As soon as I regained my bearings and shook off the lingering fatigue from my psychic extraction, Chloe and I left the guest bedroom behind. True to her proactive nature, she had already summoned Sebas and his arrogant son, Devon, instructing them to assemble in one of the mansion's formal, high-ceilinged living rooms. We met them there moments later, the atmosphere thick with aristocratic tension. Chloe immediately informed them that I had successfully uncovered vital new pieces of information pertaining to the mysterious murderers plaguing the region, even dropping a calculated hint that I had successfully pinpointed their elusive headquarters.
I was far from a veteran detective, but ever since the last massive augmentation of my Willpower, my sensory perception and intuitive instincts had sharpened to an almost preternatural degree. I could instantly feel that something was fundamentally wrong with their facial micro-expressions and body language. Sensing a hidden undercurrent of deception, I subtly used my Will to project a warning straight into Chloe's mind, stopping her just before she could blurt out the exact geographical location I had witnessed while tracking the residual resentment of the harvested souls.
Their collective composure fractured the exact microsecond Chloe mentioned that the culprits we were hunting operated under a distinct green snake pattern as their primary symbol. Sebas, a seasoned elder of the clan, managed to clamp down on his facial features with rigid discipline, ensuring no obvious leaks escaped his exterior. But his son Devon lacked that ironclad control; his face drained of all color in a flash of pure panic, and he couldn't help letting out a sharp, astonished gasp. Realizing he had dangerously exposed himself, he scrambled to recover his mental footing, quickly pivoting to aggressively undermine my credibility and cast doubt on my findings. I narrowed my eyes, watching his desperate pivot with cold amusement.
"Your Majesty, can he even be trusted?" Devon demanded, his voice dripping with thinly veiled disgust as he glared directly at me.
When Chloe merely met his outburst with an icy, expressionless stare, Devon took her silence as an invitation to press forward, emboldened by the lack of an immediate reprimand.
"First of all, he isn't even one of us," he continued, gesturing wildly. "Additionally, his fundamental nature is extremely dubious, as we have no earthly idea what kind of anomaly or creature he actually is. The way his blood naturally attracts us violates every law of nature. I am deeply afraid that he is merely manipulating and abusing Your Majesty's unmatched kindness for his own hidden agenda."
Devon remained blissfully unaware that Chloe was paying zero attention to his theatrical whining, as she was currently deep in mental deliberation over the telepathic warning I had just fed her. I had pointed out to her that the very fact Sebas's influential family had repeatedly claimed complete inability to locate the killers was inherently suspicious, especially when elite hired mages had also drawn endless blanks. I wasn't delusional enough to believe I was the only person in the world capable of tracking down their hideout; rather, it pointed directly to a deliberate cover-up, meaning there was something deeply rotten and suspicious afoot right here within this very mansion.
Devon ranted on for a few more minutes, growing increasingly unhinged before finally realizing that Chloe wasn't even blinking at his accusations. Furious and humiliated by her complete apathy, he abruptly pivoted and turned his hostile glare onto me. I simply offered him a calm, disarming smile, acting as if his pathetic tantrums had nothing whatsoever to do with me. That infuriated him further, pushing him to the brink of physical violence as he prepared to lunge across the room. Before he could make a move, Sebas firmly clamped a heavy hand onto his son's shoulder, halting him in his tracks, and addressed Chloe with a carefully neutral tone.
"Your Majesty, my son speaks out of genuine loyalty," Sebas lied smoothly, fixing me with a pair of chilling, distrustful eyes. "I poured my absolute best resources and finest trackers into this investigation, yet we couldn't uncover a single wisp of evidence. How on earth is an outsider supposed to succeed where my entire bloodline failed?"
I didn't dignify his thinly veiled insult with a spoken response, choosing instead to lean back and watch their pathetic performance as if they were amateur clowns playing to an empty tent.
Chloe finally broke her deep concentration, lifting her gaze to look at both of them simultaneously. Sebas and Devon reflexively flinched, taking a half-step backward under the sheer weight of her expression. I certainly couldn't blame them; even with my unshakeable, immortal constitution, being the target of her present gaze was enough to send a sharp chill straight down my spine.
"Sebas, you and your son are rapidly starting to test the absolute limits of my patience," Chloe spoke, her voice carrying a sub-zero temperature capable of freezing an active fire. "Do you genuinely believe the words I uttered when I first introduced him to this estate were merely for empty show?"
As her final word echoed through the opulent room, a crushing, highly concentrated aura of pure royal suppression erupted from her like an explosive tidal wave, zeroing in directly on father and son. They buckled instantly, their legs giving out as they crashed hard onto their knees against the polished wooden flooring. Sebas desperately tried to resist the suffocating pressure, the heavy strain contorting his pale face into a mask of agony, but it was entirely futile; his personal aura was utterly devoured by Chloe's overwhelming dominance, pressing him further into the ground. Beneath their kneeling forms, a web-like network of splinters and deep cracks began spider-webbing across the expensive wooden planks.
"Please—excuse our impertinence, Your Highness! We didn't mean to cross a line, we only—" Sebas choked out, gasping for air.
"SAVE IT!!" Chloe shouted, cutting him off entirely, her rage finally boiling over. "I have zero interest in hearing whatever pathetic excuses you've cooked up. All I care about are unvarnished facts. I commanded you to accomplish a specific task, and you utterly failed. I requested Samsara's assistance, and he delivered tangible results. And now, you have the absolute audacity to ask me to doubt his credibility based solely on your glaring incompetence?!"
Chloe was furious, and rightly so. The suspicious, defensive attitudes displayed by the duo had finally tipped her over the edge into active, undeniable doubt regarding their loyalty.
"But, Chl—" Devon choked, attempting to argue further.
Before he could even finish the syllable, I moved. In a blinding blur of speed, my hand shot forward, clamping tightly around his throat and lifting his entire body straight up into the air, leaving his legs dangling helplessly a meter off the ground.
"I don't believe you have the social standing to address her so casually by her first name. Am I correct?" I asked quietly, my eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.
Devon thrashed violently, clawing frantically at my wrist, but it was completely useless. My raw, unadulterated physical strength now rivaled that of an ancient vampire elder; he couldn't budge me an inch, even if he funneled every drop of his magical energy into the effort.
"You—how dare you lay hands on him?!" Sebas roared, attempting to stand and intervene on his son's behalf.
Before Sebas could rise, Chloe subtly intensified the gravitational weight of her suppression, slamming him right back down onto the cracked floor and rendering him entirely incapable of interfering.
"You know, for quite a while now, I've had to sit quietly and listen to you hurl petty insults and veiled threats in my direction," I continued, keeping my gaze locked on the suffocating youth. "To be entirely candid with you, I usually don't care much about childish opinions, but you are starting to genuinely irk me. So I think it's best if..."
Without breaking eye contact, I forcefully swung my arm downward, crashing Devon's face straight into the reinforced wooden flooring with bone-crunching force. The wood exploded into a shower of splinters and deep cracks, instantly coating his face in a mask of warm, bubbling blood. The brutal impact fractured his skull on contact, rendering him entirely unconscious without a single parting sound.
"...you go take a nice, long nap while the adults handle the actual conversation," I finished smoothly, releasing my grip and casually stepping over his limp form to take a seat in a plush armchair as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
Sebas stared at his bloodied, unconscious son, his face twisting into a mask of pure, vicious hatred. What on earth was he genuinely pissed about? I hadn't even killed his worthless offspring; I had merely put him to sleep.
Seeing the situation diffuse slightly, Chloe finally reined in her crushing aura, allowing Sebas to shakily regain his footing. He hurried over to his son, frantically examining his traumatic head injuries before forcing his breathing to level out. He swallowed his immense pride, wiped his hands, and addressed Chloe with a sickeningly smooth, fabricated mask of obedience.
"Your Majesty, we deeply apologize for our unpardonable rudeness toward your esteemed friend. Please issue your direct instructions regarding those criminals, and we will execute them without a single fault or hesitation."
Both Chloe and I were instantly struck by his lightning-fast emotional pivot. I could vividly feel a lingering, toxic sense of danger lurking beneath his lowered gaze, but it vanished in a microsecond, replaced once more by an impeccably contrite and loyal expression.
Chloe studied him in silence for a long, agonizing moment before finally breaking the quiet.
"We will launch our coordinated assault in precisely three days," she stated firmly. "As I explicitly noted earlier, their precise geographical whereabouts constitute highly sensitive, classified intelligence, which is why I have chosen to keep the location strictly to myself for now. You and your clan will be formally briefed on the morning of the operation. For the time being, your only objective is to gather your elite fighters and ensure they are fully prepped for combat."
Sebas's expression flickered uncontrollably with panic, and he couldn't stop himself from questioning her directive.
"Your Majesty, with all due respect, it is logistically impossible for us to adequately prepare our tactical units for an assault if we remain entirely blind to the geographical terrain and layout of the target zone."
"As I already stated, that is not something you need to worry about," Chloe replied coldly, her tone brooks zero argument. "Our overarching strategic objective for this particular raid is delightfully straightforward: kill every single one of them."
"I will dutifully oblige," Sebas muttered tightly, scooping up his unconscious son into his arms and bowing deeply as he excused himself from the room, his expression entirely unreadable.
As the heavy doors clicked shut behind them, I turned my gaze toward Chloe, breaking the lingering silence.
"What are your honest thoughts on that interaction?" I asked quietly.
"I think your instincts were spot on," she murmured, her eyes dark. "We need to exercise extreme caution moving forward. I have a very strong, lingering premonition that the assault in three days is going to be far from straightforward."
"It definitely felt like Sebas and Devon possess intimate insider knowledge concerning this rogue faction. Did you catch their exact physical reactions when I brought up the green serpent pattern?"
"Yes, that was glaringly, undeniably suspicious," she agreed, a shadow crossing her flawless features. "I truly, deeply hope for their saks that they aren't what my gut is currently whispering to me they might be..."