Olivia Wizard Academy’s Hobbs Business District at the eastern campus of Olsylvia Academy. Bella was walking along the street with her dorm mates, Princess Ariel, a Mage, and Princess Elaine, a Puppet Master. This was her first time visiting the Olivia Wizard Academy, so she was not familiar with the layout of the streets here.
The Assassin Ivy, the academy’s Student Union President, was supposed to lead the way. However, Bella was currently using her identity as the Grand Duchess Baize instead of the usual Grand Duchess Bellina. To prevent anyone else from recognizing her, she naturally did not allow President Ivy to accompany her.
Bella was familiar with various ways to disguise her appearance. She had borrowed a set of Dark Mage’s robes from Princess Effie and altered it to her preference. She also added a black veil that covered her face. Furthermore, Bella decided to carry the Arcane Scepter on her back. It was a token that represented her status as a Duke of the Aldridge Empire. Most people would not be bothered to purposely cause trouble for someone with her title.
Ariel had changed into a black nun’s robes and covered her face with a veil. Since Bella had a good relationship with the Radiant Church’s female higher-ups, it was not difficult for her to procure those robes. The Puppet Master Elaine was wearing nun’s robes as well. However, she had chosen a warrior nun, which looked quite different from the regular nun’s robes that Princess Ariel was wearing.
“Bella, you spent a long time in Older Sister Catalina’s office yesterday afternoon. Did anything strange happen after you locked the door behind you? Her face was so red when she emerged from the room…”
“Ariel, I was just discussing some matters regarding my learning; don’t read too much into it. Older Sister Catalina will be moving into our dorm next week. By then, I will have to meet her often for some extra credit too!”
After the investigation ended the day before, Teacher Catalina would officially be transferred to the Magical faculty’s Class One as their form teacher. Bella had also successfully taken over the position as the class monitor. Although she was only in charge of just over thirty junior level girls from the Magical faculty’s Class One, they were all gorgeous. Thus, there were no losses on her part anyway.
As for Catalina, she had entered her office alone with Bella right after the class meeting and “tutored” Bella for the duration of one class period. Only the two of them knew what went on inside that office. Nevertheless, Catalina was flushed red, while Bella was smirking like that cat who ate the canary.
“Elaine, have you really been to the Hobbs Business District before? It’s so crowded here. It feels almost like…”
“You feel like this place seems like a mercenary market? It’s nothing, Bella. I’ve been here a few times before I met you. Back then, I still had to handle many things personally.”
As they walked along the Hobbs Business District, Elaine continued to introduce Bella to the area. Lolita and Euphenisia returned from settling the incident at Needham Lake. They had brought back a strange case that had been tightly sealed. After the Puppet Master Elaine and Evil God Mia took a look at it, they agreed that it would require an expert to break open the case. If they were to make an attempt, they might end up causing irreversible damage.
Bella had already become a famous figure within three campuses, namely Filomena Nobility Academy, Euphemia Imperial Academy, and St. Louis Church Academy. Since she was too well-known, she would have to take her private matters elsewhere. That case had been fished out of the depths of Needham Lake. In order not to attract any unnecessary attention, Bella had chosen to head to the Olivia Wizard Academy, which was located at the eastern campus.
The Hobbs District was Olivia Wizard Academy’s central business zone. This area was the territory of the Ironblood Cross Society, a powerful force with the strongest combat power within Olsylvia Academy. In terms of security, the Hobbs Business District was definitely much safer and orderly than the region surrounding Frank Civilian Academy. Here, Bella did not have to worry that the Rose Society’s enemies, the Golden Legend Society and the Mask of Darkness Society, would cause them any trouble.
The Hobbs District was more like a large marketplace with all sorts of shops. A mercenary square was in the middle of the district, mostly filled with mercenaries who were students of Olsylvia Academy. According to the regulations set by the Human Imperial Alliance of Mercenaries, if students wished to work part-time as a mercenary, their school would be entitled to a third of their remuneration.
