When Eleanor Hillberg stirred, she felt a presence in her room and froze up. She recognized it. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked at "Michael Grayson" leaning against the wall with "his" eyes half-closed. "You finally woke up..." Michelle said as she pushed herself off the wall. "I had to wait quite a while..." she added lazily as she concealed her presence even though she was standing right in front of Eleanor.
Eleanor stared at "Michael Grayson" in fear. She could see and hear "him", but "his" presence was nonexistent since the moment "he" stopped talking. For "him" to be able to do that, the power "he" possessed must have been so great that it surpassed the restriction. She and her brother's power got reduced to what the strongest person in the lower realm would have, but the person in front of her seemed to be unaffected, which showed that "he" had power so great that the restriction didn't work on "him". Even her father wasn't so strong as to bypass the restrictions.
"Who... are you?" she asked fearfully. "What do you want?"
But "Michael Grayson" just chuckled coldly and didn't give a straight answer. "I'm Michael Grayson, and you should be able to guess what I want if you are smart enough..." With that, Michelle disappeared. "I'll come back tomorrow. I hope you will tell me by then..." her voice filled with amusement sounded in the room.
Michelle appeared outside Eeanor's window, next to Mare and Snow, and snickered. "See..." she hummed lazily. "She's panicking... And soon, she will go to her dear brother..."
And just as she said, Eleanor soon stood up and went to Joseph Hillberg's room. "Brother..." she was clearly shaken and afraid of something.
Joseph wasn't stupid, so he understood that the person from the dark alley must have come to her. "Come sit down, first..." he led Eleanor into his room and let her sit down. And all that was being watched by Michellea, Mare and Snow.
"Brother, that guy from yesterday, Michael Grayson, came to my room this morning..." Eleanor whined as she sat down.
Hearing that his guess was right, Joseph frowned a bit. He was hoping that his guess was off. "What did he want from you?" he asked.
"I don't know, brother..." Eleanor continued whining. "He said that if I'm smart enough, I should know what he wants..."
"I thought it was strange that he just disappeared after we told him about the person with Spirit Blood!" Joseph sat down angrily. "He decided to come back later!"
Eleanor didn't understand. "Brother, you think he knew that we didn't tell him the whole truth about the prophecy?" she asked in confusion. "But then, why didn't he ask about it yesterday?"
Joseph shrugged. "How should I know. Maybe he was in a rush. Or maybe he only realized after he left. Or he's trying to torture us... since it's clear that he hates our father, that possibility is the most believable... But it also shows that he doesn't want to harm us, so we don't need to worry. He's probably scared of father's wrath."
Joseph slowly calmed down as he spoke, but Eleanor was still restless. "Brother, how can you know he doesn't want to harm us? How can you know he's scared of father?" she asked worriedly.
"It's obvious!" Joseph sneered. "If he wasn't scared of father, he would physically attack us to get the information out of us, but since he's scared of father, he's trying to scare us into telling him." Joseph's voice was cold and mocking as he spoke.
"No, brother!" Eleanor spoke up. "He has no reason to be scared of father! He's so powerful that the power restriction didn't work on him! He's clearly more powerful than our father! He's just playing with us! He can kill us anytime he wants to!"
When Eleanor's words fell, Joseph's eyes widened in shock. "What did you say?!" He grabbed Eleanor by her shoulders. "How can you know the restriction didn't work on him?!" he shouted. "What did he do?!"
"Brother, that hurts..." Eleanor winced.
Joseph quickly let go of her, but he still wasn't calm. "What did he do...? How can you know the restriction didn't work on him?" he repeated.
Seeing the state her brother was in, Eleanor got worried, so she answered him quickly. "He was standing right in front of me, and I could see him, but no matter how I tried, I couldn't sense his presence. It was like he was a ghost. Brother, skills for erasing one's presence are something only people from the heavenly realm have. He must be from the heavenly realm. And a person like that has no reason to be afraid of our father."
"True..." Joseph slumped back in his chair, his expression a picture of fear. "If a person so powerful hates father, he won't just kill us... He will leave us alive, making us wish to die..." he muttered. "Sister... we are hopeless..."
From outside the window, Michelle smiled as she led Mare and Snow away. Truthfully, she didn't think that her hiding her presence to scare Eleanor would have such a huge effect on the two, but she was satisfied. Because the sooner she broke the two, the sooner she could go to the Academy and sate the feeling in her chest. It wasn't an obvious feeling, but it was annoying enough. It was like very, very light cold. It didn't bother too much, but when it was around for an extended period, it got so annoying that she wanted to punch something.
Looking at the dawning sun, Michelle led Mare and Snow to the market and into the alley where she bought the skill books from the old man. She found the shop where he was, and to her surprise, the sign on the shop was already different. Back then, it was "Black Cradle", a name that didn't say much, but at the moment, it was "Beast Tamer Shop", a name that stated what would be inside.
"Beast Tamers... Cultivators who use their spirit energy to subdue wild beasts so they can be contracted by Young Ladies and Young Masters who have at least a speck of spirit energy..." Michelle hummed as she remembered what happened when she cut herself in the forest. The amount of beasts and monsters that charged at her was probably something a single Beast Tamer couldn't see his whole life.
"Mare..." Michelle turned to glance at Mare. "Did a Beast Tamer catch you before you were brought to the illegal auction house?" she asked nonchalantly.
"No, Master. I wasn't caught by a Beast Tamer. I was subdued by force and tied up. The auction house doesn't tame beasts." Mare spoke calmly, but her eyes flashed with rage as she remembered how she was caught.
Michelle noticed the flash in Mare's eyes, but she didn't comment on it. What caused her to raise a brow was something else. "The auction house doesn't tame beasts? Why?" she asked curiously, still staring at the sign of the shop.
"I don't know, Master. I was in the auction house for a short while and in the cell at that, so I didn't hear anything more."
"I see..." Michelle nodded a bit. "Well... I can ask David sometimes if I remember. And it's not important to know." She walked towards the shop as she spoke. "Let's check this out for now," she added as she opened the door.
Michelle's gaze was met with a clean shop, illuminated by the light of spirit stones, full of cages with sleeping beasts. Only one wall was not covered by the cages. A counter was there and behind it were shelves with things to drug and knock beasts out. Behind the counter was a young boy crouched down, cleaning something.
Michelle entered the shop and stared at the beasts sleeping in the cages, her gaze calm and steady. She had a strange feeling in her chest as she stared at them. Maybe it was because she was a person from the 21st century, but seeing beasts trapped in cages like that made her uncomfortable. She walked around the whole shop, looking through the shelves and shelves of cages, staring at each sleeping beast for a while.
Stopping in front of a cage in the furthermost corner from the entrance, Michelle stared at the small bird like she was in a trance. The bird looked like a peacock, but its feathers were fiery red. Michelle felt the urge to touch it, but the cage was blocking her. So she could just brush her hand along the cage bars, but the moment she did so, the bird woke up and screeched. It flapped its wings a bit as it got up and stared at Michelle in a defensive stance.
When the young boy behind the counter heard the bird's screech, he got up and turned to look in Michelle's direction. "Be careful around that bird! He's aggressive!" the boy shouted as he quickly rushed to Michelle's side, a strange spirit stone in his hand. As he inserted his spirit energy into the spirit stone, a different kind of spirit energy left the stone and enveloped the bird, binding it in place. Slowly, the bird fell back asleep. Watching all that, Michelle frowned deeply. She didn't like what she was seeing.