Chapter 24

After checking the system message, Erel patted her chest in relief.

She had almost mistaken him for a real ghost.

John Louis Harmash.

Judging from the surname, the man is also a Masaka. Yet, he wasn’t a character she recognized.

Given the circumstances, it’s such a shame that ‘Salvation’ is an overly vast game. If she had recognized him, maybe she could have caught his attention and asked for directions.

‘Did he go this way?’

Feeling a bit courageous, Erel approached and pressed the palms of her hands against the wall the man passed through. Naturally, her hands were unable to pass through.

Apparently, John had the ability to transform his body and pass through walls. Masakas had a wide range of strange abilities, many of which seemed beyond the bounds of possibility.

‘In any case, I have to get out of here.”

Erel sighed as she lifted her hands from the wall. It would have been nice if she had possessed a Masaka, rather than a weak Resabre. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about being eaten by a villain like Barkan.

With each step, she lamented on her predicament. After trudging through yet another hallway, she reached a point where it split into two different directions.

‘Which way should I go?’

‘If it’s not one thing, it’s another.’ Erel sighed heavily as she agonized over which passageway would lead her to freedom.

Suddenly, she felt a faint breeze blowing from the hallway on her left.

‘Maybe this will lead to an exit?’ 

After sweeping a few stray hairs from her face, Erel headed down the left hallway, with the single hope that she could escape the strange mansion and finally return home.

However, that hope was soon crushed when she neared the end of the darkening corridor.

It wasn’t that she had taken the wrong way, in fact, there was a door that appeared to be an exit, just a short distance away.

But it was an impassable door.

“Grrr….”

Directly in front of the door, there appeared to be some sort of creature partially hidden in the shadows. The moment it sensed her presence, the creature stirred, raising its head and sniffing the air.

At first, Erel was unable to identify it because her vision was obscured by the darkness of the hallway, but once she adjusted to the lack of light, her eyes widened in astonishment.

The creature turned out to be a dog, that was so large it was almost the size of a house.

“Woof! Woof!”

The dog that snarled at her, with its eyes flashing as if it was about to charge at any moment, surprisingly had two heads. Its crimson-red eyes and deadly fangs, which were the size of daggers, were a terrifying sight to behold.

Frightened by its intimidating appearance, Erel started to back away until she noticed that the large beast seemed quite familiar.

‘That’s the dog Barkan had with him the day we first met!’

The moment Erel realized where she had been dragged off to, feelings of despair quickly surfaced and her chest tightened.

‘Barkan is definitely the owner of this mansion.’

The fact that she was trapped in the lair of the wickedest and most evil man, who would one day destroy the kingdom and then the world, filled her with uneasiness.

This was a hopeless situation. Now that she had been brought here, there was no way she could escape on her own.

‘My family must be very worried,’ 

But she had more pressing matters that took precedence over that.

Such as the monstrous beast, which was growling like it wanted to pounce and attack her.

“Shh…nice doggy… I’m not a bad person…….”

“Grrrr!”

Apparently, the dog had no intention of listening to Erel. Unsure of what to do, she panicked as the dog’s barks grew even louder. If it were to use those razor-sharp fangs on her, with her weak body, she had no chance of surviving.

‘Wait a second…in a situation like this, calling the dog by its name would be more effective at calming it down.….’

Erel recalled a pet-related tv show she had occasionally watched during her previous life.

Fortunately, she still remembered the name Barkan used at that time.

“Choco…?” Erel called out in a trembling voice.

Much to her surprise, the dog stopped barking and simply stared at her with a curious gaze that seemed to ask, ‘How do you know my name? Who the hell are you?’

‘How could you give such a cute name to such a scary dog?’ This alone cemented her opinion that Barkan was not sane.

In any case, using its name seemed to have worked, and thanks to that, she was feeling a little more optimistic.

‘If it lowered its guard just a bit, maybe I could slip past it and exit through the door.’

‘Only then I will be able to escape.’

Drawing upon her strength, Erel began to coax the dog in a voice sweeter than cotton candy.

“Good Choco. Choco is such a cute doggy.  So adorable.”

During the tv show, the host claimed that dogs could understand compliments. With that in mind, Erel tried her hardest to win the dog’s affection.

While her attempts to soothe the large beast were clumsy, she continued with her praises because she was desperate to leave.

Choco, of course, looked at her with its two heads, as if she was a crazy human being.

Regardless, her opponent was an animal, so there was no reason for her to feel embarrassed.

