Chapter 86: …but maybe they’re fortunes.
Alicia may have thrown the book that caused her strange fantasy out of sight, but that did not stop her mind from lingering on it.
The wild jungle locale, the hulking beast, the weird feeling of being bounded while wearing such revealing attire, the chiseled, sweat soaked bodies of-
“Nope! Stop! Cease! Desist! You met them once. Once!,” Alicia scolded herself, “And he has a girlfriend! So no more fantasies, and no more dwelling on said fantasies.”
To keep her mind off of it, Alicia proceeded to focus on her dress, getting dressed and possibly using it to critique Matilda’s choices…she could not.
Despite being recently hired, Matilda had already figured out Alicia’s tastes when it came to clothing. She had picked out a modern styled skirt/vest combination that highlighted Alicia’s best features, but was still roomy enough to fight in if the need ever arose. As well, there was a gold and blue hair brooch that seemed to bring the whole thing together.
“Huh…good taste, Matilda. I have less misgivings about papa hiring you…a little bit anyways,” Alicia mumbled as she went about donning the dress.
A little after Alicia had reunited with her family at the “funeral” of Zhen Liu, she had regaled them with the tale of how she got attacked by the formerly notorious Bloody Boilers but was rescued by Zhen Liu and his unusual “puppet”.
On a side note, the aforementioned Bloody Boilers kinda fell apart after their leader was tragically,and violently decapitated. Last anyone had heard, several of the members were re-incorporated into other groups under the Blood Burners umbrella.
When Alicia told her family the story of what had happened to her, they were understandably shocked and disturbed that their precious ginger flower was subjected to such horrors. Alicia’s father quickly made arrangements afterwards to acquire her a bodyguard that could best compliment his daughter’s growth, hence Matilda.
With her clothes fully donned and her hair properly settled, Alicia took one last look in the mirror to make sure everything was in place. “Alright, now with that out of the way…let’s get to breakfast.”
As Alicia exited her room and made her way to the manor’s main dining hall, she couldn’t help but wonder why her father asked for her presence…
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Emerald Eye City
It was universally agreed by the residents of the Iron Heart Kingdom that the frontier region was kind of…dangerous. And shitty. Shitty and dangerous. It was a fine place to visit and explore, definitely not a place to live in, but people still did.
The only people who tended to move out to the frontier were the desperate, the hopeful, the explorers and those trying to run away from their pasts. While there were a number of small towns and villages that managed to eke out an existence in the frontier, there were exactly two places one could go and live in if they wanted some modicum of safety and civilization: Stone Claw City and Emerald Eye City.
Stone Claw City was the more dangerous of the two due to all of the bandits, monsters and would-be explorers and prospectors trying to get rich quick, but the Four Great Powers made sure that everything was under control, at least in the actual urban area.
On the flip side, and a four days journey from Stone Claw, Emerald Eye City was a lot safer and a lot more commerce heavy.
Thanks to being located in the exact center of the frontier region and being located on the only road connecting the core region to the frontier, a lot of import and export made their way through Emerald Eye City. Naturally, all of this commerce had to be processed, which led to the establishment of the Silver Leaf Bazaar and the Gold Clover Auction House. While the former was where a lot of the general goods of low to medium quality were processed, the latter was where all the high ballers traded.
Established by the Goldshire family, the Gold Clover Auction House guaranteed safe and convenient exchange of high tiered goods such as Ethereal to World grade formulas and arts, rare medicines and materials, treasures of unusual powers and the occasional live aether beast. As well, the auction worked on a blind bidding policy, meaning anyone participating could do so discreetly and anonymously, making it a very attractive place for those in the upper and lower rungs of society to trade without anyone knowing. And it was for this last reason,that the Zhen Clan sent a group to try and offload some recently acquired goods.
‘Damn, this place is huge,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared up and down the Gold Clover Auction House. It vaguely reminded him of European architecture, more specifically Prague, but he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure due to his references being movies and web searches from his past life.
Right now, Zhen Liu was currently standing at the base of a long flight of stairs that lead to the auction house’s main chamber. Directly behind him was a modest carriage carrying his family and the treasured core, both of which was being pulled by Tiny the Raijin hippo.
“Grrr.”
Tiny didn’t look too happy being surrounded by people, but she didn’t care due to the delicious feed currently in front of her. Plus, Mini looked happy to be here.
“Xiao Liu, quit gawking. We’re supposed to be here on official business, remember?,” Jin Fang chided, “you’re supposed to look the part as a Zhen Clan representative, remember?”
“Kuu!,” Mini concurred from Jin Fang’s arms.
“Hey it’s not everyday we can see something like this, I’m just curious as to why I am here too.”
Zhen Liu wasn’t entirely sure why, but the Patriarch decided to send not only his father Zhen Yan, to offload the beast core, but also Zhen Yan’s branch family, which included him, Zhen Hai, as well as Tiny and Mini the Raijin hippos.
His father made sense because he was the one the Goldshire family was close to, Zhen Hai kinda made sense, because the goal was to secure an aquatic aether beast heart for him to use to breakthrough, the Raijin hippos made sense because they needed security and expediency, and no one in their right mind would want to fight an Aether Master backed up by a fourth grade aether beast.
Honestly, the only reason he could possibly think of sending him along was due to-
“Zhen Yan, you old fire cat! How have you been,” a jovial yet mature voice called out from the top of the auction house steps.
The source of the voice was portly man with a shockingly red and white beard that seemed to radiate positivity. This man was Alexander Dominick Goldshire, the owner and manager of the Gold Clover Auction House, as well as Zhen Yan’s best friend. Standing by his side was a young woman that Zhen Liu was somewhat familiar with, and an older woman who looked like the younger one.
‘Ah. That’s why.’
Jin Fang recognized who this woman was too, and not so subtly moved to be closer by Zhen Liu’s side.
