Chapter 25: 25
The beautiful young lady opened the door for Michelle and remained outside as Michelle entered the auction house's owner's office. Michelle's purple eyes scanned the luxurious, but simple office before her gaze landed on the man sitting at the desk. Seeing him, Michelle felt a flash of rage pass through her. The man was extremely similar to Alexander Terce, the infuriating man who immobilized her and kissed her after giving Mare to her.
Just like Alexander, he had dark blue hair, but his eyes weren't jet-black, but rich blue like the sky. His face structure was basically the same as Alexander Terce, a devilishly handsome man.
But seeing that the man wasn't Alexander, Michelle calmed down and stepped towards the desk.
The young man lifted his gaze to look at her and surprise appeared in his gaze for a moment before he smiled. "What is Archuke Grace's daughter looking for in here?" he asked with a smirk, his gaze observing Michelle's every move.
Feeling the man's gaze on her, Michelle arched a brow. She had already felt that gaze before. And not once. "Sir, the auction house has its own information guild, right?" she smiled, but her eyes were calculatingly cold.
To that, the young man nodded. "That's right. I dare say that our information guild is the best in the continent. What do you need it for? Is the Archduchy's information not enough for you? Did you come to buy information? Or?" he sneered and rested his chin on his hand. "Or did you come here about the incident from the Imperial Palace? Do you not want it to be spread?"
Hearing that, Michelle smiled. Her guess was correct, so her plan could proceed. "Neither!" she sat on the young man's desk and turned her head to look at him. "I have an offer to make."
Seeing Michelle suddenly sit on top of his desk, the young man was surprised, but hearing that she had an offer for him, his smile widened. "Let me hear it."
Michelle crossed her legs and took her shifting weapon, in the shape of a folding fan, from her sleep, unfolding it lazily. "Since you are well aware of the incident in the Imperial Palace, you should also know about the Eight Prince!" Her purple eyes gleamed coldly.
The young man frowned a bit. "Do you want my people to kill him?" He clearly didn't like the idea.
But Michelle suddenly folded the fan and pressed the tip to the man's lips, a smile on her face. "That's utter foolishness! If I wanted that, I wouldn't come to you... Since you clearly care about the neglected young boy..."
When her words fell, the young man froze. "How-?" He wanted to ask something, but Michelle blocked his mouth with the fan.
"Since you care so much about the Eight Prince, you wouldn't mind being his Regent until he grows up, right?" she smiled lazily.
Michelle's words were said lightly and lazily, like everyday talk over morning tea, but the impact these words would have if someone overheard them would be huge and gruesome. But for some reason, the young owner of the illegal auction house smiled. "You want to make the Eight Prince the new Emperor?" he snickered. "That's impossible. The Emperor hates him."
"I know." Michelle's voice was still and lazy, a careless smile on her lips. "But I hate the Emperor, so I'll make him abdicate and crown his most hated son the next Emperor. I'll force him to watch the child he hates rule his Empire." She hummed a bit, her purple eyes narrowing into beautiful smiling crescents as she got off the desk. "I already lost the chance to commit regicide, so I'll have to torture the Emperor a bit before he dies... To calm my anger."
The young man lifted a brow before chuckling. "What do you want me to do, My Lady?" he asked with a sneer.
Michelle turned to walk towards the door. "Just spread the word that the Emperor was attacked by the Crown Prince. Luckily, the Crown Prince was killed before he could harm the Emperor, but the Crown Prince's mistress, one of the Emepror's concubines, poisoned the Emperor with a slow-killing poison, so His Majesty will die within half a year."
With that, she opened the door and turned back to look at the young man. "An irrelevant question: Do you know a man your age called Alexander Terce?" she asked.
Hearing that name, the young man froze a bit. "Why do you ask?" he asked after a while.
Michelle frowned a bit. "You look sickeningly similar to him. Siblings?" she asked.
