O43novel Chapter 427: What Exactly Are You?
Chapter 427: What Exactly Are You?
“Seraphina... she...”
“Dinner is ready, Master Mentor.”
Just as Paqina was about to speak, Seraphina, who had brought the food over, interrupted her.
Looking into Seraphina’s eyes, Paqina’s mouth suddenly seemed to be blocked, and the words on the tip of her tongue were swallowed back down.
“Find a place to hide for a while. I need to talk to Paqina alone.”
“Yes...”
Seraphina obediently responded, then slipped into the kitchen.
“Alright, now you can talk.”
“She’s not human.”
Hearing this, Loren wasn’t particularly surprised. He had already guessed as much, and besides, there weren’t many truly human beings around Loren anyway.At the very least, no human could have a face so perfect, nor could they have clashed with Mirrorheart.
“Then what is she?”
Loren was genuinely curious about what species Seraphina actually was.
“I... I don’t know...”
Paqina clutched her head. She had a headache—not because she didn’t want to say, but because she genuinely didn’t know how to describe it to Loren.
Finally, Paqina sighed, as if she had come to some realization:
“What I saw was a jumbled mess of garbled code, completely devoid of information. Just glimpsing that mass made me feel like my head was about to explode...
“I only saw that thing for an instant, and then everything returned to normal. But the terror of that single moment... I will never forget it...”
As she spoke, Paqina’s entire body trembled. Even recalling what she had seen back then was torture for her.
“Then stop thinking about it...”
Loren walked behind Paqina and began massaging her temples.
His magic flowed through his fingers into Paqina, soothing her mind somewhat.
By now, Paqina had basically revealed to Loren that she was a Witch. Her ability to “see” things couldn’t be explained by conventional logic at all.
It had to be the Witches’ Arcane Ability. That was likely how Paqina had managed to decipher the Dawn Princess’s diary before.
“Then what did you see on me?”
Loren changed the subject, steering Paqina away from dwelling on those things.
As for what Paqina had seen, Loren guessed it was related to the Perpetual Observer. Witches had extremely strong mental resistance—even something connected to the Orthodox Gods shouldn’t have affected Paqina like this.
“I didn’t see anything at all...”
This outcome was also within Loren’s expectations. With the blessings of the True Sight Eye and the Hermit card, it was perfectly normal that Paqina couldn’t see anything on him.
“Alright, let’s drop this. Let’s eat first.”
Loren didn’t press Paqina further about how she had seen those things. He simply headed into the kitchen.
“You all take the food out first. I need to have a word with Seraphina.”
“Yes...”
The other maids carried the food out, leaving only Seraphina and Loren in the kitchen.
She was kneeling on the floor, her posture perfectly proper, head bowed—like someone who had committed a wrong and was awaiting punishment.
“What exactly are you?”
Seraphina’s appearance had been very suspicious. Thanks to Mirrorheart’s assurance, Loren had never doubted her until now. This was the first time Loren had asked so directly.
“I am your maid. I am your possession. You are my master. You are my everything.”
Seraphina lifted her head, those magical eyes meeting Loren’s gaze. Looking at her pitiful expression, Loren suddenly felt a wave of tenderness.
Loren could sense Seraphina’s emotions—nothing but overwhelming love.
“Let’s eat.”
In the end, Loren said nothing more. He carried out the remaining food together with Seraphina.
Anna, who had already caught the scent of the food, was sitting at the dining table. The others also took their seats one after another, as if nothing had happened. Dinner passed smoothly and calmly.
“I’m heading to the Chailros Family’s territory. It might take a while, so you all just go to sleep.”
“Will it be dangerous... Are you only taking Paqina?”
Naclis asked with concern. After noticing that Loren only planned to bring Paqina, she added another question.
“I thought I’d give Paqina a lesson while I’m at it. Otherwise, it’s just easier to handle things myself.”
Only Loren could use the Justice Card; the others couldn’t help with that.
“Besides, Gwen has already gone ahead to investigate. Their intentions are sincere—they’re all ready for me to cut them down. It’s just that there are quite a few of them, so it’ll take a bit of time.
“With that many, even if they were just steamed buns, I’d need a while to eat through them all.”
After hearing all this, Naclis finally felt reassured. Instead of going back to her room, she sat in the living room, watching the entrance:
“Come back soon.”
“Mm.”
Loren waved goodbye to everyone. It was just such a small matter, yet they were all so worried. Still, Loren couldn’t help but feel a little touched.
“Gwen? Who is Gwen?”
Beside him, Paqina had picked up on something else. She was very familiar with Loren’s household members, but she had never heard of anyone named Gwen.
“Gwen is a puppet I made. She usually helps me gather intelligence and occasionally kills people for me.”
Gwen was one of Loren’s secrets, but Loren didn’t hide anything from Paqina.
As for Loren’s ability to make puppets, Paqina wasn’t particularly shocked. If there was something Loren couldn’t do, that would have surprised her instead.
“One puppet isn’t quite enough. I think it’s time to make a few more...”
Simply monitoring Movila was sufficient, but Movila still had some drawbacks. Meanwhile, Gwen could directly share the True Sight Eye. The only downside was that she could only watch one place at a time.
Making a few more puppets would solve that problem.
“We’re here.”
Soon, Loren arrived at the Chailros Family’s territory. On one hand, they had chosen this location to please Loren—his residence was very close to theirs. On the other hand, their territory was truly enormous.
Today, the place was especially quiet. A few scavengers flew overhead. Due to the recent spike in deaths, the Royal Capital’s pigeons had dwindled significantly, replaced by various carrion feeders.
“Looks like they’re going to be disappointed today.”
These scavengers had keenly sensed the scent of death and had already gathered here, eagerly waiting for other lives to end so that their own could continue.
But when Loren actually approached the Chailros residence, he really did catch a strong, bloody smell.
William had been waiting here for a long time. He wiped the bloodstains on his hands onto his clothes and opened the main gate for Loren. Corpses were piled along both sides of the path, and they had even thoughtfully laid out a red carpet to keep Loren’s shoes from getting dirty from the flowing blood:
“Those who refused to obey your orders have all been killed. The rest are inside.”
Seeing this scene for the first time, Paqina’s legs began to tremble. So Loren reached out and took her hand.
In that instant, Paqina’s trembling stopped.