The Alchemists

"I will not take any risks at all, I will ask Carl and Sascha to accompany us to campus," Aleksis finally said.

"What about Takeshi and Mischa?" Lauriel asked, "Are they hurt? Have they received treatment?"

"They can take care of themselves, Uncle Rory. I don't want them to come here and find out our secret if you treat their wounds," Aleksis replied.

Luckily she could quickly think of an excuse. She certainly could not bring Takeshi and Mischa to the penthouse, as they did not know that she was the daughter of building owner. She was also afraid they would slip and accidentally talk about Alaric in front of Lauriel.

Gosh ... it seemed like the more things Aleksis was hiding from Lauriel, the harder it was for her to keep up with everything. She did not want to lie to Lauriel, but she could not let Lauriel know Alaric's secrets.

"Oh, by the way... Father ... Someone is looking for Aldebar in Darknet. Has Aldebar's life ever been threatened before?" Nicolae asked. He just remembered about the contract offered early in the morning. "I often receive research and hacking job offers, and coincidentally last night a client offered me that assignment."

Lauriel frowned. "Really? Can you find out who it is?"

"I'm working on it. But, please, tell Aldebar to be very careful, because there are people who are looking for him. Whether with good intentions or bad intentions ..."

"All right. I'll talk to Caspar." Lauriel nodded. "I will also talk to him about the alleged attempted kidnapping of Aleksis. I will try to find out if there are any members of the Wolf Pack currently around Singapore, so we can get some help ..."

"The Wolf Pack?" Nicolae asked. "Who is that?"

"That is Uncle Rory's team and they had been together in adventures for hundreds of years. Some had even followed Uncle Rory since he was a pirate," said Aleksis proudly, "They are the coolest immortal adventurers! They helped my family a lot when I almost died, poisoned by an evil person 18 years ago."

"Wolf Pack?" Instantly a smile appeared on Nicolae's lips.

He was indeed his father's son. The nickname he chose in Darknet was Wolf, because he liked that animal, and he always considered himself to be a 'lone wolf' since decades ago when his foster family died one by one.

It turned out that his father was also a wolf, but his father was not alone because he had a team he called 'The Wolf Pack'...

"Why are you smiling?" asked Aleksis.

Nicolae looked at his father in admiration, "Because my nickname in Darknet is 'Wolf'. I really take after my father in many ways ..."

Lauriel smiled back and nodded slowly. He was proud of his son.

"Wolf!" Aleksis murmured, "Gosh I have heard that name before … but where?"

She scratched her head which was not itchy, but because she could not remember where she had heard the name 'Wolf', she finally shrugged.

"You said you were poisoned by someone 18 years ago? Oh my God ... that means you were only 2 years old, right? Who would have the heart to poison a child?" Nicolae asked later.

Aleksis sighed. "It's a long story."

"I'm not going anywhere ... I'll listen." said Nicolae insisted. He looked at Aleksis with concern. He could not imagine that such a small child nearly died from being poisoned by evil people ... How could they?!

Inwardly, he was determined to find out who they were and make those evil people pay for what they did to Aleksis. He would make sure that they received the proper punishment even if it was too late. For him, later was better than never.

"Seventeen years ago, when I was two years old, I was with Uncle Rory in Singapore. Alexei Meier's men managed to kidnap me and they gave me a very dangerous poison, which would be triggered two weeks after administration and cause my death. They did it because they wanted to force Uncle Rory to marry my mother ... to hurt my father and destroy our family ..." Aleksis told Nicolae of what had happened as concise as possible. "At that time the situation was very chaotic. My father and Uncle Rory mobilized everyone and all resources so that I would not die. Uncle Rory was even prepared to use the poison called Medusa, which could cure me but would sacrifice his life ..."

"Gosh ..." Nicolae looked at his father who just looked away at the mention of that part. He now understood how much Lauriel loved his goddaughter; he was even willing to die for her years ago.

Inwardly he felt sad ... If that had happened, then Nicolae would never get the chance to meet his biological father. That thought made him angry and he clenched his fists subconsciously.

"Well ... My father and Uncle Rory did everything they could, and there was also help from The Wolf Pack. Everyone worked together to trap and take down Katia and Alexei. Katia was my father's former fiancée who turned evil and vengeful because her love was rejected by my father. Alexei wanted to bring father down from the clan leadership because he wanted to turn our people into Purists ..." Aleksis massaged her temple when she thought about what had happened in the past, and how her family felt very depressed at that time, "The Wolf Pack managed to capture the two people, and fortunately, Uncle Rory also managed to find the right antidote for me, so I survived, and now I can stand in front of you, blabbering like this … hahaha ..."

Nicolae was very surprised to hear Aleksis' story. He had no idea that such conflict for power existed within the Alchemist clan whom he thought to be perfect. He subconsciously placed his arm around Aleksis' shoulders when she finished telling him her story.

Gosh, to think that this girl nearly died from being poisoned by Alexei and Katia just so that they could take revenge on her father.

"Then ... what happened to those two people now? Where are they now?" he asked her, looking very concerned.

"Uhm ... Uncle Rory sentenced them with Death. As far as I know, Katia is dead because she wanted to shoot my father, and Alexei now lives as a regular human in Switzerland. Maybe now he has aged and is probably living alone, and he no longer knows anything about the Alchemists," Aleksis replied..

"But the Meier family is still quite powerful. I didn't know they were Alchemists too; I just knew they had a lot of big businesses and recently there were rumors that they would work together with Rhionen Industries ..." Nicolae said, frowning, "Who leads the family now that Alexei is gone?"

"As far as I know, it should be Sophia Meier ... She is the only heir to the Meier family now," Aleksis said, shrugging. She still remembered that Sophia was famous for being very beautiful, even among the Alchemists themselves.

Given the possibility that Alaric was currently in England and meeting with Sophia for their project cooperation, Aleksis' heart shook a little. Ugh ... she wanted to find her phone-watch immediately and contact Alaric to ask about his activities in England and whether he really met Sophia.

"Hmm ..." Nicolae nodded, and in his mind, he kept all information shared by Aleksis.

Eighteen years might have passed, but he could not forgive what the Meier family did to little Aleksis and how they once made his father almost sacrifice his life in order to save Aleksis from the poison.

He was determined to find out more about Alexei and Sophia. Who knew, there might be useful things he could use. His reputation as the world's best hacker was of no use if he couldn't find anything to punish the Meier Family with.