Castle of Black Iron

Realizing the atmosphere here was not right, the manager of the VIP area hurriedly rushed over.

"Young master Gregory, if you need a female assistant, we\'ll arrange one for you after a while!"

"After a while? Aren\'t they standing here? Besides, I\'ve just chosen one!" the brat said with an emotionless expression.

"Another guest is choosing right now!" the manager of the VIP area explained.

"Never mind, I only choose Mary. Besides, I\'ve not heard that anyone else had chosen her. According to the rules of the fighting club, I can choose anyone as long as she wasn\'t chosen yet. What\'s wrong with you?"

With an expression of an adult, the stuffy brat even started to scold him. "Don\'t tell me that Mary has been chosen by others. With so many people here, did anyone hear Mary\'s name or see someone choose her? I\'m the first one who called her name, therefore, she\'s mine!"

The manager of the VIP area was so heavily choked by the words that he couldn\'t even utter a word.

Since the brat walked in, Zhang Tie had been watching him. He was curious why such an innocent guy would still offend him on this trivial matter even if the Gregory family had already reconciled with him?

He was really confused.

"Is your family name Gregory?" Zhang Tie asked.

"Of course!"

The brat proudly raised his head and continued to stare at Zhang Tie in an aggressive way.

"Gregory family of Blackhot City?"

The brat gave a cold harrumph.

"Do you know who I am?"

Zhang Tie pointed at his own nose.

"I know!" The brat revealed a sinister smile. "More than two months ago, you were the lowest-level flesh-bag who couldn\'t even stand ten seconds in front of me and passed out after my first kick. Hahahaha..."

The brat purposely said it loudly, making Zhang Tie lose a lot of face. When the brat burst out laughing loudly, the two bodyguards beside him nervously stared at Zhang Ti since both of them were LV 6 black-spider warriors, and they knew that Zhang Tie could immediately kill a black-spider warrior even when heavily wounded. Noticing that Zhang Tie had narrowed his eyes at Gregory, the two bodyguards felt nervous and walked one step forward, wishing to protect their charge.

Zhang Tie didn\'t move, just smiled.

"Your family name is Gregory, which surname grants you a lot of privileges in the fighting club. Additionally, because of your surname, you\'re qualified to stand here and talk so much with me. As there are so many people at your age in Blackhot City, but I\'m afraid that nobody else dares to talk so much in front of a military officer of the Norman Empire, can I ask you a question?"

"What?"

"I know you rich kids are always early, so I want to ask whether you are here to talk about this on behalf of your family?"

Zhang Tie smiled, and the surrounding atmosphere seemed to freeze over.

At first the brat wanted to reply "Of course!", but before he could exclaim it, an unknown sense of danger immediately made his heart pound. He swallowed his words back.

"Of... course not, even if you are a military officer of the Norman Empire, don\'t you let others talk? I\'m also a member of the Norman Empire, or do you wear this military uniform to scare the citizens? Which rule of the Norman Empire forbids me from talking with you? Which sentence I said just now was fake? Did I slander you? Isn\'t it that I chose Mary as my female assistant before you? Don\'t I have the right to do that, or does the Iron-Thorns Fighting Club need to succumb to a second lieutenant of the Norman Empire?"

Seeing Zhang Tie becoming dumbfounded, the brat became pleased with himself.

This time, even manager Hance was shocked and rushed over. Seeing him standing outside the door of the VIP area, Zhang Tie revealed a smile.

"Of course you have the right. What you said was right. I\'m just a counselor of the fighting club and truly have no reason to quarrel with customers. You are very welcome to stay here!" After saying this, Zhang Tie glanced at Mary. "Mary, as young master Gregory wants you to be his assistant, you then should serve him well, go with him!"

Thus, Gregory happily took Mary away, and the atmosphere in the VIP service area also gradually eased off.

After hurriedly arriving here, the manager looked deeply at Zhang Tie, then left too.

After seeing Zhang Tie lose the verbal duel, Benet seemed being much unhappier than Zhang Tie himself.

