Chapter 8: Relief Sculpture

 J_Squared  Editor: J_SquaredIn the carriage, the seats were covered with soft fur. The fur emitted a warm vibe in this cold weather. Even though Merlin was not clear with the pricing in this world, but he knew the fur he sat on now definitely worth a lot of money.

Even Merlin, who was born into a noble family, had to exclaim, “How sumptuous!” Even though the nobles had a high social status, in terms of wealth, the Wilson family was far behind the Dougland family with its income stemming just from tax collection.

It was, as expected, the luxurious carriage has an enjoyable seat. Without waiting much longer, they had reached their destination and the carriage slowly came to a halt

“Alright, let’s get down.”

Anson could not wait to usher him down.

After that, they entered a small shop. The shop looked empty since there were only a few products placed on the shelves.

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Merlin was not familiar with this place. Albeit full of confusion, he would not say it out loud. Instead, he followed Anson and Gutt closely.

Anson and Gutt seemed to know their way around. Both headed straight to the counter where there was a young girl in an outrageous outfit. Once she saw Anson and Gutt, she flashed a smile at them.

“Young Master Anson and Young Master Gutt.”

The young girl apparently knew Anson and Gutt.

“Alright. Let’s go inside. I heard your boss got some new stuff in lately?”

Anson rubbed his hands and asked the girl.

“Yeah. My boss got some new stuff in. Some are of superior quality. I am sure Young Master Anson and Young Master Gutt will be satisfied with them,” The young girl said as she pressed something under the counter. Following that, a wall in front of them began to turn, showing a dark passage underneath.

“Linny, let me check if you have grown up lately.”

Gutt came right in front of this girl named Linny and reached out his fat hand. He actually reached right into the girl’s breast and grabbed her.

“Fatty, let’s go.”

Anson yelled in a hurry when he saw Gutt was falling behind.

“Hehe. Coming.”

Gutt took out his fat hands and threw a shiny gold coin into Linny’s hands. After that, he followed Anson’s footsteps into the dark passage.

The passage was a little dark in the beginning. However, after a while, a fiery light could be spotted. It appeared that there were candles at the two sides of the passage used for illumination purposes.

Merlin squinted his eyes to find that the passage was heading downwards. They were already about eight feet deep into the ground. “This passage was dug deep, it appears.”

After walking for about a hundred meter, some sound finally came to them. Along with some exclamation, Anson obviously picked up his pace and soon, they were out of the passage.

At the end of it was an extremely wide hall. It was about the size of two football fields. There were not many people in there, but all of them stood in groups of two or three. They were discussing the antiques lying around in this hall.

Surely, this was the place Anson and Gutt wanted to come.

Anson arrived in the hall as his eyes darted around. Then, a middle-aged man dressed in black approached him. “Young Master Anson, Young Master Gutt, you are a little late today.”

Anson’s expression changed and quickly asked, “Mr. Nathan, are all the good ones sold?”

The middle-aged man smiled. “Of course not, but it’s almost finished. Let’s go. Miss Carice is looking at the new stuff now.”

“Oh? Miss Carice is here?”

Gutt’s fat face gave out a delighted smile.

“Just arrived.”

In a while, the middle-aged man brought Merlin and the bunch into a quiet room. In this small room, there were about five young people murmuring to each other as they surrounded some antiques on the shelves.

“Hi, Miss Carice. You are so quick.”

As soon as Anson stepped into the room, he greeted a lady in a green dress who had short, blonde curls.

Gutt approached her quickly and stared hard at Carice.

Carice frowned slightly and, when she looked at Anson, she pulled a stiff smile. “Anson, you are here right on time. Look at these new ones. Their quality isn’t bad.”

Carice’s gaze fell on Merlin, but she simply ignored him. She seemed to be a woman extremely crazy about antiques as well.

Anson took a beeline towards the shelf. There was a palm-sized white jade that was carved into a strange figure. The figure had the head of a fish and the body of a man. It was also making a strange gesture as if it was spitting water out of its mouth.

There were also some gruesome monsters that had spikes all over their body. They held iron whip as they swung their whip at some strangely dressed people. These images and carving styles were more than strange to outsiders like Merlin.

“Tsk. These are all antiques from the age of the Molta Empire.”

Anson had some knowledge about antique. With one look, he could see the background of these antiques.

