White Chess Wizard

After a brief moment of thought, Roland decided that if he could get this item for 300 magic stones, it might actually be worth considering. That way, even if it ended up gathering dust in his hands later, he wouldn't suffer a loss.

"How many magic stones?"

"Let's round it up," Wallace said with a smile. "The cost of your clothing today, plus the price of this wondrous item—total one thousand magic stones. Paid in installments."

Roland's expression immediately turned grim. "You want five hundred magic stones for this piece of junk?!"

Wallace flicked the Wind Prince's Magic Ring in his hand. "Let me tell you, there are plenty of wealthy fools in this world, especially among newly arrived high nobles! If you're willing to spend a bit more time, swindling someone out of a thousand magic stones wouldn't be a problem at all! Do you think five hundred magic stones is expensive? Besides, I'm offering you credit and letting you pay in installments!"

"What do you say, little brother Roland?" Wallace chuckled as he channeled magic power into the gemstone ring, summoning a miniature Wind Prince standing two heads tall. "This thing has another advantage: the probability of a failed summoning is extremely high. So as long as you don't steadily input magic power to summon it, you'll just end up summoning piece of trash!"

"Just think about it, Roland. When your opponent first sees the appearance of this wondrous item, they'll undoubtedly be terrified out of their wits. But then they'll realize you've only managed to summon such a pathetic piece of garbage... Heh. Who would bother taking a rich rookie fool seriously?"

Look at this shameless, cunning devil of a merchant! His merchandise clearly had severe flaws, yet he spun them into advantages!

However, for customer groups like Roland, this actually suited their exact needs precisely!

Therefore, Roland was genuinely tempted.

Wallace reinjected magic power, this time summoning an imposing Wind Prince. "With a bit more practice, you can summon a functioning Wind Prince."

Roland gritted his teeth and said, "I'll give you 300 magic stones at most!"

"Deal!"

Wallace agreed remarkably fast.

Roland's face was extremely unsightly, while Wallace beamed with joy.

"Little brother Roland, 300 magic stones in exchange for a wondrous item... I'm practically lending you tuition money here!"

This devilish merchant was simply too silver-tongued.

Roland rubbed his face hard and said, "Fine, but I won't thank you for your loan, Wallace!"

Wallace chuckled as he pulled out a sheet of parchment. Writing on it, he said, "You can pay for these items on credit in installments, but you have to pay upfront for my bottle of universal purification magic potion."

This piece of parchment was not any kind of magical contract; it was merely an ordinary sheet of paper used for writing an IOU. It possessed no magical enforcement. However, with Catherine around, there was no way Roland could default on his debt.

According to their agreement, Roland would have to repay Wallace at least 120 magic stones every month, with 100 magic stones going toward the principal and 20 magic stones as interest.

Of course, if Roland could pay it off all at once, he wouldn't need to pay any more interest. But if he failed to make a payment in any given month... the interest for the next month would double. And if he missed it again, it would double once more.

Roland couldn't be bothered to waste words with him. He wrote the IOU, then dumped fifty magic stones out of his pouch to pay for the "purification potion."

Wallace handed Roland three bottles of "holy water"—this was Wallace's so-called "universal purification magic potion."

He threw in an extra bottle for Roland for free.

"H-Holy water?!" Roland was dumbfounded. "You're a devil, and you sell holy water?!"

The devil merchant laughed. "Never mind where I got it from—it works! Let me tell you, I'm the only one with this kind of channel. If I were selling to anyone else, I wouldn't do a buy-one-get-two-free deal."

Roland looked at Wallace with deep suspicion. "Just how much is your wholesale cost?!"

Wallace smiled without answering.

Roland: "You gave me three bottles at once... They surely don't cost just a dozen magic stones or so, do they? Wait, is the wholesale price even lower than that?!"

"Oh, Roland~ A merchant's sourcing price is a trade secret."

Wallace counted the money in his expanding pouch, smiling happily. "I gave you two extra bottles, for goodness' sake—you should count your blessings!"

Roland grabbed him by the collar. "Give me my money back! You old undead, hand the money over!"

Wallace clutched his pocket tightly. "Don't like that, don't like that—young master, you can't keep gambling like this! You've already lost three thousand magic stones over the last few days! This money was originally supposed to be used to buy wondrous items for you!"

Roland: "???"

Roland asked in astonishment, "What nonsense are you babbling about?"

Wallace gave Roland a meaningful look and quietly pointed toward the other side of the alley.

Roland looked in that direction and saw four new students dressed in White Chess wizard robes standing not far away.

These people had originally intended to come over to inquire about something, but seeing Roland and the other person arguing, they had hesitated.

Wallace wailed, "Wuu wuu wuu, young master, although three thousand magic stones is nothing, the young miss will be angry! If she finds out, she won't give you any allowance next month!"

Hearing these words, the new students became even more cautious.

An allowance of three thousand magic stones? Goodness gracious!

Which family is this wealthy?!

Oh~~ The emblem on that old man's chest... The Alexandra family?!

No wonder!

So, that black-haired new student is a member of the Alexandra family?

Wait, people from the Alexandra family don't have that hair color and those eyes.

Could he be a retainer of the Alexandra family? No, that old man just called him young master.

The minds of the many new students raced, and they quickly guessed Roland's true identity—word had it that the young lady of the Alexandra family had just turned twenty this year, so that wet-behind-the-ears kid... could he be her kept toy husband?!

Has the young lady of the Alexandra family gone blind? How could she fall for such a scumbag?!

Still... he certainly is quite handsome.

The four new students looked at each other and dared not stay here any longer. They cast one last lingering look at the mighty Wind Prince in the alley and turned to leave.

However, the old man called out to them.

While this old man had been completely submissive in front of that young master, he radiated an imposing aura when facing them.

The several new students could tell that the old man was a quasi-wizard. Terrified, they hurriedly began to explain.

It turned out that recently, a batch of apprentices from White Chess Academy had transferred to Black Abyss Academy as exchange students. In name, they were still wizard apprentices of White Chess, but from then on, they would be attending classes at Black Abyss Academy.

In other words, White Chess Academy had basically treated Black Abyss Academy as a branch campus.

These four were "exchange students" from White Chess Academy who had just arrived here recently and intended to report to Black Abyss Academy.

The pretty junior sister in the group explained it this way: "W-We originally wanted to complete a task on our way back to the academy, but the path up the mountain was blocked by garbage, so we ran back down... When we passed the alley, we saw that 'Wind's Son' and then noticed you. We thought you were an instructor, so we wanted to come over and ask for help."

The "Wind's Son" in the apprentices' mouths was actually the Wind Prince.

This elemental creature could help them deal with the "mutated mountain giant" tied to their mission, so they had wanted to try their luck and see if it could clear away the mountain road blocked by strange wooden carvings.

Therefore, they weren't actually here to ask Wallace for help; they had actually wanted to recruit Roland into their party to return to the academy together.

Yet, after hearing the argument between Roland and Wallace just now, they no longer dared to issue a party invitation to this young master of a great house.

They were afraid of dragging along a troublesome ancestor and having Roland hold them back.

Wallace whispered to Roland, "That little girl is extraordinary."