Olsylvia Academy, West Block Euphemia Imperial Academy, Venus Naga Business District. This business district was the only area in the imperial academy that was open to all students. The students from all the four academies, as well as the students staying outside from the two academies next door, could enter this business district without any hassle.
The Venus Naga Business District was mainly focused on girls. They sold items such as clothes, snacks, pet-type magical beings, cosmetics, jewelry, flowers, and even offered fortune-telling services. Ninety percent of the visitors here were girls, and the other 10% were the guys who were accompanying their girlfriends while they shopped.
Whether it was back on Earth or in this alternate universe, shopping seemed to be a common habit for women. When Venus Naga Business District first started, the ratio of male to female visitors was still at around the four to six, but now it was one to nine purely because of a girl’s love for shopping, torturing their boyfriends to death. Many men have wisened up and would just give their magical storage cards to their girlfriends or their wives to go out shopping by themselves.
Even though there was the possibility of their cards being emptied out, it was still, at the very least, better than dying out of exhaustion on the streets. Bella, Princess Ariel, and Puppet Master Elaine came to Venus Naga Business District together. To tell the truth, Bella didn’t believe that with President Isaman’s strict, no-nonsense personality, that she would actually come out to play at the business district.
Puppet Master Elaine only recently learned that her sister, President Isaman, was a frequent visitor to this business district, but she had no idea what she wanted to buy from here. Since Bella came to see President Isaman, she’d take this opportunity to see what she was doing in this “shopping paradise.”
After entering Venus Naga Business District, they could see that the shops on both sides of the street were pretty much packed with a dazzling array of merchandise. The female customers were all huddled together so they could fight over the discounted items. There were also the bitter-faced boyfriends and husbands who were at the side of the street, holding a bunch of bags, as well as all sorts of gift boxes. There were no phones in this other world, so they could only wait patiently like fools at the side of the street.
“The latest summer designs, get the second piece at 20% off, the third piece at half price!”
“Come and see the newly arrived Kara pet dog! Buy one and get a month’s rations free. Buy a pair, get a small pet house for free!”
“Lyon Sapphires, Sirah Emeralds, and North Sea Black Pearls! New customers get 30% off, old customers get 10% off. Buy two, get one free!”
All sorts of bustling could be heard from the shops. Bella was somewhat speechless at the female customers who were buying everything in their sights. The prices of these goods were all calculated in gold coins, with the lowest price being at least a few golds, which was equivalent to tens of thousands of dollars in her previous world. But these ladies were still grabbing them up.
They’re almost acting as if it were free! It wasn’t like it was that cheap, did they really have to go so crazy for this?!
Princess Ariel didn’t like shopping so aggressively. She was more interested in studying the various books they had for magic, but not much of what they sold here suited her tastes. Puppet Master Elaine was the same. This young maiden was more interested in seeking out novelties and was fond of puppets, corpses, and all sorts of sorcery manners, so she also had no interest in these goods.
Fortunately, neither of them liked shopping, so Bella managed to avoid the same bag-holding fate like the rest of the boys. But of course, Bella would still buy them gifts. However, that would have to wait until after they found President Isaman and dealt with business. There were many people here, so it was somewhat difficult to find President Isaman. Neither Bella nor Elaine knew what President Isaman liked, so they weren’t sure which shop to find.
Bella ran into some acquaintances on the streets. They were the casually-dressed Lisha and Princess Kriss, who held hands like a pair of good friends. Lisha was carrying a pure white marshmallow on her left hand while eating it with relish while Kriss, on the other side, was surprisingly holding a lollipop, enjoying its sweetness as well. Bella never thought that Kriss had a gluttonous side of her and almost thought of going over to tease her.
Behind Lisha and Kriss were two swordsmen dressed in black cloaks and black masks, as well as wearing black swords on their backs. Bella could just about guess who they were. Lisha’s good friend and Bella’s part-time Assassin Lola, as well as the Assassin Princess Noreya. The two were deliberately dressed in these “Dark Warrior” costumes to conceal their assassin identities.
The assassins, Lola and Noreya, were now temporarily serving as Lisha and Kriss’ bodyguards. With them around, they could avoid being disturbed by busybodies. There was a mysterious, murderous aura around the assassins, so most people didn’t dare to approach them. Even though the men who came here were basically people with wives or girlfriends. However, the possibility of some people out on the prowl couldn’t be ruled out, or maybe some even interested in finding another partner.
Bella and the two others were rather far away from Kriss and her group, so she gave up on joining them and continued on to the Venus Naga Block to find President Isaman. Since there were too many people here, finding Isaman was difficult. Isaman hadn’t joined Bella’s harem yet, and even though she had already accepted Bella’s locating necklace, “Demon’s Heartbeat,” she didn’t wear it out today. Elaine was in her big sister’s Student Union President office and noticed the well-maintained “Demon’s Heartbeat” necklace. Without a pinpointer, Bella would have to look for her slowly.
