The Opening

Ashton Harbor

"I want every detail of the tower. Every plan, every floor," said the man with the staff.

"I have already instructed our people. You will have completed the information by the morning," replied the armored man.

He had received the message from higher-ups, and it made him excited.

They are showing great interest in the legacy. More than before, which is good. The greater interest they show, the sooner, they send forces to attack.

He too very interested in the legacy. The benefits he will get from it will help him a lot.

Especially now with the plants, there have been many alchemists and other people from the island who have contacted him.

Promising the high price, they are willing to pay and favors they are willing to do.

He might not get anything out of the secret mission, but he plans to get many things from the legacy.

Let's hope, he gets the order to attack soon.

He is sick of waiting and wants to conquer this damn wasteland.

…

Eliyen

"I want every one of you at your best behavior and remember you can always say, no," said the Headmistress to all hundred and sixteen girls.

We are part of the night batch.

There are two batches. A day batch and a night batch. The night batch is obviously the desirable, our work thrives in the night.

There will be a total of nine hundred and eight girls working in the tower. 

Five hundred and eighty-two girls will work in the night batch, while three hundred and twenty-six will work in the day batch.

I am in the night batch, while my roommate is in the day batch.

The places in it are subject to change, on our performances and the opinions of madams.

Four batches of hundred and sixteen had already gone to the tower.

Ours is the last.

The tower may be big, and the beauty studio is massive, but not enough to make nearly six hundred girls ready in record time.

At night nine and a half, we will open. It is only for today. From tomorrow, we will open at six.

"And be prepared for the surprise," she added.

It was not the first time; I had heard of surprise. I have been hearing that for a few days.

They are saying there will be a surprise and asked us to tell our patron about it as if it is a big secret. It will be revealed at exactly ten.

"Now go and make the establishment proud," said Madam Della, and we walked toward the door.

Not the one in the front, but the one underground. There is an underground tunnel beneath the building, leading directly to the tower.

Soon we reached it, and the carriages were waiting there.

We sat down and the carriage began to move through the lighted tunnel.

I felt Yani's hand gripping mine tightly; she also had her eyes closed. The human girl didn't like tunnels; she had an unnatural fear of them.

I gently messaged her hand, till the carriage stooped at the basement tower.

Like the rest of the tower, this place too had plants. A lot of them. I heard there are plants on the floors below.

I took a deep breath and enjoyed the beauty of these plants before walking toward the elevator.

The groups have already formed on the floor they are working on, and each group begins to enter the elevators by their group.

The elevator isn't big, but it could still squeeze nine people easily. Most importantly, it is fast, really fast. Enough that few people vomited on the first day.

It is why, there is an operator there with skills. He is good enough, that nobody has vomited since he had started.

One by one girls entered the elevator and soon it was my turn.

There are only four of us. We are the only ones on this badge, going to the seventeenth floor. The fourth floor of the Velvet Red.

There are five floors of Velvet Red, formerly Velvet Garden. They changed the name because the tower is the velvet garden.

The velvet red occupies the floor from the fourteenth to the eighteenth. The higher, one goes in velvet red; the more exclusive it is.

Of five hundred and eighty-two girls, the top two floors will have only seventy-six girls.

Twenty-four at the top floor, fifty-two at the second top, and the rest five hundred would be on the bottom floors.

It was a shock to me today when I found out. That I would be working on the second top floor.

I am one of only nine new girls, that will be working there. The rest will be experienced ones.

Still, it is quite regretful; that I wasn't able to get a slot on the top floor. There are only three slots for the new girls; I wasn't able to get it.

I will be trying, though. The higher, you go, the more money you will earn.

There are also gifts. The older girls said the people on higher floors give more expensive gifts.

The gifts that, the establishment never touched.

The door closed, and the elevator moved. It moved fast, and in four and a half seconds, we were on the seventeenth floor.

Ting!

The door opened, and we got out immediately, after nodding. Old Samis; the old is an operator, and I heard, he had a good collection of skills.

I looked around, at a space filled with plants densely.

From below, this floor is one of the barren floors, but it is an illusion of clever architecture and mist. It is not barren, as it looked from below.

It has as much as plants as on every other floor.

I took a deep breath and smelled their beautiful smell but didn't feel any power of legacy.

