Ji-hun was forced to leave the store after the security got involved, he was causing a commotion after all.

He had no choice but to do as he was told to, he hurried out to the side of the store, bringing out his flip phone with shaky hands.

His vision blurred over as he tried to reach out to Master Albeline, his heart felt like it was shrinking and expanding painfully in his chest and his legs were trembling so bad that he had to lean against the dingy wall of the store for support.

His precious little sister was gone.

Where could she have gone to? Who could have taken her without anyone else noticing? He had stood in front of the door the entire time and he hadn't seen even a single Witch enter it.

The windows in the restroom were too small for a person to be pulled through plus someone would have noticed it if that happened. It was almost like Juni never entered the restroom, she just disappeared.

Juni was his heart living outside his body, if anything happened to her, it would directly affect him as well.

There was only one person that could get her back safely and that was the Master of the Albeline House.

-*-

The fax machine on a side shelf whirred, making me frown when I read through the message I just received.

Ji-hun was supposed to be handling the discussions with the realtors, why was I getting a fax from them asking for a quick response?

When I first regained my freedom and returned back to the only place I knew, after getting my affairs in order, the first thing I did was invest in stocks.

The stock market was at my fingertips, armed with the knowledge of the future, I didn't hesitate to throw almost all of the money the Albeline family boasted of into the stock market.

In less than a year, the proceeds were already showing. Acquiring money wasn't a problem and I made sure that money would never be a problem.

Growing rich though, especially by means of dealing with Muggles held no standing in the Wizarding World. I also wanted to have influence and power.

Not just the facade that the people at the top of the Ministry wielded but tangible influence, the kind that the people pulling all the strings had. No one ever pulled the strings with clean hands and I had no qualms about getting my hands dirty.

Getting to that point was proving a challenge though because there was no manual to go about it, it was like trying to rise to the top in an underworld that wasn't supposed to exist.

It was invisible to the Wizarding World, the world of Muggles was out of the question entirely. It was run by well-known Witches and Wizards who the Wizarding World idolized.

I had to start from the ground up, connections were very important and required time and energy and so I had to leave the job of taking care of and increasing my finances to Ji-hun. Ji-hun was an incredible learner and was eager to put his all into working for me.

I was currently in the process of buying a lot of land in Slough, there were going to be a lot of industries set up here in the future, plus its easy access to the city of London made it a goldmine in the form of real estate.

I had the money to buy and keep acres and acres of land that would turn in large profits in the not-so-far future, Technology was supplying all the money I needed.

The Muggle world wasn't the only way to earn, there were sources in the Wizarding world too. Considering that it was an entire society hidden away in the world of Muggles with their own special brands of products and goods that vastly differed from Muggle goods.

Now, where exactly was Ji-hun?

He never slacked off and this was the first time something of this sort had happened. Had something happened?

I leaned back on the throne I had set up behind the enormous desk in my study. I was dressed in formal clothing, with expensive leather shoes on my feet.

It was ironic that when I first transmigrated into this world, I was all too quick to judge the wardrobe choices of the previous occupant, and now I wore nothing but black, formal clothes.

My overcoats, waistcoats, neckties, dress shirts, pants, and shoes were all black. I tended to lean towards black and silver accessories too.

I glanced at the landline phone on my desk, should I call Ji-hun?

The decision was made for me when a tinkling sound came from my desk, I picked up the flip phone with another frown. It was a very useful way of communication, especially as Ji-hun tended to be around Muggles more often than not.

It was odd for him to call from his cellphone though, was he out of the manor house?

"Yes?" I answered, apathy dripping from my voice.

The thing about getting so powerful while still so young was that it didn't take long for apathy to set in. I had wanted to get stronger for my own sake and I pushed my mind and body beyond its limit over and over again to get to that point.

After I turned the members of 'The Cabal' over to the Ministry of Magic and cleared my name and Ji-hun's name, I couldn't do anything for a month after.

I received news of all of them dying mysteriously one after another while in custody but it did little to lift my spirits up.

My body was restored back to perfection because of the power of the gem and I was bursting with magical power but my mind had crumbled. Because it was like 'After getting to this point, what next?'

I couldn't very well raze the Wizarding World to the ground, even if I could, I had no motivation to do it.

I convinced myself that I just had to become ridiculously rich and I would feel better, I was now and it still didn't change anything.

Then I convinced myself that power and influence not just in the world of Muggles but in the Wizarding World as well would give me a sense of achievement.

I was making steps to achieve that goal as well but I could already tell, it wasn't going to fix me either. There was a chasm in my chest that would never be filled, I was coming to learn to live with that knowledge.

I would only keep aiming higher and higher until I got to the top, then I would sit there alone.

"Master Albeline!" Ji-hun's gasping voice came through the connection, making me sit up straighter.

I always dissuaded him against calling me that but it never got past his mop of black curls, the little version of him doing the exact same after she got over her 'Uncle' phase.

"What happened?" I asked calmly, it was noisy in the background so he couldn't possibly be inside the manor house. From the sounds in the background, I could almost accurately pinpoint his location.

He was by the roadside on a boisterous street but the noise sounded muted so he had probably gone somewhere quieter to make his call, the space in between two buildings, perhaps.

"J-Juni is… Juni is gone…" Ji-hun finally gasped out.

My eyes narrowed at this, I got up to my feet and started around my desk. "Get a hold of yourself and tell me exactly what happened, word for word."

I could hear Ji-hun force himself to take a ragged breath, the action doing nothing to calm him down. He was able to put himself together to explain what happened to me though.

I picked up my black overcoat and slipped it on, the flip phone floating beside my ear as I did so. I strapped the black eyepatch over my left eye immediately after I left my study, the scar over my eye gave people a reason to approach and ask about it. I found it extremely rude.

"... the grocery store on Mill Street, d-downtown…"

I walked out of the gates of the manor house, flipping the cell phone shut when I had the location. Ji-hun was in a private place so I would be apparating straight to him, there was no time to drive there.

These days, very few things managed to rile me up but whoever had taken Juni had surely woken up with the mark of death hovering over their heads.