As she walked, Bella was attracted by the strange scent of a flower, but she couldn’t tell what kind of flower it was, nor could she describe it. It just smelled really good, and she felt a strange sense of attraction to it. Princess Ariel and Puppet Master Elaine smelled it too, and it was already exposed in their eyes, but they did not say anything.
Following the scent of flowers, Bella spotted a flower shop in an eye-catching spot not far away. The flower shop was quite devoid of customers, but it carried a wide variety of goods and all sorts of flowers. Judging by the name of the shop, it seemed to be written in some exotic script. It didn’t make sense that nobody was in such a fine shop. With a sense of confusion mixed with curiosity, Bella moved towards the flower shop.
Bella pushed open the door and walked into the chicly decorated flower shop. There wasn’t a single customer inside and there were no price tags on the flowers displayed inside either. It looked more like a showroom than an actual shop.
“Huh? You… How did you get in? Could it be…”
A female voice sounded in a clear and puzzled tone. The flower shop owner showed herself and turned out to be a beautiful maiden with long waist-length silver hair similar to Princess Kriss. She looked inquisitively at Bella and the others with her pair of deep blue eyes.
She was dressed in a white evening gown and her skin was incredibly pale, almost without a single tint of blush. In the few seconds that it took for her to stand up, Bella could faintly see some transparent shadows shifting around her. Her looks were up to par with Bella’s two roommates who were with her today, Princess Ariel and Puppet Master Elaine, but her body was a little surreal like a transparent shadow. The light could penetrate her body, giving her an ethereal feeling.
“Hello, fellow students from the academy next door. We are students from Olsylvia Academy and have come to buy some things. May I ask for your name?”
Bella quickly spotted the school badge the other party had left on the nearby flower stands with her keen eyes. That badge belonged to Alessandra Academy next door. No matter how mysterious this beautiful maiden was, at least one of her identities was related to Alessandra Academy next door. If she could get acquainted with her, then Bella would be able to find a way to get closer to her.
“I’m Malvina. Are you here to purchase flowers? But it’s a shame that these flowers are not for sale! We do not sell to… Anyway, please check the next block!”
While speaking, Malvina moved to the back of the flower shop’s counter, and it almost seemed like she was floating over there. In that instant, Bella was beginning to wonder if Malvina were a phantom. But when she went a little closer earlier, Bella could clearly feel Malvina’s breaths. It was impossible for phantoms to have breaths.
Bella wondered why these flowers had no price tags on them, but after taking a closer look, she realized that none of these were appropriate for living beings anyway. Just like those red spider lilies, also known as the hell flower. There were various types of flowers in this shop, as well as a large number of white lycoris flowers.
Though the hell flower was beautiful, they weren’t something that living people could just see after all. Bella turned her head to the business district, which had already turned into ruins. This flower shop was most likely open in a parallel world. Bella and the others were able to notice and enter this shop, which may have something to do with special reasons.
“Malvina, these flowers. Are they sold to…”
“Yes, they are sold to the dead. Those who died in accidents come here to buy flowers with the life they have yet to use.”
Bella took a good look at the customers in the shop. They were all transparent phantoms that were invisible to Bella and the others. They were all picking out flowers in the shop before checking out with Malvina. So, it turned out this flower shop trades with lives.
Princess Ariel grabbed Bella’s hand, feeling rather nervous. As for Puppet Master Elaine, she wasn’t that scared. She had already seen many strange occurrences and she didn’t care much about these matters. Even though she wasn’t scared, Elaine still chose to stay closer to Bella, not out of fear, but for the sake of staying closer to her.
“Is that so? Well then, fellow student Malvina, can we make a deal? Name your price! These aren’t the only flowers you have, right?”
“Interesting… So you’re not afraid. It seems like there must be reasons for you to be here after all. How strange… Although you don’t look like someone who would have trading chips, I feel that you actually have countless numbers of them.”
Bella, Ariel, and Elaine were all transmigrators, and the original owners of their bodies were already dead. Naturally, they had no life force in them that they could use to trade, and Malvina wouldn’t be able to tell as well. But her intuition was accurate. Bella and the others had the ginormous life forces of a Demon King or Black Warriors. Naturally, they had the trading chips!
“Alright, let us make a deal. You can pick any flower you like… If you can pay me, then I will accept the cores of Holy Beasts or Holy Cores. I think you must be able to collect such things easily according to your status.”
“A holy beast’s… That is a hard item to find, but I accept the deal. Right, I’d like to hire your service to help me grow some flowers and plants. I’m not very interested in the flowers you currently have for display.”
“Hire me? That is some ambition you have. What about this, then? Let’s say you can bring me the holy core of an ancient Holy Beast or an ancient Holy Titan, I will accept your request. Now then, may I offer you a favor as a token of my good faith?”
“A favor? Great. Do you have any way to find a person? I’m looking for a girl.”
By the time Bella and the others left the flower shop, they had already obtained President Isaman’s location from Phantom Princess Malvina. Who knew why a beautiful flower-tending maiden would have the ability to find a stranger, but the most essential reason why Bella approached her was that she saw a special mark on Malvina’s Alessandra Academy badge, which meant she held the same position and power of “Student Union President” of their academy.
