Chapter Forty One: Three Sides
[ Object: Pendant ]
[ Material: Copper ]
[ Item's worth: 5 mystic points ]
'This is cool and all but I really wish there was a way to turn it off, I don't need to know the worth of everything I see.' Devon sighed inwardly before leaning a little to the right with his hand on his cheek.
He was sitting on the huge rock beside the building, he had gone there to take some fresh air after having Erina rub something stingy on his wounded arm, or to be precise, he was there to watch the sunset.
All he did was glance at a teenage girl who was walking by and then the system started evaluating.
Her dress, shoes, hat, her earrings, and finally her pendant.
"But still it's funny how everything she was putting on wasn't even up to twenty mystic points but I guess that makes sense." He sighed before sitting up.
'Most people don't wear expensive stuff, only princesses and other influential people do that to show off most of the time.'
Just as that thought ran through his mind, something slowly began to materialize beside him.
He knew who it was so he just kept his gaze on the sky until she fully materialized beside him with both of her legs crutched back.
Her eyes looked lifeless and her face lacked any form of expression.
She was putting on a dark coat now and the hood wasn't missing of course.
"So, you came back," Devon said with his gaze still on the sky.
She slowly opened her mouth to say something but she just couldn't form the words and ended up sighing instead.
"Hey, look I'm….."
"Don't." She interjected.
"Huh?" Devon responded before turning his gaze to her.
"What you said was the truth so there's no reason to apologize."
"Oh."
'But I wasn't about to apologize.'
"I neglected what I was supposed to be doing today and then started following you around because of the dual mana you have. To be honest, you probably would be locked behind bars by now if it wasn't for that." She admitted.
'That last part sounded like a threat, a threat with a calm and sad voice.'
"Oh, okay," Devon replied before slowly turning his gaze back to the sky.
The sun was almost gone now and everywhere was starting to get dark.
"So, why did you come back? You looked like you were crying before you left and you left that ice spear."
He had to suddenly pause there because something hit him at that moment, a realization.
"Oh, shoot, I forgot that thing under my bed, my floor must be an entire ocean now." He sighed before slowly bringing his gaze down.
"I just needed someone to talk to." She muttered after a while.
"Oh, but don't you have any friends?"
"Friends?" She scoffed before raising her head a bit. "How can I when the people I can be friends with either despise me or think they're not up to my level so they stay away."
"And you don't think that might be because of the way…."
"I don't want to talk about it." She interjected.
She seemed to have snapped because her voice lost its calmness there.
"Oh, okay." He muttered before slowly turning his gaze away from her.
There was a little moment of silence between the two until she took a deep breath just as the calm breeze moved past them.
"I went to talk to my father about the incident after leaving your room." She revealed.
"Okay," Devon replied with his gaze on the starry sky.
"It turns out he doesn't believe that the attack had anything to do with the black market."
"Oh, and why's that?"
Just after asking that question, she went on to explain what happened when she went to speak with her father and now what she was waiting for was Devon's reaction.
"Hmm, well he did make very good points." He remarked with his hand now on his chin.
"I know."
"But something's off."
"Huh?" She muttered with a surprised expression on her face. "What's off?"
"If someone is planning to kill both you and your father then surely their target must be the throne, right? Because once the both of you are gone that means your entire lineage is gone and that means someone else will have to become king." He illustrated. "So your enemy might be someone inside the castle, not sure how that has anything to do with the black market."
"Of course." Elena gasped. "Why didn't I think of this earlier?"
"So, you have a suspect in mind?" He asked.
"Yeah, but before I say anything, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, go ahead." He nodded.
"Have you been at the black market before?"
"Yeah, a few times."
"Then, what that girl said this morning, how true is it?"
"Oh, there were no bluffs in what she said. They tried to forcefully take my crystal the last time I was there but I ended up taking theirs instead." He replied with a quick switch back to his casual tone.
"Hmm, that makes him even more of a suspect now." She muttered with her eyes starting to brighten up.
"And why's that?"
"Everything regarding business reports goes through him and yet my father knows nothing about all this." She disclosed.
