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The boy felt guided by Frank and his words, and smiled a bit.
"You're right… Thanks… Blackie, I will show you I am pretty strong too!" said Arthurious, the boy that seemed to be on his early teens seemed to be filled with conviction.
"Meeee~"
Blackie somehow understood what Arthurious said, and licked his face while rubbing his face over Arthurious face.
"Hehe… You make sure to rest and recover!" said Arthurious, petting his goat one last time.
"I-I will go now, I will come early tomorrow!" said Arthurious.
"Okay then, take care." Said Frank.
The boy quickly moved away and ran back home.
Frank squinted his eyes, worried that a young boy might get attacked in the night, even more as he was wearing quite the expensive clothes.
"Onyx, can you go protect him until he gets back home? Go into his shadow." Said Frank.
"Groar! (Okay!)"
The Dragon of Darkness quickly grew smaller in size, and suddenly jumped over the shadows of the night, swimming through them and following the boy from behind without the boy realizing.
Frank sighed in relief as he looked at them go.
He moved back to his shop as he decided that he should close now that it got pretty late, however, another person entered the shop, a brow-haired girl with braids, and emerald eyes.
"Hello…" she said. The girl began to inspect the entire place nervously…
A girl had suddenly arrived at the shop this late at night, Frank seemed willing to attend her if it was something quick.
"Oh, we are about to close… is there something you need?" asked Frank.
"I-I want a monster pet! D-Do you sell any cheap…? I-I only got… a hundred coins…" she said.
"O-Only a hundred?" sighed Frank.
That wouldn't even be worth half the price of any of the eggs!
Frank sighed internally.
"There isn't any egg that cheap…" said Frank.
Frank inspected his Monster Pet Market Shop, finding out that the cheapest egg was worth at least 300 coins.
Even if he could get 12% of the money back, it wouldn't be near as enough.
He sighed internally once more, he really didn't wanted to disappoint the young girl that seemed to be near the age of Arthurious, but really, she couldn't afford it, and this was a business, not a place where she could adopt monster pets for free because they needed shelter…
"B-But… I really need one… there is a Tournament coming up soon and I really need the money…" she sighed.
Frank sighed, as he looked at the girl shiny eyes.
"For what do you need the money?" wondered Frank.
"T-This…"
The girl began to look rather sorrowful; she began to tightly grab her long village-girl-dress, and seemed rather frustrated.
"Hm?" Frank was expecting an answer, but the girl was not giving any…
"I-It's complicated…" she said.
"Sorry… I cannot really do much, you have to make the money and then come buy the egg." Said Frank.
"But I need it!" cried the girl, suddenly she kneeled before Frank and asked for it.
"Girl… don't low yourself like this…" he sighed.
"Please, sell me an egg! Sniff…" she cried.
"I could sell you a way to catch a wild monster pet… I think that should be affordable, but you would be risking your life doing so if you don't already have a starter…" sighed Frank.
"I need the tournament prize… A-Any prize actually… M-My mother is sick… She caught the Yellow Pest and she's growing sicker every day… the medicine is very expensive, it costs four thousand coins… The prize money for the tournament is thirty thousand!" said the girl.
"T-Thirty thousand coins?!" sked Frank.
One coin was 100 App Points… 30000 Coins were… 3 million App Points!
That was certainly a lot!
"And that's only the bronze prize… the most realistic I could get…" she said.
"T-There are higher prizes?!" asked Frank.
"Yeah! There are the silver prize which is sixty thousand, and then the gold prize, a hundred thousand!" said the girl.
"…"
Frank was left speechless, that was a lot of money! These tournaments seemed to make a lot of money if they were so costly!
"And that's not all, they're offering other prizes too accompanied by it, the first gold prize even includes the egg of a Pseudo-Legendary Monster Pet! If they grow big and with care, they have the potential to become Legendary…" said the girl.
"Huh…"
Frank rubbed his chin as he realized this tournament looked pretty good, couldn't he participate with his powerful monster pets and totally wreck everyone? And then get all the prizes for himself!
He was barely containing a malicious smirk…
However, there was the current problem with the girl in front of him… Could he give her the coins so she can buy the medicine herself? But what if she was just lying and this wasn't actually the truth, but just a fabrication? What if she was just lying?
"Is your mother really that sick? Can she survive until you manage to hatch an egg, raise the pet, and all that process?" asked Frank.
"Eeeehhh… W-Well…" she muttered.
Frank squinted his eyes, he knew something was up with this girl.
"You're lying…" said Frank.
"Geh…!"
The girl quickly realized she couldn't fool Frank so easily.
"So you were trying to make me pity you so I could sell you off an egg for cheap?" asked Frank.
"N-No! I swear, my mother is very sick! And my grandmother too! My father died half a year ago and we don't got money… we are starving to death!" she said.
Frank used his abilities, detecting lies wasn't hard to do when he had so many magical elements to play around with, lies were easy to detect using the power of his eyes, that could discern the emotions of people.
When someone lied, the purity of their emotions around them blackened, and this was exactly happening with the girl.
"Why were you trying to lie to me so desperately? What's your true goal? Just buying medicine to your mother was a lie, you just want the money?" asked Frank.
"I-I just want to make money for my future…" sighed the girl.
Frank noticed she wasn't lying anymore.
"That simple?" I asked.
"Without a monster pet you're less than a serf, you know? They're all in the world! Since the government changed that they had stopped giving starter monster pets for free to young and promising trainers…" she sighed.
"What's your name?" asked Frank.
"Miriam…" she said.
"Hm, come tomorrow morning, I think I could hire you." Said Frank.
"H-Hire me?! Eeeeh?! Really?" asked the girl.
Frank looked at the girl, he pitied her.
"Yeah, if you work hard and show me you're good enough for the job, I will give you a contract, if not… well, that's it and we'll cut ties." Said Frank.
"I-I will work my hardest to show you!" said the girl, she seemed very motivated to work hard to show Frank she was deserving of the job.
"Do you live alone?" wondered Frank.
"I live in an orphanage…" said Miriam.
"Orphanage?" asked Frank.
"Yeah… People is awful there, but I am the eldest of my little siblings…" said Miriam.
She wasn't lying either.
"You're dumb? Why didn't you said the truth? It would had also made me pity you." Sighed Frank.
"Eh? But isn't it more dramatic if my mother is dying? That's what my siblings always do when they beg for money in the streets!" said Miriam.
Miriam told Frank the truth, which ended being just as pitiable as the sick mother story.
"But isn't it more dramatic if my mother is dying? That's what my siblings always do when they beg for money in the streets!" said Miriam.
"They beg for money…?! What kind of poverty is in here…?" wondered Frank.
"Well, you might had never experienced poverty because you're clearly rich, sir… but that's how it is for most of the population…" said Miriam.
"I see… (I'm not actually rich!)" sighed Frank.
"Anyways! I'll take you for your word and come tomorrow morning!" said the girl, rushing outside and waving her hand.
"See ya!" she said, running away.
Frank never expected he would have a third encounter with a girl so mischievous… he ended offering her a job at such a young age. He hoped there weren't any laws against child labor.
…
After a few minutes, Onyx had come back safely, although what happened was indeed what Frank thought it would happen, Arthurious was almost attacked by a group of thugs with monster pets, but Onyx knocked them out before they could even reach the boy, and he made it successfully back home.
With Onyx back, Frank closed the shop and moved back to Earth, barely a few minutes passed there, and everything seemed to be mostly fine, he quickly resumed his daily life there for the moment, his family was still trying to decide which monster pet egg they wanted though…
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