Chapter 111: Offering 500 Gold Coins

Chapter 111

Offering 500 Gold Coins

Usually, if the institute sent in the attacking beasts, they would have a mechanism to pull the students out if they were injured. For instance, if a student received an injury severe enough, the stratagem would immediately extract them, resulting in the group’s disqualification. However, it was evident that the Level 1 Star Beast were not sent by the institute, meaning there were no such safety conditions attached to them.

While the students felt secure, believing they would be pulled out before dying, the reality was quite different.

"What should we do!? Many of our friends are going to die."

"Thank goodness I didn’t participate. How could something like this happen!"

"Waah, waah. My fiancé is inside. Someone, please help him."

Cries of distress filled the air, but none of the spectators moved from their seats. They still wanted to watch the competition and cheer on the participants, unaware that the real target of the perpetrators was not those competing!...

Boom!!

Another explosion rang out, but this time it wasn’t in the arena; it was in the spectator seats. The screams of the students erupted once more, but this time they were screaming out of fear for their own safety!

"Don’t come any closer. Who are you, and why are you doing this!? Are you trying to cause chaos for us? Aren’t you afraid that the Fernal family will hunt you down?" The threatening voice from behind Ellie made it clear who the culprits’ target was this time.

The beautiful young lady of the Fernal family, whose date and time of death was predestined, was indeed a pity. However, this character held little importance to the main storyline but was crucial for the background plot!

With the death of Young Lady Fernal, a significant figure in a powerful family and the fiancée of Prince Joseph, a prominent contender for the throne, severe repercussions followed. Prince Joseph was heavily criticized for failing to save the Fernal family’s beloved lady although he was also at the spectator area. The Fernal family demanded that he must not marry anyone else but "Lady Vivian Fernal" as his principal wife and future queen. He was not allowed to take anyone else for that position.

This demand seemed excessive, but the Fernal family had the power to enforce it! Consequently, other families vying for the queen’s position no longer supported Prince Joseph. Even the Fernal family began backing another prince in the competition.

It’s no surprise that Prince Joseph’s name faded from prominence, despite his capabilities!

As expected, the intruders at the institute were targeting Lady Vivian. According to the storyline, she was destined to die.

"Stop! I said don’t come any closer!!"

Slap!!

"So arrogant! Do you still think your noble status can intimidate us?"

"Haha, don’t be so angry. Nobles can be quite interesting. Some nobles pay us to deal with other nobles. Without these nobles, we might not have so much money."

"That’s right! Maybe I should apologize to this young lady...like...Excuse me, my lady, but please give us your life. Otherwise, we won’t get our 100 gold coins this time. How about that? Haha."

The criminals chatted merrily, not realizing that despite the chaos, someone was still sitting quietly, listening to their conversation while most people had already fled.

"D-don’t! Don’t do this! If you take one more step...the Fernal family won’t let you off easily."

"Haha, Lady Vivian, do you still expect the Fernal family to do anything to us? You see, even now, it’s just you 4 here. Where...where are the people from the Fernal family?" The criminals were so disdainwith the nobles. Despite the situation, instead of fighting back, they had fled.

It couldn’t be helped; the students watching the competition weren’t confident in their combat abilities. Those who were confident were all down below, leaving only the weak and easily frightened ones.

"Y-you might not know this, but my fiancé is a prince! If you dare harm us..."

"Oh, your fiancé? Is he the one who quickly whisked another woman away just now? If so...I can assure you he won’t be coming to stop us from killing you. He has other women to worry about more!" One of the criminals sneered, grinning at the thought.

Of course...they knew the risks of this job, but their employer was adamant that the skilled Prince Joseph wouldn’t interfere. And why was the employer so sure? ... Because the employer was from the same family as the woman who lured the prince away to protect her!

"How dare you speak like this! I am the prince’s fiancée. There couldn’t be another woman..."

Swish!!

"No need to raise your voice so much. The truth is the truth. Do you think you can escape it? Can’t you see that the prince hasn’t shown up to help his fiancée at all?" The criminal held a sword to Vivian’s neck. She was terrified, but also deeply saddened.

As a woman betrothed to a prince, she never looked at any other man. From a young age, she always saw him as her future husband, admiring and genuinely liking him. Even knowing that Prince Joseph loved another woman, her status remained secure. She was determined to be a good wife, a queen by his side, supporting him in his endeavors, even if she wasn’t the woman he loved...

But today, the inner turmoil had finally broken her. Prince Joseph didn’t care about her impending death in the slightest, despite...her fulfilling her duties excellently. Why didn’t he fulfill his duties as well?

