The arrogant shopkeeper soon left after giving up on trying to find the four. Although he was frustrated, he really couldn't find them.
Unfortunately because of his poor brain, the thought of 'tree climbing' never crossed his mind.
That's right. On the exact tree he stood under was a black haired girl, casually sitting in a relaxed position. And beside her was the rest of her 'gang'.
Chris, licking his lollipop on his magic made platform and Delta helping Kate, who was afraid of heights.
Since it was all clear, Violetta parkoured to the open window behind the Herb Hall.
"Wait for me. I'll open the door down there."
In a few moments, her head shows up, peeking out of the doorway.
"Come on it," she calls out.
Delta looks at the darkness inside the building before asking, "How's it in there?"
"Smelly," she replies with a frown.
The undesirable smell immediately assaults their noses as they step in.
They walk in a few steps before Delta's foot lands on something hard, but soft…
Little Chris walks over, shining his light magic on the staff that laid
"... what a peculiar way of shutting down a store."
Indeed, the four faces filled with shock and confusion.
On the ground laid all the shopkeepers and staff, asleep.
"So this smell was the deteriorated remains of a sleeping gas," Violetta analyzes.
"So stinky!" Kate scrunches her nose.
"Is there magic residue in the air, Delta?"
A surprised expression shows on Delta's face, "How did you know?"
Violetta only responded with a smile.
'They either had to use much effort to create these anaesthetics or add some weird magic I don't know…'
Even back in her old world, anaesthesia was something that required a lot of research.
"Magic sure can do anything," she says.
"Mhm!" Chris looks at her and agrees.
Then, with his cute little legs, he walks over to the side windows to let out the disgusting smells.
They shake awake the unconscious shop staff who look up drowsily and blankly. They sit up and rub their eyes, asking what happened.
Violetta lifts her head after shaking some of them awake. Then, she looks around the room.
There were many of the staff whom she hadn't really seen.
Most of them were awake with a small minority still asleep.
Suddenly, she frowns.
'Where are the two shopkeepers she knew? And how come none of these people look like the owner or manager of some sort?'
She frowns as her eyes peruse the room again.
Indeed, from their outfits, none of these people were the higher ups.
Kate walks over to the confused Violetta.
"What's wrong?"
Her friend furrows her brows.
"Did you see any managers or the boss here under sedation?"
"No… why?"
At that moment, Delta walks up to them.
"Violetta, all of them are awake now."
Violetta turns to the crowd of people who are chattering amongst each other, trying to figure out what's going on.
She claps her hands together.
"Excuse me, everyone! Please give me your attention.
My name is Violetta and these are our companions. We visited Thousand Scent as customers before and today, we found it closed when we were going to visit. Golden Herb Hall's shopkeeper also said some suspicious things so we came to check it out.
First, I'd like to ask… who's the boss or head of Thousand Scent? Is he or she here?"
The crowd had quieted down as they listened to Violetta talk.
Their faces showed a variety of expressions, however many showed a grave expression.
A moment of silence fills the air.
"... our boss is not here," one of the staff speaks up.
The staff suddenly show a face of anger, looking to the side with a darkened gaze.
"What's wrong?" Kate asks.
A chill runs through her back as she knows the news was definitely not good.
A shaky voice answers, "O-our boss abandoned us! H-he abandoned Thousand Scent!"
The man's voice shakes in anger, "One day, he just told us to suit ourselves and clear out this shop! This is the shop we've been working at for so long! … but now, it's fine. It must be because we still stayed here that he put us under sedation."
Murmurs fill the room and many harsh gazes of hatred direct the story.
"Okay, we understand," Violetta replies.
The man bows, "Thank you benevolent saviors. If it weren't for you guys, who knew when we'd wake up again!"
The rest of the staff follow his lead and bow graciously.
"No worries, this wasn't much at all, however what do you guys plan to do next?" asks Delta.
"Next…"
"Are we going to work at Golden Herb Hall?"
"No way!"
Chatter fills the air again with people agreeing and disagreeing.
"But we need to work to earn money? It doesn't matter if it's at Golden or not!"
"Yeah but they're all snobbish people!"
"They cheat people, who knows if we might get cheated there!"
Then, Kate suggests, "Then why don't you guys just stay and work at Thousand Scent. Just put a new boss."
The staff frown, "None of us have the ability. Only a few of the shopkeepers and the managers have business education, but we don't."
"Where are they now?" Violetta inquires.
He frowns again, "We don't know."
'They don't know? That makes sense because they were out for a while but something fishy is going on. The benevolent, philanthropic owner of Thousand Scent just abandoned the work of his years of hard work? And then all the people who would have the ability to take over aren't here? It doesn't make sense!'
"Does anyone have their contact, or know where they live?" Delta steps up and inquires.
It seems that she also found the discrepancy going on.
"Well…"
"I don't."
"Neither do I…"
"Um, I did go to Shopkeeper Li and Manager Sun's when they were ill."
"Yeah, I also delivered for Manager Xi when he ordered some herbs for his family."
"Okay then, we should go visit. We should check on them just in case, since this happened over here…" Violetta explains calmly.
"Yeah! We must know if the shopkeepers and managers are okay."
Delta looks outside at the setting sun.
"We should hurry soon, since the sun's started setting. It wouldn't be good to visit after dusk."