The central area of Olsylvia Academy campus, Frank Civilian Academy, Swinburne Underground Exchange, inside Sorro Hotel.
Bella, Noraya and Elaine were seated around an ordinary table, ordering food, though the task was mainly handled by Elaine. She seemed to have been to this sort of restaurant before.
The food in the Sorro Hotel was just as good as the average aristocrat’s hotel, but with a much lower price. Bella had observed some the specialty dishes in the aristocratic hotels outside and the prices here were about half of that.
If it weren’t for the terrible ambience, the hotel should be able to do well. Bella inadvertently glanced at the table next door. The customer was a muscular man with a long scar on his face. Bella caught a glimpse of the prices when he happened to put up his menu.
The prices on the menu next door was at least twice of this one but the customers next door didn’t care. They paid their bills with broken gold and silver pieces that still had blood on them.
Most of the customers who visited the Sorro Hotel weren’t good folk. The businesses they did were usually the illegal kind. That was why they didn’t ask for the prices and spent like a local tycoon.
“Bella, are you thinking of hitting on the lady boss? Although she doesn’t have a partner yet, there have been many people interested in Sally Roy and none of them have been successful so far.”
“Elaine, I’m just worried that a direct confrontation between the Rose Society and the Mask of Darkness Society will be…”
“Then you can stop worrying. Sally Roy isn’t related to Samson. Moreover, they haven’t seen each other for a long time. Sally Roy’s organization is the Eye of Darkness and has nothing to do with Samson’s Mask of Darkness Society.”
After listening to information from Noreya, Bella breathed a sigh of relief. Sally Roy was the head of the Eye of Darkness, which was completely different from Samson’s Mask of Darkness. Based on strength alone, the Eye of Darkness was leaps and bounds ahead of the Mask of Darkness.
The Mask of Darkness were more like gangsters, a gathering of delinquent teenagers, mainly engaged in activities such as street beatings and gang fighting. The businesses that the Eye of Darkness were engaged in were similar to a large and professional mafia, that is, assassinations, arms smuggling, dispatching black mercenaries on missions, etc. The Eye of Darkness was involved in everything.
However, they weren’t the ones who sent the people to assassinate Duchess Bellina. Sally Roy had her own set of principles and didn’t take on jobs that harmed women. The organization that sent killers to participate in political missions such as the assassination of Duchess Bellina was the Blood Skull.
The Blood Skull was an underground organization that conducted all sort of business, comparable to the terrorist organizations in her previous word. The four giants of the underground dark forces in the Human Continent were: the Eye of Darkness, the Blood Skull, the Horrorshow Group and the Skeleton Tower.
The Horrorshow Group mainly dealt in slave trading. The Illegal Hunter Group in the Pamelas Hotel in Angus City was one of the divisions under them.
At present, Bella had a grudge with the Blood Skull and the Horrorshow Group. The Skeleton Tower specialized in producing all kinds of prohibited items. They used slaves and prisoners of war to carry out all sorts of inhuman experiments in order to create weapons of war. Bella didn’t think she could see eye to eye with them either.
Looking at it this way, it seemed that the Eye of Darkness were the only ones who didn’t have a problem with her. Bella suddenly found Sally Roy even more pleasing to the eye, and unconsciously turned to look at her. However, she didn’t expect Sally Roy to notice.
This was the first time Sally Roy met a girl who dared to keep staring at her. The average girl was usually afraid to do so after finding out her identity. Although she was registered at the Frank Civilian Academy, Sally Roy wasn’t really a student.
The number of enemies who had died under Sally Roy in the gang wars of the underground world already exceeded three figures, and that was only counting those she had personally killed. That figure didn’t include those she had arranged for her subordinates to kill.
Could it be the food wasn’t appetizing? Sally Roy closed the magic book in front of her and slowly walked to Bella’s table. She was carrying a tray with a bottle of expensive red wine and several goblets.
Right now, Sally Roy looked exactly like a waitress. She was dressed in a men’s suit and looked very much like a butler. The customers around Bella’s table all stared at her with envy and jealousy. No one else had received the honor of being personally served by the lady boss of the Sorro Hotel. This was a privilege that money couldn’t buy.
“Please let me know what I can do for you!”
“Madame, you’re… you’re very beautiful… and so dashing! I’ve accidentally fallen in love with you!”
“You… This is the first time anyone has called me dashing. Remember, girls can’t be described as that. This bottle of wine is for you… “
Bella’s flattery had been very successful. Although there was a trace of anger in her tone, the smile on Sally Roy’s face had already betrayed her true thoughts. There were no women who disliked being praised.
After placing the wine down, Sally Roy gracefully turned and left. Bella barely resisted the urge to grab her hand. All the eyes in the room were focused on their table. If she really grabbed her hand, the situation might fall out of control.
