Aria replied with a nod, "He's busy. He will come to you when he's done."
Sarah had a frown on her face, wondering what little Damian was doing with these people. Since she didn't want to intrude on anyone's privacy, she nodded before going. She could tell the woman wasn't even showing any form of respect those of lower rank should have for higher rank. She didn't think much of it, saying to herself she would ask Damian when he came to meet her at the bar.
After Aria came back into the room, Lucian looked at her, then nodded before saying, "Aria, break Damian's legs."
Everyone looked tense, wondering what Damian had done, but no one said anything. In cases like this, Lucian just sent Aria to beat them to a pulp where they couldn't even move.
As soon as Aria heard the command, she punched Damian's knee with such force that Lucian could even hear his bone snap. Damian screamed in agony.
Sarah, who was almost out of there, heard the scream. She turned back, seeing it came from the room she had just knocked at a while ago. She turned around and started walking back. She went to the front door and was about to knock but held herself back; if she did anymore, that would be simply intruding on the customers' privacy, and her boss wasn't going to let that slide. So she simply put her ear to the door, planning on hearing what was going on in there.
After a while, the door opened. She already had the perfect excuse to give. Then she saw Damian, sweating all over, limping towards her with a smile, hiding the pain expression on his face. He asked, "Aunt Sarah, what are you doing here? I told you I was going to come to you."
Sarah didn't reply, but the mana pressure she was emitting was enough for them to know she was pissed. Even if he wasn't her son but her friend's son, she couldn't just let it go so easily. So she asked, "What happened to you?"
her voice threateningly cold. She was well aware that when he left her side, he had no injury whatsoever.
She was about to head inside when Damian's expression changed. A cold look crossed his face—one only a killer would recognize anywhere. Sarah had to take a step back, unable to believe this was the same Damian she had just talked to. Even standing up for him seemed like it might get her killed.
"Damian, what is the meaning of this?" she asked in a slightly irritated voice.
Damian didn't reply, just kept staring at her. After what felt like forever, he was about to respond when they heard the door behind them open. Lucian came out holding Aurora, an innocent expression on his face.
"What is going on here?" he asked, as if he didn't know what was happening.
Aurora chimed in, "Dad, it seems big brother Damian wants to fight beautiful big sister Sarah."
When Sarah heard someone call her beautiful, she looked at the child who appeared no older than five yet spoke like someone much older. Then she looked at Lucian, the boy with the innocent expression who she believed was the cause of all this.
"What did you do to Damian?" she demanded.
She knew she should never try this on mortals, but she needed answers. She began leaking out her mana pressure—enough for most mortals to faint in the presence of an Arcanist stage awakener. But these two children didn't seem to feel anything. They weren't even trembling as they should, firming her belief that these kids weren't normal.
This whole time, Aurora was staring at Lucian. Seeing that he wasn't affected by the mana pressure, she nodded her head while thinking, *My dad is the best.*
Lucian, seeing that his plan to get Sarah's full attention was working, simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "He committed a crime and needed to be punished, that's all." Turning to Aurora, he added, "Let's go. We need to get something to eat. It seems this inn doesn't have anything proper to eat."
"Okay," Aurora replied, and they left.
Sarah watched them leave, then turned back to Damian, who still had that cold look. "Damian, I don't know what or why you're acting like this towards me, but I hope it's not about that mortal."
Damian's face changed to a gentle smile that wasn't there before. "Nah, you don't need to worry, big sister Sarah. Hahaha," he laughed nervously.
He knew he had already completed his objective, so he was more relaxed. As for his broken leg—he had already taken one of those pills Aria gave him, so he was fully healed. He just needed to feign pain and manufacture a limping gait to make everything look real.
Deceiving an Arcanist stage awakener wasn't easy, but Lucian had planned it all like this. The best way to get anyone's interest is through mystery. They become so curious they'll do anything to discover the truth. Sarah wasn't any different.
The way Lucian appeared to her was too mysterious. Finding someone who could survive the mana pressure of an Arcanist stage awakener is extremely rare, so witnessing this would drive her to act beyond her usual behavior.
Sarah, seeing that Damian was avoiding her questions, shook her head. "Whatever. I'll get the answers myself," she said before turning and leaving.
Meanwhile, as Lucian and Aurora walked, he looked down at the little girl. "For some reason, she's stuck with me. Though I don't know how powerful she is, I'll use her when the time comes."
While he was thinking this, he didn't realize he had been staring at Aurora for a while. Feeling his gaze, Aurora turned to him. "Daddy, is something wrong?"
"Not really," he replied. "Just wondering how you'd look if I could see."
There was a moment of silence, then Aurora asked, "Daddy, do you want to see again?"
"Well, yes, but not yet. I have to take full advantage of this blindness."
Aurora just nodded without saying anything. After a while, she asked, "Dad, why did we leave the inn?"
"It's simple. I just needed to give her time to prepare."
She giggled. "Hehehe, prepare for what, daddy?"
"You'll know soon enough," he replied.
After that, he didn't say anything more. He and Aurora just kept moving around, buying things for her and himself. He had already asked Damian for money, so it was okay to spend. After what felt like hours, with night having fallen, they both returned to the inn.
They stayed in the same room. While on the bed, Lucian turned to Aurora. "Whatever noise you hear, don't react to it, okay?"
"Okay, daddy," Aurora replied.
After that, they both went to sleep. Around four hours later, Lucian heard the sound he had been expecting—someone entering the room. As soon as he heard the door, he stood up and headed to the bathroom in the corner. The intruder had stopped moving, but he knew they were there. He could smell their scent.
Acting as if he didn't know anything, he muttered in a low voice, loud enough for whoever was in the room to hear, "Aurora said the bathroom is just ten steps away from the bed. I really need to pee."
So he started counting ten steps, maintaining the act of being blind. He kept going, making sure to spread his hands out like a blind person would to avoid hitting something. After some fake struggles, he found the bathroom and used it.
Once done, he muttered again, "I just have to count ten steps back. This should be easy."
Then he started counting. "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... achoo!" When he got to step eight, he sneezed, then said, "Where did I stop? Ahhhh, I forgot. I think it was 5."
He started counting from five, knowing full well the number would lead him directly to the person inside the room. Despite all this, the intruder didn't make any noise, just kept watching. When she saw him coming her way, she tensed. She knew he couldn't see and had probably lost count because of the sneeze, so she just kept quiet.
She waited until he was directly in front of her, his hands spread out to avoid hitting anything—until she felt something grab her chest. Lucian, feeling what was in his hands, knew exactly what it was but decided to act completely innocent.
"Damn, what is this?" he muttered, massaging it even more, sometimes giving a hard squeeze, sometimes a soft one. "It's so soft. I could do this all day. And the way it feels in my hands... is this some kind of magic? I can't really tell, but I love it."