”I heard the Alchemy guild went all over this time. Any alchemist who has good skills will be a water bottle in the desert. They will recruit them in a flash,”
Hearing Noah’s words, Alicia shook her head slightly,
”Although getting recruited by the Alchemy guild is fruitful to some, ultimately it’ll limit one’s freedom, and if you ask me, it’s not really worthwhile…”
”What the shit? Not worthwhile? You heard of Gabriel right?” After Hearing Alicia’s words, Norvin rolled his eyes, curled his lips, and said.
”Alchemy King Gabriel. No one in Ozer and Elon doesn’t know him.” Noah shrugged, laughing faintly. Not only did he know of him, but they almost fought against each other.
”Tell me about him. What’s the big deal?”
”Well, he was the largest black horse in the alchemy competition thirty years ago. No one knew him before that. Ever since he revealed his brilliance in the competition, the previous leader of the alchemy guild offered him the position of guild elder. Back then when he became the elder, he was the youngest to hold the position and was a four-star alchemist,” Noah explained to Norvin while navigating through the crowd,
”After that, with the resources of the guild behind him, he reached five stars and became the youngster five-star alchemist in all of Elon and Ozer. He enjoyed unrivaled fame, claiming himself as the Alchemy king Gabriel,”
“But, if it were not because of the guild, he would have at least needed twenty more years before reaching the recognition he has currently achieved” Alicia expressed her thoughts.
”Rumor has he’s eyeing for the guild leader position”
Noah heard the rumor through the guardian spies in the alchemy guild. In addition, Noah also heard Gabriel was losing his mind over his sudden downgrade to the second best alchemist in the continents.
”Guild leader position? What’s he gonna do about the current leader? Kill him?” Norvin chuckled but his smile froze when he saw Noah’s silence,
”Did you really think we are only here to compete?” Noah winked at Norvin. Until now, Norivin thought Noah was here for the mystic blood orchid. However, now he realized Noah plans to save the current leader of the alchemy guild.
”How do you plan to stop it? you know…the assassination” Alicia whispered,
”I’ll make the plan as I go. It always worked for me” Noah smiled. Despite knowing the assassination plot, he was pretty chill.
”I still think you should have joined the alchemy guild when they asked you to. If you had done that, we would have stopped the plot and gotten the orchid easily” Norvin rolled his eyes and continued to rant,
” They would have provided you with an endless supply of herbs and ingredients so you could have stayed relaxed and saved the time needed to run all over the place to search for ingredients. The Guardian guild is awesome but they don’t even have normal orchids. They don’t focus on nurturing alchemists”
Noah shook his head listing to Norvin,
”I don’t need alchemy guild to reach five-star level Norvin”
Noah shrugged his shoulders. With Andreas, who was the best of the best, guiding him by his side, he did not doubt reaching not five stars but six stars.
Because of Andreas, he became a young four-star alchemist from a young man who didn’t know anything about alchemy in just a short five years. It was also because he was unclear just how difficult it was for ordinary alchemists to raise their ability swiftly. After all, not everyone was as lucky as him.
”Times like this, I feel like we have to appreciate him you know”
As soon as Alicia heard these words, she clenched her fist while the veins underneath her skin bulged up. Even her eyes turned red in a flash.
”Do not speak about him in front of me” Noah could feel the air around him getting chillier.
Obviously by ‘him’, Norvin meant Ghost who almost destroyed Alicia’s family when he revealed Peter was the vigilante in front of half the kingdom. To this day, Peter was tangled in investigations and house arrest by the guardians. Additionally, the young masters who Peter attacked put several bounties on Peter’s head in the Grim Reaper’s guild.
And three grim reapers almost succeeded in taking Peter’s life. They would have killed him if it wasn’t for Noah.
”You should be pissed too. You know what he did to your cousin”
To her surprise, Noah did not say anything nor did he seem mad at Ghost. In fact, Noah wasn’t, because there was no reason for him to be mad at Ghost. If anything, Noah was grateful that Ghost did not kill Andrews even though he had the chance to. Noah warned Andrews and explained what would happen to him. Still, Andrews competed in the competition for Princess Katherine. After knowing what happened in the tournament, Noah respected Ghost. Even with the power of Lailah Alden behind him, Andrews couldn’t beat Ghost. As far as Noah was concerned, Ghost won the tournament fair and square. Yet because of Katherine’s impulse, they pushed Ghost to the point he took away half of their kingdom.