Many of those students were unwilling to pay the required amount. Instead, they chose not to register. These student mercenaries who waited for customers at the square were considered to be “black mercenaries”. Since they were not registered with the Mercenary Union, the Union would not be held responsible if anything happened to them, such as the loss of valuable goods due to unforeseen circumstances during transportation. However, as these “black mercenaries” usually asked for a much lower price than the official ones, a fair amount of people were willing to take the risk of hiring them.
“Collection of the Goblin Chieftain’s flask! Offering ten silver coins per person, get more if you’re more powerful! Also, high rewards for the collection of the Goblin Chieftain’s scepter. Offering onwards of ten gold coins, no upper limit!”
“Sunset Hills, mission to slaughter Tarantulas. Anyone want to form a team? The reward, as well as the value of the various magical cores and materials collected, will be split equally among the members.”
“Demon Imp’s minerals for sale! Black iron ores freshly dug out from Twilight Mountains. Everyone’s welcome to take a look!”
As the trio made their way through the mercenary square, Bella felt she had been transported into a virtual world. However, the backgrounds of many virtual worlds were similar to the Other World, and this particular atmosphere was not an unfamiliar one. Even though a Dark Mage and two nuns of the Radiant Church was a rather strange combination, no one had come up to disturb them due to Bella’s title.
The Mercenary Union had suffered a significant loss in manpower after the recent incident at Angus City. Many famous Mercenary teams had perished then. Furthermore, the female mercenaries who were fortunate enough to survive had been secretly captured by Bella’s Darkness Sacred Region. To make things worse, the “Iron Man” Sam, who was one of the Six Mercenary Kings, had been killed by the Demonic Dragon Emperor Alisha. With such a devastating loss, the Mercenary Union was suddenly short of manpower. The union was now faced with an influx of missions from potential employers. Still, they were unable to provide enough mercenaries to complete them.
Left with no other choice, the Mercenary Union could only acknowledge and accept the mercenary square’s existence within the Hobbs District. Before this, they would periodically send men to chase these “black mercenaries” away. The circumstances were different now, however. As they did not have enough official mercenaries, they could only delegate some of those missions to them for now.
Bella and the company arrived at a shop that authenticated precious items. This was an unofficial shop; they charged much higher rates than the official shops, but everything related to the item and the customer would be kept fully confidential. These shops would not ask for the origin of the precious item or the customer’s identity, a perfect place to authenticate items with unknown or shady origins.
The boss of the authentication shop was nicknamed “One-Eyed Forkes”. He was a well-built, muscled, middle-aged man who had opened a blacksmith shop here. After all, his authentication services were not an officially registered business, and he could not place a signboard in a conspicuous location. The best option was to put up a blacksmith shop sign as it was still his secondary business.
“Mister Forkes, is the batch of weapons I ordered ready? The underworld battles at Martin Town are getting increasingly intense, and I need large amounts of weapons.”
“Chairman Sally Roy, your order is ready. They have all been doused in poison, and I guarantee that every single one of them is highly lethal.”
The moment Bella stepped into the shop, she saw a familiar figure. It was Chairman Sally Roy from the Eye of Darkness, one of the Human Race’s four main underworld organizations. As usual, she was wearing a men’s suit and was surrounded by more than a dozen black-clad bodyguards. The white-haired elder standing closest to Sally Roy seemed to be the attendant in her shop the last time Bella was there. However, he looked more like a housekeeper right now.
After a brief glance at Bella, she lowered her head and continued to converse with Forkes. It was evident that she did not recognize Bella at all. Around five or six huge metal cases lay in front of Sally Roy, filled with identical long swords. By the looks of it, she was buying weapons to stake her claim on her territory.
Bella was not in a rush. She found a seat inside the shop and waited with Ariel and Elaine. As she was not a part of the security regiment, she was more interested in observing the underworld organizations buy weapons for their own battles instead of interfering.
