Evil Dragon Bar

At the Fool's instruction, the Ritual Magic experiment had to be carried out by Wednesday at the latest. Although the materials required for the ritual He had taught her were not valuable, there were quite a few varieties. Angel sorted through the supplies in the study's basement and found that she would have to make another trip to the Underground Market to meet the requirements.

Tingen's largest Underground Trading Market was located in the Docklands, inside the Evil Dragon Bar.

Before joining the Nighthawks, Angel had assumed that this market was merely a secret location passed around among mysticism enthusiasts and certain unaffiliated Beyonders. But after learning of the place from Old Neil, Leonard, Seeka, and others, she realized that the Evil Dragon Bar had long since been exposed to the official Beyonders' attention.

Or rather, places like the Evil Dragon Bar existed with the tacit approval of the churches' Beyonder forces, making it easier to control the trade of most dangerous items and Beyonder Ingredients rather than letting it develop unchecked.

After understanding that, Angel no longer felt any psychological burden about visiting the Underground Market. Even a veteran Nighthawk like Old Neil often went to the Evil Dragon Bar to buy materials, so what was wrong with her preparing to practice Ritual Magic?

After nightfall, she hired a two-wheeled carriage and headed straight for the Docklands.

Considering that the shopping would take quite some time, Angel did not ask the carriage to wait. She paid the fare and sent the driver away.

She then skillfully bypassed the guards at the entrance, the seemingly endless boxing matches, and the billiards players who appeared to be playing pool but were actually guarding the secret door. Following the long hidden passage, she entered the Underground Trading Market.

The first time Angel had come to the Evil Dragon Bar, she had been there to make special bullets to deal with Mrs. Sharon. Her goal had been clear, and she had been in a rush. This time, her mindset and purpose were different. She could leisurely wander through the Underground Trading Market as if shopping in a supermarket, carefully selecting materials for Ritual Magic while broadening her horizons.

The building housing the Underground Market was actually another structure behind the Evil Dragon Bar. It looked as though it had been converted from a warehouse, with a ceiling over four meters high and an area of roughly five hundred square meters. The managers had divided it into rows of fixed stalls, with walkways between them. Thus, though the traders were crowded together, the place did not seem chaotic.

As she browsed the stalls one by one, Angel quickly found something that interested her.

A messy-haired youth sat on a small round stool, his head drooping as if he were sleepy. Many small, exquisite glass bottles were displayed on the mat before him, while a pile of cloth bags of varying sizes lay beside him. Several toppled bags had spilled their contents, and Angel recognized Moon Flowers among them.

"Are you selling essential oils made from various herbs?" She stepped closer and bent down to pick up a thumb-sized glass bottle sealed with a metal stopper. Pale yellow oil filled it.

The youth looked up at Angel and froze for a moment before answering, "That's right. You actually didn't mistake them for perfume. I've already sent away several customers who got them confused."

"Isn't perfume also plant essential oil? It's just more fragrant than the ones you make." Angel pulled out the metal stopper, and a pungent scent reached her nose. Mm, Golden Mint.

"Of course they're different! Perfume is just a cosmetic, while essential oils can be used as medicine, and they can also..." The youth instantly blushed and retorted anxiously, but he abruptly stopped halfway through. He looked around before continuing, "...Forget it. You wouldn't understand even if I explained. These essential oils are 5 soli per bottle. If you buy more than three bottles, you get a ten percent discount."

"So expensive?"

Angel raised an eyebrow. Given the production process, the cost of the raw materials, and the extraction equipment required, she did not truly think it was expensive. She was simply instinctively trying to haggle.

"My teacher set the price. He said that even if they don't sell, I can't lower it." The youth put on a stern expression, as if he would rather die than bargain. Then he added in a low voice, "...If you buy more than three bottles, I'll give you another five percent off?"

Figuring that no amount of further talking would get her a larger discount, Angel nodded in agreement.

"Fine, we'll go with that price. I need Golden Mint, Moon Flower..." She listed the types of essential oil she needed in one breath. To avoid revealing the precise requirements of the Ritual Magic, she deliberately added two other kinds of essential oil.

To her surprise, the youth's stall had an extremely complete selection. He skillfully picked out every kind she requested, including the two extra types, and packed them into an exquisite cloth bag.

"The total is 1 pound, 9 soli, and... 9 pence." The youth swiftly calculated the discounted price. He handed over the cloth bag with one hand and accepted Angel's banknotes with the other. After giving her 3 pence in change, he immediately turned to the owner of another stall behind him and said, "Hey, Old Man, I've got enough money now. I'll take all those herbs of yours."

The stall owner whom he called Old Man happily accepted the money and handed the youth a large bag of unknown medicinal herbs.

So this was what they called profiting from the difference...

Watching the money she had spent on a few bottles of essential oil pass through the youth's hands and turn into herbs that could extract at least several times as much oil, Angel had witnessed the enormous profits of underground trade.

