Walking through the stone, the metallic scent of blood continued to fill the nostrils of Emily, Izzy, Lizzy, and Grace.
A pair of gory remains greeted them as they walked forward, a testament to what they would find if they ventured further.
Izzy saw the corpse of the woman she had called out to earlier, her face frozen in a terrified scream.
However, even seeing this sight, none of the girls had upset stomachs. If Ryan were here, he would think it was a testament to this world's condition that four young women wouldn't even blink at a rotting body.
However, not everyone had full poker faces. Grace started to rush forward, ignoring the bloody scene, to look for her mother.
"Wait," said Lizzy. "If that woman is who I think she is, we're dead if we get in her way."
Grace looked back with an angry expression before realizing what Izzy meant and stopping short. She stood still for another moment until she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, frustrated at her lack of power.
Finally, after two more deep breaths, Grace turned around without saying anything else and returned to the others.
Lizzy let out a sigh of relief at having stopped the girl from acting on impulse.
But this wasn't something to be relieved about or concerned over now.
"What can we do?" Grace asked, turning to Lizzy. "And who do you think Ino really is?"
Lizzy shook her head slightly, then began walking forward. "Probably the same person who poisoned you, the grand empress's apprentice, Nadeko."
Emily, Izzy, and Grace opened their mouths as they stared wide-eyed at Lizzy as she continued toward the village.
===
Ryan woke up with a jolt, coughing foul-tasting liquid pooling from his throat. Sitting up, Ryan felt... "I feel amazing," Ryan muttered, feeling energy coursing through his body.
Alongside the energy, Ryan noticed that he could sense his bloodline for the first time since obtaining it.
After only thinking about activating it for a millisecond, his bloodline roared to life. He could sense and control everything within a 50m (~164ft) after falling into an out-of-body state.
"What an upgrade!" Ryan said, coming out of his state of insensibility. 'Not only has the upgrade given me more range, but I can also now use energy.'
Activating his bloodline again, he instantly fell unmoving and felt the space around him.
This was his space. This was his domain. He was the Overlord here.
[Activating Overlord's Reign]
A thick aura spread out in the 50m range, which was thankfully entirely Ryan's apartment. Ryan felt that if he willed it, any matter within this space would be disintegrated instantly.
Unfortunately, only two seconds after activating this hidden combination, Ryan fell unconscious as blackness again claimed him.
Waking up only a few minutes later, Ryan felt drained for the first time since coming to Ravier.
He felt his body had been a grape, but now he was a raisin, sucked dry of all the good juices inside him.
"And it wasn't even a girl that did it," Ryan muttered.
Having not noticed the filth he was covered in before, having been too caught up in his newfound strength, Ryan slugged out of bed and headed to the shower, trying not to gag.
'This feels like Deja vu,' Ryan thought, remembering the situation upgrading to F-Rank.
Getting in the shower, Ryan remembered he had jacked off and thought about Aliza but brushed aside the notion of doing so again.
'An Overlord does not break.'
Mentality was key, and masturbating to a dead girl wasn't something Ryan considered mentally sound.
Cleaning himself off without jacking himself off, Ryan exited the shower, clean as a baby's butt.
'Baby… I still can't believe I'm going to be a father,' Ryan thought, shaking his head.
Checking the time on his bracelet, Ryan quickly exited his dorm room, looking around.
'Thank god she's here.'
"Brooke, what time is the dinner with The Duchess?" Ryan asked, seeing his muscular maid slouching against the wall.
Jolting at Ryan's voice, Brooke turned and had to clench her fists from beating the man right then and there.
"What took you so long?" Brooke asked. "I've been waiting here all day. You could have at least let me inside."
"I didn't hear my name," Ryan said, frowning.
Brooke's forehead vein throbbed and turned dark purple as she tried to hold in her anger. "D. . . Daddy," Brooke said, managing to say it after sharp inhales of air.
"Better," Ryan said. "Now answer my question."
Defeated, Brooke turned her back on Ryan and said, "It starts in five minutes inside a campus restaurant known as 'Le Booty'."
Ryan twitched his eyebrow at the name but sped off while opening his map.
'For the booty, I come. To the booty, I go.'
===
The Duchess waited inside Le Booty with a frown on her face. She had expected Ryan to be eager to receive his egg back, but after waiting for thirty minutes, Ryan still hadn't shown up.
'He's not going to wait until the start time, is he?' She thought, unnerved at how a man could keep her waiting.
'At the same time…' Feeling a familiar tingle between her legs, she fantasized about Ryan bursting into the private booth and taking her then and there.
Her fantasies continued while she thought of Ryan making her moan, forcing all the restaurant patrons to hear her getting thrust while on top of the table.
"Fuck, please take me, Ryan," she moaned as she reached a hand towards her wettening panties.
*Cough*
Jerking, the Duchess removed her hand from her slut hole and looked to see the source of the noise.
"Rya-" cutting herself off mid-sentence, the Duchess didn't see Ryan standing in the doorway as she expected; instead, she saw two female maids outfitted with emblems that let her know they were direct subordinates of the Frost General.
The Duchess furrowed her brow and slowly rose from her seat. "What do two subordinates of the Frost General want with me?"
"Please come with us," one of the maids said, stepping forward. "The Frost General will see you now."
And before the Duchess could protest, she was teleported away.
Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.co(m) for the b𝘦st novel reading experience