"Why do you compromise with him? Gregory was over excessive just now. Obviously you chose Mary first, yet he grabbed her away and even offended you with aggressive words. Why not beat him up?" Benet asked Zhang Tie out of fury.

"Would you wrestle with a boar in the wallow?" Zhang Tie asked Benet.

Benet shook his head.

"Why do you want me to argue with an idiot who only knows how to show off his glibness in speech? If you wrestle with a boar, you will be very dirty and as foolish as him whether you end up the winner or the loser.

After seriously thinking about it for awhile, Benet seemed understand it a bit.

"If you want to deal with a boar in the wallow, you might need a long spear or crossbow and bolts, but to deal with such a idiot who only knows how to show off his glibness in speech or wits, you don\'t even need to do anything as his foolishness is already enough to kill himself!"

"What do you mean?"

Benet became a bit confused.

"What\'s his rank on succeeding the heritage of Gregory family?"

"Below 40, this one comes from the branch of Gregory family!"

A brat coming from the branch of Gregory family. Zhang Tie shook his head.

"Just wait, this is the last time for this poor brat to be here in the Iron-Thorns Fighting Club!"

Zhang Tie had already understood a bit what of what that brat was thinking about. When people who lived like kings since they were young found those whom they looked down upon before—ones that would pass out after a casual kick, not even qualified to be flesh-bags—suddenly having changed in status and making their family suffer a miserable loss, what would they feel about such people?

This feeling would be very complicated. If one couldn\'t face squarely the fact and would still treat the other as that humble flesh-bag who had been casually trampled on by you and could only make 80 copper coins an hour, you might do silly things like what Gregory did today.

...

After such an incident, Zhang Tie had no mood to continue staying in the fighting club, besides, what had happened just now had also scared Mary graetly. He felt it unnecessary to care about the small conflict anymore. So Zhang Tie bade farewell to Benet and got his one year\'s salary—over 1000 gold coins that weighed over 20 kgs—from the manager in Hance\'s office, then left the Iron-Thorns Fighting Club.

Avenue Bright was still luxurious. Even now, when the business here were doing much worse compared to before, the stores on both sides of Avenue Bright were still selling the best items in the Blackhot City.

After leaving the fighting club, Zhang Tie walked for over ten minutes down this avenue until he arrived before a jewelry store.

All the items inside were radiating with golden and dazzling lights. A few clerks were standing behind the counter. Zhang Tie saw seven or eight jewelry craftsmen still working behind a glass partition past the counter.

Besides selling jewelries, this store could also do customization and processing of gems. Based on the girls\' of the Rose Association words, this was the best jewelry store in Blackhot City.

Zhang Tie\'s military uniform won him warm welcome the moment he entered the store.

He carefully browsed throug the wares inside. There are so many items in the store that they almost dazzled him. Soon, a set of golden jewelry entered his vision, the theme of which was a rose. It was very delicate and beautiful, and consister of a ring, bracelet, a pair of earrings, and a necklace. In Blackhot City, if any family wanted to marry their daughter, they could choose this set of jewelry as a very graceful dowry...

"Give me this set of jewelry!"

"Fine!"

Very happy, the clerk immediately took out of that set of jewelry that was put on the green velvet in a tray.

After a careful look, Zhang Tie was very satisfied with it.

"What\'s its price?" Zhang Tie asked.

"Wait a moment please! This set can be sold in parts or as a set. I will calculate it for you. The ring weighs 13.6 g, bracelet 78.8 g, necklace 31.5 g, pair of earrings 144.9 g, plus our processing fee, which leaves it at 8 gold coins and 38 silver coins..."

Eight gold coins weighed 200 g, 38 silver coins were equivalent to 9.5 g of gold content. Zhang Tie then immediately calculated the premium of this set of gold jewelry - 44.5%. This was truly the best jewelry store in Blackhot City as the price was a bit higher here. The premium in other jewelry stores would usually not surpass 30%, yet the number was close to 50% here. However, judging from the delicate workmanship, Zhang Tie felt it was very proper. It was most important that someone would like this.

"Can you carve words on it?"

