“Lady Rita, this isn’t the place to talk. It’s curfew time, and standing here might get us spotted. Let’s go inside and talk slowly, alright?”
Kros glanced toward the Warehouse and the deserted street corner, lowering her voice to suggest this.
Rita had always been highly suspicious of Kros.
Although what Kros said earlier sounded like the truth, Rita was certain there was more to it.
Kros was just a small-time nobody.
Even if what she said was true, whether someone of her status could access the real truth was doubtful.
Though Kros never outright said it, Rita believed what she feared most wasn’t the soldiers—but the Dream Lord who had vanished without a trace.
Anyway, Kros wasn’t a Dream Lord—there were no wounds on her shoulders like the ones Rita had seen before.
She had specifically checked.
For now, she would go along with Kros’s pace and see whether she was truly desperate or had ulterior motives.
“Alright, let’s go inside then.”
“Okay, this way. We can squeeze in here. The door outside doesn’t open, so no one will know someone’s inside. This is where I’ve been hiding.”
Kros reached out to take Rita’s hand but seemed to realize something and quickly pulled back.
Then she pointed to the small window she had just climbed out of, about two meters high.
“Please, follow me.”
Kros first went in the opposite direction, climbing onto a shelf piled with barrels and broken crates.
She carefully grabbed the edge of the window and moved little by little, taking quite some time before finally reaching the Balcony.
But instead of rushing in, she beckoned to Rita, “Like this. You should come up too. When you get the chance, just find me this way, alright?”
“I haven’t agreed to that yet.” Rita put the words down and, imitating Kros’s movements, smoothly climbed onto the Balcony.
Given her physical fitness, it was not difficult.
The Balcony was small, barely enough space for two.
Kros shifted outward to give most of the space to Rita.
Rita looked inside the Warehouse.
The interior was pitch black, but Rita’s excellent night vision revealed everything clearly—there was no sign of a group ambushing her as she had feared.
“Lady Rita, look at that!” Kros whispered, then suddenly shoved Rita through the window into the Warehouse.
The recoil caused Kros to tumble down from the two-meter height.
Kros lay on the ground, feeling as if every bone in her body was about to break, but despite the pain, she couldn’t hide the twisted smile amidst her sobs.
“Finally… finally succeeded… safe…”
Last night, in the Underground Passage.
“Guh…” Kros struggled desperately, but the Dream Lord’s hand clamped tightly around her throat like a solid steel block, immovable no matter how hard she fought.
The Dream Lord’s previous coquettish and frivolous demeanor was gone, replaced by a danger that only intensified, manifesting in pure malice right before Kros’s eyes.
Looking at the Dream Lord’s lowered arm, Kros immediately understood why.
“Why? Why do you fail even at something so simple? I saw it—you should have killed that woman who, with soldiers, surrounded your old base. Soon enough, she’ll be entering the Underground Passage, right? But don’t worry, they won’t find this place anytime soon. I have enough time to slowly torment you.”
“No… no… no…” Kros flailed her legs.
The choking sensation blurred her vision until the Dream Lord’s face faded.
She saw Lady Mel’s corpse lying nearby.
A dagger gripped in Mel’s hand was lodged deep in her neck, blood splattered all around.
Kros refused to believe Mel’s death had nothing to do with the Dream Lord, yet there was nothing she could do.
No choice but to cry out, beg, and plead.
“Please, don’t kill me! I’m willing to do anything!”
“Anything, huh? What kind of resolve do you have to say that?” The Dream Lord’s gaze shifted before flinging Kros to the ground. “Fine, bring me that woman called Rita.”
Kros clutched her throat, gagging, unable to speak for a long moment.
Eventually, she rasped out a few syllables.
“Rita? You… you want her for what?”
“I can’t touch her master, and you’re not worth my enjoyment. I still need to vent my anger, so it’ll be her.” The Dream Lord said this casually.
But Kros saw through it—this plan to target Rita had been decided long ago.
Her own begging had nothing to do with it.
The only reason she was still alive was that the Dream Lord hadn’t planned to kill her right now.
But even so, Kros wouldn’t survive.
Mel was dead, the shop sealed, the rebellion quelled.