As she browsed through the blacksmith’s displays, Bella made a surprising discovery. There were some black metal collars and various cuffs on the shelves. Aren’t those some commonly used tools in erotic games? The size of those items was unmistakable. Those were definitely made for humans. As an “experienced dirty girl”, it was immediately obvious to Bella that these were human-sized, and were not being used to restrain some demonic beast.
Official Human prisons would never use any tools like this that were made in a private shop to restrain their prisoners as the wardens would never get anything in return. In order for them and the quartermasters to get a cut of the profit, they would have to go to specific blacksmiths. Bella pretended not to see anything and waited for Forkes and Sally Roy to complete their transaction. Since those tools seemed to be reserved, it must be for another gentry!
“Very good, Master Forkes. I’m very pleased with the weapons. I’ll leave the payment here. I look forward to working with you again.”
“Mmm… Thank you for your patronage.”
After making sure that there were no issues with the weapons, Sally Roy kept the cases of weapons inside the storage rings on her finger. Then, she left a block of gold that was the size of her fist and left. Instead of using gold coins or a magical savings card that required customers to provide their names, these underworld merchants would rather accept more convenient forms of payment, such as gold blocks.
When Sally Roy left, she did not even take a second look at Bella. As Princess Ariel and the Puppet Master Elaine wore the Radiant Church’s black colored nun’s habits, Sally Roy had thought that Bella belonged to the church as well. Even though there were no direct conflicts between the underworld organizations and the Radiant Church, both sides had a “no interference” policy and did not engage with each other at all.
“Alright, are you here to customize some weapons or just browsing?”
Uncle Forkes did not wear a shirt, revealing his taut upper body covered in scars. It was clear that he was someone with a backstory. Uncle Forkes wore a single black eye patch and carried a large sledgehammer in his right hand. He looked more like a blacksmith than an authenticator of precious items.
Forkes felt a little suspicious about Bella and the company’s arrival. When he was younger, he used to be a freelance mercenary who roamed the lands. There was nowhere that he had never been to before. Now that he had gotten older, he was not as energetic as he used to. He then opened up his blacksmith business and began to lead a simple, peaceful life.
At his age, Forkes thought he had seen everything. However, this was the first time he saw a trio like this that consisted of a Dark Mage and two Radiant Church’s nuns. Maybe the times had really changed! The Radiant Church and the Darkness Church must have resolved the tensions between them and were more tolerant of Dark Mages now. Regardless, Forkes’ rules for his business were simple: as long as they had money, he would not question his customers’ motives.
“Mister Forkes, we wish to seek your expertise to authenticate something. Also, we would like you to see if you could open it as well. Money is not an issue, as long as you could make it happen.”
“I see, you’re here to authenticate a precious item. Come with me, authentications are done over here.”
Once he knew that Bella and the others were here to authenticate a precious item, Forkes put down the sledgehammer in his hand and was about to escort Bella and the others inside. The main shop front outside was for his blacksmith business. He conducted his authentications inside as some items might have to be seen in secret. It would not be safe for them to be out in the open.
“Boss, are my items ready? I’m here to collect them!”
“Please wait here for a moment. I’ll hand over some goods to that gentleman, and I’ll be right back.”
“These items are quite good… Boss, make another batch of the usual for next time.”
Bella could hear an annoying voice. From her peripheral vision, she saw that it was the psychological type Great Magister Orlando. He was conversing with Forkes with an evil smirk on his face. The batch of black collars and cuffs must have been his order.
Bella silently berated the Holy Gale Magic Mentor Alcott, who was in charge of the magical faculty. That lockup was such a sham. Orlando had only been locked up inside that “little black house” for less than a day before he was released. Since he was buying those items, he must be up to no good again. Seriously, that Alcott was too irresponsible.
