! !
The man's voice startled the monster at the corner. After hearing the noise, Lucian reached out and covered his mouth.
He flashed into the room, and behind him, Elizabeth closed the door as quickly as possible.
After the door was closed, the dark figure that was originally at the corner appeared in the corridor. It stared with its eyes blank, and wandered in the empty corridor, making a sound of scraping against the ground.
If Lucian were still here at this moment, he would definitely shrink his pupils at what he saw.
The monster prowling in the corridor was neither a demon nor a human, nor any other kind of creature he had ever seen.
It is a monster that exudes a corrupt aura all over its body!
…
What appeared in front of Lucian was an ordinary leisure living room. On the coffee table in the living room were cards, hookahs, chess and other toys, and next to it was a soft and large sofa. There were mattresses and cushions on the sofa, and it seemed that the person in this room had just been relaxing in it.
Only after he pushed the man onto the sofa did Lucian stare at him and softly said, "From now on, you can't scream loudly or make loud noises, understand? This is for your safety."
The man nodded, and Lucian let go of his hand.
The person in the room was a young man with chestnut hair, delicate features, and an unhealthy pale complexion. He stared at Lucian blankly, not understanding what was happening at all. It was not until he saw Elizabeth walking towards him hesitantly that he asked in surprise, "Miss Elizabeth Green?"
"Really?" Elizabeth was also stunned. She didn't expect that this person actually knew her name.
"I'm Oscar Houston. Maybe you've never noticed me, but I've seen a lot of your portraits in my brother's study..." Perhaps because he saw an acquaintance, the young man turned his gaze to Lucian's face. Lucian had no expression. He communicated with the system in his mind, asking it to retrieve the identity of this young man.
The system began a lengthy search, and it was obvious that this person was not even a supporting role in the story.
Elizabeth was talking to the young man with courage. Lucian listened to their conversation while waiting for the system's search results. He noticed that the frail young man didn't look at him.
"He never looked at me." Lucian said to the system.
"Host, I should be heterosexual." The system kindly reminded me while searching.
Lucian rolled his eyes in disdain at the system with his mind.
system:
"So you are the youngest son of Lord Houston, and you have been sleeping here since the party started?" Lucian interrupted their conversation, "Doesn't your father allow you to go out and socialize?"
"My health is not very good..." The frail young man coughed a few times, "and my legs..."
He smiled bitterly and stretched out his right leg, his calf shrunken below the knee.
"Perhaps my father didn't want a cripple to bring shame to the Houston family name in social occasions." He said softly, "From childhood to adulthood, occasions like this have always belonged to my brother."
Elizabeth's eyes turned red, and she whispered to comfort the young man. Lucian frowned slightly and looked at the young man.
The young man did have a face very similar to that of the young Lord Houston, with chestnut hair, brown eyes and freckles on the bridge of his nose, which were the hallmarks of the Houston family.
But Lucian never trusts anyone easily.
Finally, he got the system's reply. Lucian glanced at the two of them. The young man was still concentrating on talking to Elizabeth and didn't look at him.
'Oscar Huston does exist in the original book...'
After hearing the system's first half sentence, Lucian's brows relaxed slightly.
'No, he appeared in the original book, but he is already dead.'
'…So this guy is a fake pretending to be Oscar Houston?'
"No, he is the real thing. Due to the butterfly effect caused by your time travel, he survived even though he should have died in the original book. It's all thanks to you."
Lucian:
Elizabeth asked him if he wanted to sit down and rest for a while. Lucian sat down and continued to communicate with the system in his mind: "What do you mean by thanks to me?"
