The Alchemist was a woman.

For a whole minute after she sat down, Edvard just stared at her. He had to admit that when he thought about the Alchemist, he either pictured a Man or did not bother to factor in gender at all.

But this woman before him,

This woman was stunning!

Of course, Melinda was more beautiful to him and his heart was still set on her even after she had slapped him because of the Boy toy.

Although it could be argued that Melinda and this woman had their own unique beauties. For one thing, this woman's beauty seemed dark and that had nothing to do with her clothes.

Edvard prides himself on his ability to distinguish the different qualities of beautiful women. He had chosen Karmen to stay close to him because her beauty was wild and dangerous.

She was just the type he wanted watching his back.

And the few times he had seen her spar convinced him of that beyond all reasonable doubt.

Back to the female Alchemist who eyed them all with her green eye (as the other was covered with her bangs),

There was just something about her that immediately disarmed Krast and he practically lost all ability of speech.

Also, was that a red twinge he saw in her eye?

"Have you been crying?" He blurted out.

The Alchemist looked taken aback before she seemed to realize what Edvard must have been referring to and so she rubbed at her eyes lightly,

"A little of the smoke got into my eye. Alchemy is quite a delicate process that can turn dangerous if one is not careful" she said with a friendly smile that caused Edvard to catch his breath.

Seeing this, Ford rolled his eyes,

"Simmer down, you man-whore"

Despite having been insulted, Edvard ignored those words but did visibly attempt to compose himself.

The Alchemist giggled,

"Oh you guys are so cute, My name is Arya" she said.

'She's even got a beautiful name. Is she not too perfect?' Edvard smiled off into space for a while before catching himself.

"Well, miss Arya, can you explain all this?" Gregory said in a gruff manner.

"Explain what? I don't quite follow" Arya said as she blinked the only visible eye.

Gregory snorted and gestured to the gathering as a whole,

"All this. Why are we all here? I, for one have been attempting to get an audience with you all this while and you've turned me down constantly. Now that you seem to have given me some consideration, I come to your home and find out I am not the only one"

The other Great Family heads, while quiet also agreed with Gregory's dissatisfaction.

Arya cocked her head in his direction,

"Hmm, I see. Well, you can't truly blame me for not granting any of you audience. At the time, I did not wish to get in the middle of your conflict.

You were all requesting my assistance and because if I were to assist all the Great families, the situation would simply remain the same, I assumed that you would all want me to work with only one of you"

She was right. That was what they wanted and now they thought about it, staying away from the conflict seemed a pretty reasonable thing to do.

Not to any of their advantage of course, but reasonable for her.

"So what has changed now?" Asked Hector who was the oldest and the calmest of all the gathered individuals.

"*sigh* I realized I was being an Idiot. How was it any of my business if you all want to kill each other? Why should I care that providing services to all of you would only make the situation the same?

The only thing that should concern me and be my business is to capitalize on your conflict and make a lot of profit"

Arya completed her words and her smile went from sweet to greedy, and the transition only served to make her look even more beautiful.

Alas,

At that moment, all the Family heads were trapped in a limbo of emotions where they were trying to figure out the situation.

What just happened?

They asked themselves and why was the once sweet-looking Alchemist now looking at them like they were about to be drained to their very last drop or more accurately, to their last coin.

"You do know that by telling us all this, we now know what you're planning and can simply get up and leave" Ford said as he stood to his feet.

Arya's smile widened,

"Oh is that so? Then feel free. You are welcome to some snacks on your way out" She said with a casual wave of her hand.

What a joke.

They were here for her help, even if they all left right now, they were bound to return behind each other's backs.

Slowly, he sat back on his seat.

Arya glanced at the empty chair by his side and groaned,

"When the hell is he going to get here?" She said with impatience.

"Who?" Edward asked.

"Oh just the sixth person in this meeting, Hal Payne" she said and eyes widened all around.

"What? You invited him?" Edward asked in outrage but Arya just smiled.

"Of course I did, he put himself in the spotlight during the auction, I couldn't just ignore him when I want to make some gold"

"You were at the Auction?" Hector asked.

Arya nodded with a smile.

Hector groaned with dissatisfaction,

"I have heard that Money does not mean much to Alchemists because they care more about the pursuit of Alchemical knowledge"

Arya blanked and then,

"Bwahahahaha. Who told you that crap? They are people just like you. The ones that act aloof as though they have no use for wealth only do so because they already large amount of it. Filthy hypocrites.

I, on the other hand, will give it to you straight. I only have my alchemical skills to make money and now that I have knocked some sense into myself, it is high-time I milk you suckers" Arya said and laughed some more.

The Great family heads had to admit to themselves that they were quite embarrassed. But even then they could not leave. All this was merely a prelude. She was obviously stalling for some reason as she had not yet told them why she really called them here.

A messenger walked in and at first seemed to wonder if he should deliver his news, when Arya saw his behavior, she waved for him to speak up.

The messenger cast a quick look at the gathered men before clearing his throat to speak,

"I was unable to deliver the message"

"Why not?" Arya frowned.

"Well, the guards at his Mansion would not even take the letter from my hand, saying that their Master was busy and he would be busy for the next few days" the Messenger said with a smile.

"Why did you not leave it there?" Arya asked.

"Well, the guard said he could not take the message on behalf of his Master and I would need to return when his master was no longer busy, even if the message was from...an Alchemist" The messenger said.

"Well, that's absurd" Edvard said.

Even if Hal was busy, it was a common courtesy that the guard holds it down for him. Also once the guard knew who sent the letter, there should at least be respect towards such a distinguished profession. Even if she was turning out to be a money-hungry bitch!

Hector's eyes narrowed. Edvard's outburst was understandable because there was found to be bad blood between him and Hal since the latter was with Melinda who he had set his eye on but what made no sense to Hector about the whole situation with the letter was that,

Before coming here, Karon had a letter delivered to Hal and while it had been said that Hal was busy, the letter was held down for when the Master of the house could peruse it.

So, while he believed it impossible, he was suspecting that the letter had only been turned down because it had been from the Alchemist.

But that couldn't be, right?

That would assume Hal had known the Alchemist would be delivering a message and that was impossible.

If only Hector, like Karmen, Burt and Fidel, knew that distance was not a barrier to communication between Hal and his men.

Speaking of Karmen, the image of her Master being such a badass was making it hard for her to stop smiling.

Luckily, no one noticed.

Arya rapped her fingers against the table for a while before she smiled at the servant,

"Okay then. You may leave"

Once the messenger was gone, She turned to the Great Family heads,

"Now let us talk about business and before we dive in, I need you to know I will not be receiving any land or territory as payment. I don't see the benefit of owning property in this city. For all transactions. I.. Want... Gold"

'Well that settles it, she definitely rented this Mansion' Karon thought.

Other than Edvard, all the other Family heads, including elderly Hector Edgar, wealthiest of the Four, sat straighter in their seats.

Edvard leaned forward,

"Um, miss Arya, are you not upset with the attitude of Hal Payne and his men. I mean, he's only a teenager and just because he made it into the pants of a beautiful and well-off woman, he feels he can disrespect people like you"

Karmen nearly face palmed herself at this idiot's words but declined to do so as it might ruin her cover.

Arta smiled at him,

"Oh not to worry about Master Payne. I will be visiting him in a few days. We will hash things out and he can tell me then why he turned me down"

Edward did not like the look in her eyes when she said 'turned me down'. It was almost a different kind of hungry.

Also, she was visiting him?

Personally?

Since when did Hal Payne deserve the courtesy they, as Great family heads, did not qualify to receive.