Chapter 128 — The Shady Shop
Silas wandered through the shop by himself.
"The owner doesn't seem to be around…" he thought.
No one had attended to them since they entered, so he guessed that the proprietor was elsewhere. After fleeing in haste the last time, Silas had lost sleep for days. Besides worrying that his exposure might get out, he was intensely curious about the strange phenomenon he'd seen. He came up with a plan: use the pretense of cooperating on an exorcism to get close to Bente.
For days Silas had been tailing Bente, and today he finally intercepted him heading back into the shop. He immediately recruited Zal. At first Zal wanted to refuse—he didn't like getting too close to Silas's showy personality—but demonic contracts issued by the Church had become harder and more dangerous. Silas was one of the stronger students in their year, so after thinking it over, Zal agreed. That's how the scene that surprised Bente came about.
Back to the present. Silas's eye caught on the row of curtained cubicles. Curious, he threw back the white curtain hanging over one door. Inside the space was tiny—room only for two standing people—and facing the entrance hung a full-length mirror.
"What's this for?" he asked, looking toward Bente. Bente didn't know either, so both turned to the shopkeeper and the little girl.
Judy noticed Father Gideon watching Silas intently but saying nothing. She stepped in as a makeshift sales assistant—after all, this was "part of the master's training."
"That's the oil testing room," she explained. "If you're unsure about an oil, you can try it here before you decide."
All three academy students froze. What was this? No other relic shop had anything like it. Holy oil was expensive because demand outstripped supply—who would operate a loss-leading testing room?
Silas strode to a wooden cabinet. The shop was tiny, the goods few. Then he saw the price tag and his eyes widened.
"Th… three-year grade?" he read, incredulous.
From a top student's perspective, the bottles looked plain and unremarkable. High-grade holy oils were usually displayed as a few precious drops in the most visible spot of a boutique. Here, they sat unassuming and uncelebrated.
Silas recalled Judy's earlier words and went into the tasting cubicle. When the pure sanctified power of the oil entered him, his face relaxed into an expression of deep satisfaction.
"It's real!" he breathed. "And incredibly efficient!"
Now he finally understood how Bente had stolen the spotlight in class—the kid must have used oil from this shop. At the same time, Silas realized this place wasn't ordinary. Producing such high-quality oil and laying protective exorcism arrays outside the shop… whoever ran this place had to be important. Almost certainly someone from a venerable ecclesiastical clan.
"Bente and the shopkeeper are probably just doing ordinary business," he rationalized. But why would someone with such standing hang out on Dey Street? An illicit romance? A noble's bastard hiding from family scandal? Silas let his imagination run: perhaps some highborn had a secret lover among commoners and brought the child here to hide.
His eyes glittered. This could be a major opportunity.
As long as he could get on good terms with the shopkeeper, Silas thought, maybe this could open further opportunities in the future. The Dey Exorcism Academy was still too small for someone like him. With that in mind, he decided to buy the bottle of holy oil.
He had completed a fair number of contracts recently, and combined with the rewards from the academy, he had saved up enough.
Exiting the testing room, Silas approached Judy with a bright smile.
"May the Lord bless you. The holy oil in your shop is excellent—I want to buy it."
Judy pointed to the cabinet, where the price was clearly marked. Silas glanced over—and his smile froze.
"Three… three hundred and fifty thousand dollars?"
"Highway robbery!" he muttered under his breath.
Even with his entire savings, he might still come up short. This was twice as expensive as other relic shops. Shameless!
"This is the price for the full bottle," said Father Gideon suddenly. "If you don't need that much, we can negotiate."
Silas raised an eyebrow.
"You are…?"
"The shopkeeper," Gideon replied calmly.
Surprise flashed across Silas's eyes. He had assumed Gideon was just another customer—the robes were so dirty and unkempt, he looked nothing like someone who could run a shop… Wait! Dirty! Realization hit him. The shop's "down-to-earth" style made perfect sense now.
"That's great," Silas said with a smile, stepping forward eagerly.
"The quality of this holy oil is excellent, so using too much at once would be wasteful anyway."
Bente and Zal exchanged bewildered glances. When had Silas ever been this humble?
Gideon squinted slightly, observing him carefully. After a moment, he handed Silas a small glass bottle containing three drops of the oil. After a brief test, he had dismissed any suspicion—this guy was just tailing Bente out of envy, nothing more. Gideon let go of the protective talisman in his robes.
As Silas prepared to leave, his eyes caught a sign about "commissioned exorcisms" inside the shop.
"You also accept exorcism commissions?" he asked, genuinely surprised.
"Yes… that's right."
"Perfect! The Church just issued a tricky assignment, and the three of us were having some trouble figuring it out!" Silas said enthusiastically.
Bente raised a brow in confusion. "Three of us? When did it become 'three of us'? And what's with the humble act? Where's your usual show-off attitude?" he thought, exasperated.
Gideon nodded at Silas.
"One exorcism commission is $2,000. I'll need to review the details first to determine the final price and whether I can accept it."
"No problem!" Silas breathed a sigh of relief—this price matched other relic shops perfectly. He then pulled out a folder stamped with the Church's seal.
"This contains information about the exorcism. Please take a look."
Gideon accepted the folder and opened it at the counter. Judy leaned in eagerly, her eyes shining with anticipation.
The file detailed: Commission Location—North Dakota; Client—Jess Solomon.
"According to the client, the incident occurred in a remote village. A few months ago, the Solomon family purchased an abandoned house at a very low price, along with an extensive plot of farmland. Shortly after moving in, the family began noticing strange phenomena: eerie shadows in the corners at midnight, stubborn stains on the walls that couldn't be cleaned, and the client's younger brother often reaching toward empty air. The client pleaded with their father to move, but he immediately refused and showed distrust toward the client's reports of the anomalies."
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