******
Hearing the dark, sharp voice, Xavier, Lilith, and the vicious-looking guard turned their heads in unison.
It belonged to a middle-aged demon who currently stood with a cold, menacing aura. His expression was calm yet chilling, and his faintly glowing, icy green eyes locked onto the lower-ranked guard like daggers.
For a second, the three stood frozen, but then—
"This..." Lilith’s voice trembled, and in the next moment, relief flooded her, causing her knees to weaken.
’We’re saved!’ she thought, blood finally flowing through her veins, though she didn’t dare speak it aloud.
Standing beside her, however, Xylen doesn’t need to be told to catch on.
He quickly sensed her relief, and although his body remained rigid, his tensed muscles still loosened just a bit.
The guard opposite them, on the other hand, stiffened like stone.
But the moment he recognized the newcomer as his superior, he straightened his back, instantly standing at attention, his face turning pale.
"I asked you a question. Is that the task you were given?" the middle-aged demon repeated, his gaze never wavering from the lower-ranked guard.
Hearing him, the lower-ranked guard swallowed hard, panic rising in his chest.
"I... I was already carrying out the task, sire. But I spotted something suspicious and decided to investigate," he reported, his voice trembling.
The superior demon didn’t react right away. Instead, he simply stared expressionlessly at the lower-ranked demon for a long, agonizing moment before frowning slightly.
"You sighted something suspicious and couldn’t request another guard to investigate it? Instead, you decided the mission given to you wasn’t important, right?" he asked, his voice low but sharp as a blade.
"I..." The lower-ranked demon swallowed again, his entire body trembling as he felt the oppressive aura slowly radiating from his superior, seemingly on the verge of bursting.
Of course, he knew the punishment for defying orders and recalling it, his legs weakened, dread pooling in his gut.
’Ah!!! Why did I even try seeking merit?’ he screamed internally.
’I should have minded my goddamned business — or better still, called another guard!’
The guard’s mind spiraled into despair, certain that his fate was sealed. This particular superior was known to be ruthless and terrifying, one who would punish even the slightest offense. But then, just as he began to brace himself for the inevitable—
"Leave," the middle-aged demon growled.
However, the lower-ranked guard couldn’t react. Instead, he stared in a trance, unable to react or process what he had just heard for a moment.
Just then...
"You don’t want to leave?" the superior demon asked, his voice suddenly lowering to a deadly pitch.
The lower-ranked guard returned to his senses and in the following second...
"I... I will leave now, sir!" he blurted anxiously, saluting before bolting off as though he had just been released from a death sentence.
Hmph!
The superior demon snorted, watching the figure vanish into the distance. Only after the figure was completely out of sight did he turn his attention to Xylen, pausing briefly before shifting his gaze to Lilith.
Seeing this, Xylen’s breath caught, and his anxiety surged once more. He expected the middle-aged Demon to question Lilith and then instruct him to take the robe.
But none of that happened. Instead...
"You can leave," the demon said, his voice devoid of emotion. Then, not waiting for a response, he turned and marched away.
’This...
Xylen was stunned.
He stood in a trance for a second, unable to react, before...
"Let’s go, my Lord!" Lilith whispered urgently into his ear. But before Xylen could react, she seized his arm and practically dragged him away, hurrying toward his chamber.
....
"That... that was so..."
Once they entered the chamber and the door shut behind them, Xylen collapsed onto the bed, his chest rising and falling heavily as he replayed the recent encounter in his mind.
He had thought the mission was as good as failed, but...
"Was that one of the two loyal guards you told me about before?" he asked, glancing at Lilith, whose face was still pale from fear.
Swallowing hard and doing her best to calm herself, Lilith nodded her head, the image of the terror still vivid in her mind.
Xylen also couldn’t help but envision the worst-case scenarios had the middle-aged Demon not arrived—all of them ending in disaster.
Thinking this, Xylen swallowed hard.
’Ah!!! I can’t wait to complete this godforsaken quest already!’ he cried out in his mind, unable to relax.
It took nearly ten minutes for Xylen and Lilith to finally calm down.
Then, after catching their breath, they began to reflect on how close they had come to losing everything that night.
Eventually—
"Didn’t you say..." Xylen suddenly focused his gaze on Lilith. "That my uncle would only return tomorrow morning?"
"This..."
Lilith’s brows furrowed, her breathing suddenly hitching.
"That was what I was also told," she mumbled, confusion clouding her face.
"What could have changed?" she wondered aloud.
Xylen was equally curious, wondering if this was part of the game’s intended progression — or if his rush to complete the quest had changed the outcome.
No matter how much he pondered, he couldn’t grasp the truth. So, with a sigh, he shook his head and set the thought aside.
"Since we’ve successfully recruited your organization, how do we contact the two guards to inform them about tomorrow?" he asked.
Lilith instantly returned to her senses, then, considering the question carefully, she opened her mouth.
"We’ve already taken enough risks today, My Lord," she said, her heart still racing from the near-death encounters. She shook off the lingering fear and sighed.
"I think you shouldn’t come out again, especially now that that bastard and his people have returned," she added, her voice firm and leaving no space for argument.
Without waiting for Xylen to respond—
"I’ll meet with the two guards once I leave here and relay the plan to them," she decided.
Xylen frowned for a second, processing her words before finally nodding his head after finding nothing wrong with it.
"That’s also a good idea," he agreed. Then, feeling the weight of the day’s events, he waved her off.
"I’ve already stressed you enough today. You should rest," he said.
The two exchanged a few more words before finally, Lilith wished Xylen a good night and stepped out.
Once she was gone, Xylen heaved a deep sigh, thinking for a moment.
"All I have to do now is wait for the right moment," he muttered, double-checking the details of his plan.
Only after confirming that everything was already in place did he finally relax.
"Time to log out," he said, a sudden bright smile lighting his face.
Without hesitation, he lay back on the bed, shut his eyes, and just then...
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