'He knows nothing about all this?' Devon gasped inwardly.
"That makes a lot of sense."
"So you see, this does have something to do with the black market and that is why I am going to go investigate that place tonight." She declared before getting up on her feet.
Devon didn't say anything for a couple of seconds before turning around.
"Alright, then, good luck with that." He said before he began to make his way to the side where he climbed up from.
"Hey, wait, don't you want to go with me?" She asked abruptly before turning her gaze to him.
"Why would I want to do that?" He replied before he began to climb down the rock.
It was obvious from the look he had on his face now that he found that question to be pretty amusing.
She had to quickly rush to him and grab his left arm to prevent him from going further down.
"But this is your kingdom too."
"Yeah, but I'm just a helpless young boy and besides aren't the guards and knights supposed to be the ones to take care of things like this?"
"You know you're far from a helpless young boy and there's no way the knights will help me, my father has already instructed them to not take any orders from me for now and I don't have a good relationship with any of them." She explained with a pleading voice. "It's not like I'm going there to fight anyway, I just want to find some evidence."
"Okay, but it's still not my duty to help you out with anything." He responded. "Now if you would just let go of my arm."
"Alright, fine, I'll give you ten gold coins if you come with me." She sighed.
"Hmm, that's pretty enticing but I'll still have to decline."
"Huh?" She reacted with a shocked expression on her face. "Okay, how about twenty?"
"No." He shook his head.
'This idiot!' She screamed inwardly.
Her eyes were literally twitching now.
"This is all my allowance for the month, forty gold coins, will you come with me?"
"To be honest, I would have said yes with thirty but since you went all the way to forty, how can I say no?" He chuckled before dragging himself back on the rock.
"Huh? So you'll take thirty and leave the rest for me?"
"No chance."
"Of course." She sighed before reaching for his arm. "Let's just go."
"Wait, I need my sword."
That was too late because she had already initiated the teleportation and two seconds later they were standing behind one of the shops beside the entrance to the black market.
It was an abandoned shop and there was no explanation needed on why it got abandoned.
"If you're worried about not having your weapon then you can have this." She said before stretching her hand.
A large pile of blood suddenly shot up from her hand like a fountain and right before his eyes, the blood hardened and turned to a long sword which she handed to him.
"It can't burn your hand so it'll work."
"Okay." He replied before taking the sword from her. "Can you make another one? I sort of enjoy using double swords."
"Oh, so you want to drain all my blood now after taking all my coins, is that right?" She pouted.
"Oh, sorry." He said with an awkward expression on his face. "But can you make it dark? This color is too conspicuous."
"Sure." She replied before placing her hand on the sword and that was all it took to turn it dark. "Also, here's a sheath, it'll be weird if you just go around holding a sword like that." She added before handing him the sheath.
'When did she even make that?' He pondered as he took the sheath from her and put the sword into it. "It's really weird that this is her blood, it feels so real."
"You'll be able to do this too once you learn how to manipulate your mana." She said before turning around. "Now, let's go."
The walk to the entrance to the black market was a short one, just about five steps but she asked him a question along the way just before they walked into the area.
"Huh." Elena gasped just as they stepped into the area before coming to a sudden pause.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't put my finger on it but I felt something strange just now." She replied with her hand on her forehead. "And didn't you say there were always a couple of people hanging around here every night?"
Yeah, that didn't make sense now because the place looked deserted but Devon didn't really find anything strange until he looked up.
"Huh?"
'I could swear there were a lot of stars in the sky before we walked in.'
That also didn't make any sense because the sky was void of any stars now.
While the two were still trying to figure out what was going on, a snap suddenly came from their right side.
They quickly turned their gaze to see who was there but what they found was nowhere near what they expected.
A huge burst of flames quickly came bursting toward them from that side but that wasn't all, it was also coming toward them from the front and the left and no matter how fast they moved, they were bound to get hit somehow.
"Huh?" Elena gasped as she felt shrills run down her spine.
'I have never seen flames so large before.'
That was Devon's thought before the flames from all three sides swallowed the both of them.