NoGift 206 THINGS THAT NEEDED PLANNING

His expression changing constantly, from sad to grievous to anger and back to grievous again.  It's really amazing if one thought about it.  Argent really wondered how many emotions this guy could show in just one second.  That would be very interesting to see.

"Argent, are you listening to me?" Viper called again.

She lazily lifted her head.  Truthfully, she barely listened to his tirade.  After that talk with her mother, she had been spending more time in her lab.  Aside from formulating plans and possible countermeasures, she was also building tools that could help them with their search for the next ancient artifact.  Which was related to the elves.

When she and Aurum met Clay again and she heard the legend behind pendant that was passed on in his family, she had already decided that their next target would be the elves' artifact.  If she based it according to the legend she heard in Xing, then the elves' artifact would be the elven queen's ring.  Her decision of going after that artifact only strengthened after they met that Halfling – Janea.  

Him being a half-elf was indication enough that he could help them.  Or at least, his mother should.  But before she could get any kind of information from her, she should think of a way to save her first.  Because that's the deal they made.  For that, she first searched any pertinent information about the Emperor of Kievan.

Which was really not that useful.  Since the only thing she found were information that everyone in the world could easily find.  Like how Kievan could be found at the coldest region in the Northern continent.  That the Emperor ruled its people with an iron fists.  That he didn't have an Empress but he had a son who's the current heir to the throne.  And that, outsiders had a hard time going in the country.  It's even harder to get out.

Even if she wanted to spy on the country by using her sPhones, she couldn't.  It's actually because of something that she had already forgotten.  Three years after sPhones were released in the market, a certain incident occurred at Kievan.  

Half a year before that, Finn finally managed to get a deal with a high ranking minister there.  The distribution of sPhones was finally approved.  Silver Corporation could finally set up a branch shop that would sell sPhones.  By that time, sPhones reputation was already quite loud.  So even though they only opened one shop at the capital, the opening of the branch shop was still pretty much a success.  

With that one shop, batches of sPhones were delivered and sold across the country.  It was not an exaggeration to say that the sPhones were a huge hit.  Every citizen enjoyed the newfound entertainment and also the freedom it gave them to speak. 

But six months later, something happened that changed all that.

Dozen photos of the interior of the palace were spread across [Jiffy] and it trended in Kievan for days.  When the Emperor found out about it, he was furious.  No, that would probably be an understatement considering the things he did after that.  He first executed the minister who approved the business deal with Silver Corporation.  He burned the shop selling sPhones and also executed all the employees.  All the sPhones around the country were confiscated and destroyed.  Anyone who was found to own an sPhone after that large scale sweep was branded a criminal and was charged with treason.  

All of these were told to her by Finn.  Argent was too busy that time because he was still in the middle of upgrading his lab.  Finn was in-charged with almost everything in the company.  So he was also the one who dealt with the aftermath of that incident.  They really couldn't do much because the Emperor banned everything related to Silver Corporation and that included people as well.  

Because of that, they couldn't send help to the families of the employees who were executed just because they worked at the branch shop.  Nothing else could really be done.  Argent posted everything that happened in [Jiffy] via an anonymous account.  But aside from the Emperor having a much more notorious reputation, nothing else really happened.  It's not as if there's an organization equivalent to United Nations here that could handle human rights or something.  

With the exemption of Gifts, mythical beings, magical tools, as well as her sPhones, this world could only be compared to the Middle Ages of the original Earth where her soul came from.  So the things that happened in a country were not something that someone from another country could just easily intervene with.

Even now, Argent could tell that this incident affected Finn in a way.  Even though none of it was really his fault.  After that, he became much more careful when dealing with other countries.  Whenever they had to open a new branch, he would make sure that that country would not turn into another Kievan.

She couldn't truly understand why the Emperor would react that way just because photos of the interior of the palace were spread.  But now that she knew that he was imprisoning Janea's mother, she suddenly had a bad hunch.  That the reason that the Emperor reacted that badly was because he's afraid that someone might notice something.  Which could only mean that he was holding the elf somewhere in the palace.  Just because of this, Luo Yan could tell that this Emperor probably held some kind of obsession towards Janea's mother.  Which also meant that it would be real hard for them to rescue her.  

It would be even harder because of her identity as the owner of Silver Corporation.  She's banned from entering Kievan.  So they had to go there either secretly or in disguise.

But before that, there's still a lot of things that needed to be done.  One was going to Albion and checking that record her father was talking about in his letter.  They also needed to wait for Jaxon to arrive.  So he could talk with Janea.  They couldn't exactly just proceed on rescuing the elf without telling Jaxon anything.  Since he's much more entrenched in this situation than they were.  

So the current bare skeleton of Argent's plan was wait for Jaxon to have a talk with Janea, go to Albion, rescue Janea's mother, and finally looked for the elven queen's ring.  She'd just have to elaborate on each step along the way.

"Argent!" Viper called, much louder this time.

She looked up at Viper.  He was pouting and it looked like there was a literal stamp on his face saying, 'I'm sulking right now'.  "Sorry, I haven't had a decent sleep for two days."

After she said that, Viper's expression changed from grievous to worried.  "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine.  Just sleepy." And hungry.  She hadn't had breakfast yet.   

"Then get back to sleep.  I'll just call you again another time."

She was about to nod and just hung up when she remembered that she hadn't thank Viper for everything that he had done in Victoria City.  

"Viper, thank you for cooperating with my plan.  You did it quite perfectly.  I do feel sorry that you had to be hurt because of it though.  Please, do try to take a good rest.  And also, say thank you to Lynx for me," she said.  "Oh, by the way, before I forgot.  Please also try to restrain yourself from sending me message non-stop or even calling.  I will be busy these coming days and will probably have no time to answer you.  Take care of yourself, Viper."

She had to say that last part because she knew that if she didn't, this guy would definitely bombard her with messages and calls.  Which she couldn't really attend to right now.  She's actually quite surprised by the level of patient she had with this crazy guy.  It seemed like, without her knowing, she already considered him as a close friend.

Although she still had to be careful.  Because she knew about his fascination over her.  She didn't want to do things that might fuel it even further.

"But Argent—"

"I'll hung up now," she said, cutting off whatever complaint he had.  Then she swiftly ended the call.  

She leaned back on her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose.  She really needed to sleep.

Then she heard a call coming from White.  She turned on her light brain once again and the figure of the white haired girl appeared on the screen.  

"Master," White greeted.

"Is there something?"

"Master Lei Feng is outside the laboratory.  He seems to be delivering breakfast for Master."  

A small smile crossed Argent's lips when she heard that.  It's like he's truly turning into some kind of housekeeper.  Which was really funny in a way, considering his identity.

"Let him in," she just said.

"Oh, and Master.  Our radar spotted a carriage being pulled by four gryphons.  They're nearing the island and are about to enter the vicinity at about 30 minutes."

When she heard that, the only thing she could think of was that Jaxon was finally here.  Then as if on cue, she received another call.  And yes, it's from Jaxon.

Chapter end