Two months have passed since Selene's last market visit and here she was preparing to go there yet again. After she learnt about Ligara plant, she had gone to library to look into the few alchemy related books available there and see if Val's words were true. After confirming they were, she immediately set into action to try and find a place where it is available.
Of course for a product monopolized by the royal family, there are only few places in the empire where it was sold illegally. Also she had decided not to take help from Paul in this matter. This was because of the thoughts she had heard during their last meeting about him planning to get her weakness in order to get the source of magic crystals out of her.
So it would be risky to ask him about the illegal sources of Ligara plant. Fortunately with the help of Fenrir and Anna, Selene was still able to get the names of the secret guilds which sold it. Most of the work was done by Fenrir as he had a lot of knowledge about them as a former slave but Anna insisted on sorting out the names.
While she was looking at them, she came across a familiar name- 'Obsidian' it was a guild which was mentioned in the book. When the male lead Prince Augustus was 16 he had found out about one of the illegal guilds of the empire. This incident had brought lot of praise to the him and had also increased the chances of him becoming the crown prince which he did become when he turned 17.
The main point was that the guild operated on exploiting slaves, most of them younger than 18. Slavery was by law illegal in the empire, but just like any law that existed till date, this was also disobeyed by some, actually not some but a lot of people because of it being a lucrative business.
That's how Selene got a bold idea about Obsidian. Yes, the idea was to take over the guild. Obsidian as described in the novel which didn't have any powerful support because of which Augustus was able to destroy with the ease of a child's play. That was also why it was a perfect target for Selene. She knew that it might change the flow of the story a bit but she didn't care.
Although she already had an idea about her powers before, talking with Henriette made her realise how rare they were. And the fact that she had defeated two adult males without her past life's skills made her confident too.
Thus Selene trained to reach the 3rd level in her basic and special elements and reach second level in her unique elements. While she training she came to understand why light and dark elements were called unique. Because they were the only ones that gave the user two types of power for a single element: Literal and Symbolic. So a light magic user can both control light and could do healing stuff too. Same was with dark magic.
Alongside her training, she had also started her project on making new mana devices too. She contacted Aldis, secretly of course. She had no interest to struggle to make another lie to convince the duke. That was the start of Aldis's secret visits to the west wing which would continue for long time.
Selene finished packing all the things she had prepared for her mission. With Aldis, all of her blueprints had become a reality. She packed 5 pieces of each in her bag and a knife which she knew had no use in it. It was a habit of her from her days as an assassin which she couldn't get rid of.
She turned to see Anna who was sulking in the corner of the room, trying her best to ignore Selene.
"Anna." Selene called.
"Don't, milady. I won't be able to hold myself back." Anna said turning towards the wall.
"Hold back yourself from what? Talking to me?" Selene teased.
"Urgh, I am trying to be angry here." Anna pouted.
The reason why Anna was acting this way was because of Selene's decision of taking Fenrir with her to the guild. Anna who was already upset about him stealing half of the duties she had before, burned with jealousy when Selene said she was going with Fenrir instead of her.
"Look Anna, I know you want to go with me, but for this Fenrir is the best suited. You and I both know that." Selene said softly.
Anna sighed. She knew that Fenrir was ideal for this mission, after all because of trying to run away multiple times, he knew a lot of shortcuts and secret pathways. But she didn't want to admit that, for her he was just a rival at gaining Selene's attention.
Fenrir smiled innocently at Anna glaring at him, if observed closely one could see he was actually enjoying the jealousy the brunette had for him.
"Fine," Anna conceded. "But milady has to return before night falls or else I will really go on strike." She added trying to look threatening.
"Of course, I will return way before that, I promise. I should really get going now, it's the monthly dinner tonight." Selene said.
"Wait a minute, I 've prepared something for you please take it and use it." Anna said before taking out a black coloured mask.
"Wow, but why this?" Selene asked as she admired the simple yet elegant design on the mask.
