An Anchor Claw had pierced Baron’s palm, but a Blood Faction ability had already stopped the bleeding.

Luckily, his other hand hadn’t been pierced, or he could have cosplayed a certain Saint.

He was suddenly reminded of a joke: What’s a Cross for?

Answer: For a pick-me-up.

Baron still hadn’t fully adjusted to the absurd identity shift from being L the Prole to the "Escape King" of the Inner Side, but this series of blows had finally forced him to catch up.

Peering through the window behind him, he looked down upon a courtyard where men were arrayed in sparring formations. By a conservative estimate, there were over a hundred Silver Demon Hunters.

Baron lamented internally, ’Thank you, Goddess of Misfortune.’

While Baron’s mind was racing, the woman on the bed finished her meal. She summoned an Attendant to clear the dishes, then picked up a telephone-like device from the nightstand.

It seemed she was on a call. With his hearing as a Dragon Knight, he managed to pick up a few key pieces of information:

First, they were still on the Inner Side, in one of its small towns.

Second, the woman was the eldest daughter of the renowned Dragon Slayer Clan, the Beowulf Family. And if he guessed correctly, she was unmarried.

Judging by the gazes of the Demon Hunters looking up from outside the window, she was an unmarried woman admired by many.

According to the phone call, these Demon Hunters were all her Household Servants.

Third, she seemed to be discussing an important event called the Dragon Hunting Ceremony. This ceremony, which would determine the next Patriarch of the Beowulf Family, was scheduled for tomorrow in a mountain range called Dragoon.

Fourth, she had apparently discovered him. Baron’s ears could tell that the faint sounds from the other end of the line had disappeared, yet the woman was still pretending to talk.

He heard footsteps from the other side of the curtain. They were faint, but his Dragon Knight’s hearing picked them up easily.

’It must be that Attendant.’

SWISH!

Just as he thought. A mere three breaths after Baron had committed these vital points to memory, the curtain was yanked open by the Attendant.

The Maid looked around before picking up a Gothic Halberd from the floor. "Miss Isabella, the Long Halberd fell off the rack. I suppose it’s due to its age... Perhaps we should consider moving to another room."

"Just put the halberd back."

While the Maid was checking the curtains, the woman had already dressed in a custom black Hunting Outfit over an Enchanted Vest.

Tucked at her thighs were modern Firearms, rarely used by Demon Hunters. Even more conspicuous was the raw-iron-like Scottish Giant Sword hanging from her waist.

But the woman stood nearly six feet tall, and with her leather boots, the imposing weapon suited her perfectly.

"This was my grandfather’s room. I will succeed him and become the next Dragon Slayer to lead the Beowulf Family."

Isabella Beowulf faced the full-length mirror in the corner, adjusted her cufflinks, then pulled a cigarette from an inside pocket and lit it.

"Let’s go. The ’children’ in the training yard are getting sloppy again. The shouting has been much quieter than before."

Isabella stubbed the cigarette out on the mirror, and the Maid opened the door for her.

After Isabella left, the Maid glanced at the mirror and frowned.

’When... did we get a mirror here?’

She didn’t give it much thought, closing the door behind her as she left.

About ten minutes passed. The mirror was retracted into a Holding Ring. Baron cautiously crept along the wall and into the walk-in closet. He used his Spiritual Power to accelerate his Self-Healing Power, then took a change of clothes from his Holding Ring and put them on.

He then pressed his ear to the door, listening for footsteps. Confirming from their steady tread that they belonged to a man, he flung the door open. With his face covered, he knocked the person out in a single motion and dragged them into the closet.

To prevent his discovery, Baron forced the man to drink a sleeping potion—the same kind used by prostitutes on the Inner Side. Its effects would likely keep the man unconscious for three or four days.

’By then, I should have made my escape.’

Then, activating the Chain of the Imitator to disguise himself as an Attendant, Baron opened the door. After checking that the hallway was empty, he began to quietly explore the ridiculously vast and labyrinthine manor.

Until...

"Don’t you Bloodless Attendants from the rear courtyard have eyes? As a Bloodless, your place is in the rear courtyard, not the front..."

The Chief Steward grumbled, then paused, raising an eyebrow. "Say, I don’t think I’ve seen you before. Did you just start last week?"

Unsure of the situation, Baron gave a cautious nod. He noticed some Demon Hunters in the front courtyard were already looking their way.

From what he had gathered while wandering the manor earlier, and from the Chief Steward’s impromptu lecture, he deduced that these Demon Hunters were the Household Servants of Jose Beowulf, the second son of the Beowulf Family.

Andes Beowulf, the former Patriarch of the Beowulf Family who had died in an accident years ago, had three sons and two daughters.

The eldest daughter was Isabella, the woman Baron had just been in bed with.

The three sons, in order of age, were Jose, Tune, and Denero. There was also a younger sister, Lucy, who was said to be studying the ancient Dragon Taming Art in the Sichuan and Shu region of China.

Vying with Isabella for the title of Beowulf Patriarch were her two half-brothers, Jose Beowulf and Tune Beowulf.

These two were the descendants who currently held the most support from the Beowulf Clan’s Elders.

Isabella was neither accepted nor supported by the clan’s Elders, both because she was a woman and because she had ignored all advice and abandoned the family’s traditional Silver Faction to practice the ways of the Beast Faction.

Furthermore, Isabella’s mother was a Bloodless. Under her mother’s influence, Isabella allowed her subordinates to recruit Bloodless Attendants, drawing the ire of some of the family’s Pure-blood Nobility. Thus, despite the considerable authority she wielded in the Beowulf Family due to her formidable power, her actual support was limited.