Chapter 141: In the basement (4)

Cranberry smirked and silently walked towards the branching hallway.

"Haa..."

She peeked over the corner and breathed out rather mockingly.

The little happy reunited family wasn't blocking the door completely so it was easy to see behind them.

And so Cranberry, and Lairs, could have a good look at Salak's 'cell'.

It was a bedroom.

A high-class, luxuriously decorated bedroom with all of the comforts anyone could have wished for.

Cranberry looked back at the conditions the other elves were forced to live in, and almost busted into laughter.

The difference in treatment was so stark that it was straight-up laughable.

Cranberry shook her head.

After seeing something like that could anyone actually believe the whole "we're trying to treat their illness" bullshit?

Still, if some random person would listen to the elves' explanation, they wouldn't be able to disregard the words of the "patients" themselves.

But Cranberry wasn't just some random person.

She was from the Pride family.

And she knew exactly how someone acts and speaks when someone with system privilege is forcing them to obey against their will.

After all, her mother used the unique privilege of the avatar of pride, to force her to obey her on so many occasions that she eventually developed a counter skill...

That's why Cranberry was one hundred percent sure that everything that Lairs have said about the Envys, the illness, and a research fo the cure, was false.

But then, how come the elves had to obey the Envy family?

Only the avatar of pride had the privilege of controlling others, and that only applied to those who shared Pride's blood...

Then, was it some sort of special trait that Envys managed to keep hidden?

It was possible, but something about that didn't seem right...

For once, if they could control the elves, why they had to kidnap them, and not simply made them come to them?

Could they not force the elves to obey them completely?

Instead of getting answers, more and more questions were piling up in Cranberry's head.

"...haa..."

The red-haired girl sighed and glance at the timer counting down in the upper right corner of her field of view.

There was still some time.

She decided to give the three some time. At least until the timer will get to 0:00 before she will force lord Envy to show her all the secrets of the mansion before she'll kill him.

After witnessing the indifferent reaction that lord Envy showed while talking to her, she realized that neither of the doors nor the metal bars blocking the cells were anything special.

Thankfully she wasn't using any mana-hungry skills and didn't feel too bad about the waste -  better safe than sorry after all.

"Say, Lairs. That savior of yours. He has to be pretty strong, right? I've been wondering what level he must be to perform the treatment."

"..."

Cranberry asked but the changed elven mage only lowered her head and stared at the stone floor.

"Ha. So it's a command that stops you from disclosing any potentially harmful information, huh?"

"...!"

Cranberry hummed happily seeing Lairs's body flinch before the system could force her to stay still.

"Hey, let me tell you something."

The red-haired girl leaned over Lairs and whispered.

"I don't care how much you guys hate the Envy family and the avatar of envy. That fake-faced piece of shit mocked me and my family. I will be the one to blow his head off~"

Cranberry hummed happily and straightened her back.

With a rough plan of action decided, there was nothing left for Cranberry but to wait.

She wasn't going to bother to look at the loving family scene playing out a few feet away from her, and instead, she started looking at the cells of the changed elves.

"...ha...?"

And then she noticed an odd pattern.

The elves were really dedicated to blocking any sound, one of them straight up jammed his fingers in so deep that something inside must have ruptured and blood was dripping down his deformed face and then on the floor.

"..."

Cranberry closed her mouth and carefully took a look at every single one of them...

...

Every elf who was blocking their ears and looking away wasn't just gawking at the floor or their own knees.

Every single one of them was intensely staring at a single point.

An unassuming piece of wall right by the entrance, or rather, a single ring with a burning torch.

As the red-haired girl approached it, all elves hurriedly looked away, undoubtedly pulled down by the system command.

Cranberry carefully examined the wall and...

There was a draft.

Just a small one, and if she didn't put her hand right by the stone, she would have missed it.

The basement was underground, there should be at least some airflow to allow the prisoners to breathe, but... not through that wall.

There were outlets leading in the air, but they were really small and located inside each cell...

"..."

Cranberry took a deep breath and grabbed the ring holding a torch.

She didn't want to break the mechanism so she didn't just pull it in any random direction using her full strength.

Instead, she delicately tested it by turning and twisting it in search of the smallest resistance.

Finally...

*click*

*hshaa*

After she turned the ring in a clockwise motion, something inside the wall clicked and a piece of the wall opened seamlessly with only the smallest sound of flowing air showing a staircase spiraling down into complete darkness.

"...if, by any chance, none of you had received a reward form the system for that show of pure will, I swear on the Pride's name, I will make sure all of you will not only survive but thrive as long as you won't turn against me..."

Cranberry declared in a small voice and took out the burning torch from the ring.

"Lairs, repeat my words to them later."

She made sure to say it loud enough for the fourth Dandelion to hear it, while making an evil grin, and stepped into the unknown.

"...if you will save us from this fucking fate, why the fuck would any elf want to go against you...?"

Lairs closed her eyes and mumbled in a pitiful voice, pressing her itchy rash-covered forehead against the cool stones of her open cell.