Chapter 95: 95

Sitting on a rooftop in the black market, Michelle observed two figures, her purple eyes narrowed, a slight smile on her lips. “Ivona was right…” she mumbled as she used her Shadow Spirit Steps to go back to the Archduchy. “They really look good together,” she said, as she remembered her conversation with Ivona after she had told her about the memory manipulation skill.

“I don’t want to learn the skill, but how about you tell me some basic information about it and how to counter it?” Ivona said, with a smile.

Michelle stared at her with her purple eyes for a while before yawning lazily. “Why should I tell you?” she asked nonchalantly.

“You just said you would teach me even if I couldn’t master it,” Ivona was a fair bit shocked by Michelle’s reaction.

But before she could say anything else, Michelle snickered and appeared in front of her. “I still don’t feel like explaining it all to you,” she said with a smile and once again placed her hand on top of Ivona’s head.

Soon, Ivona was sitting on Michelle’s bed, glaring at her. “You could have said that you would just pass it to me as memories! I suddenly thought you had changed into someone else!” she complained.

“Oh, come on! Can’t I make fun of you sometimes? Your face was quite enjoyable to look at when you thought I wouldn’t tell you anything about the skill.” Michelle smiled as she stood up. “Anyway, with the memories you now have about the lower realm and the Sloa family, coupled with what you know about the Ostrich family and the artifacts, can you think of anything else that’s important?” she asked after a while.

“Nothing much…” Ivona shook her head a little. “Just one thing I noticed about Kieran and Anastasia,” she added, a smirk forming on her lips.

The way Ivona was acting made Michelle perk up. “What is it?” she asked curiously.

“There’s a high probability that Anastasia fell for Kieran. He might also like her, but he’s slow when it comes to things like that.” Ivona spoke confidently, as if it were the ultimate truth. “And they also look good together,” she added.

Hearing that, Michelle chuckled a bit. “When are they going to the black market?” she asked with a smirk. “I’ll check it myself.”

“I think Kieran said tomorrow early in the morning. From his observation, the servants of the Ostrich family go there early every fifth day.”

Michelle nodded a bit. “Don’t tell him that I’ll be following him.”

So, the next day, when Kieran and Anastasia left the Archduchy, Michelle secretly followed them, observing their every move. Kieran had a disguise mask on while Anastasia was barefaced. For a while, they wandered around before seeing the Ostrich family servant. Then, they split up, and Kieran followed him while Anastasia started “walking around”, checking out the carriage which the servant used to get to the black market. When she confirmed that no one was inside, she entered and rummaged through it. Finding out that it was empty, she got out with a frown.

From what she and Kierna had seen, the servant acted as a coachman for the carriage, so they thought something or someone was inside the carriage that he needed to carry; but since it was empty, things turned suspicious.

About half an hour later, Kieran found Anastasia. She was already quite far from the carriage, so the servant wouldn’t notice them.

Seeing that the two were together again, Michelle smiled and left, going to the illegal auction house to meet with David Elether. She was expecting to be told he wasn’t there, but to her surprise, the pretty girl that greeted her led her to his office, saying he would come to her in a moment. And indeed, just a few minutes after the maid left, David entered the office. “Ah, it’s you…” he smiled a bit when he saw her. “I was wondering who it would be, since the servant told me a beautiful lady came to see me…”

Michelle stared at David for a moment before speaking. “Why aren’t you in the Imperial Palace?” she asked as she propped her head on the palm of her hand, her elbow pressing into her knee.

“The student you gave me is very smart,” said David. “He’s so smart that I need to go there only once or twice every week to check on him. He can take care of everything else. He’s quick at learning. I’m guessing just a few more months, and I won’t be needed by his side.”

Michelle wasn’t that surprised. She knew that the young Emperor was smart. That was why she decided to place him on the throne after his father was poisoned by the Crown Prince. It was also because the old Emperor hated him, but if he were stupid, she would choose a different way to anger the old Emperor to death. “Stay with him at least until he’s twelve, so he can gain more political power,” she said after a while.

“I know. Though he’s already smart enough to not need me directly, now I’m his only real supporter. If I left, he would be left like a lamb to the slaughter between all the officials hungry for power.” David understood that much. “But that’s not why you came here, is it? You wouldn’t come here to tell me to take care of someone you had already left in my care long ago. What do you want?”

“Of course I wouldn’t come here just because of the little Emperor, since I’ve already left him in your care.” Michelle leaned into her seat lazily. “I came here to ask you something.”

“And what is it?” David arched a brow. He didn’t interact with Michelle for a while, so he had no clue as to what she needed from him.

“You are the Dark Lord, aren’t you?” Michelle asked, with a smile playing on her lips. “And you own part of the black market.”

“Cold Flame told you that?” David questioned.

But Michelle shook her head. “It was quite obvious that you are the Dark Lord. Who else would have so much power as to make everyone fear him so much that they wouldn’t dare fight on the streets you own, even though their fight has nothing to do with you? That just shows that the Dark Lord is a person who holds power much higher than what is achievable here. And I know only two people like that. You and Alexander Terce. Coincidentally, there was also a rumor that the Dark Lord wasn’t a single person, but two similar people.”

Chuckling a bit, David shook his head. “So what do you need from me, since I’m the Dark Lord?” he asked. “I doubt you just came here to confirm it.”

“Of course not,” Michelle’s smile deepened. “I have a question about the part of the black market that you own.”

“I hope my people didn’t anger you.”

“Not at all. Your people are innocent this time. I just want to ask if you know what business the Ostrich family has in the black market. You probably know that some of the artifacts confiscated from the Sloan family disappeared, and they were traced to your black market.”

“The Ostrich family has indeed been selling artifacts at quite a large scale to the black market lately. Are they from the Sloan family?” David asked with an arched brow. He didn’t really bother himself with the black market since it was just a small branch of his illegal business, but he did know about the artifacts from the Ostrich family because, at the moment, it was the biggest business the black market had. “Do you want the artifacts back?” he questioned. “If so, I can’t just give them to you. That would be a big loss for me. You would have to pay me what I paid-”

Michelle cut him off before he could finish: “You can keep the artifacts. I don’t want them. I just wanted to confirm a suspicion. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to leave.” She stood up and turned to leave.

Knowing that she was planning something, David didn’t stop her and just watched her use her Shadow Spirit Steps to disappear.

From Michelle’s calculations, she was guessing that Kieran and Anastasia were already in quite some trouble, so she wanted to see if they would be able to get out of it themselves. Since the Ostrich family had experts from either the lower or upper realm, she wanted to see how Kieran could cope against them and how Anastasia would react when exposed to blood and killing.

Rushing back to the black market, Michelle didn’t see Anastasia or Kieran anywhere, so she went back to the Archduchy. “Ivona!” she walked over to Ivona’s room. “Our lovebirds were kidnapped. It’s time for us to go watch a show… and maybe join it later…”

“Eh-?!” Ivona was surprised when she heard that. “Why would they be kidnapped?! And how can you be so nonchalant about it?! Let’s go save them!” She quickly took her things and prepared to rush out of the Archduchy, but then she realized that she didn’t know where to go. “Where do I find them?” she glared at Michelle.

But Michelle just shrugged. “The Ostrich family kidnapped them, but I don’t know where they took them. Maybe to the mansion, or maybe somewhere else.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep