Free Web NovelChapter 264: Chapter 164: Escape (2)
With that, he actually squeezed right in, positioning himself beside the eldest daughter. The Household Servant he pushed aside, Bass, ground his teeth in frustration but had to swallow his anger due to the disparity in their strength and status.
The eldest daughter, Isabella’s, expression turned even more glacial, but she said nothing. Seeing this, Jose smiled and mused aloud:
"Just as Young Master Roy said, Beowulf Manor is quite lovely at night. Why don’t you show him the sights, Sister... Uncle Lidton, what do you think?"
Just as the Household Servant Bass saw a cold glint flash in his lady Isabella’s beautiful eyes, certain she was about to snap and tell Roy to "get lost"...
...the Patriarch, Lidton, stepped out from behind Jose. His gaze rested on his niece’s ice-cold face for a moment before he nodded. "I’ll have to trouble you, then."
It was a command from the Patriarch, one Isabella could not refuse in front of a guest.
She gave a cold nod and said to Roy, "Follow me."
Then she turned and walked away.
Seeing this, her remaining Household Servants quickly followed after her.
Jose watched Isabella’s retreating figure and mused, "My sister and Young Master Roy actually seem like a good match..."
Lidton listened, his gaze following them. "The second son of the Hestia Family... he’s already at the Bronze Tier at such a young age. His talent is quite remarkable..."
Seeing this, Jose said no more on the matter. Instead, he declared that since his sister had departed, he would take over the task she had left unfinished.
Lidton nodded. He had always been confident in this nephew; he wasn’t as aggressive as Isabella, but neither was he foolish like Tune.
He was, without a doubt, the best candidate for the next Patriarch.
With the Patriarch’s authorization, the Attendants who had been left directionless by Isabella’s abrupt departure were naturally taken under Jose’s command.
After inquiring with the butler about the investigation’s progress, Jose took over for Isabella, leading the group to the entrance of the confinement cells.
There was no one at the entrance. It was empty, making the entire corridor seem dark and deep.
A Bronze Demon Hunter’s intuition told Jose that something was wrong with the confinement cells.
Moreover, after questioning the butler, he learned that most of the search parties sent in this direction had not returned.
Jose signaled for the butler to produce the spare key to the confinement cells, then ordered two Guards to use it to open the doors.
The confinement cell doors opened to reveal, just as he’d suspected, the unconscious members of the search parties locked inside.
When they opened the last cell, they found three people: the two missing Guards from the confinement area, and the Chief Steward.
Jose’s gaze paused on the bloodstain between the Chief Steward’s thighs. Everyone else’s eyes followed suit, and they all sucked in a sharp breath. A collective, empathetic chill shot up from their groins to the crowns of their heads.
Then, Young Master Jose ordered, "Close all the cell doors! Do a headcount of the unconscious and check them against the rosters!"
...
The iron door slammed shut. The two men on the floor, who had been feigning unconsciousness and hoping to slip away in the confusion: "..."
"L, what do we do? I think something’s gone wrong with the plan."
’Damn. Nothing we can do but play it by ear.’ Baron, still pretending to be unconscious, said, "Wait for an opening."
"And when is that?"
"You’ll know when the time comes."
CLANG! The door was thrown open again, and two Guards entered to do a headcount.
A moment later, the door closed, and the two Guards exited.
"Cell number one: six unconscious."
"Cell number two: seven."
"Cell number three..."
The count revealed two extra people.
The intruders must be hiding among the unconscious members of the search party!
The butler was overjoyed and was about to give the order to go in and recount, but Jose stopped him. He pulled the butler to the exit of the confinement cell corridor, took a long spear handed to him by a Household Servant, and addressed the Guards who had been doing the count:
"Now, all Guards present will lower their collars, masks, or anything else covering their faces. Line up and present yourselves for identification, one by one."
The butler froze. After a moment’s thought, a jolt of realization hit him. He understood why Young Master Jose had only allowed two Guards to enter the cells.
