Sapphire stared right down at the criminal and began to examine him. "Mother, may I take his soul?" The Queen nodded, the man before him was a traitor to the kingdom as he had collaborated with the enemies.
The man in chains had decided to stay loyal to his kingdom and knew that if he was ever caught he would shout out words that represented his unwavering loyalty. "All hail, The Barossa Empire!"
Even though he felt loyal towards the empire he still felt fearful of what was to come next, after all like all humans he feared death.
Realising this Sapphire clutched his chest and began to rip out a fluffy pink smoke out of his body, the man paled before dying peacefully.
Compacting it into a ball she then bit into it in a similar matter to an apple. "How delicious!" She was completely intoxicated by the flavour of lifespans and souls.
It was a very addicting taste. "What should we do about the body?" Sapphire asked her mother feeling that it was a little wasteful for it to rot like this.
"Give the body to Nathaniel if I remember correctly he could squeeze juice out of humans as well." The Queen was interested in Nathaniel's abilities and would love to drink the juice he creates if she had the chance.
Cutting a slab of stone with her kitchen knife she transformed the piece of stone into a crumbly cheese.
Biting into the rich and salty cheese she felt as if it was lacking a little. "Hmm, needs a bit of pepper. Oh and by the way Nathaniel would like to use your Reapers to gather Soul Shards for him."
"Yes, Mother." Crossing her hands Sapphire closed her eyes and began to create Reapers. From her chest protruded a black light orb.
Multiple orbs materialised spreading all around the room before eventually taking shape.
If Nathaniel had seen them he would recognise them as Incarnations rather than Reapers.
The black blob-like creatures had nothing but two eyes and a wide eerie grin. "I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much but I feel like we need to reinforce our security."
Sapphire felt that the traitors and assassins in the castle dungeon had grown in population. If she did not do anything about it soon they would no longer be able to handle them on their own.
While her Father had an extremely dangerous power the guards and other workers occupying the castle were still weak.
The royals had no choice but to solve this by themselves, they could only rely on their loyal workers and not any corrupted nobles.
The Royal Family knee of their corruption but did not point it out in fear of them turning against the family.
But now it was different, they were all strong enough to fend for themselves even the Queen was no pushover.
"Three days from now we shall have a public execution and the Royal Family shall show a fraction of their skills." That was the premise that the King proposed.
By showing off exactly how strong they were the assaults from other kingdoms would tone down a bit and the rest of the nobles would think twice before betraying them.
"Of course we should not show exactly all our powers as of right now only two of our family is invincible." Whom the Queen were referring to were the King and Prince Crow due to their intangible nature.
"Logias have it easy don't they, we Paramecia however are while the most common we still have powers among the class that can be called useless." Sighing deeply the Queen felt jealous of Logias, despite knowing that there was a way to beat them she was still frustrated.
"Zoans have it somewhat easy but I am envious of Diane's rare Mythical type. I wonder if we can buy the Phoenix off of him." The Royals were introduced to the different types of fruits beforehand.
"Oh well fretting over it won't help us in any way." Sapphire knew that they couldn't change their fruits now and had to make do with them.
"I hope that the nobles and the court shall simmer down now that we have power." Carla wished that the aristocracy would not fall to ruins by corruption.
.....
"Are you sure that the Shop of Wishes exist?" A boy in plain tunics stopped in his tracks and faced his friend.
"What are you talking about Rill? Of course it exists!" The boy firmly believed that the shop could grant their wishes.
This was the exact reason why they begged for the Girl with the Golden Touch to give them some money in exchange for the rare ore they found.
"But what happens if it doesn't Dale?" Rill was still sceptical of the rumour and felt that it was a lost opportunity to have used the ore to obtain something that could possibly grant them the chance to have their wishes come true.
Dale shook his head and parted the bushes in front of him pointing towards the building in front of him. Rill gasped in surprise.
The rumours of a building deep in the forest were true! But it was yet to be confirmed that it was truly the Shop of Wishes.
Walking with a nervous stance they gathered the courage to finally walk through the doors. It was a strange and peculiar feeling.
Mahogany wood all over the place with some metallic platings on the wall. The floor were carpeted with a velvet red.
And a crystal chandelier hung up above brightening the place up. A stairway could be seen with two men coming down it.
Peculiar objects laid out in all its glory encased in glass. One by one they passed all of them as if they were in a treasury.
Look but no touching, they could only observe and yet a strange magnetic force attracted them towards a specific object.
It was a white stone that shone like jade. Other than the stone the bookshelves also seemed to attract them.
