The KariBlanc Group's Central Building was a three-story building.
Its Ground Floor was used for commerce. Its First Floor was used for brokerage and special transactions—as well as the storage of regular Items.
As for the Second Floor… It was used for three major purposes.
One was to store the best of products. The second was adding the finishing touches for these products.
And as for the last reason, it lay behind the door that Aldred was about to open.
The Manufacturing stations existed in the bulkier half of the building that served as an extension to the back.
Since the building had a lot of space—especially behind it, it sssnt surprising that manufacturing occurred there.
That place was also off-limits to those without access, but compared to that, this place was the real deal.
The Holy of Holies.
'I haven't taken permission from father to do this, but…'
Aldred knew what his father would say in this situation
Right now, there was no room for hesitation.
"Right this way, Sir Ralyks."
Despite what he would have normally done, Aldred allowed the man to enter first, before finally proceeding behind him.
As the door creaked and closed behind them, yet another tension filled the air.
Though, no one could tell where it came from.
*******
The room that the two men entered was completely dark, save for one source of light that glowed even in such deep darkness.
Both of the men walked to the source of light, as if attracted to it for some reason.
"This is the Enchanted Tracker. It's imbued with the best kind of Tracking Magic."
Aldred knew this thing was incredibly powerful—with a failure rate of 0 percent.
Tracking Magic was very difficult to use, and it required a lot of Mana to pull off.
Naturally, the first criteria also applied to this gleaming orb. However, the initial problem—the difficulty of Tracking Magic—had completely been solved.
"All we have to do now is track your beloved's ring."
"She's not my… never mind." Aldred could hear mumbles from the man in the mask, but he couldn't quite pick it up.
Rather than straining his ears, he gave up on it.
"So… you use this Item to track down the merchandise you sell, huh?"
A somewhat dangerous tone suddenly echoed in the air.
Aldred nearly jumped as he watched Raklys take a few steps forward to closely observe the Orb.
"I-It's not like we ever do it without permission. That'll be a violation of our contract." He quickly protested.
"Do you really care about all that when it comes to business within the Black Market…?"
Aldred was very helpless in the presence of Ralyks' accusation.
The Group had a lot of protocols, and one of them was the non-use of Tracking Magic on the Enchanted Items that they sold.
The only exception was by special request, and even then, none of the customers were brought up here.
They were like only remain in their lounges on the First Floor until the job was complete.
However, Aldred seemed Ralyks to be a reasonable man.
… A dangerous one too.
"If we were to use Tracking Magic, the item that is being tracked will react to the influx of energy resonating with it. In essence, it would be a reaction you noticed."
A keen user of their Enchanted Item would find it suspicious that the thing was glowing for no reason.
It wouldn't take very long for them to figure out that it was tracking the Item.
And once they did, their eyes would unanimously turn to the one who sold them the Item.
"It would be a terrible business move to keep track of all Items, even if they were fine with invading privacy."
Aldred didn't think he had to explain all of these to Raklys, since he knew the man had a very strong sense of business.
Still, he did anyway.
"I understand. Alright then… find my White Amber."
Wherever the ring was, the user existed there was well. Aldred knew this logic already.
"Alright then. Let us begin…"
Aldred pulled out a piece of paper, seemingly out of nowhere.
This piece was a receipt of purchase—one that was kept for purposes like this
Even though the two items were a gift, Aldred still had to keep it for the sake of record-keeping and transaction management.
"Here I go, Sir."
Aldred placed the receipt on the glowing orb, and all of a sudden… the bright sphere began to grow brighter.
It seemed as bright as the sun at some point, filling the entire room with white light.
~VWUUUM~
The orb pulsated, creating warbling sounds as the energy that swelled within it began to ooze out.
A small vortex of wind formed around it, causing the room to tremble a bit.
The two men remained in their positions, though. This was merely a process, and then both of them were guaranteed of their safety.
And then, after a few more seconds of making noise, the sphere finally died down.
~BZZTZZ!~
A small glitchy sound echoed within the room, and an overhead panel suddenly appeared above the orb.
[Registered Item Located]
[Enchanted Item (Grade 6): White Amber has been located. Coordinates will be displayed below.]
[Tap For More]
There was initial silence in the room, but Aldred proceeded to tap the panel, and it fully displayed the map of the Black Market.
Several buildings lay in sight—almost like a one would see in a map displayed on a mobile app.
The KariBlanc Group gave off a 'blue' glow, which was meant to signify the start-point of the journey.
And then, in some obscure area within the same Black Market Area… there was a 'red' dot.
That meant only one thing.
"Your Enchanted Item is over here, Sir Ralyks." Aldred said with a relieved smile.
The masked man said nothing.
Aldred could sense something in the atmosphere that brought about unease, so he decided the best thing to do was to keep talking.
"It doesn't seem to be moving, so we can safely guess the wielder is stationary—at least, for now."
There was still no word from the dark-cloaked one.
Aldred had no choice but to ask the question that now burned in his mind.
"What would you like to do now… Sir Ralyks?"
The question drifted in the air for a moment, until finally, the one in question finally broke the silence with his deep and commanding voice.
"What else? I'll find whoever dared to steal from me… and make them pay for it."
Aldred felt a chill go up his spine as soon as he heard those words.
It felt like some sort of lid had been opened on the repressed rage of the masked one.
'Whoever dared to do something like this… they have my pity.' Aldred smiled wryly to himself.
Normally, his task would end here.
He had shown their dear seller the location of his item, and also confirmed it to be stationary.
However, Aldred had another idea in mind.
"If you do not mind, Sir Ralyks, I'd like to come with you."
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Thanks for reading!
Looks like the ring has been found.
But is that the same as finding Alicia? I wonder…
