Chapter 13: The Addition of a New Companion; the Riddle of Steinbeck Fief’s Hidden Treasure Part 1

Chapter 13: The Addition of a New Companion; the Riddle of Steinbeck Fief’s Hidden Treasure Part 1

In the special restaurant within the underground black market, Clyde reached an agreement with that mysterious girl to protect her safety and become her bodyguard. According to the mysterious girl’s wording, she had no destination currently, so Clyde decided to simply take her along with him so that he could protect her at all times.

“Sister Lucifer, how come the smell of blood is so thick here? Did something happen?”

“Nope, there were just some annoying flies. Even after I waved my hand a few times, they didn’t leave, so I could only execute... No, take care of them on-site.”

At the entrance to the underground black market, after Clyde approached the carriage, he noticed the thick odor of blood, but he didn’t see any corpses. Therefore, he asked Lucifer, but Lucifer just smiled and indifferently said that some flies had been annoying her or some other nonsense. Clyde guessed that the flies she was speaking of probably referred to humans. However, Princess Saras didn’t seem to know what had happened. When Clyde and others had entered into the carriage, Saras had just woken up.

“Big Brother Clyde, where did you kidnap such a beautiful big sister again? Ya, it hurts! Didn’t I say not to hit my head? What if I become stupid?”

“Sister Lucifer, here you are going on about this foolishness again. I have never kidnapped a girl. This Miss is our investor.”

“Little sister, you... How do you know how I look like?”

“Secret, everyone has their own secrets. Big sister, you don’t have to conceal yourself. In any case, Big Brother Clyde is unable to do anything bad, for now that is. Wait! Don’t hit me!”

Upon seeing the mysterious girl, Lucifer directly determined the attractiveness index of this mysterious girl as if she had a unique perception ability. Under her curious gaze, the mysterious young lady seemed to be somewhat embarrassed. After confirming the curtains were properly closed, she took off her hood and removed the mask. Clyde finally had a clear view of his employer’s real appearance.

Lucifer’s judgment was right. The attractiveness index of this lady who had just hired him was even higher than that of Princess Saras. She was a silver-haired beauty like Lucifer. Her hair was tied with black headbands in a twin-tail style, but her eyes were the most beautiful part. One was pink in color, and the other was purple in color. She had heterochromia eyes. She seemed to have a kind of peculiar beauty. This might be the root cause for her concealing her true appearance. Her heterochromia eyes were too eye-catching.

Originally, Ista had had no intention to reveal her true appearance. Only after seeing Lucifer was also from a different race had she decided that she no longer needed to conceal her appearance. Ista wore a gorgeous black one-piece dress with crimson-colored decorations at the edge of the skirt and sleeves. In addition, there was a ruby sewed on for decoration just above her chest.

Around Ista’s neck was a black and white lace garland. No one could make out whether she was wearing a necklace or not, but this couldn’t conceal the fact that she was clever, rich, and powerful. When they had just met, Ista had revealed her hands with a ring on each finger to display her financial resources. From the viewpoint of attractiveness indexes, Ista also crushed Saras. Her beauty was something the Human Race couldn’t achieve. Other than slightly losing in the chest department, and their heights being about the same, Ista one-sidedly crushed Saras in all other aspects.

However, Ista had a figure of golden proportions. This point alone completely crushed Saras. Nevertheless, Clyde felt that Lucifer could rival her after she grew up. Now, Lucifer was a Lolita, so she was not on the same stage as Ista. In fact, they couldn’t even be compared for the time being.

“Big Sister Ista, why did you settle on my big brother? He is a newcomer. It was his first time coming into contact with these types of missions.”

“It was honestly nothing, just intuition. That’s all. I felt that he is very amiable.”

In the carriage, Lucifer continuously pestered Ista. Facing the clingy offense of this Lolita, Ista didn’t seem to have any means to resist. On the other side, Princess Saras finally revealed a relieved smile. Before Ista had come, Lucifer had always pestered her. Now, she could finally relax a bit.

Clyde, in the driver’s seat, directed the carriage towards Steinbeck Fief. He now had a white gem given to him by Ista, worth at least 1,000 gold coins. Although Ista didn’t speak openly about it, Lucifer used various kinds of mysterious probing methods to fully understand Ista’s identity.

Although Lucifer didn’t know Ista’s background, she had determined that Ista was a witch. Because the various rare treasures she wore functioned as concealment, no one else had perceived the dark aura on her body. If Clyde had gotten closer to her, he would have also similarly seen through her. Lucifer, however, was very close to Ista. The two people were practically stuck to each other. At this close distance, Ista was unable to conceal everything.

Even within the magicians, ordinary magicians couldn’t be as well-off as Ista. Her status must be quite high. Each ring she wore on her ten fingers was a treasure worth several cities. As for her combat power, it was also concealed. She claimed that she had just graduated from being a Magic Apprentice not long ago, becoming a Junior Magician, but in fact, her mana reserve surpassed Magic God, the highest-level magician of Human Race, by several times. Basically, she was not a weak woman.

Clyde was too lazy to bother about these issues. In any case, it was fine as long as the other party could pay his employment costs. As for the background and past of his employer, he had nothing to do with it. When the carriage set out again, no one in the underground black market of Tas City dared to have any thoughts about this carriage. Just some time ago, after discovering this carriage had just two girls inside, many people with bad intentions had taken the chance to approach the carriage, wanting to capture Lucifer and Saras and sell them as slaves.

The ending of those unlucky ghosts was self-evident. Before they could even approach the carriage, Lucifer’s bloodkin familiars had wiped them out, not even a corpse was left behind. Compared to Clyde’s means, Lucifer’s slaughtering methods were more hidden, making it difficult for others to detect. For these cowardly wicked souls, a mysterious death was most terrifying. After those good deeds, the journey of Clyde’s party was very smooth. No one dared to disturb them in fear of an unknown death.

When Clyde arrived at Lawrence River’s bank again, it was far livelier. Although the bridge connecting the two shores had collapsed, a large group of people resembling a mercenary group camped there. The craftsmen they had hired were building a temporary floating bridge that was already more than halfway completed. Upon seeing their actions, Clyde was speechless. If he had known this earlier, he wouldn’t have had to visit the underground black market of Tas City.

“Brother, did you all also come here to make a fortune? The floating bridge is almost complete. Here are some simple foods. Just put up with it until we can all cross the river.”

“Well, thank you!”

These mercenaries were a joint force composed by many mercenary groups. When they saw Clyde, they thought that he was also a mercenary that had accepted this task and notified him to go to the big boiler to receive food. As it turned out, not long after Clyde’s party had purchased Steinbeck Fief, when Clyde’s party had still been on the road, an iridescence light beam had suddenly risen from Steinbeck Fief. Rumor had it that it was the radiance of a divine artifact.

Therefore, many mercenary groups had gathered together to hunt treasures in this terrifying land. They had heard that the noble lady who had purchased this fief had merely bought it for fun, so there wouldn’t be any issues from the suzerain complaining about their intruding her domain. In fact, they guessed that she would never even know if they entered. They directly joined together to form a joint party to explore this area without asking for permission, never expecting to encounter the real suzerain at Lawrence River’s bank.