Close Combat Mage
chapter-59

“You! This is extortion!” After she heard Eldest Sister’s words, Emma couldn’t help but feel flabbergasted; even with all her riches this was still considered an exorbitant cost.

Eldest Sister was displeased and furrowed her brows after listening to Emma’s words. In a low voice, she said, “Miss Emma, please pay attention to your words. We will not extort you; you can decide whether or not you wish to come to the White Villa on your own . You were not forced to come!”

After she paused for a second, Eldest Sister said in a disdainful tone, “Yesterday, you had already received the heavens’ help and pulled out the golden card, but you were the one who willingly gave it up. Otherwise, your beauty right now would be comparable to Wen Ya’s. Since it’s like this, how can you claim that we have blackmailed you?”

Taking in a deep breath, Eldest Sister pretended to be upset and said, “To be honest, Miss Emma, that first card you received was only available as a gift from that evening’s raffle. The Young Master is a devout believer, and decided for his first customer to be left for the heavens to choose. However, Miss Emma, you received the God’s blessing but didn’t cherish that opportunity, and now the opportunity is lost. Now you come here and dare to accuse us of extortion, does such reasoning exist in this world?”

The more Eldest Sister spoke, the angrier she got, until she began to shake. “Miss Emma, I hope that you can understand that right now, no one is extorting you. In fact, even if you managed to save up a hundred million gold, no one can help you get back your golden card. Although the card was initially valued at a hundred million gold, the Young Master would never exchange a golden card for gold.”

Hearing Eldest Sister’s words, Emma finally realized the hundred million gold was brought up not because they wanted her to buy back the card, but rather to tell her that no amount of gold could purchase another golden card. She originally had the opportunity to finally obtain beauty, but because she did not appreciate this chance, she instead completely lost it.

Recalling everything that happened yesterday, Emma could not help but feel like punching herself a few times. Originally, the other party received her with a smiling face, but because she simply had a problem with his age and looked down on him. She even went as far as to call him a child and question his ability. Naturally, no one would willingly accept this type of humiliation.

The heavens had definitely given her a chance. Amongst the 200 cards, she had managed to draw that one priceless golden card, yet she had ignored God’s generosity. Who else could she blame but herself? Perhaps it was for this precise reason that the devout Lord Suo Jia refused to meet with her again no matter what, let alone help her lose weight. After all….she had blasphemed God’s gift!

Weakly looking at Eldest Sister, Emma bitterly pondered; if money was capable of solving the problem, then she would definitely not be stingy with it. However, the truth was that the opposing party wasn’t even discussing money. The only reason they had said the number of 100 million was simply to prevent any notions of being able to use money to solve the problem. If even 100 million could not force the golden card out, then no matter how wealthy Emma was, she had no way of getting it. Although her family was rich, even she was unable to randomly throw away 100 million gold just like that.

Although she was at a loss, Emma still had not resigned to leaving. She waited the whole time until sunset, and still refused to leave. For the sake of persuading the servant girls, she gave them quite a large number of tips, and also did not hold back on enjoying the White Villa’s food and services. Unfortunately, even after the entire day had passed, Lord Suo Jia did not appear.

As evening fell, finally….waves of guests began to arrive at the White Villa one after another by carriage. Among these, it was admittedly true that some of these people had been from yesterday. However, majority of the people were rich and powerful merchants coming to observe; everyone wanted to witness exactly how luxurious the White Villa was.

Since it was currently dinnertime, the villa had round tables and chairs set up around the lounge. All the guests that entered sat themselves at a table, and ordered dishes that were terrifyingly expensive to flaunt their wealthy statuses.

Emma sat in a corner and played with a glass of wine in her hand. After seeing the deep red liquid in the glass, Emma understood that this was a fine liquor that had successfully passed through the Greater Trade Routes. Despite this, Emma was still completely unable to taste what was so good about it; it was both sour and tart. Aside from the fact that its value was scarily high, it had no other special characteristics.

