The overindulgence in aphrodisiacs and hallucinogens by awakened individuals is a concern that remains largely underexposed, particularly among advanced-class awakeneds who have not yet transcended the limitations of their physical form. Their elevated cultivation levels demand significantly higher doses to sustain their euphoric experiences. While the consumption of these substances has no direct impact on spiritual cultivation, the physical body and core are not as fortunate.

Dr. Halima Preznik, Royal Constable of Lutia

Year 2271

Aodhán's mind raced a mile per second as he tried to come up with a solution to prevent this disaster. However, his thoughts were a jumbled, incoherent mess that sputtered and smoked like a malfunctioning engine.

His gaze roamed the hall hurriedly, and in a desperate attempt to keep a semblance of their plan ongoing, he pulled away from Imani's confused form with a muttered apology and moved towards Meredith.

Imani called after him, but Aodhán barely noticed, so intensely focused on the keys jingling in Meredith's palms. Daruk immediately stepped in to distract Imani, and while he did so, Aodhán weaved around several dancing lords and ladies in a bid to cut Meredith off before she exited the hall. A glance across the room showed Aldric doing the same.

Aodhán cursed himself as he moved. The plan they had concocted had just exploded in their faces, and now he would have to wing it.

The first idea he had was to reason with Meredith, but he doubted she would be receptive to that at all. Seducing her was his next best option, capitalizing on her obvious attraction to him, but Aodhán had not the slightest clue how to go about that.

His eyes caught a dazzling lord dressed in extremely revealing clothes, and with a scowl, Aodhán copied the man, tousling his hair and unbuttoning his shirt. It made him feel exposed, but if that was what girls liked, then that was just what he had to do.

When he reached Meredith, he immediately plastered on the brightest smile he could muster, considering the circumstances. "Hey, Meredith, would you like to dance?"

She scowled at him, though her eyes dipped to his exposed chest, tracing the glowing lines on it seductively.

"What do you want, Aodhán?" she asked, her gaze glued to his chest, and Aodhán wondered if she hadn't heard his opening question.

She seemed distracted by the view he was providing, though, so despite feeling like shit, Aodhán slowly unbuttoned the third button, exposing more of the golden lines, and Meredith inhaled sharply.

Her eyes widened, and she looked up at him with eyes burning with an unmistakable flame of hunger. "What did you say you wanted again?"

Aodhán grimaced. "To accompany you. I thought perhaps we could go somewhere less crowded."

Meredith licked her lips and glanced behind him. "What about Imani? You've been with her all night."

Aodhán grimaced as another pang of guilt lanced through him, and pulled back. "This was a mistake."

He clasped the first button and turned to leave. He couldn't do it. That was not who he was. However, just as he turned, Meredith grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Is this what I think it is?"

"No," Aodhán shook his head. His gaze dipped to the keys dangling from her fingers, and he shook his head again. "I should head back."

Meredith's hold on him tightened. "Or we can go up to this room and you can have your way with me."

"That's truly not—"

But Meredith was no longer listening. She pulled him towards the exit immediately, muttering, "Come, I know just the right place."

They rushed out of the hall, and despite his reluctance, Aodhán went along with the flow.

As they rushed out of the hall, he grabbed a drink from a passing servant and downed it immediately. He was about to do something very bad, but he didn't see this plan working if he didn't act soon.

With delicate movements, he took out a {Clearveil pill}—an alchemical pill they'd bought specifically to combat the anesthetic effects of the crushed somnorus seeds.

He popped the pill into his mouth and downed the drink to flush it down before returning the wine glass. They burst out of the hall a moment later, barely acknowledging the guards stationed behind it, and with urgent steps, Meredith led him up the stairs.

The Blackwell mansion had fewer twists and turns compared to that of the Willowwoods', and after spending several hours studying the map, Aodhán knew it like the back of his hand.

Meredith led him past several scurrying maids and servants, and after a few minutes of hurrying, they arrived at the top floor.

