Chapter 68: Yona is missing, Miss Villainess!

The engagement party ended as a success despite all kinds of strange events that happened. Now, the Layver Family and the Tarram Kingdom successfully established a strong relationship through this betrothal.

At first, it was a forced engagement from Jahreon’s side. The connection the betrothal brought had now become one of Gyllena’s cards to raise her family’s power.

If Jahreon won the throne of the Kingdom, by then she would surely even surpass the Fallburn Family.

Tizmilly, my mother, and I watched from the balcony as the carriages left the mansion.

"Finally, everything is settled." I sighed, leaning back as adrenaline left my body.

Tizmilly nodded, her gaze seemed distant. "Yes... Finally."

My mother clapped, smiling. "We still have to take care of the restaurant, remember? Our work is still far from over!"

Tizmilly and I exchanged glances, then laughed.

That’s right. Tizmilly had successfully faced her brother. I had pushed Muste Verbezze to move and obtained the key to the Shrine of the Forgotten. But it was only the beginning, not the ultimate goal.

’I have to prepare myself for the unexpected. Right, for an example...’

My mind returned to this morning. Back to the time when Carole was still being held by Ya, the strongest swordsman in the world, who was insisting on taking her as his disciple for some reason.

Since Carole had admitted that she was his disciple, though forced, it made me couldn’t do much to help her.

After all, the opponent was the strongest swordsman.

Fortunately, after I begged him, and Gyllena also told him to let Carole go, Ya retreated with a difficult face.

However, Carole is still his disciple.

Ya wouldn’t say otherwise no matter how much we begged him. He only agreed to let Carole return to her friends. With a promise to meet and train her properly as his disciple in the near future, the swordsman left.

’I don’t understand. What did he see in Carole?’

Ya was a man who carried stoic air in the game. He wasn’t the type who would choose a disciple randomly. There should be a reason.

’But why? And what?’

I stared down at Carole, who was standing at the yard with her friends.

’The chance for Carole to be an important character in the game is...’ I narrowed my eyes at her back, trying to look for her face in my memories about the game’s characters.

Before I could fully dive into my mind, though, Carole and her friends looked up, turning their concerned gazes to us.

...

"Yona is missing?" Tizmilly exclaimed after she heard their explanation.

The atmosphere at the balcony immediately changed. From relaxed, to tense.

I massaged my temples. "I thought she was working somewhere else since I can’t see her with you all... Who could expect this to happen..."

My mother tapped her finger on the table, frowning. "When and where was Yona last seen?" She asked Carole and the others.

Carole shook her head. "The last was in my room. She knocked on my door this morning. We talked for a while, before she went to work with the maids."

The others’ answers were different, but the point was the same. Nothing was suspicious or odd.

Except when it was the time for Gerena to answer. Now that I looked at her closely, she didn’t bring her book now. That’s a surprise.

"I met Yona in the corridor leading to the hall today. She said..." Gerena paused before she continued. She looked hesitant for some reason. "That she felt like something was calling for her last night."

We looked at each other, all frowned. Silence fell to us for a moment, before I broke it with my assumption.

"If she wasn’t being kidnapped by someone, then it must be the demons or the cultists’ doings."

Carole and the others reacted immediately.

"Demon!?" Carole exclaimed, her face drained of color.

"But didn’t the sage seal the gate to the Abyss?" Gerena showed her doubt.

Karr, meanwhile, looked like he was told to solve an advanced math equation.

"That’s right! There shouldn’t be any demons left in the world!" Carole said, her face a mask of disbelief.

Marie stepped forward before I could explain. "What the sage had sealed is the main gate. The physical tunnel that was connecting this world with the Abyss. It prevented the demons to go directly to our world. But he didn’t seal the ’back’ door."

She shrugged. "Or rather, he couldn’t even if he wanted to."

I nodded, confirming her explanation to be accurate. "That’s right. Carole, you might never have heard of demons appearing except from the old stories since you lived mostly in this city, but occassionally, demon will appear in the world."

Pausing, I let they digested the information first before I continued. "Demons are vastly different from beings in this world. First, they don’t know the concept of death. You can kill them, yes, but after one hundred years or more, they will come back to life. This rule also applies to the low-level ones."

"The sage’s book also explained this, right?" I asked them.

Sirry looked at Gerena before she nodded at me.

Carole’s face became completely pale, almost no different from a corpse on color.

’This revealation is too much for her, I guess. I feel bad for her, but I need to make sure they know what they have to do if our opponent really is a demon. What a trouble, was it those Apostles who summon it? But how could they manage to do it while they were using the bodies of the servants, not their main bodies?’

I stood up, attracting everyone’s attention. "I’ll explain while we are looking for Yona."

"Let’s go," I said as I walked toward the first floor, to the hall. Everyone followed after me.

I planned to search from there first before we start looking elsewhere. If what Gerena said was true, then there should be a clue or two left there about Yona’s whereabouts.

"Demons are also beings who feeds on people’s negative emotions. Like ants to sugar, they will be drawn to you when your emotions are unstable. Anger, hatred, grief, all of these are what attracted them. They can even go beyond the barrier of the two worlds if the emotions that were pulling them were strong and dark enough."

I continued to explain on the way. After a quick, short walk, we arrived right before the hall door. I turned around and faced everyone.

"When they are successfully summoned into this world through this path, in common, they start going berserk, destroying everything. But there are also those who didn’t—the cunning ones. They will move more stealthily, choosing their preys carefully. Kidnapping is what they do most often."

Carole’s face told me that she had guessed what I was implying. The others were the same.

She gulped. "Which means..."

"Yes," I nodded.

Her eyes widened. Her body was trembling. For someone completely inexperienced like her, the idea of having a bloodthirsty demon wandering around alone was enough to make them scared to even get out of their houses.

However, Carole didn’t go away. She still stood there, waiting for the start of the search.

I was amazed by her will. ’She is stronger than I expected.’

’If what Ya saw in her was her will, then maybe... He had made the right choice,’ I thought as I nodded at her.

Then, it was the time to start the—

"Hm? What are you guys doing, lining before the door like that? You will block the door and trouble the guests, you know?" A familiar voice came from our side before I could tell them to start looking for Yona.

We turned at the source. And,

We found her.

Yona.

Neither her appearance nor her features had changed.

Her bob hair was still as black as ever. Her eyebrows were still as thick and serious as I saw yesterday. Nothing was different.

She tilted her head, looking at us strangely after we stared at her in complete silence for a whole minute.

"What’s wrong?" She asked. "You all looked like you had just met a ghost."

Carole blinked, paused, before immediately rushed to hug Yona. "Yona! So you didn’t get kidnapped by a demon! Thank god!"

Sirry and the other maids of our restaurant followed her suit after that. They came from the same village and had grown up together for years, after all. They should have been scared after I told them all that about demons.

’Ugh, now it’s embarrasing.’

"Wh-what? Why are you still crying!?" Yona squeked confusedly while being hugged by Carole and the maids.

Tizmilly approached me, smiling. "So it was not a demon’s doing, huh..." She muttered.

Her tone was casual, but it sounded like a sarcasm for me. "Y-yeah." I replied.

’I should remember this. Not every problem is related to demons.’

At that time, I heard my mother muttered something while she was staring at Yona. "Why is she still wearing her maid uniform?"