Chapter 22 - Unexpected

...

As the muscular woman saw Malisa not showing any hint of interest in her proposal, she sighed bit as she separated herself from the half conscious woman underneath her.

Rather than wearing her robe placed on the bed, the muscular woman walked over just like that towards Malisa as she tried to display her own sexy body in front of her. She hoped to somehow ignite a kindle of something in Malisa's heart.

Her actions were in vain though, as Malisa had already prepared herself mentally to block out any such vision, including the promiscuous woman.

After spectacularly failing at her attempts to seduce Malisa, the muscular woman became a little annoyed. Still, she walked over to the Monster Core on the table and picked it up to observe it.

Although she was just casually appraising it and didn't have any high expectations from it, her eyes suddenly turned sharp as the seductive air around her vanished immediately. And what appeared in it's place was the aura of a calculative merchant instead.

"W-Where did you find this thing?! Mali, tell me honestly.. is it a stolen item? You didn't come here tonight just to prank me, right?"

Malisa became surprised at Marbella's sudden change. Although Marbella was a very fickle woman, her acute sense in business gained her a reputation among her peers. It was often said that Marbella had never suffered a loss in any transaction she ever did.

Similarly, her appraisal skills were also very acclaimed as well. Looking at Marbella becoming so excited, Malisa couldn't help but notice that there must be something very different about the Monster Core.

"What do you mean? It's just a normal Monster Core. It's not like you never dealt with one before, right? I would appreciate it if you could pay me the amount already."

Marbella couldn't help but look at Malisa in a new light, as the woman in front of her had just passed off something so valuable as absolutely nothing.

"Sorry Mali. I-I don't have enough money to pay you the full amount right now... R-Right! You could just leave this baby to me for a while. It would become the star attraction of my next auction. After all, it's not everyday that a C-rank Monster Core appears in the market, right?"

Marbella's initial shock turned into happiness instead as she didn't fear anyone in her own turf. Even if the King himself dared to intrude into her territory, he had no chance of getting away safely.

Malisa though, got to know about the Monster Core's true value for the first time and became shocked upon hearing her.

'C-rank? B-But I thought that it was just a D-rank Monster Core instead?! That Leon... where the hell did he pick up something like this?!!' Malisa scolded Leon in her mind multiple times as her eyes turned to stare at the Moser Core in Marbella's hands.

Malisa's shock was obvious though as the highest ranked adventurer in the nation was just a C-rank adventurer.

To successfully kill a C-ranked Monster, a team of at least one B-ranked and six C-ranked adventurers wee needed to have a safe hunt, not to mention that people generally tended to avoid places inhabited by such mighty creatures.

Finding a C-ranked Monster Core in a backwater nation like this was absolutely impossible, that is unless someone smuggled it from outside the nation.

There was a crazy demand for a Monster Core like this, as it was of value to weapon refiners and alchemists alike, both being prosperous professions.

Most people would much rather not use the Monster Core, instead they would designate it as their family heirloom to increase the prestige of their family.

It was an item that money absolutely couldn't buy.

Someone bringing such an item so casually to an underground auction house was absolutely unheard of.

The gaze with which Marbella looked at Malisa turned from one of lust to one of respect instead. She now realized that she had been messing with the wrong kind of person all this while.

'Thank the heavens that Mali is such a forgiving lady. If she could get her hands on something like this, then... Heavens knows what kind of contacts she could possibly have.' Marbella thought to herself as she swiftly ran over to the bed and quickly dressed herself with the robe, making sure to hide the more offensive parts of her body.

She felt that it would be a very cheap thing to stay naked in the presence of such a special person, not to mention a valuable customer.

Marbella also made sure to store the Monster Core in one of her spatial storage ring, after which she turned towards Malisa and bowed deeply to her as she spoke,

"M-Mali... I can only give you around.. t-thirty thousand gold coins right now. I will surely get more soon! As soon as this treasure gets auctioned, I will be sure to give you a much bigger amount. Just give me some time for that. I beg of you."