"I heard that the guild collects intelligence too, so it might be risky if they saw your face." Anna explained.
"I didn't think about that at all! Thanks a lot Anna! You did a great job."
Anna blushed hearing Selene's praise "It's nothing. Oh wait!" She called seeing Fenrir who was going out- "I...made one for you too." She said pulling out another black mask.
Fenrir's eyebrows raised in surprise. Seeing his expression Anna said "Don't think too much, I just made it because milady's identity should be safe."
Anna then went outside after glaring at Fenrir one last time.
The market was quite crowded this time, there was a lot of hustle and bustle. Selene was struggling to keep her hood on. She was thankful that she had worn pant and shirt underneath or else she would have already been pushed to the ground by now.
Even then the crowd was too much for her to handle in her 11- year old body, resulting into her bumping into another cloaked figure.
"Ark! I am sorry." Selene apologized as a pair of golden eyes glared at her.
A man behind him called " Your- young master."
The boy put his hood on again and pushed past the crowd as the man tried to follow him.
'Could he be one of the characters of the novel?' Selene wondered.
One of the major rules Henriette told her was that if you meet someone who is attractive, there is ninety nine percent chance they are one of the characters of the novel.
They finally got out of the crowd and stepped into a secluded part of the market, looking at the dark atmosphere Selene was reminded of the day when she rescued Fenrir from an alley with a similar atmosphere.
"I think we should wear our masks now." Selene whispered to Fenrir.
They both took out their masks and them on, Anna had attached clips to the sides of the masks so that they would hold on in any condition.
The guild was ten minutes walk from there, as Selene walked she noticed that except for a few passers-by the street was empty. They reached the guild entrance soon, from outside it was disguised as a shabby restaurant with no waiters in sight.
Selene sat at one of the worn down tables, looking around. It seemed that she had not come here in peak hour. Fenrir just stood beside her, Selene didn't stop him since it is only helping her show some authority.
After some waiting a waiter whose appearance and clothes didn't seem to match the ambience of the restaurant came out from the door on the right.
"Have you decided on what to order, sir?" The waiter asked politely, as his eyes scanned the short stature of the customer in front of him.
"I heard that we can see the dark moon from here." Selene said changing her voice a bit to make it seem like that of a young boy.
"Alright, please wait here for a moment." The man nodded.
In this guild, different requests were code named by different dish names and drinks. The common word in all of them was the word 'Black'. But the request Selene made was different, it was not disguised as some beverage or food, since it was a request to meet the guild master himself for the goods.
Few minutes later the waiter came out with an indifferent expression on his face " I am sorry but the dark moon is not in the view today."
A dagger whizzed past him, leaving a cut on his cheek. " You better make it come in to the view then." Selene said with a hint of threat in her voice, looking at his expression as it changed into a scared one.
The waiter bowed clutching his cheek and left quickly, looking as if he was running for his life. He looked backed once to see if Selene was following him before going in through the door.
"What if the guild master is really not available?" Fenrir asked in a whisper.
"He definitely is present. Otherwise, the attitude of that waiter wouldn't have been so lofty at first. Most likely seeing my height and voice, he must have thought I was just a unruly kid messing around."
"I see. Do you think the waiter will come back?"
"Of course he will. If he doesn't, I will go myself. I bet there is a magnificent room past that door. Paul's place has the same layout." Selene retrieved the dagger imbedded on the wall with her wind magic. She had wrapped the dagger with her mana while throwing it at him, to let him know that she was a mage.
Although mages weren't rare, they weren't common either and often a person's identity as a mage was taken as it pointing towards his/her identity as a noble. Since majority of mages were from noble lineage. In fact it was rare to see a non- awakener among the nobles contrary to the situation among the commoners.
The waiter came back as quickly as he had gone, with sweat clinging on the side of his face. "Pl-please follow me, the dark moon is in sight."
Selene followed him and as she had predicted, there was a magnificent room behind the door. With marble tiles covering the floor and the ebony walls illuminated by the chandelier hanging from the tall ceiling it could be seen that a lot of money was spent on decorating this room.
