The Beauty Gutama grabbed the few remaining silver coins from the treasure chest in front of her. She had already exhausted her wealth.
During the peak of her time in Norland, the treasure chest had over a thousand goin coins! Yet now, it has been reduced into an impoverished rat’s nest.
The orcs were not creatures that were deeply fond of sparkling things. But, in this city, one needed money to obtain what they wanted.
“Damn it! Is this your harvest for today?!”
The Beauty Gutama glared at the seventeen orcs below her. As a pure-blooded High Plains Orc, her height was half a body’s length taller than her subordinates, those green-skinned orcs with the blood of goblins mixed in them.
Feeling the pressure of The Beauty, the orcs began to rummage through the pockets of their worn-out clothes. In the end, they’ve only managed to take out some ridiculous scraps.
“Lady... Gutama, those scouts from the Black Dove are simply onto us too much. All the trade routes and locations that we usually use have been completely sealed off by them.”
“Black Dove again?!”
Gutama long held deep grievances toward the Black Dove’s dark elf. She was not fond of surrendering to the rule of anyone other person.
But, upon escaping from the Black Dove and into an abandoned dwarven mine to hide, she found herself being forced to a corner by the dark elf.
“Lady Gutama! There’s... bad news on the Mage Forum!”
At this moment, a relatively presentable-looking goblin suddenly stepped forth.
“Mage Forum? You’re talking about that thing created by those mages again...”
The Beauty Gutama naturally knew about the Mage Forum. By now, most of Norland’s citizens all knew about that miraculous magic network.
The Black Dove was an organization that made their living by selling intelligence. Even though Gutama had many side hustles, the Mage Forum was an extremely important venue for intelligence. As such, she had attempted to join the Mage Forum.
Unfortunately, this ‘Beauty’ made inappropriate comments and was forever banned from being able to sign onto the Mage Forum. She was even banned from the privilege of using the magic network.
“What is the bad news on there?!”
Even though Gutama had lost the privilege of using the magic network, she had no choice but to recognize the usefulness of the Mage Forum. Among her subordinates, the relatively presentable-looking goblin was the only person who could log onto the Mage Forum.
The goblin was also Gutama’s assistant. He was in charge of helping her get in touch with her clients. For example, the mages that sought to purchase magic craving crystals or merchants interested in the underground originium crystals.
“It’s your... wanted poster,” said the goblin hesitantly.
“Wanted poster? Did that dark elf really think those arrogant mages would be willing to come to the dwarves’ mines to search for me for the sake of some money?”
Gutama mocked with contempt. Who knows how long the dwarves had abandoned this mine. Even for her, it took a great amount of effort to find this place.
Those mages on the surface will definitely not enter the filthy mines to seek her out for the sake of some money.
“Lady Gutama, I’m afraid that it’ll not only be the human mages that’ll come seek you out, the... dwarves will also be coming for you.”
“Dwarves? What sort of reward did that dark elf put forth to make those stubborn dwarves help her?”
Gutama knew very well how difficult it was to deal with the dwarves of Norland. No matter how many gold coins the dark elf might offer, she would, at the very most, be able to maybe convince one or two dwarves to help her. To be able to employ an entire group of dwarves to seek her out in the mines would be completely unrealistic.
“A golden Hearthstone legendary card called Grom Hellscream. Milady, do you know about Hearthstone?”
A glint of greed appeared on the goblin’s eyes. When he looked to Gutama again, it was like he was truly seeing a peerless ‘Beauty.’
“It’s a very popular card game among the dwarves. It’s said that there are dwarves willing to use extremely high quality originium crystals to exchange for a golden legendary card. Based on the current market value, that card is roughly worth a thousand gold coins.”
A single card was able to be exchanged for so many gold coins? If it wasn’t for the situation she’s in, Gutama might even surrender herself.
It was clear that this ‘Beauty’ no longer had any chance of escape today. Suddenly, an orc walked up to Gutama.
“Lady... Gutama! Dwarves! An army of dwarves are outside the mine!” Shouted the orc in a panic.
These city orcs do not possess the courage of the wild orcs at all. Nevertheless, an entire army of dwarves?
Gutama immediately picked up the giant axe on her side. She was planning to walk out of the gathering area to check out what’s going on.
The moment she walked out, loud shouts sounded repeatedly from the tunnel leading to the mine.
“For the Alliance!””For Hellscream!””Move aside! I found this abandoned mine first!”
Dwarves... Over fifty fully armed dwarves were rushing over. Gutama tightly held onto her axe. Traces of cold sweat began to appear on her forehead.
Was this... the rallying power of that Grom Hellscream card?
...
Chaotic shouts sounded repeatedly from outside.
Riley was no longer able to distinguish between the shouts from the dwarves and the shouts from the orcs.
But, she was able to guess that their hideout was done for.
Suddenly, someone smashed open the lock to Riley’s wooden hut. A dwarf pushed open the door. When he saw the person inside the room was a human, he sighed and then walked away.
Escape...? Riley was hesitant. She turned to look at the posters on the wall.
Those posters were the only remaining assets she had apart from the clothes on her body. After her eyes landed on the poster for ‘Hachiko,’ Riley made her resolution.
She tore off all the posters from the wall and carefully placed them away. Then, she walked out of her hiding place...
The scenery outside was simply too chaotic. The dwarves were locked in battle with the orcs. The dwarves were still pouring into the mine. They’ve outnumbered the not-so-strong orcs.
The sound of metal colliding echoed in the abandoned mine.
Riley didn’t know where to go. But, all of a sudden, she saw a clay... golem on the ground.
That golem seemed to possess its own consciousness. When it saw Riley, it pointed to a direction.
“You... want me to... follow you?” Riley asked in confusion.
The golem nodded its head. It immediately started running toward the direction it pointed to earlier.
Riley looked to her surroundings again. Then, she tightly grabbed her posters and started running.
She was not planning to die in a place like this before gathering enough money to purchase the ticket for the new movie. Furthermore, this was the perfect opportunity for her to make her escape!
Following the golem, Riley soon discovered that the golem was guiding her through the sewer she entered from.
If her memories served her correctly, this would lead to Norland’s city borders!
Following the clay golem, she returned to the surface. While walking up the stairs, Riley was going too fast and ended up slipping and falling onto the top of the stairs. The posters she held in her hand were all scattered onto the ground.
Riley immediately stood back up and began picking up the scattered movie posters. When she was picking up the poster for ‘Léon: The Demon,’ a familiar-sounding voice sounded by her ear.
“You’re also interested in ‘Hachiko: A Dog’s Tale?’”
Riley turned around and discovered that Mathilda, the person in the movie poster she held in her hand, was standing before her.
Mathilda in the flesh!
“Do you want to go and see the movie premiere with me? You don’t have to wait till the day after tomorrow. We’ll be able to watch it today,” Gallolei returned the poster for ‘Hachiko: A Dog’s Life’ to the little girl.