Carice was holding a rather yellowed jade in her hand. It was also carved into a figure of monster. She asked Anson with knitted brows, “Anson, this antique is rather unique. Look at the design. I have never seen one like it before. But look at the material and carving styles. It’s definitely from the age of Molta Empire. I am sure of it.”

Anson also frowned, apparently confused.

At this time, the middle-aged Nathan spoke, “These new ones are from a ruin that dates to the age of Molta Empire. The things we found there are all peculiar, but I can promise you that they are all from the age of Molta Empire.”

Merlin also took a few carefree glances in front of the shelves. He knew nothing about antiques, so he naturally could not join the conversation. These antiques sure looked peculiar, but in his eyes, he could not feel any sense of aesthetic about them. Rather, he felt uncomfortable looking at them.

Most objects on the shelves were made of jade. This indeed corresponded to the style of Molta Empire. Merlin continued scanning the objects. At the lowest shelf, in an inconspicuous corner, Merlin saw a piece of a broken relief sculpture.

Yes, the relief sculpture. It was obviously knocked out of its building by force.

This relief sculpture was only the size of a palm. Its carving represented a naked man that sat on the floor in an extremely awkward pose.

Merlin picked this relief sculpture up lightly and stared at the pattern on it.

Suddenly, Merlin felt his world sway. The relief sculpture in his hands seemed to come ‘alive’ and the naked man carved on it was doing an extremely awkward pose step by step.

“Hu…”

Merlin was in shock and the image in front of him immediately disappeared. He was still holding this odd relief sculpture, and nothing had seemed to move at all.

“Was I imagining things just now? An illusion?”

Merlin could not help but rub his eyes, then stared at this relief sculpture again carefully, especially on the patterns on it. Slowly, the image he saw appeared once again and the relief sculpture seemed to come alive. The naked man on it was doing the awkward movement in an extremely slow pace.

“Merlin, what are you doing?”

Right at this time, Merlin felt someone held his back. He immediately got back to his senses and found Anson holding him.

At this moment, everyone was judging Merlin with strange glances. They all saw Merlin, who came with Anson, had changing expressions as he held that relief sculpture. His body kept swaying as if he would pass out any second.

“This relief sculpture. Can you tell what this is?”

Merlin quickly handed this relief sculpture to Anson. It was not a coincidence that the illusions appeared two times in a row. There must be something wrong with this relief sculpture.

Anson took a thorough look at the relief sculpture, then nodded. “This relief sculpture is exquisite. It’s also from the age of Molta Empire, but it seemed to be incomplete. Moreover, there should be more than one relief sculpture like this here. What? You like it?”

Merlin was observing Anson all this while and found Anson completely normal. He had to ask in a low voice, “Just this? You didn’t find anything special about this?”

“Special?”

Anson looked at it carefully again, then shook his head. “It only has a unique design. I only like the jade products of the Molta Empire. I don’t really fancy this relief sculpture.”

After saying that, Anson then handed this relief sculpture back to Merlin.

After experiencing the panic before, Merlin had completely calmed down by now. He was clear that those were not simply illusions, but the people here, except for himself, could not see anything special about this relief sculpture.

“Could it be that only I had the vision?”

Merlin kept playing with the relief sculpture. Even though he did not know what was going on, there was obviously something wrong with this relief sculpture.

“Mr. Nathan, how much for this relief sculpture?”

Merlin wanted to buy it and study it thoroughly when he went back.

Nathan looked at Anson and smiled. “Young Master Anson, this is…”

Anson had not begun to reply before Gutt patted Merlin with a sneer as he said, “Hehe. Mr. Nathan, this is Wilson Merlin.”

Nathan’s eyes immediately flared up. Even if he had not seen Merlin before, but the name of Wilson was too much of an attraction. In Blackwater City, there were only just that few noble’s families. Nathan could not be clearer about that.

“Oh, I see, it’s Young Master Merlin. If Young Master Merlin like it, we will only take the cost of this relief sculpture. Ten gold coins!”

Anson came close to Merlin’s ears and murmured, “Nice. Ten gold coins. A fair price. If you really like the relief sculpture, you can buy it.”

Merlin naturally believed Anson, so he nodded. He then took ten gold coins from his pocket and bought this odd relief sculpture.