[36] Capitalia's Black Market.
Levin D'razure went to the massive shower room and threw the cloak in the empty bathtub. To him, the bathtub was the cleanest place and suitable for washing this material.
Alberto Del'virmanos was already into a deep sleep and snoring gracefully on his head. The tiny electric hands were still massaging his body, giving him ultimate bliss in his dream. That's why from time to time he would moan out in fulfillment.
Levin pointed his forefinger towards the water tap and then fresh hot water flowed out from it, threatening to soak the cloak.
As Levin D'razure gestured with his forefinger, the water tide divided into two streams and whirled into a pair of transparent hands.
The pair of hands made of water gently kneaded the cloak. As Levin instructed, the hands only touched the parts where the odor of the cub was, vaguely touching other areas.
In no time, the smell of the polar bear baby beast disappeared while the cloak was soaked in water. But surprisingly, it had another smell on it, Miss Van's scent.
The washer made sure that her aroma wouldn't go extinct even after cleaning the cloak.
Levin D'razure's droopy eyes stared gently at the cloak. He circulated the air and the wet cloak got dry slowly.
Alberto Del'virmanos creaked open his right eye and eyed him doing the things he wasn't supposed to do.
'Your time is way too precious to do this kind of thing… Why don't I ask the Employment Division to send a maid?' Alberto advised like a caring brother in his thoughts.
"No…" Levin D'razure whispered as he placed the thing on his arm and left the shower room. Along the way, he rubbed the cloak, thinking of Miss Van at the same time.
He went past several corridors and walked on many long paths. Finally, at the end of a corridor, Levin D'razure stopped before a black door.
If people with weak minds would see the door, they would feel their souls were getting stuck in the endless void of the Onyx wood.
Levin D'razure pushed the door and headed inside. The moment he strode in, the door locked by itself, and then a terrifyingly large eyeball appeared in the middle of the door.
The eyeball rolled around frantically, keeping an eye outside! Terrorizing bloodthirsty intent was flowing from the center of it and made others scared to approach the door.
Like that, the eyeball succeeded in warding off several ingenious eyes directed toward the bedroom...
…
In the bedroom.
Levin D'razure put the cloak on his bed and then gazed at it. When Alberto saw him motionless, he was flabbergasted. Rarely his brother would behave so strangely.
Suddenly, Levin D'razure picked up the cloak and then sniffed hard. His eyes turned glaring white as he infuriatingly stared at the thing in his hands.
It looked as if the thing in his hand was a fresh and juicy prey whom he couldn't wait to eat clean!
'?!' Alberto was scared by his perverted behavior. Just what happened while he wasn't paying attention to him?! When did he like sniffing random things?! Why did not he know about this habit of his cousin?!
Knowing dangerous secrets like this was not a good thing.
'I have some matters to attend to. Hehe!' Alberto slowly stood on his feet and then quietly flew away from his head. The man transformed into his human self beside the door.
"If you need something, ask the Butler. I am leaving."
Not getting any response, he glanced at Levin and left the room. The moment he left, Levin reacted. He took out a black box from his pocket dimension and placed the cloak inside.
'So similar…' Levin D'razure thought as he recalled a young friend.
Both he and Miss Van had similar scents and if he didn't know the truth, he would have thought that he had resurrected and come back to his side.
As it turned out, there was someone this Dragon Lord missed dearly, and this Miss Van was like a substitute for that person to Levin's D'razure.
...
Capitalia's black market.
A woman coated in black clothes from head to toe walked on the black tiled road. Beside her, many people were walking to and fro.
Everyone was busy doing their business, buying and selling things so rarely would anyone spare her a glance. Here nobody would come to stroll yet she was the only one who was walking so leisurely.
After coming before a dilapidated building, Kayra stopped. She looked up and saw it was an antique shop.
'Is It here?' Kayra asked in her mind.
[ Guess. ]
A baby's voice replied in the deepest part of Kayra's mind space.
After she got the confirmation, Kayra pushed the worn-out door and entered sneakily. The moment she pushed the metal door, a bell hanging on top of the door rang out, indicating the arrival of a customer.
