Chapter 40 Fate

At first, Melvin was unable to hear, let alone see the robed men because he was focused on his father, who was staring weirdly at him, trying to indicate something by gesturing towards the side.

There seemed to be something wrong, which he had missed out on earlier. Only after he had calmed down from his first desperate attempts to make his father help Sabrina, who was very important to him, did he look towards his left side.

It was only then that he saw the robed men, who were quietly speaking with each other, and turned to look at Melvin once they had come to a consensus.

Both of them looked at Melvin and their eyes seemed to be able to stare into the depths of his soul, and he instinctively took a step back.

Yet, just a moment later one of the two robed men said in a loud, and dominant voice that left no room for interpretation.

"Where is this friend of yours, who you presume to have the Myset Hoeart disease? Bring us to her!"

Mana amplified his voice, and there was something else in it that caused Melvin to feel as if his entire body was petrified.

He was unable to move, and he felt short of breath as if his lungs were slowly being sealed. It was just a moment later that he felt as if his senses were slowly being sealed too as his sight began to blur.

But all of this was less shocking than what he was witnessing at the moment. His father was doing something he had never seen- Serl Tyr, his mighty father, was acting submissive.

"Please, my esteemed guests, don't scare my son. I have pampered him too much. He will lead you to the girl you are searching for in a minute."

Bowing to the robed men, Serl Tyr tried to appease them and avoid problems before they could even occur.

Afterward, he turned towards Melvin, who was finally able to breathe once again. He was holding his neck with wide eyes only to look towards his father in shock.

As he took deep breaths, he stared at his father in confusion, unsure of what was going on, which made his father sigh deeply as he mumbled.

"I'm sorry Melvin...but you shouldn't have stormed inside my office, let alone blurting things out without assessing if anyone can listen to you… This mistake is on you...you should start praying for the best outcome…and even that is not something I would wish for."

Melvin was not able to understand a word his father said, even less who the hell the robed men were to be able to do order around him and his father, who was just bowing, apologizing, and trying to prevent the situation from escalating, without actively doing anything.

He stared at the robed men for a moment, and it was only when they began to move, that he snapped out of his thoughts.

Even though they were approaching him, their feet made no noise that astonished him.

He could only look straight into the eyes of the silent-robed man that stared straight passed him, giving Melvin the chills as he saw something that was somewhat familiar, yet completely different from Nial's eyes.

'His eyes...are without any life...or are they?'

**

While Melvin was forced to lead the robed men towards the Orin family's house and was unable to do anything against it because he feared that they would hurt his family, he could only desperately pray that they wouldn't do anything bad to Sabrina, let alone her parents, or Nial.

Thinking about Nial, he hoped that he was not home, because he knew that his friend would never accept if something were to happen to Sabrina, but in fact, Melvin was fully aware that he wouldn't accept it either.

Thus, he began to think of a solution to find a way out of the chaotic situation he had created, which made him curse himself countless times.

However, there was nothing he could do, and his entire body tensed the moment he knocked on the Orin family's door, and Maline opened it.

Tears trickled down his cheeks as he mumbled to himself.

"I'm such a brainless idiot…"

While he was lamenting himself, it only took one look at the robed men behind him for Melvin to realize that the robed men were interested in Sabrina, and not in terms of experimenting with or helping her.

Though he knew they had some secret agenda, he couldn't comprehend it even with his profound knowledge that seemed to be lacking more than he had expected.

As such, rather than being apologetic to Sabrina or anyone else, Melvin felt that the person, who would suffer the most owing to his actions, would be Nial!

That was just his gut feeling, but if that was correct, nothing would happen to Nial's parents and his sister. On the contrary, they were to be blessed by the mistake Melvin had done, while Melvin would bear the misfortune, betrayals, and horrible encounters with people and beings that could tear him apart with a snap of their fingers.

However, that was everyone's undisclosed fate, and Melvin knew that he was just trying to make himself feel better after mindlessly barging into his father's office and blurting out all kinds of things, without taking a single glance through the office.

