Rise of the Darkness Tycoon

Chapter 17- "Are Those Eyes for Decoration?"

“Wow! Isn’t this Calvin? The hell are you doing here? You’ve got the guts to walk into a branded store when you don’t even have enough money to feed yourself?”

Calvin paused, turning his eyes toward the speaker and staring at him in silence until he remembered who he was.

‘Right, this guy was one of Calvin’s bullies, wasn’t he? What was his name again? Tom?’

Unlike Isaac and Florence, who were in different classes, Tom was in Calvin’s class, and because of that, he was an even bigger annoyance than those two.

He was always hurling insults at Calvin, throwing garbage into his desk, and even ruining his textbooks.

Calvin Carter had never really understood why Tom hated him so much, and the current Calvin didn't care enough to find out either.

He glanced to Tom's side and noticed another guy standing beside him, though Calvin didn't recognise him.

'Probably from a different class or a different school.'

While Calvin was recalling who Tom was, the other people in the store who'd heard Tom's voice turned their attention toward him.

A few merely glanced at him before returning to whatever they were doing, while some others watched the situation from a distance.

Then there were those who looked him up and down, taking note of his worn clothes and frowning as though his presence in the store offended them.

Calvin ignored all of them and focused solely on Tom.

"You don't own this place, so why can't I be here?"

"Pfft! Can you even afford anything here?" Tom asked with a laugh.

Then he gasped dramatically and took a step back, his face filled with fake shock.

"Or wait, are you planning to steal something!?"

The expressions of some of the store employees who had previously paid little attention to the scene changed the moment they heard the word "steal," and they immediately became alert.

Feeling even more eyes on him, Calvin frowned lightly.

"Are you dumb?" he asked coldly. "Are those eyes on your head just for decoration? Can't you see the cameras in every corner of this shop? And on top of that, the items inside the display cases have proximity alarms. How exactly is anyone supposed to steal something from here?"

"!"

Tom flinched and took a step back at the coldness in Calvin's voice, his face filled with shock that Calvin had actually argued back.

In the past, no matter how much Tom insulted him or mocked him for being poor, Calvin had always stayed quiet.

'It's really ridiculous. Does this guy even know what real poverty looks like?'

While Calvin found himself questioning Tom's understanding of reality, the other guy standing beside him grabbed Tom by the shoulder and spoke.

"Dude, cut it out."

He glanced around, noticing the looks people were giving them, then shook his head.

"Let's just go, Tom."

He tried to pull Tom away, but Tom shrugged off his hand and raised his voice.

"Why should I leave?"

Glancing at Calvin, he added, "I'll stay and see what the poor brat can actually afford."

"And who said I have to buy something just because I walked in?" Calvin shot back, raising an eyebrow.

"If you aren't going to buy anything, then you shouldn't have walked in," Tom insisted.

But Calvin, glancing at his phone screen to check the progress of the file transfer, slipped it into his back pocket and crossed his arms before replying.

"I want to look around first, and last I checked, that's none of your business."

"You...!"

Tom was left speechless. Calvin had never spoken back to him like this before, so he didn't even know how to respond.

Seeing that Tom had nothing else to say, Calvin ignored him and walked over to a display from a watch series he was familiar with.

Like he'd said, nobody was required to buy something simply because they walked into a store, and because of that, nobody had any right to stop him.

Still, the looks some of the employees were giving him annoyed him. They were looking at him as though he were an actual thief, even though every watch was secured behind thick glass display cases.

Calvin moved to a different display, one showcasing watches with embedded elemental stones, but he didn't spot any that contained darkness elemental stones.

'I guess that's to be expected. Light and Darkness elements are relatively rare. The fact that the trailer from earlier had so many of them only makes the whole thing seem even more suspicious.'

He sighed softly at the thought, but that simple exhale drew the attention of two people standing nearby.

"Ha! Look at him. The poor brat can't afford it, so all he can do is sigh," a woman suddenly said.

"Poor little thing," the man beside her added.

Calvin was genuinely speechless.

He'd merely sighed, and they'd already constructed an entire story about his life on their own.

He turned toward the pair, a man and woman who looked to be in their late 30s, both dressed in a collection of flashy designer clothes.

The woman, in particular, wore diamond, gold, and shining light elemental stone rings on every finger, along with a gold bracelet on one wrist and a diamond necklace around her neck.

To complete the display, she wore a pair of gold earrings nearly as large as the pendant hanging from the diamond necklace.

Even a blind man could tell she was trying to show off her wealth.

'I think I'm starting to understand why some Old Families don't like nouveau riche people.'

The thought made him chuckle, and that reaction, being completely different from what the couple had expected, caused the woman to frown.

"What are you laughing at?"

Calvin had no intention of explaining his thoughts to them and was prepared to ignore them, but his eyes caught a small patch of peeling along the side of one of her bracelets.

'Look what we have here. A galvanised piece of metal.'

"I'm laughing at you, of course," Calvin replied. "Since you're so rich, why are you still wearing a fake gold bracelet?"

"What did you just say?!" the woman snapped immediately at Calvin, while the man beside her frowned.

"Watch your mouth, kid!"

Calvin turned toward the man as he spoke, and after staring at him in silence for a moment, he tapped his right wrist.

That small action made the man's frown deepen, and Calvin smiled knowingly.

"Stupid poor brat! You're just jealous you can't afford it!"

The woman kept shouting at Calvin, unaware of the silent exchange between Calvin and her boyfriend, but Calvin only shrugged and replied.

"You can have your gold bracelet appraised and see for yourself."

Turning away from the shelf, he added, "Though I doubt the appraiser would need much time to notice the peeling edges."

With that, he began walking toward the exit, and the woman, furious, tried to reach out and grab him.

However, her boyfriend stopped her and shook his head. "Let it go. He's just a kid who doesn't know anything."