Year-round snow fell upon the Snow Domain.
All the buildings in Snowcell City were dyed frost-white. Snow trees and silver flowers coiled and grew along the roadsides, dazzling and beautiful.
Pedestrians coming and going were wrapped in thick, cumbersome clothing. But with the Ice-Fire Cloak (Tch!), even if it were ten times colder, Weilin and Elizabeth could still maintain the cute, chilly allure of their maidenly attire.
However, Elizabeth had also put on a wide-brimmed black bamboo hat.
This was to conceal her “White Mouse” ears and identity. After all, the group of humans who had raided the White Mouse ancestral home were from Snowcell City. Therefore, every time Elizabeth entered the city, she was cautious and anxious, not daring to attract any attention.
By the time they arrived in the city, night had silently fallen.
The two headed straight for the Cloudstride Merchant Guild without stopping. It was the tallest, most magnificent tower building, even grander than the City Lord’s mansion, visible at first glance.
“You wish to see Lady Reki?”
The young man in a refined receptionist uniform’s professional smile vanished upon hearing this name. His eyes sharpened as he looked at the two girls before him.
“Do you have an appointment or any token? If not, you’ll need at least a Platinum-level membership card to see Lady Reki directly.”
“N-“
“Please go back.”
Elizabeth had barely uttered a word before being refused. Even Weilin couldn’t stand watching this. “The most basic etiquette for a receptionist is to let someone finish speaking, understand?”
The man’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Lady Reki is of noble status and overwhelmed with countless affairs. Those wishing to see her are as numerous as floating snow. Without proof or a high-level membership card, I cannot grant an audience. I am merely doing my duty. Please do not make this difficult for me.”
Weilin felt that the bosses of places like merchant guilds generally liked to observe the main lobby using some method (like a screen-peeping Group Owner).
So she suddenly lifted the veil of Elizabeth’s bamboo hat and asked, “Do you recognize her?”
The man glanced over.
“No. What about it?”
Suddenly, his expression changed, alarmed. He immediately took a thin rectangular crystal from an inner pocket of his clothes. Words seemed to materialize on its surface.
After reading the words clearly, the man put away the rectangular crystal. When he looked back at Elizabeth, his gaze held respect. “Lady Reki has agreed to see you. Please wait here for a moment. Someone will escort you to the upper floors shortly.”
…
Only then did Elizabeth breathe a sigh of relief, because she truly had no appointment or token.
“What was that mirror-like thing that person just took out?” Weilin asked.
“I heard it’s some new technology from the Empire… can be used to communicate instead of Sound-Transmitting Crystals.”
Elizabeth’s tone was hesitant, uncertain. But Weilin, hearing this beside her, had her eyes light up, secretly delighted.
The seats they found at random were as soft as high-class sofas, at least the work of a 5th-Tier craftsman, allowing one’s body to sink comfortably into them.
But this didn’t seem to dispel the excitement and unease on Elizabeth’s face.
“The Cloudstride Merchant Guild… truly worthy of being the largest trade alliance spanning both the Empire and The Federation.” Weilin comfortably lay in the sofa, sighing with emotion. “One of the few existences that can compete with my wealth.”
‘Big Sister is talking nonsense again.’
Elizabeth heard this but didn’t speak, just smiled and stuck out her tongue.
Because she felt that although Weilin was very magically strong and wealthy, competing financially with the Cloudstride Merchant Guild was still a frog at the bottom of a well.
Of course, how could Elizabeth possibly know that the frog at the bottom of the well was herself? How could she believe that this “cheap big sister” she had “dug up” from a mine was the world’s Strongest Mage doubling as the world’s richest person?
No matter who Weilin was, in this moment, lying on the sofa, Elizabeth’s heartbeat suddenly quickened… She suddenly wanted so badly to reach out and take Weilin’s hand.
But she couldn’t reach. Moving deliberately would be too obvious, wu…
Outside, the night was silent, but the first floor of the Cloudstride Merchant Guild was unexpectedly bustling and lively. People streamed through; many even wore very little. Quite a few girls, in low-cut dresses and miniskirts, cosplayed as maids, flaunting themselves before men. The reason?—lay in the top-grade Quenching Flame Crystal hanging in the hall’s center.
And this was just a branch; they had such boldness?
Wait, why did this scene feel so familiar?
“Free heating…”
Bloody hell, so all these people were here mooching off the “heating.”
“Ah… what is Big Sister saying?”
