The casual way Ikasa demanded for two more rooms left Yao Ya stunned.

In all her years as the Innkeeper, she had seen many powerful people from the Tier-3 Cities. Though they were considered big shots back in their Cities, few dared to flaunt that status in a Tier-2 City.

Each one of them, without fail, was awed by the decorations in the Tavern. Just like Ikasa.

When they heard about the Dream Swan feathers, they would either treat her with utmost respect or brashly order her around to satisfy their low self-esteem.

Yao Ya thought this young man would be no different. She thought that he would be intimidated by the opulence of Pleasant Dream Inn.

He would consider it his great honor to be able to live in such an inn. But nothing of such happened.

On the contrary, he showed no signs of being uncomfortable. It was as if he was actually returning to his natural environment after being away from it for a long time!

Without waiting for her answer Ikasa had made himself comfortable on the bed. Seeing his expression of happiness, Yao Ya wondered if her assumptions about this man were wrong.

She decided to probe a little more.

“Owner Ikasa, Sang Yi only reserved one room.”

Leaning against the pillows, he rested his head on his arm. Then, Ikasa furrowed his eyebrows.

“Does that mean all your other rooms are full?”

Ikasa asked the woman with a piercing gaze. He could sense her bias against him from the beginning. He tried to let it slide but she was now testing his patience.

Before she could answer, they heard a commotion downstairs. Yao Ya excused herself realizing she had left the counter unattended.

Ikasa also grew worried as his people were still waiting for him outside. He also jumped up from the bed and rushed outside.

As he pushed the door of the Inn open, he heard a nasal voice ridiculing his companions.

“Get lost from here, you mongrels!”

The lady managing the counter also arrived outside. Upon seeing her, the fat man in frilly golden robes immediately changed his tune.

“Miss Yao Ya, are you hiring servants? With your reputation, you don’t have to stoop so low as to hire a disabled teen and an old woman? Or are you hiring them out of pity?”

Trying to sound righteous, the merchant fawned over Yao Ya while putting Zhong Xi and his family down.

Yao Ya also had no idea who these people were so she had no reason to defend them and offend a returning customer.

That’s when the Merchant’s vision landed on Xin Ruo. He eyed her curvaceous body and licked his lips. His lascivious eyes traveled from her long legs to her pretty face and he swallowed a gulp of saliva.

“Miss Yao, you should think of hiring this girl as a maid. She would make a great bed warming servant.”

He said, laughing creepily. Even the hair on Yao Ya’s hands stood up when she listened to his perverted laughter.

Suddenly, she heard a voice coming from behind her. What it said finally made her calm and composed smile disappear.

“Miss Yao Ya, when you said that the specialty of your inn was Spiritual Beasts, I didn’t think you had also tamed a perverted beast in human skin.”

Ikasa ridiculed the fat man as he came out from the inn. The face of Yao Ya became ghastly at the blatant insult and she was suddenly dragged into a word war that had nothing to do with her.

The already small eyes of the fat merchant disappeared behind his plump cheeks as he attempted to narrow them at Ikasa.

“Miss Yao Ya, who is this rude fellow?”

The merchant coldly hissed. Yao Ya had to helplessly reply to her long-time customer.

“This adult is the head of the Gold Heart Business Group, an emerging power from Birch City.”

His nasal voice became even more annoying as he derisively snorted upon hearing that Ikasa hailed from a Tier-3 City.

His contemptuously looked at Ikasa and asked,

“Boy, can you even afford the price of a single room? Do you even know it costs 100 gold per night?”

A look of astonishment appeared on Ikasa’s face. His pursed lips opened slightly.

Seeing Ikasa’s reaction, the rotund man gloated in his heart. He had a look that said, “I thought so.”

He immediately turned to Yao Ya and spoke,

“Miss Yao Ya, I propose you throw these poor people out…”

His sentence was cut off in the middle as Ikasa exclaimed, “So cheap?”

“Is the price correct? It is just 50 gold and not 500?”

Ikasa asked Yao Ya with his left eyebrow raised.

“Cheap?” Yao Ya mumbled as she looked at Ikasa with bewilderment. Her Pleasant Dream Inn was one of the top 3 Inns in Elm City in terms of price and luxury.

