Chapter 178: Red Wardrobe

Words : 1357 Updated : Oct 10th, 2025

Chapter 178: Red Wardrobe Rock Sand City, Pergina’s Alchemical Treasures. "Master! I’m back!" A bustling figure burst through the door. The shop sign that had recently been put back up on the door fell down with a clatter, though thankfully it didn’t break this time. A customer happened to be leaving, followed closely by the shop’s owner, Pergina. "Miss, please don’t go! I can give you a thirty percent discount! Forty percent! Hell, even seventy percent is fine!" Who knew that hearing this would make the customer book it even faster. "Ugh, another sale down the drain." Pergina sighed with a worried look. If this kept up, how could they make ends meet? "Master, check out what I bought!" Demi, who had already made it into the shop, waved her hand with a flourish, and tons of ingredients appeared on the empty table. Pergina put away the jewelry and looked over at the commotion: "Holy cow! Three-stripe fish, sand worm legs, sea ink ribbons..." "Did you hit the lottery? Buying so many expensive ingredients?" Pergina rattled them off like they were precious gems—all top-shelf ingredients she usually couldn’t afford when shopping for supplies. "Master, look, there’s also this!" Demi pulled out a sand box and carefully cracked it open. Inside were loads of golden bugs. These bugs were chunky and golden all over, with pale white patterns wrapped around their bellies like ribbons. "Holy crap! Golden White-Banded Leaf Bugs!" Pergina’s jaw dropped. "These are precious ingredients worth their weight in gold! Super rare. Where the heck did you get them?" Pergina’s eyes were bugging out. When had her student become such a big spender? Demi smiled like she had a secret: "This was part of the garrison’s payback. I specifically asked for it." "Payback?" "You know, about the garrison putting us on wanted posters a few days ago, saying we were working with traitors and all that garbage." Demi sorted and organized the ingredients while filling in her master. "What? You were working with traitors?!" Pergina instinctively jumped back several steps, with one foot already out the door. Her mind was going a mile a minute. Should she do the right thing and turn in this menace to society? Would immediately ratting out her student to the garrison be crossing a line? Also, if the student was working with traitors, would the teacher be in hot water too? How did a perfectly good student end up working with traitors? If push came to shove, should she cut ties with the master-student relationship? Wait a minute? If they were already wanted, how were they now getting payback? In that split second, a million thoughts raced through Pergina’s head, leaving her totally torn. Demi was organizing ingredients with her head down and didn’t catch her master’s mental meltdown. "...Now the whole thing’s been sorted out. The garrison admitted they screwed up. Not only did they cancel the wanted posters and set the record straight with everyone, they also said sorry to us and gave us compensation." "Oh! It was all a mix-up!" Pergina immediately pulled back her foot from outside the door. She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and walked over like nothing had happened: "A mix-up, good that it was just a mix-up." Looked like she could keep this student after all. "Huh? Master didn’t know?" Demi looked up confused. "Recently... um... these past few days... I was swamped with..." Pergina racked her brain trying to come up with a decent excuse for being out of the loop. But she really couldn’t think of anything. Man. Her student had been through such a major ordeal, and as her master, she hadn’t even known about it until it was all wrapped up. She was such a failure! "Master, it’s all water under the bridge now. Don’t beat yourself up about it." Demi thought about it. Her master had probably been buried in alchemical research these past few days and didn’t know what was going down in the outside world. That was totally normal. After all, everything had happened out of nowhere. "Demi... let me give you a hand with that." What an awesome student! These past few days, she’d been busy researching ’special clothing,’ planning to break into new markets, and had definitely been neglecting Demi. Pergina felt even worse about it. She stepped forward, wanting to help her student organize the ingredients. "No way, Master! I have to handle these myself!" Demi turned down her master’s help. Every ingredient had to be processed by her own hands to pack in her full heartfelt intentions. "?" Pergina sensed something was weird about her student’s vibe. Usually when she asked Demi to process ingredients, the girl would either want to bail or have other stuff to do, making all kinds of excuses. Now she was handling them with such enthusiasm, occasionally giggling like a fool, and wouldn’t let her help! "Demi, why did you suddenly want to buy so many top-shelf ingredients? And specifically ask for ’Golden White-Banded Leaf Bugs’ as compensation? We can’t eat all this ourselves, right?" "Oh snap! I forgot to tell Master! Young Master Carlos might swing by to visit you in the next few days, so I’m getting ready ahead of time!" Demi stuck out her tongue. She’d been so focused on processing ingredients that she’d forgotten to fill in her master. "Young Master Carlos? Who’s that? Why would he come visit me?" Pergina was full of questions. From the title, he was at least some big shot. Why would he visit her? "This time we were able to clear our names and dodge the false charges thanks to Young Master Carlos." Demi pressed her hands to her chest, her eyes sparkling with gratitude: "To show my thanks, I invited Young Master Carlos to dinner!" "Oh, so he’s the one who bailed you out." Pergina got it. She now knew why her student was prepping so many high-end ingredients. To pay back a life-saving debt, she was carefully making heartfelt delicious food. However, she still wasn’t thinking big enough! "Demi, Master has noticed you’re missing something in your game plan." Demi looked up puzzled at her master. "Master, what am I missing?" Clang! Pergina straight-up hauled out a case of wine from behind the counter: "Obviously you’re missing good booze!" "Wine!" Demi smacked her forehead. She’d actually forgotten such an important secret weapon! Good thing her master had her back! Next, Pergina looked Demi up and down, checking out her outfit, and shook her head a bit: "And your look is way too plain. It doesn’t have the killer power to seal the deal." "Ah! Master, what are you talking about? What... what killer power..." Having her secret thoughts called out, Demi’s face immediately turned bright red. A knowing look flashed in Pergina’s eyes: "Demi, Master has made more alchemical gadgets than you’ve ever used. Your little schemes are way too obvious! Have you ever heard of a knockout outfit for dinner dates?" "Knockout outfit?!" Just hearing the name sounded incredible! Demi realized her master had some serious wisdom to drop on her. Called out or not, she didn’t care anymore. With her face burning red, she immediately bowed: "Master! Please teach me!" Pergina’s eyes showed understanding. Her student had finally hit the age to grow up. "Follow me inside." With that, Pergina headed toward the back room. She flipped a switch and opened a hidden door. Through the hidden door was a dressing room. In the deepest part of the dressing room stood a gorgeous red wardrobe. "Here, go open it up." Pergina handed Demi a red key, pointing for her to open the red wardrobe. Demi took the red key and stuck it in the keyhole, her heart randomly getting nervous: "Let me see what this knockout outfit really is!" Turning the key, Click—the wardrobe door swung open. "This... this is!" Demi’s flushed face immediately went completely red, her body temperature shooting through the roof. You could actually see layers of steam rising from the top of her head, and her beautiful eyes went huge, obviously getting quite the shock.

Chapter 178: Red Wardrobe

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