A Fae's Emporium 7

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

A Fae’s Emporium

Chapter 7

-VB-

“What are you willing to offer?” I asked with a coy smile.

I knew I had all of the cards. 

And Headmaster Ozpin knew this as well. 

It didn’t take much for the oldest reincarnate on Remnant to realize that I was not a normal being. No, he realized very quickly that I was magic, more than he was. 

Being a half-fae will do that to someone. 

And so he’d come searching for me. 

Then he found me after months-long search.

Finally, he stepped into my store… and realized I was his only chance of defeating Salem. 

After all, some of the lesser items here were on par with the genie while others like the Artificial Hollow White were strong enough to wipe continents if given enough time. Or regrow one. 

“I do not know what you are willing to take from me,” he replied. “Nor do you know what I desire.”

“Salem,” I replied easily, and that got him jolting in place. “You want her gone. No, you want her to stop the return of the gods, and if giving her the final rest is what will do it, then that’s what it will be.”

“... Yes, that is what I desire.”

I walked around the counter and to one of the shelves near the wall. There, I picked out a small palm-fitting wooden box. I came back and put it on the counter. Once I was back in my seat, I turned the box around so that it was facing him and opened it. 

In it was three bullets. 

“I acquired these a long time ago,” I hummed nostalgically.

Kiritsugu had not been found wanting when he traded with me. In his dying days, he sold me some of his origin bullets in exchange for a few favors. 

It’s why I even bothered to treat with Shirou after taking his Command Seals. 

“And what are they?” Ozpin asked after a long time. 

“Their original owner called them ‘origin bullets,’” I explained. “Origin bullets essentially interact with the magic and soul of any being they penetrate. Its power used to scale in proportion to how much energy is used to defend against it. These are not the original origin bullets, however. They have been blessed and cursed for a single purpose: to kill whatever they strike down to the deepest part of the soul. It would leave behind a blessing which urges the soul to move onto a peaceful next life. It also leaves behind a curse, etching itself into the soul and shattering it from within. The closest these things can be described as would be soul killer bullets.” I paused. “Of course, I am offering to trade these to you under the assumption that you never tried to destroy her soul in its entirety.” 

“.... I have not.”

“Nor can I guarantee that it will work. I am, after all, not a god. For all I know, Salem is a written fact of your world’s reality.”

His hands, which were atop the counter and almost reaching for the box of bullets, clenched into fists. 

“That is a possibility,” he whispered quietly. 

“How about this?” I asked with a grin. “I’m someone who very much enjoys trading for things but at the same time, I loathe exchanging goods that will not assist someone in any way. I may cheat someone out of the value of an item, but I would never give them something that won’t work. You can take these bullets and try it on Salem herself. If it doesn’t work, then you don’t have to pay me.”

“And if it works?”

I grinned. “What are you willing to pay?” Before he answered, I raised my hands up. “You must pay me with something of equal or greater value. What do you have that can match the value of three unique bullets that can each only be used once?” 

He stood before me with his eyebrows furrowed. 

“How can I even trust that what you have before me is what you say it is?” he asked after a while. “There are many powerful magical items here that I can feel. I cannot feel anything from these bullets.”

I snorted, picked one up, and pressed it against his stomach.

And immediately, he froze as if an executioner’s axe had been placed against the back of his neck. Or rather, the stomach.

“You feel it, don’t you?” I asked him soothingly with half-lidded eyes and a dark, knowing smile. “The intense need to run from this.”

Ozpin took a step back as cold sweat broke out on his face. 

I pulled back with a warmer smile as if I hadn’t just pressed a soul-killing bullet up against a reincarnating soul and placed the bullet back into the velvet-lined box. 

“I’m not a retailer, headmaster,” I crooned. “I am a magician. A craftsman. A dealer. Unique items like these… they deserve to be something more, don’t you think? More than what they were before. At least, that’s what I believe.”

Ozpin stared at me as he calmed down. 

“What are your demands?”

“Oh, come on, headmaster! You make it sound like I’m a villain here!” 