He was giving the intruders hiding inside a chance to swap places with a Guard!
The butler’s mind raced. He instantly grasped Young Master Jose’s strategy and bellowed to the Attendants, "Form a line! One by one!"
...
The check was completed. To the surprise of the butler and Savi, there were no impostors.
’So the intruders are still in the cells?’
They returned to the cells and recounted. This time, the numbers were correct.
Locating the cell where the numbers hadn’t matched up, Jose fell silent for a moment. Then, he suddenly asked the butler, "A few days ago, wasn’t there a large Fire in the Beowulf Family cemetery?"
The butler couldn’t follow Young Master Jose’s train of thought but nodded anyway. "The arsonist was locked in the confinement cells. The plan was to break both his legs and send him home in a few days... Young Master, are you suggesting..."
The butler’s eyes widened in realization. Jose said quietly, "Taboo Items were stolen, yet there were no casualties. This means their primary target was the Taboo Items all along."
As he said "no casualties," Jose’s eyes flickered to the bloody crotch of the Chief Steward’s pants before he continued:
"The confinement cells are located right above the vault for the Taboo Items. I’m afraid the culprit deliberately got himself locked up in here. His real goal was the Taboo Items in the vault below."
At this, the butler, while admiring Young Master Jose’s astuteness, found a hole in the theory. "But Young Master Jose, if his only goal was to get locked up, why would he choose to burn down the Beowulf Family’s cemetery?"
Jose faltered, the words he had been about to say catching in his throat. But he quickly pushed the question aside and said:
"This was a premeditated intrusion. I don’t know how those bastards managed to slip past the Beowulf Barrier.
"But judging from their professional methods, it looks like we’ll be reading about them in the ’Financial Penalties’ section of the Westminster Weekly soon enough."
He kicked aside the straw in a corner of the cell, revealing a tunnel that looked as if it had been dug with professional excavation tools.
"The main door to the vault is sealed. Not even a Silver Tier Law Enforcer could get through it. They must still be inside."
Jose ordered several of the Black Iron Demon Hunters with him to jump down into the tunnel. He sent another group to gather his Household Servants and block the main vault door. The rest were tasked with dealing with the unconscious Guards, while he and the butler remained at the tunnel entrance, lying in wait.
’Containment specialists from Westminster Cathedral... interesting,’ Jose thought. ’A shame for you, but you’ve come at the wrong time.’
While everything proceeded in an orderly fashion under Jose’s command, back in an unnoticed corner, two "unconscious, face-down Guards" rose stiffly to their feet. In a flash, they knocked out the Attendants who had been tasked with clearing the room.
They then hoisted the two unconscious Attendants over their shoulders and slipped away.
By the time Jose was informed that there were only two unconscious Attendants in the vault, Baron and Jack had long since infiltrated the maids’ dormitory, achieving a feat most men only dream of.
...
「On the training grounds」
The duel between Roy and Isabella came to an end.
The tip of Isabella’s spear was at the throat of Roy, who was also a spear wielder. "You’ve lost," she said.
Roy stared blankly at the spear tip. The pride and refusal to admit defeat, unique to the men of the Hestia Family, flushed his face.
He pushed the spear tip away. "Again! We can use our Promise this time!"
Isabella finally smiled at him, though it was a mocking one. Yet, on her face of peerless, icy beauty, the mockery only added a layer of temptation.
Isabella’s surrounding Household Servants put their heads in their hands. ’This kid Roy is finished,’ they thought.
Isabella said, "Alright."
Then, the Branding on the back of her hand began to glow. An overwhelming aura of majesty, impossible to look at directly, poured from her pale-gold Dragon Eyes.
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[From the university diary of Zhou Yike (previous life):
Bored the last few days, so I was chatting with my roommates by the window about our dreams. We all agreed the best one was becoming the dorm manager for the women’s university residence hall.
By the way, the runner-up was being the dorm manager for a high school girls’ dorm.]
...
