Selene waited for quite some time for the plant to respond but nothing happened. She stared at the motionless plant, she had expected this but still couldn't help but feel disappointed. Maybe it was because of all the success she had gotten used to ever since she had transmigrated into this world.
Feeling Selene's disappointment, Lumen awkwardly tried to cheer her up 'Don't get upset over something so insignificant you know. It is actually the plant's loss that it failed to acknowledge the contractor of such a great dragon like me.'
It was unclear whether those words were meant to comfort her or praise himself, but Selene did feel better after hearing them. That's right after all she had captured the guild to backup such a failure. Her efforts had not gone completely to waste.
Thinking so, she got up and took one last look at the purple plant which seemed to twitch a bit in her eyes but she dismissed it as her imagination. She turned around and was about to unlock the door when she felt her left hand tightly gripped by something. She looked down to see purple vines wrapped tightly around her hand as if telling her not to go.
'It seems this plant is not dumb after all.' Lumen said.
'But why didn't it respond earlier then?'
'Who knows? Maybe it was shy or something..'
'Riiight, shy. Anyways the thought that I failed-'
[W-wait! You did not fail.]
Selene suddenly heard a soft and sweet voice. She looked at the ligara plant before asking-
'Did you hear that?'
'What?'
'That voice.'
'I did, our minds are connected you know. Could it come from that plant?'
'I did consider that, but the ability to hear plant voices only comes after reaching fifth level in plant magic.'
'That's why it's leaves are suddenly drooping. Look, it must have used all its energy to talk to you.'
Lumen words were indeed true, the plant's leaves were hanging as if there was no life in them, even it's hold on Selene's hand has loosened.
'But do plants really have that kind of power?'
'Why do you think Alchemy exists?'
'.....Good point.'
But she was still a bit puzzled by the plant's desperation to hold on to her after ignoring her for so long. She shrugged it off, happy that both of her objectives for today have been fulfilled.
She removed the purple leaf clinging to her and looked at the droopy leaves, then decided to heal it and injected some of her light mana into it. Slowly the plant started to lift up before returning to its original state. Its leaves lightly brushed against her hand as if to express it's gratitude to her.
Selene opened the door, not realizing the corner of her lips had gone slightly up because of the plant's gesture.
Outside everyone was gathered around in a circle at the center of which, ten people were lying on the floor in awkward positions. Yes, they were the ones who Selene had frozen with her time magic.
"I brought them down." Fenrir who was standing in one corner said.
"Hm, thanks."
She walked to them as the ring parted and crouched down, blue light appeared on her fingertips as she touched their feet lightly one by one.
As soon as they realized their feet had been unfreezed, the boys sprang up to their feet and bowed.
"Thank you master."
Selene was a bit taken aback looking at their eyes shining with gratitude. She leaned back and whispered to Fenrir who had come to her her side-
"Why are they like that?"
"Because you have liberated them? You know from that disgusting pig of a man." Fenrir whispered back.
"I see.. I am not finished with him yet."
Selene got to know from the slaves that there were hundred of them in total of which twenty- five were present in front of her. Few more had joined in while Selene was in the room.
"You might have heard from others about my intention of not running an illegal guild. By that I mean I plan to free you all."
Silence fell upon them after Selene uttered those words, the slaves looked at the hooded figure in front of them incredulously, some of them whispering to each other.
"I know you can't believe but this is the truth and I will also let you leave the guild if you want. But of course the moment you leave the guild no support will be given to you. It won't be my responsibility if you are captured again any time after you leave."
"Did you have to say that?" Fenrir asked in her ear.
"Of course, how else do you think I will get my prospective employees?" Selene replied before turning back to the slaves.
"So if you want to leave, inform me now. I also heard some of you are registered slaves so I hope someone can bring them to me. I trust at least one of you know where they are?"
"I know." A voice came from behind.
It was the boy who Selene had healed before she dealt with the guildmaster. He got up and went in one of the other rooms attached to the main hall. The hall was attached with twelve rooms in total, all of which had different purposes.
Few minutes later the green haired boy emerged from the room carrying a large stack of papers in his hands. He placed it on top of table and stood aside waiting for further orders from Selene.
"Oh yes, can you bring the key too?"
"Key?
"For the collar on your necks" She got to know from Fenrir that the collars can be unlocked only with the key given to the master exclusively. She had searched the guildmaster's body and had found nothing which meant that he had hidden it somewhere else.
