Today, Hastur was in a very good mood. Sitting on the second-floor balcony, he drank a chilled fruit beverage while petting his cat, occasionally admiring the distant sunset that was about to sink below the horizon.
Ever since he refused Mrs. Germani's invitation last time, she had neither written to him again nor come to visit in person.
It seemed his advice had worked.
Another piece of good news was that Sharon and the others had found the main ingredients for the Assassin potion formula. He only needed to go to the Braveheart Bar tonight to complete the trade.
Hastur lowered his head slightly and said with a serious expression, "After tonight, you will no longer be an ordinary cat. You can become a supernatural being or a cat girl."
"Meow?"
Ariella opened her big eyes and looked at Hastur in confusion, then lifted her head and licked the center of his palm.
"You'll understand in the future."
"Meow." Ariella rolled over, changed her position, and curled up in Hastur's arms.
At around eight in the evening, Hastur brought along a certain amount of gold pounds, as well as the long-awaited final chapter of Pinocchio that Sharon had been looking forward to.
The Braveheart Bar was as lively as ever. Hastur's arrival quickly caught Kaspars' attention, and he led Hastur to where Maric was.
Tonight, Maric was no longer staying in the billiards room, but had switched to a more secluded location.
Hastur saw Maric and his Zombies, but did not see Sharon, which made him a little disappointed.
He had planned to use the final chapter of Pinocchio tonight to bribe Sharon, establish a connection, and see if he could sense fluctuations in her emotions.
"Is it just you tonight?"
"The way you speak makes it sound like you really don't want to see me."
"Of course. I prefer chatting with Miss Sharon."
"..." Maric froze for a moment, not expecting Hastur to be so direct.
Hastur found a seat and sat down. He glanced at Maric and said leisurely, "Roselle once said: Smart people always like to chat with other smart people, because that way there's no need to waste time arguing with idiots."
"..." Maric let out a light chuckle. "Hastur, you're really getting more and more punchable."
"Sigh, sometimes I wonder why I didn't become a hunter back then."
"Hmph, you should become a witch first."
As Maric spoke, he had a Zombie beside him hand something over to Hastur. It was the Beyonder ingredient Hastur had commissioned them to find.
"A total of 100 gold pounds. No credit. Cash only."
Maric spread out his right hand, signaling Hastur to pay up.
"Didn't we agree before that it would only be 80 gold pounds?"
"Heh, that was before. I'm in a very bad mood right now. Taking 20 gold pounds from you as a hardship fee isn't too much, is it?"
Hastur smiled, handed the 100 gold pound notes to Maric, and then said, "Care for another round of cards?"
"You want to win back those 20 gold pounds?"
"I just feel that my luck tonight is pretty good."
Maric naturally didn't refuse. The two agreed to gamble three times, best two out of three, with a wager of 20 gold pounds.
Unfortunately, the gambling didn't make it to the third round. Maric quickly lost twice in a row and returned the 20 gold pounds that hadn't even had time to warm up back to Hastur.
"Roselle also had another saying: No one can occupy wealth that was never theirs to begin with."
"..." Maric's lips twitched slightly. He really wanted to ask, did Emperor Roselle truly leave behind sayings like these? How did Roselle manage to get involved in every topic, and every time it sounded like it made some sense?
Speaking of which, should he also buy a copy of The Complete Quotations of Roselle's Life to take a look?
When chatting with others in the future, casually tossing out a line like "Roselle once said…", wouldn't that instantly make his words seem more weighty and profound?
The last time he passed by a bookstore and glanced at it, such a Complete Quotations of Roselle's Life wasn't expensive either, priced at 3 sole and 6 pence.
Hastur paid no attention to Maric's complicated thoughts. He had only habitually pinned that line on Roselle's head.
After all, whether Roselle had actually said it or not, only Roselle himself would know, and he couldn't appear now, nor could he refute Hastur face to face.
After staying in the room for about half an hour, Sharon arrived without a sound.
"Sharon, if you don't come soon, someone here is going to get impatient," Maric said in a rather sarcastic tone.
"Maric, it seems you've already consciously classified yourself among the idiots."
"..." Maric didn't want to deal with Hastur. When it came to verbal sparring like this, he was no match for a quick-witted lawyer.
There was no obvious emotion on Sharon's face in response to Maric's words. She simply looked at Hastur, signaling him to speak if he had something to say.
"I've been neglecting sleep and working day and night, exhausting a lot of effort just to finish the ending of the story."
"Hand it over."
"What a heartless tone. Shouldn't you at least ask about my physical condition first?"
Hastur sighed emotionally and handed the completed final chapter of Pinocchio to Sharon.
