Book 3: Chapter 132: Ambush Incident At The Latimore Business District (1)
Book 3: Chapter 132: Ambush Incident At The Latimore Business District (1)
Olsylvia Academy, East Campus, Olivia Wizard Academy’s Society Activity Area, Latimore Business District. In the shop hall of the Henrietta Magical Emporium.
With the guidance of Silver Dragon Princess Isabel, Bella and others were fortunate enough to enter into the Emporium’s inner section. If a shop completely followed the standard rules of business which the various empires of the human race alliance used, many of the magical emporiums would not be earning money.
According to the Kingdom of Arcana, the Aldridge Empire drew up the 《Law of Magic Artifact Transaction》. The selling of magic artifacts in the market was substantially restricted. For example, the sale of the magic scroll that had explosive power, and was easy enough to be used by children, was heavily restricted.
Under the Law of Magic Artifact Transaction, it was prohibited to sell offensive magic scrolls. Only defensive and status buffing magic scrolls could be sold. Even the escape and debuff magic scrolls were forbidden.
The magic scrolls in this Other World belonged to the category of dangerous goods. They were similar to the guns in the previous life. Every town in the Human Race Empire had a great array which prohibited magic use inside the safe region. It was used to guard against those “press” type mages who used magic to create trouble.
However, the Magic Prohibition Array could not restrict attacks that were released from magic scrolls. The array only targeted the mages and not magic artifacts. Therefore, it was also necessary to forbid the magic scrolls.
But, the ban was not strictly implemented. Just like in the previous world, in the Other World, “those above have policies while those below have their own countermeasures.” Each Emporium’s inner section took advantage of loopholes in the Law of Magic Artifact Transaction. The most ironic thing was, regardless of the magic scroll’s attribute, so long it was an auction transaction, it was considered legal. The revenue from auctioning the magic scrolls was the Magic Empire’s major source of revenue. Regarding this Law of Magic Artifact Transaction, those people who knew the inside story also knew that this was a trick to deceive the commoners.
In the inner section of Isabel’s shop, all sorts of magic scrolls were scattered around. The majority of the scrolls were offensive magic scrolls, and the prices were not cheap either. This shop might be setting the prices with gold coins, but a single scroll had a starting sales price of ten gold coins and that was the cheapest.
In the inner section, aside from the magic scrolls that were selling well were some other prohibited magic artifacts. For instance, books with some group attack magic techniques that most people weren’t allowed to easily learn. The books which recorded large-scale group attack magics were also classified as dangerous magic artifacts and had restrictions as far as a transaction went.
“Bella, this is a Hellfire Sea Scroll of the advanced magic fire attribute technique. Do you want to buy it? The original price is one hundred gold coins and I shall give you a friendly discount of 1%. What do you think?”
With friends like you, who needs enemies? Bella pinched the magic scroll in her hands and, with difficulty, resisted the urge to ridicule Isabel. In the folk legends, most of the Dragon Race had the trait of being greedy for money. It seemed like the legend was not fake.
There was no difference between a 1% discount and no discount since it would only be cheaper by one gold coin. How could it be any different from having no discount? Bella looked at the other people that had followed along. With regards to the price of merchandise over here, they had no objection at all. It was so difficult to comprehend the world of the mages, her line of thought simply was not able to keep up with them.
“I do not need scrolls, Isabel. Do you not have the book of Departed Spirits’ Overture over here?”
“The book Departed Spirits’ Overture is a prohibited item. That magic book is used to summon various kinds of departed spirits. I will not have it over here. The three goods that you are looking for basically are all contraband goods that are hard to get hold of.”
It was true that Isabel did not have the three magic artifacts that Bella wanted. From the start, it was likely that the person who had issued the mission was brainless. It was not easy to find artifacts that were not sold at all.
“Isabel, since you do not have the items that I want, I shall leave first”.
“Bella, do not hurry to leave. Stay for a while longer. I have a lot of fun things over here that you might be interested in.”
