Chereads / Lord of Mysteries:Fire of Destruction / Chapter 361 - Chapter 22: Frustated Vivian

Chapter 361 - Chapter 22: Frustated Vivian

Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her breathing was slightly irregular. Despite the several times she went into cogitation, her nervousness always returned. But at least it had calmed her enough to ask for a carriage to her work.

'It's alright, it's alright... Grandpa will know what to do...' Consoling herself, Vivian bit down hard on her lower lip.

The worst case scenario had happened, she had been discovered by the Wise Owls.

How long had she been exposed? Was she being watched now? Why would a team leader reveal himself like that and not attack her? Wasn't that what Official Beyonders did?

She never thought someone like Harvey Wayne would be the leader of the Wise Owls; he didn't carry himself like one. He always seemed relaxed and calm. He didn't mind how she acted and even returned the attitude.

He wasn't like the bald-headed, tight-assed monkeys her grandfather described so disdainfully.

She had even painted him as one of the 'progressive men' Emperor Roselle was fond of saying and referring to himself.

But it turns out that someone so free-minded was a Wise Owl! And not only that, but he was the leader of a team! That meant he had to be at least sequence 7!

The scene of the man exhaling fire like a dragon was still etched in her mind.

Closing her eyes, Vivian opened and closed her fists several times to feel them again. Once that was done, she reached into her bosom and pulled out her small container with her cigarettes.

Pulling one out, she quickly lit it and took a deep puff. More than half of the cigarette was consumed, and Vivian felt herself relax as her lungs filled with smoke.

Exhaling, a large cloud of smoke billowed out of the carriage window. A fleeting thought crossed her mind as Vivian was about to take another puff and finish her cigarette.

If Harvey Wayne wanted to attack her, it wouldn't be crazy to think that he could use the lit cigarette butt to blow up her face.

Her eyes moved to the red butt, which now seemed to glow with a certain danger that Vivian hadn't noticed before.

The next second, she forcefully stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray of the carriage, crushing and grinding it with extra force to make sure no embers survived.

Bump Bump! Bump Bump Bump!

Her heart, which had been beating normally until a moment ago, was racing again, and to make matters worse, her head began to hurt.

...

A while later, Briarwood Chambers.

The receptionist, Alexxia Truncan, was finishing greeting a client when she saw Vivian walking briskly past. She could only greet her with a nod, which the woman ignored and walked rapidly up the stairs.

'I'll never understand what her problem is.' Rolling her eyes internally, critical of her co-worker's rude personality, Alexxia returned her attention to the beautiful customer.

"Excuse me, Miss Jane, Mr. Gideon Blackwell is currently away from the firm finishing a contract. He will return in the afternoon around 2:40 if you can come by. If not, I can schedule a meeting for tomorrow."

"I appreciate your kindness. I'll be stopping by again this afternoon, but if Mr. Gideon doesn't return yet, I'm afraid I'll have to bother you with scheduling the meeting." A young woman sighed as she slowly shook her head.

"Don't worry, Miss Jane. You will never make trouble for me." Smiling at the young woman, Alexxia closed the notebook she was using. 

"Would that be all, or do you need help with anything else?"

The young woman in front of her laughed softly, "That will be all. Have a good afternoon, Ms. Alexxia."

"You too. May Wisdom always be with you."

The young woman nodded with a smile, turned, and walked to the exit. Behind her, a shorter woman followed. Alexxia couldn't see her face well because she always wore a curtained hat.

All she could see was the long black hair falling down her back. Vibrant and silky, almost as beautiful as the older woman's brown hair.

'I'm sure she's just shy...' Shaking her head, Alexxia picked up a notebook at her side, opened it where she had left it last time, and began to read quietly.

...

Reaching her office on the third floor, Vivian unlocked it with her key and entered. Closing it back up, the woman looked around with an eye worthy of an art critic, searching for any changes to how she had left it when she left.

Wandering around it, Vivian checked every corner and nook and cranny, every book and shelf, but everything was still the same as she remembered. Still not satisfied, she pulled a pendulum from a hidden pocket of her dress.

She planned to make a divination to ensure no one had been here!

The barbarians' abilities have little or nothing to do with mysticism, but that doesn't stop them from learning simple methods of divination.

Letting the pendulum dangle from her right wrist, Vivian closed her eyes.

'Someone other than me was in my office since this morning...' She repeated the prayer seven times in her mind and entered a state of semi-cogitation.

Although the sentence was not entirely accurate, Vivian was not worried. The cleaners were coming by in the afternoon, so in theory, only she should have entered her office.

After a few seconds, the barbarian opened her eyes and looked at the result.

The pendulum was spinning clockwise at a decent speed. A positive result!

Nodding slowly, Vivian would accept this result for now. Pocketing the pendulum in her hidden pocket, she walked over to her desk and opened the second drawer.

Numerous books and documents greeted her, but that was not what she was looking for. Reaching the bottom of the drawer, she grabbed an object hidden there, stuck under the top drawer.

Pulling it out, she unsheathed it, and the silver knife glittered. Walking to the corner of the room, she virtued some spirituality on the tip of the knife and moved from corner to corner, forming a wall of spirituality.

Once that was done, she returned to her desk and pulled out another object from another drawer. In her hands, Vivian now held a simple white bone flute.

She took a deep breath and played the flute, but no sound came from it.

Wasting no time, the barbarian activated her spiritual vision. After a few moments, a little white ball formed on her desk.

This ball then grew at least three times its size until it was about the size of a small child's head, then a large mouth with thick purple lips formed on its surface.

The spirit coughed a few times, changing its tone from supernatural to that of an old man.

