496 Dungeon[4]

The bald man took a step back and stared at Angelica. Heavy solemness tinged his face. 

"...On the same side?"

He asked in an uncertain tone. 

"That's correct." 

I nodded my head and spoke right away.

On the inside, I was trying to sort out my thoughts, but what I showed on the outside was an impassive face that held slight traces of contempt. 

"We're on the same side. Let us go unless you want us to resort to force. You've clearly already felt our strength. The three of you are not our match." 

This part may have been true. 

But that was not what worried me. What worried me was the possible problems that the trio before me could pose. 

They may be weaker than the demons, but they were all about the same rank as me. They were no easy opponents. 

The bald man glanced back and forth between Angelica and me.

"Honestly, it's hard to believe the fact that you two are on our side."

"How so?" 

"Isn't it obvious? What are the two of you doing here? We've received no reports of anyone coming. That is already the number one cause of concern." 

  "...And why should we announce our presence?" 

I raised my chin up and looked down on the group.

Once again activating the effects of 'The one' to add impact to my voice, the trio's expressions stiffened. 

"Do you not know who the demoness before you is?" 

Subjected to such pressure, the trio was unable to answer. 

Walking next to Angelica, I lowered my head and took a knee. 

"This over here is Countess Angelica Von Doix, a directed descendant of the Lust Clan, and...kh...the Matriarch of a major Lust clan Sub-branch." 

Midway through my sentence, I almost fumbled with my words. The cringe was too much for me to bear. 

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to continue. 

"Follow my example, and pay your respects to the Matriarch." 

Following my cue, Angelica removed the mask from her face, revealing her appearance. 

The trio stumbled a little bit. This action wasn't voluntary, but in fact due to the bloodline impression that came out from Angelica's body. 

It had to be noted that Angelica was currently suppressing her bloodline.

She didn't want to alert the demons inside the castle. 

Sweeping her gaze over the trio, Angelica closed her eyes and no longer looked at them. Her demeanor, coupled with her cold exterior gave her a noble aura. One reminiscent of that of an aristocrat from the old era. 

I secretly raised my thumb. 

'Great acting, Angelica!'

[Shut up.] 

Angelica crossed her arms and replied in an irritated tone. 

[I've played along with your little games, what do you need me to do now?] 

Lowering my head, I touched the bottom of my chin. Staring at the trio that was slowly recovering from the shock, I shared my thoughts with Angelica. 

'Listen up Angelica, after thinking for a bit, I came up with three different scenarios. The first scenario is the scenario where they believe in our story. A story in which you're a high-ranking demon assigned to overlook the dungeon for a bit and make sure that everything is working correctly. Their story is not bad, and there is a chance for them to buy it, but...'

I paused and shook my head. As I paused, I noticed Angelica looking at me with eyes asking for more. I did as she wished.

[But what?]

'The keyword is chance.'

[Chance?]

'Yeah.' 

I sighed. 

'This scenario can happen, but I don't think it will be very likely. The most likely scenario in my opinion is the second one, the scenario in which they eventually figure out that we're actually pretending to be on their side in order to infiltrate the facility.' 

I was indeed tempered by the idea of infiltrating the place. However, that wasn't part of my plan currently. 

It just wouldn't work in this scenario. 

[What makes you think things will turn out this way?] 

Angelica asked. There was a hint of doubt in her voice. 

Resolving her doubts, I continued to explain. From the corner of my eyes, I kept track of the trio. 

'Think about it, Angelica. Although the fact that you're a demon can add credibility to our lie, at the end of the day, once the three of them manage to recover from the scare we gave them, they are going to realize that we are frauds.'

Demons weren't stupid. They knew that they could have traitors in their midst.

Just because Angelica was a demon, there was no way they would instantly believe that she was on their side. 

Especially when she showed up out of nowhere without any prior warnings. 

They'd have to be very arrogant and self-confident to believe that. 

'In all likelihood, the three of them will realize this soon, and bring us to the castle in the distance whilst pretending to have bought our story. Once we arrive at the castle, the three of them alongside the demons in the castle will come at us all at once and basically kill us.' 

If I had to put it bluntly, we were screwed if this scenario happened. 

[Sounds reasonable.] 

Angelica replied with a short nod, but the middle of her brows was still tightly knit. She eventually voiced her concerns. 

[If that's the case, what do we do now?]

I tilted my head and looked at her strangely. 

'What do you mean what should we do? Isn't it obvious?' 

I thought I had made my next course of action fairly obvious by now. Or maybe it was just me? 

That aside. 

It didn't seem like my blunt words were very appreciated by Angelica, whose expression darkened a little. 

[Spit it out.]

She demanded in a cold tone. 

I shrugged my shoulders. 

'The answer is obvious. We play along.' 

[...]

Angelica's face froze. A look of realization soon dawned on her. 

