Chapter 154: At that time, Lakis didn’t even know what that unexpected weird sensation was.
At that time, Lakis didn’t even know what that unexpected weird sensation was.
“Um, Mr. Lak…I mean, Mr., have I maybe done something bad to you without realizing it?”
Anne-Marie was quite confused, but she apologized to Lakis first anyway. And she tried to go along with his stubborn request of not calling his name casually.
“I’m sorry if I did anything that made you feel uncomfortable.”
The part of Anne-Marie’s personality which could be so pure and kind that it made the people around her frustrated was very obvious here. But even if she did so, Anne-Marie wasn’t intimidated or frightened by his fierce words or actions.
“But I still have to check where you got injured. It will be dangerous if it worsens.”
When she worked at the clinic, she dealt with a lot of stubborn patients like Lakis, so she had a lot of experience and familiarity with this.
Anne-Marie firmly tore off the blanket covering Lakis. Naturally, the energy around Lakis became more turbulent.
“I don’t need it so get o…”
But for some reason, just as Lakis opened his mouth to say something more to Anne-Marie, he paused.
Anne-Marie suspiciously looked down at Lakis who had gone quiet.
“Ms. Anne-Marie?”
The reason for his silence was apparent the very next moment. It was because Yuri had just come in through the open door.
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s nothing, Ms. Yuri.”
As soon as Yuri asked, Lakis replied like he had been anticipating that question.
“She is just taking a look at my injury like she did last night.”
Lakis’ expression and tone suddenly turned as gentle as a lamb.
He took away the blanket in Anne-Marie’s hand in a natural manner and covered himself again like earlier.
Anne-Marie watched Lakis act like this with slight absurdity in her eyes.
And she was wondering why he suddenly grew quiet, could he have noticed Ms. Yuri was coming?
Anne-Marie turned to look at Yuri, feeling like she finally understood how children who tattletale felt.
“Ms. Yuri, that’s not…”
However, Anne-Marie didn’t continue speaking and her sentence cut off in the middle. The thought occurred to her that Ms. Yuri might get worried for no reason if she told her about Lakis’ careless outing.
But actually, Yuri heard Lakis leaving in the middle of the night, so she already knew about his outing. And she had even realized why Lakis and Anne-Marie were acting like this. Not only that, she had heard Lakis’ sharp response to Anne-Marie some moments ago.
“That’s not it…I still haven’t done more examination.”
In the end, Anne-Marie hid her dissatisfaction and replied evasively like that. But she didn’t plan on letting Lakis sneakily get away with not getting any examination.
Anne-Marie made a look of determination and ripped the blanket off Lakis again. Instantly, Lakis’ gaze grew sharp, but she did not retreat.
“Patient-nim, you have to get treated properly to recover faster. Only then can Ms. Yuri relax and feel at ease, don’t you think so?”
Her additional words also helped to rein Lakis in a little.
“Mr. Lakis, Ms. Anne-Marie is right.”
Yuri walked deeper into the room and took Anne-Marie’s side. Lakis had been exuding a sharp aura ever since Anne-Marie took away his blanket but once Yuri approached, his gaze softened a ton.
“Don’t give the person who is helping you out of their goodwill too much trouble.”
At Yuri’s words, Anne-Marie turned to look at her like she was touched.
Lakis furrowed his brows in dissatisfaction for a moment. After hearing what Yuri said, he seemed to also be aware that he had been rough to Anne-Marie earlier.
Lakis changed in a flash and turned to look at Yuri with droopy eyes, like a dog drenched in rain.
“Yes, I won’t do that anymore.”
Anne-Marie’s lips flapped open and close in surprise when she saw Lakis suddenly acting sad, like he had a split personality.
Like before, she wanted to say something to Yuri but couldn’t decide what so for now, she put the conflict in her mind aside and began to examine Lakis.
Lakis obediently allowed Anne-Marie to touch him and he was so docile to the point that it was hard to believe he was the same person. But from time to time, his eyes twitched, or he clenched and unclenched his fist like he was suppressing something.
Still, because Yuri was next to him, his murderous intent didn’t leak out, but Yuri’s sharp eyes captured Lakis’ strange behavior.
She watched the two people in front of her with narrowed eyes.
* * *
It seemed Lakis had been busy all night with things he needed to do but Yuri also had work to do tonight.
