Nova looked at Amber like a puppy who'd found its owner again. She looked like she was happily waiting for an order. Amber imagined that if she had a tail it would be wagging about right now. A light chuckle escaped Amber's lips, but she quickly turned her face before her smile could be seen.
"After I take you back home with me, you'll have to work hard to become stronger so that nothing like this happens again. I can't have a subordinate that I have to constantly babysit and guard."
Amber looked back at Nova who had her head bowed like a sad little dejected puppy. "Still, it's good to have you back with me, I was worried." Amber put out her hand and patted Nova on the head.
Nova immediately perked up and shook her head in agreement with a happy grin on her face. She took hold of Amber's hand in both of her hands like it was her great treasure. She held Amber's hand close to her heart and looked up at Amber with shining worshipful eyes. Amber felt incredibly awkward while having her hand held, but allowed her to hold it for a few moments since Amber felt somewhat responsible for the ordeal that Nova had gone through. Her hand would just have to be momentarily sacrificed.
It didn't seem like the little girl would get tired of holding her hand any time soon, so Amber had to eventually extract herself from Nova's grip. She wiggled her hand free and suffered Nova's pouting face for a moment before purposefully distracting her.
"We have things we need to do and can't be caught here at this moment, so I need you to collect anything that looks valuable and put it into the corner here next to the door." Amber pointed beside herself.
Nova grinned happily now that she had a new task and quickly got to it. Amber sighed knowing that her hand was safe again for the time being. She wasn't used to this whole being cared about thing or showing affection to others. It brought up strange and confusing feelings that she'd rather avoid.
If she were being honest with herself, her greatest wish deep down in her heart was to be genuinely loved. This was not something she would easily admit though. In any case, love meant vulnerability, it meant that you were allowing someone else to have the power to hurt you. She wasn't prepared to allow that to happen. She'd already decided that in this life, she would make power her only true love.
Amber remembered from the story that there was a man who owned many objects that were smuggled into this kingdom through the Vermilion Pavilion. That man was the fourth prince of the Corsair Kingdom, Vladimir Haco. It was a somewhat small kingdom, however it was considered quite strong and is widely feared. This was the reason why his existence was usually tolerated and his presence ignored. As long as he didn't do anything too outrageous, trying to confront him was considered more trouble than it was worth.
Little did they know that all the while he had been using his businesses to not only smuggle in illegal items, he was also smuggling out women, and using these minor illegal activities as a front. His true objective was to send spies into the Verglas Empire and rot it out from the inside.
Amber only knew about these activities because she had her all powerful cheat, reading the book; obviously.
The main reason why this little kingdom was more trouble than it was worth was simply because the people in this kingdom were not only ruthless in nature, their primary magical element was fire. They resembled fire wielding pirates. They were somewhat nomadic, chauvinist, and quite strong men. They were almost tribal in nature and treated women as objects that could be traded or sold.
However, they have a shortage of women. Women there can't use magic, so they can easily die from harsh treatment, and labor. It was also considered a shame for any man to have less than three wives, so naturally there weren't nearly enough women to go around.
Chancellor Fikus used the money that he received from cooperating with Prince Vladimir for various hidden activities. He was the hidden right hand of her current fiancé, the First Prince. In order to take down her fiancé and all of those who oppose her, she can't only attack from one angle.
Amber walked over to a side shelf and shuffled around in the back of it until she felt her hands close around a small shiny rose metal box. The pink metal glistened in the light and had no visible opening. She remembers from the story that this particular item was a gift from the Duke who was pursuing the female lead. There was a secret to the puzzle of this box and this particular metal was enchanted to resist fire. She didn't need to remember how to undo the puzzle, because she could just easily unravel the metal.
Amber pointed her finger at the box and felt the tug of her magic pulling on something. She tugged on the invisible string and soon the metal started pulling apart. She transformed the metal into coils around her wrists so that the light pink metal soon looked like jewelry. As soon as the box was gone there was a black and purple tie string bag. Although the object was beautiful and well crafted with highly detailed floral embroidery, it was fairly inconspicuous. However, this was a highly valuable and rare space bag. It was also extremely illegal to own without a permit and registry. This particular space bag was smuggled in illegally and wasn't registered. This was also supposed to be a present for the female lead, sadly it was going to be confiscated earlier by herself.
Amber walked over to a beautiful golden vase and held it up to the opening of the special bag. The opening of the bag exuded a black light and then the bottom of the vase became smaller. As Amber pushed it in, it continued to morph into a smaller size, like it was made of liquid and was going through a funnel. Although she had known what would happen, it was somewhat mystical to see it in person. One after the other, she cleared the objects out until the room was nearly clear. Finally she pushed over the shelf in the back and removed a hidden panel in the wall. Behind the panel was another door. Behind that door was a little room full of boxes of jewels and a cage made of yellow metal. Inside the cage was a little cloud. This cloud was brought in to be a present for the First Prince's birthday. Unfortunately for them, it was too grand of a present to be given to such a trashy man.
Amber tapped on the cage and the cloud turned around. The cloud had cute watery sad looking eyes and a little pouting mouth. This was a celestial being who had accidentally gotten caught, while traveling through a hidden portal between this realm and the Cloud Islands. The Celestial realm and the Cloud Islands were rumored to be full of great treasures, but had been sealed from this realm for five-hundred years.
The little cloud tried to intimidate Amber with a glare, but Amber simply chuckled at it's antics. It was far too small to be of any real threat at the moment. She had been planning to capture the items from the vault here from the beginning, but she had initially thought that she would have to wait until she had more help before making a move. Who knew that she had actually had the power of metal from the beginning. It was a fairly rare magic to possess. Given the circumstances, why would she not make her move at this time?
"I have the power to release you from your bonds, but I require you to make a subordinate bond with me. After that, I will free you and treat you well. Eventually I will allow you to return to the celestial realm, because it's my goal to travel there.
Otherwise, I will leave you in this cage and you will remain in it as a cute decoration for others to walk by and gawk at. You will never get any larger and will remain pathetic for the rest of your days until you parish after your growing period expires. I, on the other hand, have an abundant supply of pure mana water. Which is precisely what you celestial clouds grow with until you don't need to be externally sustained. At that time, you will be permitted to rain in a hidden location that I will arrange for you ahead of time.
The little cloud looked at her suspiciously and then sighed. "Fine! You're not without any sense or completely without merit. You know what I am and what I need to reach my full potential anyway. It won't be a complete loss for me to have you as my master for now. After all, you're only a mortal anyway, so it's not like your life will last all that long regardless. If you can take care of me during my vulnerable growing period it's worth it to treat you well. I'll also allow you to have my first rain, considering it as payment for having you give me mana water. I can only release a small wisp of cloud, but it'll be enough to make you my master."
The cloud released a wisp of cloud the size of the head of a pin that traveled through the bars. Shortly afterwards, a little yellow jewel rested on Amber's ear, just above her other two jewels.