Arthur watched the little performance Mishka put on. The best word for it was performance, as like the bluster of the actors playing Emperor Louis XI playing general against the Ayyubids, a lot of it washed over her with no change in Arthur's expression.

Arthur turned to face the clerk, who whimpered as her gaze fell upon his helpless self.

"Cut the price down to 8500 gold dragons."

The clerk froze. The look upon his face said it all. He wasn't going to just let the mercenary in front of him walk off with a sorceress at that price, but the words to protest that was not backed up by any resolve he could muster.

It took him about 15 seconds to say something. "Her listing price is 12000 gold and 52 silver dragons..." he murmured, twiddling his fingers as he leaned back further on his chair.

Arthur slapped down her metal gauntlet gently on the ledgers that piled up on the clerk's table, leaning forward to stare down the clerk. The shadows that formed over her eyes from the short brown bangs in front of her eyes formed an unmentionable darkness across the entirety of her eyes and forehead.

"I have fought along the sides of mages worth 5 times more than the price they were claimed to be worth. And you try to sell me this neophyte who barely fits into her adult smallclothes for the price I would pay just to have her [i]out[/i] of my face?"

The darkness that shadowed her face lit up with a glint of light from her white teeth. She smiled at the clerk, but the smile felt like an army of ogres standing in front of Helix Arcaneus's gates. Her eyebrows furrowed. Arthur was bad at smiling, and she knew it.

"By my simple honesty as a mercenary and a male of the blade, I would not—"

The clerk clenched his eyes shut and turned aside, sobbing. "10%! 10% discount! That's all I can offer!" he screamed and begged.

Arthur blinked. That was fast, she thought. She smiled again, but this smile looked like a normal human being's smile. She was bad at smiling on purpose.

Pushing herself off the table, Arthur looked at Mishka. "10800 gold dragons. And 46 silver dragons. And 800 bronze dragons. I can accept that."

In all honesty, she had intended to pay for Mishka at the start, discount or no discount.