Alex went running to the mansion and found Val sitting in the greenhouse. Val looked at the panting Alex and asked " What happened? Was the test too hard?"
"No, it was easy *huff* but we encountered a monster after finishing, Selene is still*huff* with the monster."
"A monster? That's impossible isn't there a-"
"There's no time to explain please come with me now!" Alex did not know why he was feeling so worried but right now he had only one thought and that was to ensure that Selene was safe.
Again Val drank the liquid from the strange vial and then started running after Alex. They reached the forest entrance where Alex had left Selene only to see her standing there waiting for them with the hyena howling in pain and struggling to escape the metal shackles it was bounded in, quite some distance away from it .
"Oh you two came, the hyena was making so much noise that I thought it might escape." Selene said with a relieved expression.
"But who tied it up so harshly?" Val asked.
"It was brother Alex of course, he was brave enough to go near it to shoot his poison in its eyes and bind it with metal shackles he created with his magic, isn't that right brother?"
Alex was about to deny it when he saw Selene's smile turning sinister, he quickly changed his mind and laughed awkwardly before saying "It wasn't a big deal."
"You should have told me about this before, I wouldn't have wasted a 1 whole vial of my quick potion." Val lamented.
"Quick potion?" Selene repeated.
"Yup its a new potion recently I developed which increases your speed 4x,wanna try?" Val asked enthusiastically.
"Uh...I'll pass." Selene replied eyeing the vial in his hand suspiciously.
"Okay then, you two go back to the, mansion and inform Alpheus about this while I deal with this hyena. Oh also ask him to send some knights to help with the labour."
Alex nodded and went to the mansion with Selene, during the walk Alex noticed that Selene was quite behind him and was walking very stiffly. He looked at Selene with the 'What's wrong' expression but Selene just shook her head.
After the reaching the Duke's office, they both narrated the incident to him. His secretary Terry after hearing this bowed down and whispered something into Alpheus's ear, a flash of realization passed Alpheus's eyes who smiled chillingly and muttered "So they were targeting me."
"They were targeting you?" Alex asked shocked.
"Well that is my and Terry's guess since I was supposed to go for the monthly forest's inspection but for some important work that had suddenly come up I had cancelled it."
"But the monster was just a second level monster it might be difficult for us to defeat it but for you shouldn't be a child's play?" Selene asked.
"You will get your answer in two hours, don't worry."
And indeed Selene got her answer 2 hours, later the report from the knights that were sent to the forest came. It was found that there were several traps set up in the forest, there were also evidences that after the culprit found out that the Duke was not going out he tried to remove all the traces but somehow the blood-eyed hyena and its group were left out.
The Duke ordered all the people of the mansion to not go the forest while magic shields were being renewed around the forest for the next 5 days, Selene though did not need the duke's order to stop her from forest. Why? because when she entered her room Anna pounced on her berating about not informing her about Selene's trip the forest again. These days Anna had become relaxed with Selene being obedient and taking her to the forest whenever she needed to do any practice in the forest. But today she again didn't tell her and then even got into trouble.
Then Anna's sharp eyes noticed something, Selene was putting her whole weight on her left leg and was trying to maintain a straight face. Narrowing her eyes Anna quickly turned Selene around to see a 3 inch wound on her right calf.
"How .exactly. did. this happen milady?" Anna asked turning Selene again.
"Well, I had a moment of carelessness and at that moment I got scratched."
"Scratch?! You call this a scratch?"
"Well I don't think this is that serious..." Selene had gotten wounds ten times more serious than this one so she had no reason to panic.
"Nuh-uh I ain't listening to that, milady will not go out without any supervision from now on and if milady does, no more massage baths or desserts."
And that's how Selene ended up bringing along Anna with her on her first visit to the market. of course this trip was not known to the duke, since there was 90% chance he would not allow her to go without any guards. They had even worn hoods so that no one recognizes them as they walked through the market.
"Milady can you tell me the reason why we are here once again?"
"I told you to earn money." Selene replied.
"But why?"
"Simple I wanna get rich."
"But isn't milady already rich?" Anna asked, after all if she wanted money she could always ask her father the duke.
"You will get it later." Selene said.
The street of the market was quite lively with people running around everywhere and carriages passing them every once in a while. Dozens of vendors lined up the street sides selling different things from fruits and vegetables to attractive trinkets at cheap price. Selene who had brought the pocket money she had saved last few months bought some snacks to try while walking. They had to walk for a while since their destination was not in the main market. Which they reached after a 5 minute walk.
The market is divided into three parts the part which contains the daily necessities, the part which contains the tourist attractions, small cafes etc. and the luxurious part . Of course the place where Selene could sell her mana stones belonged to the luxurious part since commoners couldn't afford them.
The shop which was recommended by the people they consulted was located in a secluded part of the luxury street. They turned to go in a dingy alley and reached in front of an unnamed shop. Upon entering, it took some time to for their eyes to adjust because of the lights present in the shop. On right, there were several glass shelves containing different coloured crystals.
"Anything to buy or sell?"
