The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 172: Time to return

Lia, who could feel the emotions flowing through him, suddenly narrowed her eyes.

Her fingers immediately pinched his arm hard, causing Lucian to blink before turning toward her.

And Lia...

She wasn’t even looking at him anymore, glaring directly at Valentina, and the moment her gaze lowered to the Duchess’s chest...

’Does he like those bazookas of hers...?’

Her eyes instinctively drifted downward as she looked at her own breasts.

And despite them being well-shaped—maybe even slightly bigger than when she was still a human—she still couldn’t help feeling annoyed when comparing them.

"Tsk."

She sharply clicked her tongue.

Nobody around understood what had suddenly happened to her, and not wanting to waste any more time on idle chit-chat—

Lucian shifted his attention back toward Valentina.

"We want to go back to Earth."

As he spoke, his eyes briefly flickered toward Lia once again, who was inwardly cursing while casting hostile glances toward Valentina... or rather, her overwhelming assets.

Even the senior redhead noticed those repeated glances, causing a faint flicker of irritation to cross her face.

Lucian inwardly shook his head, having a rough idea of what was happening inside Lia’s head, though... now wasn’t the time to deal with another one of her jealous episodes.

"Kanna, go bring that stupid maid."

Valentina’s calm voice faintly echoed throughout the training ground.

Kanna, upon hearing the order...

She instantly went still. Her fingers twitched ever so slightly as her emotionless eyes unconsciously shifted toward Lucian.

For a brief second, she didn’t move, making Valentina’s brows furrow faintly, but then the maid immediately lowered her head.

"As you wish," her voice came out as quiet as a whisper.

The shadows beneath her feet immediately rippled.

Then—

"Aaaahhh...!"

A woman was violently thrown out from the pooling darkness.

The grey-haired maid crashed onto the floor, taking several heavy breaths, her eyes trembling with fear—the fear of being submerged in pitch darkness for over an hour.

The first thing she did after crawling out of that hellhole was—

"Fudge you, Kanna!"

She cursed angrily, glaring at the emotionless maid with a completely hostile expression.

Kanna didn’t react, as if the maid’s words didn’t even matter to her... which... they truly didn’t.

She merely nervously glanced toward Valentina, who raised an amused brow.

"Selthia."

The Duchess’s voice instantly made Selthia completely stiffen, and after another heavy breath, she slowly lifted her head.

Only then did she realise...

Everyone—every single person present in the chamber—was staring at her with various expressions, as if she were some animal on display inside a zoo.

And the moment she saw Valentina before her, Selthia immediately bolted upright before taking a few hurried steps back.

She quickly dusted off her maid uniform, trying to straighten her maid dress, before finally turning toward them with a bright smile.

"What is it, Lady Valentina?" she asked in a respectful voice, speaking like a perfect maid... as if she hadn’t just loudly cursed in front of all of them.

"Hm..."

Valentina was mildly curious about what had happened, but she didn’t dwell on it for long.

"My disciple and his mother want to return to Earth."

"Disciple...?"

Selthia’s brows furrowed slightly before her gaze shifted away from Valentina.

The very moment it landed on Lucian—

Her eyes widened.

"You...!" Her voice burst out in anger as she furiously pointed a trembling finger straight at him.

"Me?" Lucian muttered softly.

But...

The moment Selthia met those glowing crimson eyes staring at her with an unnatural intensity...

She froze.

Especially with that subtle yet threatening smile resting on his lips... almost as if he were thoroughly enjoying her expression right now.

He didn’t utter a single word, yet... the meaning behind that smile was strangely clear to her.

Don’t speak a word about what happened earlier.

"..."

Selthia quietly lowered her hand, simply standing there while she silently stared at him.

After a few seconds of silence...

"I’ll make the portal whenever you want."

She could only relent in the end, letting out a frustrated sigh, deciding that staying quiet was far better than saying anything.

The others shifted their gaze among Kanna, Selthia, and Lucian, unable to understand exactly what was going on.

From the way Selthia was behaving...

It looked like Lucian had already met the grey-haired maid somewhere... and had already done something to make her hate him.

Vivienne didn’t exactly feel too surprised, since to her... Lucian had already become someone capable of making others cough blood with just his words alone.

Meanwhile—

"Portal...?" Lucian muttered quietly, confusion flashing through his crimson eyes.