[I understand.] 

'I'm glad you do.'

I smiled in appreciation. 

The goal was simple. 

Let them lead the way toward the castle. Since the place was riddled with traps and all sorts of methods designed to hinder our way, I thought that by playing along we could get rid of most of those problems and conserve some energy. 

So what if they knew that we were coming? In the first place, from the moment we entered the place they were probably already aware of our existence.

They just didn't know that Angelica was a demon. 

A smile threatened to escape from my lips, but I tried my best to hide it. This was especially so since the trio had finally recollected themselves. 

Glancing at each other, the three of them got on one knee. This was normal etiquette when meeting a titled demon. 

"Pardon for our rudeness. We hope you will be lenient with us." 

Without sparing them a glance, Angelica looked into the distance. 

"There won't be a next time." 

She then ordered. 

"Bring me to where those bastards are. I would like to have a word with them." 

Lifting their heads and staring at each other, their eyes flashed for a brief moment. This did not escape my line of sight. Once again, I became even more convinced about my conjectures. 

Standing up, with an amiable smile on her face, the lady of the group raised her hand. 

A peculiar scene happened following her action. 

From the corner of my eyes, I was able to see a small lump of black-headed in the lady's direction. Because it was far, I couldn't quite see what it was.  However, it wasn't long before I was able to tell what the lump of black was. 

It was the spiders from before. All of them walked together in unison. My body flinched a little. 

If there was a bug I hated with all my soul. 

Then it would without be spiders. 

Is she a beast tamer like Ava? I wondered. 

"I apologize for the earlier disturbance." 

Getting rid of the net that was around us, the lady smiled seductively my way. Alongside the smile was a small wink. 

My body shivered uncontrollably. 

"Shall we get going, handsome?"

What handsome? I'm wearing a mask. 

"..." 

Shaking my head, I kept an impassive exterior and ignored her. Taking a step forward, I followed her from behind. 

Angelica did the same as she walked next to me. 

Along the way, she suddenly asked. 

[By the way, what about the third option?]

'That...'

I paused for a second. 

'The third option is basically, them basically attack us on the spot.' 

Probably the option that would've been the most troublesome of the others since we would've essentially been forced to bulldoze our way to the castle, and face off against multiple Count ranked demons. By the time we'd arrive, we'd be extremely low on mana. 

The journey toward the castle was fairly unobstructed.  Just as I had predicted, no monster came our way. 

Because of how unobstructed our journey was, it didn't take long for us to finally reach the castle. 

As the castle was too far for me to get a proper look, now that I was moving closer to it, I slowly started to realize how slick and well-designed the castle was. It was nothing compared to Everblood's which was a lot cruder. 

Coming to a halt right at the entrance of the castle where a tremendously large door stood, the trio turned around. The first one to speak was the bald individual. 

"We're here." 

Pressing his hand on the large door of the castle, the ground started to shake and the door slowly started to open. 

Rumble—! Rumble—!

"All you have to do now is follow me insi—" 

I glanced in Angelica's way, and as though we were perfectly synchronized with each other, our eyes met. 

'Angelica, now.' 

Touching the sheath of my sword, a clicking sound rang out. 

Click—! 

Blood splurted out and a head rolled on the ground. In the meantime, Angelica raised her hand as black threads started to form beneath the feet of the other two. 

"!" 

"What the!" 

Caught off-guard, the two were unable to react in time. Taking a step forward, Angelica's body reappeared a couple of inches away from the two.

Before they could even retaliate, placing her slender hand on the heads of the duo, the hue coming out from the duo's bodies started to head in Angelica's direction, resulting in their bodies to slowly starting to dry out. 

The scene looked especially terrifying from behind.

Thud. Thud. 

With two low thuds, the mummified bodies of the duo fell to the ground, and Angelica turned to glance at the enormous door. 

"We're done here, should we enter?" 

"...Wait." 

Squinting my eyes, I bent down and observed the corpses in front of me. Raising my head to stare at the entrance of the castle, my eyes began to squint. 

"I was wrong." 

I slowly came to a realization. 

"The three of them did not sign a contract with any of the demons inside of the building." 

The goal of having them killed here was so that, apart from catching them off-guard, in the off-chance that any one of them was contracted with a demon inside, the demon would suffer tremendous damage upon their death. 

If that happened, the next few steps would become a lot easier. 

Unfortunately, it appeared as though I was wrong. 

'Shit...' 

Things became a lot more troublesome. 

"What are you waiting for?" 

Snapping me out of my daze, was Angelica's impatient voice. Raising my head to meet her line of sight, I let out an exasperated sigh. 

"Coming." 

Standing up, I followed Angelica into the castle.

Right as I was about to enter the castle, I suddenly felt a slight itch coming from the right side of my head. Raising my head, I scratched. 

'How annoying...'