"Of course not right, sigh..."

Nicola sighed anxiously and looked at me wanting to say something but held back. She could only push open the door and walk straight down the stairs.

"Landlord! Cyra! Are you inside?"

Downstairs, the bookstore door was tightly shut with no sound or light coming from inside.

Since the landlord's bookstore was simple, without fancy display windows like high-end shops, we couldn't see inside just standing outside.

With no choice, Nicola and I knocked on the door and shouted. But after waiting for five minutes, there was still no movement. Instead, some neighbors attracted by our shouts peeked out their windows.

"Can't keep shouting like this, doesn't seem useful..."

"Could the landlord not be home either? Where did they go, why haven't they come back?"

"No, they're here!"

Nicola shook her head and after sensing the surroundings for a while, suddenly said to me.

"I can feel it, Cyra should be in a room on the first floor! I sense the aura of light element in that room!"

"No way right? If Cyra doesn't reveal her wings, even we can barely sense the light element in her, let alone through a wall..."

At first I didn't quite believe it, but soon realized she was right.

With the house blocking, it was very hard to notice at first. But if you pay close attention, you can detect traces of light element leaking from the cracks of the bookstore door. In the night generally lacking light element, it stood out sharply.

"Could she really have her wings out?"

I was starting to get anxious. Logically, if not in danger, Cyra shouldn't do this against our repeated warnings.

"Cyra, are you inside? Landlord! Cyra! Open the door!"

Nicola finally couldn't hold back anymore. Disregarding the neighbors, she started banging hard on the shop door. But even so, there was still no response after a long time.

"Looks like something happened, impossible they didn't hear with all this noise!"

I urgently said to Nicola.

"Then I'll break down the door by force, you follow quickly!"

Hearing me, Nicola nodded. After checking the surroundings and seeing no one else around, she kicked open the bookstore's big door with her six wings spread out.

The huge sound startled me as Nicola and I rushed inside the shop. It was still arranged like daytime, stacked full of books for sale. The aura of light element did seem a bit stronger.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Huh? No one's in the bookstore?"

Turning on the magic lights in the shop, there were no people. Strange, where did the light elements come from?

"There's another door here, let's check inside!"

After circling the shop, Nicola pointed to a wooden door in the corner. Hidden behind shelves, it was not easily noticed. As expected, this door likely led to the living space where the landlord slept.

"It's locked!"

I pushed but it didn't budge at all. So there must be someone inside. And the light element seemed to be leaking from this room.

"Let me do it, step back!......"

Nicola pulled me behind her. With a loud crash after a hard kick, the entire wooden door flew off its hinges!

"Cyra!"

The magic lights inside were on. As the door fell, we could see an angel curled up on the bed, wrapped completely in her feathers.

"What exactly happened...landlord?"

I accidentally kicked something on the ground. Looking down, I saw the landlord lying unconscious by the wall near the door, with his pants still hanging off his knees.

"This is..."

Seeing this scene, I finally understood what happened but still couldn't believe my eyes.

"Cyra, don't tell me you were really..."

"What else could it be, just as you see! But whether he succeeded I don't know..."

It seemed Nicola already expected this. She kicked the landlord's body again. He didn't react at all, so she checked and he wasn't dead. Just knocked out.

"Tsk! This guy's pretty lucky, he's not dead yet! Just fainted."

"But isn't Cyra an angel? How did the landlord overpower her?"

Why the landlord ended up like this was obvious. It must have been Cyra desperately fighting back with her wings out. But I still didn't quite understand. In physical ability, the landlord was just an ordinary human, basically no different from an Earth human. Even if Cyra was petite and weak which attracted his lust when her wings were hidden, with her wings spread, how could this guy possibly overpower her?

That's why I always felt assured leaving Cyra alone. I never expected this to happen in the end.

"I was drunk!"

Curled up between her knees, Cyra finally spoke up. But her voice sounded wronged.

"You guys were gone for so long tonight, so we started eating first. To liven things up, we ordered lots of drinks. I didn't get to drink enough last time at the Edenmere restaurant, and the landlord kept pouring me more, so I gave in and had one too many cups. I didn't expect my alcohol tolerance to be so low now. When I came to, this guy was already smiling wickedly while lying on top of me, kissing and biting...So in shock, I sent him flying..."

"..."

Hearing this, I was at a loss for words. I didn't expect her angel identity to fall to alcohol in the end. No idea if the landlord planned this or took advantage of the situation.

"You're still too naive, already forgetting the lesson from my drinking last time..."

Seeing my speechless expression, Nicola couldn't hold back either and finally revealed the past truth.

"This landlord has a history. When we lived before, he came up to harass me too. If not for worrying that killing him would impact our lives, I'd have slaughtered him long ago!"

"Why didn't you say so sooner!"

I was shocked to hear even Nicola suffered under this guy. I never knew!

"Strange, he never bothered me. If we knew his true nature early on, we'd have moved out immediately!"

"Easier said than done! You were always out early and back late, so he never got a chance. He finally found an opening when we were alone. That day I happened to come home early, and his original target was you. But I unintentionally blocked the bullet for you! And also..."

At this point, Nicola suddenly became a bit embarrassed.

"With this kind of thing happening, how could I tell you! To move, we'd need to find a new rental and pay deposits, when we were saving for storage rings. So I could only secretly go drinking alone at night to drown my sorrows. And you saw the results...turns out my alcohol tolerance worsened too..."

So that's why she got dead drunk by the lake that day! I suddenly understood!

Nicola and Cyra liked acting tough, but were too embarrassed to admit harassment. They could only bottle it up, having no one to turn to. I could relate to that.

"So what do we do now? Should we call the city guards? No idea how sexual assault is treated here..."

I looked at Cyra on the bed, then at Nicola, feeling conflicted. The clean bedsheets suggested the landlord didn't succeed with Cyra in the end. After all, Astralrealm laws differed from Earth. Even if we called the guards and they saw this scene, we might get wrongly accused instead.