Of course, she did not have professional extraction equipment. Even if she bought herbs, she could only soak them in alcohol and extract the oils slowly. It would take a long time, be inefficient, and easily introduce impurities. Such oils were unsuitable for rituals, so she could only let the youth earn the difference.

Angel hefted the cloth bag in her hand and did not dwell on it. If she could complete the Fool's assignment by spending only a few pounds, the price was not too high.

She recalled the items required for Ritual Magic. An ordinary carving knife could substitute for a ritual dagger, as long as it could create a Wall of Spirituality. It would be best to buy the various food offerings on the day itself to ensure they did not spoil. That only left the Sandalwood Candles for the ritual.

After passing several more stalls hawking materials and finished products, Angel came before a middle-aged man who was promoting various amulets to other customers.

For Beyonders who could craft their own Charms and amulets, talismans made by ordinary people based on flawed occult knowledge were entirely pointless to spend money on. What she cared about were the Sandalwood Candles the stall owner had placed in the corner; these candles appeared more translucent than those made from ordinary animal fats, and their bodies were also much slimmer, allowing them to be distinguished from other candles at a single glance.

"How much are those candles?" Angel asked only after the middle-aged man failed to make a sale and sat back down on his low stool.

"Hm? What?"

The man looked at Angel in confusion, then followed her gaze toward the candles.

"You want to buy candles? No, no, those aren't for sale. I need them to make amulets. Why don't you take a look at these amulets..."

He picked up the unsold silver amulet with its hollowed-out design and feather-shaped decoration and held it out to Angel again.

"5 soli." Angel ignored the amulet in his hand and quoted a price directly.

"This one costs 6 soli. For 5 soli, you can only buy the ones over there..." The man failed to understand her meaning and continued fiddling with the silver amulet.

"I mean the candles."

The middle-aged man froze. It took him quite a while to understand. He looked at the amulet in his hand, then at the bundle of candles in the corner, hesitating for a moment.

"Fine. They're yours..."

With a sigh, the man agreed to the deal.

Ordinary candles generally cost half a penny. Even if Sandalwood Candles cost several times as much, a bundle of ten would not cost 2 soli. Angel had forcibly bought them at more than double the price, which had indeed shattered the man's psychological limit. Dejectedly, he tossed down the silver amulet, picked up the bundle of candles, and handed it to Angel.

"I never expected my first sale today to be reselling candles." He accepted the 5-soli banknote and mocked himself. "It seems selling candles might be more profitable than making amulets."

Realizing that her eagerness to purchase the candles had discouraged the stall owner, Angel smiled wryly and comforted him. "Sorry, I just need these candles urgently. It doesn't mean the amulets you make aren't worth the price. These, um..."

She pressed her tongue against her back teeth and activated Spirit Vision. Looking at the dim, lifeless amulets, she was struggling to think of a compliment she could offer against her conscience when she suddenly felt a disturbance in her spirituality from behind. It was as if her intuition were tugging at her, warning her to be wary of that direction.

No longer paying attention to the dejected middle-aged man, she turned around. By the wall beyond two rows of stalls sat a thin young man. He wore the linen shirt and blue-gray trousers commonly worn by dock workers. His wrinkled clothes looked as though they had not been washed or changed in a long time. His dull eyes stared at the ceiling while his lips moved, muttering something incomprehensible.

The passersby seemed accustomed to the youth's presence. They turned a blind eye to his strange behavior, merely giving him a slight berth to avoid touching him.

"Who is that?" Angel pointed at him and asked the middle-aged man, who was wiping his amulets.

"An orphan. Nobody knows his name. He's crazy, spouting nonsense every day and shouting at strangers. He often gets beaten whenever he runs into someone with a bad temper." The man glanced in the direction Angel pointed and answered casually, "If Mr. Svein, the manager here, didn't have a bit of compassion, he'd have been thrown into the Tussock River long ago."

Angel activated Spirit Vision again and carefully observed the crazy young man, but she made no additional discoveries.

Perhaps only a Spirit Medium or a Seer skilled in Spirit Vision could see something... She ran her tongue over her teeth, deactivated Spirit Vision, and stopped paying attention to the youth.

With the candles acquired, Angel's primary task was complete. But since she had rarely had the chance to visit the Underground Trading Market, she did not intend to leave immediately. Instead, she continued browsing the various stalls, watching others haggle and argue, and occasionally buying materials at suitable prices.

She even ran into the shy, round-faced man who had sat opposite her on the Public Carriage during the day. He was haggling over an intricately designed, gorgeously decorated ritual knife. Judging by how the stall owner went from resistance to compliance and then repeatedly nodded, the initiative in the transaction seemed to be in the hands of this young man, who looked barely grown.

Noticing Angel's gaze, the round-faced man turned his head toward her. He seemed to recognize her as well. After saying a few words to the stall owner, he took the knife and walked over.

"Beautiful lady, we meet again."