“Choco, sit down!”

Needless to say, Choco did not sit on command.

It was a normal response, seeing as most dogs didn’t obey anyone except their masters. At any rate, it wasn’t barking or growling like before, so  Erel decided to push harder.

“Please, sit down! Choco, sit here!” Erel timidly pointed to the floor with her finger and shouted again.

Her actions seemed to only aggravate Choco because shortly afterwords, it started barking again.

“Woof, Woof!”

At first, Erel was startled, but soon she realized that Choco’s barks were not as aggressive as before. To be precise, Choco seemed to be very happy with her presence.

‘Why did its behavior change all of a sudden?’

Erel eyed Choco’s wagging tail with suspicion. While she had never raised a dog before, she understood that this was an expression of excitement.

Erel smiled awkwardly and waved her hand at Choco. As her hand moved from side to side, his eyes followed the motion.

‘Huh?’

‘How could I forget?’ 

After observing Choco’s strange behavior for a moment, Erel suddenly recalled the “Druid’s Ring” on her finger.

‘Isn’t this ring supposed to have the ability to attract the affection of animals?’

‘That’s amazing!’ 

Erel glanced down and admired the ring that twisted around her index finger. At the same time, she was somewhat surprised because she had considered the ring useless, but now, she was aware of its value.

‘Maybe it can help me escape this place.’

The thought made her heart swelled with hope. As long as she wore the ring, she didn’t have to worry about a certain hellish-looking dog. She could simply walk past the beast and exit through the door.

Now that she had a solid escape plan, Erel smiled smugly and took a step in the animal’s direction.

“Woof!”

“Oh my god!”

The moment she started to approach the door, Choco rushed forward and bumped her with one of its heads. As a result of her carelessness, Erel was so startled by the dog’s actions that she stumbled and fell backward.

However, before she hit the cold marble floor, her fall was prevented by a pair of strong hands.

“Found you.”

Her heart sank the moment she heard his voice.

‘How the hell did he manage to get so close?’ Erel was confident that she hadn’t heard any approaching footsteps.

He was so close that Erel felt his warm breath lightly brush against her ear as he spoke.

Erel trembled as she slowly turned around to face him, only to be met with a sharp jawline and alluring lips that looked straight out of an erotic painting.

Golden eyes looked down at Erel from above.

“Did you enjoy playing hide-and-seek?”

Upon hearing that, Erel instantly knew he had been watching her from the moment she stepped out of the room.

Erel felt foolish for thinking that she could easily escape from the devil’s den when he had been stalking her like prey he wanted to devour.

His deep amber eyes narrowed, as he stared into her eyes. His gaze was so intense, it was as if he could see directly into her soul. The corners of his lips curled into a smirk like he was mocking her naiveness.

Like a cat toying with its meal, he took pleasure in chasing and capturing his prey. However, the anticipation of the chase stimulated his urge to devour his prey in one bite.

“I brought you to my home because you fainted in the midst of all the chaos. Are you feeling better now?”

If anyone else had heard him, they would have thought he was genuinely concerned for her, but his words were laced with deception, and she saw right through it.

He could have taken Erel to the Elorance estate. If he knew where to send the flower carts, then he would have known where to take her unconscious body.

However, Barkan dragged Erel straight to his house without a second thought, seeing it as an opportunity he could take advantage of.

He had her in the palm of his hand since the very beginning.

When it finally dawned on her, Erel jerked away from his touch, her mind reeling from the reality of her situation.

“I hope you will enjoy your stay at my house.”

Fishing a case from his pocket, Barkan open the lid and selected a cigar. With the cigar settled between his sensual lips, he lit a small flame, courtesy of his fingertips, and threw an indifferent gaze in her direction.

“Why aren’t you answering me?”

While his pronunciation was slightly unclear because he still had the cigar in his mouth, his voice had a subtle yet coercive undertone. Erel heard his message, loud and clear.

‘Since you will be living here in the future, you better get used to it, even if you don’t want to.’

‘He really is a son of a b*tch. In that case, this ring should also affect him. But why isn’t it working on him?’ Erel grumbled inwardly as she stared at the ring decorating her finger. (Editor’s note: Bitch really called this mf is an animal.)

Then, as if he magically heard her thoughts, Barkan whispered in a sweet yet brutal voice, despite them being the only two in the dark hallway,

“If you keep doing this, I’m going to get upset.”

Perceiving his words as a threat, Erel’s heart dropped as a shiver went down her spine.