Dante and Ruby stared quietly at the visitors. For a few seconds, none of them said a word.

While Dante and Ruby had already scanned the strangers, the strangers, on the other hand, struggled to see Dante and Ruby.

The shadow formation was still active. They only saw a shadow wall with a vague outline of two people in front of them.

Finally, the man shattered the silence and said in a respectful tone: "Hello, my friends. Sorry for interrupting you, but I have a small business to do with the one who lives here."

'Business?' Dante looked at the man in confusion.

He didn't have any business to do with anyone other than Ruby. So either they were related to Storm of Shadows or their words had a different meaning.

Dante finally answered the man: "I'm the one who lives here, but I don't think that I know you. Are you sure you're in the right place?"

The man nodded: "You don't know me, but I have to confirm something with you quickly. If everything goes smoothly, I'll leave you and go on my way."

As he said that, he suddenly brought his hand up to the shadow barrier and tapped it with a smile: "Won't you let us in? I promise it won't take more than a few seconds."

Dante didn't hesitate to shake his head: "You think I'm a fool to let you in before knowing your purpose?"

"Hmm, you're right." The man gave Dante a nod: "But I really can't leave now before confirming my suspicions. So… what about this?"

Suddenly, the man lifted the fox spirit off the woman's shoulder and placed it on the ground. Then, the man and the woman took many steps backward.

"All we want you to do is take a step forward for a brief second." The woman explained: "We're now far away. A small spirit can't hurt you, right?"

"Do you know how suspicious you sound right now?" Dante looked at the fox with a frown: "I won't leave."

At his words, the unknown man's face suddenly twisted into an ugly expression. He gritted his teeth so hard that the sound could be heard.

"We're only asking you to stand in front of it for a fucking second!" The man roared as the woman tried to calm him: "Is it so hard for your tiny brain to understand?!!"

Instead of listening to him, Dante and Ruby took a step backward.

'What the hell is wrong with this guy?' Dante wondered internally.

They came out of nowhere, asked for a strange request, and one of them was now angry because Dante didn't listen.

Seriously, was he missing a few screws?

Ryan and the other mercenary exchanged glances with hesitation. They felt like it was better to stay away from these strangers, but they couldn't enter the treehouse either.

"We have to protect the carriage at least." Ryan whispered to the other mercenary. He nodded to him and quietly walked toward the carriage.

After the brown-haired woman, Clara, calmed the man, she bowed toward Dante and explained: "Sorry for that, my husband, Adrian, has a few problems with his temper due to one of his traits. As for our purpose of coming here, it's quite simple."

Clara straightened her back while patting Adrian's shoulder and continued: "Adrian and I are looking for a person who killed someone close to us. We found the… corpse, and this spirit was able to detect the heat signature of the killer."

"Heat signature?" Dante tilted his head.

Clara nodded and pointed at the fox: "Every being has a special heat signature. We followed it with the help of my spirit and it led us here. If you don't mind, we just want to see if it's really you or you simply have something that has recently made contact with the killer."

'That's… a problem.' Dante sweated heavily.

This was either a trap or a genuine attempt to find someone.

The problem was… Dante could truly be the killer!

'Unless it's Ruby, there is no way it's a mistake.'

Dante didn't take anything that made contact with other people recently. The only one he truly made contact with was Ruby.

Additionally, Dante knew that he had killed quite many people. He might truly be the one they were looking for.

'But I can't avoid them.' Dante gritted his teeth secretly: 'They are likely at the peak of Rank 2. If they intend to attack me, the shadow formation won't save me for long.'

'By then, I'll have to either fight with all I can and expose myself or run…'

Dante looked at the treehouse. He had lived in it for only a few weeks—would he leave it this fast?

'Damn you all!'

Dante took a deep breath and stepped forward, his body leaving the shadow formation.

Simultaneously, he enhanced his entire body with mana in case it was a trap.

At that exact time, the fox's eyes widened slightly before it disappeared and returned to Clara's shoulder.

Dante quietly returned to the shadow formation. He exchanged glances with Ruby—who took a bit too many steps down the stairs—before he asked nervously: "So… is that enough?"

Clara closed her eyes, seemingly communicating with the spirit. A moment later, she opened them and looked at Adrian—she gave him a nod.

Adrian sighed and brought a strange paper tube from his pocket into his mouth. Next, a sparkle from the tip of his fingers ignited the end of the tube.

As the man took a breath, Dante narrowed his eyes: 'Is this a cigarette? It looks similar, but the smoke is blue for some reason.'

A moment later, the man moved his hand to his neck and brought a necklace out, taking a few steps forward.

With a press of his finger, the necklace opened up, revealing a small picture inside.

Dante looked at the necklace in confusion, but the next second, everything started to make sense.

Thump! Thump!

It was a picture drawn by hand, showing a family of three.

The father had an orange and milky white skin. His eyes were closed and he happily carried his son on his shoulder.

The son looked like Adrian, who was now standing before Dante. He had a pair of green eyes, orange hair similar to the father, and the same skin tone.

Next to them stood the mother.

She had a bronze skin tone and short red hair. Her body was muscular and refined, with a pair of green eyes that were inherited by the son.

In this picture, she looked like a happy mother with her sweet family.

But seeing her disgusting face brought only bad memories back to Dante.

"You recognize her, right? My mother..." Adrian asked calmly: "Did you kill her?"

"Well…" Dante sighed, his face draining of all emotions.

Simultaneously, Ruby gave a quick glance to the mercenaries. They immediately understood and went to the carriage, moving it away. Next, Ruby herself ran down the stairs.

Under the moonlight, Clara and her spirit stood next to Adrian while waiting for Dante's answer.

Finally, Dante whispered: "Let's see…"

Looking at the fingers of his hand, Dante started counting while remembering the past: "First, she split my head in half."

Adrian and Clara frowned, but Dante ignored them and raised his fingers one by one.

"Second, she severed both of my legs before cutting my neck with a flaming axe."

"Third, she cut my arm and split my fucking head again."

"Fourth, she pierced my chest."

Shaking his head, he added: "There were a few other times, and although she wasn't the one who did the final blow, she and her greed were the cause of all my suffering back then…"

"Tell me, Adrian." Dante's face twisted in anger: "If all that isn't enough to justify killing her, then what will be?!"

Adrian didn't respond immediately. He brought his necklace back around his neck.

Although he looked calm, Dante noticed hot steam coming out of Adrian's body.

Finally, Adrian gritted his teeth and cut the cigarette in half: "You GODDAMN SICK BASTARD!!"

Adrian's body glowed with intense heat, and the next moment… he snapped his fingers.

BOOM!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.