be able to get rid of the sick memory of what she had to do for that fat pig.
"Very well then I believe you have completed the mission I requested from Black Noir." Tinen said before withdrawing a small business card.
The front of the card was entirely black except for a silver outline that resembled the shape of a cat with two cat's eyes.
The back of the card however was white with black writing along the top and a large rectangle box underneath. The writing contained the client's name, in this case Tinen Etria along with a series of numbers.
The large rectangle box was initially empty, however after Tinen picked it up she inserted some of her mana into the card and the empty box changed to show the work 'Complete' now written in it. Tinen then handed the card over to Liza who accepted it happily.
"That you for your business Queen Etria, you know how to contact us if you have any further needs of our services." Liza replied with a small bow before she turned and disappeared without a trace.
"It seems your hunch was right about him, my daughter." Tinen said as she picked up the dagger and examined it.
"Mother?" Chelna replied curiously.
"When you mentioned not antagonizing him and to use a different approach." Tinen began to explain. The fact that he stood back and watched as Breral was killed by a Jaguar even though Breral revealed his identity to him shows that he does not fear the retribution of Breral's older brother Duke Dinroc Shag should he ever learn of this."
"Also the fact that he didn't obey the law that any common citizen should assist a noble when they are in need shows he cares little for nobility, this was proven again when he didn't hesitate to kill that spendthrift Elurel. Now there's the fact that he plans to use hydra blood on little Ista who is also a noble. It's almost as if he views the common citizens and nobles as equals."
"I truly can not wait to meet such an interesting man." Tinen finished with a giggle while her eyes sparkled with interest.
***
Tommy easily managed to find a part of the external city wall that was in disrepair and had handholds he could use to climb up and over before successfully sneaking back into the city, after which he headed back to the Forest Inn.
Once he returned to the Forest Inn he noticed that Merno, Jue and Tue were giving him strange looks while Kele and Rizi appeared to have left.
Tommy ignored their strange looks since he had a feeling he knew what it was about before asking Merno, "Merno is it possible to borrow a few things from the kitchen?"
Merino looked surprised before asking, "That should be possible, what do you need?"
"A bowl of some kind to hold clean warm water, vinegar, some kind of sieve you don't use anymore and some old paper." Tommy replied.
Merino tilted her head in confusion before nodding and heading for the kitchen followed by Tommy, Jue and Tue.
"I plan to take them out back so you can just point them out and I will grab them." Tommy said.
Merino nodded before she started to point out the location of the different items which were collected by Tommy and the twins since they insisted on helping and brought outside while Merno herself collected some warm water into a small bowl from the big trough that had a fire element crystal to keep the water hot like in the bath.
Once everything was outside Tommy poured some of the vinegar into the warm water and mixed it before he retrieved the empty shell cartridges before throwing them into the water/vinegar mixture and giving them a good stir for a few minutes.
After that he left them in the mixture to soak before he dried his hands while moving away to a different area where he pulled from his item box wood, nails and a hammer.
As the three women saw the items appear out of nowhere Merno asked.
"Tommy, do you have a magic bag?"
(Let's hope the magic bag she's talking about is like in those Isekai anime.)
"Yeah it definitely comes in handy." Tommy replied with a slight chuckle.
"Wow, those are expensive and very hard to come by, normally only nobles, royalty or the very wealthy can have them." Merino replied.
"Is that right?" Tommy replied offhandedly before adding. "I was lucky to get mine as a gift."
(Well it's technically true.)
Tommy took the largest piece of wood and set it flat on the ground before grabbing a second piece which he placed on top of the first so that one of the longer sides was flat against the first piece and was standing up.
After that he grabbed a nail and hammer before securing the two pieces of wood together.
"What are you making Tommy?" Tue asked with interest.
"A mold" Tommy replied as he continued to secure another three pieces of wood to the first piece forming a square box.
The women looked on with interest as Tommy started to withdraw what appeared to be sane from his magic back before putting it into the square box he had made.
He continued doing this until the mold was full after which he took the hammer and used it to press the sand further into the mold until it was wedged in. Once it was wedged in Tommy took out more sand and continued the process until he could wedge no more sand into the mold after which he ran another piece of wood over the top off the mold and the sand to make sure it was level.
After inspecting the mold and being satisfied with the results Tommy put it away along with his hammer and the nails he didn't use into the magic bag (item box) before returning to the water/vinegar mixture.
Tommy grabbed the bowl with mixture in with one hand and the sieve with the other before he poured the mixture containing his shell casings into the sieve.
The sieve caught the shell casings while allowing the water/vinegar mixture to pass through.
Tommy rattled the sieve slightly to get rid of any water that might still be stored in the casings before he tipped them out onto the paper.
He gave them a quick dry with the piece of paper while inspecting each of them to make sure that they where not deformed or damaged in anyway before he lined them up neatly on another piece which he left out in the sun to dry further.
"Now what?" Jue asked curiously.
"For now these just have to be left to dry before I can begin the next stage." Tommy replied with a grin.