"Come on," Meredith pulled him towards Makeba's quarters, and while she fumbled with the keys, Aodhán popped the crushed Somnorus seed into his mouth.

The moment the sedative touched his tongue, Aodhán was hit by an intense wave of dizziness, but the {Clearveil pill} he'd ingested earlier cleared his mind

Makeba's door swung open a moment later, and without hesitation, Aodhán pressed his lips to Meredith's. Lupin's face flashed across his mind, but Aodhán pushed it aside and thought to himself: Now is not the time. You can feel guilty later!

Meredith kissed him back like a woman dying of thirst. Her hands roamed his body, savagely clawing at his clothes, and even when he tried to pull back she refused to let him.

Her tongue twirled around his, and Aodhán groaned as pleasure twisted horridly within him. "Stop—" he whispered, but the rest of his words died as Meredith's lips trapped his once more.

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Her fingers tore at his shirt, pulling it apart to cup his bare skin. It was pleasurable—Aodhán wouldn't deny it—but just as he began to lose himself in the pleasure, Meredith suddenly tensed. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets and she fell to the ground with a thud.

The sound echoed in the room for a moment before Aodhán finally regained himself, and he quickly staggered back from her unconscious body.

The somnorus seeds had taken too long to take effect, which meant they had been severely weakened by the clearveil pill. It also meant Meredith wouldn't be unconscious for long.

Pushing down the pleasure that had surged within him, he glanced down at Meredith's limp form and took a deep breath to steady himself.

After he had calmed himself, he carried her to the bed and placed her down gently. He had about five minutes before the anesthetic effects wore off, but that was enough time to get what he came for.

With his emotions now somewhat under control, Aodhán turned to take in Makeba's room. The room was an image of wealth and luxury. Silver, gold, and beautiful stones shone everywhere; even the furniture was trimmed and highlighted with gold and silver. Velvet curtains blocked the moonlight, yet the room was bright enough to see, and a slight haze of opium smoke filled the air.

He looked around until he found Makeba's jewelry table, a silver cabinet trimmed in gold and decorated with sapphires. Rather than the runes he'd expected, the cabinet was protected with a simple padlock, and Aodhán breathed a sigh of relief. One potential problem eliminated.

He grabbed the bunch of keys from the door where Meredith had left them and began testing each key until he finally opened the spatially expanded cabinet filled with so many jewelries, ranging all the way from mundane to epic-ranked items. The entire cabinet was a treasure trove, and even better, it was a mess. Sure, the jewelries were sorted by their different ranks, but each rank was simply a big pile of items so that it was almost impossible to find anything and downright impossible to know if an item or two was missing.

Before he began searching, though, Aodhán focused his core sense to search for any hidden runes, but after an entire minute of searching, Aodhán gave up and began rifling through the uncommon-ranked jewelries instead.

Thankfully, no alarm went off, but barely a minute later, his chip pinged with a message from Daruk. "Makeba is on her way."

Aodhán cursed and hastened his search just as another message came in. "Aldric is trying to stall her, but I doubt he can hold her for long. She looks like she's ready to pass out if she doesn't get her next fix of opiates."

"Tell Aldric to give her back her pouch!" Aodhán replied as he hastily scanned the bizarre pile of uncommon-ranked earrings, half tempted to just grab the whole thing and run. He dismissed the evil thought and tried to search more carefully despite the ticking clock. It took him almost two minutes to find the earrings, and without hesitation, he tossed them into his spatial storage.

Just as he locked the cabinet, another message came in from Aldric. "I just returned her pouch, pretending to have found it on the floor somewhere, which caused a sort of scene, but that's by the way. She's still coming upstairs, though; she says it's time for her to retire for the night. You have two minutes at most."

"You should have stolen the pouch earlier," Aodhán hissed in response and rushed towards Meredith's sleeping form. He fought the urge to slap her awake and instead settled for shaking her vigorously. When that didn't work, he zapped her with enough lightning to kill anyone below tier 5, and she jerked awake, eyes wide with confusion.