"Uh...we as slaves do not get to know about the keys...It is a measure taken so that we don't escape. We don't even know how it looks like."
"Fenrir?" Selene looked questioningly at him.
"It is true, this information is guarded from slaves in our organization too. I didn't think it would be common for all. I think we have to ask the guildmaster about it."
Selene frowned, she didn't want to do that since he would definitely use this to his advantage. As she was contemplating on what kind of lesson she should teach him, so that he doesn't act too presumptuous, an idea came to her mind. She mind linked Lumen who had again gone to sleep after seeing that things have ended well.
'Hey Lumen. LUMEN!'
'What now?' Lumen asked, disgruntled about his sleep being interrupted.
'I need your help with something.'
'Help?'
'Yes, you can transform into small animals now, can't you? Can you transform into something small enough to go into that lock of the slave collar?'
'......Why should I do something so beneath me?'
'I...wanted to see the look in the lock through you, so that I can try and make a key for it with my creation magic.'
'Why do you want to create another key when you already have one?'
'What do you mean by I already have it?'
'That ring is the key of course!'
'What?'
'Why else do you think slaves recognize the owner of the ring as their master? And from the magic I feel from it. That ring is also probably the thing that commands the collar to inflict injuries on them.'
'Why didn't you tell me about this before?'
'I forgot you only know how to sense ancient magic and not decipher it... Anyway you could have used your mindreading on that assh*le instead.'
'Ah, I forgot about that..and what did I tell you about curses? Where did you even learn that word?' As far as she knew it wasn't a curse word from this world.
'Haha, you don't need to worry about that..and it was only word .He is really a piece of shit you know. Anyways do you want to know how to transform it?'
'Of course!'
'Then try injecting your mana into it.'
Outside, the slaves who didn't know about their mental dialogue started to get nervous seeing Selene standing still for so long. They became even more anxious when they saw her take off the ring suddenly especially for Ren, the boy Selene had saved. Numerous thoughts and guesses ran through his mind about Selene abandoning them. He had a feeling that she would be a good master and had no intention to give her up.
He took a step forward and was about to speak when he saw the ring glow after Selene touched it after which a rusted black ornamented key appeared in its place.
"Hm, it really is the key." Selene murmured. She looked up to see Ren who had his one leg forward and asked him to come close.
She put the key in the lock of his collar and turned it, as expected the lock clicked open and the collar fell to the ground with a loud clang. Ren stared at it while touching his neck, he could not believe that the thing which had been on his neck for last 8 years is not there anymore but on the ground.
"That's good. Now that we have the key tell me who all wants to leave the guild, I will free them first." Selene said looking at the black clothed group.
The group went silent. Selene was a bit surprised at this result, she had expected at least one or two people to come forward.
She then told them to form a line so that she could unlock the collars one by one. She looked outside the window after she was done, it was already time to return.
"I have to leave now, while I'm away I have work for you all. First, I want you to gather all the other members after they come back. Inform me when you do that."
"But we don't have any way to contact you.." One of the slaves said raising his hand.
"Right for that...Send a message to this address." Selene said taking out a piece of paper.
Of course it wasn't the address of the duchy, she had gained some trust issues after the betrayal in her past life and had no interest in revealing anything about her identity at least until they prove their loyalty. The paper contained Aldis' address, since no one knew that he was connected to Selene.
"And second, take this.- Selene handed a small vial to Ren, "Feed it to those men inside that room, this will prevent them from being a nuisance. Make sure to give half-half to both of them." The vial contained a simple paralyzing poison she had learnt to make in her past life.
"Within the 72 hours after their intake, I want you to take and leave them in the A class danger zones behind the Crayas mountain. Ensure that the beasts find them and take good care of them. You can do that right?" The sinister smile on Selene's face was hidden by her cloak.
"Yes." All of them said in unison, the look on their faces reminded Selene of Anna when she was given her first task.
"I'll get going then, inform me as soon as the job gets done."
"Master." Fenrir who was quiet the whole time suddenly spoke up.
Selene was a bit taken aback by his addressing but decided not to question in front of the guild, " What?"
"You still have 5 people in your space." Fenrir said in her ear.
"Ah, I totally forgot about them!"
*******
Selene collapsed on the sofa in her room, completely out of energy. As if taking over the guild wasn't exhausting enough, even her return journey wasn't peaceful too.
Halfway to her way home, she sensed someone following them and discreetly notified Fenrir about it. She considered confronting them head- on but decided against it because of her fatigue.