As for Peter, Noah completely blamed Peter for everything that happened to him. Peter deserved it as he had no right to dress up as a vigilante and beat up young masters just to hone his skills.
”Hey, we have arrived at the auction house!”
Hearing Norvin, Noah’s footsteps slowly came to a stop. He raised his head and eyed the huge building and the banner of the single water droplet that appeared at the end of the street. Surprise involuntarily surfaced on his face as he shook his head and sighed.
”Whoa, just a branch looks bigger than many prestigious auction houses belonging to Elon and Ozer. Aqua auction house truly is a giant in the auction business”
Both Alicia and Norvin nodded in agreement with his words. They eyed the huge building that was like a bottomless pit, swallowing up the unceasing flow of people. His hands gently inserted into his sleeves as he turned his head around,
”Let’s go in and take a look at what the number one auction house has to offer. Hopefully, we will be able to find the things that we need.”
Once he said those words, Noah led the way as they slowly walked to the end of a spacious street paved with bluestone.
As they gradually walked into the grandiose Aqua Auction House, Norvin’s raccoon brows rose higher and higher. They had to squeeze through the crowd walking before them to reach the auction house and the word ‘house’ may be a bit of an understatement as the building looked like a palace.
Noah was expressionless as he passed through the crowd. Once he entered the auction house, a layer of light covered him. The noisiness outside seemed to have become isolated. He could tell the phenomenon was due to the arrays around the palace.
Norvin’s gaze swept everywhere. Immediately, his mouth widened as he eyed the enormous hall that resembled a crystal city.
Inside the auction house, fully armored expressionless guards with Aqua house symbols engraved on their chests patrolled the hall like clockwork.
Noah could sense at least twenty sharp gazes sweeping across every part of his body when he entered the hall.
”It really lives up to its name as the number one auction house in the world. This manner of extravagance won’t come cheap…” Noah said, looking around the hall.
There were countless crystal counters placed in the large hall. There was an unceasing flow of people staring at the rare items placed on the red cloth inside the counters. The tags under these items stated their prices. However, all the prices of these items were at least fifty thousand gold coins. These high prices were sufficient to cause people to gasp in shock.
”These are the outer sales counters. The things that are sold here are not considered too valuable. The real deal will be upstairs” Norvin licked his lips,
”Don’t forget about the Aqua auction next week”
”Which you need a token. Unless, of course, you’re planning to be a spectator” Norvin responded to Alicia’s words.
”Quit worrying. I have someone to get me the token”
Norvin couldn’t help rolling his eyes,
”Let me guess, a girl”
Noah nodded as Norvin knocked him on the head,
”You are the reason many of us don’t get any girls”
”What shit are you spouting?” Alicia silently yelled at Norvin,
”You’re not even a human and no one stopped you from finding yourself a girl monkey”
Norvin bore his teeth at Alicia; if it weren’t for the patrolling soldiers around them, he would have lunged at her and made a mess out of her neatly braided hair.
”Come” Noah walked towards the marble stairs leading to the upper floors,
He was about to climb the stairs when he saw the hall become entirely silent. Seeing this sudden commotion, it appeared that there was a big shot who had quite a high status walking out from there. He could notice the sudden change in the youngsters’ faces. They remained still with slightly opened mouths. While looking around the hall, Norvin lost his balance and fell down. Then, he saw a somewhat blue-colored and blurry lovely tender figure.
Lowering his gaze, Norvin saw a pair of shining blue long boots. The heel of the long boots was slightly sharp as it released waves of clear and sweet-sounding ‘click-clack’, ‘click-clack’ sounds on the clear and shiny marble ground, like a beautiful musical note. His gaze drifted a little higher to see a pair of long, white, tender feet.
”Not bad…” Norvin whistles, not bothering to hide his pervy look. Still, he was better than some men in the hall whose faces were filled with longing and eyes were sparkling. Gradually lifting his head slightly, his gaze finally seeped through the gap and saw a gorgeous and moving face.
Immediately, shock slowly climbed onto his face as he softly muttered,
”Edith?”
At the same time, a black-dressed young man who was standing in the corner away from the prying eyes was pleasantly surprised by the girl.
”Teacher, you know her,” Olivia asked,
”Unfortunately yeah” Michael replied and seeing Edith was walking towards Noah, he sighed.
”This guy’s harem is getting bigger by the day”