As long as Rita wasn’t stupid, she must have realized what Kros had done.
At this moment, exposing herself voluntarily was nothing short of suicide.
“I… I can’t do it…” Tears streamed down Kros’s face.
When the Dream Lord’s emotionless, purely hateful eyes looked at her, Kros hurried to explain.
“She—she’s found me! She won’t believe me!”
“That’s okay. As long as you tell her all the truths of this night, she’ll spare your life. Of course, if you bring her to me, I’ll spare you too.”
“But… how can you guarantee she’ll come alone?”
“I can’t, but no matter how many come, I’ll kill them all.”
Kros’s sudden push startled Rita a little, but it proved her fears right.
There really was an ambush here!
While thinking this, Rita rolled onto the ground—though most of the clumsiness was feigned.
There were countless ways she could have landed safely.
If she wanted, Kros couldn’t have pushed her at all.
But for now, it was better to cooperate and dig for more clues.
What came next wasn’t a raging stray but something that truly alarmed Rita.
It was the aura of seduction—pure and potent.
Being enveloped by such a strong seductive aura would make her…
Nothing would happen.
In fact, it was completely useless against her.
“Heh.” A cold laugh echoed from the depths of the Warehouse. A black-haired Dream Lord stepped around a towering pile of discarded items, a triumphant smile playing on her lips as she slowly approached Rita.
“You’re still standing? How surprising.”
That face, that injured arm—sure enough, she was the same Dream Lord Rita had encountered last night.
Wait, should she pretend to fall like the Dream Lord said?
To avoid alerting the enemy, just a little bit of acting.
Rita let out a small “Ah,” feigning that she could no longer support herself, collapsing with a thud onto the ground.
Incidentally, the bump her head made hitting the floor was the worst injury Rita had suffered in days.
Seeing Rita fall, the Dream Lord’s dark expression twisted into delight.
“You look surprised. Feeling betrayed? Heh.” The Dream Lord crouched before Rita. “Blame your useless master for not dying obediently when I tried to kill him. So you have to bear this pain instead.”
What kind of cliché NPC was this? What eyes saw me surprised? I didn’t feel betrayed at all. I don’t believe a word Kros said.
Whether the acting was good or not, Rita certainly had the spirit of an actor.
She struggled to squeeze out a few words, the effort nearly suffocating her.
“…”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll make sure you die understanding why.” The Dream Lord grabbed Rita’s chin, forcing her to look at that face twisted by joy and rage.
“I, Sumili, the great Dream Lord and daughter of Morpheus, Dream Lord of the Dream Demons, will make you humans taste the wrath of our kind!”
Please, no more cheesy lines.
Are all of us demons this corny?
Besides, who was this Dream Lord, the daughter of the Dream Lord Morpheus? Rita had never heard of them.
But such corny lines always revealed some information she might want to know, so she decided to keep playing along a while longer.
Sumili pried open Rita’s teeth with her index finger and pushed it inside Rita’s mouth.
“This must be your first time seeing a Dream Lord, right? Don’t worry, you have many firsts left—I’ll take them all away.”
Rita didn’t want to comment.
She just felt something viscous dripping from Sumili’s finger into her mouth.
Only after confirming Rita swallowed it all did Sumili slowly withdraw.
“Feel it slowly—the blessings of our kind that ordinary people cannot sense. No matter how much you beg me with tears, I will show you no mercy! In this space where no one discovers or disturbs us, you will taste the ultimate pleasure and pain!”
Rita knew what she had swallowed was the same Dream Lord fluid Kros had mixed in the wine yesterday.
She had complete immunity to it; otherwise, she would never let someone poke at her throat.
So what should she feel? Besides the pain from the finger digging her teeth, what else?
That sticky texture? If she put it nicely, it was like swallowing a milk mochi; more realistically…
Okra! Ugh!
But what was she supposed to do now?
Since it was a Dream Lord, pretending to faint should be fine, right?
Thinking this, Rita let her head drop with a thud onto the ground, making a sound like a watermelon hitting the floor.
Even Sumili was stunned for a moment.
Youth is wonderful—fall down and just sleep.
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