Half an hour ago~
She pulled the red head walking beside her in a dark corner of the alley and waited. Just as she had expected rushed footsteps followed. A man and a woman were heard talking to each other in hushed voices .
"Where did they go?"
"-must have noticed us. They wouldn't have gone far. Search-"
Selene strained her ears to listen to their words. Realizing they wanted to search the area, she knew she had to quickly take action. She opened her status scanner to check which level mages they are and see if they could defeat them.
Unfortunately they turned out to be 5th level mages, so Selene immediately pulled herself and Fenrir into her space and zipped it close.
"Shouldn't we have attacked them?"
"That won't do. They are level five mages, even if we were to fight the two them in perfect condition it would still be difficult. Not to mention now when I am completely drained."
"So what should we do then?"
"Just wait until they leave I guess... Hah, I wish I had the power of teleportation now but it only comes after becoming fourth level space mage."
She waited for sometime before poking her head out of her space and looked around. It seemed the two people had gone ahead while searching for them.
"Come out. They are gone now." Although Selene couldn't get all their information from her scanner as they were higher level mages that her, she did get one important fact about them, that is that they are from an organization called Blood Crown.
"Hm, I will have to find more about them" Selene muttered.
Present~
"Milady, You are back!" Anna opened the door excitedly.
"Anna ~" Selene said in a weak voice. "Bath."
"Oh my, you are not injured aren't you?" Anna asked as she checked Selene for any wounds.
"No just tired.." Selene replied. Although the duchy was not far away from the capital, the distance is still fairly big. After all the area under duchy is quite immense, other than the one near the capital, there are many more territories spread in the empire.
'Going out secretly is quite tiresome.' Selene sighed.
"The bath is already prepared, come I will give you a massage." Anna said.
"Anna, you are an angel." Selene said blinded by Anna who seemed to be shining in her eyes.
"You sure jest, milady."
"But it is true!"
Selene laid down on the bed enjoying its comfort after having a nice bath and eating some snacks while Anna dried her hair. She told Anna to wake her up half an hour before dinner.
But she was instead awakened by the commotion outside the of her room. Few seconds later, the door burst open and Alex came instead followed by Anna hot on his heels.
"You can't go in there, young master!" Anna said struggling to not raise her voice. The irritation was easily shown on her face.
"Selene."
"I thought brother Alex had enough manners to not to barge in a lady's room." Selene said after she securely wrapped herself in the blankets. She had stayed here long enough to know the rules of this world.
"You are just eleven years old."
"Going to be twelve in couple of months. Only two years until I make my debut."
"That is still young. Anyway, did you secretly go to the market again?" Alex asked.
Selene was surprised, she had taken quite some measures so as to not get discovered. She didn't think she would be caught so early.
"Of course not why would I do so?" Selene tried to lie.
"Then where did you go?" Alex asked obviously not believing her, even though no relevant expression was seen on her face, her pause after his words were enough to tell he was right.
"To have a walk in the garden?"
"Who takes a walk in the garden for 4 hours, huh? Besides the garden is closed for today, maintenance work is going on in it."
'Why is my luck always so bad when I lie? That's why I avoid lying.'
'Just admit you are bad at lying.' Lumen snickered in her mind.
'Shut up.' Selene snapped.
"Alright, I did go to the market. Are you planning to tell on me?" Selene asked even though she knew he had no intention to do so.
"You know I won't do that. Was it for something dangerous?"
"No. at least not for me. But why do you care about that? Could it be you are worried about me?" Selene asked leaning towards him.
"Of-of course not! I was just ensuring that my benefactor's daughter is not in any danger." Alex said looking away.
Anyone could see he was not saying the truth, but Selene believed him. It seemed more logical to her than him being concerned about her. After all he was the third male lead who hated her, the villainess in the novel. Although he doesn't hate her to the point of wanting to kill her now, she was sure there was some hatred in him for her due to the ill-treatment he had faced from the villainess for two years.
"Is that so? Then don't worry, I am not someone who would put their life in danger carelessly." She assured.
For some reason Alex looked a bit disappointed in her eyes when she said those words. He then looked up and asked-
"You know today is 'the' dinner right?"
"Dinner? What- Oh right I totally forgot about that!" Selene exclaimed.
****
Selene came down the stairs leading to the dining hall and opened the doors to it. Inside Alex was already sitting in his chair while the servants were arranging the tableware. It seemed the Duke had not come yet which was expected as she had come before the time. But she didn't expect Alex to come even earlier than her.
