Mystical Journey

Time flew by, and Garen and Celine had already stayed in the hospital for over half a month. After a few visits from friends and family, the two were safely discharged, as the injuries on their body were almost fully healed even after there was a small hiccup in the middle of recovery. Garen’s physique received praises from his attending doctors and nurses, as it was a physique attained by strong athletes, yet it was seen on a normal student.

With an average of 1.5 points increment from normal people’s physical attributes, he displayed nearly twice the overall qualities of a normal human body.

Upon his return to the academy, the final match had already ended. The award money was directly transferred to Garen’s account.

Life returned to the daily routine of classes and training in the battlenet. However, the two geniuses that had emerged from the finals, Celine and Nonosiva, had slightly prolonged the excitement. These two bastards that suddenly came out of nowhere nearly had the chance to claim the thrones of the top three and drag Caus down by a notch.

Of course, Garen didn’t have the time to care for such trivial matters. He was busy attending to the clients Celine had contacted, after all, Blue Narcissus had gained some publicity after this.

Within his dorm, Garen greeted them with his hand extended to welcome them in.

“There’s not much for me to serve you, but do sit anywhere as you please.”

The two people who just came in observed every corner of his dorm room. These two people were clients introduced by Celine to examine the goods, in respect to Celine, as well as potentially reap greater benefits. The two of them had personally come instead of sending their henchmen to examine the goods.

Among the two, one of them was a gentle-looking man wearing a white shirt and glasses, the other was a red-dressed girl with slightly puffy shoulder-length hair.

“Student Nono, let’s not delay any longer, just show us the goods.” the man was named Wade, and he didn’t mention his surname. Regardless, he was still rich and influential. He adjusted his glasses before returning his gaze to Garen.

“I’ve already prepared the goods, however, it would be impossible to display it out in the open. I shall show it to you immediately,” Garen nodded. He then retrieved a bottle of highly potent fuel powder from the cupboard in his room.

Within the transparent glass bottle he just brought out were powdery, pale yellow shards. Some were still clumped into tiny pebbles.

Garen passed the bottle to the man and then retrieved another one for the girl to examine.

“For the two of you to have personally come all this way, it is obvious that you’re familiar with this thing. Tell me, what you think of its purity?” Garen smiled as he said.

The two lowered their heads, opened the bottle and poured out a little of its contents. They examined it closely.

The girl dabbed her finger into it and gave it a taste.

“Quite good, there are higher amounts of impurities as well,” the girl replied softly. Her name was Vivienne Sina, and apart from her family’s background, she was familiar with chemical productions. Her family business thrived on it.

“A thousand kilograms of these could net a purity around 600 kilograms. The ratio itself is quite good already.”

“I just need to know, how much is your purchase price altogether?” Garen waved his hand, his back leaned against the cupboard and asked with a smile.

“Purchase price… let’s not talk about that for now, we’re much more interested in the methods of extraction for this,” the girl smiled while twirling a few strands of her silky hair around the tip of her finger. “If you can provide information of the extraction methods, I’ll be willing to offer this price.”

She extended two fingers on one hand and formed a fist with the other.

“Two million.” [1]

For a normal academy student, even if he was a bit of a genius, a genius who had not matured bore no significance. To offer two million Units was her giving face to Celine.

“How is it? The price is quite high already,” the girl tossed the bottle back and forth and smiled as she replied.

“High?” Garen anticipated such problems would surface early on, hence he wasn’t provoked, “That bottle in your hand alone is worth more than ten million, yet you’re telling me that you’re purchasing the extraction techniques for two million? If I were to truly intend to hand over the knowledge of the techniques, why wouldn’t I donate it to the academy higher-ups? I’ll be able to attain the higher-ups’ attention as well, maybe even receive closer attention in nurturing me when I become an elite.”

The girl’s smile slowly faded away.

“Two million is already not a small amount… There are some things that can’t even be bought once gone, even with all the money in the world.”

“Oh? Are you threatening me?” Garen remained unfazed. “With just your two master bodyguards standing right outside the door?” he wore a shy smile, like how a normal boy saw his crush.

“Perhaps Celine did not mention to you what would happen to anyone who threatens me within 50 meters?”

“Ho ho ho ho….” the girl nodded and replied, “You truly are formidable in a fight. But no matter how long you can last in one, some things only require one instance to eliminate someone.”

“I will kill you first before that happens,” Garen narrowed his eyes.

“You’re quite mad!”

“You may try.”

The atmosphere suddenly froze, as a red electronic key appeared in the girl’s hand. Her thumb rested on its red button, ready to press it at any moment.

Garen folded his arms across his chest, silently staring down his opponent as a sliver of killing intent oozed into his stance. For such a thing as killing intent, which bore no visible shape, it was more like a physical display of determination. From a person’s actions and gaze, along with various subtle movements, one could determine whether or not that person truly intended to kill. A true killing intent, when released through spoken words and the body’s base capability, could completely and truly manifest as an intent of desiring death upon another. This form of biological electric field could generate subtle effects on another being. This was what most people could interpret as a killing intent.

Perhaps other wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, yet the man with the glasses at the side secretly exuded already. He was able to tell, that Garen really would kill without hesitance if they can’t come to an agreement! This sort of killing intent was the kind that he would commonly see on his master bodyguards.

