Path to Transcendence

Chapter 696: How Much?

Celestine POV

The plan went much more smoothly than she intended. She expected Julius to fight back, or at least attempt to escape after Hayden had his men take him. Perhaps he realized there was no hope of escape and allowed them to take him, even allowing them to remove his storage ring without a struggle.

Then again, she felt a little uneasy by how unbothered he was during this whole thing. It could have been an attempt to look calm and was simply an act, but she didn’t feel panic or fear from his aura.

Although she wasn’t able to get much from his aura. He was very good at keeping it under control and preventing any leaks. He was also a Tier 4, and from what she could tell, he was young. This was why she was interested in him in the first place. The other reason was the fact that Kaito seemed to like him. Kaito didn’t really like anyone. Aside from his immediate family, the man was known to be cold and ruthless.

Even his brother and other clan members weren’t safe from him.

Yet Julius was not only introduced to little Lora but also welcomed back a couple of days later. She had a feeling this was why Hayden had proposed kidnapping him. He was jealous and bitter that his own brother seemed to like a stranger more than him. Then again, this exact behavior was why she liked to work with Hayden.

He was vindictive and simple-minded, but he was predictable. It made controlling him simple and made her job easy.

It wasn’t like she thought this kidnapping was a bad idea either. If they could somehow get the boy to help them against Kaito, it would be well worth it. But even if they couldn’t, she had a few questions for him.

While they had done a thorough investigation about him, she hadn’t found any actual information about who he was or where he came from. The mannerisms and level of skill he demonstrated with his aura hinted that he received training from somewhere. His advanced tier was another huge hint. Normal teens didn’t become Tier 4 without special conditions.

She needed to figure out if he belonged to another organization or was the scion of a powerful family. They were so close to completing their mission and couldn’t afford to offend someone who could make things difficult for them.

They also needed to gain Kaito’s support. Despite having Hayden and his uncle helping her, Clan Yoshu still wasn’t within her or her family’s control. Kaito Yoshu was too respected and too feared within the clan. It didn’t help her that Kaito had the support of his father, Ryoku Yoshu.

Ryoku Yoshu wasn’t involved in the clan’s day-to-day operations, but he had always favored Kaito. So while other clan leaders wanted to throw their support behind Celestine, they were worried about what the old man would do if he found out the extent of their dealings.

So if she could get Julius to agree to work with her, it would make things a lot simpler.

Celestine was being pressured by the higher-ups to get things done quickly. Other clans and sects within Corvus have been retaliating; it was within their expectations, but that didn’t make it simple to deal with.

She needed to get Clan Yoshu under her control. Several other leading clans of Goldmere have already agreed to her terms, but Kaito was the last holdout. The Golden Cauldron Sect wasn’t able to exert any pressure on the clan either.

While they were practically the city’s overlord in all matters, they weren’t willing to go too far. They also had too many factions for this kind of work to be done efficiently.

The elders from the sect allied with her believed that if they pressured or forced Clan Yoshu, the people of the city would become worried and distrustful of them. If that were to happen, they believed it would ruin their carefully tailored visage of a fair and compassionate sect. This was something they weren’t willing to risk, no matter how much they offered the sect.

If she had been able to get a hold of that spirit, she would have been able to gain a point of leverage over Kaito. Unfortunately, she learned of its existence and potential use too late. By the time she confirmed its potential, it was already in route, and Selene hadn’t been able to find a way to steal it.

Not only that, but Kaito must have been truly desperate because he let the spirit bond to Lora on the same day. That closed down that particular weakness, and her best way to force Kaito to work with her was off the board. Not to mention, she would no longer be able to suck gold out of him for his daughterʼs expensive treasures.

That really only left a couple of options. And that was why she agreed to capture the boy. She needed to get more options, and the boy might be able to provide them.

Once she ensured Julius was in a fully contained room and wouldn’t be going anywhere, she went out and found Hayden and Selene waiting for her. The dull man was looking arrogant, as usual, and she gave him a stern glare.

“You should have waited to use force until I had a chance to talk with him,” she reprimanded him.

He looked unbothered and shrugged. “He was never going to listen to you there. At least now we can ask him for information and maybe even force him to work for us.”

“And if he won’t because he carries resentment?”’

Hayden shrugged again. “Then we kill him.”

Celestine held back a sharp retort and maintained her composure. She looked over at Selene. “Did he tell you anything about his family?”

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The younger woman didn’t respond right away; she was looking at the ground, and her guilt was apparent. She clearly didn’t want to betray the boy, but still did so. However, Celestine needed information, not pity. She reached over and, with two fingers, gripped Selene’s chin and forced her to look at her.

“Did he say anything about his family?” she repeated.

Selene shook her head. “He said they were dead.”

“And you believed him?”

Selene nodded.

“See? He’s a nobody. Now, can you let me have some alone time with him? I need to ask him some things,” Hayden said with a malicious smile on his face.

She snapped her head at the manchild. “Don’t touch him until I figure out more. If I find out you did, there will be repercussions, understood?”

