Arya, the elusive alchemist did not stretch her hand out in greeting, merely satisfied with her hands behind her back and a sweet smile on her face.

Seeing as she was so polite in greeting him, Hal decided to return the favor, granted she was in his home and it was courtesy for her to be polite,

"I wonder what could make me so appealing to you. Besides my incomparably good looks of course" he said with a smile while taking a seat on the luxurious chair that faced the sofa she was on.

Amelia seemed to decide that there was no reason for her to be there and went off to find Marla.

Arya cleared her throat and leaned back on the sofa while folding her hands beneath her breasts and perking them up,

"Now that we are alone, do you mind telling me why you turned down my invitation? I dare say it was quite polite and would have loved if had you taken the time to read it" She said.

'What do you think of her?" Hal asked Grimoire whose senses of detection were nigh-imperceptible and quite more accurate than his.

'There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her other than a very high cultivation base.

She's at the Early stage of the Cosmic Pagoda Realm!' Grimoire assessed and Hal's eyes widened.

'What a big day for me. I meet a Cosmic Aurora and a Cosmic Pagoda on the same day. What else can you sense about her?' He asked.

There was a reason Hal was so inquisitive and it did not go beyond the fact that he felt wired upon seeing Arya.

His instincts were all over the place that he could not just be overly relaxed around her.

"Other than her Cultivation base and her Spiritual sense at the 6th Rank, there is nothing peculiar I can sense and that in itself is suspicious. She is way too... Perfect. There is definitely something up with her. Don't let down your guard!' Grimoire warned.

Hal nodded in his mind,

'I'll do you one better, I'll keep my distance completely.'

'What? You don't want her' Grimoire could not help but tease.

Hal mind-shrugged,

'Even if I do, now is far from being time for that'

After which he quickly cut off his conversation with Grimoire. While their conversation had not taken long at all on the outside, Hal knew that thanks to her Rank 6 Spiritual sense and Cosmic Pagoda realm cultivation, Arya's perception was bound to be frightening.

And he had been right because Arya noticed a lapse in attention and called out to him,

"Are you alright?" She asked and Hal nodded with a smile.

"Yea I am, got lost in thought for a second. Where were we?

Ah yes. Me not honoring your invitation. My apologies but my reasons should be obvious by now" he said as he crossed his legs.

Arya shook get head,

"No they are not" she said with a little bit of confusion.

Hal spread his hands,

"Oh come on! Who am I? I am but a child who has practically being disowned by his father and killed his brother. What is so interesting about me that you would call me over to your home?

Especially after I have heard the rumors of how you have ignored the Great family heads."

Arya leaned forward a little and the low cut neckline of her dress gave Hal a nice view of her cleavage. Whether the action was intentional or not, Hal could not tell,

"So the things you have just said are not enough to make you interesting?

You were disowned but you live in this Mansion, that while is not as large as your Family's Estate, is still large and luxurious enough to act as your bachelor's pad. Or more accurately, philander's pad."

"Good work with the compliments, go on" Hal said and Arya chuckled and continued,

"You killed your brother and that caused quite a stir in the city, and was still able to reconcile with your Father who has been rumored to have vowed to kill you. Is that also not enough?

How about the fact that you purchased the Holger Estate with 100 million Gold coins?

Is that still not enough?"

Arya completed her words with her head cocked to the side.

When she was done, Hal was leaning back in his chair and stroking his jaw with a proud expression as though the compliments were truly going to his head, while he secretly remained alert.

Alert for what it was that put him on edge in Arya's presence. So far he got nothing.

"Well, you are right. All those things do make me sound attention-worthy" he said and just then a voice sounded along with the Click clack sound of heels,

"Oh, stop being modest. You are absolutely fabulous" Melinda said as she walked into the lounge with her calf-length hair dancing lightly behind her.

Her short knee-length gown with its petal designs and cleavage-revealing neckline was surely a sight Hal could never get tired of seeing.

She walked at an even pace, not too fast and not too slow before she sat down on Hal's laps.

"Hiya Baby Girl. Melinda, this is Arya, she's THE Alchemist..." Then to Arya, he said,

"And Arya, this is Melinda, my..."

"Fiancee. I'm his fiancee" Melinda completed for him.

Hal grinned,

"Took the words right out of my mouth" he said.

Arya smiled and her upper lip twitched slightly,

"Well, you two look like a happy couple" She said.

"We are" Melinda said while eying the Alchemist with her light gold eyes.

Hal knew this was why she was really here. She wanted to study this female Alchemist and he was counting on her picking up something he had missed that could possibly explain his barely controlled edginess.

Arya cleared her throat,

"As I said l, you are definitely a guy to watch out for especially with this Civil war on the horizon. I am curious as I am sure many others are, which side will you be siding with?"

Hal looked thoughtful as he said,

I'm going to have to go with... Myself"

"Really? That could be dangerous. Seeing as you could be caught between two strong parties" Arya said and if Hal did not know any better, he would have thought she cared about him. But he knew she was only sourcing for information.

Hal shrugged,

"Nothing great can be achieved without taking a few risks. Besides it's probably not the Plebeians or the Great families that I should be worried about"

Melinda cocked her head to the side and looked at Hal as though to ask him 'what are you doing?'.

Hal on the other hand was actually quite surprised by the direction his words were taking him, but he did well to hide his surprise behind his brilliant smile.

"What do you mean?" Arya asked with a confused expression but Melinda thought she caught a little fall in what could be called a facade. Albeit a good one.

"I mean that there are those who would love to take advantage of this conflict. Use it to further their aims. You know what I'm talking about right Arya. Or should I say 'Alchemist' Arya?"

Hal said with a sly smile and Arya's eyes narrowed to silts while her hostility increased drastically,

"I don't think I like your insinuations. Mr. Payne" she said.

While Melinda's eyes widened at the change and she tensed up in case of conflict, Hal patted her waist as though to tell her to be calm,

Before he smiled wolfishly at Arya,

"Why are you getting so upset? I was only telling the truth. As an Alchemist, I'm sure you've come up with some brilliant schemes to suck those suckers of all of their money.

After all, their quest to be victorious is just going to open up opportunities you can exploit to enrich your pocket.

That's all I was talking about.

What are those insinuations I made that you don't like? Care to share?"