A day after the death match in the Gladiator's Arena, Lux and Gaap toured the Capital City of Shambala, escorted by Saintess Cleo.
After Lux's win, the Saintess reluctantly honored the bet she had with Lux, which was to serve him for an entire year if he won.
Since the King of Agartha had already made a decree about it, and it was even announced in the Gladiator's Coliseum, the beautiful Saintess could only follow through the motions and accompany the Half-Elf and the Halfling on their journey.
Lux, on the other hand, didn't make fun of the Saintess, not even insisting that she call him Daddy. For this, Cleo was truly grateful because she wouldn't be able to raise her head again if she were to call Lux, Daddy, in public.
"How do you like one of Agartha's specialty dishes?" Cleo asked after Lux tasted a dish that almost everyone in Agartha cooked in their homes.
"This is the first time I've eaten fried Scorpions," Lux replied. "It's tastier than I thought."
"I know, right?" Cleo smiled. "The scorpions in Agartha are not poisonous. Their stings might be very painful, but you won't have to worry about dying."
Gaap, who wasn't very picky with food, also found the fried scorpions to his liking. He even wanted to eat them on a regular basis.
Fortunately, it was a very common dish in Agartha, and almost all taverns and eating establishments had them.
The City of Shambala was very big, making it impossible to be toured in a day or two. However, what surprised Lux during their tour was that there was an Adventurer's Guild present inside the city.
According to Cleo, the Adventurer's Guild originated in Agartha and spread out in the Surface World.
However, the Guild Grandmaster of the widespread organization in the world refused to allow the King of Agartha to use it for his political means.
Their stance was to be neutral from the get-go, and it had remained that way since the Adventurer's Guild was founded.
After their meal ended, the three of them rested, drinking some tea as they did.
Lux thought that this was the perfect time to chat with the Saintess, so he decided to take the initiative and ask the question that was on his mind.
"Miss Cleo, what can you tell me about the youngest princess of Agartha, Princess Shayna?" Lux asked.
He had stopped calling Cleo, Her Excellency, because the latter said that it sounded so formal, and she insisted that Lux just call her Cleo.
However, Lux felt that doing so would be disrespecting her, so he insisted on adding Miss whenever he referred to her.
"Princess Shayna?" Cleo smiled before putting her teacup on top of the table. "I don't know much about her because she rarely appears in public. All I know is that among the royal children, she is the closest to Aurora…"
Suddenly the body of the Saint stiffened as if she had come to a realization.
"I see. So that's why," Cleo muttered.
A minute of silence passed before the Saintess once again talked. "I think the reason why the Princess rarely made her appearance is because she had been affected by the curse of Misfortune's Beloved.
"I'm sure that the King has used his authority to keep her inside the Royal Palace instead of going to the Azmarin Monastery. She might be wearing protective charms right now to keep the bad luck away. But to ensure that she doesn't affect others with her bad luck, she might have been kept under house arrest."
Lux felt sorry for Aurora's sister, whom Cleo said had been very close to her.
"Don't worry," Gaap commented from the side. "The Royal Family of Agartha must have some kind of special protection from the Gods. Even if Princess Shayna is cursed with bad luck, its effect isn't as bad as you might be imagining. The King wouldn't have invited us to her birthday celebration otherwise."
Cleo nodded in agreement. Since the King of Agartha had invited Lux and Gaap to Princess Shayna's birthday, there was no need to worry about getting affected by bad luck.
After a short break, the three of them continued touring the city.
Everywhere they went, people would stare at Lux and Gaap as if they were popular idols that were taking a stroll in their city.
Naturally, these Agarthians had already heard about what had transpired in the Gladiator's Coliseum through their peers, and their impressions of the Highlanders had changed since then.
"You're like celebrities now," Cleo commented as she looked at the two Highlanders, who were walking side by side.
"It's not our fault we were born handsome," Lux replied. "Isn't that right, Master?"
"Yes." Gaap nodded. "Being handsome is a sin."
Hearing that, the corner of the Saintess' lips twitched, and she weirdly looked at the shameless Master and Disciple pair, who were actually feeling quite smug about the attention they were getting.
When they neared the center of the city, Lux saw a Bazaar, and his interest was immediately piqued.
'I should get a souvenir for Grandma, Iris, and Cai,' Lux thought as he walked towards one of the stalls in order to check what they were selling.
Out of habit, he summoned his Soul Book and used its appraisal skill to check the things that were on sale.
To the Half-Elf's surprise, nearly half of the items that were being sold in the stall that he went to had Abilities in them. Although not all of these abilities were good, the fact that they were there made the Half-Elf think of something good.
"Sir, how much is this bracelet?" Lux asked.
He was holding a black bracelet that had the skill, Calm Mind, which allowed those who wear it to have a significant boost in their mental resistance.
"Ah, you have good eyes, young man," the merchant replied. "That bracelet is made from the skin of the Black Crocodiles that are hunted from the Kyle River. Since you are one of my first customers of the day, you can have it for a very low price of 500 gold coins."
"500 Gold Coins for this trinket?" Cleo asked with a frown. "At most, this will only cost 50 gold coins. You even have dozens of them, so they're not supposed to be that expensive."
"My Lady, even though I have dozens of them, I guarantee that they are made from the highest quality materials," the Merchant insisted. "Also, those Black Crocodiles are all Deimos Ranked Beasts. Not everyone is able to hunt them down."
Cleo was about to argue once again, but before she could do that, Lux stepped in and smiled at the merchant.
"How about this earring?" Lux asked.
This Earring was a bit special because it had the ability, Light as a Feather.
As the name suggested, it was as light as a feather, which would be a very interesting ability to imbue to something that usually weighed more than a ton.
"That one is priced at 300 Gold Coins, but I will give you a big discount and only sell it to you for 100 Gold Coins," the Merchant replied.
"Deal," Lux replied before picking up another accessory from the stall.
Now that he no longer worried about money, he could now finally use his skill Transmutation [EX], to its fullest potential.
'Hahaha! What a sucker!' the Merchant laughed in his heart. 'Are all Highlanders this stupid? He should have listened to that beautiful lady beside him. It looks like I'll make a lot of profit today!'
Cleo looked at Lux as if he was a country bumpkin that was shopping for the first time in the city.
The Half-Elf didn't even bother bargaining for the price of the things he bought and simply bought them at their market price.
The Merchants who saw this thought that Highlanders were suckers and had plenty of money, so they opened up their wares to Lux and even gave him "bulk discounts" for the items that he was purchasing.
What these merchants didn't know was that Lux was having the last laugh.
If coughing up a few hundred gold coins was enough to acquire rare abilities that he could transmute to his equipment, then he would gladly do so.
After all, Legendary-ranked equipment and above were considered "Priceless," and if a price tag were to be attached to any of them, it would easily reach millions of gold coins, which was a far cry to the thousands of gold coins that Lux had spent in shopping for the rarest abilities that were available in the Bazaar of Shambala.
