Ulaspas Manor-3

Adui froze in his place, it was hard to make out the face of the silhouette standing a few feet away from him. He is a Rank-4 Mage, so there was nothing to be afraid. But he couldn't help but be wary. Meeting a hooded figure in the middle of a forest is never a good thing, especially so when one is carrying 4400 joules worth of mana stones.

"Who are you!" he shouted, with an authoritative voice. He didn't want to show any sign of fear to the figure. The silhouette didn't move a muscle and its unwavering glowing red eyes stayed glued to him.

"If you fear your life, then reveal yourself!" he shouted once again. The figure moved and slowly started to walk towards him.

Under the light of his torch, he was finally able to see the face of the figure, it was the most beautiful woman that he had ever laid his eyes on. She had snow-white hair, a cute small nose, supple lips, and menacing yet gentle scarlet red eyes. The most distinguishing feature about the woman was her ears, they were pointed from the end.

"Here I am," she spoke in a soft erogenous voice. "Now what will you do to me?" Her pale skin and red eyes were clear indicators that she was a member of the Ulaspas family. And he just now threatened her.

He then lowered his head in guilt. "Ah… Um… I… I am sorry. I'm sorry milady. I didn't recognize you in the dark." The woman's eyes widened as he called her Milady. "You know me?"

"If I am not wrong, then you must be a member of the Ulaspas Family. I recognized you because of your red eyes, they are very similar to the members of the family that I have met so far."

"OH… You are correct. I am Gloria Ulaspas. And you must be the cripple I have heard so much about. "

"Yes, milady. Adui Hampshire at your service." he bowed "And I sincerely apologize for my behavior earlier." 

Gloria snickered. "Don't worry about it."

He raised his head as he felt that she had gone past him. He turned around to see that she had come to a stop above the Rose flower tiles. She then went down on her knees and started inspecting the intricate design of the flower.

Seeing this he couldnt help but ask, "Is that the infamous Rose milady?" 

She turned towards him, surprised that he recognized the flower. "How did you know that this is the Rose?"

"When I came to Huston, I contacted a friend. He is a small clerk in the Royal Library. He found a book that told the history of the Ulaspas family. And based on history I took a guess that this must be the Rose, the insignia of your family."

She smiled "You are indeed correct. This indeed is Rose." 

"Well, it looks beautiful."

"It does." She then started walking towards him looking him straight in the eye as if staring at his soul. "Now that we both have introduced ourselves, I think it is time to address the elephant in the room."

Adui raised his brow in confusion. "Pardon?" she then a little bit closer to him. "What are you doing here Adui?"

"Oh, that! Well… I came here to check out the land. I wanted to see for myself the land on which Mage's tower would be standing in the future." Her emotionless face made it harder for him to recognize whether he was in trouble or not.

"Is that so? So you're telling me that you came to this basin which is infested with wildlife of every shape and kind, just to look around?" She tilted her head sideways and with an annoyed look on her face, she asked. "Do you take me for a fool mortal?"

"No… I didn't mean to offend you milady. I will… go.. go back." He stuttered while taking a step or two back.

"It is not the trespassing that offends me, Adui. It is your lying. I hate liars and cheaters." She then came closer to his face and asked him again with a menacing voice. "I will ask you again, why are you here?"

Adui's back was up against the wall. He didn't what to do. 

If I say that I came here for inheritance then she would straight away kill me, after all, I would agree that I came here to steal from her family. Oh… Fuck… Think Adui. Think… 

He then swallowed hard, he needed a solution, but couldn't up with anything. Also, he couldn't overlook the fact that she had correctly caught two of his lies, there was a possibility that he could have some sort of power to recognize lies.

In the end, he decided that maybe he should not lie, and try a different approach. "To be honest, I came here to see whether I could find any treasure left behind Ulaspas in these ruins." A smile grew on her face. "So you agree that you came here to steal from my family?"

"It would not be stealing. After all, I bought this land under my name. So technically I am not trespassing."

"This land is under your name?" She was taken aback.

"Yes, Lord Kaisel mentioned that he didn't want anyone to know about his involvement. So I figured that I should buy the land under my name and then transfer the deed to his name later." She then stopped smiling. She then went to one of the broken walls of ruins and sat down there.

"Impressive work by the way… We didn't think that someone would be able to pull that off, especially considering when we were dealing with those two stubborn nobles."

"I cannot take credit for that. Lord Kaisel provided me with a lot of mana stones. Anyone would agree to sell this land if provided with strong motivation and good compensation."

"Don't be so modest. Not only you know exactly how to handle those Barons, but you also tied them both around your finger. I read the letter that you sent Kaisel, you were able to complete the deal with only 600 joules of mana stones. That is impressive."

"Well thank you for the praise milady." Slowly she got up and started unbuttoning her robes. Now standing before him in a tight leather vest and pants, she passed him a smile. "Adui, let me tell you something very interesting. You see when we received your letter, the people from my family were very impressed, especially Kaisel. So he had planned to give a good reward for your deed. Do you think you deserve a reward?" she then came and stood before him.

"Um…" He didn't know what to say. She continued gazing into his eyes as if she was looking at his soul. "I don't know, milady."

"I think you deserved a reward for your work." She said in a plain voice. "But then you tried to bare your filthy paws in what belongs to our family."

Before he could analyze the meaning of her words, Adui felt a strong force that threw him backward, and his torch/walking stick extinguished and fell somewhere. His head had started spinning, now lying in the dark, it took him some time to analyze what happened to him, after he was done, he knew that he was fucked.