The three of them were wearing black cloaks so the people around them couldn’t tell their gender. Many had assumed that they were men. Bella even deliberately lowered her voice. In this noisy environment, it would be very difficult to distinguish Bella’s gender from her voice.
“Madame, please wait…”
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No, this is my gift… no, my tip to you.”
When Bella handed Sally Roy a gift box, the guests around her looked at her sympathetically. Those who wanted to give Sally Roy a gift were bound to be disappointed. As the head of the Eye of Darkness, what hadn’t she come across.
“This… Well, thank you. I’ll accept your kindness.”
To the surprise of the other guests, Sally Roy actually accepted it. According to her character, if she were to receive a gift from someone, she would do them a favor in return.
Bella’s gift wasn’t anything valuable either. It was a magic book that Magic Creator Bethia had obtained from God knows where. Even if she had the money, she wouldn’t be able to buy a magic book from another plane
Sally Roy was reading a magic book earlier. Although she didn’t know if she was a mage, Bella figured that she was interested in magic books. Now it seemed that Bella obviously made the right bet. Sally Lowe’s subordinate accepted the gift from Bella so she now owed her a favor.
“Bella, you didn’t give me a present, so… if you don’t buy me off, I might go back and snitch on you to Kriss!”
“Elaine, don’t make a fuss now. Of course I have a present for you too…”
This episode was soon forgotten by all. Bella and her friends were enjoying the delicious food while waiting for the start of the mission recruitment campaign. The bottle of wine sent by Sally Roy wasn’t for sale because it was specifically enjoyed by the lady boss herself. The taste and quality of the wine surpassed all the other wines available in the hotel.
After about half an hour, a large group of tomb raiding teams entered the Sorro Hotel. The Sorro Hotel’s business hours were well divided, and now was the usual time the tomb raiders entered the site.
From their gossip, Bella learned something strange about the Scripps Cemetery. Up till now, more than a dozen tomb raiding teams had entered the Scripps Cemetery, each from different entry points, yet none had returned.
This was the main reason why the reward of the Scripps Cemetery exploration mission had increased. On top of the fact that those who went hadn’t returned, their communication crystals didn’t show anything either. The teams who went down seemed to have been eaten by some mysterious monster.
Among the teams that had mysteriously disappeared, there were many famous ones, even celebrities among the tomb raiders, yet none of them made it back to report the situation. This added to the horror of the Scripps Cemetery.
With big rewards, there would of course be brave men. Besides, all the people present here were basically outlaws. The mission of exploring Scripps Cemetery had been updated. This time, the partners promised that the tomb raiders could take 30% of the treasure with their pay set at a hundred thousand gold coins.
The change excited the tomb raiding teams who were present, and many team leaders began to recruit new partners. Tomb raiding was after all a risky activity. Except for team captain, they were temporarily recruiting all other positions. After the gathering, they bought a temporary alliance contract from Sally Roy and established a team.
The contract was valid until the tomb raiding team returned to the ground again. Due to the issue of uneven distribution of stolen goods, it was common for tomb raiding teams to fight each other. Although there was such a contract now, it couldn’t really guarantee the safety of the operation. Most of the time, only one or two people come back to settle the compensation for the mission. Team captains changed frequently. Only half of the team captains at the start of the mission come back alive.
The attendants of the Sorro Hotel started to send each customer an invitation to partnership. If some of them managed to come to an agreement, they would take the invitation to Sally Roy so she could be their witness. Bella and her friends also received several fliers but none of them seemed to have extended an invitation to them.
Bella, and her friends looked like three guest members with little fame. New people weren’t welcomed here. All the guests in the Sorro Hotel agreed to wear masks in order to hide their true identity. Even after they joined a partnership, they wouldn’t use their real names, only a code name.
They continued to wait quietly. After all, they couldn’t rush things. So they waited to see if anyone would approach them. Just then, a loud noise sounded from outside the Sorro Hotel. Making a loud noise outside the Eye of Darkness was equivalent to declaring they wanted a fight!
The guests waited to watch the show. They turned around to see the daring perpetrators. But after catching a glimpse of the logo on their clothes, they immediately chose to shut up and continue their conversations with their heads down.
“Randall, stop following me. I’ve always regarded you as an older brother, yet you want to sleep… If you leave now, I’ll pretend nothing happened… “
“Kleina, don’t make a scene. Uncle has agreed to our… The operation this time…”
It was Randall, one of the sons of the head of the Blood Skull Organization, one of the Dark Organization’s Big Four, and Kleina, the daughter of the head of the Skeleton Tower. Bella listened to their conversation and guessed that it was another marriage alliance farce.
All the guests present recognized the logos of the Blood Skull and the Skeleton Towers on their clothes and immediately pretended nothing had happened. This sort of feud between the “mafia” had nothing to do with “little shrimps” like them.
