The Night Rose

"Deal!" Of course, the stall owner immediately agreed as he was interested in what the confident stranger in front of him could do. It was straightforward to have this person beat up if he was not satisfied.

"Okay. Make sure you find the hidden gold coin or you lose." Arwin said again as she chuckled at the store owner's eager expression. She then started by placing a gold coin on the table in front of the shop owner.

After that, she covered it with a mug, before turning over two more mugs next to it. Arwin then started moving it around the table quickly.

The store owner smirked as he was so used with kind of trick, his eyes quickly followed the mug and smugly able to find where the gold coin was. This was a simple matter for him. After all, he was earning a living in the Blackmarket.

Arwin started to speak with the shop owner casually, and when he was distracted enough, she stopped mixing the mugs asked, "Where is the coin now?"

The store owner immediately pointed at the mug on the far right side of Arwin.

She then asked again, "Are sure that it is in there and not in any of these two here?"

"Yes, I'm sure that it is in this mug." The shop owner said, and when Arwin lifted the cup, there was nothing under it.

With narrowed eyes, the stall owner looked at Arwin unhappily. "Hmph! You demonstrated your swindling skills fine. Set up your table there! Don't bother me!" He said, pointing at a part of the stall where Arwin could use for the day.

"Good! I won't be polite then!" She said happily. The trick was actually very simple, and she was grateful that the shop owner did not demand it. Instead, she was praised for managing to swindle the guy.

'I like this Blackmarket.' Arwin thought to herself as she knows the importance of connection in the place after they managed to steal from the guild.

The trick was actually very simple, if you are lucky to have loose sleeves and quick hands like her.

Earlier, Arwin really did put the gold coin under one of the mugs. However, she was hiding another gold coin in her long sleeve. When she started to mix the cups from earlier, she made sure that one of the cups where the coin would drop down at the edge of the table, directly on the hanging open coin purse that she had placed at a spot on purpose. She then would use the gold coin in her sleeve and hide it on a different mug.

Using this trick, she managed to get a free space in the Blackmarket and started to earn some money.

^At Timothy's house^

"So, I think this is the last day I could give my answer to them. What do you think about their plan as it might be our only hope for now?" Timothy asked Rosa seriously.

"I know that Marie also wants out from here from Silas grip. So I honestly don't know as that plan has its risks, and can we even trust Arwin at all?" Rosa said, while looking at Timothy.

"Arwin at least has the skills of a mechanic, and I don't think I have seen her lie yet. If she has been a pirate, it might honestly be better than my plan of waiting, especially when Silas is still here. I know he wants to touch to even you, and I don't know when he would demand it." He said through gritted teeth.

"I have known Mark and the doctor since we came together to this place, and they have been reliable allies this far. So I think we should honestly go by this plan and test our luck as it couldn't be any worse than Silas and what he would do." Timothy added loudly after thinking about the matter for a moment.

"We should go by this plan then as I do trust you, and I will follow you anywhere. So let me inform Marie about this. You go tell them our decision later, but now you should think about what is necessary and what we can carry with us." Rosa replied as she gets ready to leave the house.

"Yes, but be careful. If Silas is there as you know what he can do," Timothy said before giving a brief hug and kiss to Rosa before she left the house.

After a moment of pondering, Timothy started to strategize what they should take with them.

^Blackmarket^

Arwin had made quite a large commotion at the black market and was already becoming famous there.

People were saying that you could win a gold coin at her gaming stall, and some were showing the gold coins they had won. However, some were jealous of those people as they had lost most of their gold coins as Arwin was letting some people win that it didn't seem like she was cheating at all.