Chapter 4: 4

As it was still early in the night, the Imperial Palace was still lit up, but Michelle didn’t mind it. She knocked out a maid and changed into her clothes. Then, she tied the maid up and hid her in the closet of the maid’s room. Placing her hand on the disguise mask, Michelle’s appearance changed into the appearance of the maid.

Walking through the Imperial Palace, Michelle still chose to evade people, but that was only to get more used to using the improved version of her footwork, as she wasn’t worried about anyone discovering her, since she was confident in her acting and lying skills.

Very quickly, Michelle came near the Crown Prince’s room, and when she was still a bit far away, she was surprised that there were no guards around the room. It was only after she came closer that she understood why. Her face twisted in disgust when she heard the grunts and moans coming from inside the room, which were horridly loud, especially since the door was slightly open.

(Is the Crown Prince an exhibitionist?) Michelle thought to herself as she knocked over a vase on purpose, the vase shattered with loud sound as Michelle activated her footwork and disappeared. She closed her eyes and listened on as the moans stopped and someone stepped out of the Crown Prince’s room.

Michelle peeked a bit, and to her surprise, she saw the Crown Prince, but not accompanied by the girl who helped him plot against the original Michelle, but with one of the Emperor’s concubines.

Seeing that, Michelle sneered coldly. (This will be so much fun…) Michelle’s eyes gleamed in excitement as she watched the two go back into the room, closing the door this time.

Using her footwork, she went to the concubine’s bedchamber and completely wrecked it. Then, she searched through it and found something very interesting. She carefully kept it away and left the Imperial Palace after changing back into her clothes and setting the maid free.

Using the disguise mask, she once again changed her appearance to look plain, with the only change being a scar over her eye, and entered the slums of the city. The moon was at its highest as Michelle reached an inconspicuous building which she discovered when she was mapping the city before. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary abandoned building, but inside was the center of illegal business, an illegal auction house.

Michelle put her hood on, so it would cover the upper part of her face, leaving only the scar visible, as she entered the auction house. Very quickly, she was stopped by a pretty lady. She looked harmless, but Michelle noticed that her breathing was steady and her steps silent, showing that she was clearly a capable person. “May I ask, why are you here?” the pretty lady asked with a smile.

Michelle reached into her robe and took out a bottle. “I want to put something up for auction,” she said calmly.

The pretty lady was fairly surprised. By Michelle’s stance, she could tell that Michelle wasn’t someone to mess with and that was very dangerous. “Let me lead you to a separate room. Someone will assess your items there.” She politely gestured for Michelle to follow her.

Michelle only nodded silently and followed the lady to a separate room where she saw an old man sitting behind a table. “What do you need me to check?” he asked calmly.

To that, Michelle only put the bottle on the table in front of him, and the man took it. He opened it and the pure and gentle smell of medicine assaulted his nostrils.

The man was shocked. “This is!?” his eyes widened in shock. “This is an indigo grade Revitalization Pill!?” he exclaimed, his hands trembling in excitement. “Young lad, do you have more?” he looked at Michelle in anticipation.

Michelle looked at the old man and felt like sneering at his reaction. It was exactly what she wanted. “Not at the moment,” she replied coldly.

At first, the old man looked a bit disappointed, but when he realized that she said “at the moment” his eyes lit up again. “Does that mean that you could sell more to us sometimes?!” he asked excitedly.

To that, Michelle only nodded a bit, a smile tugging at her lips beneath her hood. (Indigo grade Revitalization Pill…) she hummed in her mind in satisfaction. It was merely a pill she made in her spare time the first week she was in the Archduke’s mansion, since she didn’t know whatever he would accept her deal and let her stay living with the identity of his daughter. If he didn’t let her, and chased her out or even tried to get rid of her, she wanted to have something to save her life in a critical moment.

Pill making was something incredibly rare, and it was graded, so pill masters were highly respected. The grades were Pill Master Pupil, Junior Apprentice, Senior Apprentice, Young Master, Master, Grand Master, Old Master, Young Lord, Lord, Grand Lord, Old Lord, Overlord, Monarch, King, Emperor, God and God of Gods.

Pills were graded too, but that was simpler. The lowest was red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple, black, white, silver, golden and finally diamond. Each grade was divided into three sub-grades with one being the highest and three the lowest.

Revitalize Pill was a simple red graded pill which even a Pill Maker Pupil could make, but the higher the grade, the harder it was for a Pill Master to make one. Usually, indigo graded pills were made by Pill Maker Old Lords, but the indigo grade Revitalization Pill was difficult even for Pill Maker Overlords to make as it was simply a heaven defying pill which could bring anyone back from death’s door without any side effects as long as they had a breath in them.

What the old man in the auction house didn’t know was that Michelle was probably the only Pill Maker God of Gods because she had the knowledge and understanding from her past life and could basically manufacture pills like that if she felt like it. She lied when she said that she didn’t have any more Revitalization Pills on her at the moment, but she just didn’t want to draw more attention to herself. All she wanted was to establish a relationship with the illegal auction house.

Talking with the old man a bit more, Michelle received a golden VIP card which allowed her to attend any auction she wanted and even entitled her to have a private room all to herself. Michelle then left the auction house, knowing that her pill will be auctioned off in two days, and that she will get ninety percent profit from it.

When Michelle left the building of the auction house, the sun was already rising on the horizon, so Michelle decided to go back to the Archduke’s mansion. Even though it was quite far, she was in no hurry and lazily walked through the city. When she arrived at the Archduke’s mansion, it was already nearing lunchtime and as she hadn’t had anything to eat since last evening, Michelle quickly went to take a bath and went to have lunch with the Archduke.

Over the food, she told him about her discoveries and handed over the item she found in the concubine’s bedchamber.

When the Archduke saw the item, his eyes froze over with cold anger. He gritted his teeth, having to control himself not to break the item. Then, he just put it away. “This can be used during the Harvest Festival Ball,” he said seriously, and Michelle only smiled a bit.

The next two days were quite ordinary, with Michelle only studying the ways of the world or sparring with the knights. Real excitement only came on the evening of the second day when Michelle put the disguise mask back on and headed to the illegal auction house.

The pretty lady led her to a private room on the second floor, and Michelle comfortably sat down on the side of an L-shaped couch, closing her eyes till the auction started. When the auction started, Michelle opened her eyes and directed her gaze at the person on the stage.

It was an alluring woman, completely different from the pretty lady who led her into the private room. The pretty lady had an innocent charm even though Michelle could tell that she was a skilled fighter, but the lady on the stage had the sinful allure of a seductress, and, from her too, Michelle could feel the aura of a skilled fighter.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep