The Grand Duelist

The taxi turned around and went towards the most luxurious department store available in the City of Sibu.

Joseph was a spoiled brat before that tragedy. His parents brought him to this department store for at least two times a week, so he was quite familiar with the surroundings. The only problem was that it was about three years ago since he had visited this department store.

Despite the familiarity, Joseph couldn't help but feel a strange trepidation. He was afraid, even though he had money that he couldn't afford even the most basic clothes available in this department store.

Lily dragged Joseph to the one and only branch of the Napoli Designer Brand here in the City of Sibu.

The branch looked particularly deserted.

Probably because everything in here was too expensive.

Joseph glanced around the store and his eyes almost popped out of his sockets when he saw that an overcoat costs about fifty thousand dollars.

Fifty-thousand dollars!

Not pesos!

Dollars!

Joseph gulped a mouthful of saliva.

A dollar was about twenty pesos in the current exchange rate.

Joseph made some quick calculations and discovered that the overcoat costs about a million pesos!

A million pesos for an overcoat?

What the fuck?!

That overcoat better have an all-expense-paid vacation to Canada with it or some shit.

Sweat instantly formed on Joseph's forehead.

It has to be known that the minimum wage in the City of Sibu was only about five hundred dollars a month. In other words, an average citizen of Sibu would need to save his entire salary for a hundred months just so he could afford a single overcoat in this store!

Fuck...

Joseph inwardly cursed.

It was because he noticed an article of familiar clothing hanging on a hanger inside a cabinet.

Isn't that the clothes that Papa gave to me back then on my birthday?

Holy shit! A hundred thousand dollars?

For a t-shirt?

Joseph gulped another mouthful of saliva once again.

Lily turned to look at Joseph and she was embarrassed when she saw how he was acting.

Wasn't he a frequent patron of this place back then? Why is he acting like a country bumpkin? Is he doing this in purpose to embarrass me?

No, that's not possible. We're not in bad terms, so why would he purposely do something to humiliate me? 

But why is he acting like this?

Could it be that the three years of struggling as a beggar turned him into an ignorant country bumpkin?

Lily's eyes suddenly gleamed with realization.

That's it!

That should be the answer.

But it doesn't matter...

He'll eventually be rich anyway, so right now. The best thing that I can do is to not show any contempt towards him. I will be able to win him over that way!

Lily decided to swallow her pride.

A smile appeared on her face as she turned to look at the young woman standing on the receptionist's desk. 

"Can we have a salesgirl to guide us?"

"A salesgirl?" The woman behind the receptionist's desk hesitated.

Are they seriously asking for a salesgirl?

The woman's eyes narrowed. She was someone experienced in this industry and had served a lot of wealthy customers.

Lily didn't look so bad with her clothes, but Joseph only wore a simple white t-shirt and pants...

He looked incredibly shabby and out of place here in this shop.

The woman's eyes narrowed.

She noticed that there were some droplets of sweat forming on Joseph's forehead.

But this wasn't out of the ordinary for the woman. It was because she had seen plenty of men arrogantly bringing their women into this shop to satisfy their ego, yet they ended up being defeated due to the prices of the items in this shop.

Was he one of them?

Probably...

But the woman was trained to not judge someone due to what they were wearing.

She maintained her professionalism and smiled towards Lily's inquiry.

"We have here our new arrivals for the season. Please take a look. We also have some items for those who identify as a member of the non-binary gender." The woman herself dragged the two of them towards a nearby platform where clothes could be seen neatly folded beside each other.

Joseph felt his throat run dry when he saw the prices listed for each clothes.

Even though he wanted to act like a handsome tycoon.

That didn't mean that he wanted to needlessly squander his money like this!

Joseph turned to look at Lily and asked, "Can we go somewhere else? A place that's cheaper than this?" 

Lily's figure visibly trembled. 

Joseph's words weren't quiet at all. It rang audibly within the silent and deserted shop.

The salesgirl heard his words and her eyes narrowed into slits, but she didn't say anything.

It turns out that this man is actually just pretending to be rich!

Hmmph!

Disgusting...

If you didn't have the money then you shouldn't really have come inside this shop in the first place!

Come to think of it, we have that policy to kick those who only came here to window shop.