He looked toward the grey-haired maid, wearing a familiar black-and-white maid uniform, though it was now slightly wrinkled and crumpled after spending over an hour inside Kanna’s shadows.

And in the next instant...

His vision shifted.

[Analysing...]

[Analysis Complete.]

A large screen instantly materialised before his eyes, and just to be safe...

He also looked into Kanna’s status at the same time.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name – Selthia Vaelaris

Race – Human

Rank – B

Titles – Spatial Prodigy

Bloodline – Vaelaris Bloodline

Affinity – Space

Talent – SSS

[Attributes]

Strength: C

Agility: C-

Endurance: D

Charisma: A+

[Evaluation — A cheeky human who doesn’t care much about anyone’s life other than her own. Loves causing chaos while watching everything unfold from the sidelines. Also, a prodigy born with a natural understanding of space itself. While physically unremarkable, her extraordinary talent more than compensates for what she lacks.]

[Affection: 7% (Compulsive Curiosity)]

— — —

Lucian raised a slightly surprised brow.

Because the maid had a Spatial Affinity.

And even though he had no idea how rare or amazing such an affinity truly was... he was almost sure it was unique.

Then there was also the title.

Spatial Prodigy.

Which most likely meant her control over spatial abilities surpassed nearly everyone else possessing the same affinity... assuming there even were others.

The fact that she was a human didn’t surprise him very much, because just by her presence alone, he could distinguish her from the vampires.

Without wasting another moment, his gaze shifted toward Kanna—or rather, toward the screen floating before her.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name – Kanna Kurokawa

Race – Vampire(Noble)

Rank – A

Titles – The Silent Maid, Shadow of House Scarlett

Bloodline – Umbral Scarlett Bloodline

Affinity – Shadow

Talent – SS

[Attributes]

Strength: B

Agility: A+

Endurance: A

Charisma: S

[Evaluation — A maid who speaks little and prefers silence over idle conversation. Having served the Scarlett Duchy since childhood, her loyalty has never once wavered. Although her face remains expressionless, countless thoughts race through her mind every passing second.]

[Affection: 12%... 13% (Mild Interest)]

— — —

’As expected... I guess?’ That was the only thing he could think of, since her status was almost exactly as he had expected.

It had really taken him this long to look through her status window—though he still didn’t really like looking through other people’s information much.

Even though he knew bearing that thought was absolutely stupid, especially while possessing such an overpowered skill like Analysis.

...or maybe he should call it True Analysis now.

He smiled inwardly after reading the last line of her evaluation, especially the tiny increase in her affection.

It took him barely a few seconds to read through both of their status windows while simultaneously processing all those thoughts.

None of the women noticed what he was doing...

Except for one person.

"You really don’t listen, do you?"

Valentina’s voice echoed, carrying a hint of mild exasperation as she saw his eyes subtly moving through the empty space...

Almost as though he were reading something hovering before the two maids’ faces.

The changes in his eyes were almost minute, nearly unnoticeable.

But...

Not for her.

Lucian didn’t appear particularly surprised that she had caught him.

Instead... he casually glanced at both Status Windows one last time before dismissing them from his vision.

"You told me not to use it on you.

You didn’t say anything about everyone else."

Lucian finally turned toward Valentina and merely shrugged his shoulders, making her golden eyes narrow faintly.

But as he had said, he hadn’t used his Analysis directly on her...

So she couldn’t really complain.

"...Whatever."

She shrugged as well.

She genuinely didn’t care whether he looked through someone else’s information, nor was it like he could discover someone’s greatest weakness simply by reading a few lines on their Status Window.

All the women present within the training room frowned in confusion.

None of them understood what the master and disciple were talking about, and Vivienne, especially, was growing more and more irritated by it.

Kanna, for some reason, felt like something wrong had just happened to her, though she didn’t really know what.

Meanwhile, Selthia blinked, her eyes moving between the two of them in complete disbelief.

She still couldn’t understand how exactly this man had managed to speak to the Duchess with such ridiculous casualness... and somehow remain alive.

"Anyways..." Valentina spoke once more.

"You can leave whenever you want."

Lucian nodded, and a small yet unmistakably excited smile slowly spread across his lips.

It was finally time.

Time to return.

Back to Earth.

Back... to their home.