Chapter 201
In the empty white space, an unconscious man with blond hair was chained to a stone wall, with half a black star on his chest, covered by a shirt.
This man was Arnold, the leader of the «Black Star», who was recently captured by Severus, and not far from him, only five metres away, three large wolves with crimson fur were lying, not taking their eyes off him.
The place where this strange company was located was a spatial artefact, where the magical creatures that the Prince had brought out of the «Magic Jungle» were previously kept.
This time, he also decided to take it with him, for the Qilin and Phoenix that were found in the Tianzi Mountains.
The wolves, namely the Blood Wolf King and his two other brothers, were there only to keep an eye on them, and after eating the "miracle fruits" they had become much smarter and could now be trusted with such tasks, and he chose them specifically because of the Phoenix, just in case, because no one is immune to accidents.
[A/N: He found "magical fruit" in chapter 100]
The atmosphere in this place was very calm and even peaceful, but a few seconds later it was destroyed.
The wolves suddenly jumped up and turned their gaze to the man who had appeared, but almost immediately they calmed down, laid down again and began to watch him with interest.
"I'm glad to see you too," Severus glanced at them with a grin, and then turned his gaze to the chained man, "And you, leader... again."
"Tss!" an irritated hiss escaped from the lips of the "unconscious" man and the wizard opened his eyes, looking coldly at his "jailer", "And what are you going to do with me?"
"Nothing, I've already done everything." Severus shrugged his shoulders indifferently and without any fears, approached him and, squatting down, poked him in the chest, right at the mark, from which his face darkened, and then the shackles evaporated.
"By the way, thanks for the mask." and, in the next moment, a fist froze a few millimetres from the Prince's nose.
"I told you that I've already done everything." patting the gloomy wizard on the shoulder, he rose to his feet and, moving a couple of metres away, pulled out a table and two chairs.
"Sit down, I want to discuss something."
"If I could use magic now…"
"Even then you wouldn't be able to do anything." the Slytherin answered laconically, sitting down at the table, and after a few seconds, the leader of the Black Star himself followed suit.
"How did you find me?"
"It was very simple, but I think you should guess."
"You did something when I contacted you through the mirror." Arnold suggested, squinting, studying the reaction of his opponent, who didn't react to his answer at all.
"Who knows…" Severus shrugged with the same grin, "Let it remain a mystery."
"Since you didn't kill me, it means that you need me for some reason…"
"You think correctly, but the main thing is that I've already received what I came for…"
"My mask." Arnold hissed sullenly, "Let me guess, and after that you want to subjugate my organisation too?"
"Merlin forbid, why do I need this problem in my hand, manage it yourself." Severus waved off the puzzled man, who was, to put it mildly, surprised by his reaction, because the Black Star was the largest organisation in all of Eurasia, and any sane person would give his hand to lead it.
"That day I was not lying when I said that I did not want to command the Copper department and this did not mean that I was so greedy and wanted to take your place, I already have many of my own problems, and adding something like this on top and managing it, Merlin knows that I will not have any free time after that."
Arnold, with a much stranger look, measured the young man sitting in front of him.
"Then what do you want from me?"
"Information and access to your warehouses,where the artefacts and potion ingredients are kept."
The blond's eyelid twitched upon hearing his demands "If you accepted the position of commander of the "Medi" squad, you would have access to the warehouses and any information..."
"Really? Any information?" the Prince drawled playfully, a mask appearing in his hand, which made the wizard's face sour, "I doubt you would let me in on something like that."
"So you want to get this information, and if I tell you, you will let me go?"
"I'm not holding you back," Severus took a sip from his glass and leaned against the back of the chair, "You can go wherever you want, I've already learned everything I wanted: about the ruins in Greece; the catacombs in Germany; and also Egypt, where you are currently excavating."
And with each new word, Arnold's face became paler, but he quickly looked away, "A sharp mind may not always be a good quality, just one mask was enough for all the information I needed to appear in your head, and clarification in certain moments gave it even more, so I recommend that you practise occlumency, since I will definitely not return the mask to you and also, you can not look away, to read other people's thoughts, I just need to look at you and no, I am not a monster."
