Chapter 120: Chapter 119 Gemstones and Casting Materials (Third Release, Please Subscribe!)
On the other side, Richard was unaware of what had taken place at the mine—nor the matter with Mallen. All he did was lead Prince Gelo and his entourage toward their next destination.
To create cobalt blue, they needed three ingredients: cobalt ore, aluminum oxide, and phosphoric acid.
They had already obtained the cobalt ore, and the phosphoric acid was readily available, so now the only issue to resolve was the aluminum oxide.
Generally speaking, in this world akin to the Medieval era, anything associated with metallic aluminum was hard to come by. The main reason for this was the scientific limitations of the current world, which made the extraction of aluminum difficult. That is why, back in the Blue Lion Kingdom, they had chosen to prepare ether using the experimental method rather than the industrial method catalyzed by metallic aluminum.
However, as a compound related to metallic aluminum, aluminum oxide—or alumina (Al2O3)—was somewhat of an anomaly. It was undeniably rare and precious in the current world. Yet, it could be acquired through the simplest of methods—by purchasing directly. This was because alumina had another name, corundum, also known as ruby.
In Cuijin City, within the VIP room of a certain jewelry store,
Richard and Prince Gelo sat by the table, while a jewelry store owner in his late fifties stood beside them, respectfully, occasionally casting anxious glances toward the door.
“Tap, tap, tap,” amidst the prolonged waiting, the sound of light footsteps emerged as a loyal steward of the jewelry store carefully entered carrying a box made of black walnut wood and nodded to the jewelry store owner.
The owner let out a sigh of relief, took the box quickly, and gently placed it on the table before opening it to reveal a large ruby inside.
Looking at Prince Gelo, the jewelry store owner tentatively asked, “Prince Gelo, take a look, this is the largest ruby we have in our store. Does it meet your requirements?”
Prince Gelo did not speak but turned his head to look at Richard.
Richard glanced at the ruby and nodded.
Prince Gelo looked at the jewelry store owner and said without any fuss, “Tell me the price. I’ll take it.”
“Uh, this…” The jewelry store owner hesitated, finding the pricing troublesome. Set the price too high, and he might offend Prince Gelo; too low, and the store would suffer a loss.
The jewelry store owner couldn’t decide on a price for a long while.
Prince Gelo grew impatient and urged, “How much, exactly?”
With no alternative, the owner steeled himself to quote a price.
“One hundred…” the jewelry store owner began tentatively, closely watching Prince Gelo’s expression. He initially intended to say over a hundred gold coins, but upon seeing Prince Gelo’s slight frown, he swallowed the remaining numbers and blurted out somewhat abruptly, “One hundred…uh, gold coins.”
One hundred gold coins—that was the price of the large ruby in the box. Not overly expensive, but still a considerable amount of money.
Richard looked at Prince Gelo.
Prince Gelo didn’t dawdle. With a wave of his hand, his guard opened the money bag, counted the gold coins, and tossed them to the jewelry store owner. Prince Gelo then picked up the box with the ruby and walked out the door.
After bowing to see Richard and Prince Gelo off, the jewelry store owner went back inside the shop and couldn’t help wiping the sweat from his brow. Selling the ruby for a hundred gold coins was basically at cost. Considering the storage fees at the store, it was actually a bit of a loss. But facing a prince of the Kingdom, he could only chalk it up to bad luck and hope to make up for it elsewhere.
The jewelry store owner pondered as he entered the VIP room, only to stiffen suddenly when he saw a figure in a black cloak, their entire face hidden within the hood, sitting in the room as if materialized out of thin air.
“I am but a customer looking to make a purchase, no need to be nervous,” the black-robed figure spoke faintly. “I’ve come to your shop for a simple reason, to buy some low-grade casting materials, which, of course, to you are just gemstones.”
“Bring me all the gemstones from your shop; I wish to have a look.”
“This…” The jewelry store owner, feeling an inexplicable pressure greater than anything he had sensed from Prince Gelo, couldn’t help wanting to call for someone, but a voice inside him said it would be better not to.
Seeing no response for a long time, the black-robed figure reminded him, “My time is valuable; you better hurry.”
“Uh, yes, yes.” The owner replied, pursing his lips and stepping out of the room with some inner turmoil.
The VIP room’s table was filled with wooden boxes of various sizes, all opened to reveal gemstones of different colors.
The black-robed figure examined all the gemstones on the table, picking out only a few with a hint of disdain and muttering to himself, “Indeed, this is a barren land. There’s scarcely anything useful, and the ones that are useful are of terrible quality. But I suppose it’ll have to do.”
“Then, how do you plan to pay…” the store owner began, stopping abruptly at the sight of the black-robed figure turning around, revealing a face beneath the hood, eyes glowing like ghastly green flames that looked straight at him, sending chills down his spine.
“You know, I had thought about killing you outright, it would be simplest,” the black-robed figure said with a somewhat sinister tone, but then his voice softened, “However… considering you’ve been so compliant, I believe a reward is in order.”
Raising a hand, a purple light ball the size of a date appeared at the black-robed figure’s fingertips, moving towards the jewelry store owner’s forehead.
The owner was petrified, wanting to flee, terrified, and wanting to shout, but he found himself paralyzed, throat dry, unable to make a sound, and could only watch as the purple light ball drew closer to his forehead, then disappeared into his skin, and within his body.
As the light ball entered, the jewelry store owner’s body jolted, feeling a sudden heat surge through him, his mind went blank, and his eyes showed a confused and dull gaze.
“What I’ve given you is a special energy that extends your life by two years, as payment for the casting materials,” the black-robed figure said. “Of course, there’s one condition: you must forget about me, forget everything about our encounter. That’s all.”
With those final words, the black-robed figure’s form twisted abruptly and vanished like smoke within the VIP room.
After a while, the jewelry store owner, as if awoken from a dream, blinked and looked around to see all the opened jewelry boxes on the table, his eyes widening as he involuntarily cried out, “Someone come, come quickly!”
Soon, the loyal steward rushed in and asked, “Boss, what’s wrong?”
“This…” the store owner’s hand trembled as he pointed at the many boxes on the table, asking, “What… what happened here? Weren’t these supposed to be locked in the warehouse and behind the counter? How did they all get here?”
“Boss, didn’t you ask me to bring these in? Just now when I asked you why, you didn’t tell me the reason, what…”
“This…” The store owner froze, frowning deeply, he couldn’t help but stroke his graying hair. After a moment, when he let go of his hair, he was surprised to find a red-brown hair, the color of his hair in his youth, but now…
The jewelry store owner was utterly stunned.