Chapter 470 - 31. Madman Mechanism
Dive into Chapter 470 of "Demi-human Girls Completion Manual": Upon hearing Fisherâs words, the old man chuckled "heh heh" and a strong scent of... Find out more!
Upon hearing Fisherâs words, the old man chuckled "heh heh" and a strong scent of alcohol seeped out from his mouth full of decayed teeth, as if a bottle of old brew had just had its cork popped.
"Buy something from my stall, and Iâll tell you... I havenât opened for a long time, and Iâm running low on liquor at home, just for the price of two bottles of liquor, Iâll generously share a little story about whatâs been happening on Patulshen Island lately."
As soon as Alagina heard his words, she was about to reach into her pocket for money, but Fisher beat her to it by flicking his fingers inside his pocket and pulling out the money bag left by Elliog, putting ten Nali gold coins on the manâs stall,
"That should be enough... Now, tell me, what do those guys want?"
The old manâs eyes lit up eagerly, and he straightened up to scoop all the gold coins into his bag, but he didnât start sharing the information immediately. His eyes rolling around, he picked up an item from his stall and handed it to Fisher,
"This is the price for buying my goods, not the price for the information. This company dogâs business isnât worth that much."
Fisher felt somewhat amused but adhered to the old manâs principle, taking the item handed to him. It was a terracotta warrior custom-made from the Northern Realm, depicting a figure with both hands lifting a sword, but what really caught Fisherâs eye was the five-pointed snowflake symbol carved on the back of the terracotta warrior.
He had seen this symbol not long before, on a small island that only those bearing relics of the Phoenixâs Son could see, on a young girl named "Valentina."
"Stuff from the Turand Family..."
"Ah, yes, north of the Northern Realm, the flower of snow, the Turand Family... In the past years, theyâve always been the wealthiest people there, although very few have seen a real Turand family member, but their legends spread all over the Northern Realm. Some say the real head of the Turand family is actually a sentient artifact."
The old man, named Jesse, flicked the recently collected gold coins between his agile fingers, grinning at Fisher,
"Legend has it that this mysterious family has been living generation after generation in a snowflake-shaped fortress amidst snowy winds, controlling the entire Northern Realmâs situation with money without showing their faces, investing everywhereâeven the brothels and cloned goods gentlemen like you favor, but strangely, no one has ever seen a member of their family, what you always see are middlemen, middlemen and more middlemen..."
If it werenât for the fact that Fisher had indeed seen a member of the Turand family in person on that island, he would have almost believed in Jesseâs serious conspiracy theory about the artifacts.
The Turand family members truly existed, and the girl in the wheelchair was proof.
Alagina glanced at Jesse on the stall beside her but did not interrupt Fisherâs conversation.
"Alright, Iâm not interested in the secret history of the Northern Realm family. I want to know, what are those Nali Exploration Company people doing here?"
"Alright, alright... but the exploration companyâs business is not entirely unrelated to what I mentioned just now, such as the âmiddlemanâ I previously mentioned."
"You know, exploration companies working abroad usually donât get directly involved in local affairs, either due to their sense of superiority or because they find handling local complexities too cumbersome. In such cases, they typically delegate the work to local âmiddlemenâ... also known as âbuyers.â"
"It so happens that on Patulshen Island, there are middlemen from the Northern Realm who collaborate with Nali Exploration Company. Those people they were looking for earlier are middlemen from the market. I heard that the middlemen seem to help the Nali Exploration Company in the Northern Realm to find a group of grave robbers to dig in Sama Snow Mountain for treasures, said to be ancient demi-human tombs, something about avians. Though they were stopped by the Turand family halfway through their excavation."
"But the truth is, they seem to have uncovered quite a bit that the Turand family hadnât found and have managed to transport them out of the Northern Realm. Not sure whatâs inside, but it must be pretty valuable, otherwise those suit-wearing dogs wouldnât have come all this way to move it so ostentatiously. Itâs just that simple, a bunch of exploration company animals running a long way to steal from someone elseâs home... just like they do in the South Continent."
Fisher stroked his chin thoughtfully and then nodded, asking him,
"Do you have a grudge against the Nali Exploration Company?"
"A grudge?"
Jesse shook his head, took a sip of his drink, and smiled,
"Iâm just a small fry, a little bug in other peopleâs eyes, easily forgotten after being stepped on, itâs not much of a grudge... by the way, thanks for your gold coins, itâs enough for me to drink for quite a long time."
"Thatâs your due."
Fisher finally glanced at the compass on his body, stood up to bid him farewell, and walked with Alagina towards the stall selling Magic Materials, but after leaving Jesseâs stall, his expression did not relax in the slightest, rather it turned even graver.
Alagina noticed his furrowed brow and instinctively took his hand.
Behind them, Ossie, seeing that Fisher did not reject Alaginaâs gesture, turned her head to look at Fisher and then back at Alagina, feeling like she had learned something new.