The man seemed to understand her seriousness, and despite his unwillingness, he nodded in agreement.

Only then did she level her gaze at Selene, looking for any signs of deception. “Did he say how long ago their deaths were?”

Selene narrowed her shoulders, trying to appear small. “No, but I got the impression he wasn’t close to them.”

Celestine cursed. That made things a little more difficult. She was almost certain he was from a powerful family, clan, or sect, but without any information, it would be hard to find out who he was. But knowing his parents were dead would help narrow down the list; she would cross-examine all of the scions who had deceased parents and see if he fit any of their descriptions.

He looked young, somewhere between fourteen and eighteen years of age. So that should also help narrow it down.

“Go check with your uncle about that issue we talked about. I want it solved before the end of the week, understand?” she said with a glance toward Hayden.

He seemed a bit upset that she was basically ordering him to leave, but he’d learned his lesson about questioning her and left promptly.

Then she turned to Selene. “Go back and start preparations for the vault. I want you to be ready.”

She looked up at her, lips pressed tightly together. “What about my family? Will you—”

“Yes, I will tell them that you did a good job.”

Selene sighed with relief and nodded before turning around and leaving Celestine.

Only when she was confident that she was alone did she head back towards the room where young Julius was being held and open the door. The boy was lounging in the corner of the room, a bored expression on his face while he stared at her.

Now that it was only the two of them, she finally allowed herself to begin using some of the abilities she kept hidden from the others. While it wasn’t her main branch of skills, she had a small affinity for mind magic. She didn’t want to reveal such things to Hayden, the man was an idiot most times, but he wasn’t completely stupid, there was a chance that he would have detected any tampering she did with mind magic.

But with someone who was a tier below her, she felt a lot more comfortable using it and slowly extended a tendril of mind magic to Julius. She wasn’t the strongest at reading minds and controlling people, but she focused on subtler applications. Small nudges here and there, as well as the occasional flash of emotions or thoughts that hinted at what they were thinking about.

At least that was how she normally did things, but the moment she reached out and touched Julius’s mind, it was like slamming into a steel wall.

“Ahh, you have mind magic,” Julius said with an amused laugh. He was shackled to the wall, but he still somehow made it feel like he was looking down on her.

She stood there, slightly panicking. She messed up. She should have been a little more careful and taken the time to construct something better. Though she hadn’t expected such sturdy defenses. Not only was her attempt thwarted, but it was detected, and that was something only people trained in mind magic from an early age were able to do; even then, most people would have never sensed it.

“So you are from a powerful family,” she said, desperately trying to maintain her poise.

“Nope, but I did have a friend who helped me construct some mental defenses. You were quite sneaky, but alas, it seems you aren’t as skilled as they are,” he said tauntingly.

She held back a retort, already knowing he was just trying to annoy her. “I have a proposition for you,” she finally said calmly as if she hadn’t even tried to sneak into his mind moments before.

“Oh? And what kind of proposition?”

“From the reports I received, it would appear Lord Kaito and his daughter seem to like you.”

“And?”

“And I want you to give Lord Kaito’s daughter something.”

“You want me to give her something? What, like a gift? A cookie?”

“You don’t have to concern yourself with that. Just give it to her, and we will let you go,” she explained calmly.

“And why would I do that?” he asked with a scoff.

“Because you will die if you don’t. Or worse, I will give you to my family’s researchers, and they can use you for some kind of project. Or maybe I will tell them you have a special ability to communicate with spirits and they can do something with that.”

He scrunched his nose and grunted unhappily.

She nodded when it seemed like he understood what was going on and removed a thick syringe from her storage ring. It was a little far, but she couldn’t risk him spilling her secret that she had mind magic. Before he could react, she pressed her knee over him, making sure he wasn’t able to move, and then jammed the syringe deep into his chest.

“This is a Heartburst Seed, meaning that if I want to, I can detonate it whenever I want. Any attempts to mess with it or deactivate it will automatically trigger it. The explosion will release an explosive charge throughout your body and release a deadly poison that will destroy any attempts at healing,” she explained.

However, she didn’t like that he didn’t seem bothered by this either. Rather, he looked at the hole in his chest and hummed. “So you’re saying if I don’t do what you ask, you will activate this and kill me?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm. And how do I avoid that option?” he asked curiously.

“By doing what I tell you, not only will you live, but I will generously compensate you for your efforts.”

“How generous?”

“Enough that you would be able to buy enough treasures to advance to Tier 5,” she said with a smirk.

“Oh, so it’s not important, huh?”

The smirk was wiped from her face. Sheʼd given him another piece of information that she didnʼt need to. “Are you going to do it?”

“What do you want me to give her? You can’t expect me to poison or kill her. She’s a child,” he said with a deadpanned expression.

Celestine nodded. “Don’t worry about that, I don’t kill children. Just give it to her, and I’ll remove the Heartburst Seed as well as make you a very wealthy person,” she offered before standing up and heading for the door.

“Think about it, I’ll come back later to hear your answer,” she said over her shoulder.