Leon immediately called upon his system interface and tried to examine the information of the beautiful, red, blindfolded woman, desperate to understand what secret she possessed that allowed her to know about his connection to the monster.
Letâs see what the system tells me about her.
SHIMMER...
A transparent golden screen appeared before his eyes, visible only to him.
Leon scanned through her basic informationâher name was Cassandra, along with all her physical ability statistics and mana capacity displayed in neat rows of numbers. There was nothing particularly special or unusual about those metrics, so he didnât focus much attention on them.
However, when his eyes reached the section listing her affinity, Leon felt genuine confusion wash over him.
He had never seen something like this before in any system analysis heâd performed.
What the hell?
He couldnât read the information at all. Not even the rank or classificationânothing. The text appeared as complete gibberish to him, scrambled characters that refused to resolve into anything comprehensible, no matter how hard he focused.
[Affinity: ââââââââ (Rank: âââ)]
Other than that mysterious affinity, she possessed a couple of skills and techniques listed, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary or noteworthy compared to other powerful adventurers heâd analyzed.
Whatever ability she used to detect my connection to Morpheus must lie within that secret affinity. But I canât even read the name of it.
This frustrated him immensely. He was supposed to possess all elemental affinities, just waiting to be discovered and copied. Yet here was something his system couldnât properly identify or translate.
This makes me genuinely interested in this woman. What secret does her unknown affinity actually hold?
Similar to Leonâs intense curiosity about her, Cassandraâwho continued staring at the silver-haired prisoner with unwavering focus through her blindfoldâwas also deeply preoccupied with thoughts about what profound secrets this man held to have literally countless threads of fate connected to his existence.
And most of them... I canât even sense where theyâre leading. They stretch beyond my perception into places Iâve never witnessed before. Into realms that shouldnât even exist in this world.
She desperately wanted to discover more about him, to understand this unprecedented phenomenon.
Just then, she suddenly backed away slightly in genuine surprise as a new thread materialized right before her supernatural vision. A fresh connection formed directly between her own fate and his, appearing spontaneously in the space between them like a glowing red strand.
What?! How?!
It was completely unprecedented and deeply shocking to her. In all her years of possessing this ability, she had never witnessed a fate thread form in real-time like this.
Threads donât just appear out of nowhere. They exist, or they donât. But this one... Itâs being created right now, in this very moment, connecting us directly.
Meanwhile, the man named Arthurâwho clearly served as the leader of this elite groupâaddressed the massive demi-human directly.
"Kaelor, take him with us."
His tone brooked no argument as he gestured dismissively toward the confirmed criminal.
He then ordered the two officers who had been holding Leon to leave and return to their regular duties.
"Youâre dismissed. Return to your posts."
The officers released Leonâs arms immediately and departed after delivering slight respectful bows, their boots clicking sharply against stone.
"Yes, Sir Arthur."
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
The towering demi-human named Kaelorâwhose features bore a striking resemblance to an actual lion with golden fur and amber eyesâstepped closer to Leon. He grabbed the chains connecting the handcuffs with one massive paw-like hand and started pulling forward with considerable force, clearly intending to drag the prisoner along like a sack of grain.
CLINK! RATTLE!
The force was definitely enough to drag any normal person off their feet and across the ground unceremoniously. However, Leon simply walked forward normally at his own pace, maintaining his balance and dignity despite the aggressive pulling.
Nice try. But youâre nowhere near strong enough to actually move me against my will.
Leon followed along calmly, allowing himself to be nominally "led" to wherever they intended to take him.
Aria, the red-haired guild master, was also accompanying the group as they proceeded deeper into the castle complex, her expression troubled and conflicted.
The expression on Kaelorâs face told Leon everythingâthis creature clearly didnât like the fact that he wasnât able to drag the prisoner around as dramatically as heâd intended.
Heâs probably thinking I canât use mana because of these suppression cuffs, so thereâs no way I should be able to resist his considerable physical strength. Yet here I am, walking normally as if nothingâs happening.
While being escorted through the interior, Leon observed that everything appeared pristine and architecturally grand. Walking through endless corridors with vaulted ceilings, marble floors, and ornate decorations, he genuinely couldnât determine where they were heading at all.
If I used my spatial awareness properly, the mana flow would definitely break these handcuffs. So I donât have my usual detection abilities to find out if weâre going toward wherever Seraphine and Loriel are being held or somewhere else entirely.
So Leon decided to just ask directly, his voice cutting through the tense silence.
"Youâre taking me to my companions, right?"
