Chapter 136 : Chapter 136
Volume 2
Chapter 60 : An Imperfect Date
“You brat, you broke my gemstone and thought you could just walk away?”
“Hm?”
Muen froze for a moment, then narrowed his eyes.
“What exactly are you trying to say, old man?”
“Look!”
The balding old man still clutched Muen’s ankle with one hand while raising the gemstone from earlier with the other.
Under the sunlight, a clear crack could be seen running across its surface.
But when Muen had picked it up just now, it had been completely intact.
“You must have cracked it when you were tossing it around just now!”
The old man’s face was full of resentment.
“You have to pay for it!”
“It broke just from being weighed in the hand?”
Muen sounded somewhat astonished as he looked at the old man.
“How much do you want me to pay?”
“I…”
The balding old man’s gaze swept over Muen’s obviously expensive clothes, and greed flashed through his eyes.
“One hundred thousand. I want one hundred thousand!”
“One hundred thousand?”
Muen raised a brow.
That was an interesting number.
If that gemstone had truly been the Tear of True Love, then one hundred thousand Aemir would not have been enough to buy even the box that held it.
But the gemstone was obviously fake, and judging by how crudely it had been made, you could buy a whole pile of them in the wholesale market for ten Aemir.
Which meant…
“Extortion?”
Muen suddenly found it rather amusing.
“What do you mean by extortion?!”
The balding old man spoke bitterly.
“You broke my gemstone, so you have to pay.”
“And what if I refuse?” Muen said with a half-smile.
“If you refuse…”
The old man’s shifty eyes turned, and he instantly threw himself onto the ground and began rolling around.
“Help, everyone, come look! He broke my things and refuses to pay! Is there no justice left? Is there no law? Is this not just bullying an honest old man?”
The street had already been busy, and with the old man making such a scene, a crowd quickly gathered and began pointing at both him and Muen.
At that moment, several people in uniform suddenly pushed through the crowd.
“What is going on here? Why are you all crowding around?”
They were patrol officers.
The officer holding a baton glanced over the scene.
When his eyes fell on Muen, they clearly lit up, and he turned to the old man and asked:
“What happened?”
“Officer, you have to stand up for me!”
At the sight of the patrol officer, the balding old man immediately gained a great deal more confidence.
He stood and pointed at Muen.
“He broke my things! And now he refuses to pay! He is bullying an old man with no one to rely on.”
“Is that so?”
The patrol officer walked closer, tapping his baton against his palm as he looked at Muen.
“Kid, if you damage someone else’s property, then you compensate them at the proper price. That is only natural. You are not going to tell me you do not know that, are you?”
“Of course I know that.”
“Since you know, then hurry up and pay him so this can be settled. Do not block the road here and delay everyone else.” The patrol officer looked deeply impatient.
“Judging by what you are wearing, taking out one hundred thousand Aemir should not be difficult for you at all.”
“That is right, that is right. Paying for what you broke is only natural.”
“Kid, you are not trying to worm your way out of this, are you?”
Following the patrol officer’s words, many of the onlookers immediately began criticizing Muen as well.
For a moment, Muen truly seemed to have become some scum who had broken a lonely old man’s precious gemstone and was shamelessly refusing to compensate him.
But when Muen turned his head and looked, he realized that the ones speaking were only the same few people hidden in the crowd.
“Oh my, junior, it looks like you have run into one of the Lower City’s local specialties in Belland.” Anna stood to one side watching, not looking worried in the slightest. Instead, she wore a smile as though she were enjoying the show.
“A local specialty?”
“It is this kind of joint extortion between corrupt officials and crooks. They usually target people like you, junior, who look rich at a glance. Plenty of people fall for this every year. I originally thought this street might be a little better, but it seems that as long as it is in the Lower City, every place is the same.”
“They are this brazen? They are not afraid of biting down on someone hard enough to crack their teeth?”
“This is the Lower City, after all. The filthy, foul-smelling Lower City that those lofty lords above cannot even be bothered to glance at. Where would any hard bones come from here? Besides, people like these usually have gang connections. They have already memorized all the locals they cannot afford to provoke, so naturally they choose someone like you, junior, someone obviously from out of town and easy prey.”
“Do I really look that easy to bully?”
Muen scratched his head.
He clearly had the face of a blond villain, so why did he keep running into plots reserved for protagonists?
“What nonsense are you babbling about?”
The patrol officer’s face instantly turned livid when he heard Anna’s words.
But when he looked at her, his gaze swept across her pretty face and the alluring curves that even her dress could not conceal, and his eyes immediately burned with heat.
He sneered.
“You do not look like a decent person either. I suspect you stole someone else’s property and hid it on yourself. You will be coming back to the station with me later so we can investigate properly.”
