A Quarter of My Yearly Salary Gone!

Lotus shook her head, "I don't know the entire details. My work does not allow me to know too much about the faeland or the princess. Some fairies still do not like to be around me and many are very overprotective of the princess. Aside from that, the princess is usually strong enough to clean up her own messes. I only deal with smaller ones outside of the country. All I know about her current status is that she is greatly loved by the queen and she has earned the king's trust. The faeland praises her abilities and her achievements in helping their place develop no matter how small, but she is more interested in pursuing knowledge and power."

"This..." Malleus narrowed his eyes and frowned.

Lilia raised a brow, "How unusual. Most would pursue status, wealth, and fame as that is usually their source of power in high society."

What he said wasn't wrong. Not many women who live in high society would be willing to go for a mundane job. Not to mention, a Princess of a smaller kingdom like Peony.

"Well, it's not really that unusual." Lotus responded with a sigh before she responded, "About the ring. May I see it?"

Malleus nodded and handed the ring over to her. Lotus then took out a stone from her pocket and brought it closer to the stone. A gentle light flowed out from the ring as Lotus nodded with confirmation, "Yup. An okay job as per usual."

Despite saying this, Malleus and Lilia jumped upon the reaction of the ring as Lilia spoke up with a frown, "Wait, what was that just now?"

"Mana." Lotus responded as she examined the ring once more, "This mana was used in an array, or you would say a magic circle. The array is complex, so I can't decipher it well, but that won't be a problem while I create a casing for the ring."

After placing the ring onto the table, she took out her bag and pulled away the brown leather cover and took out a couple choices of wood blocks. Upon seeing the choices, Lilia noted curiously, "Is there a reason for the different wood you brought out?"

Lotus nodded, "The ring has the element of light. A very heavy amount of it and a little bit of mana from the earth. My assumption is that Malleus usually uses dark magic more often the other magic, but his strongest magic must be electricity and fire. Otherwise, she would've used mana from the water element instead of earth."

"Oh?" Malleus wore a smirk on his face once he heard this, "So, she could guess my magic with just one glance?"

"Possibly, or she simply felt it." Lotus responded.

"Felt it?" Lilia raised a brow, "She can do that?"

Lotus nodded, "Since she's a cultivator, this should be easy for her."

"Cultivator?" Malleus looked to her in confusion.

"I've heard of that term before..." Lilia frowned, "Aren't they a different type of magician? They prize themselves with being able to use power from the elements around them to controlling the dead to being capable of achieving immortality."

"Well, you're not wrong." Lotus looked to him in surprise, "Lilia is pretty well-verse in the eastern culture, then?"

Lilia chuckled, "Well, I've done my fair share of travels in the past."

So, uncle Lilia is fond of traveling? Lotus smiled in relief, "Then, it should save me most of the explanations, then."

"I've heard of them as stories and fairytales, though." Lilia clarified.

Hearing this, Lotus sighed in disappointment, "I see... Dang, I thought I'd get lucked out of explanation this time..."

"Explain." Malleus ordered with a frown.

She shook her head before explaining, "The eastern countries' fairytales aren't completely wrong. However, they have exaggerated the art. Cultivation is not all powerful. In the past, it is this era's magic spells and magic circles. However, they are more careful with how far they can perform their art. Cultivators, such as the princess, were seen as thaumaturges and are capable of manipulating certain numbers and types of elements upon birth, but they require the knowledge and martial training to utilize it. However, no matter how powerful it is, there are ways to overcome it and one of which is that their art has laws of its own. For example, the ability to control the dead is considered a dark and evil art, so those who practice this art were hunted down and executed on the spot. Dark and evil arts and normal cultivation has natural antagonistic traits against one another. Just the feeling of the magic and the mana used can aggravate one another into bitterly hating one another. However, it is true that both are very effective against each other, similar to light and dark. As for immortality, cultivators can live for many years, but they aren't completely immortal. Requiring a lot of food and rest aside, their immortality is based on how much stronger they can grow. The stronger they grow, the longer they can live. However, the last person that has achieved near-immortality was so long ago that they've actually outlived their lifespan."

"I'm surprised that you know so much about this." Lilia noted to her curiously.

"Well, that's because I'm from the same nomad tribe as the princess."

"What was that?!" They looked to her in surprise as Lilia had shouted.

"I was born and initially raised in a family of cultivators." Lotus explained.

"But, you can't use magic." Lilia noted.

She nodded, "That's right. My mother was not a cultivator. She was from the outside world in the eastern countries before being taken from her family to become a second wife. You probably don't know this, but there are still cultivators around. It's just that they don't trust the new practice circulating around the world and wants to maintain their old beliefs that they packed their belongings and became a nomadic tribe with old societal rules such as having many wives, the eldest son being the next head and so on. They use arrays to hide themselves from outsiders while living in the open. When women are scarce and population are low, they'd resort to kidnapping. That was how my mother came to be the second wife. Out of all of my other half-siblings, I'm the only one born unable to use magic or cultivation. Had I stayed, I would be used by anyone for their own gains before being put down, so I escaped after my mother passed. Who knew that I would get caught as soon as I left the barriers. I don't know how the princess escaped herself, though. However, I knew the art she used to save me from the poachers, so I offered her my assistance in return for her help."

"Then, those books that you always read."

Lotus sneered, "Well, since I'm considered a part of that family, those are all technically and legally mine too, correct? If I left it to those guys, I doubt they have the same motivation for their own strength as they do for whatever pleases them."

She sighed before continuing, "Regardless, whenever there is a number of disappearances that occurred all too drastically, that tribe is most likely a possible cause to the incidents. However, the majority of the don't seem to have the talent for cultivation making them only capable of living for around a couple hundred years with the eldest having lived five hundred. I remember my father was about two hundred when I last heard of him before my escape and he was already considered a talent of the family. Comparing the strengths, I estimate that the princess could live five times as long as he can. So, I assume her average max life span should be a thousand making her the real prodigy here. However, compared to her mysterious pursuers, she's not strong enough. I don't even know how there are still people so powerful and not magicians, but cultivators. The last time I spoke with her regarding this request, I could smell a heavy stench of blood and ointment coming from her, so she should be injured again somewhere where I can't see."

She picked out a block of wood and continued, "Aside from that, her enemies are so powerful, the light faes can't step in to protect her because they are too weak. I heard that it was the Queen and King who usually stepped in to save her when she was adopted. In exchange for the books I have, she would continue to let me borrow her last name so that I have a proper identity and avoid being caught by those from my tribe. Last I saw them, they were still preparing to hunt for magical beasts using blood bait. I'd rather not be on the other end of the hook if possible. There..."

After having taken out a silver metal bar, she nodded, "This is a type of living metal that thrives off of mana. After I feed it with a magic array, it will take on its property... So..."

She took the ring and fed it to the silver metal that instantly lunged for it much to their shock. Upon eating the ring, the silver bar shivered and began to mold itself back into a silver bar. Lotus took out her stone again and measured the bar to find that the same reaction from the ring had appeared from the bar. It no longer moved and was not a pliable as it was before.

"Success." Lotus sighed with a miserable look across her face, "Ugh... There goes a quarter of my yearly salary..."

She took the metal bar and explained, "Next, I'll use this and the wood to create a new form for Malleus to wear to the Fairy Gala. However, I'm still not very familiar with the culture of Briar Valley. Hence, my client has only been the princess so far. Is a necklace or a bracelet all right with you?"

"That's fine." Malleus nodded.