The morning sun began to rise and painted the cloudy black sky into a vivid blue like an expert artist. The white puffy clouds started to resume their journey and slowly moved away as the curtains on the tavern rooms added an orange glow to the morning light. The sunlight under the door glowed like a ghoul's grin.
Soon after the lively morning rays had started to warm up the room, Don woke up and sat on his bed in a meditation position, and began to cultivate Battle Energy for a while. Today, he had plans to meet Minister Brian. Luckily, he was presented with an excellent opportunity in the form of the Thousand arms auction house.
"Enjoy this day, Minister Brian...."
A cold killing intent developed in his eyes.
************
(At same the moment in another place)
A man was lying on the bed half-naked. Beside him, there was a bulk underneath the bedsheets. The curtains in the room were closed as one or two sun rays came through the gaps that looked like light needles. On the floor were clothes and empty liqueur bottles. Seeing the bottles, he vaguely remembered himself partying and bringing a woman to his room.
He guessed that the bulk under the bedsheets was the woman he brought. But before he could remove the bedsheets...
Knock knock
The man seemed irritated when he heard someone knocking on his bedroom, "Who's there?"
"Minister Brian. It's me, Jacob," the man outside the door answered politely.
"What do you want? Don't you know it's too early to bother me?"
"Sorry, Minister Brian, but you asked me to remind you about the Thousand arms auction."
"Idiot! Don't you know they won't start the damn thing without ME!? Their lord?!" Minister Brian shouted, but the man outside the door didn't say anything. "Go and ask them to prepare breakfast and ask Rosaline to come here."
"Yes, Minister Brian."
Minister Brian heard the sound of footsteps fading as he turned to see the woman sleeping under the bedsheets. He tapped what felt like her shoulder, but she didn't respond. He then tried shaking her awake.
"Damn woman. Get up before I strangle you in your beauty sleep."
Still, she didn't say anything or respond to him. This made him very angry.
Finally, he pulled the bedsheets away that covered her, only to see the body of a young woman with a pair of lifeless eyes staring at him. There was a deep and bloody cut across her neck and dried blood all over her dress running to the bed under her.
Minister Brian jumped out of the bed in terror. Naked, of course.
"Oh, shit!"
He was scared at the sight of the dead body, and he jumped again in fear when he heard someone knocking on the door.
knock knock
"W-Who is it? " his voice had a small wave of nervousness to it.
"Minister Brian. It's Rosaline," a feminine voice answered Brian's question.
He relaxed a bit when he heard her. He took one of the robes lying around on the floor and put it on himself before going to open the door. The woman standing outside made a small bow. This woman was the head of the five mid-great master level personal guards Akihiro told Don about,
Rosaline.
Minister Brian made a gesture and let her in.
She was dressed in a red mage robe while her black wavy hair touched her shoulders. Rosaline held a red staff that was decorated with magical runes, and it had a phoenix figure on top of it.
Minister Brians looked at the woman in front of him and gasped. Deep down in his heart, he wanted to bed this woman but he couldn't. For him, she was literally too hot to handle since she was a powerful fire mage. He tried to make some moves for a while when he first saw her. But when he witnessed Rosaline burn a man alive for hitting on her, he backed down and never tried anything silly again.
He didn't admire the fruit he couldn't eat, so pointed his finger at the bed and asked, "Who is this woman and why is she dead?"
"She killed herself," Rosaline flatly said.
"Why?"
Rosaline stared at the body of the dead woman for a bit, "You brought her from one of your shops," Rosaline's response contained a slight hint of disgust, "Then you tried to rape her but she broke one of the liqueur bottles and cut her own neck."
"Idiot!" Minister Brian exclaimed, but Rosaline didn't look at him or even reply to him for a while.
"You should get dressed. The auction starts in a few hours."
"Humph... As if they'd start without me." he sneered, walking in the direction of his wardrobe.
"I'll go and check-in with the guard detail," Rosaline curtsied with a little bow and left the room without looking back.
"Tell the guards to dispose of this body," he ordered Rosaline while walking.
When all was said and done, Minister Brian stood in front of the mirror and stared at his reflection to see a plump fat man looking at him. He had short golden hair. He was not too short nor too tall, but those eyes staring at him were red due to the hangover.
He whistled and rubbed his hands in excitement about the auction.
"Who's going to be the beauty I'll be having for myself tonight?"
An evil smile emerged on his face while thinking about the night.
*****************
Amaryll didn't get a good night's sleep yesterday. She was thinking about everything that happened recently, and the fact Don went to meet Minister Brian was piercing her heart like a needle for some reason. When the first light of the sun came to her hut, she woke up and tied her ruffled golden hair loosely before walking outside.
The forest was a lush green. The grass was bathed in the morning dew and glimmered in the morning light. The trees were practically skyscraper tall. Some magical creatures were scampering away from the campsite, whilst the morning stars were glistening like silver snowflakes through the dense forest leaves. The peace of the morning was soul-soothing to Amaryll, and the forest's smell was fresh and organic.
She admired the beauty that nature had offered and looked at the colorful wildflowers on the ground with awe. Eventually, she picked a wildflower out and went to put it on her head. Suddenly, a thunderous roar of a lion startled her. She turned in the direction of Don's hut on an impulse to see a bright light that resembled moonlight covering the hut.
"What... What is happening?" Arwen came out of his hut holding his bow, ready to fight. He covered his eyes when he saw Don's hut.
"I don't know, but I think it's Knight!" Amaryll shouted.
Again, the thunderous roar came from the hut, but there was also a high-pitched noise that made all the elves on the campsite cover their ears. The light glowed brighter and brighter as Amaryll took a peek through her fingers, only to see the shadow of two wings besides a dark figure which seemed like a body of a lion. They closed their eyes and ears tightly for a while.
Finally, the light started to dim and the high-pitched noise quietened. This made the elves uncover their eyes and ears. They stared at Don's hut, frightened.
"Hahaha! Finally, the Moon level!" Knight walked out of the tent with a happy smile, ruffling his mane in a kingly manner and spreading his long wings.
Knight knew he made a big ruckus by seeing the terrified faces of the elves in front of him. They were pale, and some children tightly hugged their mothers' legs.
Amaryll came out of the initial shock and found something wrong with Knight, "Knight, what the hell was that? You scared all of us. And- Huh..." she paused for a moment and stared suspiciously at Knight. "What happened to your hair?" Amaryll asked in wonderment.
Knight ruffled his mane again with an arrogant look, "What's wrong with it aside from it being astonishing?"
Knight will get cocky whenever he talked about his mane. Don knew about this, but the elves didn't.
Amaryll giggled and looked funnily at Knight when he saw that cocky look of his, "Ha! Then why are you white?" she teased him.
Knight smiled proudly and stepped forward, "That, Amaryll, is because I've reached the Moon level."