Darian looked at Kael with a gaze that promised severe punishment would come later. The silent threat hung between them like an executioner’s blade.
Realizing the magnitude of his mistake and the inevitable consequences awaiting him, Kael felt mounting frustration that demanded an outlet. His eyes landed on the nearest available target for his displaced anger.
"It’s all your fault!" Kael snarled at Elena, his voice dripping with venom as he glared at her with a wrathful expression . "If you hadn’t been so persistent in the bidding, if your queen hadn’t tried to steal what rightfully belonged to us, none of this would have happened!"
His finger jabbed accusingly in her direction as he bursted in explosive rage.
"You light elves always acting so superior, so righteous! Look where your arrogance has led—your queen bleeding and broken, your people dying for her cowardice!"
Elena’s green eyes flashed with indignation at the unprovoked verbal assault. "You dare blame us for your leader’s brutality? We bid fairly in an open auction!"
"Fairly?" Kael laughed bitterly. "Nothing about this war has been fair since you started it decades ago! And now because of your interference, I face punishment for circumstances beyond my control!"
The confrontation between subordinates reflected the larger conflict consuming both kingdoms.
Noah ignored Kael and Elena’s heated exchange before addressing both leaders with firm authority. "So? Do you want to come inside? And let me warn both of you—whoever breaks the peace will not only lose my services, but they will regret it deeply."
Darian understood the warning was primarily directed at him, given his superior strength and aggressive pursuit of the queen. He nodded curtly before turning to address his subordinates with cold command.
"You fools! Enough playing around, by the time I emerge from that store, I expect you to already be in their kingdom. Slaughter everyone! Leave nobody alive, understood?!"
The dark elf grandmasters straightened at their leader’s command, their capabilities making them devastatingly effective instruments for such wholesale destruction.
"Yes, my Lord!" they responded in unison before dispersing with supernatural speed toward light elf territories.
Queen Seraphina’s face went pale as she witnessed the deployment of forces that would massacre her defenseless kingdom while she remained trapped in negotiations.
"You monster," she whispered with horror at the cruelty of using diplomatic immunity to orchestrate genocide. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by noⅴelfire.net
Although she had called him a monster, deep down, Seraphina knew that if she had the chance to slaughter the Dark Eleves, she would have done so, long ago.
"Hmph! Don’t blame me, I gave you a choice. You decided to sacrifice your kingdom for your worthless life, not me. So deal with it, whilst you shop, hundreds and thousands of light elves will die." Darian said coldly, the lack of mercy visible.
Noah’s expression hardened as he realized how Darian was exploiting his territorial protections to coordinate attacks while remaining immune from retaliation.
The dark lord’s intelligence was becoming increasingly apparent—he would use every available advantage, including Noah’s neutrality rules, to achieve total victory through whatever means proved most effective.
Seeing the deployment of forces toward her defenseless territories, Queen Seraphina turned to rally her remaining subordinates with words of encouragement.
"Unlike that monster, I will awaken my dormant abilities and save you and our people. So, hold the line for our kingdom’s sake, and don’t you dare die on me. I’m coming!" Seraphina decalred with the tone befitting a queen.
Her words provided a crucial morale boost to the surviving light elves who had witnessed their queen’s apparent defeat transformed into opportunity for salvation.
Without hesitation, Seraphina turned to Noah with urgency. "I would like to purchase everything available from your store."
Noah looked at her without surprise—as a queen facing racial extinction, such a large order made perfect sense. The survival of her entire kingdom depended on maximizing every possible advantage.
Once her kindom was destroyed and she died, there would be no money left. So, spending money to buy items to help them wasn’t a bad choice.
He quickly calculated her purchasing limits based on his inventory and the one-to-one ratio policy. Currently stocked were five luxury smoothies and five rose petal candies, along with full inventory of other enhancement items.
Under the fairness restrictions, he could sell her two luxury smoothies and two rose petal candies, plus half of everything else in his regular stock.
He set the pricing at ten thousand golden coins for each luxury smoothie and two thousand for each rose petal candy, maintaining the premium rates that such powerful items commanded.
For the comprehensive purchase, she would receive 288 Tier 1 items—bread and iced tea that formed the foundation of his business along with 40 Tier 2 items encompassing everything from protein bars through his most advanced products.
Her total came to 71,745 golden coins, a staggering sum that represented a decent portions of the light elf royal treasury but provided enhancement capabilities that could determine her kingdom’s survival.
The astronomical figure made Noah feel genuinely satisfied about his business success, especially knowing that Darian would likely make an equivalent purchase immediately afterward.
Seraphina handed him a storage ring containing the complete payment while he provided another ring filled with her purchased enhancements. The exchange was conducted with the efficiency befitting the desperate time constraints.
Without waiting for diplomatic niceties or observing Darian’s parallel transaction, she consumed the luxury smoothie first, followed rapidly by every other enhancement item.
She clearly wanted to stack as many beneficial effects as possible, regardless of overlapping diminishing returns from similar enhancement types.
The intelligence boosts from both iced tea and rice cakes wouldn’t stack—only the rice cake’s temporary effect would count—but she prioritized speed over optimization given the ongoing slaughter of her people.
Enhanced by dozens of magical improvements, Queen Seraphina immediately took flight and departed at supernatural speed toward the battlefield, intent on eliminating as many dark elf forces as possible before Darian could complete his own enhancement purchases and join the conflict.
Darian cursed internally at her head start before demanding urgently, "Hurry with my transaction, please."
Darian added the please after watching the frowns on Lola’s and Noah’s faces.
Noah and Lola completed the identical exchange within seconds.