Chapter 458 - Lauriels Demands (1/2)
Terry had been feeling on edge ever since he heard the masked young man mention the Alchemists. He couldn't wait to get off the ship. This was why as soon as the ship docked close to the land, he did not waste time and immediately left it.
He returned to his car and drove back to the Continental Hotel. He almost breached the speed limit and got an automatic speeding ticket.
”You did a great job,” Lauriel said as he patted Terry's back. It was because the young man entered the study looking so out of breath. It could easily be guessed that from his car to the elevator, he ran to reach the penthouse as soon as possible.
”They know about the Alchemists!” Terry exclaimed many times. ”They are very suspicious. Crazy! What kind of people are they? How can they know so much!?”
”Leave it to us. We will take care of it. Now, take a rest. What mattered right now is that they believed Aleksis is gone, that she is held captive by somebody who wants something from Alaric Rhionen,” Lauriel declared. ”Now is the time to send our demands to them.”
Marion and Endo nodded at the same time.
”So far, out of the 15 assassins Rosalien has mentioned, we have already seen 5. Takeshi and Mischa are people we already encountered before, then there is Rosalien whom we have captured. There is also a Korean assassin and another one wearing a mask.” Marion wrote everything on the glass panel. She continued, ”Last is Alaric Rhionen himself. He is just as we thought, 45 years old, and we also finally managed to see his face.”
”Well, I saw him on the night train 18 years ago. But of course, humans can change a lot if given such a long period. I didn't recognize him at all,” Lauriel replied.
Just like Terry, he was also against Aleksis being in a relationship with a much older man. The girl was from the most powerful and influential alchemist family. He believed that she should be with someone of equal status.
”Alright, Marion, you should get ready. We will immediately hand 'Aleksis' over to Alaric.” Lauriel announced, looking at Marion.
The woman nodded and immediately left. While she was walking out of the study, her eyes met Jean's. He looked like there was something he wanted to say. In the end, though, he chose not to voice them out.
Marion could only sigh and leave. Jean did not know what to do. He was still in a dilemma and was having trouble deciding how to deal with Billie who asked him to come back to her, and Marion who was now starting to enter his heart.
***
Lost in his thoughts, Alaric stood on the deck, staring at the billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy in the night sky. He found that the constellations Altair and Vega were still there, shining as bright as when he and Aleksis made love on his catamaran ship. Those two were their favorite constellations.
He hoped the people who captured Aleksis did not treat her badly. If they touched her - even if it was only a strand of her hair, he would make sure to inflict them a punishment far more painful than what the Black River group received two months ago.
”Sir, there's already a demand coming in,” Pavel spoke, beating Alaric out of his reverie. He took out the communication device that Takeshi received from his captors and then handed it to Alaric.
There were only a few codes written there, stating that they had to enter Darknet to receive the video messages. Alaric nodded. Pavel immediately took out his laptop and opened the message in Darknet.
”Aleksis ....!!” Alaric could not help but cry out when he saw what was in the video. His wife was locked up in a dark room and she looked like she had been crying.
While he was relieved to see that Aleksis was neither hurt nor mistreated, it was still very hard for him to accept that he had to watch her crying face.