If Bella were going to infiltrate Alessandra Academy, she would need to find a way in. The best way was to find a girl with the right authority, and Malvina was the best choice. Before leaving, Malvina whispered a warning to Bella, “Be careful of the perfume,” but didn’t say anything else. She wasn’t too optimistic about Bella holding up her end of the bargain unless she could travel back in time. How long ago did the ancient holy race even exist? Malvina had no intention of fulfilling that contract from the very beginning.
Bella didn’t have high hopes either. After asking Phantom Princess Malvina to find President Isaman, she just thought of it as a good opportunity. But Bella really did get lucky this time. If Malvina could manipulate phantoms, she could naturally use them to obtain information. Based on the facial features provided by Bella to Malvina about President Isaman’s appearance, Malvina quickly found her approximate location with the help of phantoms.
Bella and the others followed Malvina’s hints and quickly found the location where President Isaman could possibly be. It was a clothing shop in an obscure location. The shop entrance was closed, and it was a stark contrast from the rest of the bustling Venus Naga Business District.
“Is… Is that really a clothing shop?”
“Who knows?! Wait, look! Someone is going over there…”
Bella and the others were hiding across the street from the shop and were watching it secretly. Since no assassins were present, Bella didn’t dare go too close for fear of alerting their target. Fortunately, none of them were nearsighted, so they could clearly see a couple of pretty girls coming to the door of the clothing shop and lightly knocking on it. After about three knocks, they stopped for three beats before continuing again, as if it were a secret code.
After knocking three times in a row, the door finally opened. She couldn’t tell if the one who opened the door was President Isaman. Regardless, the hand of that beautiful maiden who opened the door looked very similar to President Isaman’s in Bella’s opinion. Seriously, she was just opening a clothing shop, why did she have to make it look as mysterious as an underground organization? Could there be something that President Isaman was hiding that needed to be traded under the table?
“I’m going to see what kind of strange things Big Sister Isaman is up to. Bella, you wait here with Ariel…”
“I think I should go, Elaine. You and Ariel stay here and stay on the lookout. You’re all dressed as nuns of the Radiant Church. I don’t know about anyone else, but President Isaman is no fool. She wouldn’t open the door if she really were doing something shady and saw you dressed in that garb.”
“Alright then, we’ll do as you say, Bella.”
“I…Alright. Please help me keep an eye out on Big Sister Isaman.”
Princess Ariel and Puppet Master Elaine, who wanted to lead the scouting effort, were promptly dissuaded by Bella. In terms of acting and infiltration skills, these two magic profession maidens were not as skillful as Assassin Noreya, let alone Bella. Especially not Puppet Master Elaine. She was President Isaman’s sister. She would definitely be seen through by President Isaman if she knocked on the door.
Bella came to the shop door and knocked rhythmically on the door like what she saw the other girls do. Soon after, someone opened the door for her. The person who opened the door was also dressed in black with a mask covering her face, but Bella was sure from the hand she used to open the door that this was President Isaman, without any doubt about it. Sure enough, she really was hiding something from Bella and the others.
“Hm? Are you here to obtain your goods too? But you don’t seem to have an appointment…”
“Yeah, I’m here to pick up the goods. I… A friend introduced me.”
“Is that so? Are you a dark mage? Good, you don’t believe in the Radiant Church, do you?”
“Of course… I don’t really care for the Radiant Church.”
“Then please come in. I’ll be right with you in a moment.”
Bella lowered her voice on purpose, and with the fact that she was currently wearing a real Dark Mage outfit, President Isaman didn’t realize that she was Bella. In President Isaman’s memories, Bella was just a Holy Knight. She couldn’t get the costume of a mage.
Bella walked into President Isaman’s shop without any problem. But that strange conversation they had constantly gave her the urge to laugh. The way they spoke was really… easy to misunderstand. If you had no idea, you’d think they were trying to make some sinister deal!
If Bella remembered correctly, President Isaman was a priestess, she just wasn’t officially registered with the Radiant Church. She shouldn’t have been someone from the Darkness Church here to perform some sort of sinful ritual. The shop wasn’t very well lit, and even though it was a clothing shop, there wasn’t a single piece of clothing to be seen. It was a little hard to understand. There wasn’t even a single piece of clothing to decorate the front of the shop. This couldn’t be some kind of questionable shop, could it?!
“Alright, wait here for a minute. I’ll get to you as soon as I’m done with the customers before you.”
“Alright, got it.”
President Isaman led Bella to the waiting hall where the girls from before were at. There were about five or six of them, and they all looked young. They were all sitting at the front. After President Isaman went behind a curtain, the girls began entering one by one, but Bella couldn’t tell what exactly they were doing back there.
Bella’s hearing was also very sharp. Even though she couldn’t see what was going on, she could hear all the subtle sounds of undressing. Out of curiosity, Bella quietly looked for her invisibility suit from her storage ring while nobody was looking.
