Isolde wore a well-fitting black dress, her long hair draped over her shoulders, her delicate face stunningly beautiful under the candlelight.
With a faint smile on her lips, she walked slowly toward them.
Every step she took seemed to align perfectly with the ticking of a second hand, bringing with it a suffocating pressure.
“Are you having fun picking those up?” she asked.
The veins on Buck's temples bulged. He stared, trying to speak, but the pressure squeezed his throat tight.
Isolde slowly walked to the long table, picked up a dusty gold coin, and flicked it with her finger.
The gold coin landed on a silver platter with a crisp clink.
“I was worried that because the bait was laid out so blatantly, you might be on your guard.”
She looked up at them, her smile deepening.
“It seems I was overthinking.”
Norman's eyes were filled with terror as he desperately tried to channel his mana.
The wind crystal at the tip of his staff flared briefly before immediately dying out.
This basic 【Pressure】 skill, stripped from the Silver-Robed Inquisitor, might only be considered an appetizer in front of truly high-tier experts.
But for dealing with these low-tier adventurers, its effectiveness exceeded expectations.
Watching the four of them tremble in place, drenched in sweat, Isolde slowly came to a conclusion.
Lia's strength was already high; what she lacked was control and an opening move.
With 【Pressure】, she could seize the initiative before enemies could even get close.
This meant that from now on, as long as the intruders' strength did not completely overwhelm Lia, she would be fully capable of handling these small fry on her own.
A hoarse voice squeezed out of the bearded man's throat: “W-we can give the things back to you...”
Isolde tilted her head slightly.
“Give them back?”
She walked leisurely to the head of the table, sat down, and casually picked up a gem to toy with between her fingers.
“Since you have ventured so deep into the inner castle, you are my guests.”
She spoke in a measured tone, “And at Crow Candle Castle, we welcome greedy guests above all else.”
Buck's eyes were bloodshot as he finally managed to squeeze some sound out from under the pressure.
“We belong to the Mercenary Guild!”
Isolde blinked.
“Oh.”
“Then your Mercenary Guild is quite charitable, taking in just about any stray dog.”
Buck's face flushed red, but Isolde couldn't be bothered to look at them any longer.
She tossed the gem aside with a look of boredom, her voice drifting down lightly.
“Lia, do it.”
“Yes, Milady.”
In the next instant, the 【Pressure】 suddenly intensified.
Buck was forced to his knees by the weight, yet he still strained with all his might to lift his shield.
Lia took a step forward, gripped the edge of the shield with her palm, and gave it a gentle twist.
With a screeching sound of metal warping, the iron shield was reduced to scrap.
Buck's pupils contracted violently.
This puppet's strength was even more terrifying than a magical beast's!
Rena bit the tip of her tongue, using the pain to wrench herself into half a second of clarity, and thrust her shortsword toward Lia's neck.
Lia did not dodge.
The shortsword pierced beneath the bandages, making a sharp clinking sound as if striking cold, hard bone.
The color drained from Rena's face, and before she could even react—
Lia grabbed her wrist and squeezed gently.
Crack.
A blood-curdling scream suddenly erupted in the Banquet Hall.
Relying on sheer willpower, Norman broke free of his restraint slightly, and the wind crystal at the tip of his staff lit up.
“Wind Blade—”
Lia dodged it with ease, and a butter knife shot from her hand, piercing straight through his arm as blood splattered everywhere.
The bearded man was scared out of his wits. He scrambled on all fours, desperately fleeing toward the doors.
But the moment he pushed them open, a faceless servant suddenly appeared, grabbed his ankle, and sent him crashing to the floor before dragging him back into the Banquet Hall.
“I was wrong! I shouldn't have taken your things! Please don't kill me!”
Screams echoed one after another, startling the flock of crows outside the castle.
Milo snapped his head up.
He realized that was Buck's voice.
Immediately after came Rena's screams, followed by Norman begging for mercy...
Milo's lips turned pale with fear, his legs turning to jelly.
Unable to even hold his hand crossbow steady, he spun around and ran.
After a few steps, his foot slipped, and he tumbled face-first into the wet mud.
Another scream drifted over from the direction of the castle.
Milo's teeth chattered as he frantically fumbled a feather out from his breast pocket.
That was a life-saving item he had spent all his savings to buy.
【Retreat Feather】
Originally, he had planned to save it for when he encountered a real magical beast.
Now, only one thought remained in his mind.
Escape!
The further away from this cursed castle, the better!
The feather in Milo's hand dropped to his feet. A sudden whirlwind whipped up, turning his feet into a blur of afterimages.
In the next second, Milo shot into the distance like an arrow released from a bowstring, vanishing from the spot with a sharp whoosh.
Inside the Banquet Hall, the final scream died down.
Lia stood by the long table, her skirt stained with a bit of blood.
