Swish!

Something small and round glistened under the moonlight leaking from the window behind Yuri. Yuri looked at Damon’s actions and thought unconcernedly:

‘He looks like he’s throwing a poke ball.’

The next moment, the flap of her cloak shook.

Pak!

Threads shot from Yuri’s hands, covering the object that Damon threw like a net, blocking it from reaching her.

Crack! Shatter!

The small sphere that was thrown shattered into pieces once it hit Yuri’s thread. However, it seemed it was designed to operate upon impact because once it was shattered, something emerged from the broken shards. The thing was caught in Yuri’s net-like threads and it seemed to be a chain that looked like a thorny vine.

“You-You blocked it?”

Damon was very flustered. It seemed he didn’t expect Yuri to be able to block his attack.

“Then eat this too!”

Following that, he threw several spheres at Yuri this time.

Pa-Pak! Clang!

Yuri yawned and blocked them all.

This time, white smoke meant to obstruct her vision and anesthetic gas leaked from the broken spheres. But for that, Yuri spread out hundreds of threads and the moment she waved her hand, it was blown away like a gust of wind and disappeared in an instant.

“You, this…you punk! Aargh…!”

Yuri spread her net even wider and bound Damon up as if she was catching an annoying fly. While she did that, a few of the spheres he was holding rolled to the floor. Unfortunately, one of them seemed to contain an attack.

Boom!

The moment the sphere touched the ground and broke, the sound of an explosion rocked her ears. Broken pieces of the wall fell to the floor with a rattle.

Damon was lucky Yuri pulled the thread that bound him with incredible speed, otherwise his life would have ended here today.

“Hk!”

Damon, who was pulled to Yuri’s side in a cocoon, looked at where he was standing a second ago with fright. Seeing him like that, Yuri couldn’t help but think:

“This is a certain kind of idiot…”

“What?!”

Ah, she must have said her thoughts aloud without realizing it. But thankfully enough, Damon’s mind was rattled so he didn’t seem to recognize Yuri’s voice. Then again, even if he recognized it, all he would have was suspicion.

Also, maybe there was one more thing she should be thankful about. Damon’s disturbance was unexpectedly useful. The wall had collapsed due to the explosion, revealing a secret passage.

Yuri was intrigued by the area that suddenly appeared on the other side of the wall.

‘So there was something like this. No wonder I felt the structure of the building was a little strange.’

Step.

Her feet headed for the broken wall. The space inside was very dark, even darker than the staircase outside.

“Hey…release this.”

When Yuri was just about to look inside, a tense voice came from behind her. Her red eyes, hidden by the hood of her cloak, glanced back slightly.

Damon flinched as if he could feel her gaze in the dark. His trembling was transmitted to her from the threads wrapped around his body.“Wh, What are you going to do to me? I’m telling you now, if you touch one hair on my head, you’ll regret it.”

The man who was fiercely attacking Yuri with overflowing confidence seemed to have vanished into thin air while Damon bit his dry lips and asked.

“Also, don’t misunderstand me. I was just curious about the identity of the person who had the philosopher’s stone, I didn’t really plan on hurting you or anything.”

Words akin to excuses began to flow from his mouth. His attitude was still overbearing and arrogant but there seemed to be a subtle vigilance and fear towards Yuri.

“You know who I am, right? I’m Damon Salvatore?”

Yuri looked at Damon’s behavior and thought uninterestedly, ‘Is this the so-called tragic fate of those with blind faith in alchemy?’

“In the first place, you’re the one who tricked me first, right? If you didn’t bait me with that philosopher’s stone then…!”

That very moment, Damon’s eyes went wide, and he sucked in a huge breath as if he suddenly realized something.

“D-Don’t tell me…! Did you know I would come looking for you so you lured me here on purpose?”

“…?”

“You planned on getting me from the start? You f***ing bastard..!”

It didn’t take long for Damon’s imagination to start flowing in a negative direction.

Yuri was dumbfounded by his ridiculous words. So she just ignored Damon and went into the secret passage. She heard Damon yell something behind her, but she ignored that as well.

The inside of the secret space was very dark, but Yuri was easily able to see what was around.

It seemed to be a room someone was using.

The room was average in size and the floor was covered with a carpet. There was a small desk and chair, along with a bookshelf attached to the wall. The other side of the room looked like a lounge with a sofa and a simple table in the middle. Of course, the desk and bookshelf were completely empty.

She took a guess and figured that they must have cleared up everything here when they were emptying the auction house. But then Yuri found an almost burnt piece of paper in the ashtray on the table.