She had only seen people suck in cold air upon hearing the prices. Yet this young man from a Tier- 3 city was calling it cheap?

Still in daze, she dumbly nodded at Ikasa’s raised eyebrow.

Opposite them, the fat on the merchant’s face trembled violently. His bushy mustache twitched as he watched the interaction between the Yao Ya and Ikasa with a fluster.

He himself was a merchant from the Furnace Fire Empire. For this trip to Elm City, he had brought goods worth 60,000 gold with him. He expected to sell them for 100,000 gold.

Though the transaction amount seemed big, his profits would only be around 10,000 gold. After paying for the escorting mercenaries and other travel expenses, the 40,000 gold would shrink to 10,000.

Earning this amount still put him in the upper bracket of the wealthy merchants.

If he himself thought that the price of 100 gold was a premium, who the hell was this brat to call this price cheap?

He tried to console himself as he said in his heart, ‘This young man must be bluffing. He must be… ‘

However, he was proven wrong the next instant.

Upon receiving her answer, Ikasa immediately calculated in his head.

‘Two rooms for Zhong Xi and his family, Bu Fan can share a room with Zhong Xi. One room for the girls and another for the boys. And one for myself.’

“Miss Yao Ya, give me 5 rooms for all my people. This is 2500 gold for five nights. Depending on my business, I will decide whether to extend my stay.”

Ikasa directly booked five rooms and placed a bag full of money in Yao Ya’s hands. He could afford to do so because he earned more than 30,000 gold per month!

This 2500 gold was nothing compared to his face. Indeed, it had the intended effect.

His actions caused the face of the Merchant to stiffen.

He could not believe that this man who he looked down on would splurge a fourth of profits he would earn without batting an eyelid!

The chubby and bloated cheeks of the  merchant turned bright red. Maybe because he had been slapped in the face just now?

Yao Ya who was looking at Ikasa with suspicion and slight arrogance suddenly became reverent as if she was in the presence of a god of wealth!

She respectfully began to lead the people with Ikasa to their rooms. Just as she was about to enter the inn, she heard the voice of the merchant.

“Miss Yao Ya, is my usual room available?”

The sound of her footsteps paused. She looked at Ikasa and the Merchant with conflict in her eyes.

On one hand, there was Ikasa, a mysterious person who had some relations to the Nian Clan.

On the other hand, this Merchant had wide connections in the merchant group of Furnace Fire Empire.

She didn’t want to offend either party.

Noticing her dilemma, Ikasa decided to make his stance clear.

“I would not feel at ease if a pervert like him stays in the same inn with my people.”

As he said ‘my people’, Ikasa snaked his arm around Xin Ruo’s willow waist and pulled her closer. His blazing eyes were locked on the merchant as he remembered the latter’s wandering eyes and comments.

Ikasa’s words enraged the Merchant. His face darkened as he was reminded that he did not earn as much as some bloke from a Tier-3 City!

However, now he had to get a room to find a false sense of victory. So he pressured Yao Ya.

“Miss Yao, will you choose some brat over your long-time customer? If so, I would be very disappointed and have to tell my friends about this.”

Yao Ya clearly understood the meaning behind his words. She weighed her options in her mind.

‘Though his badmouthing will tarnish the reputation of my inn slightly, it possesses more than enough appeal to still attract other merchants from the Furnace Fire Empire.’

Coming to conclusion, she wisely decided to choose a business of 2500 gold over the business of  700 gold.

Yao Ya turned to the Merchant and with a polite smile refused his request.

“I am sorry, Merchant Zhang. Master Ikasa already booked the last few rooms we had available. Please, come again next time.”

The face of the Merchant turned ugly. He watched the sexy back of Yao Ya enter the inn with gloomy eyes.

Impulsively, he called out to Ikasa.

“You trash third tier boy, remember you have offended Zhang Chun of the Blaze City. You can forget about doing business with any of the Merchants from the Furnace Fire Empire.”

Ikasa threw him a skeptical glance and shooed him with his hand. Then he entered through the door with a swagger in his steps.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep