[BL] Transmigrated as the Villain CEO's Mermaid Secretary

Chapter 444: Sarah’s Concerns

Ethan had no spare circlet with him. And that one was busy keeping Neville exactly where Ethan needed him to be.

So Lilianna would inevitably wake up.

The question was when, and the answer he needed was not for at least twenty more minutes.

Ethan produced the vial, but he didn’t know if it would still be effective for that long. Given that this wasn’t the first time Lilianna was given the same medication in one day with short time intervals.

The vial was small and stoppered with a tiny dab of organic wax. The contents this time had a faintly luminous green that swirled against the glass.

It had a stabilizer compound with it that would help the host buy some time to fight against the aggressive invasion of a zerg in their neural system.

Ethan twisted off the cap.

He bent over Lilianna and braced his thumb against her chin. Her jaw was clenched hard. He pressed at the soft place just behind the angle of the jaw, the way nurses had been doing to noncompliant patients for two thousand years, and her mouth fell open by degrees. The smell of her wrong pheromone hit him full in the face.

He tipped the vial.

A bead of green liquid dropped onto her gasping mouth. Then another. Then a third. He counted and then stopped.

"It won’t save her," Ethan muttered while holding Lilianna with disgust. "It will make her quieter for a while."

For an awful second, nothing happened.

Then Lilianna’s whole body relaxed, and her hand stopped spasming.

Ethan leaned on the lip of the pod and breathed for a moment.

His hands were shaking again.

Somewhere, deep inside him, a small voice was heard: And what, exactly, did we do? What, exactly, is the line we are not supposed to cross?

He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. He was about to tuck the vial back into his jacket when a scream was heard.

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

○●○●

Sarah turned the plasma pistol over in her hands, feeling the weight settle into her palm. It was heavier than she remembered. The grip molded to her fingers, recognizing her biometric signature, and a tiny green light flickered to life along the barrel.

"Don’t squeeze the trigger like you’re milking a cow, Sarah," Ciel said dryly as he slung a rifle over his shoulder.

It was comically unfit for Ciel’s height, and Sarah almost burst out laughing right there and then.

"P-pffftt. W-what was that?" Sarah said, holding back her laugh.

"A rifle that could be loaded with a plasma cartridge." Ciel rolled his eyes as he said that. Then he reached for Sarah’s hands and continued, "Two-finger grip, soft pull. Let the gun do its work."

"R-right." Sarah swallowed, a little embarrassed.

At the corner of her eyes, she noticed something. The holographic screen in the living room flickered with multiple feeds. Now, only Neville’s mecha was on-screen, standing oddly still in the waiting room.

His character was just... frozen there, motionless.

Then his voice came through the speakers, tinged with confusion.

"—Miss Lilianna? Hey, where’d you go? Don’t tell me you rage-quit because I clipped your wing. That was a fair shot."

Sarah blinked, then she heard Neville’s voice again, slightly more annoyed.

"Did she get disconnected? Is that even possible? If so, why isn’t she respawning? Did the round end? And why can’t I— Hey, the menu won’t open. Hello? Anybody there?"

A small frown creased Sarah’s forehead. She looked over at Bryan, who was crouched behind the long sofa.

He was helping Pete and Julius convert a pulse rifle to load a plasma cartridge. They needed a lot of spares because of the long cool-down between each shot.

Bryan caught her glance and arched a brow.

"What’s wrong?" he asked.

"Lily seemed to have logged out," Sarah said, her voice slightly higher than intended. "It seemed that they were in the middle of the match, and she just—poof, gone. I heard Neville say that the menu won’t open for him."

Bryan pursed his lips, brows furrowed.

"Lilianna doesn’t quit, just quit. Most definitely not from a match against Neville."

That was true.

Sarah had seen the way her sister had been gearing up all evening, sharpening her smile every time she thought of beating Neville in front of everyone.

It took a while for her to realize that, but that also meant that this was really a weird situation.

"That’s what I’m saying."

Sarah’s pistol hand trembled slightly, worried. But the rest of the room was a chaotic blur; no one was paying attention to her.

Julius began issuing orders, and Pete began to seal the doors that led to the rooftop garden.

The holographic screen began to cycle through alarming exterior camera feeds. It finally showed them the situation outside.

Sarah was angry when she saw how terrible their situation really was and why they weren’t informed in the first place. But given that the people in here were experienced, she was in no place to question their decisions.

However, that didn’t mean that they got to disregard the situation in the simulation room just because it was isolated, closed, and ’safe’ in their opinion.

Sarah looked at the mecha simulation room’s door. It looked tightly closed.

Surely, she could just sneak a peek inside to check without alerting the alarms inside the room, right?

"I’ll just check on her," Sarah said, more to herself than anyone. "It’ll just take a second."

"Sarah—" Bryan tried to stop her, but she was already moving fast.

She weaved past Thiago, who was assembling a portable medkit they found on the dining table.

The soft instrumental music was still playing through the estate’s speaker system, trying to calm their senses. Meanwhile, the outside was already in chaos.

The contrast was nauseating.

Sarah reached the mecha simulation room’s door. Pressed her palm to the biometric panel.

Click.

The door slid open with a hiss—

—and Sarah’s brain refused to process what she was seeing.

A man, who wasn’t supposed to be there, stood in the middle of the room.

He was wearing a tactical suit and a mask covering his face. It hid everything from the bridge of his nose up.

And he had Lilianna in his arms.