"Your highness, we have arrived.", said Arnold while opening the carriage door.
From inside the carriage, came out a young man with a stunningly handsome face, blond hair and crystal-like, blue eyes. He was 6ft tall, and was wearing a dark blue robe with runes written on its arms and shoulders, black trousers, black boots, and white gloves.
It was none other than our protagonist with a spilt personality, Zagan Von Asherion.
'This will be the place where I'll get all of the buff potions...', Leon thought.
"I'm here to meet with Mrs. Isabelle. She is an alchemist affiliated with the Sorcery tower. If they ask any questions as to why I want to meet her, tell them to mind their own business, its the Prince's orders.", Zagan commanded Arnold.
"As you command, your highness.", Arnold replied with a slight bow and left to go inside the tower, while Zagan was waiting in front of his carriage.
'hmm... thanks to me having Zagan's body and personality, all these stares aren't really bothering me much. I mean, yeah... I am super handsome after all, haha', Leon chuckled inwardly.
Leon would have never gotten this kind of attention ever in his life. He wasn't ugly, but not handsome either. He was good at studies, and was a successful engineer, although he left that field of work quite quickly, because of his parent's death.
After a while, Arnold walked out of the tower's colossal gates.
"The appointment has been made, your highness. We can enter now.", Arnold reported.
"Hmm. Lets go then."
------------------Inside the Sorcery Tower----------------
'Wow. I saw all of this through my computer screen, but this is really something else...', Leon was in awe of the tower. It had 40 floors, each floor's area was as big as half a football field. The tower was truly massive.
'So this is the extent of rune magic, huh... amazing...', Leon recalled that, in the game's story, this huge tower was too heavy to support it's own weight, so runesmiths from all over the empire were hired to engrave runes that fortify the tower and also make it lightweight.
'My Annabelle will also be able to do this one day, haha! It was a good decision to improve my relationship with her! She will be undeniably useful in my future plans...'
In the middle of the tower's base, was an elevator that was powered by gravity magic and wind magic. This elevator was the 'Main' elevator of the tower. In truth, there were more than a hundred different elevators inside the tower, since the members of the tower have to move around a lot to gather items for their research.
"Mrs. Isabelle is waiting at floor 15, your highness.", Arnold snapped Leon out of his thoughts.
"Hmm."
Zagan and Arnold got on the main elevator and reached the 15th floor within 30 seconds.
They then walked through the halls and corridors of the 15th floor and reached the designated room.
'Hmm... I can already smell the profits coming in from here, haha!', Leon thought.
Without hesitation, he knocked on the wooden door 3 times.
"C-Coming! Wait a bit!", a feminine voice could be heard from inside the room.
After waiting for 10 seconds, the door opened and revealed a woman dressed in a white lab coat. She had brown hair and purple eyes. Her hair looked like it was combed down in a hurry, and she had a few dark circles under her eyes. She was shorter than Annabelle, who was 5'10. Isabelle was around 5'2. Even though she had taken no care of herself at all, one could tell that she was extremely beautiful. She was 22 years old, 5 years older than Zagan, 3 years younger than Leon.
She looked baffled after seeing Zagan in front of her. She had to bend her neck quite a bit to see Zagan's face, as he was so tall.
She quickly regained her composure, and welcomed Zagan in.
"C-Come in, your highness! H-have a seat... My lab might not be luxurious, but it is comfortable and efficient! haha..", She stuttered.
Arnold was ordered to stay outside by Zagan.
Even a blind man could tell she was nervous. In truth, she was sweating bullets out of stress. She was so scared, that she almost passed out when she saw Zagan. She couldn't understand why. She had met with other people of importance before and people who were scarier looking than Zagan, but for some reason, her instincts were screaming at her to run away from that man.
"Calm down, Mrs. Isabelle. I am not here to hurt you. I don't know what kind of rumors you have heard about me, but I assure you, I don't mean any harm.", Zagan suddenly spoke up, which startled Isabelle.
'not yet anyways. I can't harm my future potion factory now, can I?', Leon thought inwardly.
"R-Right... y-yes, your highness.", Isabelle didn't calm down at all.
They both sat down on a sofa. There was only one red sofa in the lab. The lab's walls were covered with shelves and they were filled with flasks, test tubes, and other apparatus for chemistry.