"Sob. Waah, waah." The cries of a noblewoman who had never shown her tears to others were now heard. Tears streamed down the face of the woman who had always maintained a strong facade befitting her status, no longer afraid of the shame.

After all, this was her final moment. It would be the last time she would cry...

Ellie, who had intended to stay indifferent to the fate of others, found herself standing up before she realized it, becoming the focus of their attention!

“Tch! That scared me. Grab this girl! Who let her sit around here? Just consider yourself unlucky,” the villain exclaimed, initially startled. However, upon seeing the small girl who posed no real threat, he relaxed and ordered his henchmen to capture Ellie and group her with the other women.

Nevertheless, Ellie did not display the same fear as the high-class women, who, despite being in their fourth year of education, still lacked the courage to face danger. This...might be considered a failure in their teaching. After all, they would be graduating after this year but still refused to fight their enemies, resorting only to crying out and hoping for men to rescue them...Honestly, they shouldn’t have passed even their first year!

“How much did your employer pay you?”

“Huh? What are you talking about, you brat!?”

“How much did your employer pay to hire you?” Ellie asked again, her voice steady. Though the villains were taken aback by her cold demeanor, the real fearsome thing about Ellie was her lack of fear.

“100 gold coins! Our employer paid us 100 gold coins.”

“Is that so? That amount is enough to hire you, huh? Why settle for so little?”

“W-What the heck! What are you talking about, you brat!?”

“If you let us go, Lady Vivian is willing to pay 500 gold coins. Interested?”

“W-What? F-Five hundred gold coins? Ha ha, do you think...this is a joke? 500 gold coins?”

“Why? Don’t want it? Then go ahead and kill us. After that, you can wait to be dealt with. 100 gold coins won’t get you far in hiding. But with 500 gold coins...you might have a chance,” Ellie shrugged. She acted as if she wasn’t afraid of being killed in the slightest. Her serious tone made the villains reconsider.

Initially, they planned to take the 100 gold coins—more than they could ever earn in their lifetime—and give it to their families, knowing they would likely die afterward with no chance of escape.

But...500 gold coins were a different story!

They could give 100 gold coins to their families and use the remaining 400 gold coins to hide in the Tower of Eternity. With such a substantial amount, they wouldn’t starve for decades. They could just wait for everyone to forget about them and then return.

“Gulp...Are you serious?”

“What do you mean?” Ellie feigned ignorance, playing coy now that the villains seemed ready to fall into her trap.

“The 500 gold coins! Are you serious or not?” The villain barked. They didn’t have time to play games with Ellie! They needed to deal with this before the professors and others came to rescue them.

“Yes, we’ll give you 500 gold coins right now. Just let us go,” a woman in Vivian’s group quickly answered on Ellie’s behalf, fearing the villains would change their minds and kill them instead.

Seeing Ellie point out that the villains were willing to do anything for money, the girls knew they could be swayed by a bigger offer. So, who would pass up such an opportunity!?

However...just as everyone thought Ellie had helped them, she smiled instead...No one knew what she was thinking, and no one realized how furious she was about being gossiped about earlier.

Do people who gossip about others deserve to be helped? Ellie couldn’t deny that she didn’t want to help the 4 of them, but her conscience compelled her to stand up. At the very least, the 4 didn’t deserve to die when they hadn’t done anything wrong. However, that didn’t mean they could talk about her without consequences.

“Hmm? Do you really have that much money? Then pay up to 500 gold coins. No! Give us everything you have! If you don’t want to die, hand it over!!” The villain roared. Suddenly, he saw an opportunity for more money.

If it weren’t for the fact that this young lady acted as if 500 gold coins were nothing to them, the villain wouldn’t have become so greedy.

The young ladies didn’t realize they were falling into a trap Ellie had set from the beginning. Seeing the villain change his mind, the 4 young ladies quickly handed over their belongings as ordered.

As a result, the greedy villains took everything they had, even their expensive clothes. If the trousers and underwear could fetch a good price, they would have taken those too.

“And you! Hand over all your valuables.” After taking the treasures from the 4 young ladies, they looked at Ellie, who hadn’t handed over anything, but the girl acted oblivious.

“Don’t you see my face? I’m just a poor girl who’s only good at using wiles. Where would I get money to give you?” Ellie replied, using the words the 4 young ladies had gossiped about her earlier. Her words made the four young ladies hang their heads in shame.

Earlier, they had indeed gossiped about Ellie, but who would have thought that this girl would be standing right in front of them, hearing everything!