"Of course, we can both carve words on the ring and the bracelet. We can carve out whatever you want to tell your beloved one for free!" With a pair of sharp eyes, at the sight of Zhang Tie\'s age and look, the clerk immediately knew whom Zhang Tie was presenting the jewelry to. "Do you plan to gift this to your beloved one?"

Zhang Tie smiled and nodded in a bashful way.

"If you want to gift this to your beloved one, this set of jewelry will definitely accompany her for the rest of her life. After carving her name or what do you want to say to her on it, it would be very romantic!" Seeing a great chance for this deal, the clerk felt much better and became more enthusiastic about Zhang Tie. "Do you want it?"

"Of course!"

"If so, we can gift you a delicate packing case and a fresh rose." The clerk also smiled. "Your beloved girl will definitely love it!"

"I think so!" Zhang Tie smirked. Give me 82 sets like this!"

"What?" The clerk could almost not believe his ears. With eyes widely opened, he stared at Zhang Tie. "Pardon?"

"I said, I want 82 sets like this!" Zhang Tie repeated.

This time the clerk\'s eyes filled with doubts and vigilance. Eight two sets of such expensive jewelry? He felt that Zhang Tie was a liar in the military uniform of the Norman Empire.

In the end, the boss with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses came out himself. Zhang Tie was then invited into a lounge behind the counter of the jewelry store...

"You mean you want 82 sets like this one?"

The boss of the jewelry store carefully asked as he had long gotten used to eliminating disasters that dealt with large sums. Although soldiers of the Norman Empire enjoyed a very good reputation, there were always some worms. Businessmen were most of these barbarous soldiers.

"Yes!"

"By cash or..."

"By cash!" Zhang Tie put the handbag that contained over 1000 gold coins on the tea table, causing a sound of \'pa\'. After that, he opened the handbag by pulling the zipper and the brilliant golden light.

"As we have not enough inventory to proceed right away, it may take me a bit longer to prepare for it!"

Seeing the cash, the boss immediately let out a sigh as he felt cold sweat covering his whole back.

"How many days do you need?"

"Three days!"

"Okay, no problem, I can pay you first. I will come back for the jewelry three days later!" Zhang Tie replied generously. In Blackhot City, he really wasn\'t afraid of being cheated now.

...

Ten minutes later, he left the jewelry store with only a bit more than 200 gold coins in his handbag. He had just spent the biggest amount of money ever since he was born.

When the boss counted the gold coins, he didn\'t sweat, but at the sight of the list of names which Zhang Tie had requested him to carve out on the jewelry sets, he was instantly drenched.

"To my beloved baby Angel——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Susan——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Fiona——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Sharapova——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Victoria——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Jennifer——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Hiltina——Zhang Tie"

"To my beloved baby Helena——Zhang Tie"

...

There were 82 babies on 82 sets of jewelry... Besides, Zhang Tie had chosen three unique rings inlaid with huge and exquisite gemstones on each of them, requesting the jewelry store to carve words on them too.

One was a black-sealed ring for Pandora. Zhang Tie felt that a black stone would match her a lot. He also asked them to carve a sentence on the back of the ring, "I know you love me in your special way, I love you too——Zhang Tie"

The second was a ruby-inlaid ring for Beverly. That ruby on the ring reminded Zhang Tie of Beverly\'s passionate short hair and beautiful look. The sentenced carved on the back of her ring ring read, "I know, you are as beautiful and innocent as a ruby——Zhang Tie"

The last sapphire-inlaid ring was for Alice. In Zhang Tie\'s eyes, the tears that Alice had dropped on the bed that day were sapphires. Therefore, he thought for quite a while before asked them to carve a sentence on the back of it that said, "Wish you\'ll be happier than a sea——Zhang Tie!"

A man who could spend over 800 gold coins in a jewelry store was not a god as other peole had done it before. However, a man who could buy jewelry for 85 beloved girls at once was definitely a god. Therefore, when Zhang Tie left, not only the boss, but also all the workers who were busy working stopped what they were doing and saw him off out the gate like seeing off a god.

After leaving the jewelry store, Zhang Tie went to a women garment store...