A voice came from behind, Selene and Anna turned around to see a young boy behind the counter in a dark corner wearing oversized clothes and round spectacles.
"We want someone for appraisal." Selene said shaking the brown pouch in her hand.
"Oh please wait, while I get the appraiser." The young boy gestured to the couch beside the counter.
The spectacled boy opened a door behind him and went inside. Inside, a room completely different from the shop interior was there. A man sat on a fancy sofa counting gold coins emptied from several brown bags lying on the table in front of him.
"Master a customer has come for goods appraisal." The boy said bowing.
"Old? New?"
"New."
"Let's go then." The man said getting up.
A minute later Selene saw a man behind the young boy from the door behind the counter. He had dark green hair and light green eyes. Rather than an appraiser he looked like a mercenary instead.
"Well where are they?"
"He is the appraiser?" Selene turned to ask the young boy.
"You can trust him." The boy said nodding.
Selene took a crystal from her bag and pushed it slowly in front of the green haired guy. He immediately took it in his hand and started examining it casually. A minute later the look in his eyes completely changed from casual to excited.
" It's a hundred percent pure mana stone! Where did you get this?" The green haired man asked.
"Ahem the source is confidential." Selene said putting on a mysterious look.
"Understandable. Is the source permanent? How many of these do you have? How much is the cost?" Although the man kept his face straight he couldn't hide the agitation in his eyes as he fired question at her one after another.
"It is permanent, a lot of them, as for the cost I have different terms." Selene said.
"Oh? What are they?" The man asked curiously.
"Simple you just have to give me fifty percent of the profit you earn by selling my crystals." Selene said leaning forward.
The man frowned and said "Forty percent."
Selene smilingly shook her head.
"45?" The man asked again.
"Deal." Selene said.
"Well then let's write it."
"Whew finally out, the atmosphere was pressuring." Anna said coming out with Selene from the shop after finalising the contract. The green haired man named Paul had changed the contract that Selene had prepared over 10 times in two hours of discussion before signing it. As for the 100 crystals they brought with them he agreed to sell them 25 gold coins per crystal.
"But why did you not sell all the 3000 crystals you prepared?" Lumen asked.
"For two reasons, I didn't want to carry all of them and this is not the only place I am gonna use them." Selene replied.
"So where are we going next? It's quite dark here" Anna said looking around.
"Let's go to the desert shop we saw on luxury street after that if we have time we will go look for a designer."
"A designer?" Lumen asked.
"That is the other place where I wish to use my crystals but I'm not sure if I would get the right person."
"So you want-"
"CATCH THAT MUTT!" They heard a voice from alley joining into the one they were standing.
They saw a small figure running towards them in full speed, before they could react it crashed into Selene. Selene who was caught by surprise and couldn't defend herself, was knocked down on the ground. Fortunately with her quick reflexes she stabled herself before her head could hit the ground. She pushed aside the weight that was weighing down on her to the right then got up.
Looking down she saw a red haired boy with a skinny figure, struggling to get up. But what made this boy special was the two red coloured ears bopping out of his head. Three men came running towards them, the boy seeing them immediately hid behind Selene. The men tried to size the boy by going behind Selene. Selene immediately turned around, shielding him
"What are you doing?" Selene asked.
"Hand him over, kid. That boy is our master's property."
" He is a slave?" Anna asked in shock.
"Slave?" Selene repeated in a low voice.
Then another man came from behind the men, unlike them he was dressed splendidly. By the number of the gold jewelries present on his body, it was obvious he wanted to show that he was rich.
"Why haven't you all caught the boy yet?" The pig faced man asked in an annoyed tone.
"Are you the slave master?" Selene asked.
The slave master looked at the direction of Selene's voice to see her small cloaked figure and said in a nasty voice. " Don't poke your nose in our business kid, it will not end good for you."
"How much?" Selene asked.
"Huh?"
"How much is the boy?" Selene asked again.
"You want the boy? Do you have the money?" The slave master sneered.
"You think I am asking you with it?" Selene asked authority filling her low voice.
"I-I see, this one is just 700 gold coins..." The slave master's attitude took a 180 degree turn seeing a brown bag in Selene's hands, the coins in it clinking together.
Selene threw the bag at one of the men and grabbed the one of the bony hands of the boy and dragged him away with Anna's help. Luckily it wasn't hard to do so because of his thin and weakly body.
Once they were out of the alley they quickly went behind a dress shop, Anna let go of the struggling redhead's arm and asked "Milady why did you buy him from that bastard?"
Selene's eyebrows went up hearing Anna's tone she asked "Oh you had any better idea?"
"You could have reported them or done something else...!"
"Would that have benefitted me? At most I could have quietly passed the slave master's men and got to the capital security to report, but who could have guaranteed it would have helped?" Selene asked.
"Still..-" Anna had nothing to counter after what Selene said.
"Come on even if we didn't do anything at least we saved the boy right? Now help me take him home or else it would be hard for me to do it alone."
"Yes milady." Anna said hanging her head ashamed she judged Selene so quickly.
"Hurry don't be so gloomy and me picking him up." Selene urged Anna.
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