"What story is that?" Maric leaned over curiously, but Sharon directly vanished from sight. No one knew which mirror surface she went to in order to read the final chapter of Pinocchio.
Without setting rules to forbid invisibility, Hastur was unable to find Sharon's hiding place, even though they were in the same room.
But after three to five minutes, Hastur could vaguely sense Sharon's presence. Following that faint perception, he looked toward a small mirror about two meters ahead on his right.
Was the bribe successful?
Hastur wasn't very sure. This connection was far too weak, basically unable to sense Sharon's emotional fluctuations.
He closed his eyes and focused seriously for a while before barely managing to glimpse one or two strands of Sharon's emotional changes.
Happiness, excitement, sometimes a bit of irritation, she didn't seem very satisfied with the ending of the story. Then there was a bit of relief, confusion...and then anger!
After that, the faint connection was cut off, and Sharon came out of the mirror and sat across from him, looking at him calmly.
She was angry?
She should be angry.
Using the corner of his eye, Hastur glanced at Sharon. Although she appeared calm on the surface, as usual, the last emotion he sensed was indeed anger.
Tsk, clearly angry, yet still pretending as if nothing was wrong. So that's the kind of Sharon you are.
Before Hastur could feel pleased for long, Sharon's gaze swept over.
This time, there was no need to establish a bribery connection, Hastur could clearly feel the chill from her eyes alone.
"It's getting late. I should head back. We'll meet again some other day."
Hastur wisely chose to leave. Sharon did not stop him. Maric felt it was a pity, he had originally wanted to have a few drinks with Hastur.
...
As soon as Hastur returned to the hall at home, Ariella lightly ran down the stairs from the second floor, with a maid chasing after her.
"Ariella, still not resting? That's fine. We'll sleep a bit later tonight."
Hastur squatted down, smiled, and picked Ariella up from the floor, then went up to the second floor.
He had the irrelevant maids leave the second floor first, then went to the room where various potion materials were stored.
This place housed some materials for the Black Emperor pathway potion formulas. Most of them were ordinary materials that could be bought on the market.
As for the expensive and overly rare Beyonder materials, Hastur planned to store them elsewhere.
Hastur told Ariella to stay in place as much as possible while he took out the Beyonder material obtained from tonight's trade and began mixing it with other ingredients.
During the mixing process, Hastur looked at Ariella several times. The things here couldn't be eaten casually, and Ariella could be quite greedy at times.
Fortunately, tonight Ariella seemed only interested in the potion Hastur was mixing.
At first, she obediently stayed where she was.
But as the Assassin potion neared completion, she could no longer restrain her curiosity. With graceful steps, she walked to Hastur's feet, lifted her head, and stared at the vessel containing the Assassin potion with her deep blue eyes.
Perhaps having smelled something edible, she looked a bit impatient, but in the end she still lay obediently at Hastur's feet, her eyes fixed on where the Assassin potion was placed.
"It should be about ready."
After finishing the Assassin potion, Hastur carefully recalled his previous steps. Only after confirming that nothing had been omitted or done incorrectly did he let out a sigh of relief.
Holding the glass vessel shaped like a bowl at the bottom, which contained the Assassin potion, Hastur squatted down and gently stroked Ariella's small head with one hand.
"I'll remind you one more time. Once you drink this bowl of Assassin potion, you will no longer be an ordinary cat. The desires of the mortal world must not touch you in the slightest. If your heart is stirred, the curse of witches dying from love will be fulfilled on you, and you will suffer unbearably."
Hastur's expression was serious, his tone solemn. Even Ariella seemed to be affected by the atmosphere and let out a soft meow.
"Before drinking this bowl of Assassin potion, is there anything you want to say?"
"Meow?" Ariella lifted her head, her little paws starting to paw at the arm holding the Assassin potion.
Hastur gently rubbed Ariella's head a few times and sighed.
"Alright. Since you've already made your decision, I won't stop you anymore. The road ahead, you'll have to walk it on your own."
After saying that, Hastur placed the Assassin potion in front of Ariella, signaling that she could drink it.
Ariella's nose twitched slightly. She sniffed it first, then observed it for a while, before slowly tasting tonight's late-night meal.
"Ariella, tonight you're especially lucky."
Hastur offered a blessing, then fixed his gaze on Ariella's reaction.
This trial could only be endured by Ariella herself. He could only watch from the side.
Based on his observations of Ariella during this period, her intelligence was not low. Adapting to the Assassin potion should not be too difficult.
But when one cares, one becomes flustered, this saying applied to him as well.
After all, as long as something isn't one hundred percent certain, accidents can always happen.