"Oh! I didn't mean to hide it from you. My lady." He paused for a moment as he gave her a polite bow and then turned his face solemn.
"How many materials do you want?" He asked.
As if Tabitha had already expected such a question, she grinned broadly and responded with another question.
"How many materials did she steal from that demon?"
Asking this, she slowly moved her gaze towards Lily.
In truth, Tabitha was beyond shocked by Lily's unique spatial ability and felt more curious about it.
Meanwhile, Lily showed a tensed face and responded with a stiff tone.
"8 materials, My Lady."
Simultaneously, she moved her fingers towards her space ring and tried to take out those materials.
"You even own a space ring?" Tabitha asked in surprise. After all, space rings were even rare magical items for Apprentice Mages and were costly items.
"My dad gave it to me, My Lady." As Lily spoke stiffly, she injected a bit of mana into the space ring and tried to take one of those materials from inside.
But before she could take it out, Tabitha raised her hand and stopped her.
"It's not the right place for negotiation. Let's move to a safe place and continue our discussion," Tabitha said and walked towards the palace building. Following that, the group walked on the long corridor while walking past many halls and exited the Palace through the entrance gate.
Just as Abium and others stepped out of the Palace Building and entered the courtyard, a cheerful shout came from the front.
"Helena, I'm here."
Quickly, a forest green-haired girl who appeared to be around 12 to 14 years old dashed towards their direction from the right side and hugged Helena.
"Camilla!" Helena also brightened up upon seeing her sister and gave a light pat on her head.
Nodding her head, Camilla slowly shrank into her fairy form and started flying above her head.
At that moment, Abium and Tabitha glanced around and soon noticed that many nobles had long left the Palace. Only a few nobles like Baron Welo stayed in the courtyard and seemed to be waiting for the Mages' arrival.
At that moment, the Royal Knight Captian Roysia also walked towards them from the right and bowed her head at Tabitha.
"Greetings, My Lady." Roysia greeted her in a polite tone.
"I'm disappointed, Roysia. We could've prevented the assassination plot if you had been more cautious." Tabitha said in a deep tone.
Meanwhile, Roysia suddenly unsheathed her sword, stabbed it on the ground, and knelt before bowing her head!
"It's due to my incompetence, My Lady. I failed to train the young Royal Knights properly. I'm willing to take all the blame."
"I'm also well are of those nobles' scheme, lass. Although retaining your current position is difficult, I'll try my best to help you evade the execution." Tabitha said as she let out a disappointed sigh and added.
"Stand up. Go back to the Royal Garden and help Lucius and Margery." Saying so, she took a step forward and started walking.
At that moment, Baron Auguinare turned his attention towards Baron Welo, then looked at Abium, and spoke.
"You guys go ahead and wait for me at the mansion. I've some important business to attend."
"Okay, Lord Baron." Abium nodded his head in understanding.
After that, Baron Auguinare hurriedly moved away from the group and started walking toward Baron Welo.
Meanwhile, Abium, Helena, and Lily followed after Tabitha closely and moved towards the direction where the carriages were parked.
"Which carriage is yours, Mage Abium?" Tabitha asked while walking in the grassy yard.
"The black one standing right next to the compound wall, My Lady," Abium responded and soon noticed Richard was already untieing the horses' reins from the nearby poles.
At that moment, Richard also noticed their arrival and spoke while tying the horses to the carriage poles using pole straps.
"The carriage is ready to go, My Lord."
"Good. Go to the Merchants' Borough first, Richard." Abium said as he opened the carriage door and stepped inside. After that, he sat on the front seat, took out the magic lamp from his space ring before lighting it, and placed it on the side.
In the meantime, Tabitha, Helena, and Lily also stepped inside one by one and sat on the seats comfortably. Helena sat right next to Abium, while Tabitha and Lily sat on the opposite seat.
At that moment, Richard finished his work, climbed up to the driver's seat, and sat down.
After that, he whipped the horses and started driving the carriage.
Before long, the carriage moved out of the Palace's main gate, entered Royal Street, and drove through the Noble Borough's main road.