Fwip!

A web shot from her finger, strung the paper and dragged it in front of her eyes. The paper looked like a letter that was exchanged with someone. However, most of it was burnt so the contents couldn’t really be read.

[…border. ..bait…forest…tore.]

Those were the only the letters she could recognize at best and even then, only the lower right corner remained from the fire so the rest could not be deciphered. Even though the letter seemed like it might be important since it was in this secret room, that sort of thought might actually just be a preconceived notion.

That said, there was no way to know right now so Yuri put the burnt paper in her pocket and reemerged from the secret passage.

Damon was struggling to loosen the threads that bound him one way or the other and when Yuri reappeared, he froze with a start.

For a moment, Yuri contemplated what to do with this idiot. From the outset, she knew Damon had a lot of pride in alchemy as the owner of several innovative inventions. But still, she didn’t think he would come all the way here with just a few marbles when he didn’t even know who sent the letter to him.

Despite all this, the fact that he didn’t use an attack from the beginning made her wonder if she should call him an upright character or foolish. Either ways, needless to say, his actions today were quite dangerous.

For now, Yuri picked up Damon and moved to get out of this place. Damon, who was lying on the floor, squirmed as he was dragged.

“W-Where are you taking me! Hey!”

As if he was being dragged to a slaughterhouse, he screamed and yelled, making a racket. And so, Yuri used her threads to shut Damon’s mouth.

“Mph! Mmph!”

Only then did the surroundings become a little more pleasant.

In the end, Yuri threw Damon inside the walls of the Salvatore mansion and went home. She also didn’t forget to give him some kind advice before she left.

“Uck!”

Damon rolled on grass as he was tossed over the wall. He was shocked and his mind was momentarily a mess then he soon came to his senses and quickly raised his head.

‘Wha, What the. Isn’t this the Salvatore house?’There wasn’t a single white thread on his body as if the tight binding a moment ago was simply a dream. However, the sharp pains in his joints were still very clear.

Damon grit his teeth and sprang to his feet. Then he limped with his cramped leg and ran to the nearby guards.

“Get people to check for any suspicious persons outside the mansion right now!”

They didn’t know when Damon had arrived, so they were startled. But it was the order of the successor to the Salvatore family, so they didn’t complain and swiftly sent people outside to investigate. However, they didn’t find any suspicious person at all.

In the end, Damon had no choice but to go back empty-handed.

“Gasp, Young Master. Your back…”

And when he entered the mansion, grinding his teeth…one of the servants gasped behind Damon.

“What is it?”

Damon flinched and took off his coat completely. And soon enough, he found the letters inscribed on his clothing.

[Be careful. You’re weak so you won’t last. Don’t act out.]

“T-This, This punk…!”

Damon felt his angry surged to the roof and flung the coat to the floor. Of course, Yuri was giving sincere advice but Damon couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was being played with till the end.

* * *

—Uh, wow! They’re going crazy over there. That kid that went in earlier, it doesn’t look like he promised to meet the landlady?

And that day, Damon triggered a death flag without even knowing it.

The sound of the explosion above made Lakis frown deeply. If Yuri’s presence disappeared or if she seemed to move with any injury in the slightest, he would have jumped in immediately but thankfully she seemed fine. If anything, the person who wasn’t moving at was the man.

‘But he’s still alive.’

Somehow, the number of bastards he wanted to kill in the East kept increasing. After a while, Yuri came out of the building with the man in tow.

—Is she going to stuff him? Hoho, the landlady is wild![1]

In his head, the bug yelled excitedly as if it was having a party.

As Lakis followed after Yuri, he squeezed the black feather in his hand and called Odin.

“You called for me, Lakis-nim!”

Odin appeared in less than 10 seconds.

“Crow, clean up the building I just came out from.”

“Yessir. Odin, the right hand of Lakis-nim will clean it till it’s sparkling.”

“There are three bastards in there, tidy them up too.”

“You can count on me!”

Only

“By the way, you.”

And just when Odin was about to leave, something suddenly flashed through Lakis’ mind and he asked:

“Where did you get the ruin’s fragment that you gave to me last time?”

“Ah, I stole it from Arachne?”

“…what did you say?”

That very moment, a dreary aura began to spread from Lakis, causing Odin to hiccup.

Translator’s Corner:

[1] [Is she going to stuff him?] This sentence was really weird, I am not too sure how to translate it. I think he’s saying she’s going to kill him but in a weird way???