"Oh, thank Raol!" Aodhán exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

"I—I don't know," she replied in confusion. "What happened?"

Aodhán grimaced. "One moment, you were kissing me, and the next, you just collapsed." He morphed his expression into one of concern and asked, "How are you feeling now?"

"W-what?" Meredith asked, still unable to understand his words, but Aodhán didn't have the time for that.

He helped her to her feet and reminded her, "You were here for opiates, remember? Let's get it so you can rest."

Meredith glanced around, still confused, but Aodhán urged her forward, and after she grabbed a pouch from Makeba's bedside cabinet, he helped her towards the door and said, "We can talk about this when you're feeling better. For now, you should rest."

Meredith didn't seem to hear him. "This has never happened to me before." She shook her head. "I can't believe I just fainted in the middle of our make-out session like that."

Aodhán forced a grin and urged her forward. "Well, when you're feeling better, we can revisit it. Now though, we should get going."

Meredith nodded, but when she reached the door, she frowned and asked, "How long was I out?"

"Just about five minutes," Aodhán shrugged and held the door open for her. "Maybe even less; I wasn't counting."

Meredith let out a sigh of relief. "Well, it can't be too bad, then. It was probably just a dizzy spell. You know, insufficient anemia."

Aodhán nodded, not bothering to point out that it was impossible to suffer from a deficiency of anemia. Meredith locked the door a moment later, but they had barely taken more than a few steps away from the entrance when Makeba arrived at the end of the hallway with two guards behind her.

Aodhán stiffened slightly, and only then did he realize how disheveled he looked. He hurriedly buttoned his shirt and arranged his hair, but his actions only caused Makeba to stare at him in disdain. "I should have known this was the reason why you took your sweet time fulfilling my request, Meredith. I had thought perhaps you had changed your errant ways, but alas..."

"My apologies, Lady Blackwell," Meredith bowed, and Aodhán quickly followed suit.

"We're very sorry, Lady Blackwell—" he began, but Makeba cut him off with a scowl.

"Weren't you the young man dancing with my granddaughter earlier?" She glanced at Meredith and then back at him before shaking her head in disappointment. "I had thought you were quite taken with her. Apparently, I thought wrong."

Aodhán didn't bother responding or defending himself. Instead, he just stood there and soaked in the judgment of her stare.

"I'd like my keys back, Meredith, and the opiates. You've proven yourself completely unreliable and frankly untrustworthy. I'll let Imani know to stay away from you. You're excused."

Meredith's lips quivered as she handed over the pouch and keys. It went without saying that Aodhán didn't feel good about the whole thing. It wasn't really Makeba's opinion that ate at him though—it was just the last nail in the coffin of this whole evening.

Makeba walked past them with her guards, and Aodhán sighed. "I'm sorry, Meredith."

He left before she could respond, his heart pounding as he walked past the hall guards, who stared at him with judgment and curiosity.

Their glare was so intense that Aodhán almost believed they could see the earrings in his spatial storage, and despite the fact that he knew that was impossible, his heart couldn't help but pound loudly every time he walked past a guard or servant. Aodhán battled his nerves and forced himself to keep a calm pace. Running would only call unwanted attention to himself.

When he reached the third floor, he smiled at the guards and even spent a few minutes chatting with a maid just to maintain the appearance of nonchalance.

When he finally reached the first floor, he sighed in relief and sent a message to both Daruk and Aldric that the mission was done. When he neared the entrance to the main hall, he found Rahim grinning at him. "I take it that lady luck smiled in your favor."

"I'm just glad it's over," Aodhán sighed and subtly handed the earrings over to Rahim. "Could you keep this for me?"

Rahim nodded, and Aodhán felt an immense sense of relief as the earrings disappeared from view.

"Congratulations," Rahim smiled. "With your success in this mission, I imagine your problems with the principal have only just begun." His smile widened, and he patted Aodhán's shoulders. "Enjoy the rest of your break. I'll see you in the academy. Try not to call me before then."

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