Aella made her way down the hall while thinking about how will she do this. Right now she had her clothes, the ring, the choker, the wooden necklace, and a pouch with coins that she stole from bandits. Aella's first thought was to get some of Eric's material and use it to curse him, maybe in a similar fashion to what she did to the twins parents. It could work, but Aella wanted to do something different and will only use this method if she won't be able to find anything else.

''Who are you?'' While Aella was walking down the hall, immersed in her thoughts, a woman with blond hair came to her, and asked her who she was with some skepticism.

''I'm something like a business partner with the madam.'' Aella didn't know what to say, because she didn't know how much of things the madam wanted to keep secret, so Aella opted for a simple business partner. This way if someone has questions they can go to madam and she can reveal the information she wants them to know.

Of course, Aella will tell that she is a business partner with madam, only to this establishment staff. Meaning if some stranger asks her she will have to think of a backstory. The woman didn't say anything, just gave Aella a look and then went in the direction where the madam's office was. Aella similarly didn't give much thought to this woman and went on her way.

'Now then, first things first.' To even start her plans she needed the necessary materials, and her first idea of acquiring them was to go and meet the injured woman and the place where she got physically assaulted. Aella hoped that she could find the needed materials if she looked for them there.

Unfortunately, she wasn't familiar with this place and had no idea where to look. So for a while, she wandered around this floor, looking for anything that could help. Some of the staff gave her curious or suspicious looks while she moved past them. Aella could ask one of them for the things she was looking for but she didn't want to disturb them, and it might look weird and kind of fishy, and that won't do because she was trying to keep as low of a profile as possible in her situation.

After some time of aimless roaming, Aella found the place where the injured woman was probably kept. It was in a room that was behind a door that looked similar to the rest of them that were placed all around the hallway. But Aella saw a red-haired woman bring a towel and a bucket of water into that room, plus an armed guard was standing by that door.

Well with that her plan went out the window. Aella knew that this plan probably wouldn't work, but it was worth a try. Now she could just go up to the guard or the red-haired woman and tell them why she needed the access and all that, but again she didn't know how much information her employer wanted to disclose, and Aella wanted to make her employer as happy as possible. And she couldn't just barge inside, that would just create unnecessary chaos.

So with that, it was time to move on to plan b, try and find Eric in the wild. The madam already told Aella where she could find him, it will probably take some time to find him, but it shouldn't be that hard if she's lucky. Now with that in mind, Aella made her way out of the building.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It took some time to find the exit because the building was large, and Aella found out she was on the third floor. Fortunately, the only people here were mostly staff as Aella found out a bit later, but it wasn't surprising because it was the middle of the day, and this was a brothel, and a high-class one at that.

After she walked out of the building she had to make some way to the gate, because this brothel had a nice big garden. After the gate, there was the city, and now she had to figure out what to do. Aella presumed that Eric was probably active at night, and as it was the middle of the day, she had to bide her time somehow. So she started to walk around the city, trying to look for something to do.

Fortunately, she didn't have to look too far, because she was in the part of town where most of the entertainment was, and Aella soon found an establishment where she could have some fun. It was a big, fancy-looking wooden building, and similar to the brothel it had its own gated plot of land. But this one didn't look like a brothel but more of a gambling place. Aella had some coin on her, so she decided to have some fun in this place.

''Hello, how much would you like to convert?'' When Aella got inside she was greeted by a lady who was manning a desk near the entrance. Aella saw a few other desks similar to this one, but not all of them were open. Aella only took a glance around before she pulled her attention back to the woman who greeted her.

''This much.'' Aella pulled out ten gold coins and put them on the desk. The woman looked at the coins before she put them away.

''How would you like them to be distributed?''

''I'm kind of new to these parts, can you tell me what are the options?'' Aella was kind of lucky to guess the first part of the exchange, but she had no idea how things worked here, and what she was exchanging her money for.

''Of course.'' The woman smiled and then brought out 7 wood chips. ''We usually distribute these kinds of chips, the lowest valued one is worth one silver coin, then it goes to ten and then fifty, then the next chip is worth a hundred silver or one gold, and then it goes to ten golds then fifty and finally hundred.'' The woman showed each chip as she explained things to Aella.

All of the chips were the same size, the only difference was the number engraved in the middle and the golden color that was on the rim of these round chips. The lowest-value chip had the darkest gold color on its rim and the highest value had the brightest.

''I see, then give me all in fifty silver chips.''

''Of course.'' The lady gave Aella 20 chips, and a pouch to carry them in, and Aella was ready to have some fun.

Walking deeper in she saw that there weren't too many people here, but it wasn't surprising, it was only noon, and the place will get busier as the night approaches, so Aella didn't think about too much. Aella took a look around and found a game that interested her.

Aella approached the roulette table that had some people around it, five of the six seats were already taken, so she took the free seat and sat down. This round was still in progress so Aella just waited for a little before it ended.

''Five red.'' The dealer announced, and then distributed and took some chips.

After the chips got to their respective places, Aella put her bets, and placed 3 chips on odd and 1 chip on a random corner. Aella wasn't really in need of money, because she doesn't use it often, so she could have fun with it as much as she wanted.

After they placed their bets, the dealer waved his hand indicating that the betting was closed. He spun the wheel and Aella put her attention on the wheel. The little ball bounced around until finally, it landed on a number.

''Seventeen black.'' Aella got six chips while losing the one she put on a corner.

'Not bad.' Aella was kind of happy, so she didn't hesitate to place more bets. This time she did the same, she placed 3 on odd and 1 on a random corner.