HP: The Arcane Thief-Chapter 90: The Russian Mafia, Martina Flashed again

Chapter 89

"The Russian Mafia?!" Martina's eyes widened. "What else did you hear?"

Axel nodded, "Yeah... I also managed to hear something like "Mikhailov" from them."

Hearing that, Martina paled as her fears came true. "Oh my god, it IS them. No wonder mom and dad were tense."

"What is it?" Asked Axel, not liking her reaction.

Martina sighed as she explained, "When it comes to the magical underworld, it is most active in two countries: Italy and Russia. These are the countries where the Mafia gangs are so strong that even the local governments can't do anything to stop them. So, in each of these countries, there needs to be one overlord, someone who would stop the Mafia gangs from running rampant and reign them in. Italy, has the Valentino Family and Russia—"

"—Has the Mikhailov Family," finished Axel, to which Martina nodded. "So, how is this Mikhailov Family? And what business could they have with your Family that's gotten them looking so troubled?" Asked Axel.

Martina shook her head. "Until now, both the families have left each other alone, so I have no idea what they might want. But I do know one thing for sure: those Mikhailovs are no good. While we mainly deal with maintaining order and keeping the crimes in the country to a minimum, the Mikhailovs manage the Russian Mafia by running all the syndicates themselves. Drug cartels, prostitution, slavery, smuggling, arms dealing, nothing is beneath them."

Axel had to sigh at that. This Russian Mafia, it couldn't have waited till his wand was fixed, could it? He just wanted to leave as soon as possible.

It was getting dark, and the lights began to get lit up in the whole estate, making the scenery even more beautiful. Catching Axel looking around, Martina shook her head vigorously, temporarily removing all the worries. "But forget about all that. You're here for the first time. I can't have all this spoil your visit," she said with a smile as she got up and patted the grass off her jeans.

She then began pulling Axel up forcefully, who seemed to have no thoughts of getting up. "Come on, let me show you around the house."

Axel couldn't understand her, "Aren't you worried about the Mikhailovs? What if a gang war begins?"

Martina shook her head, "Oh trust me, you'd know if there were chances of a gang war," she said, looking around. These men would be celebrating if that were the case. "And even if something does happen, we just happen to have a lot of weapons and countermeasures ready. Come on now, I can show you!"

At that, Axel was suddenly very cooperative about having a tour.

Since Martina had never had a friend over before, she was naturally very excited to show him a lot of things. She first showed him around the outside. The grounds around the estate were like a township itself, and there were portals installed to move between places. "You've never tried a portal either, right?"

Axel shook his head. "I didn't know they even existed before they got one at Hogwarts."

"That's normal. Portals are a relatively new concept, so not many places have them," said Martina understandingly. "It's an interesting concept, really. Think of it as apparation. Only, the very thin tube is widened a lot."

Axel had no idea what she was talking about. "I have never experienced Apparation either." It's just not something he could learn at Hogwarts due to the wards.

"Well, then let me help you experience your first time," she said, flashing him a smile, but she then paused, "Wait, that came out a bit inappropriate. I didn't mean it that way—"

"Let's go already," said Axel dragging her along.

They both stepped in front of the portal. It was a gateway of sorts, and since it wasn't active right now, you could see through it. Martina waved her hand and the wards around the thing disappeared. She then pressed a button at the side. "To the front wall."

The portal got activated as magic filled the gateway, making the other side translucent. Martina tugged at Axel's hand. "Let's go,"

Axel's [Void Travel] skill hadn't been progressing very well so he also wanted to experience it. Thus, with some hesitation and curiosity, he stepped through the portal.

*ZZZZZ*

As his body passed through the translucent layer, he felt this fizzy sensation buzzing on his body, followed by another fizzy sensation as he emerged from the other side. It was quite surreal. Looking around, he found himself on top of a high Wall overlooking the entire estate.

"This is the outer wall that surrounds the mansion," explained Martina.

The wall circled the entire estate, which was quite beautiful. But, what was on the other side of the wall was even better. On the other side of the wall was a lush forest, beyond which was a beautiful lake which shined with rainbow colors.

Martina looked back at him, "Isn't it beautiful? It's called Lake Carezza, a famous landmark of Italy. It is also called "lec de ergobando", the rainbow lake. It's covered with myths and legends."

Axel nodded. "It IS beautiful." The lake was magical, it almost seemed to call onto him.

"That isn't all," said Martina, raising her hand, casting out waves of magic.

"How do you even do that?" Asked Axel. He knew first hand how difficult wandless magic was.

