Chapter 3: Swag Items

Balan sighed: "Okay, come here." He stretched out his arms and hugged his crybaby little brother in his arms: “Thank you very much, kid. I am so happy about this, and you are my family too.”

Eden hugged his brother tightly. His poor face quickly formed a mischievous smile. He raised his hand in a V with a butterfly fairy circling behind Balan, signaling the storm was over. The black-hair wizard knew that if he acted pitifully, Balan would be emotional!

"I know that you are just pretending to be pitiful, so never do this again." Balan was slightly higher than usual voice rang in his ear and gave Eden goosebumps. Did Balan have eyes in the back of his head?

Balan Svartalf gave his younger brother piercing eyes as if to say I - will - take - care - of - you and then flicked a particularly chubby-looking butterfly fairy dangling from his earring. This fairy rolled a few times in the air and then fell with a thud, huddled in the Fairy Bush grass not far away.

Immediately a series of obscene swear rang out from there! The butterfly fairies fluttered around the two of them that began laughing at the pure high pitch that sounded like singing. Eden rubbed his forehead, reluctantly looking at his brother was happily pacing beside him. This brother did not like butterfly fairies but loved to tease them until they got angry and then cursed wildly with the excuse of upgrading the vocabulary to talk to customers when needed. God knew just one glare of Balan was enough to make others shut up, let alone being quarreled with him.

With a sigh, Eden bent down and rummaged through the grass. This fat butterfly fairy was an employee of the Dragon Blood powder shop to which he planned to go. He did not know if Balan took it out on him, so he deliberately bullied this kid?

The butterfly fairy - Greta - sat on the shoulder of Eden and showed the two of them the way. As soon as he heard that they both wanted to go to the store that Greta worked at, this kid immediately brightened up. Moth fairies could be a bunch of grumpy beasts, but they were extremely diligent in their assigned work. And it was said that there was a time when they were so persistent that it made people angry, so they came to break a shop that hired them (now every time that guy came to Market River, he had to cover his face for fear of being chased and cursed by the butterfly fairies of the whole market). 

After a dizzying turn of left and right - a common feature of magic shops - that was why they needed the butterfly fairy to guide them. Balan was almost to lose his patience before the two reached their destination. A quaint two-story shop with the lower floor looked like a place to sell children's toys and sweets with drawing sunflowers, unicorns, rainbows, blue, red, purple, and yellow lollipops. The upper floor reeked of Gothic, those black mossy outer walls with a few pinnacles straight up into the sky.

Balan grimaced at the huge Swag Items - No Bargain sign in front of the store: "How the hell can the two of them bear each other?"

Eden hummed before knocking on the door: "Well, true love?" And he ignored pretending to retch of his brother.

He pushed Greta through the thick layer of enchanted protective charms surrounding the shop was like the usual people ringing the bell. Some people could wonder if the store was open to selling, why should they ring the bell? But actually, this was to make sure that the customers were not disturbed, not the owner. Who knew when customers got hit by a spell, magical creature, or some silly experiment by the shop owner?

Or in this case...

"As Lucifer is our witness, dress up these sex freaks!" Balan's hiss proved that the caution of black hair boy was not superfluous. That was more terrible than being hit in the face by the Vomiting Vomiting Charm.

“How dare you? This is a shop, don't you have a bedroom or something? The boy is a minor! Imagine how poisoned his soul would be if he had to see your debauchery? It is not even seven in the evening! You are perverts...”

Eden covered his eyes and stood still, looking like a good child. But he listened with a gaping mouth to hear the nagging of his brother, the rustle of clothes, the flapping of wings - this must be was Greta - and his smug laughter (again, did not be fooled by their cute looks).

It was the main reason why the young wizard never dared to step foot into this magic supplies store without covering his eyes and ears while shouting. Who knew when would he be entertained to some... huh... extremely lust shows, right?

"You are overprotecting him, Balan. This boy is twenty, not two. He knows some basics, right, Eden?" Hisashi Irkalla winked at the two brothers. This guy always knew how to use the charm appearance and deep voice of his race in life.

Who would have thought that this tall, brown hair with a sunlit cheerful expression - as Balan described it as looking like he swallowed an entire cotton candy store -  would be a notorious shifty incubus in Market Rive? It was a rumor that his ancestors were the first to think about hiring the butterfly fairy as a marketing staff for their store. How do people say that? Genes of tricky came down in a continuous line, did it? The glittering appearance of the butterfly fairies indeed attracted more eyes of customers, but the troubles they brought were not few.

"One more blink, I will smash your scam junk store." Balan replied calmly, having two bloodlines that did not mind anyone in terms of looks - fairies and vampires - so he was completely immune to these tricks.

While they were arguing with each other, Eden had already followed Jin Iblisamal to the second floor to get his things. Swag Items had quality products that were fully worthy of this arrogant name. Although Hisashi repeatedly explained that this name represents only one thing: the truth, and the price of products in their store to be worthy of its quality.

Contrary to the colorful appearance of the first floor, this second floor looks much more like a real magic shop. Huge wooden cabinets contained rows of dried llamas fetuses of reddish-brown color, dolls made from all kinds of materials such as wood, cloth, straw, stone-carved evil spirits, animal fur skins, skulls of all kinds. Eden always felt creepy when he went through that place. He had a feeling that the dark, empty eye sockets of these skulls were staring at him).

Jin Iblisamal's long hair with a combination of purple, turquoise, mint green, and pale skin stood out in the faltering light coming in from the window. Eden followed this self-luminescent brother into a hidden corner where sheltered behind a Kukulkan snakeskin grew with blue feathers.

As soon as that giant snakeskin was closed, this slightly shabby-looking corner immediately turned into a terrifyingly large room. On the rubble walls were carved all kinds of charms, and magic circles were fanciful shimmering rays of light that looked like water stripes. It was rumored that this room contained the most valuable items in Swag Items located at the bottom of the Nanye River, guarded by the fierce White Corpses who were ready to tear anyone who dared to put their toes in the area of them.

While Jin rummaged through the goods, Eden walked back and forth across the room, scouring the room for anything new and glancing at the skin in anticipation of the breathing heaving skin.

"Are you sure it is already dead?" The black hair retreated towards the mint-haired boy.

Jin gave the boy piercing eyes as if to say are-you-crazy: "Had you seen anything that has been removed with only a skin like this alive?"

Eden mumbled under his breath: “Who knows? It is a magical creature!"

The owner of Swag Items didn't reply. He understood this younger brother's fear of the whole world: "Your stuff." And threw on the table a gray box containing (almost) the entire fortune of the apprentice wizard boy.

Dragon Blood!