High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1487: Chapter 231: The Merchant

”What a nostalgic atmosphere.”

Nikita stood at the entrance of Wusa’s city gate, looking at the bustling crowd and lively scene on both sides of the street, took a deep breath, and sighed with deep nostalgia.

A long, long time ago, after she fell victim to a demonic attack in the Silent Forest, she had never seen a similar scene again.

In her brief yet extended demon life, she was always on the run, or on the path of fleeing. Even with the help of Knight Ulysses in the Land of Desolation, where she took a short respite, she couldn’t find the feeling of once being human. The Witch Demons of the Land of Desolation had their markets and bustle, but they rejected noise, and the entire market was always under a repressive and gloomy atmosphere.

”We are the subordinates of the Demon King!”

No Face paid no attention to the Female Demon’s sentiment, still indignant about the treatment their group had received, pouting and complaining non-stop: ”Isn’t Dreamland boasting about being absolutely neutral? Is this how they treat envoys of the Sea Demon King?!”

Nikita raised her hand, gently stroked the ’little girl’s’ hair beside her, and consoled: ”But we came to Wusa City under the guise of tributes from the Zu Ge tribe. Their actions are faultless.”

The massive entourage that departed from the enchanting forest was stopped by the guards of Wusa City in front of the gigantic stone bridge stretching across the Sky River. They claimed that the city council of Wusa had commanded to refuse entry to the entire group.

The Elders of the Zu Ge tribe stood at the head of the bridge, staring at the cat statues carved on the stone pillars and railings on either side of the bridge, their legs already weakened from fear, unable to utter a firm response even with the Female Demon standing right behind them.

After some bargaining, the ’tribute bearers’ finally compromised.

The entourage for entering the city was set to five—three were the Elders of the Zu Ge tribe, and the remaining two were Nikita and Zhuzhu. The gigantic flock of Shatake birds stopped on a stone hillock not far from Wusa, and the Ancient Leather Giants and Ghouls also stayed in place.

Furthermore, Nikita’s mount, a fierce purple spider, as well as Zhuzhu’s Litter, were also not allowed into the city. The Little Female Demon was forced to walk on two legs, so her grievances were particularly deep.

She had never walked this far after transforming into Zhuzhu’s appearance.

But a child’s grievances come quickly and go quickly as well.

After entering Wusa City, Zhuzhu’s attention was quickly captured by the novel items on both sides of the street, forgetting the complaints from a few minutes ago.

Similar to the real world, the items for sale in the market of Wusa City were mostly very ordinary daily necessities. Such as pots, pans, ladles, iron-cast tools, baskets, flatbreads, sugar figures, colorful fabrics, live cattle, young ponies, and so on. There were flies buzzing around the meat stalls here too, and among the crowd passing by, nimble thieves scuttled.

But unlike the real world, this market had many unique specialties of Dreamland.

For example, mushroom-brewed wine, emerald in color with a rich taste; or crystallized wind that sparkled with iridescent colors under the sunlight, which evoked various emotions when tasted; there were dreams in bottles—rainwater collected by farmers on rainy days, with every drop of Dreamland’s rainwater hiding fragments of someone’s dream in the real world.

The Dreamland denizens, who cannot dream, love these unusual and strange snippets of dreams the most.

The unusual combination of two Female Demons and three Elders from the Zu Ge tribe quickly attracted many prying eyes in the market.

Although the Zu Ge Elders rarely appear in the city of Wusa, they are indigenous to the Silent Forest. Apart from the tavern owner, who hopes to get fungus wine from the Zu Ge tribe at a low price, and the cats lurking in the shadows with ill intentions, the merchants in the market hardly give the elders a second glance.

The merchants’ attention was all drawn to two Female Demons.

Their crimson eyes, the wide Wizard’s Robe they donned, and the magic power-filled ornaments they wore declared their extravagance and foreign identities to every merchant.

Compared to the cool and tall Nikita, the short and continuously looking around, curious-faced Zhuzhu became a prime target for the merchants—the Little Witch was just short of having the words ’come and dupe me’ written on her face.

”Beautiful lady, please hold on a moment!”

A gnomish trader who was even shorter than Zhuzhu jumped out from behind the shelf, blocking the Little Witch with exaggerated hand gestures: ”Is this your first time in Wusa city?”

Zhuzhu honestly stopped in her tracks and nodded—since she turned into a pet snake, she rarely had the chance to look down on others, and her newly acquired face was quite short, so when someone even shorter appeared before her, it gave her pleasure.

Nikita glanced back, but continued to walk forward at an unhurried pace, with no intention to stop and listen to the swindling merchants. As for whether No Face would be scammed out of some gold or sold off, she had no such worries.

The phrase ’a person of a thousand faces’ doesn’t just describe the appearance of Painted Skin.

”Coming to Wusa city, you must abide by one law: do not kill cats!” The gnomish trader hopped back and forth in front of the Little Witch with an earnest expression: ”Do you know why? Because the great Cat Goddess Bastet is always watching over this little city! She always pays attention to her people!”

Zhuzhu nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite, clueless about what this gnome wanted to do.

”Ding ding ding... ding!” The gnome took out a thumb-sized purple wooden carving from under his robe, carefully bringing it up to the Little Witch: ”This is the great Bastet! With her protection, you will not suffer any harm in Wusa city... This is an amulet I obtained from a temple in a Stone City that had become ruins during one of my adventures!”

”It was an incredibly exciting adventure! Along with my companions, a noble Holy Knight, a swift Elf Shooter, and two rude but brave dwarves, we explored that Stone City! At that time, the sky was just like now, with the burning clouds dyeing half the sky red...”

”Ahem, ahem,” the Little Witch had to cough twice, interrupting the gnome’s interminable story, and tentatively asked: ”So... you want me to buy this statue?”

The gnomish trader’s voice came to an abrupt halt.

According to the plan, he should tell a part of his own adventurous tale, then mention how his companion got injured during the adventure, and he was forced to sell his adventure’s findings at a low price. Then, against the backdrop of the tense atmosphere and relentless flattery, he’d get a large bag of gold from this young girl.

But unexpectedly, she didn’t follow the usual routine.

He was still preparing the groundwork, and she had already jumped straight to the endgame.

This left him a bit bewildered.

Not far behind, merchants from the old stalls in Wusa city watched this scene with grins, with no intention of stepping forward to help.