"See I told you." Selene whispered to Fenrir who was also looking at the décor.
"LET ME GO!"
While looking around Selene heard someone shout, she turned around to see the source of the sound. At the end of the room a man was sitting on the sofa and it looked like he was trying to restrain someone by pinning them down.
Selene moved forward to look closely and saw a young boy struggling to get free from the older man's hold. It seemed like the guildmaster was a pedophile and one who liked molesting young boys at that. Immediately her determination to kill him and capture the guild grew stronger. She created a strong gust of wind to sweep across the room making her presence known.
This method proved effective as the guildmaster turned his head towards her and gave a disgusting smile.
" Oh the little troublemaker is here." He said pushing the struggling young boy to the ground. As soon as he dropped, the boy immediately jumped back on his feet and darted into one of the rooms behind the sofa.
"I heard you attacked one of men, why court trouble hah?" The guildmaster asked in a dangerous tone although because of the fat rolling on his face it did not produce the desired effect.
"Well someone refused to meet me even though I gave the code, I had to take some steps... otherwise wouldn't my precious time go to waste?" Selene replied.
"Hah as if you noble brats have anything else to do other than throwing their weight around."
Selene sneered inside looking at the guildmaster talking about nobles with a disdainful expression. Says the one who himself is dependent on nobles' orders of assassination and slaves. It is definitely him asking in a roundabout way about her origins.
Selene pretending to fall in his word trap said " So if I am not noble you would you accept my order request?"
"Of course, what do you want?" The guildmaster smiled widened. 'What a stupid boy, heh heh I will be getting another piece of fresh meat today.'
Selene's lip curled in disgust listening to his thoughts, " A Ligara plant."
"A Ligara plant? That might be a bit hard.... what do you have on yourself?" The guildmaster put on a troubled expression, his hands itching to lay on the young 'boy' in front of him.
Selene took out a bag overflowing with golden coins in front of him and placed in front him "Is that enough?"
Greed reflected in his eyes as the guildmaster coughed trying not to show his excitement on his face "Ahem, it would have been so for anything else...but for Ligara plant..you know how hard it is to obtain.."
"So how much would be sufficient then?" Selene asked.
"Well it's value can't be measured in money you know.. after all it is the only test for alchemy.. But if you really want it, I can give it to you but for one thing.." he said as his eyes traced Selene's cloaked figure.
"What do you mean?" Selene asked coldly.
"You know what I mean.."
Selene suddenly got up, she hadn't expected him to be after her body just because she had pretended to be a boy but it she didn't care. As long as he calls his people to catch her it would serve her purpose.
There was a reason why she had come in this guild as a customer instead of directly ambushing them, it was to assess where and how many of the slaves the guild was owning.
She didn't want kill them accidently when she drops on of the fire bombs she had made in the guild building. After all they are gonna be her future employees and even if they don't it doesn't hurt to take a detour to do a good deed.
"I don't think this is going in the right way, I guess I will go look in some other place." Selene said turning around.
"Who said you can go now, boy? I am not done with you."
"What do you mean?" Selene feigned ignorance.
"You would know, hehe...boys catch him!" The guildmaster said in the most commanding voice he could muster.
Immediately 5 blacks figures landed in the room. All of them had a metal collar around their neck symbolizing their identity as slaves. Selene's eyes lingered on the roof, it seemed that they had come from there. She had already sealed all the other obvious entrances secretly with her mana. She expanded a part of her mana towards the roof where it passed through it and felt on the top of the roof.
This was a technique she learnt from the books she had found in the the stone of the hidden garden where she had found Lumen. In fact it was because of those books she was able to reach her goals of advancing so fast.
There were 10 more sitting on the roof, much less than the number she had expected. She decided to decided handle the ones around her first and then make a hole in the roof to go up to handle the others.
