Deep in her own thoughts, Michelle didn’t even take notice when the old tavern lady ca down and went behind the counter to prepare to open the tavern for guests once again.
But since Michelle was clearly out of it, the tavern lady made sure to be quiet so as not to disturb her.
Michelle only snapped back to reality when she felt a complex gaze on her. It didn’t belong to anyone she had ever t, making her raise a brow. Whose attention did she gain this ti?
Turning her attention outside the window, her gaze fell into the tavern’s back courtyard.
A stone table with five stone stools stood in the middle, and three tall poplar trees gave shade to it. By the walls of the courtyard were more poplar trees.
The gaze Michelle felt on her was from one of the three trees near the table. So she lifted her gaze and looked through the silky, cotton-like, white flowers in the tree crown.
But she couldn’t see anyone, even though the leaves, flowers, and branches weren’t growing that densely.
Still, Michelle didn’t move her eyes away. Since she felt the gaze on her, she would stare in that direction until she found the source.
The old tavern lady noticed the change in Michelle—that she was no longer lost in thought—but she still didn’t approach her.
First of all, she didn’t really have a reason to do so, and secondly, she could see that Michelle was preoccupied with sothing. But she couldn’t tell what it was that was attracting Michelle’s attention.
Standing between the branches of one of the three poplar trees, the man in black stared back at Michelle, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He knew she couldn’t see him, but he still felt like their gazes were constantly eting.
To test sothing, he moved to a different tree and concealed his gaze.
Behind the window, Michelle felt the source of the gaze move, so she moved her eyes. She also felt the gaze beco barely noticeable, but since she had already locked on to it, she wouldn’t lose it.
Seeing that Michelle’s eyes were still locked on him, the man in black felt a wave of hopelessness wash over him.
Out of the Dark Lord’s subordinates, he wasn’t the best in stealth, but he was still considered good.
So for a little girl in the lower realm to be able to perfectly pinpoint his location felt like a stab to his pride.
If he told soone in the Dark Palace about it, they would surely mock him for it. Or they would be shocked—depending on their own capabilities.
Getting annoyed by the gaze, Michelle opened the window and jumped out into the courtyard.
Then, tilting her head upwards to stare into the tree crowns, she walked toward the poplar tree where she felt the source of the gaze.
When the man in black saw Michelle approaching, he quickly jumped away and landed between the branches of one of the poplar trees by the courtyard wall.
But Michelle’s eyes were still locked on him. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel where he was as long as he was looking at her.
Taking long strides through the courtyard, Michelle stopped under the tree where the man was and tilted her head up, staring through leaves, flowers, and branches at the place where she thought he was.
Then, she summoned her soul energy, even though she felt like sothing was wrong with it, and used it to propel herself up as she jumped.
Very quickly, she started climbing up the tall tree, until she reached the height where the man was. She still couldn’t see him, but at the mont, she not only felt the gaze but also a presence. The person was far stronger than her but far weaker than Alexander.
But Michelle wasn’t scared. If things went wrong, she would use her Shadow Spirit Steps without adding spirit energy into them to get back into the tavern. She was confident that, except Alexander and David—the Dark Lord duo—no one else would be able to catch up with her at short distances.
Also, she didn’t feel any malice coming from the gaze. Though the gaze was observing her, it seed almost disinterested. Which awoke a thought in Michelle.
"Did Alexander leave?" she asked, sitting down on a branch. It was quite an absurd thing to do. In the eyes of other people, it would look like she was talking to herself.
Remaining silent for a long while, the man in black just stared at Michelle, wondering if he should show himself or stay hidden.
But Michelle had already found him, and even guessed that he worked for Alexander, so was there a point in staying hidden?
Also, his master had never once told him that he had to be unnoticed while protecting the girl.
After so ti, Michelle noticed sothing dark but very faint moving in front of her. Slowly, it got denser, until she saw a big ball of shadow standing on the branch in front of her.
When the shadow dispersed, in its place stood a robust man, clad in full black, with even his face covered by a mask.
Seeing that, Michelle smiled a bit. It wasn’t the kind of smile she showed the old tavern lady. Nor the smile she directed at her friends or at her father. Neither the smile she sotis had when dealing with Alexander.
It was a calm smile, showing lazy satisfaction. She got what she wanted.
"What did your master tell you when he left?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
The man in black stared at Michelle with a complicated gaze. Even though it had already been quite a while since Michelle had cast her gaze in his direction, he still couldn’t process and accept the fact that a little girl below the Spirit rank was able to discover him in his stealthy state.
"I was told to protect you," he answered after a while.
"For how long?" Michelle leaned against the tree trunk.
"At least until the Dark Lord returns."
"And when will that be?"
"In a month."
Michelle stared at the man in black for a while before jumping off the tree and going to sit on one of the stone stools by the stone table.
She didn’t like the thought of being watched by soone. She was used to being the one in shadows because of her past as an assassin.
But she knew that she couldn’t shake the man off. He was more powerful than her, and he was clearly loyal to Alexander, so without Alexander’s order, he wouldn’t leave his post.
Sitting on the stool, Michelle returned to thinking about the state of the void, soul energy within her soul, and about the strange feeling it was giving her.
After she had used her soul energy to propel herself up the tree, nothing much happened, but when she retracted the soul energy once again, the feeling intensified, and she could recognize sothing about it.
The soul energy wasn’t changing shapes like she thought. It was just moving around in a way that resembled sign language. The soul energy was trying to tell her sothing.
But that made no sense. Soul energy was just an energy. Even if it was so similar to void that it was void, it wasn’t anything more than an energy. It wasn’t supposed to have consciousness.
"Hey!" Michelle turned to look at the poplar tree where the man in black was standing. "How much do you know about soul energy?" she asked with a slight frown.
The man in black jumped off the tree, and within a split second, he appeared next to Michelle.
"Not much, but it’s still more than what’s known in the lower, middle, and upper realm."
That made Michelle raise a brow. That ant he would know more than her father, Philip Grace, knew.
"Is there a way for soul energy to gain consciousness?" she asked.
Hearing Michelle’s question, the man raised a brow in surprise.
"As far as I know, there shouldn’t be, but it can act as if it were conscious if a foreign soul took at least partial control over it."
"And what could cause a foreign soul to take control of soone else’s soul energy?" Michelle continued asking.
"My Lady, is your soul energy acting strange?" the man in black asked. He was very respectful to Michelle. It was the first ti his master had tasked him with protecting soone, which ant that the girl in front of him had to be important. So she was to be treated with the utmost respect, second only to the Dark Lord duo.
"It’s moving around in ways that create signs, similar to sign language used by mute and deaf people," Michelle explained what she felt.
The man in black thought about Michelle’s words for a while, a frown forming on his face beneath the black mask. He hadn’t expected that the mont his master left, he would be t with sothing so troubleso.
For the soul energy of soone to move with a aning ant that the foreign soul not only had partial control over the soul energy, but was also already residing within the person’s body. And that could bring about quite a lot of problems.
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