Lord Malan spread his muscular arms wide to embrace Michael into a bear hug. Since gestures like this would strengthen the bond between them, Michael too embraced Malan without avoiding the hug. Gaya searched the hall for Nathen but weirdly no one could be seen in the hall except two guards who quickly left the room after they entered.
"I heard you made a friend out of House Kane," Lord Malan asked, releasing him from the hug. Then Malan acknowledged Gaya's presence by patting her on the shoulder.
"Word travels fast huh Lord Malan"
"Very" Lord Malan who recently reached the Core Strengthening stage gestured at them towards the sofas. Various beverages including wine and ale were placed on a round table in front of the sofas.
"Help yourselves out" Lord Malan took a glass for himself before pouring the ale into the glass. Michael nodded as he poured the grape juice into two glasses. He took one glass and handed over the other to Gaya.
Lord Malan was surprised to see a heavenly blessed youngster such as Ghost treat a Body Refining normal-looking girl like this because any prodigy would have let the girl pour the drink. Ghost was not only a talented prodigy but also a 5-star Alchemist, if he wished, beauties and even princesses would be in line to be his wives. They would treat him as their king yet Malan could tell just by this simple gesture that he's treating this girl as his queen.
Either Michael or Gaya had zero ideas that a simple gesture like pouring a juice to another made such an impression on Malan.
"So Lord Malan, how's life treating you?" He asked, taking a sip of the grape juice.
"I assume you have something important to talk to me or you wouldn't have sent a secret letter"
Lord Malan's face turned serious as he sighed, "I didn't like that method kid but I had to make sure no one sees you with anyone from House Bradley"
"What's in your mind, Lord Malan? Im sure you have a good reason to do that"
" What do you know about House Bradley?"
"Nothing much, just the important things like House Bradley provides one of the best security services in Kethen and has numerous powerful connections across the continent" Gaya answered. Considering Malan noticed how Ghost treated the girl, he knew she must be important to Ghost. Therefore, Malan decided to give her the same respect as he was giving Ghost.
"For the outside world, House Bradley is thriving but in reality, House Bradley is in deep shit. Vultures are picking our clients one by one"
Gaya wondered why he was telling such weakness to two complete strangers. Noble families like them tend to keep things like this completely secret. She guessed that if he's telling this, he might ask something huge to be done by them.
"I know you're wondering why am I telling you all this" Malan leaned forward to refill his glass before speaking his kind.
"I've been watching you kid. You're making connections and a name for yourself, I can tell you that you have ambitions other than just reaching the immortal stage" Malan let out a deep breath.
"How do you like making House Bradley your lifelong ally?" Malan asked,
"I have to say Lord Malan that I'm indeed interested in such an offer. But first, you have to tell me what do you want from me?"
"I want you to brew this undetected poison to kill my brother" Lord Malan flicked his wrist as an old worn-out scroll appeared in his hand.
"So you want us to kill the current leader? If he's messing up, why can't you and the elders force him to retire or something and choose a new leader?" Gaya asked while Michael was checking out the scroll.
Lord Malan sighed heavily. He was hoping for them not to ask this question because it was really embarrassing for him to answer. However, this embarrassment was nothing compared to his family's future.
"It's because my brother has found a loophole to hand over the leader position to someone else"
"Nathen?" Gaya asked,
"I wish. Apparently, Nathen has no interest in becoming the leader, all he wants is to become an Alchemist like you" Michael did not show any expression on his face
"Then who does he want to be the next leader?"
"The whore he's fucking" A wave of anger emerged in Malan's eyes. He continued to curse with a gritted teeth
"He's planning to marry that whore"
"It stinks but it happens' ' Gaya knew the feeling too well. His father married Xanali's mother after Gaya's mother died. Ever since he married her, Nagaland has been declining. Once a superpower now became a kingdom with most debts to settle.
If killing her father would save her kingdom, she would do it in a heartbeat. Therefore, she sympathized with Malan who is trying to save his family from being destroyed by the mistakes of a single person.
"Lord Malan, why kill your brother when you can kill her?" Michael asked
"Him"
"Say again?"
"The whore's him, not her" Both Gaya and Michael couldn't help raising their brows in surprise while Malan's eyes twitched in embarrassment. Even though it was nothing to be ashamed of, this world didn't tolerate or taken lightly to same-sex relationships.
The churches of various gods were strongly against same-sex marriages but there weren't any laws against them.
"Marrying a man whore, that's new" Gaya had traveled almost everywhere in Elon and Ozer yet this was the first time she heard that ahead of a noble family is thinking about marrying someone of the same gender.
Now she could understand more why Malan wants to kill his own brother. If word got out of this marriage and he actually married him, she was positive that House Bradley is good as dead. On one side the churches would use all of their power to make life harder for House Bradley while the other rival families would use this to poach clients from House Bradley.
"What's stopping you from killing him, Lord Malan?" Unlike Gaya, Michael was indifferent about who's fucking whom.
" We suspect that man whore might have some connections with one of our rival families. If we killed him, they might release some scandalous documents or something that shouldn't be released. We cannot afford to take this risk. But if my brother were to die a natural death before he goes through with his marriage plan, I'll become the next family head and use all of the Bradley family resources to finally put an end to this fiasco"
"Natural death, that's where this potion comes huh. This is indeed a very complex potion that can't be brewed by anyone other than a 5-star Alchemist"
Lord Malan seemed like he already knew this.
"But there's a problem with this poison, Lord Malan. Although it's colorless as water, one with an acute sense of smell could smell the poison. Are you willing to take the risk, I mean if you get caught, you'll be ended as a traitor" Lord Malan rubbed his forehead, trying to make a decision
"If you give me the ingredients, I can prove it to you" After a few minutes of pondering, Malan waved as a bunch of various ingredients appeared on the table.
He wanted to check whether Ghost's statement about the poison was true or not. Seeing Ghost did not right out of the bat refuse to brew the poison, Lord Malan could heave a sigh of relief.
Michael ignored the badass points notification sound in his mind and focused on brewing the poison. Malan heard about Ghost's alchemy skills but seeing Ghost brew the poison with his own eyes still stunned him. In his eyes, Ghost looked like he's breezing through the process, showing no difficulties on his face despite the fact that this poison is one of the most complex potions to brew.
"Here you go, take a whiff," Michael said, pouring the colorless liquid into a glass vial. He then handed over the poison to Malan
"It stinks" Gaya twitched her nose as, among the three of them, she got the most acute sense of smell.
When Malan brought the vial closer to him, he began to smell the nauseating smell. It was faint but it was there. Malan realized the meaning of Michael's words. He knew that if he used this to poison his brother, he would definitely detect the poison's presence.
"You know you cannot use this Lord Malan. Fortunately, I know something that could do the trick, your brother wont suspect a thing" Before Malan could react to his statement, another glass vial with a colorless liquid appeared in Michael's hands.
This was the same poison Michael was using in his spiders to poison his enemies if he desired to. However, Michael did not remove the arch energy radiation from the poison in his hand because it would freak out Malan and even lead to his own downfall.
"This is..."
"It's my own recipe. This poison is ten times more lethal than the poison in your hand. Plus, it's odorless and disappears from the body in a matter of seconds, so even if a 6-star Healer came to check the body, they will find nothing"