Chapter 197. The Mask.
A few seconds later, the pair entered the hall. Nearly everyone present, mostly men, turned to look, drawn by the slit in her dress that ran up to her left thigh. But as their eyes traveled from the exposed leg to her narrow waist and then her face, they noticed the white lily pin on her chest. Almost all of them went pale and looked away immediately.
That behavior caught Severus's attention. Out of mild curiosity, he read the thoughts of one of the nearby wizards. A moment later, he raised an eyebrow. There was plenty to be surprised about.
This seemingly delicate Chinese woman, five-foot-five, was the right hand of the leader of the criminal organization known as the Golden Dragon. She ran the entire magical market, one of three such markets in China.
She was also his mistress, a woman he valued deeply. Any man who looked at her the wrong way was killed on the spot. That was why everyone had been so frightened once they recognized who they had been staring at. One of them was literally praying, terrified of retribution from the 'Mad Dragon,' as those within the organization privately called their leader, given his exceptional cruelty.
The moment the couple sat down, a waitress appeared at their table with a smile that barely masked genuine panic, took their order quickly, and retreated just as fast, bowing almost to the floor as she went.
"Madam Chen, I trust you'll relay my words to your leader. I'm confident the proposal will interest him." The man's voice was pleasant and smooth: no arrogance, no submission, just the voice of someone who knew instinctively how to talk to people and draw them in. Combined with his unremarkable but agreeable looks, it would have been a fatal combination for most women.
Chen, however, was not most women. She had encountered enough men like this to have developed a considerable immunity to them. Being the mistress of a man as dangerous as her leader meant living under constant constraints and learning very quickly to see past the surface. Her professional smile didn't shift.
"I'll relay your words. I can't promise anything beyond that."
"Getting them to him is enough."
"On that point, you can be quite certain."
At precisely that moment, a young man in robes walked up to their table, pulled out a chair without ceremony, and sat down. The gesture left both of them momentarily speechless.
"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked with a friendly expression. Both wizards' eyes twitched in unison. Several men moved quickly away from nearby tables, but Chen glanced at one of them and shook her head. He sat back down in silence, and the rest followed.
"The conventional approach is to ask permission and introduce yourself before sitting down at someone's table." She covered the lower half of her face with a fan, her voice clipped and cold.
"You're absolutely right. I apologize. It won't happen again."
"What exactly did you want?" The man at the table recovered his composure and asked directly.
"Actually, I have one small question for you." Severus paused. "Thank you, that's very kind." He glanced up with a smile at the waitress who had set a cup in front of him and poured tea, then drew in the steam and took a sip. "Mmm. Good tea."
"What question?" The man looked at him with genuine bafflement.
"A trivial thing, really: would you allow me to try on the mask?" The moment the words left his lips in a mildly bored tone, the man in the suit slowly closed his hand into a fist under the table. Not a single muscle moved in his face.
"What mask?"
"This one." As if simply reaching up to adjust his hair, Severus raised his hand, and in the next instant the entire hotel froze as his fingers pressed into the seated wizard's eyes. The man lurched back immediately. But what shocked the room even more was the face that remained in the stranger's hand. "Isn't it a mask?" He looked at the man in the suit with a slight grin. In plain view of everyone, the seated man's hair began to grow and shift color toward blond, and even his height changed slightly.
The guests didn't get to see the rest of the transformation, however. The man didn't waste time on idle threats of revenge. He simply vanished from the premises. Meanwhile, the "face" in Severus's hand had become a white mask with red patterns, and it immediately drew the attention of Chen and several other wizards in the room.
An artifact that granted the gift of a Metamorphmagus simply could not go unnoticed. But Chen alone grasped that it was something far beyond a simple appearance-changing trinket.
The moment the man jumped back from the table, the magic surrounding him became several times denser. Even with her extraordinary sensitivity, she had detected nothing before that moment, which immediately made it clear that the mask was something very unusual indeed. If their organization possessed something like it, eliminating the rival factions would be considerably simpler.