If his gut feeling was telling the truth, or if it was just wishful thinking, only the future could tell, and Melvin was unsure whether to wish his gut feeling was true or not.

In either case, somebody he cared for would suffer, be it Nial, or the rest of his family.

Because of that, tears continued to trickle down his cheeks as the robed man passed by Melvin the moment the blind man replied,

"I can sense her. She is upstairs. Talk to the parents, I'll take a look!"

The talkative robed man nodded his head without saying anything in response.

Instead, he took a unique-looking emblem out of his spatial ring that had the government's insignia on it.

Seeing the emblem, Maline was confused, but seeing the shock in the eyes of the crying Melvin, it had to be something huge.

If she knew what Melvin was just thinking, she wouldn't be as calm as she was right now.

'Is that the Emblem of the Eclipse A-... No, that would make no sense, why would they be here… Or are they..?'

As realization struck Melvin, he instinctively turned his head towards his father, who had accompanied the small group with a neutral expression.

Serl Tyr was trying hard to maintain a poker face as he saw that his son was slowly comprehending the severity of his seemingly small mistake.

Entering the house after Maline asked them to make themselves comfortable, the blind man ignored her and Miles, who had just entered the house through the backyard. He simply found his way towards the stairs that led to the second floor and climbed up the stairs.

His mana fluctuations enveloped the entire house, preventing anyone from doing anything against the blind man, even if Miles wanted to obstruct the blind man.

Having conquered the permanent slime dungeon, he was still fully armed, and ready to fight with his life on the line if it was necessary to protect his daughter.

Yet, a single move towards the blind man was enough to make the mana around him react. It was almost as if an invisible wall had suddenly erected every single time Miles attempted to approach the blind man, or the stairs he was slowly ascending.

At that moment, he roared out and brandished the longsword at the invisible wall of compressed mana, only for it to shatter into dozens of pieces upon impact.

This caused Miles' eyes to widen just before the mana around him began to move, chaining him up. His legs and arms were suddenly tightly enveloped by mana, and a moment later Miles slumped on the ground, as no sound escaped his mouth that had been sealed.

It was just a second later that the talkative robed man stood in front of him, sighing deeply.

"Why are you guys always so reckless? It's not like you could approach him, even if he were to be asleep. Just keep quiet, and let us do our work!"

Previously, the talkative man's voice had sounded joyous without a trace of annoyance or frustration.

However, right now, he was staring down at Miles in anger, barely holding back from letting the situation turn more chaotic than it already was.

"Pray that your daughter has the Myset Hoeart, otherwise, you will see hell from up close!"

He said this in a low voice that was barely loud enough for Miles to hear before he turned around, ignoring the shivering man as he turned his attention to Maline.

"Please, Mrs. Orin, you must be confused. Sit down, and let me explain the situation to you!"

As if on cue, Maline nodded her head and walked towards the living room.

She didn't even realize that she had seated herself on the couch, listening to what was going on in a daze.

Averting her attention from the talkative man, who was mumbling something about a blessing in disguise, a great opportunity, and healing Sabrine, Maline looked at Melvin in confusion.

Yet, seeing that he was as confused as her about everything that was just happening, he could only stand stiffly.

It looked like he was going to remember this day as the day he had received one shock after another when he saw that the blind man had returned with Sabrina's body that was levitating right next to him, following the blind man's steps.

This caused Maline's eyes to widen and she was about to jump up and rush to her daughter, only to hear the talkative man's voice issuing a seemingly simple command, "Stay seated!"

After that, she was barely able to move her head, but that was already everything.

Looking at her daughter, Maline was not sure how to feel as conflicting emotions surged up within her.

On one hand, the talkative man was saying something about healing her, but the entire situation made her doubt their true intentions!

Thus, she wanted to say something, and do something in order to help her daughter, however, in the end, she was powerless, just like her husband.

