Orion was stunned to his core upon hearing Carl's revelation. He had been listening to the entire conversation from the beginning.
Initially, he wasn't interested and had planned to leave, but Ethan's question about why Carl had called them to the Magus Kingdom caught his attention.
Now that he had heard everything, Orion was completely shocked.
They were here for his family, and whatever reason they had for coming was somehow tied to the survival of Carl's family.
'They mentioned my family is cursed too. What does that mean? Is it similar to Carl's and the Elven Family's curse? And how does my family's curse relate to the survival of Carl's family?'
Orion was overwhelmed with questions, none of which he had answers to.
'Damn, this is a huge problem!'
He understood the seriousness of the matter. The Dungeon Management Association was a behemoth that stood at universal level of power and only answered to the Celestial Court. With that much power, they could do anything here and nobody would stop them—not even the Magus Emperor could do anything.
Only one man in the Magus Kingdom could stand against them and that was the sword sage, but he doubted the sword sage would involve himself in his family situation.
'If only I were his student...'
Orion forcefully dispelled that thought and pondered some countermeasures and as he did, a thought came to his mind.
'Should I kill them right here and now?'
He really liked the idea of killing them. He thought that if he killed them here, then their plan of coming to his family would surely be interrupted but as he thought deeply about this, he shook his head.
'If I killed them here, then only one person would be blamed for their deaths and that would be Big Sister.'
He believed that in this dungeon, only his sister's strength was to the point that she could kill them and the whole Magus Kingdom knew about her strength so the suspicion of killing those three would definitely fall upon her and that would make the matter even worse.
Although he couldn't gauge his sister's strength, he believed she should be invincible in the platinum rank with her time-related talent, so he didn't doubt that she could kill them if she wanted to.
But that was the main problem. If even he knew his sister's strength, then what about the whole Magus Kingdom? They surely knew about this too. So, killing them would do them no good; instead, it would only bring disaster to his family.
Carl didn't say anything, for there wasn't a need to. The matter was clear: if the Darkwood family lost their wood, it meant a calamity for them and if Carl's family's Devil Flame was extinguished, then it would be them who would face the extinction.
It was a matter of life and death—a matter of survival for each family.
***
On the other side, Orion's face became as dark as black. He had listened to everything and understood even more. They indeed hadn't come here with good intentions and their coming to his family meant only one thing for his family and that was—doom.
'Damn, what should I do?'
As he pondered hard about this matter, a solution soon came to his mind.
It was the same solution—killing them. But the way he was going to kill them would be different. It wouldn't involve his sister for suspicion of killing them whatsoever. It was a great plan and he only hoped that it would give their family some time to prepare.
Orion definitely didn't believe that they would never come if he killed Carl and the others here—no, what he was doing was simply delaying the inevitable. They would come to his family sooner or later and nobody could stop them from doing so.
As he pondered his plan, his eyes suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure approaching Carl's group, and he would lie if he said he wasn't surprised to see that figure here.
'What is she doing here?'
The one in question wasn't his sister but the masked girl Orion had last seen in Aethelgard City.
Although he was surprised to see her, the way she was going made Orion frown. She was heading straight towards Carl's group and from the expression on her face, he could tell it wasn't for anything good.
Orion really didn't want to have anything to do with her but since they were together in the Aethelgard City and had gone through so much there, he couldn't just stand here and let her do stupid things like go against Carl and his friends alone.
Thinking of that, he sighed deeply and moved to a corner where neither Carl's group nor the masked girl could see him. Upon arriving here, he quickly came out of his dimension and shouted as loud as he could to her.
"Hey, you—the masked girl—we met again! What a surprise."
The masked girl was also surprised to hear that familiar voice and turned her head to the side when she noticed a young man she had seen not too long ago was heading towards her.
"How have you been?" Orion could see the indication from her eyes and understood she wanted him to leave but he acted like he didn't see that at all.