Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Kalliope watched as Lucius continued to swirl one of the potions in his hand. Occasionally he would pull the potion bottles out of his storage ring to look at it, as if trying to determine the origin of the item by senses alone.

Of course, there was no way for him to do such a thing. As good at battle and strategy as he was, Lucius was not a learned individual. He barely remembered most monsters, let alone tried to understand alchemical ingredients and the process of potion creation.

Even the most skilled of alchemists would be unable to determine such information by simply swishing a liquid around in a bottle. However, his curiosity did reveal some interesting information. The day after they retrieved the potions, he decided to test the potion. Since it was unknown, he did not take the whole potion.

Lucius had decided to taste test the potion with a single drop on his tongue. The result of that was intense and immediate. It had made all the blood vessels in his face and neck swell and turn blue as if it was magically poisoning him. Thankfully they had a few healers in the group that Therentil brought with them.

They were able to fight off most of the symptoms quickly, but they could easily tell that if Lucius had drunk the whole potion, it might have killed him. To continue his tests, after his recovery, Lucius ordered one of the unranked carriage drivers to taste a drop of the potion under threat of death.

The carriage driver momentarily had a massive increase in his strength, but did not suffer any of the negative effects that Lucius did. After a few more tests and unfortunate test subjects, they determined that the strengthening potion of mysterious origin was poisonous to Rankers.

However, for an unranked person, they would experience extreme growth in their abilities putting them on par with an Intermediate to Advance Ranker. The amount of strength gained seemed to be dependent on the individual and was rather unpredictable. This strange difference made the potion even more interesting and dangerous.

"I really don't like this…" Lucius grumbled for the thirtieth time over the last few days.

Kalliope gave him a strained smile because she was getting tired of his repeating phrases. "I know…"

"It's just…"

"I know."

"And then there's…"

"I know!"

Kalliope quickly covered her mouth. "Sorry, I did not mean to shout, it's just… Lucius, you won't be able to figure it out… Can you at least give them to me? I will put them in my storage so you don't feel tempted to torture yourself continuously with them?"

"… Fine."

Desmond and Jade silently mouthed 'thank you' to her. It seemed she was not the only one getting run down by Lucius's non-stop attempts at analyzing something beyond his level of understanding. Thankfully, he seemed unphased as always.

"Oh!" Therentil called out. "Welcome to Aedrider. We are passing the borders now."

"No checkpoint?"

"No need, we are representatives of the royal family. We do not need to be checked."

Everyone nodded in understanding. Since they had just passed into the country, their next step was to find an inn to rest. They needed to do something other than sleep in the carriage on the side of the road. It was something they had planned for a while.

In order to get to the job faster, they simply pushed through as fast as they could through human territories, but now that they were in the target location, they could take at least one good rest before continuing on to the capital city.

The city they stopped off at was a decently sized city called Varrise. It was a small trading city that served as a stopover for trading caravans arriving and leaving the country. It was one of the first and last stops in several days of travel in both directions of the main road.

Because of this, it had a large number of inns, restaurants, and various goods from all over. Normally a city of its size and focus would not have such varied resources, but many merchants traded goods and services here. It was just as common to barter for something as it was to simply buy something with regular coins.
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"Finally! A good bed and decent food." Kalliope groaned while stretching.

Lucius was looking around suspiciously as always, but to her everyone around them seemed to be in a good mood and simply going about their day. The city was filled with a large number of elves and half-elves. It made sense due to the geographical placement of the city, but it was still the most amount of elves that Kalliope had ever seen in one location.

It was somewhat intimidating to be around so many beautiful people. As a rule, elves and half-elves were born beautiful and stayed that way until death. Kalliope began to feel inadequate for some reason. It was the first time in her life that she felt that way.

She felt herself looking to Lucius for assurance, but then remembered they did not have that kind of relationship. Instead, she found Jade's hand on her shoulder and smiling at her sheepishly. It seemed they were in the same boat.

It was only a short walk from where they stored the carriages for maintenance and boarding the horses for the night. According to Therentil, they would be staying at the highest quality inn within the city. It was famous for its amazing food and supple beds.

They chose to reserve a room for each of them separately. Since they could afford it, then why not? It was not like they were the ones footing the bill. Something being a member of a governmental organization taught her was to expense everything you can, or at least have someone else pay for it.

"Kalliope…" Lucius whispered to her. "Tonight, I need to talk to you."

"Oh, what about?"

She turned to face him and saw a slight redness in his cheeks. The sight made her heart beat faster and thump against her chest. She was sure he could hear it with his exceptional hearing.

"Us… I promised Rena I would talk with you about us on this trip. So make sure to leave your room unlocked for me tonight. We should discuss this in private?"

Kalliope felt her face heating up at what he could have meant. Thanks to that, she could hardly focus on her food or relax in her room while waiting for his arrival. It was unlikely that anything was going to happen, but she still felt the need to freshen herself up.

Kalliope found herself selecting a fine pair of undergarments and nightwear. She never thought she would use laced clothes like this in her lifetime. Part of her almost gave up on the possibility. The only option for her was Lucius. No one else could compare and she thought he would never bite, but now…

There was a light knock on her door.

"Come in!" she answered, almost two excitedly. "Hey Lucius so…"

"[Umbra: Sleep], [Umbra: Silence]"

Kalliope's consciousness quickly faded as she collapsed to the ground.