Kleina was alone while Randall had people with him. But this was still the Eye of Darkness’ territory so Randall had to control himself no matter how presumptuous he was. Otherwise, he would have ordered his men to take Kleina away and “do her” first. See if she still dared to refuse him then!
Sally Roy frowned as if she was displeased with the noise but couldn’t find an excuse to lecture them. There was a secret peace agreement between the four giants of the underground dark forces. If she couldn’t find a suitable reason, it was still best to avoid confrontation in public.
Seeing that she couldn’t shake Randall off, Kleina turned around in a hurry. Bella’s table happened to seat four. Elaine and Noreya were sitting on one side while Bella sat opposite them. There was still room next to her.
Kleina sat next to Bella and grabbed a partnership invitation from a guest in the next table without even thinking. The unfortunate bastard who had been robbed could only secretly sigh at the fact that he left the house without looking at the lunar calendar and immediately left. If Randall were to be angry with him, he would be in trouble.
“Kleina, what are you doing…”
“It’s none of your business. I… I’m recruiting my teammates, okay? I’m going to take part in the Scripps Cemetery mission later.”
The partnership invitation contract that Kleina grabbed happened to be one for the team captain. In order to get rid of Randall’s harassment, she simply took advantage of Bella and her friends, using them to get a breather.
Kleina didn’t expect that the three unknown strangers would be able to hold him off for long. After all, there weren’t many people who would go against the Blood Skull. However, she really was going to the Scripps Cemetery to look for something, so her current statement wasn’t a lie.
“Kleina, I know that you want to take part in the mission. Why don’t you just team up with me? We’re already one family, what else is there we can’t… “
“Who’s in the same family as you?! Yours is yours, whatever is mine is mine. Don’t babble nonsense. I’m really in a team with them…”
“What expert doesn’t my team have? Can you act more professionally? You’re telling me these three nobodies are your teammates? How funny. Please go back, you three. Here’s a reward for you.”
Randall obviously didn’t think anything of the three of them but as the successor of a mafia boss, he still had to give them enough respect in public. He couldn’t give outsiders the impression that he was a bully.
Bella looked at the massive gold pieces on the table and didn’t immediately declare her position. Every piece of gold was cut to a proper square. This was the legendary underground way of “convincing people with money.” How generous he was.
According to the rules, Bella and her friends would either take the money and leave or stay and accept Randall’s other method of “convincing people with blood.” Bella properly examined Kleina. Although she was wearing a black mask like herself, she was also wearing a tight black dress that revealed her slender curves.
Kleina’s eyes were a relatively rare grey. What originally symbolized dead grey pupils made her look innocent. Because of this pair of eyes alone, Bella felt it necessary to give her a hand. That way, she could also disturb the relationship between the Blood Skull and the Skeleton Tower.
“Where do you come from? Why are you interrupting our captain? Can’t you see we are discussing the mission? Are you sending beggars off with this bit of money?!”
“Do you know who you are talking to? This bit of money… “
Randall’s words were interrupted by a punch in the face. Bella grabbed Kleina’s hand and poured out a dozen oversized clear diamonds from her storage ring. This sort of diamond was the common currency for exchanging gold coins in the underground world. Each diamond was worth more than ten thousand gold coins.
“Madame, can we get the bill! The rest will be given them as compensation… I mean, given to these actors as a reward… Their play was wonderful! “
“Alright, please wait…”
“You… you’re doing this on purpose…”
Randall was so angry that he almost burst into rage. He finally recognized Bella’s gender from her voice. How dare a woman challenge him?! She clearly didn’t know what was good for her. However, Randall was at the very least a prominent member of the mafia. It wouldn’t be good if news spread that he hit a girl.
Sally Roy didn’t seem to think it was too big a problem. She took the serving plate, put the bill on it and went to Bella’s table again. This was Sally Roy’s way of secretly helping Bella. Since she was on their side, Randall didn’t dare to do anything.
Although the two parties were about the same age, they paid attention to status and seniority here. Based on that, Sally Roy and Randall’s father were of the generation. Thus, Randall had put away much of his arrogance.
Kleina was still a little nervous but after she found out that Bella was a girl, she immediately relaxed. Just now, she had been too flustered. If Bella and her friends were men, Kleina would have been so embarrassed.
Following Randall was two of his closest aides who suddenly launched a sneak attack on Bella. They were assassins. In this kind of situation where their master couldn’t attack, they need them to act. Whatever consequences would be born by them alone. It wasn’t as if Randall hadn’t gotten others to do his dirty work before.
Before Bella could pretend to do the same, Noreya, who was standing beside her, beat her to it. The two aides were expert assassins. After pulling out a special poisonous dagger, one aimed at Bella’s heart and the other at Bella’s head.
Unfortunately, Noreya’s level was several more advanced than these peers of hers. She moved so fast, only leaving behind an afterimage. The two hapless assassins immediately flew out of the Sorro Hotel as if they were garbage. It was uncertain whether they were still alive or not.