The five of them launched at her at the same time, two of them went for her hands and the other three went for her legs. Selene simply avoided them and opened her space to chuck them into it. After the three weaker ones were in, Selene turned to the persistent ones.
It seemed that the shorter one could use magic as he sent a series of fireballs towards Selene, but they were so weak that it could hardly pass as level 1 fire magic. Selene easily deflected it with her own fire magic.
But then she noticed that the taller one had disappeared, she turned around to see him fighting with Fenrir. Green vines released from her, wrapping around the ankles of the green and brown haired boys as she used their momentum to chuck them into the space with the others.
"You know I could have tackled him." Fenrir said patting the non-existing dust off him.
"I know but I don't want to take chances...You keep an eye on him, while I go on the roof." Selene said jerking her head in the guild master's direction who was looked as if he was trying to become a part of the sofa he was sitting on.
She took out a small black ball from her bag and threw it up where it stuck to the ceiling, two seconds later it blew up creating a hole through which Selene flew out with her wind magic. Although almost a year has passed since she had come into this world and seen magic, as someone who came from a world where science prevailed, it still felt surreal that she could actually fly with magic a thing only a myth in her previous world.
She landed on the roof lightly in front of the 10 people who were still looking at the hole created by Selene. Before they could react, Selene set up a barrier with a 5 meter radius around them. This was to prevent others who were lurking in the surroundings to come in the building and add to the manpower against her.
She wanted to avoid fighting them as much as she could, which is why she had also sealed all the visible doors and passages to the room. Selene looked at the 10 boys looking at her vigilantly instead of attacking her immediately.
Selene took the first step since she had no time waste. She decided to use her time magic for this, it was an element she rarely used since she feared messing it up. She closed her eyes for a while before opening them and focusing them on the group's feet.
Her plan was simple, she just had to freeze their legs in time. Once the legs are restrained, half of the harm they could do would become invalid. She raised her hand in which balls of blue light appeared after which she threw it at their legs.
The boys tried to avoid them by jumping away but soon realized they couldn't. When the pain didn't come from Selene's supposed attacked, they immediately turned and launched. Selene was actually impressed with their coordination- 'as expected of my future employees' she thought.
But their trajectory suddenly went wrong, Selene's magic had come into effect as a result, all of them fell down with awkward positions. One even fell through the hole Selene had created to come up.
Selene mouthed her apology to the groaning boy for the hard fall. She checked the slaves' body for any other weapons before dropping down back into the room. In there the guildmaster was kicking the slave who had fallen down hard.
"Damn you useless thing, can't even do something so small." The fat on his body shook as he kept kicking the slave with all the strength he had.
"Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on him?" Selene looked at Fenrir who was standing on the side.
"I did keep an eye on him though. Besides my weapons all got used there." He pointed at the wall behind the sofa.
A brown haired man was pinned against the wall with two daggers embedded in his palms. Sparks of magic were coming out of them but couldn't do anything because of the daggers.
"Is he the right hand man you mentioned about before?"
"Yes, it seems so."
"Hmm good your skills have improved." She felt proud as his teacher.
But Selene was still a bit annoyed, even she had not touched him when they attacked her who was he to do so. She released a dagger wrapped with fire at him, he dodged it but his sleeve caught fire after all moving agilely with that kind of body was a bit hard.
"What the- AGH." Seeing him flailing his arm around because of the fire Selene felt better.
While the guildmaster was trying to put off the fire spreading on his clothes, Selene dragged the fainted boy to one corner of the room. She looked back to check if the guildmaster had put off the fire after seeing that he was struggling and screaming for help she turned towards the boy again.
"I think the guildmaster used the slave's punishment on him." Fenrir beside her commented .
"What's that?"
"It's a privilege or authority the master on the slave. That collar has a spell that inflicts injuries on the slaves with just a command from the master."
"In this case I'd better heal him. Don't you think so?"
"If you are not tired that is."