I noticed Medusa giving me a raised eyebrow from the periphery of my vision. The look she gave me told me what she felt about my statement. 

He continued to stare at me before he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them back up.

And when he did, he looked like a different person altogether! 

Interesting, interesting. Was I talking to Ozpin… or some of his other incarnations? 

“Very well. You have made claims. I have reasons to believe your … product will do as you claim. If not that, then at the very least, I believe you can cripple Salem with your bullets. However, you have not listed any price. For that reason, I will offer you what I believe is an equal price to the bullets. I offer you those bullets’ weight in gold.”

I blinked. “I have no use for gold.”

“But you did not and are not stating that you are against accepting gold. So that is what I will pay with.”

“Now, wait a minute -.”

“On top of this, if a single bullet can end Salem, then I do not need all of them. A single bullet is what I will buy. I will have the gold delivered as soon as tomorrow.”

“... No. I want something unique! Not just gold.”

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. “A bullet is, by its very nature, not unique. Perhaps those ‘blessings’ and ‘curses’ are, but by having applied them, you also state indirectly that they are not unique as they can be made again.”

“That’s a rather recursive thinking but ultimately an incorrect thought process, headmaster,” I snapped back. “A blacksmith can make many swords, but each sword is unique.”

“Not unique enough to matter. Just like these bullets. So I offer you the best value a bullet can possibly have.”

“... No.” I took the box back. “I’ll simply not sell them to you.”

“Then why don’t you state the price?”

I clicked my tongue before looking him over. 

His ability to reincarnate… wasn’t his, so to speak. It was the Brother Gods. I couldn’t take it from no more than I can stop the sun from burning hydrogen and helium. He had magic, but what was the point in taking that when he already gave it all away? He barely had any left in himself. 

“You don’t have anything worth a single altered origin bullet,” I replied. 

“To you, perhaps, but didn’t you say it yourself once again? You are a dealer. You know it doesn’t have to have worth to you for whatever I have to have worth. So I suggest that we leave this to an intermediary to decide.” 

“What-?”

“Miss maid?” 

I blinked.

Wait, this bastard was pulling Medusa into this? 

“Will it be possible, and will you be willing, to act as an intermediary for determining the value of this bullet and see what I might have on my person that might be worth it?”

Medusa blinked before she glanced at me. 

And smiled at my obvious discomfort. 

“I can if my master allows me.”

“She is a maid, not a dealer.”

“But anyone can see value. Unless you want to admit that you were trying to overvalue the bullet’s worth? It would make me question whether what you said about the bullet is even true!” 

“Do not question the value of my wares, headmaster,” I snapped at him. “That is one thing I will not tolerate, not when you can obviously tell their value!” 

“Then allow the maid to determine the value.”

“Fine! Medusa, go for it. Does the headmaster have anything worth the value of this bullet?!” I growled as I half-turned away. 

But I kept my eyes on Medusa as she set her broom down and walked over to Ozpin. She walked around him…

And then -.

“Yes, yes he does.”

I was nearly about to cry bullshit when she did something I didn’t expect. 

She attacked him.

A swift surprise attack from behind. 

My hand punched through his spine and ribs before bursting out from the front of his chest.

Ozpin gasped. 

“His life,” she crooned before pulling her hand out of his chest and letting the blood flicker everywhere. 

Ozpin collapsed to his knees, gasping for air. This was a turn of events I did not expect at all.

But one that I did not dislike. 

“... Well, well, well,” I grinned again, my previous frustration and ire turning into sickly amusement. “It seems we can come to an agreement! I’ll make sure to mail this to … Glynda, yes. I’ll make sure to mail the bullet to Glynda with words on what it is, instructions on how to use it, and who paid the price for it.”

He looked up at me with a surprising amount of anger before his lifeblood started to slow down to a trickle. He let out one last strangled gasp before he keeled over. 

“... I really didn’t expect this to turn out this way,” I huffed. 

“I was only as honest as I could be. After all, his life had more value than the bullet, and it was the only thing he had with him with similar or greater value,” Medusa hummed. 

I sniffed.

“You know you’re going to be cleaning this?”

“Of course.”