As the carriage moved while making creaking noise in the night, Abium slightly removed the curtain towards the side, looked outside, and then turned his gaze towards Tabitha.
"You can take two materials from our loots, My Lady. After all, you already got the demon's full hand and all other materials." He said in a calm tone.
At that moment, Tabitha groaned and asked in a sulking tone.
"Aren't you a little too greedy, Mage Abium? I did most of the work and wasted four precious first-tier spell scrolls during the battle. Moreover, you and Lucius failed to kill the demon."
'She didn't even use 50% of her strength, but now she is talking like she went on a life and death battle.' Abium snorted inside.
He quietly raised his hand instead of giving any reason and repeated.
"Two materials is the final choice, My Lady." If any first-tier Mages were seated beside Abium, they would've grabbed his neck and choked him for talking equally against a second-tier mage!
In truth, Tabitha was equally surprised by his action and couldn't understand where he got the confidence to negotiate calmly with a second-tier mage.
'Haah, he is very mysterious and hard to even predict.' Still, who was she? A stubborn Mage with a famous merchant's blood ran through her veins.
With a cold smile, she leaned her back on the leather seat, crossed her legs, and spoke.
"No, I want four materials from the loots, Mage Abium."
Meanwhile, Abium pondered for a while and finally added another number.
In truth, he also didn't want to anger a second-tier mage like her and decided to give up.
"Okay, My Lady. I'll give you one more material." He spoke.
But to his shock, Tabitha remained in the same position as a statue and muttered a single word.
"Four."
The corner of Abium's lips twitched as he heard her words.
'Don't add another number. You also act like a stubborn mage.' Azolla's voice echoed in his head.
'Okay.' Abium nodded inwardly and spoke.
"3."
"4."
"3."
"4."
Both stared at each other without even blinking, causing the temperate inside the carriage to drop drastically.
A chilling aura oozed out of Tabitha's body, making Helena and Lily tremble slightly. But what shocked both young girls was the stubbornness of Abium!
Finally, he let out a deep sigh and began to talk.
"If not for my friend's help, you wouldn't even be able to get a single material, My Lady. She even risked her life to get near the demon and get these materials."
An eerie silence appeared inside the carriage as he ended his words.
Soon, a teeth-gritting sound came from Lady Tabitha's mouth.
"Tsk, be it then."
She gave up with a sigh and added.
"But if you plan on selling any of those materials, I want you to sell them in our auction house."
Abium agreed without hesitation.
He knew that giving the materials to the Orchid Auction House would be way better than auctioning at the other auction houses. Although Abium would lose some white gold coins, he didn't care much.
As he was in muse, Tabitha slowly turned her gaze towards Lily and spoke.
"Tell your friend to take out those materials, Mage Abium."
"Lily. take them out one by one." Abium also looked at Lily and ordered.
"Okay." Lily nodded wryly, touched the crimson gem-embedded spatial ring on her right-hand ring finger, and tapped it twice.
A moment later, a brown-colored dagger-like thing appeared in her hand, causing everyone to frown.
"It doesn't look like a weapon, though."
Abium muttered slowly and soon noticed that Tabitha also showed a clueless expression on her face.
At that moment, Azolla spoke in his mind.
'It's a Bronze Dragon's scale!'
'Dragon's Scale?!' Abium's eyes widened for a split second and returned to their usual condition. But Tabitha didn't miss the small facial expression on his face and narrowed her monolid eyes.
Abium thought of asking more about the Bronze Dragon's scale in detail, but Lily had already shifted her gaze towards her spatial ring.
Once again, she touched her spatial ring and took out another material from inside.
The second material was a small bottle filled with white powers.
As Lily took it out, ice elemental energy swept inside the whole carriage and caused everyone to shiver a little.
At that moment, Tabitha showed a tensed look and widened her eyes in shock.
But she didn't explain anything about that powder and gave a wide grin.
[Arctic soil.]
A small blue notification came before his eyes, but he skipped it.
He knew Tabitha had already marked this item and gave up on probing more about it.