The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 86

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The new pawnshop located just outside Ashen Street.

 

Unlike its elegant exterior, the interior was noisy with customers’ loud voices.

 

“Hey, how many hours are you going to make people wait?”

 

“If you’re short on staff, at least hand out number tickets, or call in more workers! Did you advertise without even anticipating crowds?”

 

“I should have gone to see the festival instead of coming here! Forget it, I won’t entrust my items to such a disorganized shop! No, I can’t!”

 

The goatee appraiser, Malcolm, couldn’t handle the rushing customers and eventually fled upstairs.

 

When the angry customers who had waited too long left, the pawnshop became quiet, but his mind was still troubled.

 

“Damn it, how was I supposed to know so many people would come!”

 

Malcolm had rejoiced at the news that the pink-haired pawnshop wasn’t opening today.

 

He could monopolize the customers! Malcolm thought the more people flocked, the better.

 

He didn’t much care about service quality.

 

After all, customers who came to places like this wouldn’t know even if he appraised things carelessly.

 

But he never even thought crowds would gather like this. Moreover.

 

“I thought if we cut our commission, they’d cut theirs too. The plan was to induce a price war to make them lose money and close down…!”

 

From right after opening, he had maintained lower commission rates than the pink-haired pawnshop, but strangely, their commission rates showed no change at all.

 

With things not going as planned, Malcolm tried to subtly badmouth the pink-haired pawnshop to customers to spread rumors.

 

But with customers flooding in to the point where even brief conversations were difficult, that wasn’t working either.

 

Instead, only his own pawnshop’s reputation seemed to be getting worse.

 

“I should have known better before trying business!”

 

Malcolm glared resentfully at the people outside the window.

 

Thanks to his good connections, he had mainly appraised items from noble families and temples.

 

Sometimes he did ‘proper’ appraisals, but usually it was work falsifying results to suit the nobles’ tastes.

 

It was a very comfortable and easy job where money rolled in just by smiling elegantly and stamping a few documents.

 

“Damn it, dealing with commoners is all like this. I shouldn’t have accepted Countess Rosaline’s proposal in the first place…”

 

Though he couldn’t have refused anyway.

 

It wasn’t that he received a temporary proposal from Rosaline – Rosaline was the very ‘connection’ Malcolm had secured.

 

Since he had built networks with other nobles while appraising her replica paintings as authentic, Malcolm couldn’t dare oppose Rosaline.

 

Moreover.

 

“I was already fired from the temple, so what happens to me if this job fails too?”

 

Replica paintings weren’t the only items Malcolm had falsely appraised.

 

Rosaline was also creating counterfeit sacred relics.

 

It was work done because big money could be made if the temple recognized them as sacred relics.

 

The crystal bird sacred relic was made so precisely and well that it ended up displayed in the exhibition hall, leading to getting caught.

 

‘How on earth did Cardinal Crescenziano figure out it was fake? It was such a precise counterfeit that even I couldn’t distinguish it without hints from Countess Rosaline.’

 

The hooded cardinal’s interrogation was fierce and cold, but he barely escaped.

 

He firmly denied knowing anything about it, saying his appraisal skills were simply lacking.

 

Though the cardinal suspected him to the end, thanks to other naive and foolish priestesses being deceived, he narrowly escaped with just dismissal.

 

But.

 

‘Since I was fired, the Countess must be angry. I can no longer appraise sacred relics under my name. So I opened the pawnshop as the Countess instructed…’

 

Of course, there was also the purpose of closing down the pink-haired pawnshop.

 

But Rosaline wanted more than that.

 

After acquiring the pink-haired pawnshop, she intended to trade stolen sacred relics using that reputation.

 

While she couldn’t get prices as high as officially certified sacred relics, wouldn’t anyone covet them if sold slightly cheaper since they were stolen goods without certificates?

 

Currently they only dealt with small stolen goods like watches and jewelry, but Rosaline’s ultimate goal was sacred relics.

 

‘But now I’m about to ruin even that goal. I have to make up for it somehow, somehow…!’

 

Malcolm, who had been anxiously biting his lips, went downstairs.

 

The temporary workers who lacked expertise and only handled customer service were half-sprawled, looking exhausted.

 

“What are you doing right now, get up! These people only waste money without being any help!”

