Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

Marfa continued her words in more detail while ignoring the cutesy Fedora.

"Surprisingly easily in fact. The heart sutra is like one of the foundations of her family and a belonging of the Heavenly Court. Even though she only agreed to lend the first verse of the sutra, this is already more than enough for us to advance our plans. Not only her, even that stingy Alchemist somehow sold the Sea Calming pills at only half the price."

For once, Marfa was truly confused by how the events unfolded in both cases.

The truth was that— as parents, how could they let their daughters face certain death without trying anything and everything in their means to avert the situation?

They had been searching all around, trying to find treasures that could truly help the soul in both nourishment and strengthening.

It hadn't been easy for them. One of the reasons obviously was because of how rare items that affected the soul were… But, the most crucial reason for the difficulty in procuring the items was… since they all knew that these items would be used to help Natasha, a member of their family, there was really no concrete reason for them to help them get a new powerhouse in their midst. This would only stand to increase the power of their potential enemy as there were really no staunch allies in the world of the supernatural. No one was exempted from this rule. 

Everything changed out of the blue.

The Hand of Midas, Piaget Freud was a powerful and skillful Master Alchemist. And the products she created, such as the mind-sharpening cigarettes could sell for more than 50 million dollars for one packet containing 10 cigarettes at most. The price would quite literally double once obtained from the black market.

The worst of it all was the fact that there was endless demand for these items but next to supply at all.  The final nail in the coffin was the fact that… Piaget Freud was a human. By definition, she had no reason to help her and all the reason to oppose her since humans were always in a veiled confrontation against the supernatural.

Marfa honestly had no expectations when she had gone to her for the items. But unexpectedly, that woman even gave them a discount. In normal times, Marfa would have refused that gesture of hers but not now… She couldn't refuse now; the life of her child was at stake here.

'Then there is that fox-like woman.'

Marfa sighed, her husband had not even dared to approach the Sanctuary, and for just reasons too. Just standing in front of that woman made even an Alpha like Marfa, tremble in terror and fright and hope that her mind was not overtaken by the being of terror.

But that same woman had given her support to her wholeheartedly.

Marfa knew that something was afoot. An undercurrent was playing out in the shadows. But currently, they were like a desperate man drenching their thirsts with poison.

She couldn't afford to hesitate right now, lest she regret it later when she lost her precious child.

Looking at the place where the car went, Marfa thought of something she had read in Adam's files.

'Now that I think of it… He was the boyfriend of the Hanekawa family's daughter, right? Even worked with the eldest one too…'

Those information had been erased for the most part but it wasn't hard for her to find them. They were resourceful enough to pull this information but anything more was not possible.

'He is also a hunter supposedly… Hmm… I am perhaps thinking too much of it?'

It would be an utterly wonderful coincidence if her daughter's new boyfriend was the cause of their sudden good luck. But it was pretty unlikely for something like that to happen.

Sighing, she moved on from her thoughts and focused on her daughter.

"Let's go. We will make the final preparations for the ceremony."

Fedora could only let herself be helplessly lifted like a giant doll while Natasha followed behind them with light steps.

Unlike her mother— Natasha knew very well that Adam was the cause behind everything. But this changed nothing for her; it only made her affirm her worth in his mind and it was jubiliating, to say the least.

"Oh before I forget…How did it feel like?"

Natasha blushed and ran at full speed to hide in her bedroom, ignoring the teasing laugh of her mother.

As Adam was driving through the streets of LA, he was also listening to the speaker on the other end of a phone call.

[You owe me and I am serious this time. My proposal to become your patron and support you doesn't mean that I am suddenly a giving tree that will easily share my wealth with anyone you deem worthy or close to you. Never pull something like this again.]

Adam nodded, he could have used semantics to argue with her but he knew that this time he had truly stepped beyond the line, even though he thought it was not really that much of a big deal in her heart. After all, Medusa had already paid quite a price to heal his mom, albeit slightly.

Their relationship was based on give and take but for the moment, Medusa gave much but rarely received something of equivalent worth in return.n()1n

"I am entering the Dreamscape again tonight."

[Very well. I will wait for your arrival. Be on time.]

Her tone eased up after this piece of information he shared with her and she finally hung up the call. 

"Now I have to deal with Inari… Sigh~"

While he did ask for Medusa's help, he asked nothing from Inari and wouldn't even have known about the things she had done for him if he didn't eavesdrop on their discussion using [The World].

Whatever the reasons may be for her to do him this favor, it was clear that he also owed her something. And he hated every bit of it…

'Ugh… Fuck…!'

Adam hesitated slightly before finally driving home. He could go find Inari after saving Natasha from her demons. Hanekawa would follow him to France anyways, so there was no need for him to settle this matter in haste.

For now, though, he had a husk of a divine weapon to show to Makarov. He wondered how useful the pearl of the Mermaids would be in creating his very own Divine Weapon.

'Also— should I give him my own blood?'

Adam knew his blood was miraculous. An elixir of the highest level perhaps or simply a poison depending on how you saw it or what situation it was implied in.

Either way, his blood was useful, that was a fact.

Perhaps his blood could even bring back the pearl to its former glory? It was worth a try at least.

'I will have the prowess of a true bonafide S rank if I have a Divine Weapon with me.'

Reaching 100,000 Karma points to unlock the next Major Chakra Pathway and fighting in the Dreamscape to unlock the Soul Star Chakra

Either of them would undoubtedly take too long and would be too complicated for him to accomplish. He needed something concrete right now that could help him against whatever abomination and monstrosity might appear again during the mission.

Even without that ominous possibility, the people he would face there wouldn't be the rookies that he had been dealing with for the majority of the time.

The stronger he was, the higher the chance of not getting beaten up by someone would be. 

'Let's go.'

—And so Adam went.