She gave a nod of greeting to Alex before quietly sitting down on her chair opposite to him. The duke came in a few minutes and sat at head of the table. Maids came in with dishes containing mouthwatering food reserved only for the monthly dinner.
As Selene dug in the food and was drinking the juice in her hand with pleasure the duke suddenly cleared his throat and said-
"So, I've been observing for a while and have noticed that we all have grown closer because of this monthly dinner policy." He started.
'Grown closer? Why didn't I see that?" Selene thought as her brows furrowed but remained silent to hear his next words.
'Of course it is an excuse.' Lumen commented.
"Excuse? What do you-'
"So to- *ahem* strengthen this bond, I have decided that from now on, instead of the monthly dinner we would be having weekly dinner. I have already asked the butler to rearrange your schedules to accommodate that."
Selene caught the glass which nearly fell from her hand out of shock. This was not supposed to be like this! Even in the novel it was written that the main reason Alex was so lonely was because of the estrangement he had with his family. He always had to endure the gloomy and desolate monthly dinners which continued for years even though clearly no one wanted it.
"Hm? Do you have anything to say Selene?" Alpheus asked.
Selene opened her mouth and was about to object when she looked up to see the duke's eyes filled with hope that she would not oppose his idea and ultimately shut her mouth and said nothing.
"So, I assume both of you are fine with this idea. Alex?" The duke looked at the black-haired boy on his right.
"Yes." Alex replied, a bit surprised that the duke asked for his opinion.
"Then it's finalized. Oh, and Selene you know your birthday is nearing right? You should probably move back to the east wing now."
"Uh...I think it is still early for me to shift back. My birthday is still two months away and it is also not certain that I will awaken this time." Selene said making excuses.
'No way I am giving up my peaceful life in the west wing so easily. But why is he even suggesting this? Is it another one of his out-of-character moments?' She thought.
"You don't have to worry about that. You definitely wouldn't fail, you are my daughter after all. In fact I had sent someone to check the measuring ball from last time and it seemed that there was something wrong with it."
Selene threw an incredulous look at the Duke while the latter was not looking wondering if he had really eaten the wrong medicine today. It was clearly mentioned in the novel that Alpheus never acknowledged Selene as his daughter and was presented as her sore spot , so why is he saying this now to her?
"Still, I want to wait for the results of the mana test."
The Duke's shoulder drooped a bit but didn't insist further and thus the dinner ended in silence. Selene immediately got up after the duke left clearly tired because of the bombs he had dropped during the dinner.
"How was the dinner, milady? Anna asked as Selene sat on a chair so that the food settles in her stomach before getting on her bed.
"Exhausting." Selene replied. She had so many questions in her mind that she even forgot to greet Alex goodnight.
Anna tilted her head at Selene's reply, most of the time Selene's answer would be dull or boring but this time it was different. Did the duke say something?
"Oh yeah. I wanted to tell you something..." Selene started looking at Anna.
"So you really have 9 elements affinities?" Anna confirmed for the tenth time after Selene told her about it.
She decided to do so because she saw no reason to hide it form Anna since it is already revealed to Fenrir. At first Anna was shocked, no one in the history ever had 9 elements. Just a year ago, Prince Augustus had shocked everyone by awakening with 4 elements.
If now Selene is revealed to be a nine elemental mage, then no one knows what will happen. Of course she felt that Selene deserved this after all of the things she had suffered. But she was worried that her master might want to disclose her powers to please the duke.
"Are you to reveal this on your birthday, this year?" Anna asked.
"Of course not, it will only bring trouble if I do so. Not only will I be in danger because of those many people who might want to covet this power. Beside with the attention I will get especially from the nobles, all the things I am doing now will be disrupted."
"You are going to hide it?"
"Not fully. Partially, yes." Selene said looking up to the moon from the window which looked so pure and white from far but not so if seen from near.
********
A knock was heard on the white oak door which opened into Selene's room, the door opened to reveal the spectacled butler standing at the doorway.
"Young miss, his grace has called for you." He informed.
"Father?"
Another chapter finished! This time it wasn't hard to finish it at all, maybe because of all the support I got this time! And thank you for the 5K reads, you guys are the best!! I also want to notify you that I am planning to shorten the chaps a bit so that the updates are more frequent. It should be around 1500-2000 words or so I hope(My finals have started).
What do you think the Duke called our Fl for? Let me know in the comments.
Hit the ⭐ button on the right top(pc) or left bottom (app) if you liked this chapter. See you again in the next update!