Severus turned the artifact over in his hand once, slipped it under his cloak without comment, and stood up.
"I would ask you to stay." A cold female voice. Twelve people rose from surrounding tables, wands already in hand.
"Was there something you wanted, Madam Chen?" He looked at her with a satisfied smile, apparently unfazed by the sudden shift in atmosphere.
"I'd like to see the mask."
"I'm afraid I can't help you with that." Every wand in the room swung toward him. Chen remained perfectly still at the table, cup in hand.
"And now?"
"Still no. I hope that answers your question satisfactorily. Good day to you." He looked at her with a flat, indifferent expression, turned, and walked toward the exit, paying no more attention to the wands pointed at his back than he had before.
"Stop. This is your first and last warning."
He waved a hand vaguely in dismissal. The sound of a fan snapping shut rang through the room, and every wizard in the place moved to attack, but in the next instant came a shout.
"What the...!" One wizard had noticed in time and threw his blazing wand away. The others were not so quick.
"Argh!"
"It's burning!"
One by one, they dropped their wands, which ignited on the floor and were completely gone within seconds.
"Madam, consider that my final warning. Come after me, and the wands will be first, followed by this establishment, and then the entire market. Good day." He pulled his hood up and left the premises without difficulty, with the unanimous and perfectly silent agreement of everyone present.
It was several seconds after the door closed before the faction members came to their senses and began moving urgently.
"My lady, I'll order the market sealed immediately and call the brothers! That bastard isn't going anywhere!" Her chief guard hurried to her side, his face slightly pale.
"Let him go. Get the others new wands. We're leaving."
"Yes!"
That density of magical force. That level of perception. And wandless magic executed with such precision. Where did this monster come from, and what is he doing on our territory? Chen bit her thumbnail and thought it through. If he'd belonged to a rival faction, I doubt I would have survived this. So the target was Weizh and his mask. The artifact is a painful loss, but staying alive and bringing information about him to the leader is worth far more. I need to reach the leader as quickly as possible.
At the same moment, outside the market in a small Muggle alley, stood a man with short blond hair and yellow eyes. His features were rather pleasant, or would have been, if his face hadn't been twisted with fury.
How? How the hell did he recognize me, and from where? My cover was perfect. Nobody knew I was here, not even the Diamond Division's commander. The mask concealed everything. So how was I exposed?! The leader of the Black Star slammed his clenched fist into the brick wall. On top of losing the artifact, this deal was falling apart as well. Damn it. Another muffled impact. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
After several minutes, "Arnold" calmed himself down and, ignoring the pain in his hand, began to think.
Could someone have seen me change my face and follow me the whole time? No. That's impossible: I've always been extremely careful. Then the mask? Is the problem the mask? Is it possible that there was some flaw in it I'd never noticed? That's conceivable, but it doesn't matter right now. The priority is getting out of here: they know my real hair color and my height. He ran a hand over his head and darkened his hair, then quickly changed into simpler clothes. When I find him, I'll leave nothing of him behind.
"Why so dramatic?" The voice came from directly behind him. He lurched sideways on pure instinct, sweeping his palm through the air. The brick wall in front of him promptly disassembled and shot toward the source.
At the same moment, the owner of the house, eyes roughly the size of Galleons, sat on a toilet with his back to them and looked over his shoulder at the floating bricks with an expression that could only be described as profoundly overwhelmed.
"You!" He recognized Severus immediately, his gaze scorching.
"Yes, me. But let's not disturb anyone, especially in the middle of something important." Severus took full control of the projectiles and guided them back, beginning to reassemble the wall. "I apologize for the inconvenience." He nodded to the Muggle before setting the last brick in place.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Leader. Don't you recognize me?" He arranged his features into a look of genuine surprise.
"I'm asking one final time: who are you?!" A wand appeared in his hand, the tip burning a deep crimson. The pressure radiating from him would have given even Riddle and Albus pause.
"What about now?" He ran a hand over his face, and his true appearance emerged. Genuine shock flickered in the Black Star leader's eyes.
"S-Severus?!"
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