Unable to move, she could only listen to the discussion of the two robed men that lasted for less than a minute.

"She is already in the late stage, and about to die due to mana scarcity. It looks like her advance to the second stage was postponed due to the medicine they used, but with the mana scarcity around Katu, this saved her from dying." The blind man said nonchalantly.

"So..she really is the second one of her kind…and we found her? That's great. Fortunately, we took this boring mission. You have truly great insights."

The talkative man's voice sounded overjoyed, almost as if he had just found a treasure, and while looking at Sabrina, his eyes were gleaming, indicating that he was truly thinking that the little girl was an unpolished diamond!

"Yes, she has the Myset Hoeart, we'll leave immediately. Returning to Liondra is a must, otherwise, she won't be able to absorb enough mana…if that's not already too late!"

"What will we do about them?" The talkative suddenly man enquired, pointing at Maline and Miles before moving his finger towards Melvin and his father, Serl Tyr, and added, "Should we kill them?"

At that moment, the robed man's voice turned ice-cold, and not a single trace of mercy could be heard in his voice. It made their faces drain of all color as Sabrina's parents and the father-son pair of the Tyr family stiffened while staring at the robed men in shock.

Even Serl Tyr was not sure what would happen, knowing that these two men in front of them were allowed to do everything as long as it was deemed necessary by them.

As such, goosebumps spread over his entire body, only for the blind man to say.

"Don't go overboard, Kril. If we kill her parents, what do you think will happen? She will obviously start hating us. That's unnecessary. Just take them with us."

He then turned his attention to the father-son duo and continued, "As for the Tyr family, they should know what happens if someone dares to go against us, you recall the Desyx family, right?"

Throwing a warning at them, the talkative man smiled lightly as if it was a good memory, only to see a glint of murderous intent in his eyes that quickly vanished as he regained his senses.

"Alright, we'll take the parents with us, and the Tyr family shall keep their mouth shut, otherwise, I will visit you at night, and blood will be spilled…starting with the youngest member of your family!"

Shivering at his words, Melvin and Serl remained to keep silent, only for Maline to wail in pain as she squealed out two words.

"My son…!"

Halting in his tracks, the blind man turned to face Maline, who had forced herself to speak, worrying about what would happen to Nial, if they were to disappear suddenly.

Having visualized the picture of the family of four, the blind man knew that the Orin family's son was blind, and thus, faced the same crippling disability as himself.

Yet, instead of showing any mercy, his entire body seemed to release the intent to kill as he added in a cold voice,

"You can also decide to stay here, but then, your son will find nothing but a lifeless corpse!"

After hurling another threat at the already scared family, the blind man took out the same crystal he had been holding earlier when they were still in the Tyr family's mansion.

He then inserted some mana into the crystal, post which the holographic image of a middle-aged woman appeared.

"What is it now, Old Dreg?" the middle-aged woman asked, annoyed by the sudden call, only to see the surrounding of the place the blind man was in.

Yet, she was not even astonished, which only changed when Old Dreg, the blind man, said a few words.

"We found someone with the Myset Hoeart. We'll come back to Liondra!"

Saying so, he hung up, before turning to Miles and Maline, who had been freed of their shackles, and ordered them.

"Now, please pack your stuff and follow me, or we will be forced to kill everyone in this room!"

Turning to the Tyrs he just told them to leave, which Serl did, only to notice that Melvin was still frozen in place.

Tightly grasping his son's arm, he dragged Melvin with him, who could only mumble.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I didn't know…" Maline heard this, just before she moved away from the couch.

Yet, instead of being enraged, or feeling betrayed, she forced herself to smile as she asked him a favor.

"I know you just wanted to do the best…please take care of Nial…"

After that, Melvin was forced outside the room, and it was only a few minutes later that everything was over…

Meanwhile, Nial was oblivious to anything that had just happened, and that he would find an empty home, whose only living beings were the slimes inside the dungeon in the backyard!