A few hours earlier…
Lucia's clone entered one of the shopping complex nearby and changed her attire along with getting her makeup done. Then she was headed towards the auction in a luxurious car which she called from her organisation.
After another 15 minutes, she reached the auction venue and began walking towards the reception. The receptionist, however, was a bit lost in her thoughts. She snapped her fingers in front of the receptionist and spoke,
"Hey! Check my card."
Then after her card was checked, the receptionist began calling the ladies to escort her, but Lucia denied that before immediately walking towards the lift. She saw the lift closing and dashed towards it, reaching the lift she pressed the button before standing in front of it with grace once again.
The lift's door opened, and seeing the person inside it sent a chill down her spine but she managed to hide it. That kid was there… her eyes looked at that kid and she spoke in an inaudible voice without making any lip movements,"System Check'' however noticing that nothing happened she once again spoke but this time she used a special skill of hers,"[Eye of Character]"
It was a skill that gave her a brief idea about what a person thinks about her and what she saw sent another chill down her spine as what she saw was…
[The person in front of you hates you to the core. Enough to kill you mercilessly.
The person in front of you loves you to the deepest of his desires. Enough to fight against the whole world for you.]
Both the sentences, even though they contradicted each other, were there. Lucia then moved beside him as he gave her space to stand beside him.
'What the fuck?!! What kind of…. What in the fuck's sake is that?' Her emotions were in turmoil, but she still kept herself composed. She wanted to scream… she wanted to run away… but she couldn't. If she did so, then she will be alarming him, which might go in a way she won't be able to control.
"Scarlet," she spoke without looking at him, as she couldn't bear to look at that super mysterious guy.
"Reaper," Reaper answered without turning as he waited for the lift to reach the top.
"Never seen you here before," Lucia spoke as she checked her watch, wondering how long she had to stand beside this guy. This was nerve racking for her…
"Never been here before," Reaper answered with a smile as he just stood there without making any gestures. Though the smile made Lucia think about a thousand meanings behind it…
"Not a man of many words I see," Lucia spoke as she finally took a sigh of relief when she saw the lift reaching the top.
"I just don't talk to people whom I don't know," Reaper spoke as the lift opened and Lucia proceeded to walk out first as she thought,'Liar, aren't you?'
Her fear vanished as she created some distance from Reaper. At this point, she finally remembered that she was a clone and, even if she vanishes or dies, nothing would happen to the plan. Though she would still prefer not to get involved with this guy… not in this place… not now.
"Enjoy your visit here. It's a nice place to relax and spend money, though the competition can be really intense if your pocket isn't deep enough," Lucia spoke as she smiled at him while checking the system once again but nothing really changed with the same message being displayed there.
[The person in front of you hates you to the core. Enough to kill you mercilessly.
The person in front of you loves you to the deepest of his desires. Enough to fight against the whole world for you.]
'I wonder if…' Lucia thought before sighing as she moved ahead, clearing her thoughts and moving towards her room.
After walking for another few minutes, she reached the room allotted to her.
-Click
She opens the door and then enters the room. The door closes behind her and all of a sudden a voice comes from the corner of the room, a man with a glass of wine is standing there.
Observing her, a glare enters Lucia's eyes as she speaks,"Demitri."
Demitri, the traitor of her clan, the one whom she had been searching for so long, was present in front of her eyes. She was given a mission by the clan leader, and that was to capture and bring back this backstabbing bastard to their clan.
"Calm down now. Will you Miss Scarlet? I am her for a deal. Won't you even listen to me? Is that how much you want to die?" Demitri spoke as he took out an artefact and Lucia's power started vanishing in a rapid state.
"Miraculous isn't it? I took it from the treasury as our parting gift before I escaped from that place," Demitri spoke, looking at Lucia's weakened expression. He looked at Lucia glaring at him before proceeding to move towards the door and slowly proceeding to open it.
Demitri simply smiled at her actions as he waited to see whatever she was doing.
After reaching closer to the door, Lucia tried opening the door but no matter how much she tried, she failed to open the door. Noticing the situation, she turned to Demitri, who was smiling at her with a wicked yet lustful smile.
"I have always wondered what your body would taste like… but that is for dessert, for now. How about we strike a deal right now?" Demitri spoke with a slight look of urgency on his face.