Looking at the staircase for the Nth time and still not seeing Suo Jia’s figure, Emma drained her glass in one gulp in distress. Right now, she was regretting her decision more and more; she shouldn’t have carelessly given up the opportunity offered to her that day. No matter how much she regretted it now, what use would just thinking about it be? Sometimes, money was not omnipotent.

Just as she was deep in thought, a clamor could be heard outside. Three fat men walked inside with large strides. After loftily glancing around, one of the men led their group and walked up to the seat next to Emma. The fat man patted the table hard to attract the servants’ attention, and then shouted, “Come here, come here!”

Seeing the few fattys’ vulgar appearances, Emma could not help but wrinkle her brows. These people’s appearances were too ugly. What kind of place was this? This was the luxurious White Villa! How could people like these enter so easily?

While she furrowed her brows in thought, that fat man proudly said to his two companions, “Everyone says the food here is expensive; we should experience it for ourselves today. Isn’t it just money? That’s something we have!”

Hearing the fat man bragging, his two companions hastily began to flatter him. They were so noisy that all the surrounding people furrowed their brows. After all, this place was not some adventure guild’s pub, making such a large racket was really too impolite.

This was especially true for people like these who thought of themselves as being so amazing, and used their money to symbolize it. Putting aside others, even Emma could not stand to watch such a spectacle. Even though money was amazing, it was not supposed to be used to show off.

While Emma was pondering this, a servant respectfully walked up to the table, and asked in a low voice, “Gentlemen, what would you like to order?”

“Hn….” After muttering to himself for a while, the fat man loudly said, “I’ve heard that the dishes here are all extremely expensive. Today, I want to try them out for myself; it’s just money, isn’t it? Even if I have nothing else, I definitely have money. I want you to serve me a dish worth 1000 gold!”

Hearing the fat man’s words, the servant calmly replied, “I apologize, Sir. We only sell dishes by whole servings, not by half servings.”

“You don’t sell half servings? What are you talking about? What can’t I really…” Hearing the server’s words, the fat man mumbled in confusion. However, before he had even finished speaking, he was dragged out by his two companions; this embarrassment was too much.

Seeing the three men run out the building with their tails between their legs, the whole lounge was first quiet for a while. However soon after, all the guests could not help but chuckle. These few fellows had actually wanted to clash with the wealthy. However, they had not known that within the White Villa’s main courses, the cheapest dish was at least 1000 gold!

Emma was also laughing; she was even happy. However, after laughing for a while, Emma’s face changed color. The fellows just now were definitely beyond vulgar. Just because they had some stupid money, they had acted arrogant and despotic; it was really too tasteless. They were in no way like Emma, who was so wealthy….who was so wealthy….

After pondering for a while, Emma’s expression finally changed. The smile on her face gradually froze, and her face had also begun to slowly pale. After thinking about it harder, she realized that besides from the different amounts of money, how was she any different from those vulgar men? Hadn’t they both shown off simply because of some stupid money?

In Emma’s opinion, anything could be solved with money. Once a pile of money was thrown away, anything could be achieved. This had always been how Emma understood things. However, now that she thought about it, wasn’t her relationship with Lord Suo Jia exactly the same as the relationship between those vulgar men and the White Villa? After all, she had vainly attempted to use money to force her way to get that golden card. However, she hadn’t realized that by doing so, everyone else would laugh at her, just as everyone had laughed at those three idiots.

With this realization, Emma could no longer sit still. Although she had never noticed before, now that her mentality had changed, Emma could feel that the way everyone perceived her had changed. It seemed like everyone was looking at her with looks of contempt and disdain. Throughout her whole life, this was the first time that Emma was conscious of the fact that showing off wealth was the most frivolous and foolish thing to do.

Although she really wanted to wait for Suo Jia to appear, Emma could no longer continue staying in this place. As she hurriedly stood up, Emma could only feel that her previous self was just like a clown that everyone would laugh at. However, she had still felt immeasurably self-satisfied; how humiliating!