After a row of bear-hugs, ‘old bastards’ and ‘I-can’t-f*cking-believe-it’-s, the trio finally sat sat down. With a tinge of envy Musa observed the interaction between the two old friends, but then realized that after a short introduction he somehow was naturally included as a part of the group and soon got a feeling that he belonged here too.
When the first wave of emotions subsided, Jack said, “This place has more advanced rune formation compared to our old room in ‘The Heart and soul’ – not even immortals can overhear our discussion, so we are safe here. It does cost a pile of spirit stones though …”
“Ok, before anything else, can you tell us – what the hell did we see yesterday?” Musa asked and Leo’s attention was instantly peaked as well. He might’ve looked carefree from the side, but in reality that was only a natural defensive mechanism reacting to the mess that was currently in his head.
“Truth to be said, there is nothing much to tell.” Jack shrugged and Musa suddenly had a revelation where Leo got his endless ignorance from. It was a whole new level of cluelessness to think that to become an underling of one of the most influential immortals in the world was ‘nothing much’. To Leo, on the other hand, it only seemed natural – if Jack said it was nothing much, then there was nothing much to it.
Fortunately Jack continued, “After the Hubert island was abducted, the regular alchemists like I were separated from the Hubert family. We were offered a simple choice – to work or die. As you can imagine, everyone with a tinge of a common sense agreed to become a slave in hopes the Immortal Alliance will set us free, but as the days went by everyone’s hopes began to wane bit by bit. Compared to regular slaves our living conditions were ok-ish, but nothing to brag about.”
“So you were right.” Leo said to Musa, “The upper echelons of the alliance always knew the Hubert family would be treated more like guests.”
“Ye, guests my ass!” Jack emptied the glass, filled it up again and continued, “Maybe the family is doing great, but technically we were still slaves. All we did was work, eat and sleep, although the food was fine and we lived and worked in relatively good conditions in groups of six … and every fifth evening we got a barrel of booze … anyway … on one of those evenings I kind of got drunk and began to brag about my past feats and as it turns out master Goodman walked by or flew by … be as it may he heard me. Later that night he ordered to bring me to his quarters and I had to tell him stories about my heroic deeds for his amusement.”
Then he threw a complicated gaze at Leo and said, “It was when I realized that all the fun I had in my life was of the ‘regular’ kind and it wasn’t that exciting to tell others … you know … to displease master Goodman meant to find your own end in one of his alchemy crucibles for both body and soul, so I … well, I kind of plagiarized my adventures and told everything you, Leo, did back in the sect as if it had happened to me …”
“So?” Leo was confused. Apart from the sect master chasing him out, nothing of importance happened. And him preventing the war, of course. But other than that his life was rather plain.
“What ‘so?’?” Jack sighed and gulped down another glass of wine and it was hard to tell if he was blushed from the alcohol or from shame, “You working as a professional, how you did the whole elite female population of the city, then the whole situation with Elsa and Etessa … master Goodman laughed to tears and in the end, employed me. He said I was too sh*t of an alchemist to waste my talents and from then on I am responsible of organizing ‘entertainment’ for the fat freak.”
But after saying the last part Jack jolted realizing he let his tongue slip, but since no repercussions followed it was clear no one was actually eavesdropping.
“What was the situation with Elsa and Etessa?” The normally distant and aloof Musa was suddenly interested. It was only natural to be curious about something that even the Blood lord Goodman found entertaining.
“Oh? That’s a long story, my friend!” Jack took the glass and sat back more comfortably, preparing to tell a lengthy tale, but Leo interrupted him.
“Another time.” He said and got to more important subject, “Where is the closest teleportation platform so we could get out of here?”
The other two immediately grew serious as well and Jack said, “All three teleportation platforms in the city are guarded by the respective Blood lords. Of course, technically they don’t sit at the platform and guard it, but usually there is a trusted immortal somewhere in the vicinity and the guards are all at the Nascent soul stage. We have to escape the city first and get to a smaller settlement to teleport away.”
“And I guess if you left now someone would surely notice.” Musa added and Jack nodded with a sad expression.
“If I still worked in the alchemy laboratory, it might’ve worked.” He said, “On the other hand, if I worked in the laboratory we wouldn’t have met.”
Silence filled the room and all three sat while their mood slowly but surely plummeted. While it might’ve seemed that they were free to go anywhere at any time, they knew that if an immortal, especially one of the Blood lords, began to look for them, they wouldn’t escape far.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“What about the Hubert family members?” Leo asked and, while his intention was to learn about their chances and possibilities to use those, Musa knowingly nodded once again confirming that Alice was the real reason Leo came to the Blood immortal realm.
“I know they aren’t with Goodman nor Swan. It could be that Blood lord Raynolds might have them locked up in his estate, but that’s just a guess.” Jack said.
“Is Raynolds a similar pervert to your boss? Or maybe he leaves his estate at times?” Leo asked with a tinge of hope in his voice, but Jack could only shake his head.
He said, “The two perverts are Goodman and Swan. Truth to be said, I don’t even know anything about Raynolds, except that he’s a Blood lord.”