The novelties within the shop seemed to be simple yet highly complicated. Artefacts and items of unknown origin were vulnerable to theft and yet for some reason they showed no signs of it.
The two friends knew that something about this place was strange but they could not help but ponder over why.
Maybe it was because they could grant wishes? Or that they could survive in the forest without being ravaged by monsters?
Who knew? And even if someone did know something there was a high chance they wouldn't speak of it.
Same went for everyone that went through here. They would not speak of it ever again.
"Welcome new customers!" A masked man who seemed to be the owner came up to them and spoke scripted words that established a polite attitude.
After making an introduction of the store he began to ask them what they were here for.
And to Nathaniel's surprise what they actually wanted was. "Revenge!" They recounted their stories and their childhood which was quite sad actually.
They were born as peasant boys that lived in an isolated village until thieves killed them off, children, women, infants were not spared.
But Rill and Dale were; their families chose
to hide them and their siblings in the forest before the aforementioned attack and left them there.
They were only three at the time and knew nothing of what was to come and they were spared from a tragic fate.
Later on they became workers at a nobles residence learning to become a Butler and chef respectively.
That was until the Noble they served was soon caught for embezzlement and they were left to starve for years.
They could only survive by becoming adventurers but even then the pay was little and the food was minimal yet it was enough for them.
Living out in the streets during the cold and hot seasons until about a week ago they learned of a rumour.
About a shop that had invaluable and strange items, of a shop that could possibly have everything, The Shop Of Wishes.
A shop where all dreams and wishes come true; at a price of course. But they were willing to take the risk.
"We want to find the ones who killed our families and avenge them." Nathaniel knew that if he wanted to he could find it out instantly.
But since they made a request it was only right to ask for compensation. "Pay the fee." Holding out his hands he gestured for them to pay up.
Dale nodded and gave him a small bag. Shaking his head Nathaniel pointed towards the boy's chest.
"I need a small piece of your lifespan." At this moment Dale became terrified. He knew the repercussions of giving someone a piece of their lifespan.
It meant that they would die earlier than expected, but if that what it took to gain power then he'd gladly take it.
Gritting his teeth he then inched forward. Nathaniel took off his glove revealing a golden bracelet.
The jewel on the bracelet shone brightly as it neared Dale. Thrusting his palm towards Dale's chest he seemingly impaled him.
A flickering shadow hand appeared behind the boy's back holding something within its fingers.
Nathaniel forcefully pulled his hand out revealing a small light orb. It was a good chunk of lifespan about a month or so.
Feeling satisfied he asked Rude to contain it. Going behind the doorless entrance he bought back two objects.
"I have already asked Rude to find out your potential in magic and it is not good." Before the ripping of lifespan and chatting with the two boys Nathaniel had asked Walter to use his Reticent Communication to connect him and Rude mentally.
Turns out their mana pool was extremely low and their talent was horrid. He then asked Athena to scan them and he was surprised when he first saw the results of the scan.
Athena had uploaded the information about their bodies through Walter and what they found was truly surprising.
Mental resilience was strong, physical body was slightly weaker than an ordinary knight. But what made them dumbfounded was their extreme immunity to all afflictions.
From diseases to poisons they were immune to them all. Athena had thought that this was due to their incredible immunity system.
Their immunity system worked fast and got rid of any intruders quickly yet delicately in order to not harm them in anyway.
This trade off however rendered them useless in the field of magic. So he had a plan to turn them into the very first Espers of the shop.
While the crystal he had could also grant powers they were unstable and were temporary in that it needs to be recharged once in a while, so he used it as a power source for the shop.
"I give you two choices; one is the Ark which shall grant you powers instantly but the powers given cannot grow further until a Messiah is born. The second is your Personal Reality, you can get powers however if you truly want to become strong enough to get revenge you must at least be Level 5 which takes patience."
Glancing towards them Nathaniel smirked behind the mask, he knew he could just give them a Devil Fruit, but where was the fun in that?
He needed variety, he wanted to expand his horizons. "Of course there is a few catches for both of them. One there is no guarantee that you may gain a power and second of all if you take the second route you will be unable to use magic."
Their eyes widened at this, of course I wasn't lying but at the same time I was, the second route had been perfected so while the chances of gaining powers were still slim the limitation on magic wasn't.
But they didn't need to know that, besides I needed to encourage them. For a minute there they hesitated before fully consenting to my deal.
I smirked and asked Athena to operate on them. After they had gone away another customer had come.
"Welcome dear customer."