"Oh my... You're too kind, guest. I'm nowhere near as beautiful as this young lady. I'm just an ordinary prostitute with a little charm, that's all. By the way, miss, are you perhaps part divine?"
Hela only smiled.
Rhine was even more merciless. "She's my coworker. There's nothing between us. She's just here to pay for me. Here, give her three million."
"Oh, she's your coworker... Wait, what?!"
Alice nodded along at first, but the next moment, her eyes widened in shock.
What had he just said?!
37. Laita's Empress
Three million wasn't much money for an imperial prince.
But figuring out how to produce that sum in a foreign land was the real problem.
Fortunately, Rhine had brought Hela along this time.
Hela slipped her hand into her sleeve, and a Spatial Rift opened discreetly.
Then a fair little hand reluctantly offered the money for her beloved's night with a woman.
"I don't have any Laita currency on me. This is the border, so I think a trade will be more welcome."
Hela took out a ceramic jar. Inside was a strangely shaped worm.
"This is a treasure I picked up in the Emerald Plains. They say it can devour souls without taking a person's life, but I tried it a few times... and it didn't seem to work quite like that."
"This thing is really worth three million?"
Alice curiously inspected the little creature in the jar. It certainly looked strange, but surely... it couldn't be worth three million, could it?
Alice looked bewildered. "I'm sorry, guest, but what exactly is this?"
Hela smiled. "It's the remains of a Demigod."
Gasp!
Alice nearly buckled at the knees and fell to the ground.
Demigods.
They were the elves' greatest nightmare.
When she learned that the worm in the jar was part of a Demigod, Alice instinctively began to panic.
But soon, she calmed herself.
Stay calm...
No matter how dangerous Demigods were, this thing had been carefully sealed away by the two mysterious guests in front of her.
It shouldn't be dangerous.
Besides, as a nation constantly invaded and attacked by Demigods, Laita had great use for their bodily remains, which could fetch a very good price.
If this really was a Demigod's remains,
then exchanging it for three million meant these two guests were clearly getting the short end of the deal.
But the black-haired guest seemed to dislike the remains. Perhaps their abilities had disappointed her, so she didn't want them anymore.
So...
That meant...
Alice really had been bought.
She had never thought that, in a poor border town like this, someone would actually...
In truth, Alice...
She knew her own worth.
If she could, she hoped to share her first time with that handsome Mr. Rhine, whose eyes were so beautiful.
Spending the night with such a dashing gentleman...
It seemed...
Quite romantic, really.
She gave Rhine a strained smile. Her voice trembled with excitement. "I-I understand... Please wait here, guest. I'll go get our boss..."
Alice took the jar and carefully carried the Demigod's remains toward the back.
Watching the elf girl leave,
"Is she your target?"
Hela folded her arms and asked curiously, "Did Your Highness know from the beginning that there was a lunar divine-blooded girl in this place?"
Rhine certainly had known.
But that only made Hela more curious. "So, Your Highness, can you tell me what value this girl has?"
Rhine didn't mind telling Hela the truth.
There was little difference whether he told her or not, so he might as well be honest.
"You can tell she has divine blood in her, can't you?"
Hela smiled. "Of course. You can tell just by looking at her face. Only nobles who constantly indulge in incest within their courts could have blood of that caliber. She has noble blood but doesn't know it herself, so she's probably an illegitimate child or an abandoned baby."
"Actually..."
Rhine watched Alice's retreating figure and said calmly, "She'll become Laita's future empress."
"Huh...?"
Hela was stunned.
She looked at Rhine in disbelief.
"Really?"
"Really. All it takes is the right opportunity, and Laita's demigod will open a portal and appear before her to welcome her."
Emmmmmmm...
Hela fell silent.
She naturally wondered how Rhine could foresee the future and know that a prostitute in a border town would one day be crowned empress of Laita, the most powerful empire of the elves.
But perhaps someone with an evil god backing him really did know more than most.
So this guy... had spent three million to buy the future empress of Laita's first night?
What a bargain hunter...
38. Set Out, and Find Our Queen
On the desert steppe, Spring Breeze and First Love raced along with a thunderous roar, finally reaching the destroyed orc settlement a day later.
Just as the reports had said,
some unknown, terrifying force had destroyed the place in an instant, leaving not even scraps behind.
After killing and feasting on the scavengers who'd come sniffing around, Spring Breeze and First Love continued on.
"Let's move, boys!"
The orc boss was beaming. "Those weak, pointy-eared bastards wouldn't dare pick a fight with orcs. Let's see what's out there that wants to take us on!"
The charging mobile city opened its side hatch. Countless goblins rode out of the mothership on junk motorcycles cobbled together from scrap metal, scattering in every direction.
However, before long,
one of the scout vehicles sent back a report.
"Boss! There's someone blocking the road ahead! A pointy-ear! A female!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The bridge burst into synchronized laughter. "Then run her over!!!"
Right in front of Spring Breeze and First Love, a young elf mage calmly watched the mobile city approaching in the distance.
Then the young elf mage looked down at the compass in her hand.
From that enormous, twisted mobile heap of junk, she had detected... a divine reaction.
"Teacher, I've found a suspected intruder. I'll leave the rest to you."
As soon as she finished speaking,
a faint cracking sound came from above the mage girl's head.
Cracks appeared in the empty air.
Boom!!
Then an indescribable, terrifying force shattered space itself and descended with a bang!
An elven woman with silver hair stepped out of the shattered space.
She was a peerlessly beautiful woman, with a tall figure and a cold, striking presence. Everything about her radiated an exalted, otherworldly aura like that of a god.
Except her complexion was so poor she looked close to death.
Aboard Spring Breeze and First Love,
the orcs saw the silver-haired pointy-ear who had shattered space to make her entrance...
The orcs fell silent.
The good news:
they'd probably found the culprit behind the destruction of the orc settlement.
The bad news:
they were about to be destroyed too.
Next, the orcs witnessed the most spectacular sight of their lives.
The silver-haired Elf Demigod softly chanted an incantation, and liquid mithril began to ripple and surge beneath her feet.
As she continued the incantation, the liquid mithril spread farther and farther.
At last...
The flowing mithril surged forward like a tsunami, swallowing the tiny mobile city in an instant!
Spring Breeze and First Love was smashed apart by the mithril tsunami, while blades formed from mithril seeped into the machinery and slit the orcs' throats.
After several earth-shaking explosions, the roaring heap of junk finally went quiet.
The silver-haired demigod watched it all without expression.
Suddenly, her face twitched twice. Then she took out a handkerchief, covered her mouth, and coughed painfully for a long time, until the whole handkerchief was soaked with silver blood.
"Teacher..."
The young elf mage went to her side. Seeing her teacher in such pain, the girl could do nothing but look at her with concern.
After a long while,
the silver-haired demigod's condition finally stabilized.
The mage girl asked with concern, "Teacher, are you feeling better?"
"Don't ask pointless questions."
Before you continue