"Cough! Cough! Urgh, that never feels good." The spirit growled and made a bitter grimace with his mouth before it turned into a large grin.

"Ah~ but if it isn't my favorite granddaughter~ What's wrong, my love? You finally decided to give up on that silly dream of yours?"

Vivian grunted. "I'm your only granddaughter, Grandpa. And no, I haven't given up."

"Then why are you summoning my messenger? Just a few weeks ago, you said you wanted to use the letters like normal people and followed through on that. Why break your record now?" The spirit smacked its thick lips in doubt.

"I wouldn't be using it if the situation wasn't urgent! The Wise Owls have discovered me!" Vivian shouted with anger that was mixed with a bit of her fear and anxiety.

"What!?" the little ball messenger shouted in shock. "Are you all right? They didn't do anything to you!?! Don't worry, my love. Your grandpa is going to save you now." The ball began to shake and bounce up and down, its mouth moving rapidly and its voice losing some of its human tone.

Vivian was alarmed at this. Although the wall of spirituality contained the sound, it was not absolute! So she quickly tried to calm the spirit.

"I'm fine, Grandpa! They haven't done anything to me... In fact, I think the team leader offered me a job in a firm he just bought..."

The anxious spirit ball stopped bouncing back and forth. His mouth slamming shut, he slowly turned around and 'looked' at her.

The corners of the young girl's lips trembled slightly as an expressionless cue ball scrutinized her.

After a few seconds of being criticized unseen, the ball broke the silence. "You didn't hit your head?"

"I swear, Grandpa, it's true! He offered me a job at the new firm I helped him buy!" Vivian repeated, still in disbelief at what had happened a few moments ago in that office.

The ball was silent for a few moments, the person behind clearly processing what he was hearing.

"What you're telling me doesn't fit the way those tight asses act. Are you sure this was a member of the Wise Owls and not a wild Beyonder?"

"He said he had a team and didn't deny that he was part of them either when I accused him!" Vivian replied in frustration.

"But he didn't claim it either," the ball countered, a heavy sigh escaping from its thick lips. "Oh, Emma..."

It took a few seconds for her to process what her grandfather had just pointed out. As soon as she caught it, her expression flushed, and she immediately tried to defend herself.

"You don't understand Grandpa! He was so trusting and carried himself with such an attitude that I never questioned whether he was or not! I'm sure he would have fooled you, too!"

"Just say you were lost in his eyes. It's less embarrassing." The spirit sighed again, its sigh carrying decades of experience and his way of saying he was too old for this.

''Grandpa...'' The barbarian growled in embarrassment, wanting with all her might to burst the flute in her hands on her family's head.

"Emma, my dear granddaughter, from what you are telling me, he never threatened or attacked you at any time. From the sound of it, his intentions are not to harm you." Ignoring how his granddaughter wished to sink into the ground, he gave his view on the subject.

"You do not appear to be in danger at the moment. Whether this man is a Wise Owl or not is not what matters now. His offer to recruit you is the most real thing we have on him.

"If you wish and if you feel you are in danger, I can get you out of Lenburg tonight, but in return, you will be grounded for two months."

"...I understand, grandfather." Calming down a little, Emma gave a soft nod. Sighing a little, she said:

"I think I can still control this. I have a meeting with him tomorrow, where I will see what his true intentions are. If he poses a threat, I will use your 'gift' to escape."

"It sounds like what he offered you is pretty juicy if you plan to return to him. What was it?"

"He offered me- No, he told me he could get me the formulas and ingredients I needed to Advance, then he called me by the name of my sequence. I have no idea how he knew, at no point did I show any Barbarian skills and the ones I used were not the kind you can easily detect."

"Mmm... Interesting." The ball mumbled. "He must be a Beyonder with rich experience if he can identify your pathway with so little..."

"Sigh... I will leave the decision in your hands, my granddaughter. I'm sure you will make the right one."

"Thank you for your vision, Grandfather." Emma grasped the edges of her dress and curtsied softly. She pursed her lips a little before saying:

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like you to investigate his identity."

The ball moved side to side as if rolling invisible shoulders, "Sure, it's possible his identity is fake, but I'll see what I can get. What's his name?"

"Harvey Wayne."

There was a sudden pause from the other side.

"Grandfather?"

"It's nothing, dear. Just a little surprised. Wayne, you say?" The ball asked, a little shocked.

Confused, Emma nodded. "Yes, Harvey Wayne. Why? Is it a name you know?"

"I don't know the first name, but I know the last name..." He mumbled a little.

"In his early days, before he was known as the Son of Steam, Emperor Roselle tried to sell some short stories about 'superheroes' published in picture books he called 'comics', but it was an immediate failure. Seeing that he didn't get the attention he wanted, he abandoned the idea of comics and never published anything again.

"Only five stories were published. Superman, Spider-man, The Flash, The X-men... and The Batman."

"The Batman story was about a multi-millionaire kid who, after witnessing the murder of his parents as a child, vows to fight crime dressed as a bat."

"Why are you telling me this, Grandpa?" Emma rolled her eyes at this history lesson.

"That's what I'm getting at dear." The ball growled in frustration. "That boy's name...was Bruce Wayne."

The barbarian's eyes widened a bit, and her mouth hung slightly. "That... Wow, what a coincidence."

"Yeah, a coincidence..." The man mumbled mysteriously before laughing in amusement.

"I'll see what I can get from our 'Batman'. Take care, my dear!"

"Wait! Grandpa-!" Before she could stop him, the ball in front of her quickly shrunk and disappeared.

"Urghhh!" Groaning in exasperation, Emma sank her face into her desk.