From the last phrase, the leader of the "Black Star" shuddered with his whole body, "And yes, I understand you perfectly well, I myself would become scared if someone could so easily read my thoughts." with a playful smile, Severus added.
The next moment, a fist covered in a red aura rushed towards him, but like the last time, it froze a millimetre from Snape's face, who raised his right eyebrow, asking with one look which said: "Are you serious?"
To which he received a twisted, angry grimace in response.
"Of course, the idea is good, not to think and just hit, but I will have to disappoint you, this will not help either and it is not even about this place." he looked around the white space, "But about you, or rather …" he poked him in the chest, "In your toy, created in order to monitor the members of the organisation and kill if they betray you."
"I see…" taking a deep breath and regaining his composure, Arnold sat back down on the chair, folding his hands in front of him.
"Hm? Not bad, you quickly accepted that you are now completely under my control and yes, that's right, I slightly changed your mark, adding a couple of layers of protection so that your naughty hands don't decide to dig around in it, which I will of course immediately feel and even from the other end of the earth, for example... I will blow up your heart." from such words, said in such a calm, even ordinary tone, goosebumps ran down Arnold's spine.
"So be a good boy, I will not touch you and will not meddle in the affairs of your organisation, and in exchange you will share information about your excavations and carry out my orders, well, or you can appoint someone to such a significant position, but I will wait for reports on the excavations personally from you, okay?"
Grimacing, the wizard sitting in front of Severus nodded, realising that he still could not do anything and all that remained for him was to obey and in the future, in some unknown way,get rid of this mark.
"I'm glad to hear it, leader, don't worry, I don't need your organisation for free, I'm for a peaceful union, if my teacher or I need help, I'll help too, because we have the same goal."
"So, you decided to put a slave collar on me?"
"I just protected myself and my loved ones, in my place, you would have done the same, am I not right?" his mocking smile irritated Arnold more and more, but what angered him most was that Severus was right and perhaps, in terms of safety, he would have gone even further and limited himself not only to the slave seal, but would have taken the boy under complete control, suppressing his will and any attempts at resistance at the root.
"Well, then I will not detain you any longer and not a word about our conversation is to be mentioned to another person." clapping his hands he said and the wizard sitting in front of him evaporated, "Minus one more problem." finishing his drink from the glass, he rose from his chair, put the items back into his wallet and disappeared in the same way, under the silent gaze of the wolves, who simply returned back to sleep in this place which did not have any entertainment and the only thing that kept the king of blood wolves happy were the two females accompanying him.
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Having appeared in a small room, Severus fell onto a spacious bed, next to the curled up Nagini.
"And you came rather quickly, I thought that I would definitely not see you for the next hour...."
"I did not see the point in dragging out our conversation, and he simply had no choice." closing his eyes, he calmly answered the snake that crawled onto his chest, "By the way, tomorrow, you will have to stay home, I found someone who can help me with two of the three magical animals."
"Poachers?" she asked with a bit of displeasure.
"You can say so." he nodded silently, knowing her dislike for such people, because more than once, such people tried to catch her, they saw her as an interesting animal, for which they could get paid well.
"Okay, really, I'd better stay at the hotel tomorrow."
Smiling softly, he began to gently stroke the maledictus's head, and then, pointing his palm at the cabinet, the next moment a small TV appeared on it, and next to it a VCR, which immediately attracted Nagini's attention.
"What do you want to watch?"
"Let's watch some comedy."
"Okay." a cassette with one title appeared in his hand: "Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures", The seller told me that this is an excellent foreign comedy, so now we'll check it out.
"Uh-huh," settling more comfortably on his chest, she nodded and after a few seconds, an image appeared on the TV, which depicted a man and a woman against the background of a building that looked like a tower with a large red star, one holding a hammer in his hand, and the other a sickle, pressed against each other and raised up, and under them was the inscription - "Mosfilm" ...
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