Not every part of it is covered in the power of the legacy. On the floors of a legacy like this, only half of the area is covered in the power of legacy.

Only half of the area on sixteen floors is covered in the power of the legacy.

They have smartly used every inch to use the power of the legacy.

I looked around for a few seconds before walking toward the crystal door, with beautiful carvings.

Click!

I opened it and went inside and into the most beautiful space. It is a dream of every woman, a heaven.

There are dresses on the mannequins, shoes on racks, and jewelry that would make anyone want to never take it off.

Each piece is worth a fortune, be it shoes or jewelry.

The beauty-studio is big, but small compared to those on the floors below, but it had the second most beautiful pieces.

The level and beauty of pieces go higher with each floor. So is their price. The value of every single dress in here is more than enough to make a small family live comfortably for a year.

Never, in my life I had dreamed of wearing pieces as beautiful as the ones around me.

They are even more beautiful than the ones, I had seen ladies wearing in the cities.

"Eliyen, stop staring bumpkin and sit," said nezharian half-elf with a thick accent.

There are only seven seats here, with seven beauticians and three helpers.

Vernis is the leader and has a little temper.

The beautiful plants around us that would calm anyone didn't help her that much.

I quickly went to the small room with the curtain and undressed quickly.

I removed everything and placed it in the box with the name on it, before wearing a black silk robe with my name monogrammed on it.

I sat down on the chair and immediately felt the effect of the legacy. As I had said, they were using every inch of legacy expertly.

Only around 10% of the studio was enveloped in the legacy's power.

The chairs are in the domain of legacy, and thus beautician could use the mist, in their work.

"You have such a beautiful skin. You should have taken proper care of it," she said as she moved her hands across the skin.

"Brothel isn't exactly the place where I could get expensive beauty products," I replied, not caring if she got angry.

"They had done a wonderful job, in fixing these flaws and bringing it to its natural quality," she said, as if she hadn't heard me and begun working.

Since I came here, they have started working on me.

I had my skin checked on the second day and a few hours before the news of undead came, I received the skin care products.

In the past few months, it happened regularly, with the spa doing the best work.

Vernis might be a bitch, but she is as great as what she does.

The control she has over the mist is simply incredible. Which isn't surprising, seeing she had worked in the legacy for two decades.

She started on my face, before doing my hair, while I watched quietly.

"Get up and remove your robe," she said.

I got out of the chair and walked on a circular stand, before removing my robe.

It is embarrassing, but not humiliating. I know, it is for me.

She took the lotion and began to slather it across my skin, along with the mist. Her hands are precious and experienced, but they still give me a shiver whenever they move over my sensitive parts.

Soon, she finished and began to apply another lotion, a glittering one on my legs.

She used a few more things, some in places, that made my cheeks reddened.

"The red lingerie from the sereh collection," she said, and immediately, the raven-haired teen girl moved and brought her what she wanted from many lingerie sets.

The lingerie is a work of art with a beautiful lacework.

I am learning lacework, along with embroidery and other things. I am incapable of such craftmanship; I might be able to do it after I reach Lv. 20+.

I raised my leg and wore the lingerie.

It is quite an experience that even after a week. I didn't get used to it.

I am used to being naked in front of men and women, but not them helping me wear clothes.

When I tried to do it myself on the first day. I got slapped on the wrist.

"The magenta gown," she said, and a teen brought the most beautiful gown I had ever seen.

I had worn it a few days ago to test the fitting.

The clothes are tailor-made for me. The skills could adjust the fitting, but according to them, the clothes tailored to one are better than those adjusted with the skills.

It is a column gown of magenta color, that had high sleet.

It is off the shoulder that highlights my breast. Made them look bigger than they are.

I wanted to look in the mirror before she stopped me.

The next article, I wore was the red shoes with four-inch-high heels. I hate them; they make my feet hurt, but I need to wear them.

Beauty is pain.

The last was jewelry. It is a beautiful red diamond set with a necklace, earrings, and bracelets.

I heard Eva Charles had designed them herself and like everything I am wearing, the jewelry too belongs to her. We are just borrowing it.

"You can now, look at the mirror," she said, and I turned to the mirror.

A moment later, tears started to come out of my eyes.

