Chapter 076

Tempest understood why Madam Vynn called Suzanna’s room a closet when she entered her private chambers. The room was huge. Where the 100 square foot room Suzanna stayed in can be considered a studio, the lavish room Madam Vynn claimed as her own might as well be a 1000 square foot apartment with all the trimmings.

 

The decorations are all extraneous to Tempest. Her interest lies on the table. Or more precisely, on the table. Nothing. There is nothing on the table!

 

Tempest expression immediately fell. She entered the tiger’s den for nothing.

 

“Ventus keep track of the family members of the kidnapped girls currently in the building,” Tempest ordered her spirits.

 

Tempest has a unique relationship with her spirits. Whereas most mages try their best to gain the spirit's love and attention, Tempest has it from the get-go. She has more leeway in her commands of the spirits. She can order her spirits around, but she has to pay the corresponding price in the form of acknowledgment and conversation. Back on Earth, she wasn’t willing to acknowledge the spirits. To acknowledge and speak to them make them real, which means she is crazy.

 

The spirits view her as a part of themselves as well as their daughter. The dual perception seems contradictory to Tempest until she realized the spirits are a collective and not an individual.

 

The spirits generally obey Tempest’s order unless her orders put her in danger. Tempest noted their concepts of danger and her concepts of danger are vastly different. Standing in the middle of a category four or category five hurricane is almost suicidal for most humans but to Tempest’s spirits, it is perfect weather to have a conversation.

 

Three groups. Group one, three people, third table on the first floor. Group two, four people, second table near the main entrance of the building. Group three, three people, private room on the second floor.

 

“Keep track of them. Focus primarily on group three.”

 

Understood.

 

“How do you like this room?” Madam Vynn asked in a concerned tone.

 

Tempest pouted as she allowed her hunger to show on her face. “There is no food.”

 

“Ah, you little glutton, always looking for the food. You don’t care about anything else, do you?” Madam Vynn gently chided the little girl before her, yet relief flashes through her. A dumb glutton is easily controlled.

 

“Yes, yes. Food first, treasures second, money third. All else are of no consequence.” Tempest seemingly laid out her interest on the table.

 

“Then we will get along quite well.”

 

A knock sounded on the door and Madam Vynn went to open the door. They spoke in a soft voice, too soft for normal humans to hear.  Tempest wasn’t normal.  

 

“The customer in room two express interest in the guest you are entertaining. I’ve taken the prerogative to put an aphrodisiac in the food.”

 

“They might not be behind the kidnapping but these group of people isn’t good either. Selling me to a customer huh. We’ll see who gets the last laugh.”

 

Don’t worry, no aphrodisiac will affect you.

 

“Good to know.”

 

Tempest put on a greedy expression as she stared longingly at the door. The fragrances of the food wafting throughout the room would whet anyone’s appetite. As a greedy glutton, she’d have no resistances to the meal.

 

Madam Vynn moved aside to allow the server to place the food on the table. Tempest didn’t wait a moment longer. She pounces on the food and gobbled it up as fast as it was placed in front of her.

 

Distaste flashed through Madam Vynn’s eyes at Tempest deplorable table manners, yet she hid it well behind a kind and gentle veneer.

 

“Now, now, little cutie, we didn’t even discuss the terms and yet you already ate your payment. You know what that means right?”

 

“I have money,” Tempest said around a mouthful of food. Crumbs spray out of her mouth as she spoke, landing on the corner of Madam Vynn's mouth. Tempest continued to stuff her mouth, using it as a physical blockade to her laughter. Her actions were deliberate. She was trying to disgust Madam Vynn through whatever method she could. She sees no reason to be nice to someone she was going to torture.

 

“Do you know how much a meal here cost?” Madam Vynn asked angrily. She gently wipes the food away from her body with distaste. The little girl lacked manners but her budding beauty attracts the interest of powerful cultivators.

 

“I have money.”

 

“The food you stuff down your throat cost 200 silvers!” Madam Vynn said crossly. Her temper began to leak through her mask of genteelly.

 

Lie. The food cost 45 silvers at most.

 

Tempest placed 200 silvers on the table and continued to eat the food, all but ignoring Madam Vynn.

 

Madam Vynn stiffens. 200 silver isn’t a large amount, but it isn’t a small amount either. For a little girl to produce the silver to pay for the food, the background of the girl wasn’t simple. Madam Vynn caught on to Tempest’s strange behavior yet she ignored her instinct telling her to proceed with caution. No lady of proper birth would set foot into a brothel.

 

Madam Vynn hailed from the Heavenly Mountains where cultivators look down upon women who sell their bodies. She forgot she was operating in the boundaries of the Magus Alliances where the morals and values of the people there greatly differ from the three other regions.

 

Due to the prominence of the Heavenly Mountains, the other three regions had to abide by some of the morals and values of the Heavenly Mountains even in their territories. Most ladies of the Heavenly Mountain won’t set foot in a brothel but mages, male or female, from the Magus Alliances are seen frequenting brothels.

 

The customer in room two is a member of a powerful clan. His status isn’t as prominent as, say young master Li Feng, but it is high enough for Madam Vynn to discard caution to pursue a connection.

 

Madam Vynn wanted to continue her talk with Tempest, but seeing the girl eating disgustingly annoyed her to no end. Madam Vynn took a step back to stay out of spray range.  She shouldn’t have bothered. Tempest wasn’t going to waste more food discomforting Madam Vynn.

 

Talks between the two couldn’t move forward. Madam Vynn allowed the little girl to ‘eat her last meal’ so to speak. Once the drug go into effect, she will be served to the customer in room two, then she will squeeze the little girl dry then chop her to a thousand pieces and sell her to cultivators specializing in corpses!

 

A little insult here is nothing compared to the humiliating she will suffer at the hands of Madam Vynn.

 

“This is your fate. Expect to face the tiger when you walk into its den.” Madam Vynn thought to herself as she pockets the money and with a “Enjoy your meal,” she left the room.

 

A message was sent to room two confirming your availability.

 

“Give me the information on the wealthy girl whose family is searching for her here.”

 

Marissa Legrade, daughter of the city lord, blond hair, blue eyes, a mole on her left shoulder. Her close family members call her Rissa. Her fiancee calls her Issa.

 

“What room is her family in?”

 

Room three.

 

“Perfect.”

 

Tempest gobbled the drugged food with gusto. She looked like a fat little hamster stuffing food down its gullet and storing food in its food pouch.

 

“The drugs give the food a slightly bitter taste which destroys the succulent flavors of the food. It makes it much easier for me to do what I am about to do.”

 

Tempest properly rearrange her clothes, making her look like a refugee escaping a war-torn country with only the clothes on her back then she waits for the right timing.