 

Malcolm, who had burst into anger, irritably looked at the pamphlets piled high on the floor.

 

It seemed customers had left them behind.

 

As he irritably kicked them aside, an open page caught his eye.

 

‘…This is?’

 

[…Seminar: Gem care methods demonstrated directly by Appraiser Elisha, apply now…]

 

In the event listing held at the guild hall, that pink-haired girl’s name was there.

 

Malcolm’s lips curled up viciously.

 

“How cunning, so she was planning to dump all the unprofitable drifters on me while promoting herself this way?”

 

Rosaline had warned him to be careful of Michele, the pawnshop’s original owner.

 

She told him never to step forward, not even think of provoking, and just quietly do what he was told.

 

But this pink-haired girl wasn’t the owner.

 

She was just a granddaughter, wasn’t she?

 

“Calling herself an appraiser but not even showing appraisal work, just teaching gem care methods that any Tom, Dick or Harry could do? Pfft, I knew it. This greenhorn couldn’t possibly be confident in her skills!”

 

Haha!

 

Malcolm’s eyes gleamed as he laughed loudly, even leaning back.

 

“Right, I just need to crush this pink-haired girl in a public setting! If her true colors are revealed in front of all these people, ruin will come in an instant!”

 

Perhaps the pink-haired girl had closed today because she lacked confidence for a direct confrontation.

 

Because she feared him with his 20 years of experience!

 

Malcolm, breathing heavily, gestured to the employees struggling to get up.

 

“Finally there’s work for you lot. Come here right now!”

 

Seized by the triumphant feeling that he could finally be confident before Rosaline, Malcolm gathered his employees.

 

Perhaps that’s why.

 

He failed to notice the mint-eyed man who had been watching him from the incense shop across the street, then ran toward the guild hall.

 

*

 

“Elisha!”

 

I was busy preparing for the seminar at the guild hall when I turned at the voice calling my name.

 

It was Luca, the incense shop owner.

 

His face was flushed, as if he had run here urgently.

 

“Oh, Luca. Did you come to watch the seminar?”

 

“Th-that too, but! You know how I said I’d monitor the new pawnshop! Just now…!”

 

As I listened carefully to his panting explanation whispered in my ear, I smiled coldly.

 

Luca looked puzzled seeing my smile.

 

“Uh, isn’t this a serious matter…?”

 

“No, it is a serious matter. But I’m grateful that you’re looking out for our shop like this, Luca.”

 

“Oh, um, this is nothing really…”

 

Luca scratched the back of his neck embarrassedly, then whispered while pointing at people.

 

“Over there, those people! The ones just entering are employees from the new pawnshop I told you about. That person with the weird beard is the manager!”

 

“Yes, I hope he’s bold enough to openly cause trouble here.”

 

Luca, who seemed confused, said “Anyway, I’ll cheer for you!” and moved away.

 

The information Luca had gathered was exactly as expected.

 

Even the goatee appraiser’s people sitting scattered among the seminar participants.

 

Among them, the goatee appraiser himself wore a triumphant expression.

 

‘Oh, so he’s glaring at me?’

 

Meeting his glaring gaze directly, I smiled brightly.

 

When I smiled nonchalantly, the goatee seemed flustered and flinched, then quickly looked away.

 

‘Really spineless, and even less pride as an appraiser…’

 

But that too ends today.

 

As I looked around the audience, I tilted my head slightly.

 

‘Huh, is that person Crescens?’

 

A green-eyed man in white robes was sitting in the middle.

 

When our eyes met, he adjusted his robe’s hood.

 

‘He must have come to see out of curiosity. Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.’

 

Clearing my voice, I tapped the podium with a tap, tap.

 

“Hello, everyone. I’m Elisha, in charge of the final seminar. Did you enjoy today’s festival?”

 

I could hear people shouting various things like ‘Yes!’ and ‘It was so much fun!’

 

Smiling warmly, I gazed intently at the goatee and opened my mouth.

 

“Good. I’ll do my best to ensure it remains a pleasant memory until the end.”

 

At the same time, with a thud, gem illustrations unfolded in the air. It was Emma’s magic.

 

“Then let’s begin the seminar 《Appraiser Elisha’s Easy Gem Care Methods》.”

 

I gave her a slight thumbs up and started my presentation.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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