"I feel like... the treatment here is exactly like Firefly's treatment at the Mercenary Association, except one is because they look rich, and the other is because they have powerful strength and can earn a lot of money."
After walking out of the VIP room, Hyacine murmured softly to herself.
Having said that, she turned her gaze toward Hong Guoguo beside her, whose mood was clearly dejected.
At this moment, Hong Guoguo had already disguised her originally azure pupils as brown. Because too many people had seen them before, she didn't disguise everything completely but temporarily only disguised her pupils.
"Don't worry too much," Hyacine's voice grew soft as she gently patted Hong Guoguo's tense arm. "Once we find Little Ran, the first thing we'll do is go to your tribe to see exactly what happened. When that time comes, whoever is behind this filthy business won't have an easy time."
"Mm... thank you, Sister Hyacine," Hong Guoguo responded in a low voice, forcing a smile, though the anxiety and anger in her eyes remained clearly visible.
Just as they reached the ground floor, they saw Cole walking toward them with a face full of smiles.
"Ladies! Is everything settled?"
He greeted them warmly, asking in a familiar tone.
"It's settled," Hyacine said flatly, directly blocking any further attempts at small talk. "We are heading to an inn to stay."
"Is that so?" Hearing that Hyacine and her companion were going to stay at an inn, Cole immediately began to suggest:
"I am quite familiar with this place. Do you need me to recommend an inn?"
"There's no need for you to trouble yourself further," Hyacine said straightforwardly, as her mood wasn't exactly great. "First, settle the escort reward we agreed upon earlier."
After speaking, she reached out her hand, her meaning very clear.
"Uh... this..." Cole's warm smile stiffened for a moment, and a trace of gloom flashed deep in his eyes, but it was quickly covered by a resurfacing smile. "Of course, of course, we have long since prepared it."
With that, he hurriedly untied a heavy small cloth bag from his waist and handed it over with both hands.
"Here are ten gold coins. A small token of appreciation, nothing much, but thank you both for your assistance on the road!"
"A pleasure doing business," Hyacine weighed the bag's weight, and after confirming it was correct, she put it away. Her face wore a polite smile. "Well then, Captain Cole, we shall part ways here. Until we meet again if fate allows."
"Safe travels, ladies! Have a smooth journey!"
Cole stood where he was, his smile unabated, as he dutifully watched them turn and walk toward the guild entrance.
He watched until Hyacine and Hong Guoguo's figures disappeared outside the door. After a while, the carefully maintained smile on Cole's face peeled off like low-quality oil paint, twisting into an ashen expression.
He stared fixedly at the doorway and squeezed a low curse through his teeth:
"As expected... it's hard to make a move once inside the town... and I even threw away ten gold coins for nothing!" He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. "Meet again if fate allows? Hmph! Don't worry... our 'fate' runs deep! We'll see..."
After speaking, he spat toward the doorway with lingering resentment before turning to push angrily back into the noisy crowd of the guild.
...
There were not many people left on the streets of Falling Leaf Town in the evening; only a faint smell of horse manure drifted in the air.
Hyacine and Hong Guoguo walked side by side on the road, temporarily leaving behind the clamor of the adventurer guild.
At this point, Hyacine suddenly murmured to Hong Guoguo:
"Hong Guoguo, do you think that guy Cole might be one of the members of the underground black market?"
"I... I think he probably is." Hearing Hyacine's words, Hong Guoguo's cat ears perked up, and a flash of hatred appeared in her brown pupils. "When we ran into him downstairs just now, he clearly froze for a second when he saw me. I could feel his gaze linger on my eyes for a while; he probably noticed my pupils had changed."
"That explains it. No wonder they dared to try and scheme against us repeatedly even though they knew we weren't weak... it turns out you yourself are already a priceless 'target' in their eyes." She let out a light breath, her voice carrying a hint of coldness. "I hate human traffickers the most... whether it's in the original world or an isekai."
At this point, she summoned Little Ica.
"Little Ica, go keep an eye on them. Once we find their nest... we can go and wipe out the whole den."
"Doot doot!"
Hearing Hyacine's words, Little Ica also let out two indignant doots, then flew toward the location of the adventurer guild and disappeared.
Just after finishing this, a plain-looking but very clean carriage suddenly drove smoothly from the direction of the guild's side door and stopped precisely beside the two of them.
Sitting on the carriage shaft was a middle-aged driver wearing an adventurer guild uniform.
"Pardon me," the driver spoke politely, "are you Miss Hyacinthia and Miss Hong Guoguo?"
Hyacine was startled but quickly realized this must be the person Grimmson had called.
"We are." As she spoke, she took out the golden VIP card and showed it to the driver. "Are you the driver sent by the adventurer guild?"
As soon as the driver saw the card, his gaze immediately became extremely respectful.
"Indeed! President Grimmson ordered me to wait here. Ladies, please board. Everything has been arranged at the Blue Stream Inn."
After speaking, he nimbly hopped off the carriage and opened the door for the two of them.
Seeing this, Hyacine looked at Hong Guoguo and said:
"Let's go. Let's get settled first."
With that, she was the first to board the carriage.
"Mm!" Hong Guoguo responded, then followed closely behind and slipped into the carriage cabin.
The door closed gently, and the carriage immediately started, driving smoothly toward the Blue Stream Inn.
...
"Ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling..."
A ringing sound interrupted Cerydra, who was eating.
She frowned slightly and pulled out her terminal.
Seeing that it was a call from Damian, Cerydra clicked to answer.
As soon as the connection was made, Damian's voice rang out from the other side.
"Lord Imperator, do you have time right now?"
"I do, what is it?"
"It's like this. After several days of intelligence gathering and power consolidation, we are now ready to purge the AMA base. It's very likely they will send people to sabotage our base then, so I've come to report to you."
Hearing Damian's report, Cerydra nodded with satisfaction.
"Good, I understand. Leave some people at the base and just prepare those chessboards I gave you."
"Understood, Lord Imperator."