Almost as though he had realized that he was being watched, Orlando turned and looked in Bella’s direction. However, when he saw Princess Ariel and Puppet Master Elaine, who were dressed in nun’s robes, he quickly turned away and did not look back again. He lowered his voice further as he continued to speak to Forkes. He had nearly been caught by the Radiant Church and sent to the Heretic Tribunal. Now, he was a little suspicious of all members of the church.
It seemed like Orlando had not given up yet. Bella made a mental note and walked into the authentication center. When Forkes was done with his transaction with Orlando, he also returned inside. He sank deep into thought upon seeing the wooden case that Bella had taken out of her storage ring.
Any remnant of dirt and mud had already been washed off with fresh water, leaving a keyhole and various chains. No one knew what type of wood it was that could withstand being submerged at the bottom of a lake for many years without rotting.
A faint picture was on top of the case. However, even though the wood had not rotted for an unknown number of years, the picture on the case was not as resilient. By now, most of it had been corroded away by the lake’s waters.
“How is it, Master Forkes? Based on your experience, you must know the origins of this case! I heard that these chains were made from extremely precious minerals. There must be some rare treasure inside!”
Bella was cautious with her questions. Forkes was the best authenticator in the Hobbs Business District. If even he was unable to figure out the origins of this case, Bella would not be able to find anyone here who could. After much thought, Forkes made sure that no one could eavesdrop at the windows before finally speaking.
“Madam Dark Mage, I do not know if the contents of this case are treasures or not. But this case… this case belonged to the Manasvir Empire’s royal family. Even though the symbol is unclear, I recognize the pattern. This was the old insignia of the Manasvir Empire, which has not been used in many years.”
“Special restrictive magic has been placed on those locks. To open it, we would need a drop of blood from three direct descendants of the Manasvir Empire’s royal family. Otherwise, the items inside would be permanently damaged. This time, I will not accept any authentication fees. If you do not have any other requests, please leave!”
Bella stared glumly at that case. According to Forkes, this case had belonged to the Manasvir Empire’s royal family. The mystery of how it ended up at the bottom of Needham Lake was probably unsolvable. If Bella wished to open the case, she would require the acknowledgment by blood from three direct descendants of the Manasvir Empire’s royal family.
At the moment, Bella could only think of three direct descendants of the Manasvir Empire’s royal family—Princess Pamela, Princess Elaine, who was by her side, and Princess Isaman, the student union president of Euphemia Imperial Academy who was at constant loggerheads with Bella.
Bella had already “taken” Princess Pamela, and it would not be difficult to find her. Also, the Puppet Master Elaine was just right by her side. The main problem was President Isaman. Until now, she continued to object to everything Bella said. It would be an arduous task to get her to give up a single drop of blood to help her open the case.
Other than using blood, her only other option was to seek out the thieves named “Lock King” in hopes that they could attempt to force it open. Unfortunately, they had all perished in a grave robbing mission a while ago, and a new “Lock King” had not been trained yet. Even though Assassin Noreya was one of Bella’s most powerful friends, she was just a thief on the side, and her lock picking skills were mediocre at best. This meant that Bella could not get her to attempt to open the case either.
Filled with regret, Bella left the shop along with Princess Ariel and Puppet Master Elaine. Since this was an item that was related to royalty, Forkes was unwilling to interfere. It was too much trouble to deal with royal items. If he was not careful, his life would be in grave danger. Thus, it would be much easier to give up at the start.
“Bella, I think… I think you should ask Elaine to bring this back to the Manasvir Empire! Maybe we would be rewarded instead!”
“Ariel, don’t get your hopes up… I will never give this up to the empire! Just five hundred bronze coins to add a red flag, I’m not stupid… Elaine, where is your sister, President Isaman? I want to speak to her. No matter what, we have to try…”
“Bella, you’re just full of surprises. President Isaman is not in class today. I think… I remember it now; she woke up really early today. If I’m not wrong, she should be going to…”
