First Meeting.

Making his way over to the street that led to Knockturn Alley, Loki took a deep breath before finally stepping in.

There were homeless people all around, they were of all ages with some even as young as ten or eleven.

'Why don't they send these kids to Hogwarts?' Loki wondered but continued walking despite the depressing atmosphere trying to crush him.

As Loki walked with tense steps, he suddenly felt someone grab his shoulders. Loki almost jumped out of fright but when he turned around and looked at the person that grabbed his shoulders he felt slight pity for them.

The person's face was marred with several cuts and burns as if they had been used in some cruel experiment. The person only had half a nose with the right nostril missing while the left eyeball was replaced with what appeared to be a prosthetic.

"Yes?" Loki asked wondering why he'd been stopped.

"I have the most amazing opportunity for you!! You are the hundredth person to pass..."

'Oh? A scammer?'

After freeing himself from the person's grip Loki continued walking through the alleyway with a slightly relaxed stride until he arrived where he wanted to.

Standing at ease in the dark part of the alleyway, Loki stared at the house numbered 117 in Knockturn Alley under the cover of his illusions.

Under Loki's observation, the place appeared busy.

And everyone going into the house didn't leave for as long as Loki had been waiting.

Now admittedly Loki hadn't been waiting long since he'd only arrived a couple dozen minutes earlier, but no one who'd entered the place had exited from what he could tell.

Overall Loki was sure that the Beyonder gathering was taking place right now with people of various wealths moving into the house.

'Do I go in?' Loki wondered as he watched a woman with numerous Beyonder items on her person walk into the house.

In the end, Loki decided to make his way up to the house and try his luck. But he only did so after making quick divinations up in the Sefirah Castle to check if he was in any danger beforehand. And other than the odd little slow clockwise spin that he'd noticed before there wasn't anything conclusive.

So he decided to try his luck.

He donned a layer of illusion on himself to appear like Gehrman Sparrow and even used the ring to hide his appearance by making a collage of glass and mirrors out of it.

Simultaneously, he also wore the Ring of Harvest and hid it with the help of his illusions.

Walking up to the sturdy-looking iron door at the back entrance of the house, Loki mimicked the knocking patterns of those ahead of him.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

After three repeated knocks, the iron viewing window on the door slid open with a *screech* and a pair of eyes appeared through them looking right at Loki.

The eyeballs waited for a while until Loki realised he was supposed to say something and so he spoke the password that was written on the slip.

"Blood Fountain."

The eyes stared at him for a little longer and then without notice pulled the viewing window shut, causing Loki to feel a little worried if he was going to be accepted or not.

'Are they worried because I'm someone new?'

But Loki didn't have to worry for long since soon after the viewing window was shut a series of clicks and other assortment of noises rang from behind the door which slid open and allowed Loki full view of whatever was inside.

There wasn't much to see inside since it was just a long and dark tunnel but Loki quickly stepped through and walked into the house after trying to greet the man who'd opened the door for him but stopping midway since that would not be something a person visiting a Beyonder gathering would do.

The house was furnished with old wood and smelt like a fresh book. Several scratches and burn marks on the place only glimmered as the torches on the wall flickered to give out a dim glow, signifying its length of use.

But Loki followed the tunnel without fear, at least that's what he projected externally.

Arriving in a dimly lit room whose only light came from the various lanterns hung up on the pillars, Loki searched for an empty iron stool to sit on.

Sitting down in one of the corners, Loki looked around since the gathering seemed to have not started yet.

At the head of the room was a man covered in dark robes sitting on a stool, almost blending into the darkness while all around were other participants who had used various means to disguise their identities ranging from a simple iron mask to various complicated methods like Loki's own.

There was a different narrow pathway leading out of the room and Loki reasoned it was perhaps a place for the various private deals that would occur in the gathering.

Finally, when nearly all the seats were filled in a matter of minutes, Loki heard a distinct ring go off in the background that seemed to signify to everyone that the gathering was about to begin.

The robed man slowly turned his head to look at everyone from under his hood that covered his face in shadows and spoke in a whisper, "You may begin."

Loki wondered how people would order themselves but it seemed that those accustomed to this place knew beforehand since the person sitting in the front right corner stood up and went to the chalkboard beside the robed man without permission.

"I need Ghost Butterflies and Frozen Boggarts, I am willing to pay around twenty-five Galleons, but the price is negotiable."

As soon as the man wrote that everyone around looked at each other to see if there was anyone who would take him up on the offer but seeing no one respond the man slumped back into his chair and it seemed like he was done for the day.

"I need mercenaries for hire to subjugate an XXXXX level beast. Negotiable price." A different man wrote underneath the first request.

The gathering began in this manner with various people asking for different things while Loki took note of a few requests so that he could fulfil them the next time he was here to make a temporary extra source of income for himself.

It wasn't long before it was Loki's turn and so he stood up and quickly wrote exactly what he needed on the board.

"Eyeballs of a Sphinx and Runespoor scales."

Loki looked around for a little bit and just as he was about to lose hope to the silence that had gripped the room a hand shot up.

Mr. X nodded to acknowledge the person whose hand shot up before a different-robed man arrived and guided both Loki and the other person to the private room to discuss their business. He stood by as the arbiter of their deal.

Once seated, Loki nodded at the person as she began to speak, "I can get you some but what price are you willing to pay for it?"

"About Fifty Galleons."

"Deal." The woman who had an iron mask covering her face said with clear joy before Loki could change the price, "I will get them here during the next gathering, but I'd like a little bit of advance before that."

Loki felt like he was being scammed out of money but then since he trusted R.O.B's information to some extent, he forked out twenty Galleons from his purse and handed it over to the robed arbiter who placed them on an item that glowed with a green light as soon as it came in contact with the coins.

'Is he checking their authenticity?'

After the item glowed green, he picked up the money to give to the woman hiding behind an iron mask.

"I will bring you the items next meeting, thank you for doing business with me.."

"My pleasure." Loki coughed out, 'She's not going to up and vanish on me is she?'.

'At least nothing went wrong…'

________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N : Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.