Chapter 13: The masked woman

You know that strange sensation when your body has been electrified: not electrocuted but that electrifying feeling of having done something unfathomable?

That endless rush, that blood pumping sensation, that feeling you get when the eye inside of your head has been opened up?

’You don’t get this rush by jumping off a cliff or when being chased by a tiger.’

Those are natural sensations. I’m talking about the artificial ones.

’Yup. That, exactly that.’

Some white powder or colorful crystal dust sniffed right through the nose, some puffs of good greens, some dark needles injected for that artificial high?

Yeah, I’m talking about exactly the kind of thing no one should do.

It’s a sensitive topic that’s utterly normal in the society even though we don’t talk about it at all: the drug problem.

Hundreds of people die ODing on harmful substances, things that they have become addicted to, things that give the same artificial high that you can find by merely climbing a mountain.

We live in a society where a group of random people will become friends over drinks or smoke. At least, that kills slowly.

But then there are the darker sides: caves full of druggies, alleyways where dealers sell literal poison, families ruined, children tortured, evil spreading throughout society...

The addiction caused by those psychedelics makes demons out of the people... sometimes literally.

’The drugs that Arias was selling inside the palace were something strange like that.’

It wasn’t anything special in micro doses. Their effects were the same as raw salvia leaves.

But the dose that they were selling didn’t pass through the body quickly. They built up inside the body’s fat reserves, muscles, or even the very skeletal structure.

It was a synthetic psychedelic that, according to Beth’s analysis, could enhance a body’s physical potential.

But the chances of that actually happening are so low that not even one in a hundred should manifest its strange power.

Much of the time, the drug would build up inside the body and mess up the entire human psyche.

’One year, that’s all the time it needs if the addict is taking it every single day before they go insane.’

However, knowing how addictive it theoretically becomes, we came to a conclusion that the takers must be having it in ten-time doses.

’The withdrawal for this doesn’t happen overnight either.’

It takes at least a week and half for the cravings to reach the peak, when the users are completely out of their minds.

That’s why I didn’t stop selling the drugs. The others who were doing it had also become silent about their activities over the past week.

’This isn’t the first time we are seeing a drug like this. Actually, this is a milder case of a ’contained’ human experiment.’

We believed someone was doing it secretly inside the royal palace and that the royal family was already aware of it at least faintly.

’But I was wrong.’

I don’t think the royal family is aware of anything that’s going on in their house.

In fact, if they had seen what I’m seeing right now, they would not have invited the people from two extreme factions inside the palace.

’Also...’

I don’t think the one standing before me has the complete idea about what exactly it is that she’s doing here right now.

"P-princess?"

"W-what?!"

There were a few of us tied to the chair in a facility that seemed to be under the annex building, a facility filled with strange plants and objects one would only find in an alchemy lab.

Standing before us were two ladies: one wearing a mask in a white lab coat and the other wearing a royal dress.

She was covering her face with a fan but that didn’t hide her peculiar blue hair.

The hair color had come from her mother’s side but her distinct green eyes that had a certain yellow ring inside of it was the bloodline unique trait of the Mayns.

She was here right now, standing beside the one who seemed like the boss of this place.

All around us, there were strange plants trapped in glass cases.

People in white lab coats similar to the other woman were working on these plants as well as the chemicals that were present all around us right now.

This was practically an underground laboratory which was producing that synthetic drug.

And from the looks of it, the thing produced here was several times worse than what the people outside were having right now.

Still, the princess was here. She was watching all this. And yet, aside from the obvious disgust, there was nothing present on her face.

’These plants are banned in their kingdom if she doesn’t realize it.’

Princess Gwyneth De Mayn Victoria was the second youngest princess of the age nineteen.

She was young and yet, if I must compare her powers to normal folks, she’d be on the same level as the (A-Rank) demonic mages.

Her blessed bloodline allowed her to use the Aura, a power that she did not earn but was genuinely born with. The power of the guardian gods of her bloodline.

’She is strong and according to the records, she is supposed to be smart.’

However, it doesn’t seem like we have a concrete profile on her.

"Some of you have been corrupted by those demons and priests."

The two women weren’t the only ones present here. Along with the people in white coats, there were people in royal armour.

Additionally, there were two people that didn’t seem to belong to this place like the princess: a priest in white robes and an armored fighter in dark clothes of the Elision.

< "They have spies in both the territories." >

This much was expected of the royal family. But, we aren’t talking about the royal family right now.

The princess is here, and yet, the one speaking to us right now is the masked woman.

"Did you think we wouldn’t know?"

She looked in our eyes one at a time, her distinct black eyes giving up her demonic lineage.

There was still a faint whiteness remaining in those eyes so, it was evident that she wasn’t a pure blood descendent.

She was much like the Elision mages, those of a distant bloodline. But, she didn’t seem like a mage.

’She seems more like a scientist.’

And this damn scientist is a crazy one.

"Kill them."

-Thump!

At her command, the royal knights that must not listen to anyone but to the commands of the royal family stepped forward and assembled right behind us.

-Ghack!

They did not hesitate even for a second before they placed their oath bound swords by our neck and...

-Khaach!

All the knights had swung the swords, the one present over my neck was no different.

But I wasn’t afraid.

"Aughhh!"

I screamed like a scared little shit that I should be, but my eyes were watching the edge of the blade move.

The way it came close, and the way it stopped right before my neck, was just what I thought would happen.

-Thud.

-Thud.

But some of us didn’t share the same fate as us.

Their heads were rolling on the ground when my scared eyes opened.

The face of the person who was sitting right next to me, with his soulless blue eyes staring at me from the eyes present right before me.

"Aghhhh...!"

I screamed and jumped away and in that moment, I was the most scared man in the world.

My acting was impeccable.

"Calm down you dumb men."

Blood fountain rose from the headless bodies, covering my face, the piss covered ground, as well as the face of the masked woman.

"You’re scared..."

She was smirking as she lifted one of the heads rolling on the ground.

"Of this?"

The dark eyes stared at us as if a demon was staring at mere infants.

We were less than trash in her eyes.

’But, this trash was useful to us.’

We, it seems, are still somehow useful to her...