Chapter 45: CHAPTER 45 – Noctura Awake.
It had been hours since Alex, Alice, Ann, and Noctura had left the villa. Yes, Noctura was with them as well, even though she was sleeping, they decided not to leave her behind as their trip this time might take some time.
Right now, the four of them were in a booked private plane traveling towards the Auction.
They were chatting about this and that, sometimes about the different types of gates discovered, sometimes about different types of special cases discovered, and sometimes about the mystery around Alex.
Alice and Ann even talked about their plan for today as the two of them were really worried if there was something missing in their plan.
When they asked Alex about it, he just said, "You don't need to worry. Just trust me, all right?"
As Alex used his 'trust me' card, they had no choice but to shut their mouths and forget about the topic.
They continued on their way when Alex suddenly felt movement on his lap where he had positioned Noctura as he kept patting her head. Her fur just felt so good to touch that he couldn't keep his hands away from them.
"Noctura?" Alex raised a brow as he felt a movement from Noctura for the first time after she ate the B-ranked crystal.
His words also caused Alice and Ann to look at Noctura who was shifting here and there on Alex's lap with a comfortable expression.
'Master?' Alex heard the voice of a 5-year-old girl in his head and he looked down and was momentarily stunned.
He was surprised by the clarity of those crystal blue eyes that kept looking at him with respect and love.
He could see that she had grown strong by the crystal she ate thus giving her more intelligence and now her intelligence matched that of an adult human even hour mentally and physically she was just a child.
However, he was a little surprised that she only went from F-rank to E-rank even when she ate a B-ranked crystal.
But then he remembered the upgrade her bloodline had gone through and decided to ignore the minimal increase in her strength even when she ate a crystal that contained the energy to pulverize everything in a 30m radius.
He knew that higher bloodlines were not always advantageous as they had some drawbacks as well.
One of those drawbacks was that they needed purer and higher energy for powerup (If they were absorbing energy from somewhere), but it also gave them a larger energy pool with more concentrated magic energy.
Noctura stood up and sat on Alex's lap and looked around curiously as she found herself in a new place while most of her focus was on Alex.
Then she felt a hand on her head and purred while rubbing her head on Alex's palm.
"Yes, it's me. How do you feel?" Alex replied to Noctura and asked a question which caused Noctura to enter deep thoughts.
'I feel a little powerful...' She spoke after a while in a serious and examining voice which was not possible for a child who was not even a month old.
"And?" Alex pressed on.
'And I feel full like I can't eat for a week...' She spoke again but before Alex could speak, she hurriedly added.
'I still want to eat the food made by Master, by full I didn't mean that I can't eat, I just don't know how to say this, um…."
She started looking around afraid that Alex couldn't understand her words, after all, she didn't get what she was feeling.
Then she calmed down as she felt Alex rubbing the back of her ears and she started purring.
"I understand what you mean so calm down," Alex spoke with a smile and Noctura nodded and continued enjoying the head pats.
[She is feeling full because she ate the B-rank crystal which was her limit, but that feeling is only there to stop her from eating more magic crystals as they would do her more harm than good.
But that doesn't mean that she can't eat food, rather she needs to eat more food her body needs more nutrients for now.]
Sophia explained even without Alex asking her to which caused him to smile inwardly.
He then nodded to himself as this is what he had thought as well and he decided to make something good for Noctura.
"So, how is she?" Alice asked as she was also worried about Noctura, Ann also looked at Alex with her expressions mirroring Alice though a little relaxed as she knew nothing bad had happened.
She could tell this just by looking at Alex's reaction, so, she was less worried but more curious.
Alex looked at the two girls who were looking at him with worried and curious eyes. He smiled at them and started explaining what he had heard from Noctura.
.........................................
"Looks like we are not the first one to arrive huh," Alex spoke as he looked at the two black Luminous cars that were parked in the parking lot of the Auction building.
From the star on the number plate of the car, he could tell that whoever these people were.
At least they were not from the orange country as that star symbol is something the Association came up with as a way to let the people differentiate which car belonged to an out-of-country VIP.
It was a way they came up with to lessen the difficulties those VIPs will have to face in the country.
These people can travel wherever they want without paying anything and are never stopped without the permission of the higher-ups of the Association.
Still, there are disadvantages as well, but let's leave it to be discussed later.
"What do we do?" Alice asked as she started overthinking things again, she was never the strategist so even the slightest difference in the plan caused her to think that the plan had gone awry.
"We do what we came to do."
Ann, however, was different from Alice as she was the brain of Crimson Lotus. So, she spoke even before Alex could speak and then looked towards Alex who just smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, we do what we came to do, after all, if we have more people who notice our presence here and notice what we are doing, it would do more good than harm," Alex spoke and looked towards the Auction building while Noctura was sitting on his shoulder as if that spot belonged to her.
"Let's go," Alex gestured for Alice to take the lead as she was the guild leader, and even if Alex was the strongest, she was the one who was the leader (It the eye of the public).
As they walked through the same corridor they had gone through some time ago, they were greeted by many people, unlike last time Alex was not using his disguise skill right now.
When they reached the place where the paths were divided into two – One for the Auction Hall and the other for the selling counter and manager's office.
There were two guards standing on the path that led towards the Auction Hall, they were responsible for checking the invitation of everyone that passed through them.
However, they would not force everyone to show the Auction pass as they know their limits.
When they see someone famous or someone from the high-ranking guild they will just bow and let them pass whether they show the pass or not so as to not offend the said Raider.
Everyone knows that the Association sends the Auction pass to the high-ranking guild masters and other famous people around the world when something rare is going to be Auctioned and today was one of those days.
But they would stop a person that was not well known or famous, after all, they can't just let some Tom, dick, or Harry enter the Auction without the pass.
Alice, Ann, and Alex, however, had other things planned before entering the Auction Hall so they moved towards the counter where the items were sold or put for Auction.
As they arrived at the counter, the man in the reception was already on the phone maybe informing Luna about them.
The reception was only for the normal items and normal people, dealing with bigshots was not for the guy sitting in the reception as he was only a C-rank Raider.
As Alice, Ann, and Alex reached the counter, the guy had already stood up. He looked at Alice and spoke while bowing his head a little.
"Madam Tuner will be attending you. Please follow me, I will lead you to her office."
Alice nodded her head and gestured for the guys to lead them.
Alex, however, had his focus on something else as he felt a very strong (Not for him though) magical energy coming from the direction of Auction Hall.
He had some guesses on who that could be but he wasn't sure as he felt another person was equal to that person in strength if not stronger.
But he ignored them after a while as he needed to focus on the things in front of him, he could check on that person later.
He could look into that person later as they were not going anywhere for a while.
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