Seeing that Bella wanted to leave, Isabel felt anxious. She was afraid that Prince Lewis would come back halfway through storming off. If Bella left, Ariel would also leave. Without Ariel, if Lewis was to come back to harass her, then that would be troublesome.
Bella did not manage to leave as Isabel pulled her hand once again and refused to let her leave. The Dragon Race’s strength was much stronger than the normal human race. Unless Bella risked exposing her identity and used her strength as a Demon King, she would not be able to struggle free of Isabel’s hand.
“Lady boss, this is very incorrect. If I do not want to buy, you can’t sell with force, right!?”
“This… the price can still be negotiated! Bella, how about 2%. This is already a friendship price.”
“Isabel, the value of friendship in your heart is too low! I am leaving. I will come to your shop again if fate allows it.”
Seeing Bella being held firmly by Isabel and in the awkward situation of not being able to break free, Selena had no choice but to go forward and try to mediate the situation. Although Sylvia also knew the Dragon Language, she was still a little moody towards Bella, therefore, she just pretended that there was nothing was happening and stood by the side.
“Princess Isabel, please just let go of Bella. She is not a mage, so it is normal that she would have no interest in the merchandise of this shop.”
“This… I am thinking… Bella, wait. Don’t be in a hurry to leave. The true price with a 4% discount is also fine.”
Bella took advantage of Isabel’s wandering mind. When the hand that was pulling Bella’s showed signs of loosening, in a split second, she hurriedly struggled free. After that, Bella rapidly walked towards the door. If Bella continued to stay, she was afraid she would be “poisoned” by Isabel’s discount method. She didn’t want to ridicule Isabel, hence the best method was to go first.
After Bella stepped out of the door of the shop, before she could react, she was ambushed by dozens of arrows. This was the real sense of “killed upon door opening”. Because she was not ready to defend, Bella directly bore the brunt of the attack of the ten over arrows. She collapsed towards the inside of the door.
This shop was poisonous. When items were not bought, the person would be killed. This was the last thought Bella had before she fell to the ground. She thought that all these hitmen were employed by Princess Isabel to be especially used in dealing with those “scoundrel” customers who had come into the shop and left without buying anything. Not buying an item could result in fatal death.
The men who had sneak attacked Bella were members from a hitman squad. They had wanted to wait for Bella to come out and go to someplace with fewer people before attacking. However, they had waited for some time and could not wait any longer. Without any better option, they had chosen to attack after the door was opened.
“Successful surprise attack! The target has been eliminated. Quickly retreat.”
“What a pity that such a nice maiden just died.”
“Don’t bother, quickly leave. If we do not leave then… my… my leg”
The hitman squad that was hiding in a high building in a distant place was going to retreat, but then they were attacked. The shadows under their bodies suddenly came alive and held out hands to pull at their legs. Before they could react, both feet were “eaten up” by their shadows.
The poor hitmen from the squad did not manage to counterattack before being engulfed alive by their own shadows. There were no remnants left on the ground and it almost seemed as if they had not been there at all. After the shadows had eaten up the hitmen, one by one they stood up. They seemed to be like living people that could stand and used words to have interactions with each other.
“This group of inferior humans dared to surprise attack the great Demon King. Really, the great Demon King has indeed treated the human race too well.”
“Stop worrying, the great Demon King’s grand plan was not meant for us, the slags, to guess at will. Quickly handle the matter and clear away the corpses. If we are late, it will not be easy to explain to Lord Lola.”
From a room in the building next door to the small building, the command members of the hitman squad were observing Bella’s situation through the window. They did not know that actually the operation squad in the building next door had already been wiped out as a group.
“What is going on? What the hell is the action squad doing? Have they not successfully assassinated the target? Why have they not issued the retreat from the operation?”
“Wait a while more. Probably, they…”
The door to the room was directly forced open and people stormed in. The hitmen in the room did not manage to see the facial features of the attackers before they were hit by countless darts and became like a hornet’s nest. They had no time to use self-immolation artifacts on their bodies before they died.