The Devil's Temptation!

240 Visiting The Alchemist Shop (3)

Turning around in one swift movement to look at the person who startled her without warning, a youthful-looking silver-haired man crouched to his knees, picking up the book that had fallen to the ground before rising to his full height.

He dusted the book, getting rid of whatever dirt must have come in contact with it before letting his dark orbs settle on the frozen lady.

“If the books here don’t interest you, I prefer you kindly return it back to the shelve than showing your disinterest by dropping my work to the ground.” He stated, turning sideways from Anna and shifting the book into its rightful place on the shelf.

Did he just say his work??

Anna’s eyes widened like a saucer the minute he indirectly introduced himself to her, and she gave a low bow out of self instinct, feeling embarrassed that he noticed her expression all this time she’s been scanning through.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to drop–”

“What are you doing?” His clipped tone cut her off as he arched a quizzical brow at her, making Anna tilt her head up to look at him, barely understanding what he meant by his question.

“If people see you bowing to a commoner like myself, then your rank will be seriously questioned, and I don’t think we both want attentions drawn to ourselves.” He sounded neutral, but in all, he was kind-heartedly giving her advice on how to act in front of people her class.

Anna got the hint, and immediately stood straight before anyone noticed her bowing her head to the young Alchemist. He was a charming young man, but everything about him evolved in a mystery she found odd.

.....

“I_I’m not used to this,” she admitted, “I just wanted to apologize since it wasn’t my intention to drop your book, I–” her voice trailed off when the images of the vision she saw flooded her brain, and it sent another frightening tingle crawling up her spine.

Why did she see the dark woods? And why did the temple come into sight after she opened the book?? She’s had dreams before, but this was totally different.

“Nevermind that_” she hesitantly brushed it off, not willing to bring her worries to someone she just met, “you’re Marcus Edeven then, son of the great Alchemist, am I right?”

“And you’re Lady Annalise, daughter of late Sir Mateo, soon-to-be wife of His Highness Roshan, am I right?”

Anna blinked in disbelief, her jaw nearly dropped open after hearing him speak about her like he’s known her for a long time, and a smug smile appeared on Marcus’s face, seeing he had successfully left her speechless.

“H_how do you know?” She finally managed to ask, but Marcus just shrugged and said.

“I just know.”

Looking around, Anna finally took it into notice that everyone still carried on with whatever they did, not sparing her or the Alchemist they were dying to see a single glance, and it didn’t feel right, rather she found it strange that they hadn’t noticed the young Alchemist yet.

“Why is everyone–”

“They can’t see me.” He asserted, leaning his shoulder against the bookshelf and stuffing his hands in his pocket. His dark orbs held mysteries that made her uncomfortable whenever she stared into them, and his responses only made her more confused instead of convincing her.

“What do you mean by that? You_You’re not a ghost are you?” She asked, hoping that wasn’t the case. Only ghosts are capable of not being seen by people, and if they can’t see him, doesn’t that make him a ghost??

Can she see Ghosts??

“I’m not a ghost, I’m an Alchemist.” He reminded her. The words Becca said to her about the young Alchemist being capable of knowing what’s happening in his territory finally clicked, and her eyes widened in stupefaction.

“Ah! That means Becca was right.” She exclaimed a bit too loudly, making heads turn in her direction due to her sudden outburst, and she instantly kept quiet, covering her mouth with her palm as she noticed all eyes were now on her.

‘Gosh, you really draw the worst attention to yourself Anna.’ she inwardly scolded herself, feeling her cheeks lit up faintly in embarrassment.

Seeing her reaction, Marcus’ eyes glinted with interest before he shifted from the shelf he was solely resting on.

“I shall take my leave, I don’t want the future Queen to be considered crazy on her first visit to my shop. It’s not a good way to start our relationship.”

“But you must have appeared to some right? Everyone is actually waiting to see you.” She quietly said to him after all gazes were no longer focused on her.

She found it weird talking to someone only she could see and no one else, but she was left with no other choice.

“They should keep expecting,” he sounded amused by it, “I don’t usually show myself, you’re the only person I’ve revealed myself to for today, and that is enough, I don’t need more audience.”

He turned away from her, preparing to take his leave, “I’m hoping this won’t be our last meeting, Lady Annalise.”

“Wait.” Anna stopped him before he could leave, blocking his path so he wouldn’t walk away, and she was cautious not to make her movement too obvious to avoid being pictured weird.

“That book- what is it about?” She finally asked, but Marcus decided to play the dumb game as he appeared clueless.

“What book?”

“Tales of two blood, you wrote about it yourself, you’re the author.” She took a deep breath, trying to shake off the after effects of what the vision had done to her senses.

“So?”

“I want to know what is about, when I touched it, something happened and I can’t explain what it was. Can you tell me what the book holds? What is the content?”

“The content is about the tales of two blood, that’s it.” He nonchalantly responded, not taking it as seriously as Anna was expecting him to, and he wanted to walk out again, but Anna stopped him for the second time, not understanding his subtle response.

She wasn’t going to let him leave until he answered her. She got that vision right after she touched his book, and why would he suddenly show up right after that? It could only mean he knew exactly what happened to her.

“Please,” she whispered, “I got a vision, so I need to know what the content is, or if you can just let me leave with the book–”

“No book leaves my territory,” he firmly responded before sizing her up with his gaze, “I wonder how a human is capable of getting visions, why should I believe you?”

“I know what I saw.”

“What did you see?”

“What is my gain after I reveal it to you?”

“You won’t know if you don’t try.”

“But–”

“You can’t understand the vision when you don’t understand yourself. You’re pretty good at knowing a lot about other people, but it’s not the same when it comes to you.” He pointed out, Anna’s forehead creased in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

He sighed, looking up at the ceiling before bringing his head down to look at the blanked woman, “first figure out who you really are, then come back to me for more answers.”

“You…”

And he walked out with his hands clasped behind his back, not turning around even once to look at her. He mingled with the crowd without them knowing, and before her eyes, he faded until she no longer saw him in view.

“Who I really am??”

When Anna returned back to the palace, she dismissed everyone and went straight to her room, took a shower, changed into her night dress before proceeding to lie on her bed, covering her body with the duvet.

She stared up at the white colored ceiling, unable to get some sleep and she turned her head to the side, staring at the weather through the glass window, and it was already night time.

Roshan won’t be returning till tomorrow morning which means she has to sleep by herself tonight.

She sighed, covering herself even more as the room started to get colder, but she couldn’t tell if it was because of the actual cold, or because she yearned for Roshan’s warmth.

Her mind drifted to what the young Alchemist had told her in the afternoon, and she sat up on the bed when his words started to replay in her head.

“What does he mean by who I really am?”

Her lips tugged into a thin line as she tried to understand the meaning to his words. At that moment, her eyes indubitably shifted to her pillow, and she caught sight of a book that was underneath it.

“Huh?”

She doesn’t remember keeping a book there.

Curious, she brought it out to see what book it was, or maybe she had left it while reading to sleep and forgot about it.

After bringing it out, she turned it to the front cover, and her eyes widened after realizing which book it was.

“My goodness! It’s the book!”

She exclaimed, suddenly getting to her feet.

But he told her he couldn’t give it to her, and she never took it from his shop either, so how did it end up in her room??