"Devil Octopus shipped in from the Western Sea! Long-term consumption can increase magic power! Only ten gold coins each! First come, first served!!"
"Freshly mined Magical Crystals! Essential final-stage material for restoring a Duelist's magic and crafting Duel Cards! Limited-time price—four hundred gold coins apiece!"
"The Silver Duel Bracelet—usable only by Duelists of Magus rank or higher! Comes with auto-shuffle and search functions! Can further reduce the magic cost of using cards! Only one available—first come, first served!!"
"Super rare cards! The Gladiator Beast series—only nobles can obtain them! Ten gold coins per card!"
"The strongest magician with infinite potential—Maha Vailo!!"
"Tickets for the Duel performance of the 'Commoner Hero'—Allen Felix—now on sale! Twenty gold coins each, while supplies last!!"
...
"Yuui-san, it's so lively here. Is this really the 'Black Market'?"
"It is lively… but it's definitely Black Market in every sense!!"
A few hours earlier, after calming Alicia's emotions, Yuui originally planned to postpone today's plans and let the girl rest.
However, unexpectedly, Alicia herself suggested visiting the Black Market. After thinking it over, Yuui agreed; maybe it would help change her mood.
So Alicia pulled out an old black robe from her past belongings, then followed the route Kexi had given them, leaving the Academy grounds and arriving at the Black Market located in the northern district of the capital—about five kilometers from Saint Fusion Academy.
The owner of this Black Market truly either had nerves of steel or a background powerful beyond imagination. Setting aside the fact that carving out such a huge area for a Black Market inside the capital was already absurd, the guy even dared to set it so close to the Academy.
Undoubtedly, his connections reached the heavens.
"Yuui-san! Tickets for Allen Felix-sama's Duel performance! Should we buy one!?" Alicia looked excitedly at the hooded ticket scalper.
"Allen Felix, huh? Sure. Might as well see the strength of another HERO user."
"Yay!" Alicia hurried toward the scalper.
Twenty gold coins per ticket was outrageously expensive; the original price was about ten. Yet, tickets always sold out in no time, so many people had no choice but to buy overpriced scalped tickets.
After receiving the ticket, Alicia checked it carefully before handing over the twenty gold coins and leaving the scalper.
The reason for checking was simple: this was the Black Market. There were far too many liars, scammers, and counterfeit sellers. With everyone hiding their identities, if you bought a fake and didn't notice immediately, it was nearly impossible to track the seller down afterward.
However, the moment Alicia bought the ticket without a second thought, Yuui sensed several presences following them.
"Trying to make a profit without effort? Or planning to extort us?"
"Yuui-san, what do we do?"
"It's fine. Just head into an alley and deal with them."
"Got it!"
Being tailed in the Black Market wasn't new for the two; it almost made them feel nostalgic.
Ten minutes later, with a final strike from Flame Wingman, a Duelist who had attempted to rob them was easily defeated by Alicia.
Their opponent wasn't weak—he was a top-level Magician-tier Duelist. Anyhow, unfortunately for him, someone at Magician peak was basically a warm-up for Alicia now.
After beating him, she casually stripped his Deck, took a few rare cards, and left.
In the Black Market, if you dare attack someone hoping to get rich quick, you'd better be ready to be beaten and robbed in return. Alicia was already being merciful—she only took a few rare cards, didn't seize his whole Deck, and didn't kill him outright.
As for the consequences of a Duelist having his cards stolen… that wasn't their problem. He chose to attack Alicia; he earned his fate.
After running a little "Black Market business" like she used to, Alicia's gloomy mood visibly improved.
They continued wandering the market, hoping to find the card shop Kexi mentioned—the one that supposedly sold cards from the Axel Republic and Chaos Empire.
But even after walking a full circuit, they still hadn't found it.
There were plenty of card sellers in the Black Market, but most of their stock was worthless or unusable for Alicia and Yuui.
And the few useful ones were priced far above what the Academy's Card Shop charged, so Alicia simply memorized their effects and planned to buy them later at the Academy.
"Huff~ Where is that shop!?"
Even though Alicia was a girl, and girls usually loved browsing shops, after wandering in circles for over an hour without finding the shop, she was starting to look discouraged.
Yuui looked around at the sparsely scattered hooded figures and various peddlers, then said, "We've checked the outer section already. Since we didn't find it, that means it's not outside… it must be somewhere deeper inside."
"Inside?" Alicia blinked, then looked toward the brightly lit, massive circular plaza in the distance.
The reason Alicia and Yuui believed the Black Market's owner was so powerful was simple: the man hadn't just opened a Black Market—he'd opened an arena. A literal underground Duel Arena.
Alicia and Yuui were no strangers to places like this.
A few years ago, Alicia survived, stayed fed, and saved enough tuition money entirely thanks to the prize money Yuui earned from winning matches in underground arenas.
Back then, they didn't even have what could be called a real Deck. They pieced together a hodgepodge of cards—most of them were ones Alicia scavenged from trash heaps.
Avian, Burstinatrix, Hero Kid—those were cards they picked up back then. Later, Sparkman and Clayman were at least bought properly using prize money from Yuui's early wins.
Looking back, it was almost unbelievable that they made it this far using what was basically a pile of junk cards.
"Yuui-san!"
"Mm?"
"Thank you!"
"What silly thing are you saying? Do we need to say such things to each other?"
"Hehe (^▽^), I just suddenly wanted to say it!"
"Heh. Say it all you want, then. Let's head inside now. I wonder how the underground arena here in the capital compares to the one back in 'Nazca City'."
...
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