"No!" the young man shook his head. "I'm David Elether. But I do know him. Our similarity is just a strange coincidence."
"I see..." Michelle smiled coldly. "Than if you meet him, tell him for me that I have a payback gift for him for what a great thing he did for me!" her tone was sarcastic and cold. With that, she turned and left the office.
When Michelle left the auction house, David Elether walked over to a window and watched as she used her Shadow Spirit Steps and quickly disappeared in the distance. Then, he opened one of the drawers on his desk and took out a small black stone. He inserted his spirit energy into it and waited for it to shine. It took a few minutes but the stone shone a bit and a voice came out of it. "What is it?" If Michelle heard that voice, she would instantly recognize Alexander Terce's voice.
"I met a special person today. It might interest you!" David said with a smile.
Hearing David's amused voice, Alexander felt annoyed. How could someone with a face like his act so brazenly? "Get to the point!" he said coldly.
"Oh, don't be mad. You'll be happy when you hear this." David snickered. "I didn't know you knew Philip Grace's daughter. Is that why you were at the Royal Banquet during the harvest festival?"
When David's words fell, Alexander frowned on the other side, his face darkening as he remained silent for a moment. "Did she come to the auction house?" he asked after a while.
"Yes... She had a very interesting offer for me..." David chuckled again.
Alexander lifted a brow. "Offer? For the auction house or the information guild?" He was starting to get more and more curious about Michelle. At first, he was only surprised that someone from the lower realm wanted to bid for the egg of a Divine Snow Fox, so he decided to observe her for a while, to see if she had potential to be of use for him, but when he saw her acting skills at the harvest festival banquet, he realized that she might be more than useful. She might become a valuable asset in the turmoil to come.
Knowing what Alexander was thinking, David sneered. "She wants to make neglected Eight Prince the next Emperor. Are you aware of what happened in the palace yesterday?" he asked, guessing that Alexander only knew something here and there.
"The Crown Prince was killed, and the Emperor was poisoned by someone...?" Alexander wasn't really informed about the Imperial Palace since it wasn't worth his attention.
David sighed. "Not by 'someone'! The Crown Prince poisoned the Emperor and framed Philip's daughter for it. In the end, she proved him guilty and killed him in front of the Emperor. The Emperor wanted to punish her, but she made it, so the Emperor had to praise her for protecting him from a traitor. The Emperor was so enraged that he ordered his assassins to kill her, but she annihilated them. And guess what I saw in the forest where they fought."
Alexander frowned. He would have never guessed that Michelle Grace would be so radically special. But it wasn't too unexpected since she was Philip Grace's daughter. "What did you find out?" he asked.
"Well, first, the bratty girl is a maniac when it comes to killing. She smiled at the assassins gently and harmlessly before annihilating half of them. And second of all, she is very perceptive. She nearly noticed me as I observed her. Lastly, she has..." David sneered. "Spirit Blood..."
The last two words were like a punch into Alexander's gut. "But she's Philip Grace's daughter! She can't have Spirit Blood!"
"Don't forget about the strange turbulence of spirit energy around the Archduchy about a month ago." David was surprisingly serious as he spoke.
"If the turbulence had something to do with her, it might mean that something happened to her soul, and a change in the state of one's soul might alter their blood. If I remember correctly, a few days before the turbulence appeared, Michelle Grace fell off a cliff and nearly died. She was unconscious for days, and the day before she woke up, the turbulence appeared. And! Before she fell off the cliff, she was just another lazy, ignorant and arrogant aristocratic lady who didn't even try to cultivate though she had high potention, but after she woke up, she was like a changed person. But for some reason, Philip Grace didn't suspect anything about her."
Listening to David, Alexander frowned. "So you are saying that something happened to her soul while she was unconscious, which caused the turbulence of spirit energy, and since Philip Grace found out about it, he didn't suspect anything?"
"Yes!" David nodded.
"If that's the case, should we find out what happened?" Alexander's frown deepened even more.
"That might come in handy."