The door opened with a rather loud noise, he supposed that it was an old door. The cling of the bell that was hanged above the door to notify the entrance of someone that followed was much more pleasant however. The wooden floors did not creak beneath his feet despite their old façade. He closed the dark green door windowed door behind him, it made another loud noise.

The shop was delightful to some of the human senses, such as smell, touch and sight. The numerous of magical objects stood orderly on their respective, categorized shelves and cupboards. Despite standing in different angles and all pressed together, even the dust gathering chests and crates looked in a systematic order themselves. There was a slight intent of opening the one that had a luminous blue color, metallic trimming but wooden body. There could be anything inside it, there could be a cat that was both alive and dead even. Different colored herbs with varying shapes were placed on a higher shelf, closer to the ceiling. Either the shopkeeper was a very tall man or he had to use a ladder to reach them.

The herbs were bundled together with small strings, and some of them had were bundles using the same herb as the bundle itself. Some of them were familiar to him, such as the almost useful white caletus, base of many alchemical potions. It had a milky taste when chewed alone, which was fitting to its color, but did not carry a spread fan amount of attributes to be useful by itself. What made it useful was that it brought together many aspects of different herbs it was mixed with together. How water was required to make a soup or a potion; white caletus was just as necessary. It reminded him that he was almost out of it back at his small hostel room outside the town.

A creaking sound echoed inside the shop, from the back where he couldn’t see because of a similar wooden wall behind the counter. It was like the same on back at the bakery place, where he had just came back from. The fresh bag of jewels were still hanging by his belt. An old man entered the scene, he was holding out a tattered handkerchief and was wiping an athame, a ritual knife. He looked at Locust and gave him a smile and a nod before opening a drawer behind the counter and placing the knife there. When he emerged back he did not have his handkerchief any more. Locust assumed he placed that there too.
“Hello, hello,” the old man greeted. Locust returned the gesture not with words but a slight smile of his own, and a nod just like his. The old man’s happy expression did not falter at the reserved act of the mage and he sighed before taking out a bag and putting it on over his shoulder. He was readying to get outside.
“I assume you are here for the job, and the white caletus,” the old man said. “Just finish the job and I will add a bundle as a bonus, I have a new shipment coming on soon, so it is fine,” he said and put a small book in his bag.
“And no entering the back room, correct?” Locust asked. The old man moved his head up and down for a while before inhaling.
“Correct, I don’t want anyone to visit there. You might be thinking why a magical item shop would need such a secret room, but we all have our quirks, you can think that I am killing and skinning people there, or that I am violating the law in the worst degree and I would be fine with such pre assumptions,” the old man said.
“I did not have such assumptions,” Locust answered.
“I didn’t say that you have them, but curiosity laces itself anywhere it can sometimes, so I’d understand if such thoughts emerged within your mind,” the old man spoke.
“I understand,” said Locust.

His job was simple on text; look after the shop and do not enter the back room. After the old man left, Locust was left alone in the shop and took his place behind the counter. There were some magazines around and he flipped through some of them. The one that was describing clothes had men and women that were quite fey posed in lustful stances. He tried to understand why such poses were necessary to sell such goods, but the slight tingle on his bottom regions and split secondly hasted breath told him a few line of exposition. He closed the magazine and rubbed his left arm. He would be here for a while. He wasn’t curious about the back room at all though-- no, he knew humans had their secrets and he didn’t want to botch up this request he had taken. Jewels were required for a comfortable life, and a comfortable life was needed for him to make broad moves in order to collect hearts and make friends.

A few teenagers entered the shop after some time passed and looked around lousily while making inside jokes and dirty jokes. Locust was silent and didn’t particularly mind these kinds of actions. After sometime, one of the girls leaned on the counter and stared into Locust’s eyes. A sense was around, a sense that told Locust that this girl wanted action.
“We want to see the back room,” the girl said and did a cheeky smile as she moved her feet that was standing on its toes left and right. She bit her lip after Locust remained quiet for a few seconds.
“What back room?” he asked. He was feigning ignorance.
“That one,” the girl said, pointing the door the old man came out of and walked behind the counter.
“I am sorry, that can’t happen,” Locust told her and raised his arm to block her way into any further. His friends took small steps towards them and looked angered, or maybe just frustrated.
“Aren’t there more goods in there? Maybe I will buy something you know, you are not being a good merchant,” the girl almost hissed. Locust was neutral as ever and scratched his head. She wasn’t technically wrong, but if the old man was truly skinning people back there then it was best left it closed.
“It’s just a storage room,” Locust made up. “It is quite boring in there and has paper work, entrance is not allowed,” he insisted. He wasn’t getting frustrated but just wanted to understand why they wanted to go in there so bad.

Thankfully, the girl had swallowed the bait and turned on her heels to leave. While she seemed indifferent, she was also kind of turned off by the idea that the room contained nothing but papers and old mops.

After the old man returned, Locust told him what happened and was rewarded. It was quite late now, and no mission would follow for some time.

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