NoGift

Harlequin opened the door of the cottage and gestured for her to enter.  He didn"t look at the guy and bypa.s.sed him.  The first thing she noticed inside was not the decorations nor the furniture but the woman standing in the middle of the living room.  

The woman was tall and willowy.  Her dark purple hair was tied in a long braid behind her back.  Her eyes which seemed to be out of focus were the lightest blue in color.  Argent wondered if the woman was blind or if her eyes just had a little bit of a problem.  She only thought about it for a bit and then casted it away from her mind.  Because frankly, she didn"t really particularly care.  

"His Holiness is waiting at the dining room.  Please follow me," the woman said.

She didn"t wait for Argent"s answer and just turned around and walk.  With her att.i.tude and body language, it could be seen clearly that she didn"t like Argent.  Maybe there"s even a little bit of hate.  

Argent just shrugged.  Being hated by one of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Pope"s minions wasn"t really a big deal for her.  After all, she also had some kind of prejudiced against the people who mindlessly follow someone like the Pope.  So she just followed the purple haired woman to the dining room.

The room was directly beside the living room so they immediately arrived there.  There was a table full of sumptous meals.  Sitting at the head of the table was a man with golden blond hair and a pair of eyes as blue as a cloudless sky.  That irritating gentle smile was plastered on his face.

Lucern Faust.   

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d responsible for the abduction of her mother.  All for the reason that he wanted either her or her sister to get the sword of the dragon king.  In exchange for the sword, he would return their mother to them.  That would be a fairly good plan.  If he was a useless doormat who would just follow whatever he said and wouldn"t even dare to fight back.  Sadly, she"s not.  And Argent doubted if this man didn"t know that.

Based on their short encounter in Shandra, this guy definitely had an inkling on how her character was.  If he hadn"t, then he wouldn"t stage that little drama - pretending to be some small time priest, telling her information about that pig Bishop, and showing her how she could enter the church there unnoticed.  The only reason he did that was because he somehow found out that she was there to deal with that Bishop.

That was still a mystery to Argent.  Although now that she thought about it, maybe him being there was really no coincidence at all.  He wanted to gather the three artifacts left by the three mythical races.  According to the legend, only a child of all could gather the three artifacts.  Seeing as she, and also her father, both managed to get the sword of the dragon king, this "child of all" thing obviously had something to do with the main bloodline of the Blackbournes.  Argent already had a guess on what could that mean.  But that was besides the point.  The point was, this b.a.s.t.a.r.d knew about it. 

Going by that fact, maybe he had long been observing her and Aurum.  Not allowing the sale of sPhones in Shandra might be a part of his plot to get them there.  Then he staged that little drama, probably to personally gauge her character.  If that was really the case, then him being there was definitely not a mere coincidence.

This man definitely had a complex mind, making him a very annoying opponent.  Hateful b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Welcome Lord Blackbourne," the Pope greeted with a smile.

"Cut the c.r.a.p.  Where"s my mother?" Argent said, going straight to the point.

"Please, be patient.  We still have a lot of time.  Should we have lunch first?"

Argent sneered.  "Eating with you, I"m afraid I"ll just vomit everything."

There was a slight chuckle from behind, all three looked at Harlequin.  Argent narrowed her eyes at him, as if in warning.  The purple haired woman frowned, obviously upset.  The Pope only glanced at him for a second and then turned his gaze back to Argent.

"Sorry, I think I"m catching a cold," Harlequin said, at the same time giving a fake cough.

The Pope ignored him and said to Argent instead, "Then you can just sit there while I eat.  I haven"t had breakfast, you see."

After he said that, he really did start eating.  The purple haired woman stood beside him and started serving him food.

Argent sat on the other end of the table.  There was still about an hour before their plan started.  She might as well gather more information from this b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"You really don"t plant on eating?" the Pope asked.

Argent smirked.  "As I"ve said, it would only make me vomit."

The Pope only smiled at that, as if he didn"t mind the insult.

But Limos was truly upset and angry because of the duke"s att.i.tude.  How dare he talked to His Holiness like that?  He had no right.  To all the Apostles, His Holiness was their savior.  He was their light.  He was the reason they could live the life they had right now.  No one, absolutely no one, had the right to insult him like that.

But what upset her more was the fact that His Holiness seemed to not mind the duke"s att.i.tude.  She could even feel a hint of pampering in him.  Which she couldn"t really understand.  Making her dislike towards the duke grew even more.

Of course, Argent noticed the hated gaze directed at her.  "Your follower over there seems to not like me very much.  You should warn her.  I"m a bit moody, you see.  If she continues to look at me like that, I might just throw this knife at her," she said picking up the knife on the table and playing with it.

Argent raised her head and looked at the purple haired woman then grinned.  

Limos felt a cold s.h.i.+ver down her spine seeing that grin.

"Limos, go and check the situation of the d.u.c.h.ess.  See if there"s no residual Mana left from your Gift."

Argent"s hold on the knife tightened when she heard that.  The look she was giving the woman changed and became absolutely murderous.  So this was the one who put her mother to sleep?  Giving her nightmares after nightmares?

Limos could literally feel the threat coming from the duke.  It"s like he wouldn"t only throw the knife at her, he would stab her again and again until all her innards came out of her body.  How could a NoGift exert this much bloodl.u.s.t?

"Yes, Your Holiness," she just said to the Pope and went to the direction of the room where the d.u.c.h.ess was sleeping.

"Don"t be mad at her.  She only did what I asked her to," the Pope said eating a piece of meat.

"So are you saying I should be mad at you?" Argent said full of sarcasm.  "Don"t worry, I"m mad enough to want to kill you without even knowing that fact."

She took a deep breath to calm herself.  No, she not only wanted to kill him.  She wanted to hack him into pieces.  And then feed his body parts to wild animals.  That"s how murderous she was feeling right now.

"That"s too bad then."  Lucern smiled at the silver haired teenager.  "Because you probably won"t have any chance to do that."

Yes.  Hacking him into pieces was definitely not enough.