The salesgirl was already thinking of kicking out these arrogant teenagers, but she managed to calm down after reminding herself that she must maintain her composure in front of potential customers.

"What are you saying, Joseph? A cheaper place than this? Don't you want to act like a handsome tycoon? If you want to feel like you're handsome and rich. There's no other place than this!" Lily gently scolded him.

Joseph wore a bitter smile on his face, "That makes sense, but this place is just too expensive! I can afford it, but it's just not worth it to buy from this store just to feel like I'm rich."

"Then, what do you want to do?" Lily looked impatient.

"How about we go and look for a similar shop like this, but with discounts? I can consider buying clothes that are as expensive as this place for as long as they have some pretty good discounts, and maybe..."

"Some freebies if we bought a certain amount of clothes, do you catch my drift?" Joseph made a proposal.

Lily looked displeased, but it has also been quite a long time for her since she visited a shop like this.

About six months ago to be precise...

When she accompanied her wealthy boyfriend back then in a place like this at the City of Lanilas.

A look of hesitation appeared on her face, but she eventually said.

"Can we at least take a look at these clothes first? They look really pretty."

Joseph's expression softened when he saw her pained look.

No matter what, Lily was still his good friend. 

"Okay, fine. I don't think that there's a problem if we just take a look."

Lily nodded her head and she stretched her hand to one of the folded clothes.

The salesgirl's indifferent expression finally shattered. It turned out that she was right! This guy was really just trying to pretend that he was rich!

Her expression became cold as she uttered, "Miss. If you are just going to take a look and not buy anything. Please don't crumple any of the clothing."

Joseph and Lily turned to look at the salesgirl and found that there was a sarcastic smile on her face. Her words weren't kind at all and laced with coldness: "It will be quite difficult for us to continue selling these clothes once they are crumpled..."

"They are folded at the factory once, and some customers would consider these clothes as second-hand clothes once someone else touched and crumpled them."

This salesgirl had a lot of experience in her sleeves, so she had seen many people similar to both Joseph and Lily.

They would come in just to admire these expensive clothes. They would touch and feel them and eventually crumple them to the extent that the shop had to send the clothes back to the factory so it could be sanitized and folded once more.

Such an endeavor costs a lot of money, so the store made a policy to kick out those that only came here to window shop...

Lily's face turned red from embarrassment.

But Joseph felt wronged and instantly became angry, "Why do you talk like that to your customers? Aren't these clothes placed here in this platform for people to see and try them on before buying?"

"And what if I really have the intention to buy?"

"Sir, if you really have the intention to buy. You could touch and try them all for as long as you want, but can you prove that you can buy them first?"

A faint smile of contempt appeared on the salesgirl's face. A single look at Joseph earlier made her realize that the clothes that he was wearing were clothes that had been washed for several thousands of times already to the extent that the whites were faintly turning into yellows!

And so, at this moment...

She was fairly certain that these two didn't have the money to buy any of the clothes in here!

Joseph was furious.

This was the first time in Joseph's entire life that he had to prove his financial capability first before he was allowed to buy some clothes.

This shopkeeper was being too arrogant!

Only coldness could be seen on Lily's face. But she didn't say anything. After all, she really couldn't afford these clothes and the only reason why she was even here in the first place was that she wanted to get some free clothes from Joseph.

If she chose clothes for Joseph...

Judging from Joseph's personality, there was a huge chance that he would also buy her clothes from the same store.

This was why Lily brought Joseph into the most expensive clothing store here in the City of Sibu. 

But this salesgirl... 

She actually ruined all of Lily's plans!

Lily became furious.

But she didn't dare to reveal any of it as she glanced at Joseph and said.

"Forget about it, Joseph... Let's just go."

Lily didn't want to cause a scene while she was with Joseph. She had to be in her best behavior today. But if she wasn't with Joseph at this moment, then the scene could've been different.

Lily wasn't actually a patient woman. If Joseph wasn't with her, then she would've already slapped this salesgirl!

"That's right. If you can't afford it, then you'd better get going. It's good enough that I gave you both the luxury of seeing these clothes."

The salesgirl impatiently waved her hand as if she was shooing away some dogs and cats instead of a customer. 

But then an idea suddenly popped up in her mind. She took her smartphone and said, "This here is our latest and most expensive collection of clothes. You can go online and take a look. I think the imitations of these clothes should be available soon."

