Commotion

Hushed whispers faintly spread around the loud pet shop. Two employees were huddled together right in to middle of the huge hallway intersection. Fortunately, none of them were Galdon. Ria listened intently from her sand pit burrow, trying to relieve her boredom even though she barely understood what they were saying.

"Hey, did you know that the mercenaries in the East found a dragon's nest?" The taller of the two Asian-looking men excitedly whispered in a gossipy tone. His name was Solda, from what Ria picked up.

The short employee reeled back in shock. "Really? Those are one of the rarest species in the world!" Connie, the shorter of the two, was instantly hooked into the conversation.

"Yeah, and from the information others have gathered, it's a nest of three! Parents and child included!" Solda continued in a hushed tone, though it wasn't needed because of the cover of the hellish screaming animals in the pet shop. Connie's eyes went big as he gestured for Solda to keep speaking.

Solda exaggeratedly leaned in for dramatic effect. "And guess what? Our pet shop is joining in to hunt the dragons, and we get to take the baby dragon as payment!" Solda grinned widely.

Connie almost banged his head against Solda's with how fast he turned his head. "No way! How could others let us take an entire baby dragon as payment?! Those things are more valuable than adult dragons! Have you never heard of dragon-riders before?!" Connie almost jumped up and down in denial of Solda's shocking words.

Instead of getting angry, Solda merely smiled and stayed silent, letting Connie know he wasn't joking. They stayed like that for a few moments before Connie asked another question. "If that's true.. when is the hunt happening?" Connie asked in a more composed tone.

"As soon as possible, of course. Dragons are very intelligent, if we stall too long, they'll catch wind of it and escape." Solda said. There was also another thing he didn't mention, however. It was the fact that other humans could also catch wind of it and steal their loot.

But it didn't need to be said to be understood. Both Solda and Connie had sharp looks in their eyes. They had been trained for years to become loyal employees of the underground black market's biggest pet shop, after all.

-

Ria watched as the two men went back to working after their gossip session was over. From what she understood from their conversation.. no, rather it was their gestures and emotions that came with their speech, Ria knew there must be a new and special species that was coming into the pet shop soon.

She didn't think much of it and only thought of it as a source to relieve her boredom, not caring much about anything else. After all, she had her own worries to deal with.

Ria wasn't stupid. She knew that even if she lived in this god-forsaken pet shop for five or even ten years, she would still be a minor figure in the eyes of the black market. If anything, all rebelling would do was make her live in a smaller enclosure with a collar on her neck.

She only wished that whoever adopted her would be a normal human being with no weird turtle fetishes. Preferably, as long as she would get a good home, she was even willing to stay with her owner forever.

Ria sighed, a weird action for a tortoise. She walked over to her pond and submerged herself until only the top of her back was showing. Ria lazily blew bubbles in the water with her nose as she let out a content sigh, completely ignoring the demonic noises in the background of the pet shop.

Recently, her emotional state was becoming more and more agitated. It felt as if she was a young teenager again, triggered by the slightest thing. Maybe it was because of Galdon, or her reincarnation, or her state of growth, or the small enclosure, or the loud environment.

Actually, yeah. All those things were exactly the reason, and she had no way to deal with them. Her life was constantly put on a tightrope. She never felt safe in this place, surrounded by dangerous creatures and dangerous people in this dangerous pet shop.

Ria opened her eyes just in time to see the danger-zone's door open and a group of rugged, dangerous-looking men stepped into the underground pet shop. Solda came in after them and spoke with them for a few moments before pointing to the left, in the direction of the office hallway's door.

She curiously watched as the group of sixteen walked through the office hallway's door, with Solda trailing close behind them. They all smelled like blood, making Ria retract her neck into her shell in disgust.

Soon after, an old man and the supposed leader of the rugged group walked out of the office hallway's door, walking side-by-side, with the leader's companions trailing behind the duo.

The old man slightly turned his head and addressed the leader. "Remember, your mission is to secure the baby dragon. If possible, bring back some dragon parts too." His authoritative stance gave Ria a sense of intimidation. Obviously, this man was some sort of higher-up or even the owner of the pet shop.

The leader nodded with a grunt. "Will we get more payment from you if we bring more than just the baby dragon?" He asked. The other members of his group nodded, clearly having the same question.

"Yes. You will get a share of the market price of whatever you manage to bring back. You can even take some dragon parts for yourself, but only if you give the same amount of parts you took." The old man replied, responding almost immediately as if he already knew the leader was going to ask.

The leader lowered his head and didn't say anything, letting the old man lead his group back though the danger-zone. In the black market, loyalty was merely a formality. The thing which really chained him to the black market was that the old man, otherwise known as the Creature Captor had blackmailed him and his group.

Actually, blackmail in the black market could also be used as a resume. Handing over his and his group's 'resumes' to the old man meant that they would form a tie closer than regular employer and employee.

But these resumes would only be used with big operations, since willingly giving over your dirt to an unknown black market shop was like handing over your freedom.

But thankfully, this was one of the most secure jobs in the black market. After all, this was the largest underground pet shop in the Astava Empire.