Maxine's Drawing Unwanted Attention

In the the city of Hyphur, north of Engelburg, Central District, there stood a big mansion on a hill. It was nighttime, and so the golden and brilliant mana-powered lightings illuminated the marble flooring of a path, sandwiched by crystal clear pools, leading up to the entrance. With the mansion walls made of mostly glass, all the rooms displaying all sorts of furnitures made of extravagant materials could be seen from the outside. And through one of these giant glass walls, the mansion owner was seen relaxing in her stylized bathtub inside a spacious, gold-themed bathroom.

In her left hand was a glass filled with sparkling white liquid, while her right hand was propping her fair and smooth cheek. Her lush lips pouted and her golden eyes constricted in an irritated manner. The flawless beauty then sighed. She turned on her Iris, causing her left eye to turn black.

She had received a message from her subordinate about the incident that had happened in the National Bank of Prime Elysia that day. For her, it was all such a bothersome matter. That was, until a colleague of hers suggested for her to watch the footage retrieved from the dead mage's and guards' Irises.

So she decided to be generous and waste a little bit of her time to take a peek at the attached clips. At first, it was all filled with everything she had expected from a bunch of weaklings trying to rob a bank full of incompetent slaves. In other words, boring.

In fact, she didn't show any hint of surprise upon seeing Dylan's display of powers. "Wannabe mages," she muttered.

She started to wonder what had piqued her colleague's interest; what was so interesting about these weak, fake mages? But when the clips showed one of the two women—who strangely moved a bit like a man—raised her gloved hands and produced a loud, ear-piercing, high-pitched shrill from seemingly out of nowhere, the golden-eyed beauty finally showed a heightened emotion. She removed her head from the support of her hand and had subconsciously dropped her jaw.

The tall woman was clearly a force mage, and she had, without a doubt, employed kinetic mana through the gloves. But she didn't use it to directly and physically attack the guards. No, she had just used kinetic mana to manipulate sound waves!

That shouldn't be possible! Humans weren't supposed to have such a high level of affinity to mana! The woman narrowed her eyes as she attempted to analyze the tall woman in the video footage. Was she perhaps a powerful mage who had hidden herself all this time?

That was when she saw the supposed powerful mage almost losing her consciousness after performing a bass boost attack. The owner of the Iris whose footage she was currently watching immediately dropped to the ground. But before that happened, she could glimpse the force mage showing clear signs of exhaustion.

That meant she was far from being a powerful mage. She was on the other end of the spectrum entirely! She had probably been Awakened very recently.

A part of her was slightly intrigued by this anomalous baby mage. But after thinking for a little while, she shrugged. The mage was too weak for her to even care about. And even with the mana stones they had stolen from the vault, it would take decades for her to reach a level where she was worthy of attention.

Right now, this force mage was like an ant. It would be nice to place her under her wings, but it would be too much of a bother to deploy a special unit just to find her whereabouts. The young mage would eventually show herself again, anyway. Younglings, they always did have a penchant for causing trouble and being in the limelight.

Naturally, it was best to bide her time.

The woman switched off her Iris and flicked her left index finger. It was invisible for human eyes, but her finger had actually just sent a wave of mana outside the bathroom. A few seconds later, a servant knocked on the door. She waved her hand and the door opened.

The male servant immediately entered, carrying with him a clean and folded black bathrobe with golden outlining. He approached the tub and stopped a couple of meters away from it before kneeling down. He lowered his head while his hands were raised, presenting the bathrobe.

The woman put the glass down before getting up and out of the tub, completely exposing her bare skin from head to toe. She had no qualms walking around stark naked, as if the servant's presence was but an insect perching on the floor. Why would one feel shame around insects?

She sauntered past the servant, completely ignoring him while she headed toward an alcove in the bathroom. As she walked, she lifted her arms to unfurl her hair tie, freeing the black and silky long waves. She gently shook her head side to side, letting her hair fall loosely on her back and voluptuous breasts, which kept slightly bouncing with every step.

As she neared the alcove, she flicked her finger, lighting up several red mana stones embedded on the alcove's circular wall. Comfortable warmth washed over her body as drops of water immediately evaporated, leaving her skin dried of traces of bath. She exited the alcove, but before approaching the still-kneeling servant, she paused. She twirled her shoulders before suddenly, something grew out of her back.

At first, it looked like thin membranes of some sort, with curved ends. However, as they extended out to their full length, it was apparent that they were not just any membranes. They were wings; dragonfly wings.

A faint smile formed on her lips. "Ah, it feels better this way."

At this point, the servant's arms were seen slightly trembling due to how long they were being held up, with the bathrobe still on his hands. Finally, the woman picked up the presented robe.

However, she wasn't using her hand. Once again, she flicked her finger, and the robe floated off the servant's hands, before it unfolded itself. It hovered midair as it opened, seemingly by itself. The woman then slid her arms into the stretched sleeves and wrapped the soft fabric around her body, covering about three-fourth of her wings.

With another flick of a finger, she silently commanded the servant to get back to his job—whatever it was he had been doing—before leaving the bathroom. She then headed to the glass wall of one of the huge living rooms and quietly stared outside. Her golden eyes glimmered as she swept her gaze over the flickering lights of the city below.

Her mind then traveled back to all the footage she had had to watch these recent days, depicting the troublesome actions of the group calling themselves The Revolutionaries. She clicked her tongue. "Pests," she muttered.

Should she be worried they would become a much bigger problem in the future?

Regardless, she would have to discuss this with the others of her kind. She knew the country was currently feeling an invisible tension akin to a calm before the storm. As one of the ministers governing the Republic, she had a lot of control over many matters. But she knew her kind could only exert their force so far before the tension broke and started to diminish the amount of their control.

They had to find a way to get what they want without having to go through some troublesome and wasteful conflicts.

Her Iris notification suddenly blinked to life. There was a call from her colleague.

[Kinar, so have you seen it?]

"I have," the woman, who was called Kinar, replied. "She's not worth my time."

[Well, it's true she's still very weak. Once she really shows her potential though, you should immediately catch her. The fact that she's a woman is a huge plus, since Mara is still looking for a candidate.]

Kinar nodded. "Maybe in a decade's time."