CHAPTER 248: THE BLACK AGATE STONE

Driven by a stubborn kind of pride, Shiao Yi pulled himself together. He then got dressed and pressed a hand to his aching head as he slowly made his way down the stairs.

The sound of chatter and laughter filled the tavern below, it must’ve been close to lunchtime. A high-pitched laugh rang out somewhere and he turned his head toward the noise.

In one corner of the room, a group of women and young girls were gathered together, all of them laughing and talking at once. The men nearby looked on with a mix of envy and irritation.

At the center of the group sat a man with golden hair. He sat straight and tall, his posture perfect, his features strikingly handsome and so flawless that no one could find a single fault. Surrounded by adoring women, he looked perfectly at home, as if their attention was something that naturally belonged to him.

As Shiao Yi reached the bottom of the stairs, his steps froze.

What was this unpleasant feeling twisting in his chest? His head felt heavy again, throbbing painfully with every beat.

A beautiful red-haired woman leaned against Dominic’s shoulder, her body pressed close. She tilted her head and brought her red lips near his handsome cheek.

Something inside Shiao Yi snapped, he could almost hear the sound of it breaking.

"Dominic, you idiot!"

The words burst out of his throat before he could stop them, raw, unrestrained, and loud. The sound of his own voice shocked him.

Without thinking, he turned around and ran outside. He couldn’t stay there another second.

He didn’t want to see Dominic surrounded by women.

He couldn’t even look at Dominic’s surprised face when their eyes met for that split second.

The village lay at the northern edge of the kingdom, it was small but quite lively. The houses stood close together and in the open square, traveling merchants were busy with their trade. Since no merchants went farther north than this, the villagers had to buy everything they needed here.

It seemed today was a market day. Under the gray sky, small stalls lined the streets, their owners calling out to customers.

Without any clear direction, Shiao Yi wandered toward the row of vendors, his feet moving on their own.

He knew the truth, of course. Dominic wasn’t the kind of man who would ever cheat.

He had probably gone out early to gather information while Shiao Yi was still sleeping.

Maybe he even felt guilty for what had happened between them, for how far things had gone the night before.

It wasn’t Dominic’s fault that women gathered around him.

It’s normal for any woman or man would stare at him.

His husband was that good-looking, after all.

Oh, no, no, no!

The word husband echoed in his mind and his entire face burned.

Husband! He couldn’t believe he had just called him that, even in his head!

Shiao Yi crouched down right where he stood while covering his hot face with both hands. His heart raced, his cheeks felt like fire and his mind spun in circles.

What was he even doing? He must have looked completely suspicious, squatting in the middle of the street like that.

Shiao Yi finally pulled himself together and stood up, forcing a deep breath to calm down. To hide his embarrassment, he looked around the marketplace casually.

Then he suddenly felt a gaze on him.

When he turned around, his eyes met those of a man sitting behind a small stall. The man wore a hood pulled low over his face, but his skin was a deep brown and his eyes were a striking red.

In front of the man lay what seemed to be various ornaments and jewelry.

The moment Shiao Yi saw them, something inside him reacted, it was a strange frequency, faint but familiar, almost nostalgic.

An alarm rang inside his mind. That kind of signal shouldn’t exist in this world. He moved closer to the stall, trying to confirm what he was feeling.

The frequency reminded him of electromagnetic barriers designed to block an abilities user or psychic energy fields.

For people like him, our powers were born from special neural impulses in the brain.

There’s devices that could interfere with those impulses by emitting reversed frequencies, suppressing their activation with a magnetic field.

He had been trapped and weakened by such devices many times before.

On the cloth spread out on the ground were necklaces, rings, and bracelets decorated with glittering gems.

Among the many colors, the black stones stood out the most, it was so dark they seemed to swallow light.

As he got closer, the strange vibration became stronger. Yet he saw no device, no machine that could possibly be producing that frequency.

"Welcome, traveler," the man said while looking up at him with a friendly smile.

"All these stones were mined from the mountains just behind this village," he continued. "You have beautiful hair and eyes, it was so dark just like this black agate stone."

"Black agate stone?" Shiao Yi asked.

"Yes, this one," the man said, picking up a necklace strung with the black stones. "It’s very rare. You can only find it deep beneath the mountains here."

The merchant spoke cheerfully as he showed Shiao Yi the necklace, which had a large, polished black gem hanging at its center.

"It would suit you well," said a voice suddenly, he felt he’s too close.

Shiao Yi flinched in surprise. When had someone gotten that near? Before he could react, the hooded man leaned forward and fastened the necklace around his neck.

A heavy weight settled against his throat.

He screamed no, deeper, in his head. The large stone resting on his chest seemed to pull something out of him, draining his energy, his strength.

This is bad!

A chill ran down his spine. His body felt weaker by the second. He tried to move, but his muscles wouldn’t respond. His vision began to blur and through the fading haze of his mind, he heard the man’s pleased voice.