At those words, Muen’s expression darkened at once.
He stepped forward and blocked the patrol officer’s line of sight.
“Now this is interesting. Since when could a mere patrol officer arrest people without evidence?”
“What do you mean, without evidence? We have both witnesses and physical evidence right here!” The patrol officer looked arrogant, as if he had done this countless times before and knew the routine by heart.
After all, a little intimidation was usually enough to make ordinary people obedient.
“Hah. It seems talking to you is only a waste of time.”
Muen sighed and took out a family crest engraved with the image of a sharp sword.
“Do you recognize this?”
“What is that supposed to be?”
“You do not even recognize it? Then go find someone who does.”
“Who do you think you are? Why should I listen to you?”
The patrol officer continued to sneer.
You do not even have a pass from the Redfire Gang, so who are you pretending to be?
But in the very next moment, he saw a powerful fist the size of a casserole bowl rapidly enlarging in his vision.
“Why should you? Because of this!”
A surge of anger, rare and impossible to hide, burst from Muen’s eyes as he swung his fist hard.
“I did not want to resort to violence, since it would make me look crude in front of Senior, but it seems handling it this way is much faster!”
The patrol officer’s still-arrogant face twisted instantly beneath Muen’s punch, and his whole body was sent flying.
While the man was still writhing on the ground and had not yet fully passed out, Muen coldly added:
“More importantly, your eyes are filthy.”
…
“This is bad. We have run into someone tough.”
On the other side, when the balding old man saw the patrol officer sent flying with a single punch, his face went deathly pale on the spot.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the crowd, he crawled along the ground, trying to slip away unnoticed.
But then his hand was suddenly pinned beneath a white leather boot.
Holding down her skirt to keep anyone from stealing a glimpse of her holy domain, Anna lowered her head and smiled at the terrified old man.
“What is it, old sir? Do you not want compensation anymore?”
…
Just as Muen had said, once he directly attacked a patrol officer, the pace of events sped up dramatically.
First, a fat, paunchy man came hurrying over amid a cluster of attendants, cursing the whole way.
But the moment he saw the crest in Muen’s hand, the anger on his face instantly turned into terror, and he nearly lost several dozen pounds of fat from sheer fright.
Then, a black carriage came racing over so fast it seemed as though its wheels might fly off.
A middle-aged balding man with dark circles so heavy he looked like a panda jumped down from it and all but rolled and stumbled his way to Muen.
“Y-Young Master Campbell.”
The balding middle-aged man kept wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“What brings you to the Lower City, of all places?”
“What? Am I not allowed to come to the Lower City?”
Muen glanced at the man, whom he had met once before and therefore still remembered.
“You are Viscount Guen, right? Your Lower City does not seem to be very well managed.”
“My fault, my fault. I will correct it. I definitely will!”
Viscount Guen lowered himself and smiled apologetically.
Inside, he already felt as though he had shattered into who knew how many pieces.
Had he accidentally stepped on someone’s ancestral grave lately?
First, the son of a count had died and drawn Her Highness the Princess here.
And now even the duke’s son had come strolling around and just so happened to run straight into this mess.
What was going on? Since when has the Lower City become a sightseeing destination for lofty nobles like all of you?
At this rate, the little hair he had left was in even greater danger.
“I already understand the whole matter. I will absolutely handle it properly and give Young Master Campbell a satisfactory explanation.
So… does Young Master have any other requests?” Viscount Guen asked carefully, wiping away his cold sweat.
“No. Get out of my sight.”
Muen waved his hand impatiently.
As if granted a pardon, Guen hurried away with his men, dragging off the patrol officer and the old man from before.
The street quickly returned to peace.
Muen looked toward the senior waiting nearby.
The gloom on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a helpless bitter smile.
“I feel like what should have been a good mood has been completely ruined.”
“Really?”
Anna tilted her head and smiled.
“But I thought you looked very handsome just now, junior.”
“Did I?”
“Of course. Especially when you said, ‘Your eyes are filthy.’ It made you feel just like a prince from a story.”
“That is too exaggerated.”
“But it really is true.”
“…”
At that moment, looking at Senior Anna’s crescent-moon eyes, Muen’s heart could not help but flutter once more.
“Then shall we continue?”
“Yes, all right.”
And so the date continued.
Muen once again flipped through that 《Belland Dating Guide》, trying to confirm a new route.
But while he was still hesitating between turning left toward the highly rated food street or turning right toward the riverside, where he had heard there would be fireworks that evening, Anna’s attention was already drawn away by something else.
“Junior, look. A cat.”
On a stone bench by the roadside, a creamy-white kitten was curled up there, meowing softly.
