Chapter 158: 158

When Michelle woke up, she wasn’t happy to see Alexander, but she didn’t say anything. After sleeping, she felt even more disgusting from not having taken a bath, so she went to the provisional bathroom connected to the room. Her guess was that the other floors didn’t have such bathrooms. The top floor seemed like a VIP floor or something.

The inside of the bathroom was very simple: a small counter to place things and then two stones—one blue and the other shimmering with all colors. Also, on one of the walls was something like a shower head. It just didn’t have a tube, and on top of it was a hole where the two stones could perfectly fit.

Michelle made sure to properly close the door behind her and then took off her clothes, revealing her not fully mature but already quite perfect body. She then picked up the blue stone in one hand and the shower head in the other.

Staring at the hole, it seemed that the blue stone was the first to be placed there. So Michelle did it.

But nothing happened. Still, Michelle wasn’t really surprised. Since there were two stones and a hole for both of them, they were definitely meant to be used together.

So Michelle picked up the second stone and placed it next to the first one.

At first, the second stone’s glimmer disappeared, and the blue stone started glimmering instead, but nothing else happened. A few seconds later, however, water started flowing out of the shower head, making Michelle smile a bit.

While washing herself, Michelle thought about how the stones worked. It wasn’t that hard to guess. Both of the stones were spirit stones, and each had a different usage.

The blue spirit stone was an elemental storage. It was able to store tons of things of one element. Then, it would take on the color of the element the thing belonged to. But for it to be taken out, one needed to insert the spirit stone with spirit energy.

And for that was the second stone—a spirit stone which could store spirit energy and send it into another spirit stone. It was refined in a way that made it so people couldn’t absorb the spirit energy within it for cultivation.

After washing herself, Michelle took out the two stones and put them on the counter. They could still be reused quite a few times.

Michelle paid no more attention to the spirit stones and reached into her spatial ring, taking out something that could be used as a towel to dry herself. Then she got dressed and prepared to leave the bathroom.

But as she walked towards the door, her eyes were drawn to something. Or rather, to something that was missing.

There was no drain in the bathroom, but the water was already nearly gone.

So Michelle fixed her gaze on the residue water, watching it seep into the ground. But the ground was made of waterproof-looking tiles, making her frown. Were the tiles actually able to absorb water?

With her eyes narrowed, Michelle squatted down and put her palm on the wet ground. The tiles under her touch didn’t feel special, but Michelle could still feel a slight flow of the residue water into the tile. That confirmed her guess. The tiles were able to absorb the water.

Michelle didn’t have to think much to understand what was going on, so she stood up. Since the shower head was powered by spirit stones, it was to be expected that the draining system would rely on them too.

But to think that the whole floor and the lower part of the wall were covered by spirit stones that could absorb water was quite astonishing.

Spirit stones were uncommon and could be considered expensive in the lower realm, so for a simple tavern to have so many was definitely suspicious.

Also, it seemed the stones were elemental absorption stones, which could absorb things of just one element, so they only absorbed water. Then, the mess washed off a person would be absorbed by a different kind of stone.

Stones of such kinds were rarer than normal spirit stones.

Still, considering the fact that the old tavern lady knew Alexander, it was clear that the tavern wasn’t such a simple place, like it was made out to be to the people of the lower realm.

When Michelle walked out of the bathroom, Alexander raised a brow at her.

“That’s a strange outfit,” he said with a careless smile.

Michelle just shrugged and walked to sit on the bed. She was wearing a black set of clothes: jeans, a shirt, and a jacket, all made out of monster leather. She had it made after returning to the Archduchy following her first trip to the jungle with Ivona.

Back then, they had collected quite a lot of monster bodies, so making clothes out of them was simple. And Michelle missed the comfortable clothes of the 21st century.

Though leather wasn’t really a comfortable material, it was very durable. Under the hands of a good craftsman, it could gain special properties.

And when the craftsman was skilled enough to be considered an artisan, they could even make the clothes into a tool, just a step away from being turned into spirit tools. For that, they just needed someone to insert a spirit stone or potent spirit energy into them.

But artisans didn’t exist in the Land of Exile, so Michelle’s clothes were just exceptionally well-made and nearly unrecognizable when compared to clothes from the 21st century. That made Michelle quite happy.

That wasn’t the first time Alexander had seen Michelle in clothes inspired by her past life, but the clothes she was wearing now were somehow different. As if they were originally sewn for a different person, they were loose in some places and tight in others.

Michelle understood what Alexander’s words and gaze were hinting at, but she didn’t really care about him. She reached into her spatial ring and took out a disguise mask. Putting it on, Michael Grayson replaced Michelle Grace, and the black clothes fit perfectly.

“Why are you hiding your identity here in the tavern?” Alexander walked over to Michelle and pulled on her nose. The face in front of him could be considered handsome to some extent, but it was still too pretty for a man.

But Michelle was young, around sixteen, so she could easily pass as a fifteen-year-old brat, which would explain the pretty face. People would think the boy was still growing.

“I need to get used to it!” Michelle slapped Alexander’s hand away and walked towards the door. “I’ll be using this identity quite a lot from now on, so I can’t mess up. And I have to let people know of my existence.”

The last sentence she said was crucial. When she would go to the upper realm or deeper into the lower realm, she would most probably be investigated by people there if she caused trouble—which she was planning to do—so she needed her identity to be somewhat stable. Or she would be instantly suspected.

And appearing in the city bordering the Land of Exile was perfect for that. People from the lower realm would never bother to investigate into the Land of Exile, so they would just think she was someone from there and give up on the investigation.

Also, even if they did investigate her there, they would just find out that she was a cultivator who helped the unfavored eighth prince usurp the throne. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Still, wouldn’t it be better to appear through the gate?” Alexander asked with a chuckle. He could understand Michelle’s riddles and thus knew what she was planning—well, at least the conspiracy about her identity. “And without attracting so much attention to your identity as Michelle Grace?”

“What do you mean?” Michelle raised a brow when she heard that.

“The area around the tavern is reeling with puny guards, probably after you.”

Hearing that, Michelle looked toward the window. She could do so even from the door. From her position, she couldn’t see right under the tavern, but she could see into a big part of the city. And the guards could be seen everywhere.

Still, that was an outcome Michelle had expected when she ignored the guard at the city gate. And she wasn’t going to let it hinder her plans.

“You think they will put two and two together and discover that Michael Grayson is Michelle Grace based on my eye and hair color?” she asked as she leaned on the door.

“That’s obvious!” Alexander’s smile widened. He knew that the little girl would have thought about that. “They aren’t stupid.”

Michelle stared out the window for a while before closing her eyes lazily.

“I’ll think about it later!” she said with a yawn.

Then, she pushed herself off the door and opened it, walking into the hallway. Her stance was clear. She knew what was about to happen, but she had no plans to bother herself with it at the moment. She would deal with it once the situation called for it.

Seeing Michelle’s nonchalance, Alexander couldn’t help but chuckle as he followed her into the hallway and then downstairs.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep