novelraw Chapter 156 : Chapter 156
Chapter 156 : Chapter 156
Volume 2
Chapter 80 : The Oriole
Only after the auction had fully ended and the crowd had gradually dispersed did Muen stroll out of his private booth.
By then, an attendant was already waiting respectfully outside.
“Honored guest, this is the item you won at auction.”
Inside the silver tray, the gold-inlaid jewel box cast off a luxurious sheen.
Muen casually opened it, and the pink teardrop gemstone symbolizing true love lay quietly within the red lining.
Even without any light shining on it, it still dazzled brilliantly.
“Very good.”
He did not bother checking whether it was genuine.
Muen trusted that the auction house was not foolish enough to tamper with something in a place like this, so he simply put the gem away.
But just as he was about to pay, the attendant said respectfully,
“Guest, as compensation for our earlier discourtesy, this gemstone will be given to you free of charge.”
“Oh? Hadn’t you already given me a twenty-percent discount?”
“But aside from this gemstone, you did not buy anything else, did you?”
The attendant wiped the sweat from his forehead and said in a low voice,
“This was our boss’s idea. He would very much like to be friends with you.”
“Boss?”
Muen arched a brow.
He was not particularly surprised by the move from the auction’s owner behind the scenes.
Earlier, when he had warned the attendant to keep things secret and not let a fourth person know that a big fish like him had entered the auction house, the three people who “knew” were himself, the attendant, and the boss behind the attendant.
After all, this was that boss’s turf. There was no way this matter could be hidden from him.
Muen had simply not expected his reaction to come so quickly.
“Do all of you people in the underworld like making friends this much?”
“The more friends we have, the more roads we have open to us, do we not? For people like us who spend all day in the dark, if our roads are not wide enough, it is very easy to stumble.”
“True enough.”
Muen patted the attendant on the shoulder.
“Then I, the son of Duke Raymond, will count you as a friend. Next time I come, remember to give me a discount.”
“Certainly, certainly.”
The attendant nodded like a chick pecking at grain, but on the face he did not dare raise, the corner of his mouth still twitched.
The son of Duke Raymond?
As if anyone would believe that.
They had just checked through their own information channels.
That duke’s son, praised as a model noble, had long since returned to his own fief alongside Duke Raymond.
If you are going to lie, at least make it sound plausible.
If you said you were the son of Duke Campbell, that would actually be more believable!
…
…
At the entrance to the auction house, the sultry woman stood there with a radiant smile, bowing to every guest who came and went as though she would never grow tired.
When Muen passed by her, she lowered her head and said in a hushed voice,
“Most of those people just now went west.”
“Thank you.”
Muen nodded and did not stop, quickly moving on.
But after taking only a single step, he suddenly felt something tug at him.
He turned around.
The heavily made-up woman was clutching the corner of his clothes.
Her eyes brimmed with the uneasy timidity of a frightened doe, yet she still gathered her courage and said,
“I am going to leave this place. Then I will use the money you gave me to apply to Gulaien Women’s Academy. I want to become a teacher.”
“Is that so?”
Muen smiled. “That is good. Do your best.”
“Mm.”
Like the rising morning sun, like flowers blooming open, all her unease and fear faded away. The woman let go, light shining in her eyes as she nodded hard.
“I will, guest.”
…
…
Muen walked unhurriedly along the roads of the black market, as leisurely as if he were out for a stroll.
Along the way, he even picked up a telescope from a roadside stall, one that was supposedly so good it could clearly see beautiful women bathing from a thousand meters away.
As for the black market, whether it was a naturally formed underground space or one carved out by human hands, its area was large, but in the end it only amounted to a few streets.
No matter how complicated the terrain was, trying to shake off other people’s pursuit in a place like this was nearly impossible.
So once Lorenzo got the ancient dragon heart’s blood, his first thought would definitely be to leave the black market.
Belland’s Lower City was his true home turf.
And the other wild dogs, greed stirring in their hearts as they hoped to rob another criminal, were probably thinking the same thing.
After all, fighting was forbidden in the black market.
If a battle broke out here, it would be the same as slapping the hidden power behind the black market across the face.
Anyone with even a little sense would never choose to do that.
So all Muen needed to do was determine which passage they used to leave the black market, then leisurely follow after them.
The chances of losing them were very low, because the black market only had that few exits to begin with, and…
Muen’s gaze swept over the not-so-distant road ahead.
Several furtive figures were doing the same as he was, trailing the people in front from afar and sneaking onward.
They wanted to be the oriole waiting behind the mantis stalking the cicada?
A wicked smile curved Muen’s lips.
As for who the real oriole was, that still remained to be seen.
…
…
In the Lower City, a group of fully armed men hurried through crisscrossing alleyways slick with filthy water.
A vagrant beside a heap of trash was startled awake by the commotion.
He cast the group a muddy glance, then all traces of drowsiness vanished in an instant, and he hurriedly dug into the garbage pile beside him and buried himself inside.
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”
Feeling the gazes from behind clinging to him like pieces of chewed gum that had already been stepped on who knew how many times, impossible to shake off no matter what, Lorenzo’s expression turned terrifyingly grim.
He had underestimated the greed of those wild dogs!
He had originally thought that even if someone really set their sights on his ancient dragon heart’s blood, the reputation of the Redfire Gang would keep the number of people who truly dared follow him to a minimum.
But from just now onward, he had already sensed more than twenty lines of sight watching him from different directions!
And that was only the stupidest bunch.
The truly cunning and troublesome ones were still hanging even farther back, all wanting to become the oriole that swooped in and reaped the spoils!
“It is fine, boss. No matter how disgusting those wild dogs are, they are still just scattered stragglers. As long as they do not join forces, they pose no threat to us.”
At his side, his trusted subordinate glanced around and tried to reassure him.
“Besides, the chances of those greedy bastards joining hands are lower than the chances of Miss Seths going respectable!”
“Who is Miss Seths?”
“The top courtesan at the brothel on Aier Street. She can handle more than twenty dockworkers in a single night. They call her the Lake Monster of the Gulaien riverside.”
The subordinate smacked his lips, relishing the memory. “When she starts twisting that waist of hers, she is more ensnaring than a giant python.”
“Damn it, I told you to stay away from places like that. I give you so much money, and this is what you do with it? Go catch some contagious disease and bring it back to ruin me?”
Lorenzo slapped the back of his subordinate’s head and cursed irritably.
“Heh heh, I have to save the money to treat my little sister.” The subordinate scratched his head, utterly unconcerned.
“That sickly sister of yours is going to drag you to death sooner or later!”
Lorenzo shot him a vicious glare, but after that interruption, the heart lodged in his throat did settle down quite a bit.
That was right.
Wild dogs were still only wild dogs.
So long as they did not gather into a pack on their own, they would never become wolves capable of threatening him.
Once he returned to Redfire Gang territory, no one would dare snatch anything from his mouth again!
Lorenzo could not help quickening his pace once more.
At that moment, a cold wind suddenly rose, like an invisible hand sweeping out and disturbing the increasingly dense fog of the night.
He heard a shrill whistle ring out, drifting like a ghost through the dark alleys.