Primal Fangs

"They changed the date?" Rosalind narrowed her eyes when she received another invitation from Grace.

"It seems that Victoria couldn't hold herself back anymore." She smiled. Not showing herself in public was the right move. Right now, they want her to expose herself to the citizens, embarrass herself and make the old man lose face.

This would then prompt the old man to marry her off the Duke.

While she too wanted to marry the Duke to get away from this place, she needed to be smart about her moves. She didn't want to make it too obvious and made it seem like it was the Lux Family who pushed her away.

Rosalind wanted to cover her bases as early as she could. She wanted to make sure that the Empire would only blame the Lux Family for pushing her away.

"Yes, Young Lady," Milith said. "This one— this one is suspicious about why she invited the other well-known nobles. Moreover, I've heard rumors that the Duke is going to visit the estate at this time. I believe she is scheming against the Young Lady."

Knowing that it was the old man who summoned Rosalind back, Victoria wouldn't have the courage to scheme against her. The Victoria that she knew wasn't as bold as this.

Unless, of course, she had the permission of her very own husband.

Did Martin really agree to push her toward the Duke? Did he not know that all the women who were about to marry the Duke had died?

Rosalind laughed.

Right.

Her father never cared about her.

The man doesn't hate her or love her. He simply doesn't care about her existence. How could someone do that to their own child? But then again, Martin had always doubted her paternity. Even though it has been proven that she was a Lux, Martin never treated her as if she was one. As such, he would go to extreme lengths to avoid her.

This happened even in her past life, too.

His indifference was no longer a surprise.

"Very well, I will join them." And play their games.

But first, she is going to visit the black market.

......

"It was a miracle," Pratt's wife, Lucilla said, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held Rosalind's hands. "Since she was born, this is the first time she was able to sleep all throughout the night. We have given her different medication and— "

Rosalind nodded with a smile on her face. It had been two days since she set foot in the black market, two days since she did the first treatment, and two days since she had seen the Duke who spent hundreds of thousands worth of gold on her books.

After two days, she was back.

"Please tell us what you want," Lucilla said as she looked back at her husband. Her tear-stricken face looked pale and fragile which made her look even weaker. "We will give you anything," Lucilla said.

"As I said, I only want two things," Rosalind started. "I want to earn money by helping people, but I cannot do that without the protection that the merchant company will give me." She went directly to the point.

"You— You wanted to earn money?"

"Yes," Rosalind answered Mr. Pratt. She offered a wry smile. Why did it look like he didn't expect that to be her answer?

"You are going to heal people who had a dark curse?"

"And people who received a wound from a cursed object," Rosalind said. During the war against the Dark Lord, thousands of cursed weapons appeared out of nowhere. It was said that the Dark Lord Blessed the weapons so his soldiers could use them against the warriors of the Goddess.

Until now, even if thousands of years had already passed, those weapons could still be found if one knew where to look.

"You can heal people who—" Lucilla stopped talking. She looked at her husband, who seemed to be in deep thought.

"I haven't met anyone that could heal a wound from a cursed object aside from someone that received the Blessing of light."

"I can assure you, I do not have that Blessing."

"I know," Pratt answered. "The Blessing of the light does not work on dark curses."

Rosalind nodded, that was common knowledge.

The ones who received the Blessing of light were gifted with healing abilities, but this wasn't the only ability that they received. They could also create illusions by changing the light.

During the great war, the ones who received the Blessing of the light used their abilities to trick their enemies, blinding them in the process. This caused great losses to the armies supporting the Dark Lord.

Because of this, the enemies started targeting the ones who received the Blessing. Sadly for them, the first Blessed member of the Lux Family was clever enough to bend the surrounding light, hiding as she continuously heal their armies and trick the enemies.

This was a very popular tale across the continent— something the Lux Family was very proud of.

"Once people who were born with dark curses hear about this, I am certain that they would doubt the news," Mr. Pratt muttered.

"But they will never doubt your words," Rosalind smiled. How could they doubt one of the Four Quarter Masters?

"Is this the reason you chose to come here to showcase your skills?"

"Yes."

"That is brilliant," Mr. Pratt smiled. "I agree. We will give you the protection that you desire and will assure anonymity and keep you safe from the people that would covet what you have. May I know what your second request will be?"

"This includes you, Mr. Pratt," Rosalind said.

"Pardon me?"

"I want you to stop investigating my identity. I want anonymity not just from everyone else, but from you and the rest of the Quarter Masters." Rosalind continued.

She was confident that the entrepreneur would see her value and agree to her request. After all, there were very influential people from influential families that were born with the dark curse. This would not only establish the name of the Four Quarter Masters but bring them an extravagant amount of profits.

"I see… it seems that Miss Lin is indeed very clever," Pratt smiled. "I agree. I will stop any ongoing investigation about your identity."

"Thank you. Since I will be the one doing the healing, I will choose my clients, and the merchant group cannot force me to do anything," she stated.

"That is not a problem."

"Second," Rosalind held two fingers towards him. "I want rock relics…"

"Hm?"

"I want all the relics that you can find. It would be better for you to buy the most useless ones."

"Huh? The most useless ones? Miss Lin— I don't— "

"I want everything black," Rosalind said. "And white."

"But please keep it as discreet as possible. I don't want to attract any more attention."

"Black and white? But rock relics are— "

"Inexpensive?"

"I wanted to use popular. Even kids play with them as they are useless."

'Not for long,' Rosalind smiled inwardly.

"It will make my healing abilities stronger," Rosalind lied. "I told you the reason behind my actions in good faith. After all, we will have a beneficial partnership… in the future. Am I right, Mr. Pratt?"

"Of— Of course!" Mr. Pratt nodded.

"Very well— I believe we are done. Shall we go talk to Alma about her treatment?"

"Before that…." Lucila suddenly handed her another token. "A hundred thousand gold is inside this token. I will give you five times that… after you heal my daughter."

Rosalind swallowed. That would give her six hundred thousand gold coins! Even in her last life, she was not able to have that much money!

"My daughter's life is worth more than that," Lucilla said softly. Suddenly, she got up and bowed. "So, on behalf of the Pratt family and my maternal family, if you successfully heal my daughter, I promise to assist you in anything that you want to do. I promise to keep you safe. You will be our benefactor and we will be forever in your debt."

"This— " Rosalind's eyes widened. How could the wife of the head make such a promise?

"Ah… I believe there might be some misunderstanding. I wasn't able to introduce my wife properly," Mr. Pratt smiled proudly. "She is Lucilla Montgomery— Pratt, the current heiress of the Primal Fangs, a mercenary guild from the South."