A few minutes later, Tereza lands outside the city, and the group makes its way inside.
Benezia wears a veil, hiding her face, while Alex puts on his [Jack's Spare Silvery Mask].
"Let's look for the more run-down part of town. Brothels, bars, slums," Alex suggests. "In all other places, we'll get ousted as soon as the news spreads about what happened in the capital."
"I agree," Benezia says. "Tereza, as Alex said, you will take the lead. I firmly agree with that point."
"Okay," Tereza replies, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Let's do this then," she finally says.
Under Tereza's leadership, the group walks through the streets. Despite the late hour, they notice one district still lively, with loud yells echoing across it and most buildings lit up.
"I'd say that's where we want to go," Tereza states.
"Looks like it," Alex confirms.
They make their way into the district and see multiple people drinking in the street. Scantily dressed women in skimpy outfits wander through the crowds. Dubious-looking vendors peddle their wares openly.
Drugs...
Tereza, seemingly unfazed, passes by them without reacting, while Alex and Jewel use Zetsu to weaken their presence.
Suddenly, a man appears directly in front of Benezia and jerks her veil aside.
"Too blue... too old," he mutters, stepping back and throwing the veil away.
Alex suddenly gets the feeling that something snapped—and sees Benezia using her biotics.
"Stop it," Alex whispers. "We want to lay low!"
"Aaaahh, my balls?!" the man yells. "What is this?! I suddenly—my ba—"
Crack
Alex hears a disgusting sound, something cracking, just as Benezia smiles in satisfaction and calmly picks up and reattaches her veil.
The man, already a bit away from them, suddenly collapses, screaming in pain and throwing up.
"Damn these drug users," a bystander comments.
"Just go die somewhere else!" another says, clearly annoyed.
"Let's move on," Benezia says.
"O—okay," Tereza replies, looking uncomfortable as she speeds up, quickly leaving the scene.
Jewel... if I had listened to your earlier advice, that could have very well been me!
Princess Jewel will think of another plan....
Jewel, honestly, lately all your plans and actions are slowly escalating. Is there a reason for it? You weren't always like this.
Not really. If Princess Jewel had one reason, it's that she enjoys herself immensely. Going on adventures with everyone is interesting and fun!
I see... It's a little bit like a gambling addiction. Once you win for the first time, you want more and more. Usually, people—or in your case... spiders—like that don't have a good ending. Don't forget our lives are on the line.
...
Jewel is sorry.
It's fine... just keep it under control. Everything... but in moderation, okay?
❤️
"Come here," Alex says, extending his arm toward his head. Jewel, after a brief pause, with a bit of reluctance, grabs it and wraps her body around it.
Alex, retracting his arm with Jewel in his grasp, slowly stroking her smooth carapace-like body, follows after Tereza and Benezia, the two of them continuing ahead through the busy nightlife of the pleasure district in Nanohana.
"That hotel looks good," Tereza says, pointing to a mid-sized stone building. "It's on the edge of this sleazy district, not too run-down. It's only for a few days, so let's take it."
"An appropriate choice," Benezia agrees, obviously satisfied with her decision.
Quickly stepping inside, Alex immediately spots a few rough-looking bodyguards posted near the entrance.
They silently pass them without issue and approach the front desk.
Under Tereza's lead, they rent the two largest and most expensive rooms the hotel has available, paying just 30,000 Belly per room, per night.
Outside their rooms, Alex speaks up first. "Let's rest until sunrise, and then make our move. We've got a few things to do."
"Alright," Tereza says, rubbing her eyes. "Maybe let me sleep a bit longer than sunrise. I'm seriously exhausted."
"Take one of Menchi's new dishes she gave you," Alex suggests. "It will help you regain a lot of stamina."
"Do not hold back when using them," Benezia adds. "If you run out, Alex and I will share with you. In fact, you are the most important person in our group at this moment. You need to be ready to fly at a moment's notice, so it's vital that you stay in good shape."
"Thanks..." Tereza mutters. "I'll need eight hours of rest and one of those tasty [Superior Dish (Fried Squid Balls)], and I'll be in top shape again."
