Location- Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse no.234.
Now that I have explored what I can achieve with the blood rule meanings, I decided to no longer go off track and stick to the original plan of creating a Custom blow-up doll card. The required ingredients had already been delivered and as I was about to begin the card creation process with a one-track mind,
*Poof* Three figures appear in the warehouse out of thin air, it was Ann, Aba, and Agatha. And soon I received a message to my grimoire from Van notifying me that Ronnie was successfully rescued and all the Butcher Bob goons involved were killed by Agatha.
It has been more than two hours since the trio left to rescue Ronnie, I was surprised that it took them so long to accomplish the mission, but I remembered Aba speaking of hiring a professional photographer to immortalize her first mercenary mission. So I understood why the delay had happened.
"Mission completed. We left your cousin in the care of your men. Now, pay up." Aba asked me enthusiastically.
"What the hell is going on in here?" without waiting for me to answer Aba, Anna yelled glaring at Sarah and Vivian.
"What seems to be the problem here?" I asked her.
"What are two girls doing in your warehouse this late at night?" Anna questioned me pointing at Sarah and Vivian.
"Wait, two girls? All I see are one boy and one girl." Aba spoke in confusion.
Sara's male body resembles a lot similar to the appearance of her female body, so those who had seen her in her female body would mistake her gender even if she were in her male body. If one were attentive enough one could avoid this confusion but insecure Anna jumped to a conclusion first and verified it later.
"They are helping me with card creation, can't you see the ingredients on the table," I explained to Anna. Since the perks of having her close outweighed the death flags she rose due to her insecurity and obsessiveness I decided to bear with her. And for some reason, her possessiveness was growing on me. I guess it was assuring to know someone would care if I were to die.
"Oh, I see. Sorry, my bad. You guys carry on. I will go to sleep on your bed." Anna apologized and feeling embarrassed hurried to the only bedroom in the warehouse. But then she suddenly paused in her tracks and turned to face me. Then she shyly said, "If you're guessing, yes I will be sleeping in my birthday suit."
"Nobody here cares but wasn't that given," I replied.
"You know me the best." Said Anna before walking into the bedroom.
"What about us?" Aba asked after their warden left to sleep.
"You guys are still here? I thought you people would have escaped by now." I replied to Aba.
"She has locked the space and I have already used all my teleportation cards," Aba replied.
"How many teleportation cards do you have?" I asked Aba in surprise. Because Anna, the heir of the southern royal family, herself, only had two teleportation cards.
"Apparently, not enough," Aba spoke dejectedly.
"..." Hearing Aba, I felt poor despite the recent addition of millions of assets to my wealth thanks to the appreciation of Kane Kaga. But I was not surprised by the fact that she carried multiple teleportation cards on her, as the only daughter of Demigod Windsor it was not a surprise that as a doting parent he would do everything in his limit and beyond to keep his precious daughter out of harm's way.
"Give me my money!" Walking towards me Aba extended her hand out and demanded that I pay up a middle-tier soul jade that I promised as the reward for the completion of the mission I tasked her wolf fang mercenary group with.
"About that, I don't have a middle-tier soul jade, how about I pay it later," I said.
"That won't do. Since you don't have middle-tier soul jade then I will settle for an equal amount in terms of low-tier soul jades." Said Aba, hearing that I wouldn't be able to pay her for the moment.
"~Hehe, I don't have enough soul jades to pay you," I said scratching the back of my head.
"What?" Aba yelled and then added, "This is my first mercenary mission, I need to get paid. Give me my money!"
"How about you keep that slime spirit? As for the rest of the money that I owe you, I will cancel it out by providing you guys with accommodation." I tried to negotiate with Aba.
"This dump is worth a middle-tier soul jade? How shameless can you be?" Aba questioned looking around the warehouse.
"What? Since you guys have no place to go but the warehouse, it is only fair that you pay for the accommodation." Aba and Agatha were Anna's hostages. For the secrecy of the silver milk powder and dungeon relocation, Anna couldn't take them to the temporary southern watch military base. So for now until demigod Windsor pays up, they would be confined in my warehouse. So I added, "Come on, don't be a sour tenant. This is the basis of economics called supply and demand."
"Fine, you damned profiteer." Aba cussed holding the aquarium containing the slime spirit showing that she agreed to my terms of compensation.
"Food is not included." I reminded Aba.
"You…" Aba's face turned red blue out of sheer anger.
"I am kidding." I comprised, feeling that the Aba would snap, unable to control her anger.
"Agatha, take my picture with my first reward for completing the mercenary mission." Ignoring me Aba and Agatha began a photo session.
With both Aba and Agatha here I decided to move the card creation to the warehouse card lab. It is narrow but quiet and void of distractions. Vivian and Sarah carried the card ingredients and followed me to the card lab.