The lobby on the first floor of the hotel was disturbingly quiet.
It was all thanks to that metronome. The hotel staff who had been driven away were nowhere to be seen.
At any rate, they hadn't returned to their posts yet.
This worked out perfectly. Elias first grabbed a trench coat from a random piece of luggage that looked similar to his own and swapped it.
Then, he walked to the empty front desk and found a blank luggage tag and a pen.
He wrote the name "Batman" on it.
Then, he firmly fastened the tag with the fake name onto the unremarkable suitcase filled with soul coins.
To prepare for the possibility of facing Cecil soon, he also took off his Wind-Chaser Boots and stuffed them inside.
In that woman's mind, his level of suspicion couldn't afford to get any higher.
At the very least, today's events absolutely could not be leaked.
Otherwise, with those two traces of Moon Lord spirituality at the scene, the people from the Seventh Agency would surely assume he was the one who had proactively beaten Mester into that state.
The Sacred Candle had burned away the infernal stench with its holy fire, so wouldn't that make him the prime suspect?!
Only by being fully prepared could he manage a smooth landing.
As for his cane being too long, he specifically threaded it through the suitcase handle, keeping the two items together.
Finally, he tossed his last remaining link charm inside so he could sense the suitcase's location at all times.
Perfect!
Next, he manually crafted a corresponding claim check.
He turned and pushed open the door to the luggage room, hiding the heavy suitcase and the cane in the deepest corner.
After finishing all this, he brushed the dust off his hands and headed up the stairs.
He returned to the door of the guest room on the third floor.
Elias gripped the brass door handle, feeling the slight chill radiating from it.
The simple Sanctuary he had previously placed around the room had completely dissipated by now.
Fortunately, after a quick check, there were no signs of any intruders nearby.
With the crisp click of the mechanical lock engaging, the door was pushed open.
Elias slipped into the room and immediately locked the door behind him.
The air in the room was very stifling.
The sweet, cloying scent of the evaporated dreamlily powder still lingered in the air.
He turned his gaze toward the large bed.
His sister, Charlotte, was still lying there quietly, sleeping very soundly.
Elias walked to the window, reached out to pull back the heavy curtains, and pushed the window open with force.
Whoosh—
The outside air rushed into the room with the wind, dispersing much of the dreamlily scent.
As the cold wind blew past, Elias keenly noticed Charlotte's long eyelashes tremble twice.
She's waking up!
Elias felt a sudden jolt in his heart.
The scent of the dreamlily had only just begun to fade!
Is this the natural high sensitivity brought by the Old Norse bloodline?
Almost out of instinct, his inner actor took over.
His legs went weak, and he let himself fall forward, collapsing straight onto the cold, hard wooden floor and closing his eyes to fake sleep.
...
In his mind, Old Ed fell into a brief silence.
Then, the old man's disdainful voice rang out in Elias's head.
"Are you kidding me?"
"With that exaggerated acting, you think you can fool your sister?!"
"Then what should I do?" Elias retorted irritably in his mind while keeping his eyes shut.
"Just stand here like an idiot?"
"Wait for her to open her eyes so we can stare at each other?"
"And then tell her I just suddenly fell asleep for no reason?"
Elias's tone was righteous.
"At least this might confuse her first!"
Old Ed's exasperation was almost enough to break through the spirit world.
"When I was cursing you downstairs earlier, I wasn't wrong at all!"
"What kind of decent person wracks his brain just to lie to his own sister?"
"You... shut up!"
While Elias and Old Ed were passionately arguing inside his head, Charlotte finally woke up.
She felt waves of throbbing pain deep in her brain.
During the time she was unconscious, she seemed to have had a very, very long dream.
She dreamed she was beneath a massive blue network that defied description.
That enormous blue web was cold and silent, densely connecting everything in the world.
Gazing at that web, Charlotte felt a dizziness that reached her very marrow.
She didn't know why she had such a strange dream.
She knew even less why she had fallen asleep so soundly in Ms. Cecil's room.
Charlotte patted her still-groggy head, her eyes filled with confusion.
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
She remembered that her brother had also been in this room just now!
Where was he?
Charlotte sat up abruptly.
With a sweep of her gaze, she saw the figure lying on the floor.
"Al?"
Charlotte let out a startled cry.
Seeing her brother seemingly unconscious, the lingering grogginess from just waking up was instantly thrown to the back of her mind.
She jumped off the bed in a panic and knelt beside Elias.
At this moment, Elias was lying on the floor in a rather dramatic sprawl.
"Wake up!" Charlotte shook Elias's shoulder forcefully, her hands and feet turning cold.
"Al, what happened to you!"
Perhaps because the previous incapacitation had blocked part of her sharp intuition from her bloodline, she failed to see through his clumsy acting.
She was like a helpless little girl who had lost her only support, suddenly sobbing as her voice took on a tearful tone.
"I was wrong!"
"I'll never follow you again!"
"I won't doubt you anymore, Al!"
"Please wake up!"
Hearing Charlotte's collapsing, tearful pleas, Elias almost couldn't keep it together.
A strong sense of guilt welled up in his heart.
It wasn't just the moral condemnation of a modern person; the deep-seated instinct to protect his sister, rooted in his bloodline and the original soul of this body, began to stir wildly within him.
He really couldn't keep faking it anymore.
He quickly dropped his deadpan expression and pretended to open his eyes groggily.
"Ugh..."
"Lottie..."
Elias looked at the tearful Charlotte with feigned confusion.
"What happened to me?"
He sat up with stiff movements.
"Don't cry!"
Elias's tone suddenly rose, pretending to be a protective brother who was suddenly angry.
"Who messed with you?!"
He acted so hard that the veins on his forehead bulged, but in reality, he was secretly blaming himself.
That's right, the beast who bullied her was himself.
I'm truly the worst!
Seeing Elias finally wake up, Charlotte's tense nerves finally relaxed a bit, and her crying gradually subsided.
She sniffled and said with a tearful, aggrieved voice, "I... I don't know how I suddenly fell asleep..."
"When I woke up, I saw you lying on the floor. I thought you..."
Elias sighed and sat up with Charlotte's help.
He reached out and ruffled Charlotte's messy red hair, speaking in a soft tone.
"It's fine. I don't know how I fell asleep either."
"It's okay now."
Watching this touching scene, Old Ed's snide voice drifted out again in his mind.
"Heh."
"Now you know how to feel bad for her?"
The old man's tone was full of heartless mockery.
"..."
This time, Elias rarely refrained from arguing back.
Because he truly felt guilty.
Looking at the tear stains still on Charlotte's face, and in order to get her out of that state of extreme panic as quickly as possible, he helped her sit on a chair and began to tell her a story in a low voice.
"I had a dream..."
"About a brother who hurt many people for the sake of his sister..."
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