“Alright, alright, everyone, take a step back, each of you take one step back,” the man hurriedly stepped between the two to mediate.

If a fight really broke out, Blackboard Academy’s law and security system would arrive on foot within the vicinity in thirty seconds. Under the cooperation of a squad of various genius masters, it could be assumed that anyone would be caught to face trial before even escaping through the academy gates.

With the strengths of Blackboard Academy, no one would care whether you were a normal student or an influential disciple. The patrol squads upholding academy laws consisted of elites from the inner academy. In a situation where they monitored everywhere, even if the person had any viable connections, he or she could only bring them up after being detained.

And once detained, the elderly shareholders within the inner academy court couldn’t be persuaded with valuable riches. They would stick by the judgment even if it was execution by firing squads, regardless of identity or background, in the name of equality! The only exception was if the person in question was a genius in the academy, then he or she may be looked upon with a more positive light.

As such, Garen had bet on them being unable to fight on academy grounds. Only then did he dare to threaten his opponent without wavering.

“Actually, as long as we don’t demand the extraction techniques, then there will be many agreements to be made. We all seek to profit together, yes?” he smiled, as he took the initiative to warm the atmosphere.

The girl’s eyes darted around before she smiled as well.

“My sincere apologies, it was merely a joke just now. I wanted to see how big of a determination you have in safeguarding your techniques. You should know that if we were to cooperate, and others came in to scour your techniques, one misstep could waste all our invested time and money. So I decided to test you beforehand.”

She changed the topic.

“But truth to be told, I do have thoughts of purchasing the extraction techniques. Although I was joking just now, if student Nono really does decide to sell it, remember to contact me first, alright~” the girl twirled a few strands of her hairs as her body leaned forward, suddenly closing the gap between her and Garen. Her body was releasing a perfumed scent mixed with her body’s natural scent, which permeated Garen’s nostrils.

“I will definitely remember you. Student Vivienne,” Garen replied without a change in his expression.

The two smiled at one another. The sensation of readying themselves to draw blood from before had vanished completely.

“I’ve brought a contract regarding our cooperation, it entails the terms and conditions for our joint business. Take a look,” Garen took out several white sheets of information he’d prepared beforehand from below his study desk. He separated them into two piles for each of them to see.

The two received and read through them as doubt and suspicion lightly flashed across their faces.

In the contract, it was stated that the two of them shall contribute in two parts, improving purity levels and trade marketing. Each of them shall reap in ten percent of the profits. This treatment… it wasn’t bad, rather, it was too good.

“You certainly drive a crude bargain here…” the man with the glasses, Wade, exclaimed slightly, “if we go according to your calculations, when we reach the expected return for a month, with each of us receiving ten percent of the profits, there will be at least ten million Units to be gained from dividing it all. It would total up to over hundred million units in a year! What we want to do, however, can be handled by anyone else which we could easily find, as the demand for highly potent fuel powders now is high everywhere.”

The red-dressed girl, Vivienne, kept quiet and remained motionless.

“Though it’s easy to talk about it, for us to be responsible for the aspects of sales and trading, we’ll definitely be targets of investigation for the source it all. And when that happens, there will be a lot of problems coming our way. This contract is not enough.”

Garen remained unchanged in his expression.

“So what Miss Vivienne suggesting is?”

“Without our protection, your goods can never be distributed. The risks are too high. I guarantee that there are many who wish to interfere. You alone reaping seventy percent is too much,” Vivienne calmly objected. “I primarily handle sales and trading, so I bear the highest risks. I want an additional thirty percent.”

Additional thirty percent!

The heart of the man with glasses skipped a beat. Although he was familiar with Vivienne’s personality, he always knew that her appetite knew no bounds. She was used to extravagant personal spendings and thus had accumulated a huge debt. But for her to immediately ask for forty percent of the profits upon investing in a trading post? Even this condition was slightly over the top for the most overbearing of influential individuals to demand of.

And with so much likely interferences from others? Business would only net around less than two hundred million in a month. Though it would still be acceptable in the eyes of children, such amounts were paltry in the eyes of masterminds.

“I cannot allow thirty percent. Truth to be told, Miss Vivienne, setting yours and Celine’s cut aside along with following the example figures, twenty percent is accounted for profit turnovers and tax payments. Moreover, the remaining fifty percent does not belong to me entirely,” he replied honestly.

“Oh?” Vivienne was stunned, “Tell us, who else is there? Perhaps this person will be willing to show face to the Sina Family,” she replied without a change in her expression.

“Thirty percent of it will be donated to the Blue Narcissus public funds. It will act as shared funds for everyone belonging to the organization,” Garen shared a much more shocking statement with an unfazed expression.

“The public funds of Blue Narcissus!?” this time, even Vivienne’s heart jumped greatly.

For the first time, she carefully stared and measured this boy from a commoner background with her very eyes. His name was Nonosiva, yes? She recalled this person’s name. Such daring confidence! To easily donate away thirty percent of profits which amounted to more than thirty million units a month, all to contribute towards the Blue Narcissus public funds.

From what she knew.

All donations would be openly displayed on the public screens of Blue Narcissus. This sum would be distributed equally to every single member. Although it bore no huge effects on an individual scale, it would certainly address a few problems.

TL Note:

[1] The raws state 二十万, where 万 is a unit representing ten thousand, hence Vivienne Sina’s gesture was twenty instead of two.