Martina smiled mischievously at him, "You're not the only one with secrets, young man."

Axel stared at her. Just now, it almost actually felt like she was... older. Martina turned her back to look at the magic she had been casting. "It's done," she said, and in the next moment a ripple became visible in front of them, followed by another, and another, until hundreds of them were visible.

Axel's jaw dropped, "Are those all...?"

Martina nodded. "Yeah, they're the wards."

Like every other Wizarding Estate, the Valentino manor was also protected with wards. But, the wards here were...

"Fuck...." swore Axel. "This place is better protected than bloody Hogwarts," he muttered, activating his Arcane Eyes for further checking.

Wards of all kinds were interwoven so complexly that he didn't know where to even begin deciphering them. And they thrummed with powerz strong enough to withstand anything. His Wardbreaking skill, which had advanced quite a lot after last year, was still coming short in front of this elaborate piece of work.

Martina looked at him in surprise. "You can tell? I'm so glad! I've spent years working on them. These wards are a big reason why we don't need to worry about a Gang war."

"You designed them?" Asked Axel, amazed. "But they're interconnected to power each other, and there I can see at least 5 back up setups for each ward. How did you even do that?"

"!" Martina ceased functioning for a moment as she looked at Axel blankly, her eyes widened, "You can actually understand them? Oh my god! There's finally someone who gets it!" Martina looked like she would kiss Axel any moment.

Axel on the other hand had something else on his mind, "How did I even get here? These wards should have thrown me a mile away," he asked in confusion.

Martina smiled, "Your knife. The Valentino knife, didn't I say it's a symbol of our friendship? You got access to the wards when you had dropped blood on it and bonded with it," she explained.

"Come on, let me show you my lab as well!" She said, taking Axel's hand. We'll go by Apparition this time. It's quite easy really, all you have to do is picture the location you want to go, and will yourself over there.

Without barely a sound Axel and Martina disappeared, before appearing on the other side. It was quite a peculiar feeling. It was like being forced through a very tight rubber tube. Axel decided that he preferred portals.

As he emerged on the other side, Axel looked at his surroundings. They were in a spacious and luxurious room. The room was painted lilac, hung with dark purple curtains of silk and lace, and with a sumptuous bed in an alcove covered with violet sheets. But the room wasn't tidy, there were a lot of books piled up all over the place, with a few clothes scattered here and there.

"This is my bedroom," said Martina, but then she realized something. "D-Don't misunderstand! I only brought you because the door to my lab leads from here.

Axel looked around the room. It was much better compared to the alley he used to sleep in. Martina really is quite lucky. "It looks comfy," he commented.

Seeing him looking around, Martina suddenly got self conscious as she also looked at her room. "I'm sorry for the mess," She said, quite embarrassed she began leading him towards the door to her lab. While walking along, Axel paused in his footsteps as he was about to step on something.

It was... a pair of purple panties with an "I ♥️ Magic" print on it.

Martina: !!!!!

*Boom*

A beam of magic escaped Martina's hand, destroying a pair of panties as soon as she could. She might have even defeated Akiko had she been that fast in her duel. She smiled back at Axel, praying that he hadn't seen, "What did you see?"

Axel shrugged. "Nothing I haven't seen before," he said, trying to reassure her.

But that only made Martina feel even worse mortification as she led him to the bookshelf. "Anyways," she said as touched a book, her ears red. "This is the way to my lab," she said, half-drawing the book out of the shelf. Suddenly, there was a mechanical click, after which the bookshelf opened from the middle, showing a door made out of heavy metal.

"Cool," commented Axel.

Martina smiled proudly, "This is nothing. Wait till you get inside."

She pressed her hand on the door and suddenly, the runes inscribed on it started to light up, making the doors open. The inside was so capacious that it made Martina's room look small. And it seemed it was divided into sections. One section, the biggest one, was dominated by books, lots of them. Like, they were rivaling Hogwarts Library. One section had lots of plates lying around with various runic sequences on them, on the other various kinds of trinkets dominated one section, one was filled with lots of potions and potion ingredients, along with all kinds of equipment. And there was more, there was only so much you could describe.

Martina turned and spread her arms. "How is it? You're the first person other than me to step foot in here."

"What… in the tarnation of Netherworld have you been doing here?" Muttered Axel, walking in.

Martina smiled sheepishly, "I had started out small but then I just kept expanding it… Anyways I brought you here to show you the things you'll find Interesting," she said, summoning a metal contraption from afar.

Axel looked at it in surprise, "Is that a gun?"

