Chapter 123: Punk Alchemy Base

Chapter 123: Punk Alchemy Base

After the meal, many ladies went to help Ocris pick clothes. Louis sat on a sofa in the dining room, listening to the music played by the performers not far away, just idling—there were many Dragon Clan members around, so when Archie arrived later, he could easily find him.

After listening to the music for a while, Louis always felt the band’s music sounded as unpleasant as grinding teeth. When one piece ended, he couldn’t help but walk over and politely ask if they could play something more modern, preferably something cheerful and stylish.

Then, at the band’s inquiry, Louis mentioned the names of a few songs.

After hearing these names, the band suddenly all widened their eyes.

“Sir. This kind of low-class country bum…” The musician had just started speaking when he suddenly saw a tall Dragon Clan member who had just passed behind Louis. He rolled up his sleeves, revealing forearms thicker than legs, and walked over with glaring eyes and a raised hand: “Sir, this kind of golden classic tavern music is our band’s specialty!”

The Dragon Clan burly man turned away satisfied.

The musicians wiped their cold sweat and breathed a sigh of relief.

Louis also wiped his cold sweat and breathed a sigh of relief—that scared me, I thought none of the records Trif treasured were decent stuff.

When he returned to the sofa, Louis saw Lilith come back first. She was coldly looking into a mirror, fixing her makeup. It was as if she wasn’t familiar with Louis at all.

“Where’s your sister?”

“Still advising Her Highness Ocris.” Lilith said lightly while fixing her makeup.

“Oh.” Louis nodded. He glanced at the time; it was almost ten o’clock. He closed his eyes and listened to the music. He thought to himself, ‘It seems the musical taste of this era is still relatively close to that of modern people.’

“Mr. Louis is also knowledgeable about music?” Lilith suddenly asked, her tone full of unfamiliarity.

Louis said, “Not really.”

“But do you recognize instruments?”

“I do recognize those.”

“Oh, Muggles’ instruments seem to be different from ours… I have a question, can Mr. Louis help answer it?” Lilith’s tone suddenly became serious as she pointed to the cello over there.

Louis looked over there with some confusion.

“That thing the young lady is holding, long, thick, black, what is that?” Lilith pointed over there curiously, looking completely innocent.

Louis blinked hard. He saw Lilith pouting, looking genuinely curious. It didn’t seem fake.

“Ahem, Miss Lilith, that’s a bow.” Louis explained seriously.

“Oh~~ So you pull it left and right. I thought it was meant to be poked into that hole.”

“???”

Suddenly, Louis felt himself being grabbed. He couldn’t help but widen his eyes and look at Lilith with his mouth open—in broad daylight.

“And that thing the young lady puts in her mouth, the long… Ouch! That hurts, ah, sister!”

Before Lilith could finish her sentence, she got hit hard on the head with a fan. It hurt so much her tears almost came out. She looked up and saw Yingling, whose eyes were spitting fire, which scared her so much her neck shrank.

Before Lilith could say anything more, her sister grabbed her hat, pulled her ear, dragged her aside, and gave her a severe scolding. Then she got a few more hits with the small fan, almost squeezing tears out of her eyes.

This scene amused Louis.

Not long after, both sisters sat on the sofa opposite Louis. This time, Lilith completely dared not be mischievous; she sat upright like a proper lady. Yingling, meanwhile, took light puffs from her smoking pipe and narrowed her eyes as she looked Louis up and down.

‘If I don’t see anything noteworthy today and find out you deliberately used words to secretly hook up with my sister, I’ll break your legs!’

‘What terrible taste does this kid have, listening to this kind of music with such relish?’

Yingling always felt something was off.

‘Why does this kid always look somewhat familiar… Hmm, familiar, I saw him once before in the office.’

‘No, something’s off… I always feel something’s not right.’

“Ahem.” Louis couldn’t really listen anymore. “Miss Yingling, why have you been so free lately?”

Yingling didn’t speak.

‘I want to ask you the same thing!’

Louis couldn’t help but smile. Seeing the two sisters sitting like flight attendants, he looked at their long legs. Noticing Yingling glaring at him, Louis shook his head and got up to go to the bathroom.

As soon as Louis left, Yingling, like stealing a chick, picked up Louis’s jacket from the sofa and gave it a good sniff. Lilith stared in shock.

