Chapter 386 - Keiko

Finishing their meal at a restaurant, Shiro stretched her body slightly in satisfaction.

"The portions are a little small but they tasted quite nice didn't they?" Shiro asked with a smile.

"Mn, indeed. Though compared to what you made in the wild, I still like it over this." Lisandra replied. For the food that Shiro made in the wild, it felt more deserved. After a long day of training and tough battles, a good meal made it that much better.

"Oh? In that case then maybe I should cook more. Though I'm not exactly the best cook around." Shiro mused to herself.

If Lisandra liked her cooking, she might learn a few recipes so that she could cook for her.

"Ah you don't have to trouble yourself. I'm satisfied with what you cook already." Lisandra waved her hand since she didn't want to force it on Shiro. It would feel selfish otherwise.

"Ai, what are you saying. You are my daughter so obviously I'll go an extra mile for you. Anyways, let's go to the auction house now." Shiro grinned and patted Lisandra's head

Blushing slightly, Lisandra coughed and followed behind Shiro.

Leaving the restaurant, Shiro searched for where the auction house is located.

"Hmm… it's not too far from the Rising Sun main headquarters. That's quite handy." Shiro raised an eyebrow.

Making their way to the auction hall, they had no idea that Keiko was rushing across the city through every restaurant to find her. For those that didn't know the context of what had happened, they thought that someone pissed off the faction master and she is now chasing them down to end them.

'Damn, where is she.' Keiko thought to herself as she couldn't find the two that were shown in the picture.

'Hmm… the only place left is the auction house. They did say that they were going to be visiting the auction house.' She mused to herself before dashing towards the auction house.

###

Much like the Rising Sun headquarters, the sheer size of the auction house was one to behold.

Inside the main hall, huge holograms and monitors displayed some of the best equipment on sale currently along with the scenes of live auctions.

Looking at the prices attached to some of the items, Shiro couldn't help but feel a stabbing pain in her heart.

Right now, she had almost 100 large silvers, around 500 normal silvers and more than 6000 bronze Erins. However, compared to the huge numbers each of the participants were shouting out at the live auctions, her capital wasn't worth sh*t.

'Damn…'

{Why don't you seek out a few people to 'borrow' cash from again?} Nimue suggested with a laugh.

'*cough* We can't 'borrow' all the time. Until a fresh pra- I mean, until a 'kind samaritan' appears, we will not be borrowing money at all.' Shiro replied with a cough.

{Mn, your loss then I suppose.} Nimue shrugged.

{Oh Nimue, don't be like that. Shiro is a nice girl so she wouldn't borrow if she can help it.} Iziuel shook her head.

{Iziuel, you haven't been with Shiro for as long as I have. Soon, you'll see how black bellied she truly is!}

'Oi, I'm still here. And what the hell do you mean by black bellied? Have you not seen how much of a maiden I am?'

{V.i.r.g.i.n maiden? Yes. Kind maiden? F*ck no.} Nimue rolled her eyes.

*Puchi!

Feeling a stab in her chest from the mention of v.i.r.g.i.n maiden again, Shiro ignored the situation in her mana realm and went to one of the terminals to see what was on sale.

Meanwhile, Lisandra noticed Shiro's slightly annoyed pouting face and couldn't help but wonder what just happened.

'Did the spirits annoy mum again?' She couldn't help but wonder.

###

Filtering out the items that she couldn't afford, Shiro browsed through those that were within her price range.

None of the weapons or armours that she could afford were worth it. Though she had expected as much since the big families would have probably bought them all for their children.

Since the equipment was a bust, she decided to look through the materials and medicine.

Immediately after browsing for a little, she found some rebirth pills that capped out at an average of 20 to 30%. However, with Yin's blood at hand, she was able to enhance them.

'I'm at 38% right now. With the enhanced pilled, I only need to buy a few of them before going past 50%. But if I were to eat high quality pills that were further enhanced by Yin's blood, I may be able to get more benefits.' Shiro wondered to herself.

It was a situation where she could either choose a sh*t tonne of lizard meat that was seasoned with the best spices or eat premium dragon meat with the same seasonings. Obviously, dragon meat was the best so she wanted to hold off on the low grade pills.

Removing the price cap, she did a quick search for the higher grade ones but only found 1 that was sold out in the live auctions.

'Damn! *sigh… I guess I should visit here more often since I'll be spending a bit of time in Tokyo.' Shiro shook her head.

Looking through the material's section, she looked for items that she needed in order to craft Borealis' Rebirth Pill.

After collecting two of the items that she needed last time from the dwarf, she only needed the Sub Zero Spirit Essence, Crystallised Divine Nuclei, Millennium Ice Dragon's Essence, Glacial Lotus Blood, Tears of Winter and Eternal Ice Heart.

Out of these items, she managed to find Glacial Lotus Blood priced at a whopping 125 Large Silvers.

"Holy sh*t…" Shiro couldn't help but mutter. Even if she converted all of her coins to large silvers, she would barely have a bit more than 100 large silvers. To get to 125, she'll need to earn roughly another 2500 normal silvers.

'Right then, since I can't afford this, let's look for a fine patron.' Shiro nodded her head and prepared to walk out of the auction hall.

{Oi, what happened to the maiden huh? The moment you see that you don't have enough you're already thinking of long term 'borrowing' huh?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.

'*cough* Desperate times desperate measures.' Shiro replied shamelessly.

{Desperate times my ass.} Nimue rolled her eyes.

Marking down the items that she wants from the auction house, Shiro wondered about how she should make enough money quickly so that she could buy the Glacial Lotus Blood.

"Hmm… seems like we can only kill some monsters. Though… with our EXP gain, it would be quite bad. That being said, I have also killed a few of the snow women when we went to Mount Fuji." Shiro coughed since she had vented out her annoyance a little too much.

"Maybe look for some challenges and events that can earn us some money." Lisandra suggested since these little events were always happening here and there. It shouldn't be too hard for them to find one that paid quite well.

But before they could continue their conversation, they heard a loud bang and realised that they had just been dragged outside of the auction house in an instant.

Since Shiro didn't feel any hostility nor killing intent, she didn't pull out her weapon but instead looked up at the woman who was grabbing them by the shoulder.

[Keiko LVL??? Grand Assassin Hero]

"That's a little rude isn't it? To drag us out while we're browsing items." Shiro furrowed her brows.

"Ah sorry about that, I just want to see Kuromi quicker so I was a little hasty. I heard that she wanted to meet me, no?" Keiko smiled.

"Ah right, about that, give me a second." Shiro nodded and dispelled her disguise.

"I didn't want to attract too much attention here so I changed my appearance. I don't remember much but Yuki said that you were my cousin right?"

Looking at the familiar face only with white hair, Keiko widened her eyes and instantly hugged Shiro with all her strength.

"GAH! My bones! My bones!" Shiro cried out after being hit by a sudden burst of force.

"Ah sorry sorry! I got too excited." Keiko quickly apologised.

Looking around, she swiped her hand as the three of them teleported back to her office.

Locking her doors and sealing the sound inside, she dived back onto Shiro.

"Ah, you don't know how much I've missed you Kuromi."

Glancing at Lisandra who only shrugged, Shiro didn't exactly know how to respond to the clearly enthusiastic Keiko.

"Erm, can you explain to me what Yuki said?" Shiro asked.

"Ah sure, let me just get her letter out for you." Keiko nodded obediently and looked for the other letter she was given.

If anyone else were to see their faction master act like an obedient little sister, they would puke out blood in an instant.

'Where's the real faction master!'