Chapter 137 Baals Faction 4 (1/2)
Lord Baal's body double blinked. The ladies brought back groceries as promised for the feast and didn't seem troubled at all. Unable to help himself, he demanded details about their trip to town. Wiser received some really strange stones that made Lord Baal wary for a while.
”What happened while you were there?” he asked while Qin Yun and Amaraline busied away in the kitchen.
”Nothing much,” she said airily. ”We just set up bank accounts and took out a loan to start a small shop.”
”My account should have been frozen. What did you give as collateral? Also, what's with those strange stones? I feel something unpleasant from them.”
The trader grinned. ”Now that is something we're trying to find out over the next few days. The only lead we have is the auction house. I was hoping you could help us with that since the bank's manager isn't a very helpful person. I hope he enjoyed the interest I returned after he tried to rip us off.”
That made the Demon King interested. Not many had the gall to cheat a businessman under Mammon's tutelage and many who tried wouldn't get away with it.
”I must say I'm impressed. What did you do? Am I in any trouble financially? What kind of agreements did you make?”
Coux explained about the situation at the bank starting with Baal's frozen account and the manager's interest in Amaraline's stone when Qin Yun tried to use it as a form of payment.
”Things quickly became weird during the negotiations. He became too interested in the magic stone so we did some digging in town. Someone is behind the curse on those magic stones that was said to boost physical capabilities and magic abilities using the mana and lifespan of demons using it. It was rumoured to have some addicting side effects too but we're not sure about it. There was definitely something on those stones but it isn't magic.”
”Something that acts like a curse but isn't magic? That sounds a little too far-fetched, doesn't it?” The body double asked.
Coux sighed. ”I would like to believe that it's a tall tale too. After all, it is a frightening thought that such powers could exist. Wiser is currently working on it. Coincidentally, I didn't fail the first mission. We made some profit off the loan from the shop. I intend to return to the shop tomorrow to do more investigations and catch the eye of some high-profile figures to hook us up with the auction house and the cursed stone supplier.”
The double grinned. He didn't expect anything less from Lilith's descendant.
”Oh, one last thing. I'm going to borrow your residence and covenant mark to operate my business. You'll be getting twenty percent of the profit once your account is unfrozen. Qin Yun is the guarantor for both Truen and my account so she gets twenty too. Truen gets twenty for his travel with Zero and the rest will go to my account for business expansion purposes.”
Lord Baal was impressed. ”How much do we have at the moment?”
”I'll say somewhere around five hundred cursed notes or half a devil gold? There were quite a few mid-grade magic stones in the pile of low-grade ones. I'm just not sure if the bank will be willing to exchange it for money seeing how the manager is probably still fuming.”
Baal's double laughed. ”I'm sure you won't have a problem converting it to cash once you're in the auction house. In fact, I'll write a letter to Mammon tonight. You should hear from him soon.”
Coux thanked Lord Baal and decided to head to the library to study the maps she'd gotten earlier today. It was never too early to plan for business expansion. If Belles and Begonia was a successful model, she would have more Demon Lords invest in it. After all, Zoe and Lovina wouldn't be able to keep up with the demand if their popularity exploded through the roof. Coux would require actual bakeries producing human food somewhere and a logistic arrangement to keep their outlets fully stocked. Dimensional boxes didn't come cheap, she couldn't afford to have one at every outlet.
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