Lucia, however, glared at Demitri before speaking,"what is it that you want?" Her mind was frantically calculating ways of getting out of here. She wondered why the door wouldn't open and found a way to get through the system of the building to unlock the system, however…
"Hahaha… you can try to think as much as you can but that door was specially locked by two A-Grade Hacking System users, that too of quite a high level one. Even an S-grade Hacker would take more than an hour to break-
-Click
The door opens and a kid in black hair enters the room and looks at Demitri for a few moments before looking at Lucia as he says,"Fancy meeting you here again, Miss Scarlet. Is this room assigned to you as well?"
Lucia and Demitri looked at that kid, Reaper, with a dumbfounded face with their eyes wide open. Soon a few more people entered the room and looked at Lucia and Demitri as they spoke,"Miss Scarlet! Mr Pressa! Are you both okay?"
They were from the security team with a couple of management people for this auction. Finding the door locked, they were panicking, but luckily, before it could get too late, Reaper arrived.
He simply looked at the system blocking the door and, after applying a set of commands using his own mana, he easily broke through the lock, opening the door with ease.
The one who was most shocked by the whole ordeal was none other than Demitri, who knew how hard it was to get through the door.
-Ladies and Gentlemen, since all the guests have arrived for today's auction. If I have the permission from all of you, we would like to start the auction a bit before the predetermined time.
Hearing the announcement, everyone, including Reaper, made a bit of a confused expression. Normally the auction proceeds on its given time no matter what happens but…
'Did something happen?' Thought Lucia and Reaper as they looked at the man through the window making the announcement.
"We should sit," Reaper spoke, snapping out everyone from their thoughts. Even if something happened with the auction, his concerns were Demitri and, most importantly, Lucia.
'What is Demitri doing here? Did I create another ripple in the flow of time?' thought Reaper as he observed Demitri, who slowly proceeded to sit, catching a glimpse of Reaper's every other moment.
According to Zero's previous memory, Demitri should still be hiding on the highest floor of this building and not come down to the auction venue. Him coming down here to meet Lucia must mean something forced him to make a decision… but what could it be?
Reaper thought as he then looked at Lucia before proceeding to sit at a distance from both of them.
Reaper then looked at Lucia and his eyes narrowed as he saw her with her eyes wide open and concentrated in a certain direction. Following her eye gaze, Reaper looked down the window and found a familiar face which answered most of his questions.
A blonde man in his early 30s wearing a white suit was drinking wine as he sat on the corner table looking directly in this direction. Though it doesn't look like he knows that Zero was there.
'William.. So it was him, huh? Hmmm… now that I think about it, it was more than obvious that he could be involved in this after all his kingdom is in direct relation with Lucia's,' Reaper thought as he recalled the time when he saved William from the facility.
Maybe in the previous timeline, either William died, or he escaped later after some time without getting involved with Demitri or Lucia, perhaps.
'Looks like Lucia knows William, now isn't that interesting?' thought Reaper as he observed the fearful look which Lucia was giving to William.
-So Ladies and Gentlemen, the wait is almost over as here comes…
The auction started from there, but since I had nothing to buy; I kept looking at the artefacts one by one before looking at the people to see if there was anyone special among the people down there.
However, even after an hour, he still couldn't find even a single person other than William, Lucia and Demitri, whom he could label as special. He sighed before getting up and then proceeding to leave the room.
If he is not wrong, Lucia will too immediately follow behind him, given the decreased power level she had. While she wanted to capture Demitri, she didn't want to lose her life in the process.
And as Reaper thought, Lucia too stood up and proceeded to leave from there. However, Reaper then stopped and turned around as he looked at Demitri again, thinking,
'Well… he wasn't included in tonight's plan. Adding him will only complicate things more… Consider yourself lucky. Dimitri Revnosky. 7th Commander of the Vampires.'
Reaper then moved out of the room and he found William standing in front of him with a complicated look on his face.
Lucia too came out and, finding William standing there, she immediately moved towards him with a slightly worried face.
"Listen Sir William, I can explain…" however William ignored her as he walked past her and then reached Reaper.
"I knew it was you. At first I thought you looked familiar, but now that I look at you closely… it really is you. Can I ask what you are doing here?" William spoke with a nonchalant look on his face, which made Lucia confused as she tried to find the connection between William and Reaper.
"Sir William… do you know this kid?" Lucia spoke without losing her composure and then William nodded as he answered,"Yeah… we kind of had a life and death situation and this guy saved me."
As William was answering, his eyes were focused on Reaper. Reaper then looked at Lucia without hiding his killing intent anymore as he spoke without any emotions displayed on his face." I am here for her."
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