His straightforward question made the entire group pause mid-step and turn to stare at him simultaneously, as if heâd just said something utterly incomprehensible.
The one to answer was Kaelor, the demi-human whoâd been attempting to drag him. The creature actually laughedâa harsh, mocking sound that echoed off the stone walls.
"HAHAHA!"
"You donât even know if youâll walk out of here alive or not, and youâre seriously asking about your companions?"
The lion-manâs laughter grew louder and more openly derisive.
"You really are a complete idiot, arenât you?"
Kaelorâs expression shifted then, his words becoming noticeably more personal and vindictive. His amber eyes blazed with genuine contempt.
"Hah! If you were going to be such a useless idiot anyway, you should have at least succeeded in fully awakening that world-class monster!"
Leonâs eyes narrowed dangerously at those deeply revealing words.
He wanted the monster to awaken? What kind of twisted logicâ
The statement seemed to strongly suggest this creature actually wanted the catastrophic threat to emerge and wreak havoc, and disturbingly, no one else in the group was refuting or contradicting his inflammatory wordsâincluding their supposed righteous leader, Arthur.
Only Ariaâs face showed a visibly conflicted, uncomfortable expression, like she fundamentally disagreed but wasnât in any position to voice open opposition to the number one-ranked party.
Whatâs really going on here? What am I missing?
Aria was thinking, as she didnât believe they really wanted the monster to be awakened, there had to be something she was missing here.
The demi-humanâs words carried an entirely different underlying meaning than the surface interpretation suggested.
As Kaelor was thinking in his mind.
You useless bastard, you should have died fighting that monster and stalled it long enough for us to arrive at the scene and claim all the glory of defeating it ourselves. You robbed us of our destiny!
Cassandra maintained a completely neutral, almost serene expressionâshowing no positive or negative reaction whatsoever to the lion-manâs disturbing statement, as if she genuinely didnât care about the implications either way. Her blindfolded face remained impassive.
Their party leader, Arthur, appeared to be clutching his ornate sword handle with white-knuckled intensity at this particular moment, his jaw clenched so tight that muscles visibly jumped in his cheek.
Their party... ranked number one in the entire middle domain for decades. Theyâve been searching relentlessly for the prophesied threat that would one day attempt to destroy our entire realm.
Arthur had been waiting with growing impatience for the perfect opportunityâthe exact right moment when the legendary threat would emerge, vulnerable enough to be defeated but significant enough for them to gain maximum eternal glory from vanquishing it.
Their entire existence, their unified lifeâs purpose spanning years of preparation, was to locate and heroically destroy this foretold catastrophe before the masses.
But now some idiotic fool had apparently awakened it prematurelyâlikely by complete accident or sheer ignoranceâand somehow the creature had escaped or been killed before they could arrive and claim their rightful destiny as saviors.
The perfect chance might have been lost forever because of this incompetent silver-haired idiot.
However, Arthur was absolutely convinced deep down that this clueless fool standing before them in chains wasnât actually trying to deliberately awaken a world-ending monster for genuinely malicious purposes.
This amateur must have simply stumbled across it by terrible luck.
And all of us know this fact for absolute certainty, because according to the ancient prophecy weâve studied for decades, the designated time for the monsterâs fated emergence still hasnât arrived yet. It awakened prematurely, unprepared and weakened.
But regardless of the circumstances, the incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had been catastrophically squandered.
This incompetent idiot has to pay dearly for ruining everything weâve worked toward. My chanceâour entire partyâs chanceâto become officially titled as legendary heroes after so many centuries without one appearing in our domain... Itâs gone. Destroyed.
Arthurâs thoughts spiraled darker. The monster would undoubtedly be on full alert now, fully aware that powerful individuals knew of its existence and location. It would likely remain in deep hiding for hundreds of additional years now, waiting patiently until it had grown probably hundreds of times stronger than its current already-formidable state.
By the time it emerged again, they might all be left behind by some stronger party emerging, or worse, they might be dead. This was thier time, and the glory would go to some future generation who hadnât spent decades preparing.
Arthurâs internal rage built to an absolute crescendo as these bitter thoughts consumed him.
AHHHHHHHHH!
He was absolutely fuming inside, barely containing the murderous impulse to draw his sword right here in this corridor and execute this catastrophic fool who had single-handedly destroyed their collective destiny and lifeâs purpose.
They are meant to be heroes party.
No... He was meant to be a hero.
It was his dream and purpose, but now it felt far away...
His hand trembled on the swordâs grip, fighting every instinct screaming at him to act.