Her words were extremely vivid for both Joseph and Lily.

What she meant was that they only came here to look and memorize the designs of the most expensive collection of clothes in this shop, so that they could buy their imitations online.

Did they think that she couldn't see through their schemes?

The shopkeeper mockingly scoffed. 

"You bi..." Joseph lifted a finger and pointed at her in anger, but he didn't complete his words.

He was afraid that this unscrupulous salesgirl may accuse them of harassing her.

But Joseph was really angry.

"Where's your manager? Call your manager here! I'm going to lodge a complaint against you!"

Joseph wanted to teach this salesgirl a lesson.

Who on earth did business the same as she does?

Any company would be bankrupt the moment they did that!

"Sir, you can't afford the clothes here, so you want to lodge a complaint against me? I'm not the reason why you cannot afford these clothes, you know?"

The salesgirl's voice became quite loud and it attracted the attention of the passing customers who then paused to look at the unfolding scene with curiosity.

Lily was even more embarrassed now. This was really humiliating!

"This store is a part of a global chain of stores and in this department store, this branch of ours is the anchor tenant of this mall. I think both of you came to the wrong place. Isn't there a sale going on downstairs for the new season? Both of you can go there and take a look."

"All right, I think we're done here. May I ask the two of you two leave at this moment? You're wasting my time, please leave..." 

The shopkeeper actually ordered them to leave?!

Lily's expression became covered with anger. It was the first time that she met a mere salesgirl with such an arrogant attitude! What kind of a person was she? How was she working in the retail industry with such an attitude?!

Joseph looked as if he was having a seizure from anger.

It wasn't that he couldn't afford these clothes.

He just couldn't bear to spend the money that he painstakingly gathered from selling those gold coins for only a few clothes.

However, at this moment. Joseph didn't think about saving anymore.

The only thought in his mind at this moment was to teach this salesgirl a lesson!

"What's going on?"

Suddenly, a voice came from one of the doors behind the receptionist's desk. 

The shopkeeper was taken aback for a moment, but after hurriedly arranging her posture and clothes. She slightly bowed her head towards the direction of the man who just came out from the staff room.

"Sir Lacaba." 

The man who came out of the staff room had a tag on his chest stating that he was the Manager of this store.

Joseph turned to look at him and his eyes widened in shock.

The man looked familiar to him!

"Sir Bryan Lacaba...?" Joseph absentmindedly uttered.

The salesgirl frowned when she heard Joseph's informal mentioning of her boss.

But Bryan Lacaba, the General Manager of the store revealed a joyful expression when he saw Joseph.

"Sir Entrada! It's been a long time since we saw each other! Wow, you've grown up so much!"

Bryan Lacaba revealed a wide smile on his face and patted Joseph on his shoulder, "How are your parents? Dang, I really missed them. They doted on you too much that my business boomed whenever they visited this humble shop of mine!"

"Hahaha..." Joseph lightly chuckled.

He then whispered everything that happened to Bryan and when he heard what Joseph said...

A sigh came out of his mouth and he suddenly looked depressed.

"I see... So, that's the case... I'm really sorry for having you recall such a horrible thing." 

Joseph shook his head, "No worries."

Bryan nodded and hurriedly changed the topic, "I wonder why sir Entrada came here to this humble shop of mine? Do you want to buy some clothes for you to use and for this girlfriend of yours?"

"Hahaha, in that case, then let me present to you the newest clothing line in our collection! It may be quite expensive, but believe me! It's worth it!" 

"Also, since you can be considered as a VIP Customer of this shop. I can grant you a discount."

Lily's anger swiftly transformed into a crimson blush when she heard what Bryan had said.

Joseph saw the crimson blush on her cheeks and he felt awkward, not knowing how to react, nor what to say.

But when his eyes wandered towards the salesgirl who was already fidgeting as she stood there, not knowing what to do...

A sly smile appeared on Joseph's lips as he said.

"I would like to buy some, sir Lacaba. But I can't."

"Why?" General Manager Lacaba frowned.

The salesgirl gulped a mouthful of saliva.

A sense of dread filled her heart as she nervously glanced at Joseph.

"It's because your employee here thinks that we're too poor for your store!" 

Joseph pointed at her and directly singled her out, making sure that she couldn't deceive her way out of this quagmire.