Instantly, the dark shop lit up as electric lights turned on one after another. Many huge rows of shelves with goods were in there. Kayra was dazzled by the plentiful and fanciful things before her.
She stepped ahead and walked by the shelves, admiring those things. The itch to touch them was unthinkable!
Suddenly, a pair of simple-looking things caught her eyes. She stood before a glass shelf and stared at a pair of earrings.
[ Like? ]
'Yes!'
[ Then buy. ]
'Well…' Kayra glanced at the price tag and felt her heart was stifled.
She shook her head and proceeded to leave when someone approached her from behind.
"Valued customer! Have you perhaps taken a fancy to these beautiful earrings?!" An old man asked as he stared at Kayra with judgmental eyes.
"Ah, that, everything is beautiful here and it's impossible not to like," Kayra said with a smile.
In reality, the antiques indeed were beautiful and looked chronicled. Bearers of the passing histories surely could evoke a strange sense of emotions in people and make them feel nostalgic.
The old shop owner adjusted his round eyeglasses and tried to look at the pair clearly. Then he opened the glass wall and took out the earrings with his shaky hands. He looked like he had essential tremor disease.
Afterwards, like a professional shop owner, he showed her the earrings and began to speak in a rather hoarse voice befitting for an old man.
"These earrings are of noble origin and inexpensive. Even several million Azs can't let you buy! But I see fate between you and these! So I recommend this valued customer to buy this!"
"..." Kayra's lips twisted at his words. She thought with mockery, 'Is that why the `100k Az` price tag was attached with it?!'
The old shop owner must have guessed her thoughts but even then, he shamelessly boasted, "Our shop's things are 1000% authentic! If you miss this chance, the valued customer may not find these again and anywhere!"
Kayra's lips wavered. She stopped herself when a thing was recalled.
'The credit card only has 101k Az… '
Being a veteran shop owner what situation had he not seen in his life? It took just one glance for him to realize that the customer was short on money!
But it didn't matter to him and he could consider lowering the price! After all, they had 'fate' among them, no?
"I can give you a discount!" The shop owner threw his ultimate proposal, for which countless customers in the past were willing to die!
Kayra's eyes lit up. Being an orphan in her past life, there was rarely any occasion where she would have a lot of money in her possession.
Back then it was somewhat impossible to buy a thing she wanted on a whim, and she had to bury her wishes from a very young age. Not to say, after she had left the welfare institute, she had to save every single penny to live.
Thus, the mention of the discount was something she loved! Not to say, she had a little fortune with her now, and she wanted to get a hold on those pair of earrings!
She still preferred wearing earrings in both ears, not on one.
"How much?" Kayra said calmly as she tried not to show her excitement and interest in the pair of little earrings.
She had innumerable experiences after all. If you show a tiny bit of interest, the thing that you could have for x, the seller would make you pay 5x to 10x for it!
"1% discount!" The shop owner spoke out with a knowing look as if he had known that Kayra would buy the earrings after hearing him.
"..." Kayra looked at the shop owner and then at the earrings. She had no thought of becoming broke after buying the earrings.
And thus, she put another proposal for the old man.
"10%!"
The shop owner was stunned. Rather than showing irritation or disdain, he quietly put the earrings back in their place and closed the glass wall.
"If the valued customer likes other things, call for this old one." He said and turned to leave. He had realized, this was a poor customer! Bruh!
"That… " Kayra was stumped by his indifferent attitude as if he had realized that she did not have the capability to buy.
She also guessed that Earth's way wouldn't fit in all situations.
She glanced at the earrings regretfully but made up her mind not to buy them. Kayra had no wish to sleep on the streets tonight!
Kayra hurriedly followed the man and said urgently, "That, I have another thing to do. It's fake… cough!"
The old man's legs stopped, and he looked at her. He examined her from head to toe and then inquired, "ID? Illegal trespassing? Girl, you don't look like that sort of lady."
"I have other uses for it, thank you." Kayra was ashamed of herself. It was the first time she had come to do something illegal in a shady place.
But she had no other way either. After wandering around, she realized that no one would let her stay in a hotel or become their temporary guest if she could not show them her identification card.