The lab was mostly white, and had almost no decorations at all.
"I-I am extremely sorry that I couldn't provide you with more than this, your highness...", Isabelle looked like she was almost about to cry.
"Why are you trembling so much? Are you cold?", Zagan asked, seeing her hands trembling.
"H-Huh? n-no... n-not at all! Th-this is a h-habit of mine... I get f-flustered when I meet n-new people... haha...", She was clearly lying.
"Hmm. Whatever. Anyways, I'll get straight to the point, Mrs. Isabelle. I want to sponsor you recruit you to be my own personal healer.", Zagan declared looking Isabelle directly in her eyes.
Isabelle fell silent for a moment. Her mind went blank.
'w-what...? he wants to sponsor me...? why? aren't there better alchemists and healers out there? and on top of that, he wants to recruit me to be his personal healer?! being the personal healer of an imperial is like a dream come true for most alchemists! but... this isn't just any imperial... this is Zagan... what does he want from me?', Isabelle ran a train of thoughts through her head.
"If you're wondering why I am selecting you in particular, then the reason is simple. You are talented enough to be recognized as a successful alchemist. And the most important thing is, that you're weak. You'll be easy to control and the chances of betrayal from you will be minimal.", Zagan elaborated.
The words 'You're weak' resonated throughout Isabelle's mind, ringing with an uncannily loud tone, it was enough to mentally deafen her.
Zagan didn't sugarcoat anything. He said the absolute truth about the situation. Isabelle was truly weak. She didn't have any backing, and she was dirt poor too. She had no one to call family or friend.
After hearing the cold truth, she couldn't control her emotions anymore. Tears began to flow down her cheeks.
'Perfect. That went flawlessly.', Leon thought.
He had purposefully done this. He had pushed Isabelle to her breaking point, as it will be easier for him to manipulate her that way.
Seeing Isabelle cry so much, Zagan slid himself across the sofa, towards Isabelle. He then picked up his arm and gently placed it over Isabelle's shoulder, pulling her in closer.
"I know it must hurt to face the truth head on. But keep in mind, everything I said in that sentence was the truth. Even the fact that you are an excellent alchemist and an invaluable asset to the empire. I don't want to waste the talent of someone like you.", Zagan said in a calm and understanding tone.
"Come with me, Isabelle. You won't be weak anymore if you come with me. No one would dare to belittle you. And your talent and work will benefit the Empire greatly."
After hearing his words, Isabelle's crying lessened and she looked up to Zagan who was embracing her in his arms.
"*Sniff* o-okay... *Sniff* I-I'll come with you... I'll accept... your offer.", Isabelle answered Zagan, while burying her face in his chest.
'Cute.', Leon thought.
They stayed like that for a few minutes. And then, Isabelle spoke up.
"Your highness... um... aren't you engaged...? is this... really okay...?", She looked up to Zagan's face which was still expressionless.
"I am. But I don't really care. She will never know.", Zagan replied non-chalantly.
Looking down at Isabelle's face, he then again spoke, "Besides. You're cuter than her."
After hearing this, Isabelle's mind once again went blank. And then, her face became as red as a tomato.
"y-your highness... y-you... shouldn't say such things...", she fumbled out, while once again burying her face into Zagan's chest.
'HAHA! SO CUTE! I know she likes this kind of thing, cause I read her character design on the game's webpage. She's also weak to compliments.', Leon thought.
Also, Zagan's personality felt a bit of kinship with Isabelle. Like him, Isabelle was also abandoned, and she too had to survive her childhood, not live it. Just like Zagan, she was also talented at a special thing. The two of them shared a lot of similarities. It also helped that their specialties complemented each other.
"um... Isabelle, I need to go now, so... loosen your grip?", Zagan asked Isabelle, who was unconsciously hugging Zagan tightly.
After realizing that, Isabelle immediately pulled her hands away, and looked down at the floor out of embarrassment.
"Goodbye for now, Isabelle. We'll meet again tomorrow. You will be living inside the Crimson palace from now on.", Zagan declared as he walked out of the Lab, leaving Isabelle dumbfounded.
'WHAT?! I'M GOING TO BE MOVING TO THE CRIMSON PALACE?!?!?', She yelled inwardly.