"Today you''reing with me," Felicia said to Pauline. "You''re going to learn how money is really made. Using your body only works if you''re smart enough not to let some man hand you a sexually transmitted disease—a death sentence wrapped in pleasure."
Pauline turned her head.
"Alex, do you have any sexually transmitted diseases?"
"Yes," Alex replied without hesitation. "I carry ten of the rarest and deadliest ones. So stay as far away from me as possible."
Pauline didn''t even blink. She reached into her bag and pulled out apact device -sleek, metallic, shaped like a scanner gun. She pointed it straight at Alex''s chest.
The device beeped once. A small screen shed.
"Mom," Pauline said calmly, "Alex doesn''t have any sexually transmitted diseases. Out of two hundred and fifty known infections, he has none. He''spletely clean- perfectly healthy. That''s extremely rare."
Alex frowned.
Felicia''s eyes narrowed. "How do you even have something like that?"
"Everyone in my ss has one," Pauline replied. "We''re adults now. Girls check before choosing their first partner. I''m not throwing away my first time on nothing. That would be pathetic. I want to be at the top of my ss."
She slid the scanner back into her bag,pletely unfazed.
"So far," she went on, "the most attractive offer is Alex. One car for a first sexual experience. That''s not a bad deal."
"I''m sorry," Alex said instantly. "That''s a hell-no."
"You''ll change your mind," Pauline said, confidence dripping from every word. "My friends say no man ever refuses when a beautiful woman with a perfect body stands naked in front of him and decides to be a slut."
Alex had nothing to say. Not a single word.
Pauline leaned closer, smiling.
"Alex, I''m the purest girl in my school. And if you''re willing to offer one car per first time, I can line up beautiful women for you. Same price for each." Sheughed softly. "Sounds like a great offer, doesn''t it?"
Alex thought of the irony. She was offering sexual transactions to the richest man in all of Prussia—a man who could buy cars the way others bought coffee, without blinking, without leaving a dent in his fortune.
He needed to get as far away from this woman as possible.
She wasn''t just trouble.
She was the devil.
Pauline smiled sweetly. "Come on, Alex. You''re rejecting a once-in-a-generation opportunity."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Is that what they''re calling extortion now?"
"It''s not extortion if both sides profit."
Alex sighed again, unable to understand this woman.
"Rx, Alex," Pauline said. "You look tense."
"Tense?” Alex scoffed. "I''m sitting between a woman who smells like gunpowder and
a girl who negotiates virginity like a stock option."
"That''s called confidence," Pauline replied.
"No," Felicia corrected her. "That''s called youth."
Alex sighed. ''Great. I am about to be killed by either ambition or hormones. Still deciding which one''s faster.''
But this was Prussia.
A country of ruthless technology and cold logic. So advanced that people no longer wanted children. The poption was copsing. Babies were already being grown inboratories to keep the nation alive.
Here, once thew decided you were old enough-old enough to bear a child-sex became a matter of free will.
And morality had long since been left behind.
But the poption kept falling anyway, even with the government pushing incentives and pouring money into newborn programs.
They were too smart-dangerously smart. They understood one brutal truth: sex did not equal children. They took the pleasure and abandoned the consequence.
If the government was hoping idental sex would lead to pregnancies, it clearly wasn''t working at all.
Felicia leaned forward and urged Alex, impatience in her voice.
"Hurry up. Drive to the ck market. There''s a new batch of rare item from Xia and Estoria. I want to check it."
Alex nced at her through the mirror.
"Are you sure you even have the money to buy anything there? I heard those sellers all have ck hearts. Ny nine percent of what they sell is fake.”
Feliciaughed loudly.
"What do you know about ck market?" she said, waving a hand. “I have a talent for finding the one percent that''s real. I buy low, sell high. My appraisal skills are top- notch."
"Are you sure?" Alex asked again.
He could already see the truth. Felicia had no real appraisal skills-only reckless dreams of getting rich overnight. Sophia had told him how Felicia loved roaming the ck market, obsessed with the fantasy of discovering a priceless antique for pocket change. But over the past few years, all she had gained were lies, scams, and quiet humiliation.
Felicia scowled at Alex''s doubt. She snorted in contempt.
"Stop talking nonsense. Just drive."
"We''re here," Alex said.