“Uh, nothing…” Weilin shook her head. She saw a graceful young girl walking towards them. Her expression suddenly became serious as she changed the subject. “Someone is coming to take us to see Reki.”
Elizabeth quickly held her breath, suppressing her excitement.
A delicately smiling girl in a black dress sashayed up to the two. “Please follow me, you two.”
They went straight up to the fifth floor, where the group was led into a lavishly decorated private meeting room.
A piece of ‘Lake Heart Ore’ the size of a thumb rested in a transparent glass bottle on the table, quietly releasing Mana that calmed the mind.
“Little one, you’ve come again?”
The speaker was a woman with a high, full bosom. Twenty-four years old—a “mature” age in any novel featuring young heroines.
Her lips seemed glossed with nectar. Her deep purple eyes looked as if they could pierce a person’s heart. Her smooth, purple long hair was tied in a bun with a hollow jade hairpin inlaid with crystal. Compared to a young girl, her face, no less supple and dewy, wore a smile of captivating charm.
Her smile was soft and gentle; she exuded myriad allure just sitting still, so bewitching and provocative that Weilin found herself staring, eyes fixed.
And “little one” undoubtedly referred to Elizabeth.
“Lady Reki…”
Elizabeth didn’t dare meet her eyes. She hurriedly took out the gold coin purse and placed it on the table, then, with the utmost respect, presented the jade box containing the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand with both hands. Every word was humble and earnest, “Here are 5,172 Gold Coins, along with the ‘Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand’ I didn’t have time to sell for money. This is all the gold I could earn, trying my absolute hardest. Please… Lady Reki, return my clan members to me!”
Humble, yet resolute.
Reki looked at Elizabeth, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly. She stretched out her slender, jade-like hand, nails painted with pearlescent pink flower nectar polish. She opened the jade box, gently pinched the sand crystal emitting a faint fluorescence, and brought it before her eyes for careful inspection.
“5th-Tier ore, Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Sand, naturally formed superior quality at that. However, it’s worth 3,000 Gold Coins at most.”
Immediately, Reki’s dark eyebrows tilted slightly as she glanced at Elizabeth. Her lips curved, her smile and voice indescribably languid and coquettish. “Adding this to the 5,100-odd gold coins, you’re still quite a bit short of 10,000, aren’t you, little sister~?”
“Then…”
Elizabeth’s eyes showed unwillingness as she bit her lower lip tightly. No one knew what kind of risks she had braved this past month. Now that the deadline was here, she was only 1,900 Gold Coins short of redeeming her clan. How could she give up so easily?
“As long as you return my clan members first, no matter how much more money you want—whether it’s two thousand, twenty thousand, or two hundred thousand Gold Coins—I’ll earn it later! Just… return everyone, and I, Elizabeth, will do anything…!”
“Little sister, your determination is truly moving, enough to make this Big Sister’s heart soften…” The hope in the White Mouse’s heart had only just ignited before Reki shook her head regretfully and ruthlessly extinguished it with her next sentence. “But, it’s still no good~~”
Elizabeth’s expression darkened. As if finally making a resolute decision, she quickly stepped forward, took off the cloak she wore, and presented it before Reki’s eyes with both hands. “Then please add this…!”
Reki reached out and touched this garment, which seemed to have no advantage besides being exquisitely cute. The originally cold temperature in her palm suddenly turned warm, and a tingling sensation, as if an electric current passed through her, spread throughout her body. This anomaly made Reki unable to maintain her lazy, leisurely demeanor; she let out a soft “Hm?”, her face showing a trace of astonishment.
“Enchantment craftsmanship…?”
Reki wanted to examine it more closely and carefully, but felt resistance. Following the source of that pulling resistance, she saw Elizabeth, who had clearly just offered the item with her own hands, now clutching the cloak tightly… as if unwilling to lose her most important possession.
“If it’s so important to you, please take it back.” Reki felt surprised, then smiled faintly, not insisting.
Important… of course, it was important.
Even compared to redeeming her clan, it seemed worth sacrificing. Yet, Elizabeth couldn’t understand why she couldn’t loosen her grip.
Until—
Reki noticed the glance cast by the other girl, the one who had been silently listening to their conversation. That girl, with a calm expression, made a move: placing her hand on Elizabeth’s slightly trembling shoulder… And then, struggling, Elizabeth finally withdrew her hand.
“Now it’s fine.” A smile tilted on Weilin’s calm face. “Please appraise it, Miss Reki.”