“Sister, what are you doing!” Lilith got a bit anxious—this is my man, why are you sniffing his jacket?

“Shut up!”

Yingling frowned and sniffed a bit more.

‘Why is there no smell at all?’ Yingling rummaged through the pockets of Louis’s jacket and found a pinch of strange herbs: ‘Thousand Orchid’? ‘Cloth-grain Grass’? What kind of plants are these? Specifically to dispel smells? Why would this stinking kid put things like this in his clothes? Definitely up to something!’

‘Is it him or not?’

At that moment, a group of people approached not far away. Yingling looked up and saw Archie and a group of Dragon Clan members. She coughed awkwardly and casually draped Louis’s jacket over her legs. She sat on the sofa and calmly smoked her pipe.

She recognized Archie at a glance. But unlike her past self, her back was straight. And for some reason, she felt particularly confident today.

‘No wonder there are so many Dragon Clan members here. This kid really is here on serious business today.’

Archie also saw Yingling. This shrewd guy’s eyes shifted, and he knew Louis planned to bring the two little foxes along today.

“Well, what a coincidence. Isn’t this the newly appointed Bureau Chief Yingling?” Archie jumped onto the table and exchanged pleasantries—a bureau chief, just a minor official.

But this little fox called Yingling had an unusual, very mysterious background.

Thinking of this, Archie couldn’t help but glance at Louis’s jacket on Yingling’s lap and at Louis walking over from the bathroom.

[Damn that big lizard… Isn’t Yingling’s backer the Faceless One? How is she so close with Louis? Is she trying to get herself killed? This isn’t right!]

[Could it be that Louis cleared out Blackhorn Alley? That lecher who goes after every woman he sees must be supporting Fox from behind!]

[That beardless conch, keeping such a thing from me, not brotherly enough!]

Archie’s thoughts flashed in an instant, but his pleasantries didn’t stop: “It’s a shame I couldn’t personally attend the ‘opening’ celebration of the Blackhorn Alley branch. Who knew we’d gather here today—I’ll need you to look after Blackhorn Alley’s business from now on.”

“Mr. Archie, you’re too kind. Sending gifts was already very generous.” Yingling said lightly. She glanced at the alon with a neck brace and couldn’t help but twitch her eyelid, giving Louis, who was walking over, a certain kind of look.

“How has Madam Katerina been lately?” Archie continued with pleasantries while smoking his cigar.

“Thanks to you, my aunt has been doing well recently.”

After a few more polite words, Louis walked over from the other side.

“Let’s go, ladies.” Archie made a gesture of invitation and led Louis and the others through the hotel’s winding corridors for quite a while, finally arriving at the semi-basement below. This place used to be where the original castle’s servants stayed. And in a sense, the current servers were actually also servants, mostly serving the royal family’s various industries for life.

However, here, Louis noticed that some people were Wizards. They also gave slight, respectful nods to Archie.

“They’re from my cousin Milo’s ‘White Stone Lakeside’ (hotel, dining, entertainment industry).” Archie said: “There’s a Magic fireplace here.”

Here, the Dragon Clan bodyguards all stopped. Only Louis and the three others went further inside, led by a server (a Wizard).

On the way, Archie stopped at a certain room and made a call to the Alchemy workshop. But no one answered.

“Damn, they’re probably all in a meeting. It’s fine, Lant gave me the coordinates. We’ll sneak over in a bit.”

Then, everyone arrived at a kitchen. The Yordle cooks glanced back and then ignored them. One person even proactively removed a roasting rack from a fireplace that was cooking meat.

Archie mysteriously leaned close to Louis and said to him, “It’s all arranged, but this mustn’t be spread around. If the King finds out, it’ll be troublesome. We’ll go quietly. Later during the match, I’ll arrange an identity for you so you can compete anonymously.”

“That’s perfect, saves trouble. I hate showing off the most (everyone looked at Louis with a certain look)… Really.” Louis’s eyes were full of disappointment.

Everyone entered the fireplace. With the help of Magic Powder, the scene before them changed. The kitchen turned into a large hall filled with various punk machinery and furnaces.

In this hall, a heroic middle-aged man was sitting on a sofa, fiddling with a few things on the table. Several men in Knight uniforms stood nearby, carefully attending to him.

Seeing this middle-aged man, Archie’s mind went blank.

[Damn that big lizard! Everything is ruined now!]