He looked out at the outskirts of Winchester. Once, the ce had been dead—a town abandoned after the mines shut down. Empty factories. Crumbling buildings. A graveyard of concrete and rust.
This was where bad people gathered. Where stolen goods, war plunder, and illegally exported items were traded in the open. Where dirty money changed hands without shame.
The government knew this ce existed. They had tried again and again to wipe it out. Raids. Arrests. Crackdowns. Every time one group vanished, another rose from the shadows to rece it.
Eventually, the Prussian government gave up pretending. They created a secret organization—unknown to the public-to control the ck market from the inside. No one in Prussia was stupid. After a few years, it became an open secret.
A general of Prussia was secretly running the entire ck market operation.
As the ck market grew
notorious-and strangely fashionable the tourism department stepped in. They spent heavilyon, renovations and image Control. It was no longer just an
illegal marketce.
It became a tourist attraction-officially ouwed, publicly denied, and quietly
epted by everyone.
The moment they stepped into the
ck market, Pauline''s eyes
widened. This was her first time
here and it showed. The noise the
crowd, the chaos-it all hit her at
once.
Felicia folded her arms, her eyes gleaming as she stared across the ck market.
"You feel it?" she said. "Opportunity."
Alex nced at the sellers-faces burning with greed, desperate to force anything onto people who didn''t need it.
"I feel scams."
"You alwaysck vision," Felicia snapped.
"No," Alex replied. "I just recognize ces where people lose money and pretend it was an education."
"That''s why you''ll never be rich," Felicia sneered, then walked ahead without hesitation, her steps confident, as if she had memorized every alley and corner long
ago.
As they passed through the narrow street, voices rose from every direction. "Beautifuldies! Take a look at this!" a seller shouted, waving an item in the air. "Worth ten thousand dors outside. Here? Just one hundred."
Pauline slowed, her gaze pulled toward the object like a ma.
Felicia didn''t even stop. She cut in coldly, "If you really know the price, go sell it yourself."
The seller pretended not to hear.
More voices followed. Louder. Desperate. Aggressive. Hands reached out, items shoved forward, promises thrown like bait.
Felicia didn''t spare them a single nce. She walked straight to the entrance of a two-story antique shop.
Stepping into thergest building in the area, she took a deep breath. Then she leaned closer, lowering her voice.
"This ce is full of hidden treasures."
Alex nodded slowly.
"Yes. Hidden underyers of fraud, false hope, and people who thought exactly the
same thing."
She scoffed. "You sound jealous."
"I am," Alex said tly. "They still believe in miracles. I only believe in invoices."
"Tiring,"
," Felicia muttered. "Talking to people without dreams."
She turned away and approached the receptionist.
"I have an appointment."
The receptionist nodded at once and gestured politely.
"Please follow me to second floor."
The three of them were led toward a stair at the back.
Alex had just taken a step forward when Felicia suddenly turned around.
"You''d better stay out here with Pauline," she said sharply. "You don''t understand luxury items If you break something by ident, it''ll be a nightmare. Just wait here. Look
around if you want."
Alex nced at the shelves filled with antiquesbeled from Xia, Estoria, and other
nations. He nodded.
"Alright."
With her chin lifted and arrogance written across her face, Felicia stepped up to the
second floor.
Alex and Pauline wandered along the shelves.
Pauline stopped again and again, drawn to the strange and exotic pieces. Her eyes
sparkled, convinced she was surrounded by hidden treasure.
Alex saw something very different.
Most of the items were mediocre. Overhyped. Already filtered and rejected by
serious appraisers. Almost everything here was useless. Looking was a waste of
time.
But for Pauline, this ce felt like a dream. A beginner''s fantasy—gold everywhere, waiting to be discovered.
Then, without warning, a sharp scream tore through the air.
It came from the second floor.
Two men rushed down, dragging Felicia between them. Her hands were pinned
behind her back. Blood ran down her face.
One of the men shouted, his voice violent and raw.
"Who''s the guarantor for this woman? If nobody answers, she dies here."
"Alex!" Felicia screamed. "Please help me!"
One of the men turned and stared straight at Alex.
"Are you her guarantor?"
Alex shook his head slowly. His voice was t. Cold.
"I don''t know her. Do whatever you want to her.”