Malisa was surprised beyond belief on watching the sudden change in behavior displayed by Marbella in front of her. She knew that this woman was infamous about not respecting even the wealthiest of clients. And now, such a woman was actually acting so respectfully in front of her.

Malisa couldn't help but curse her own luck silently. She had actually gone out of her way to fake her status and abilities to avoid being noticed by someone ambitious. She desperately wanted to avoid the attention that came along with such an association. These kind of associations always seemed to cause her lots of trouble. And now, she had caught the eye of exactly such an individual.

Becoming special in other's eyes might be a very desirable thing for others, but for Malisa, the thought of her surviving family members being targeted and pursued all over again frightened her so much that Malisa just nodded silently at Marbella as she stood still and analyzed her next move.

Although the amount offered by Marbella was more than what her family could expend in months, she still felt like it wasn't the right thing to do to say anything right now. The more she would speak, the more mistakes she would make in her current mental state as she might even inadvertently give away some clues about her past.

Marbella took out a spatial bag from her ring and handed it to Malisa very politely and respectfully as she spoke,

"The money is in the spatial bag. You can count it if you want. I will do my best to make the next auction the biggest one yet! Just wait for a while more, Mali. I certainly won't disappoint you."

Marbella was actually trying her best to improve her own impression in front of Malisa, as she was sure that her actions before might cause a strain in their relationship, which in turn might make her lose an important client.

Not only was she feeling very grateful for receiving the opportunity to be able to auction such a valuable item that would definitely increase her fame by another level, but she also hoped to be trusted with such items again in the future.

"I will contact you later then."

Malisa simply stored the bag and started to walk away as she continued to maintain her silence. Behind the silent demeanor though, Malisa's mind was an absolute mess inside.

'You really won't let your Sister-in-law have a chance to be at peace, would you.. Leon?'

...

Back Outside.

Jia Chin was busy pretending to be an inconspicuous as possible as he held his belly and stood in a corner. He also pretended to wobble a bit as he pretended to be very sill to fool any observer.

The guards chasing after the mysterious woman had left some time ago and he was just left there waiting for his sister in law. Unable to avoid the boredom, he started to observe the weird people walking round the big hallway.

In the end though, even that became boring, so he turned to get some idea from the System itself.

'Hey System? Are you sure that there is no way for the pursuers to detect the child? This is a world of magic, you know?'

'I mean, what if those freaks had cast some tracing spell on her? The choker on her neck looks very ominous too. I cannot help but feel that we might get exposed any moment now! Can't we do something about it?'

The System was quick to answer Jia Chin's queries as well.

"It will all be fine. Although the choker on her neck was built with a tracing feature, I noticed a Mana Crystal Circuit powering it inside."

"Defusing the Crystal Circuit wasn't really a big task for me. There is just this one thing though. The choker on her neck cannot be taken off forcibly. Only the owner of the choker can take it off without hurting the child."

"If it is ever taken off forcibly, the mechanism would be triggered which will end in the child's head getting separated from the body. In other words, she would end up decapitated."

"It is not your run-of-the-mill kind of object you know? The buyer must have been filthy rich to be able to afford those. It really isn't easy to deal with it, even for me."

Jia Chin felt very bad for the fate of the child. Her guardian might not be alive anymore. She herself got sold to some wealthy freak. And to top it all, she was left to him to hold on to.

If it was someone else, they would have handed her back to avoid getting involved in the mess themselves. However, Jia Chin couldn't imagine himself doing something to the child at all.

'That's really bad, isn't it? I mean... wouldn't anyone that notices the child's state, especially that ominous choker, won't they think that I bought the child for myself instead? They will make me out to be some sort of child-abusing freak!!'

Jia Chin couldn't help but curse his luck as he couldn't abandon the poor child to her own fate, but he also didn't want the stigma associated with being thought of as a child-abuser.

"Hmm.. well, if you really think about it, then.. wouldn't they be thinking highly of you then?"

Jia Chin was stumped by the System's sudden comment. He couldn't hold himself back as he replied,

'I really wish that I could hit you somehow too. Hah... I really don't know how I would explain this mess to sister-in-law...'

...