“Do you like cats, Senior?”
Muen asked almost instinctively.
But there was no need for an answer, because Anna had already walked forward with light steps.
“Meow~”
“Meow meow…”
“Meow meow~”
“Meow meow meow meow…”
Anna imitated a cat’s cries as she carefully approached the kitten.
She sounded remarkably convincing, and the kitten’s guard was quickly broken down.
For a moment, in Muen’s eyes, Senior Anna seemed to have become a cat as well, lazily meowing beneath the sunlight.
“So cute…” Muen murmured unconsciously.
“Right? This kitten is so cute.”
Anna had already successfully gathered the adorable kitten into her arms.
She was gently scratching beneath its chin, and the kitten was purring in contentment.
“It looks like it hurts.”
Anna looked pityingly at the kitten’s hind leg, where there was a savage wound so deep that the bone was nearly visible.
That was why it had remained curled up here all this time, not even running away when strangers approached.
Anna thought for a moment, then took out a pair of scissors and a small knife, shaving away the fur and rotten flesh around the kitten’s hind leg.
The kitten cried out in pain and immediately scratched several bloody lines across the back of Anna’s hand.
“Senior!”
“I am fine.”
Anna did not mind at all.
As she gently held the kitten still, she took out a potion and poured it over the wound.
The injury visibly healed before the naked eye, and then Anna carefully wrapped the kitten’s leg with bandages.
By the time she finished, the kitten had already recovered enough to move.
Perhaps frightened by the pain from earlier, it suddenly kicked off Anna’s leg, leaped up into a nearby tree, and fled at once.
“Oh dear, what a pity.”
Watching the kitten vanish, Anna looked rather reluctant to part with it.
“I wanted to pet it a little longer.”
“Senior, are you all right?”
Muen walked over and looked at the scratches on her hand.
“I am fine. There are only a few scratches.”
Anna poured the rest of the potion in the bottle over the back of her hand.
The thin wounds quickly healed, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
“See? Potions are amazing, right?”
Anna sounded a little smug as she said it.
“Amazing. Senior is the most amazing of all.”
Muen found himself both amused and helpless.
He had not expected Senior Anna to have such a childlike side to her.
“But, junior…”
Anna suddenly propped up her cheek and looked at Muen with a half-smile.
“After waiting this long, you should have figured out where we are going next by now, right?”
“…”
The corners of Muen’s mouth instantly stiffened.
This was bad.
He had been so absorbed in watching Senior that he had forgotten.
…
In the end, they decided to find a restaurant first and deal with lunch.
It was only because his stomach suddenly rumbled loud enough to shake the heavens that Muen remembered he had not eaten anything for more than thirty hours.
His stomach had long since been empty enough to stick to his back, but his anticipation for this date with Senior had temporarily suppressed that bodily instinct.
Even though the date he had looked forward to so much had, up to this point, been going anything but smoothly.
“But this time, nothing will go wrong!”
Muen clenched a fist and declared with complete confidence.
There was a saying that if you wanted to win a woman’s heart, you had to win her stomach first.
So on the way here, the thing he had studied most in the guide was the various famous restaurants along this street.
After making many comparisons, Muen finally settled on a private restaurant that, judging by both its reviews and the decorations in its pictures, seemed absolutely flawless.
Its only drawback was that it was somewhat remote.
It was not even on this commercial street anymore, but on another road called Durank Street, where the residential district made up most of the area.
But for a date, was not a quiet setting paired with pleasant music and candlelight the most perfect atmosphere?
As long as she was a woman, then it was impossible for her not to be moved by a perfect candlelit dinn… candlelit lunch!
“Then I suppose I should look forward to it properly.” Looking at Muen’s confidence, Anna could not help but smile as well.
…
…
“How… Did this happen?”
Half an hour later, after finally finding the restaurant, which truly was hidden away in a remarkably remote location, Muen began to question his life.
“Why… is it not open?”
Looking at the words “Temporarily Closed” written in large letters on the tightly shut door, then looking at the rather strange expression on Senior’s face, Muen was once again plunged into the terror of being ruled by his abysmal luck.
What was going on?
Was he really this unlucky?
Running into extortion earlier was one thing, but why was it that after finally finding a suitable restaurant, it was not even open?
Was today not Sunday?
Under normal circumstances, would a restaurant actually choose Sunday as the day to close?
He just wanted to have a proper date. Was that really so difficult?
“I refuse to believe this. Damn heavens, if you have the ability, then make me even more unlucky!”
Muen could not help but lift his bloodshot eyes to the sky and let out a long howl.
Then, just as naturally as if he had forgotten some crucial thing and therefore this was bound to happen, Muen heard another familiar voice at that moment.
“M-Muen?”