'In the original book, he died when he was six years old - the story is a bit complicated. It was probably because Elizabeth had initiated a charity event in the slums when she was a child, which triggered some noble children to follow suit. His arrogant brother was also forced by his father to do charity in the slums to gain fame... You know what happened without having to describe it in detail. Anyway, in the end, Wade angered the brother, who went to the slums to do charity every two weeks and humiliated Wade, causing Wade to run away. And his younger brother was lost in the slums due to improper supervision during this process. In the end, the patrolmen found his body with intestines ripped out at the bottom of the Sighing River. '
"And in this world, you took Wade back to Cecil Manor the second time after your brother came. Therefore, his death did not happen, and he is still alive and well." The second half of the sentence is the system's guess, "Of course, these are all insignificant little things."
Lucian: 'Oh.'
"And..." the system said cautiously, "I don't think Oscar Huston in the original novel was killed by Wade either."
"Why are you telling me this?" Lucian was puzzled. "Of course it wasn't Wade who killed him."
"I never thought you would say this..."
"If Wade wants to take revenge, all the Houston family members present will die. Whether it's him or his brother." Lucian said lazily, "It's too little to kill only one of him."
system:…
"What a coincidence, our birthdays are on the same day? Even though I'm five years younger than you..."
"Yeah, even we're all born at midnight between Friday and Saturday, right?"
The other two were still talking. Lucian tapped his chin with his fingers: "Come to think of it, I do remember that there seems to be such a person. Lord Houston once claimed that a strong and smart child was a gift from the God of Light to the faithful believers. Therefore, he refused to acknowledge this younger son who was born later - his innate deficiencies were a slap in his face. Therefore, as a staunch believer, he never brought this child to the temple to listen to the blessing, and even rarely let him appear in social occasions..."
'Therefore, he has never seen me,' Lucian concluded.
The system took a while to understand: "So when you said he wasn't looking at you, you meant you were confused that he didn't recognize your face."
"If he has seen me in social situations, he will definitely recognize my face," Lucian said, "after all, I am so eye-catching at first sight."
system:…
The system was powerless to complain, and after thinking for a while, it could only admit: "You are right."
Lucian: 'It's also unusual that he recognized Elizabeth, since his brother is straight.'
System: '...Don't hold a grudge.'
After thinking it through, Lucian turned his thoughts back to reality. Oscar was still talking to Elizabeth weakly, and when he saw him coming, he asked, "I wonder if you are... I'm sorry, because of my health, my father rarely allows me to go out and socialize."
"He..." Elizabeth was a little nervous, "He is..."
She knew that Oscar might have heard about the scandal of the famous succubus saint Lucian Cecil.
"Louis," Lucian said, "a guard of the Green family."
"oh… "
Seeing Oscar staring at the magic pattern on Lucian's forehead and ears, Elizabeth said quickly: "He is a half-elf who was expelled by the elves, so the pattern on his forehead is red. In order to avoid trouble, we made a special mask for him that can conceal his appearance."
Elves have gold and silver forehead lines, and they hate half-elves with mixed bloodlines. It is also reasonable to say that the forehead lines turned red due to punishment. As for hiring beautiful and capable half-elf guards, it was also popular among the nobles. Oscar accepted this statement and said with a smile: "I see."
He looked a little worried: "If what you said is true, then the outside world is now full of cracks and monsters? In this case, how can we escape?"
Elizabeth finally woke up from the brief peaceful atmosphere. She shook her head nervously and subconsciously cast her eyes towards Lucian.
"Your father and brother should be safe. The banquet hall is the most heavily guarded place, and Bishop Shelly is there." Lucian answered the question irrelevantly and looked at Oscar.
He smiled and said, "Of course, your relationship with your father and brother should not be very good."
Oscar was looked at like this and said with a wry smile: "It's already this late... Louis."
"Maybe we should open the door and look out through the crack." Elizabeth suggested, "If the monster leaves, we can take the opportunity to run..."
After realizing Oscar's limp, she awkwardly stuck.
Now that he had met Oscar and was taken in by him, there was absolutely no reason for him to be left to the devil and escape on his own.
"It's okay, Elizabeth. Although I have never had any expectations of my father and brother..." Oscar reluctantly comforted her, "But I am a member of the Houston family after all, they should..."
"Wait!" Elizabeth suddenly said, "Listen!"