"Hah I am quite tired. But what can I do?" It was the first time she had used magic for so long and that to continuously. While her mana hadn't depleted much her stamina was completely exhausted. She did start exercising recently to build up her stamina but it seemed it wasn't enough.
Selene spread her mana over the slave's body to sense where the wound's were, only to realise they were everywhere on him. So she focused on healing the major wounds with her light magic. After she was done healing, she turned to the guildmaster who was apparently still trying to put of the fire which had spread to half his clothes.
Selene considered letting him die being burnt alive but decided against it and snapped her fingers. Immediately a pail's worth of water fell on him. He heaved a sigh of relief which soon turned into panic when he saw Selene advancing towards him.
"Wh-what do you want? I will give you anything." He stumbled backwards.
Selene silently shook her head, she didn't have the heart to tell him that she had come to snatch his guild in the first place.
"I-is it the Ligara plant? I will give you as many you want..all of them if you want." He continued to propose.
Selene finally opened her mouth" You......just have to die." She whizzed through the air towards him and held his neck in the next second. A clean, neat cut was seen on his neck which had been cut by Selene's dagger. She threw him aside and was about to turn when she heard a gasp from below.
"No way it couldn't be- Selene muttered as she inspected his neck- how could it be so thick?"
It appeared Selene's neat and professional cut was defeated by the guildmaster's chubby neck. Selene didn't have the interest to cut his neck once more so she tied him up and threw him in one of the rooms. She was about to close the door when she heard Lumen's voice.
'Wait don't close the door! Take that ring first.'
'You woke up? That's good but why do you want this ring?' Selene asked taking a gaunt black ring off the guildmaster's middle finger.
'Just wear it. You'll know later.'
Selene wore it on her thumb the finger where it barely fit. After which she took out a clean handkerchief and stuffed it into the guildmaster's mouth who had woken up and had the energy spew profanities.
She then threw a look at the man who was pinned on the wall painfully and felt he was ruining the view. She took out two black metal bracelets from her bag and fit them on his wrists, these were mana blockers and were the first mana devices she had made after reading the book from the library. Then she threw him in the room too.
As soon as Selene removed the mana barriers she had installed from all of the building entrances, black figures poured into the room. They kneeled down in front of her and said-
"MASTER!"
"Wait, how can you say I am your master?" Selene asked, confused. She saw no reason for them to suddenly recognize her as their master.
"That ring. The owner of that ring is our master." One of the slaves kneeling in the front said.
Selene looked at the black ring she had worn because of Lumen and understood why he had advised so. She made a note mentally to reward him after they got home.
"Well it's good that you know that then. But you all should know I won't be owning an illegal guild running on slaves too." Selene said. 'It's better to inform the now.'
"Ma-master! Please don't send us back!" One of the slaves spoke up.
"Y-yes please don't do that!"
"Yes, we are quite useful."
It took Selene a while to process their words but she understood what they were trying to say. She shook her head knowing there worry was useless.
"I had no intention to do that anyway. I will tell you later what to do...But first can someone among you bring me the ligara plant?"
"Oh yes I will bring it."
Two minutes later the black clothed boy emerged with the ligara plant in his hands. It turned out there was a trapdoor under the table in front of the sofa which led to the secret storage.
"I will take this, wait here. Oh and Fenrir, can you bring those 10 people from the roof down? I have to unfreeze them."
"Alright."
Selene locked the door of the room she had entered and placed the plant in the pot on the floor. Taking a deep breath she reached out to the purple- leaved plant hoping to get the result she wanted.
Phew, that was one looooong chapter wasn't it? I really thought I couldn't finish it.
Do you think Selene will pass the test?
If yes what do you think she will use Alchemy for ?
1) To kill the male leads who are a threat to her.
2)Money of course.
3)No I think she will-
Let me know in the comments!!!
By the way, do you know why some authors end their chaps with word counts? Please tell me if you do!
And VOTE if you liked the chapter. It's the best motivation I can get.
Oh and thanks a loooot for the #1 in talented. See you in the next chapter!!