So around sundown, Yuri left Lakis in Anne-Marie’s house and went out by herself. As she ran through the shadows with the dark-blue sky behind, several thoughts floated around in her mind.
Yuri didn’t know Lakis’ plans but she felt he might be going out often in secret like he did yesterday. But she didn’t plan on stopping him.
As of now, Yuri felt they should each deal with what they had to do. Honestly, Lakis should know that Yuri had sensitive ears so he must have known from the start that he couldn’t hide the fact that he was going out.
The fact that he was still sneaking out at night despite knowing that was cute in its own way.
After Lakis took a look at Odin yesterday, Odin no longer acted strange. That didn’t mean Odin was fully recovered, he still had a gap in his memory.
However, Yuri was satisfied with that much improvement and stopped Lakis because she felt it might be dangerous if Lakis worked on his brain any further.
Then she suddenly began to wonder if Anne-Marie’s power could heal this kind of mental damage too.
‘On that note, what is up with Lakis’ reaction to Anne-Marie.’
And so, while thinking about various things, she arrived at her destination.
At some point, the sky had gotten completely dark.
Fwip!
Yuri leapt off the ground and landed lightly on the high wall in front of her. A tall spire towering into the dark sky came into her sight.
Before Yuri was the East’s very own Alchemist Tower.
Yuri’s mind pulled up the contents of the request she got not too long ago.
[An investigation of the Alchemist Tower. Proceed alongside the previous request. Will double the advance payment.]
She had not even completed the request to get a philosopher’s stone, yet she had already gotten the next quest. It had never happened before. And definitely…
‘The distance wasn’t that far away.’
There was a close link between Yuri and the marks she created. So she could roughly tell whether the mark came from afar or nearby.
But for some reason, this time, the client sent the request from a place that was incredibly closer to Yuri than before. Some time ago, she had a passing thought about investigating her client, but she never put it into action all this time.
Strangely enough, things that took her attention away kept popping up and on the other hand, she didn’t particularly want to break her rule and investigate her client’s background. But at this point, it would be strange to just let it go.
‘That’s after I complete this request though.’
Yuri jumped down, letting herself fall gently.
Even without this, she had been wanting to investigate herself because she had a few questions pop up in her mind ever since she saw Damon use alchemy up-close. So this was actually a good opportunity.
Surprisingly enough, she couldn’t see any other security devices installed around the wall. The land around the Alchemist Tower was very large.
Yuri approached the tower, avoiding the dangerous devices hidden all over in the ground.
There appeared to be three doors.
But judging from the energy she could sense from them, she felt it would be dangerous if she were to touch them carelessly.
Yuri looked at the tower from top to bottom.
Indeed, the Alchemist Tower was worth its prestige; even the external wall of the building was exuding a dangerous energy. However, there seemed to be no device installed at the topmost part of the tower. Then again, to be fair, the average person wouldn’t be able to get all the way up there.
Shhuk!
Yuri shot a long thread to the top. Then she grabbed it and reached the top of the Tower in one swoop.
There, she saw items that seemed to be observation equipment lying around. However, the door that led down the Tower was shut tight and there were even some traps installed on it.
A thin thread extended from Yuri’s hand and went into the device. A soft rattling sound emerged from within. What she was doing required precise movement, so it took her about 30 seconds to dismantle the device.
Click!
Yuri quietly opened the door and went inside the Alchemist Tower.
‘This feeling is…’
And the moment she passed through the door, Yuri’s eyes sharpened.
A sticky energy, invisible to the naked eye, clung to her skin. This feeling was certainly familiar to her.
‘Just like the Carnot lab.’
After a brief pause, Yuri began walking again.
Even though it was late, there were still some people in the Alchemist Tower. However, they were probably each doing their own research because most of them seemed to have locked themselves in a room, so Yuri didn’t feel the need to pay much attention to them.
And after a while, Yuri ended up seeing some familiar faces in the Alchemist Tower.
“Come on, is this really the best idea? That was a close call earlier, we almost ran into someone else.”
Yuri stuck to a shadowy corner of the ceiling and watched the people who were passing in front of her.
“We are moving in secret right now. I mean, you’re always boasting about how you know everything about the tower, there should be some secret passage only you know about.”
“What did you say, you punk? You better get lost right now if you’re going to say nonsense like that. In the first place, whose fault is it that I am here at this time when my body is in this condition.”
The people quietly arguing with each other were none other than Damon and Genos.