Eldritch Horror Theatre

This voice was undeniably familiar.

So much so that the instant Winona registered it, she lashed out with a claw toward the source on pure reflex.

Though instinctive, the strike was exceptionally fierce. In absolute silence, a swath of Claire's expensive furniture was annihilated.

Before the splintered pieces could even hit the floor, they were shredded into even finer slivers.

It was as if countless tiny, invisible blades filled the air in the wake of her lightning-fast black silhouette.

It was clearly a full-powered release of long-restrained energy.

Clearly, while Winona feared the Thug might have returned, she was also brimming with killing intent.

That was right. She would never forget this voice, even if he were reduced to ash.

Grimshaw!

The next moment, amid a storm forged from hundreds and thousands of invisible threads of killing intent, Winona's agile body went completely rigid.

Slowly twisting her head, she looked toward Claire.

A figure, looking as relaxed as if he were strolling through a courtyard, gave Claire a slight nod before smoothly taking a seat in Winona's original spot.

She still couldn't do a thing against him...

The countermeasures she had painstakingly devised after their previous two encounters failed to yield a different result.

Despair finally broke through the suppression of her reason and erupted in Winona's chest.

Such a display obviously couldn't be explained away as a mere trick of the eye.

Combined with the intelligence she had received not long ago, the situation was spiraling toward the worst-case scenario—this man really was a true High-Tier Transcendent, an existence possessing divinity.

And that meant even though she was standing guard here, she was virtually powerless to stop him from doing whatever he wanted.

"She is just an ordinary person... She holds no value to you."

Looking at Claire—who was nearly catatonic, unable to make a sound despite her open mouth—Winona took a deep breath and finally offered a rather feeble plea.

At the same time, standing amid the wreckage, she dropped her combat stance entirely, abandoning any attempt at armed resistance.

...

"Although I haven't systematically studied your organization's philosophy, that statement sounds like a bit of an ideological slip, doesn't it?"

However, under Winona's wary gaze, he—though indeed making no move to attack—frowned.

"Being an ordinary person equates to having no meaning?"

"Someone holding that kind of philosophy would be considered extreme even among the Yama Enforcer Squad's targets, right?"

"...My phrasing was flawed."

Never expecting him to fixate on that, Winona, who had already stepped forward, froze slightly before ultimately offering a muffled apology.

"To the Night Watchers, an ordinary person has no fundamental difference from a transcendent as an individual..."

"What I meant was that I know Claire very well. Nothing she said earlier contained any lies or omissions."

"So to you, she holds neither value nor threat. There is absolutely no reason to hurt her."

"Understood. However..."

His gaze tracking Winona as she stepped back to stand nearby, Fu Qian nodded solemnly, though the doubt between his brows didn't entirely vanish.

"Do you know why I came back? Are you so sure she has no value to me?"

...

'How the hell should I know why a psycho like you came back!'

Even though the situation couldn't be any more critical, Grimshaw's counter-question was impossible to refute, yet utterly exasperating.

Winona almost roared the words in her heart.

She couldn't help it. Even though she had stayed behind specifically to guard against this exact scenario, his reason for returning remained entirely incomprehensible to her.

Especially since he had taken a detour all the way to the hospital first—he must have discovered something there and come back specifically to verify it!

In that moment, a flash of insight struck Winona, and she finally grasped the crucial point.

That was right. From earlier until now, the man opposite her undoubtedly had a very clear goal.

After investigating the hidden room, he had rushed to the hospital almost immediately and gotten into a direct conflict with the people there, even seeming to trigger some unexpected power.

Looking at the situation now, it was obvious that after driving everyone away, he had found something.

"What did you find?"

Not bothering to hide her deduction, Winona gritted her teeth and asked a second later.

"Something very interesting, though it also looks quite troublesome. What about you? How was your haul?"

Fu Qian didn't mind her tone.

In fact, he sounded a bit too easygoing; his phrasing made it feel as if they were casually chatting about project progress.

...

"I've been stuck here, so I couldn't confirm certain things with my own eyes, but it sounds like our haul was pretty good too."

Even though the atmosphere had suddenly turned bizarre, the fact that he hadn't immediately resorted to murder despite possessing absolute martial superiority was already a highly ideal development for Winona.

Biting the bullet, she answered him with a rare touch of patience.

Considering the risk of a lie being exposed and subsequently enraging him, she even bent her confidentiality protocols slightly.

"That's comforting to hear. For Loss to be protected by you lot is quite a stroke of luck... So, did Rick mention me?"

...Huh?

This time, the one displaying astonishment wasn't Winona, but Claire, who had previously been rendered mute by fear.

Although the murderer was sitting right across from her and could violently erase her at any moment, the exceedingly bizarre exchange between the two had a peculiar, calming effect. It allowed her to relax slightly, and her mind began to work again.

'So, this line of questioning... is he hinting that the Night Watchers have already found him?'

'Was this also what Winona meant earlier about the situation being under control?'

However, despite the massive shock in her heart, Claire maintained enough sense of propriety not to voice her questions, leaving the opportunity to answer to Winona.

"...Regrettably, no."

Faced with that question, the latter's shock seemed no less intense.

Hesitating slightly, Winona forced herself to remain honest and smoothly threw back a question of her own.

"He seemed completely unaware of you, actually... So, can you tell me how you knew he had already been found?"

'Nonsense. On the one hand, I pressured your elites to go all out, and on the other, I gave you enough time right up until a moment ago.'

'As the grand number one transcendent organization, if you still couldn't find a single living person, what face would you have left to face my meticulous grooming?'

Complaining inwardly, Fu Qian didn't express any of this aloud.

Because in the very next moment, a seemingly familiar gunshot exploded directly by his ear, immediately followed by a shroud of emerald green.

'Not bad.'

At that instant, satisfaction welled up in Fu Qian's heart.

Without a doubt, Night Watcher reinforcements had arrived.

As for how Winona had called them—the active communication device on her person was something he had deliberately ignored from the start.

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