Tasty balls... tasty squid... no to both.
Splitting up, Alex shares a room with Jewel, while the two women stick together.
Princess Jewel is getting a little nervous.
"..."
"You've been sitting on my head for months now," Alex says, stepping toward the bed. "Stop being silly. Let's sleep."
As he finishes his sentence, he stares down at the filthy bed—dirty spots scattered everywhere.
"Fuck... might as well take out one of my blankets and pillows from my inventory," Alex mutters.
Princess Jewel will take care of it.
"How?" Alex asks.
Jewel, without hesitating, jumps onto the bed and begins spinning web, covering the entire surface—and even part of the walls—in a thick, silky net.
"That's a smart idea... come to think of it, you are a spider, but you rarely spin a net. I wonder why," Alex says, watching her work.
Finally, he touches the web, so smooth, reminding him of actual silk.
"That is incredible," he says.
Princess Jewel does not like nets all that much.
"That's... rather weird... for a spider, at least," Alex notes, then shrugs. "But whatever you want to do. You're skilled with it in combat and ambushes, so that's all that matters. No need to cater to stereotypes, I guess."
"Not bad," Alex says as he lies down on the webbed bed. "It's incredibly soft, yet cool at the same time. It actually reminds me of silk! Maybe you should create some clothes, you have talent. Or you could just provide the silk and let others use it."
❤️ Princess Jewel might give it a try then. She doesn't want others to work with her silk.
"Good night," Alex finally says, closing his eyes, trying to get some rest, ignoring Jewel's piercing red eyes that keep staring at him.
"..."
The next day, after getting a good amount of rest, the group meets up again, quickly leaving the hotel.
"Maybe I picked the wrong one after all," Tereza comments, looking a little depressed and disgusted.
"Our sacrifices won't go without reward..." Benezia mutters, clearly dissatisfied as well.
Maybe I shouldn't explain what Jewel did for me... that will only piss these two off. Keep it to yourself, Jewel.
❤️
"So..." Alex begins to speak, "will we visit the large weapon stores and try to sell our loot?"
Benezia shakes her head, smirking slightly. "Think about it. That would be problematic. If we're going to do it, we need to act carefully and deliberate."
"Why?" Alex asks.
"I don't get it either, didn't we already decide on it?" Tereza chimes in, agreeing with Alex.
"There are two ways to obtain weapons. You either import them or craft them yourself using raw materials. Importing the materials is not commercially viable. Think about it some more."
"Well... most islands, especially this one, probably don't have iron veins... also barely any wood and coal, so they probably import them. So what's the problem?"
"If we sell them to weapon stores, they'll question how we got them. At worst, they might recognize their own weapons—ones they sold to the Alubarna weapon shop," Benezia explains.
Alex thinks for a moment before replying, "I guess you have a point... but so what? We can just claim we imported them ourselves, and they must be wrong or that they are from the same supplier, or something. We could pretend to be merchants."
"In any case," Benezia says, turning to Tereza, "just visit a few stores. We can start with the larger ones, but perhaps we should sell them in smaller quantities. First, we compare prices—then we sell to the stores with the best offers, using their own offers to play them against each other, it's as simple as that."
"Okay!" Tereza replies with a nod.
She seems to know what she's doing, so I'll shut up and just sit this one out.
Princess Jewel will also just watch the Peasants sell Soulmate's weapons.
Exactly as Benezia suggested, the group quickly heads into the centre of Nanohana, visiting several major weapon stores. They all offer nearly identical prices—prices that, even after Benezia's skilled negotiation, are only about half of what the stores themselves charge for the same weapons.
To Alex's disappointment, the shops—unlike the one in Rainbase—only sell White Quality items, and even those go for absurd prices reaching into the millions. Any purchase would be a terrible investment.
Dissatisfied, the group checks out a few smaller stores tucked away in the quieter, less-travelled streets.
As they enter one such store, Alex immediately spots a few old, remarkably crafted swords lined up near the back wall.
Can it be?!
Soulmate... that's another one, right?!
Yes! Our LUK is going strong. We need to buy it!
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