“I am a guest, after all, sir. Is it really right to shoo away like this?”
The gas lamps inside the antique shop illuminated three non-human figures. The insurance rchant, undeterred by Jenkins's rebuke, wiped his feet on the doormat, turned, and closed the door behind him.
“A guest of the antique shop?”
Jenkins countered.
“Of course. I’m here to sell sothing.”
Compared to their last eting, the insurance rchant’s shabby attire had changed considerably. He now wore a black overcoat, and the boots on his feet were polished to a brilliant shine.
The insurance rchant was glowing with health and good cheer; it seed that since returning from the mirror world to the material one, he had encountered a great deal of good fortune.
“What are you selling?”
“This,” he began. “A stone sculpture carved by an artisan from a small village in the central region of the Western Continent, from the early 13th Epoch. I paid quite a lot for it back then.”
“The Western Continent?”
Jenkins mumbled. He was aware that in the ancient epochs, there had been more than one landmass in the material world large enough to be called a continent.
The statue the insurance rchant placed on the counter was uniquely styled. Although it was in excellent condition, a single glance revealed it wasn't a product of this era. History and ti had imbued it with a distinct aura, sothing Benefactors were particularly sensitive to.
If it hadn't been in the insurer's possession all this ti, but had instead truly survived five epochs to reach the end of the current 18th Epoch intact, the statue would certainly have beco a numbered item.
“You want to sell it? How much?”
Jenkins asked casually.
“One penny.”
The insurance rchant said with a smile.
The statue was just an ordinary antique. Though its history was terrifyingly long, it was indeed a common object. He had produced it rely to find a reasonable excuse to stay and talk with Jenkins.
“One penny.”
Jenkins took a small copper coin from the change jar in the counter's drawer and pushed it toward him. Then he pulled the statue closer, gave it a once-over, and bent down to find a box in the corner to pack it in.
Only after finishing these tasks did he resu the conversation. In truth, Jenkins was also curious why the insurance salesman had sought him out.
“I thought you’d already left Nolan.”
Jenkins's attitude had softened considerably.
“I had intended to, but then I decided this place wasn't so bad. I thought I might stay for a few weeks to observe the human world of this epoch. My luck has been quite good—I've closed three deals in just half a month. This is truly the era where I belong!”
He grew more and more excited as he spoke, and Jenkins could clearly feel his elation.
But he didn't offer his guest any tea. Jenkins still thought it best to get him to leave as soon as possible.
“So you ca here to thank ?”
“That's only part of it. I have sothing more important to discuss.”
“What is it?”
As Jenkins asked, he wondered if this was about the pocket watch insurance from before. He had used that policy to royally screw over the wish-granting spirit, but he wasn't sure if the single Sin Coin he'd paid for the insurance was enough to cover the cost of restoring the pocket watch from its shattered, cursed state.
But he was wrong.
“How about a partnership?”
the insurance salesman proposed, his face full of anticipation.
“A partnership?”
“Yes. I've heard you're planning a church bank, and that even the official banks of the secular human governnts want to hear your advice.”
“That's right.”
Jenkins said hesitantly, then paused to think. “You want to...”
“Precisely. We can work together. If you could raise matters concerning the insurance industry as much as possible when advising those banks, then I will give you ten percent of all the profits I make from my insurance contracts until the end of this epoch.”
He held up his fingers to illustrate: a nine-to-one split of the profits.
It was, of course, an exceptionally generous deal. Jenkins would have to do practically nothing—just a bit of deliberate steering while writing reports or giving speeches—to earn a share of the insurance rchant's profits.
But Jenkins had no desire for such a partnership. He never trusted these numbered people or things.
“You might want to reconsider. This is a deal with imnse returns for little investnt.”
The insurance salesman read the refusal on Jenkins's face and spoke quickly before he could. But Jenkins still shook his head.
“If I recall correctly, the price for your insurance is lifespan, isn't it? To be honest, I have no need for lifespan. So even if you gave ninety percent, it would be useless to .”
“No, no, you've misunderstood! My profit isn't lifespan! That's just a front! The real profit is this!”
As he spoke, he reached into his pocket. After glancing over his shoulder to ensure no one was outside the shop window, he placed his clenched fist on the counter before Jenkins and opened it.
Lying in the insurance rchant's palm was a round, gray coin. It was unlike any Sin Coin Jenkins had ever seen. Gray, flowing gas seed to be trapped within it, rather than it being a simple, solid object like the Blasphemy Seed or the Ring of Misfortune.
“What is this?”
“A Sin Coin—the Sin of Perpetuity! I can convert lifespan into Sin Coins like this. The conversion efficiency is extrely low and the process is quite complex, I even have to... ahem... In any case, the profit from my business is Sin Coins, not the useless lifespans of mortals. So, what do you say? Will you consider the partnership? It might be a trivial matter for you, but it's a transaction with virtually no cost... Oh, you certainly know how to negotiate. If you agree right now, I can increase your share of the profits to thirteen percent!”
“The Sin of Perpetuity?”
Jenkins narrowed his eyes instinctively. In the numbering of the Sin Coins, the Sin of Perpetuity was ranked second. The second sovereign was the Ancient God of Death—the very sovereign Jenkins was preparing to investigate.
In other words, this was the Sin Coin of the second sovereign.
“The insurance rchant can create Sin Coins... I should have realized. If I could obtain a thod for creating Sin Coins from one of the hosts in a Mysterious Realm, then it stands to reason that these strange creatures who enter the material world from those realms can make them too.”
“You can all create Sin Coins?”
“Of course.”
The insurance rchant admitted readily. “In fact, one of the reasons we co to the material world is to produce Sin Coins. If not for that, did you really think we were here on vacation?”
With that confird, it ant that all the humanoid Cursed Items, including the Young Flower Seller and the coachman, could actually create Sin Coins. The human flesh and souls they collected were rely interdiate products. And compared to manufacturing them, it was obviously far more convenient to simply collect fully ford Sin Coins scattered throughout the material world. That's why the numbered creatures always beca unusually excited whenever Jenkins proposed using Sin Coins as currency for a transaction.
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