Chapter 84

“Mr . Lakis . I’m back . ”

As soon as Yuri got home, she greeted Lakis in a manner that she was now somewhat used to .

“It’s late . ”

“I came back early though…”

But as she walked into the house, she couldn’t help but stop . Her red eyes were fixed on Lakis’ face as he came into her sight .

Feeling Yuri’s gaze, Lakis tilted his head and asked .

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No…just cuz . ”

The moment his low voice reached her ears, she felt slight goosebumps on her neck for some reason . Sensing his doubt, Yuri simply replied . However, the reason she was looking at him with such an unfamiliar gaze was definitely not ‘just because’ .

She didn’t know why but somehow, she felt the current Lakis was a little different from how he was when she left the house . But she couldn’t figure out exactly what was different .

As she continued to lock eyes with him, a subtle sense of tension seemed to crawl up from her toes . The faint pressure that usually circled around Lakis also felt heavier than before .

Step

Yuri calmly watched Lakis as he approached . His nicelyshaped lips parted slightly .

“I washed up first while I was waiting . ”

A low, deep voice flowed into her ears .

“Ms . Yuri, you should also…”

However, Lakis wasn’t able to finish his sentence . He suddenly groaned the next moment and shut his mouth . Yuri watched as he knit his brows and quickly brought his hand to cover his mouth .

Drip, drip, drip…

And she also watched as surging dark red blood squeezed past his fingers and dropped to the floor, one after the other .

For a moment, Yuri held her breath without even realizing it .

“Mr . Lakis…”

Her eyes had a rare hint of agitation in them .

“What happened?”

The sight of Lakis’ eyes narrowing and distorting as if he was enduring the pain was laid out before her . The moment she saw it, her heart began to beat just a little faster .

“Did you get hurt earlier?”

She thought he might have gotten injured when he was looking for her in the shopping district during the day, so she asked .

At that, Lakis met Yuri’s gaze and said in a calm voice .

“No . This…it’s nothing . ”

His voice and expression were composed as if he was trying to reassure her . He looked like he thought nothing of what just happened .

“The floor’s dirty now because of me . Sorry . ”

With the way he was acting, someone might think they hallucinated the sight of him vomiting blood . Suddenly, Yuri grew suspicious whether the reason he already washed up was because of this as well .

“Is it really nothing?”

She asked again but like before, Lakis nodded his head to agree .

“Yes, it’s nothing . ”

“You threw up blood yet it’s nothing?”

At that moment, Lakis’ gaze changed slightly . He calmly stared at Yuri’s face in front of him .

Her expression was still as blank as before and her voice flowing into his ear was as monotonous and calm as usual . But somehow, Lakis felt Yuri was a little angry right now .

But oddly enough…

As he watched Yuri like this, his mood grew a little better . For a moment, an obscure light flashed through Lakis’ eyes . Still, he didn’t want to worry her, so he slowly opened his mouth and added an explanation .

“This is a temporary thing…it won’t happen anymore . ”

Yuri quietly stared at Lakis’ face as if she was trying to verify the truth of that statement . Then after a while, she opened her tightly shut lips and said .

“Go back in and wash up . I’ll clean up the floor . ”

Maybe it was just his imagination, but still, he felt Yuri’s mood had lightened a little . Lakis stared into the face looking at him for a while and soon enough, he went to do as she asked .

* * *

That night, Lakis looked down at Yuri sleeping next to him with a deep look in his eyes .

‘…this is a little dangerous . ’

He slowly swept up her hair which was sprawled over the bed and fiddled with it . Soon, Lakis pulled it closer and brought it to his lips .

Every time he saw her, he could feel a hard to control desire growing bigger and bigger . Although he wanted to hold her preciously in his arms and cherish her, he also wanted to put his trace on her from head to toe and make a mess out of her .

Lately, he felt he was almost stepping onto the latter side .

‘But doing that would be really scary . ’

His moonlit blue eyes stayed on Yuri’s sleeping face for quite some time . And after a while, Lakis once again took hold of the small hand on top of the bed .

The face still sleeping defenselessly before him was both lovely and annoying .

Lakis pulled her hand to himself and like he did to her hair, he gently kissed her hand .

“I hope you don’t make me wait too long…”

Lakis began to think of how he could reduce that waiting time . It was another night where he alone could not fall asleep .

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Part 13: Make love sweet & salty .

–

A major investigation was launched over the explosions that enveloped the shopping district . It had occurred at a busy hour so there were a lot of casualties and many of those casualties were nobles .

They hadn’t found the culprit yet, but it was found that the substance used to cause the widespread explosions was an alchemized item, so the Alchemist Tower was caught in a crisis .

Naturally, Damon was twice as busy .

“Those damn old fogeys . ”

Damon was just coming out of a summon from the Central Council .

His face had crumpled menacingly . This was because those old men only knew how to talk yet they were badgering him to track down the alchemist who made the explosives immediately .

In the Alchemist Tower, Damon was one of the most deeply connected alchemists with the Central Council . He was the successor to the great noble Salvatore family and also exerted substantial influence in the Alchemist Tower so perhaps you could only call it natural .

So if the Central Council had any little thing related to the Alchemist Tower, they immediately called Damon to bother him . Of course, Damon was very annoyed by this .

The Central Council took this incident as a challenge to the nobles . In the past, they looked down on commerce & trade but now, it had been a long time since the nobility dipped into the business sphere .

The actual owners of the shopping malls where this incident took place were also nobles . So actually, it would be weirder if these stubborn and unbending old men were not outraged .

Most of all, this incident resulted in massive casualties .

Because Damon was also there, he was shaken at the thought of what might have happen if he was directly caught up in that explosion . Of course, even the Salvatore family did not plan on just letting this incident pass .

‘Dammit . Why are they leaving me with the job of tracking down the culprit though?’

Damon called for a carriage and began heading to the Alchemist Tower while spewing curses . The Central Council were overlooking an important fact .

‘It’s not only people in the Alchemist Tower that can use alchemy . ’

Although they made a great fuss and exaggerated about ancient alchemy being revived in the East, Damon knew . He knew that the alchemy of this generation was completely different from ancient alchemy .

The reason eastern alchemists were able to make magical and novel items was because of the ‘blessed stone’ .

It was an unknown gemstone with mystical powers .

Even in the Alchemist Tower, only a handful people knew of its existence and they were people with deep connections to the Central Council, Damon included .

The gemstone was usually ground into powder and processed with commonly used jewels then entered into the Tower . Jewels were stronger than other items, so they were regularly used for alchemy refined items .

So other alchemists did not know that the stone powder mixed into those jewels ignited a mysterious power which was actually the source of alchemy . However, alchemists must have that material in order to create a mysterious phenomenon but on the other hand…

As long as an ordinary person had that stone, they could recreate what the current alchemy was able to do . Of course, the strength of their power would differ according to an individual’s ability which is why some alchemists like Damon were very well-known .

‘But I don’t know where in the world the Central Council found such a stone . ’

Damon looked outside the window of the carriage and frowned .

Honestly, it didn’t matter much to him at first . He thought the thing called the ‘blessed stone’ was amazing, and he was proud that he could show off his genius talent through it .

But as the interference from the Central Council became more and more severe, he began to think he couldn’t put up with this anymore because it was so sh**ty .

That was why when he heard that something called the ‘philosopher’s stone’ would be at the secret auction this time, he went there personally .