“Ok, then tell us about the other two.” Leo said. His logic was simple – to think of a plan they at least had to know something about the enemies, right? Musa and Jack, of course, understood that, but they were like ants compared to an immortal and any plans an ant has are futile when faced against an elephant.
Still, there was nothing better to do and Jack gladly explained in a way that mostly sounded like complaining, “It’s the common knowledge that Goodman is an alchemist, a damn good one. He is at least equivalent to Henri Hubert, maybe even smarter. But contrary to Sir Hubert, Goodman is a complete pervert. He likes really young girls, like really, really young and identical twins in particular. In fact, if I don’t find him a pair of twins he doesn’t even go outside … right, you guessed … that’s my job – I look for poor souls the bastard could devour.”
“Truth to be said, I’m not sure which is worse – he or Blood lord Swan.” Jack continued, “The latter, being an ugly hundred thousand year old wreck, fancies young, strong men, but only goes to one peculiar brothel and has a whole top floor designated to fulfill the perverted fantasies. Actually I know the owner of the place – she’s a false immortal that owns several brothels around the city and from time to time helps with my damned tasks. Of course, other than that – Blood lord Swan is the unrivaled genius runemaster who was the mastermind behind the abduction of the Hubert island.”
One could hear bitterness in Jack’s words and it was clear he hated Blood lords as well hated being here. Unfortunately the information he gave wasn’t really useful, at least that was what Musa thought. Leo, on the other hand, suddenly lightened up.
“Interesting. Is it possible for me to apply for a job in that particular brothel? Do they accept random people from the street?” He asked.
“Oh, buddy, please, no!” Jack immediately guessed Leo’s intention, “I know you once were a professional, but this is a matter of a completely different scale! For one the Blood lord Swan is an immortal and thousands of years old ugly f*ck at that! You can’t do it to yourself! Even my puny life is not worth it!”
“Well, there are some things a true professional is able to swallow!” Leo seriously said, but Jack’s and Musa’s expressions turned ugly in an instant, their imagination running wild at Leo’s choice of words, “And I’m young and handsome, and I even got rid of my scars! And more importantly, you don’t know, but Musa witnessed it …”
Then he leaned closer to his friend and whispered, “I have the ability to kill immortals!”
Jack’s eyes widened in shock, but Musa interjected in a grave tone, “You have not tested it on a real immortal. In addition, the reaction immortals have is lightning fast, maybe even faster! You might not have a chance! It’s too much of a risk even if you wished to sacrifice yourself!”
Leo’s idea was rather simple. Even though he had to do a really, really old granny, he could be professional about it. In addition, the goal of doing her would be to enter her as deep as possible and discharge large amounts of lightning Qi directly in her abdomen when she expected it the least and killing her in the process. Contrary to most men in the world, after the reconstruction of his body he was confident in the size of his ‘equipment’ and all that was left was to get it deep enough and discharge enough lightning Qi.
“Ok, for the sake of the argument, let’s say you can or rather – will kill Swan. Then what?” Jack asked, “Why even risk it? It’s not like the Blood realm will be void of immortals.”
To what Leo said while awkwardly scratching his head, “Well, besides the fact that technically it would be our duty to use an opportunity as convenient as this one, the disappearance of two Blood lords might provide us with a chance to save the Hubert family members. If we manage to get to madam Hubert, we would have an immortal at our side already and then …”
It was clear he hadn’t thought through every detail, but both Jack and Musa immediately caught the crux of the problem.
“Two!!!?” They almost shouted at the same time.
“Of course!” Leo nonchalantly replied, “To deal with Goodman is much easier, don’t you think?”
For a while there was a chaotic shouting in the room most of which consisted of insults to Leo’s sanity and rude descriptions of his lacking mental capabilities, but soon the shouting turned into a discussion during which Musa and Jack eventually calmed down and in the end gave in. The simplicity of Leo’s plan was what worried them the most in addition to the risk he had to take. Actually the only one who risked at all was Leo, but he confidently kept pointing out that all it takes is for him to become a professional for a day and it would be fine.
The sky in the east was colored red when the three left “The Jennie’s place”. Musa found it unreal how easily Jack and Leo agreed to an insane plan, but even he looked forward to see how things will play out. Of course, the biggest problem was Leo’s ‘sacrifice’, but since the guy was so confident, both his friends could only give him sad thumbs up.
The next few days Leo spent by seriously preparing for the upcoming task. Buying appropriate clothing and visiting a barber was a given, but most of the time he spent cultivating and adjusting his mental state. Musa didn’t know and didn’t want to know what Leo was about to experience, but showed his understanding and mostly watched the inn and surroundings in case someone caught a wind of what they intended to do.
In the afternoon of the fourth day they received a message from Jack – a blank piece of white paper and that meant they were good to go. Leo washed himself, dressed up and confidently stepped out.
Musa, of course, would’ve wanted to back him up, but if there was a problem and if Leo failed, his task was to help Jack escape and then return to the Golden immortal realm.