After the room was completely quiet, they heard sounds in the corridor. It seemed that there were footsteps and voices coming from far away.
Not one person but... a group of people!
A group of people with weapons!
The roar of monsters and the sounds of swords and spells exploding rang out outside the door. Elizabeth and Oscar looked at each other, both showing surprise. Lucian sat quietly beside them, staring at the room.
Finally, the sound of fighting stopped. Then there was a hasty knock on the door: "Master Oscar? Master Oscar, you..."
"We are in there!" said Elizabeth hastily, running to the door.
Lucian put on the mask and moved the object blocking the door with her. The door was opened, and a team of well-equipped guards appeared in front of the two. The guard in front simply greeted them, and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Oscar in the room: "Master, the master asked us to find you and escort you out of the manor."
"What's going on outside?" Elizabeth asked worriedly.
"It's not over yet." The guard shook his head. "The master ordered us to come here to find the young master and escort him out of the manor through the secret passage. On the way, we also met two nobles who were attacked. Miss Green, if you also want to..."
This is really a timely help. Elizabeth said excitedly: "Okay! Let's go together."
As she spoke, she saw the two nobles among the guards. After seeing one of the ladies wearing a veil, she asked in surprise, "Mrs. Hayley?"
"Haley?" Oscar asked doubtfully as he dragged his legs over to the two of them.
"She just took a picture of my painting." Elizabeth said. She looked at the dead marrow-eating bird on the ground and pursed her lips in fear. "Let's go!"
The guard glanced at Lucian and seemed a little hesitant.
Perhaps it was because he recognized Lucian as the "Emperor's Forbidden Love". But in the end he nodded and said, "Okay, let's go."
They walked in a team along the corridor, and Oscar, who had difficulty walking, was carried on the back of a guard. The guards were obviously familiar with the roads in the mansion, and tried to avoid places where demons were concentrated. Some places had no living demons, but were full of corpses - the demons died in extremely horrible ways, and Elizabeth turned pale as if she was having a nightmare after just one look.
Seeing the iconic fountain of the garden appear before their eyes, they came to a corridor without magic.
Lucian stopped.
"I'm done here." Lucian deliberately changed his voice and said, "Someone will come to see me, and I need to report."
He made a gesture to himself, indicating that he had received the communication spell. Elizabeth looked back at him worriedly, and soon realized that the person Lucian was referring to was probably Wade.
Her expression became complicated.
The others did not stop him. They were in a hurry to get on their way, and picking up Lucian was not in their plan. Oscar said goodbye to him and left with the team in a hurry.
After the team completely disappeared, Lucian looked at his fingertips.
Just before leaving, he pretended to pat Elizabeth on the shoulder, but in fact he left an extremely secret spell on her body.
A stealthy tracking spell.
He tilted his head and looked at the corridor where he was staying - there were many burnt marks on the windowsill and floor.
That was the trace of Vader's spell.
—Wade came out of the banquet hall and was looking for him.
The tragic deaths of those young and old demons were also Vader's masterpieces.
The demons were dying in increasingly tragic ways—perhaps Vader was now close to going berserk.
Lucian wore a mask and walked step by step in the direction of the magic trace. When he passed a corner, he heard the sound of water dripping.
He looked up and saw a marrow-eating bird pierced by a long sword and nailed to the ceiling. The long sword was burning with blazing black flames, and the marrow-eating bird died in a hideous manner.
From a distance, he saw what the corridor led to at the end of. The Houston family was such a devout believer in the God of Light that they even built a luxurious chapel in their mansion.
He took a step towards the door, and it was at this moment that he heard a voice coming from behind him.
"Lucian, is that you?"
Lucian's spine shivered.
That is…
He slowly turned around and saw a handsome man with shoulder-length hair standing under the full moon. The man looked at him, with half of his face illuminated by the moonlight.
Dalton Cessel.
His adoptive uncle.
"Lucian, come here." He said softly.
There was a rich wine in his voice.