The Alchemists

Unable to contact Aleksis, Alaric finally contacted Mischa.

"I can't contact Aleksis. Do you know where she is?" Alaric asked quickly when Mischa picked up his call.

"Miss hasn't contacted us. I can't call her either. I'll try to look for her at her dorm," Mischa said immediately.

"Hmm ... there's no need for that. You need to recover first. I will ask Pavel to find out about Aleksis' whereabouts."

Alaric sent a message to Pavel to find news about Aleksis. It should be easy to find the girl because she was still in St. Mary and was living in the dormitory. He then remembered that Pavel had also been tasked with finding Aldebar.

"Pavel, have you heard from Wolf?" he asked as he walked out of his room to get tea from the castle's right wing lobby.

"Wolf will only accept the assignment if he knows who his client is. Lately he is known for making it more difficult for clients who want to contract him. People with his reputations don't need money," complained Pavel. "Now information is a more valuable currency."

Alaric nodded slowly. He had also set the same policy decades ago. When Rhionen Assassins already had a high reputation, they no longer performed anonymous assignments.

All clients who wanted to sign them must provide their identity as collateral. No matter how much money was offered, if the client refused that one condition, they would not heed the client's request.

Finally, the clients gave in and submitted to the conditions he set because they were aware that there was no better assassin than the Rhionen Assassins.

Their identities and the risk of Rhionen Assassins later using them as collateral were considered part of the price they must pay when they contracted the mysterious organization. Usually these were the people who needed the services of the best and cleanest killers, so they would not be suspected by their victims nor opponents.

Rhionen Assassins had killed leading presidential candidates so that their political opponents could win the elections. They also eliminated business rivals, powerful criminals that could not be touched by the police, overly vocal parliament members, a famous movie star who had an affair with a European prime minister and intended to reveal their dark secrets to the media, and many more.

As a professional, Rhionen Assassins did not discriminate their victims; male or female, young or old. They only refused to kill if there were children involved. All of his clients' data proved to be very useful when Alaric then founded a technology company and needed facilities in various countries.

They easily blackmailed important people to become their clients to provide support. Contracts with China were obtained in such a way. They also had good support from several European countries which then made things easy for them to obtain more EU contracts.

Business rivals and politicians who made it difficult for them to conduct their business would suffer a miserable fate at the hands of the assassins. For Alaric, these humans were just a bunch of meaningless homo sapiens. He had a bigger goal and he wouldn't let anyone get in his way.

Now, seeing that his method was imitated by this hacker named Wolf, Alaric could only smile. Hmm ... he could share his identity to Wolf, but which identity ...? Himself, as Alaric Rhionen, owner of Rhionen Industries, or himself, as leader of Rhionen Assassins?

He didn't know if a clean person like Wolf had ever heard of his assassin organization. He could probably claim to be Alaric Rhionen, the owner of the technology company group, Rhionen Industries. He would even provide Wolf with a little information that the purpose of finding Aldebar was to obtain a medicine that was very important for the betterment of humanity.

Rhionen Industries' reputation as a company that invented the drug for cancer could certainly be useful to convince him that they did not harbor evil intention by looking for Aldebar.

Hmm ... After thinking for a while, he finally made a decision.

"Pavel, you can give your identity to him. Just tell him that you need information about Aldebar because, as a company who invented the cancer drug, we received a tip that Aldebar had a formula to cure various other diseases, and we would love to buy that formula from him." He paused, "But when you contact him, ask Sisqo to monitor and track Wolf's identity. We might need it in the future."

"Yes, Sir." Pavel recorded everything well in his notebook, "Anything else?"

"Please find out about Aleksis' whereabouts on campus or her dorm. Mischa and Takeshi fought yesterday with her friend and they are still recovering. I'm sure Aleksis is okay, but I need confirmation. I cannot reach her ..."

"Hmm ... well, Sir. I will immediately contact John in the office to take care of this."

"All right. Report me all the progress,"

"Yes, Sir."

***

Aleksis was forced to go to campus because she wanted to find her phone-watch that went missing yesterday. She could not contact Alaric at all because the man had placed a special chip in her phone-watch so Aleksis could contact him.

She couldn't remember what his number was and even if she did, the number couldn't be contacted unless she had that particular chip.

Aleksis knew this because she was also as private as Alaric in terms of concealing her identity. The phone-watch was a new product sold in America and was equipped with a special chip. Only the people she contacted directly with her phone-watch could call her back or text her.

Other people wouldn't be able to call her. Thus, only the people she trusted could call her. In such an era where privacy is of great importance, devices are made increasingly specific for data protection and they adapt to the privacy needs of each customer.

Initially, such privacy settings were very useful, but in a situation like now, it only became a burden and created a lot of problems for her. If she failed to find her watch, Aleksis was determined to buy a new ordinary phone without such strong privacy settings. She would give her number to the staff at Rhionen Industries so Alaric could contact her.

Nicolae insisted on accompanying her to campus to look for the watch, even though he was still injured. He reminded Aleksis that the girl had agreed to make him her fake boyfriend to get rid of the bullies and make her rival, Anjali the queen bee, suffer.

"But you're still hurt, right?" Aleksis protested. "Uncle Rory will be angry if he found out that I am using his son for my personal needs ..."

Lauriel, who was researching some medicinal herbs he ordered from China, looked up when he heard Aleksis' words, and immediately shook his head, "It's okay. Men must get used to working hard and protecting women. Nicolae has recovered."

"See? My father doesn't mind," Nicolae said. Secretly he winked at Lauriel.

Inwardly, he was very happy because his father, whom he finally met after nearly 100 years apart, apparently really understood him.

Lauriel just smiled. Of course, he could immediately figure out his son's feelings for Aleksis. Only a blind man could not see the girl's charms. Aleksis was not only beautiful and smart, she also had a very pleasant personality. Indeed, she was stubborn and liked to go around, but her heart was very kind and she had abundance of affection.

In his heart, of course, he hoped Aleksis would forget her obsession with Prince Siegfried, whom she had only met for one week. The man must already be old now and maybe he even passed away already ...

Of course, with his profession as an assassin, his life would always be filled with danger and secretly Lauriel was not willing to let his goddaughter live a difficult life and suffer when married to an assassin ...

Nicolae's presence was like an answer from the universe to his prayer. The young man was kind, his personality was very pleasant, and he was also very intelligent and very protective of Aleksis.

Without a second thought he almost sacrificed his life in order to save the girl. Now, in Lauriel's eyes, there was no better man for Aleksis than Nicolae.