Martina nodded, "A magic gun. 5 times more destructive than muggle guns, runs on magic batteries. It's one of the few offensive equipments I've made. As you know I didn't use to like violence… "

Axel raised an eyebrow, "And now?"

Martina aimed the gun at a target range and fired, shooting a beam that dug a hole through a dummy. Martina blew away the imaginary smoke off the gun as she shrugged. "Not anymore… You've been a bad influence on me," she said accusingly. Lately, Martina had been faced with more than a few situations in which she found her strength lacking. And then looking at Axel dealing with his problems with pure and unadulterated destructive violence, she instead began somewhat liking solving thing with violence.

Axel shrugged, "Might keep you alive longer," he muttered, still looking at the dummy. He was amazed by the power of the magical gun. That could definitely be useful. Not for him, but for people like Daphne in case of emergencies.

"What else do you have?"

She Martina grinned. "Many things. I have laser guns, light sabers, A railgun, a jetpack, a prototype of Ironman suit…" Martina began listing off the things.

Hiding away in this basement for year, she had of course been fullfiling her nerd fantasies, building one thing after another. And now that she had to go to the violent route, a lot more things were to come.

"Well, let's see them then." Axel grinned. This was definitely turning out to be quite a fruitful visit.

…

Meanwhile, in a meeting room, the Valentinos were in the middle of a very important discussion. They had dismissed even all their trusted men, leaving just the family members including Maria.

"I hope it was just a war. It would have been much simpler," said Alessandro, Enzo nodding along with him.

Francesca sighed, "Even I have to agree. It is clear that Makhailovs have been eyeing our power for a long time. But this approach is a bit difficult to deal with."

Maria also shook her head, "Asking Martina's hand for marriage, it is really…"

"Fucking insane," finished Endo. "Do they really think we'll ever accept?"

"It is also a smart move. They are already here, we can't reject them outright. And they're also coming to the party tomorrow," said Francesca, feeling a headache coming. "We have to fix up Martina's engagement quickly," she decided.

"But… who will it be? Can it be that boy? Doesn't he have no family background?" Asked Maria curiously.

"We don't need a family background as long as there are no red flags. And we aren't sure about how she feels about the boy yet. But it will be whoever who can keep her happy," said Alessandro. "We can't, and god knows we've tried."

"What does that mean? Isn't Martina quite happy?" Asked Maria in confusion.

Francesca sighed. "No, she's not. Martina, has always been different… distant. It's not that she doesn't care about us or loves us, it's just that she has always kept some boundaries with us, no matter how close we are."

"She's always locked away in her room, doing who knows what," said Enzo.

The Valentinos are quite distressed about the future of this daughter of theirs. It is very difficult to find someone with whom Martina would be happy with.

….

On the other side, it took a while for Axel and Martina to go through her inventions. Before they knew it, it was already dinner time and Martina and Axel were feeling much more comfortable around each other's company, their initial awkwardness gone. Martina was no longer feeling nervous at having a friend over and Axel was feeling less tense at being in a Magical Mafia home. You could say they had bonded over destructive geeky toys.

At dinner time, they emerged from Martina's room with their clothes disheveled. Martina's face was brimming with jubilation and her eyes were shining. Even Axel's usual bored and broody expression was gone, and his face looked almost neutral now.

But, when they emerged, the rest of the family, who were just coming back from their meeting happened to catch the two of them coming out, with their clothes disheveled and Martina beaming with joy,

!!!

Alessandro, Francesca and Enzo, all three of them stop to look at the scene in surprise as they exchanged glances. They hadn't seen Martina this happy in a long time. But more importantly, all three of them had one question.

'He… he just came out of her bedroom, right?'

There was no doubt about it. Both had emerged from her bedroom. And with the state of their clothes and the difference in their expressions, they were either tumbling on the bed or they were doing something in the room further in. Either of the options was a huge shock.

Francesca was the first one to recover. "It is good you guys are out. It's dinner time. Come on, you two must be tired."

Martina realized that her parents might be misunderstanding her. But there was nothing she could do or say that wouldn't make the situation worse, so she just sighed and went to the dining room.

In the dining room, as Axel sat on his seat beside Martina, he found that everyone was looking at him and Martina for some reason, making him uncomfortable. As the first course was served, Francesca finally spoke up, looking at Axel.

"So, Axel. How old are you exactly? Is it still 12 or is it 13?" She began her interrogation, looking at Axel with even more critical eyes. It was the eyes of a mother looking at her prospective Son-in-law.

Axel was stumped on the very first question. "I… don't know."

….