She looked down at it briefly, then walked over to the head of the dining table and said respectfully,
“Milady, the cleanup is complete.”
Just as Isolde was about to speak, the crow portrait on the wall suddenly spoke:
“Master.”
“Outside the boundary of the grey mist, one person has escaped. The target used a retreat item and has already left the castle's pursuit range.”
The candles in the Banquet Hall flickered slightly.
Isolde's fingers stopped toying with the gold coin.
To her, one escaped.
She looked down at the corpses on the floor, her brow furrowing slightly.
This was both good and bad news.
The good part was that Lia's combat test results were very clear.
【Pressure】 could effectively suppress low-tier adventurers, and combined with her original strength and the Guard Linkage, it was more than enough to handle most greedy intruders.
The bad part was that the coward outside had escaped alive.
A cowardly person might not dare to return for revenge, but they were highly likely to spread word of this place.
A terrifying castle hidden deep within the grey mist.
Once this news reached the ears of the Mercenary Guild, taverns, or even more troublesome factions, it would bring new trouble sooner or later.
Just then, the four corpses on the floor trembled slightly.
Four dim wisps of soul fire floated up from the bodies.
The color of the flames was very faint, a dull greyish-white mixed with a bit of dirty red, looking like candlewick on the verge of burning out.
Isolde was somewhat surprised upon seeing this.
Even though she hadn't personally finished them off, they still yielded Sinful Souls.
Or rather, since Lia was her Soul Contractee, her power was fundamentally an extension of Isolde's, allowing her to trigger the effect of the 【Verdict Fruit】 as well.
However, the quality of these four Sinful Souls was clearly far inferior to that of the Silver-Robed Inquisitor.
When the Silver-Robed Inquisitor's Sinful Soul had materialized, its dark red hue was so thick it looked like it could drip blood.
These wisps of soul fire, on the other hand, were so light they seemed ready to disperse with a gentle breeze.
With a wave of her hand, the four wisps of soul fire were pulled into midair by an invisible force and merged.
Before long, they barely managed to condense into a tiny fruit.
The object was only the size of a marble, its skin wrinkled and its color a dark, blackish-red.
【Obtained: Rotten Cherry】
【Description: Compressed from low-quality Sinful Souls. Can slightly increase basic attributes.】
Isolde stared at the tiny thing and fell silent for a moment.
So that was how it worked.
Three high-quality Sinful Souls could be synthesized into a rotten apple.
When the quality of the Sinful Souls was low and there weren't enough of them, they could only piece together a small trinket like this.
It was small, but better than nothing.
A faceless servant stepped out from the side, holding a silver platter with both hands to carefully catch the Rotten Cherry.
Then, it quietly walked over to Isolde and respectfully placed the silver platter on the long table.
The cherry lay in the center of the silver platter, its skin still slowly oozing a bit of dark red juice.
Isolde stared at it for two seconds before finally skewering it with a silver fork handed to her by Lia.
She had already eaten a rotten apple; what was a mere Rotten Cherry in comparison?
Isolde popped it into her mouth with an expressionless face.
The texture in her mouth was still disgusting, but surprisingly, it was no longer as unbearable as the first time.
Getting used to things like this was sometimes truly not a good thing.
In the next second, a grey light screen appeared.
【You have consumed: Rotten Cherry】
【Health: 450 → 452】
【Mana: 140 → 145】
【Defense: 100 → 102】
【Agility: 20 → 22】
【Strength: 18 → 19】
【Intelligence: 130 → 132】
The increase was small, but every attribute had changed.
Although the low-tier intruders had not undergone judgment to amplify their malice, and did not possess sins as heavy as the Silver-Robed Inquisitor,
as long as sinful deeds had been committed, she could extract that portion of their Sinful Souls to consume.
However, she had also killed baptizing monks and guard knights back at the Grey Dove Monastery.
At that time, she had left too quickly to wait for the Sinful Souls to condense.
Isolde rubbed her temples, giving up on overanalyzing it.
She wiped her mouth with a napkin and called out:
“Goldie, decompose the remaining corpses.”
The castle trembled slightly, dark runes lighting up on the floor as the corpses dissolved like liquid into the floorboards.
A faceless servant stepped out from the corner, quietly cleaning up the bloodstains and scattered gold coins.
At the same time, a loot drop list popped up before her eyes:
【Obtained: Damaged Heavy Shield × 1】
【Obtained: Low-Tier Wind Crystal Staff × 1】
【Obtained: Poisoned Shortsword × 2】
【Obtained: Beast Tooth Hunting Spear × 1】
【Obtained: Mercenary Guild Badge × 4】
【Obtained: Gold Coin × 217】
【Obtained: Ruby Ring × 3】
【Obtained: Low-Tier Potion × 6】
【Obtained: Various Miscellaneous Materials】
Rate on N.U.