The woman staring back at me looks completely different. If anyone from my former brothel looked at me now, they wouldn't recognize me at all.

Click!

"Thank you," I said to the woman, before walking into the fourth floor of the velvet red.

It is a piece of heaven with mist everywhere.

There is a modern-style bar in the center, with chairs and tables around it, with beautiful places of art on the wall and of course the plants.

Some of the private rooms are completely covered by them. They are everywhere, but they do not feel excess at all.

I felt like, it would have been fine. If there had been more plants.

The most beautiful thing about this place is the chandelier. It is big with bright white crystals and a shining vine wrapped around it.

I could see most of the girls were sitting at their tables. Seeing me, they smiled.

"Don't worry too much. If you are lucky, you will get someone who you will enjoy," said Calis.

She has been here from the start. She came to the city with Carla and others.

I nodded and walked to the bar.

"Can you give me something to take an edge off?" I asked Jalir.

"Sure. What do you want?" he asked with a smile. "Shimmering tide," I replied.

I had tasted many drinks, but I loved the shimmering tide. Likely because it faintly smells like, the homebrew my grandmother used to drink.

He began to make my drink, while I watched. He is a showman. The way, he played with liquor and mist is mesmerizing.

"One shimmering tide for you," he said as he placed the drink in front of me.

"Thank you, Jalir," I said and took a shimmering blue drink into my lips.

"Ahhh…"

I moaned gently as I took a sip of a delicious drink. Its taste filled me while my emotions moved like a tide.

Before I knew it, I finished the drink.

I am feeling much better now and returned to my table. It is only a few minutes before we open.

"To your places, girls. We will open in ten minutes." Ordered Madam Jenna.

She is a floor leader.

Immediately, the girls who were not at their table moved back to their places.

"This is an important day, and I am sure, many of you are nervous. Hell, I am nervous," she said, and many of us laughed at her admission.

"Don't let this nervousness get to you. You have a job to do. You have been trained for it and there is no one in the whole world is better than you at it."

"So, conquer the night girls!"

Her words rang through the hall, and they helped. More than the drink.

I could tell, she truly believes in our abilities.

Minutes passed, and we got closer and closer to the opening, till finally, the clock hit nine.

'Open The Gates,'

The commanding voice with the weight of authority filled the whole floor.

For a moment, I didn't recognize the voice at all. Madam Caena usually does not keep such authority in her voice.

As her command rang out; the whole atmosphere changed. I could see, the girls becoming more confident and, the staff moving to their places.

Ting!

Seconds passed, and a familiar ting rang out. Four human men, who looked to be in their late thirties, came out.

They are wearing fine clothes and have confidence in their eyes, but as they step out. A clear shock appeared in their eyes.

The shock deepened when they looked at us before it got replaced with ecstasy.

They looked, drinking the beauty.

I could see, the familiar lust and desire in their eyes as they looked at us, but I didn't see the usual degust and hate, that accompanied them.

Instead, there is admiration and excitement. The emotions, I have never seen in the eyes of men for us whores.

"Welcome to the Velvet Red gentlemen," welcomed Madam Jenna, bringing them out of their thoughts.

They entered inside and looked, before taking the seats with the girls.

I am a little disappointed, seeing not one of them came at me, but I didn't show it to my face.

They had just sat down when the elevator opened again, and three people sat down.

With the passing seconds, more and more people kept coming. Sitting in front of girls; it took a while before a man appeared in front of me.

Seeing him, I know, the wait was worth it.

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties. with brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He is sporting a scruffy beard, that enhances his roguish look.

"May I?" he asked, in a cultured imperial accent.

Most people that came were from a merchant state; it is clear by their accent, but this man is from an empire.

"Please," I said to the man.

"Mathias," he introduced. "Eliyen," I replied.

"You are a very beautiful woman, Eliyen," he said, looking at me up to down intensely, in a non-creepy way.

"You are not bad yourself, Mathias," I replied, checking him out in the same way.

A faint surprise appeared in his eyes before the smile lit up on his face.

"Thank you. It means a lot from a beautiful woman, like you," he said, and my cheeks reddened despite the efforts.

Minutes passed, and I found myself enjoying the conversation with the man. I didn't even notice when the whole place, was completely filled up, nor did I care.

I am completely focused on the man in front of me and the good time I am having.