Rolling around the mattress, the negotiation with Alyss isn’t going very well. When she mentioned she won’t help her out in the trials, she really means it. Because Alyss isn’t relenting on anything, not even information of where Lilith can get the prisoner outfits. And when she spams ‘Please!’, and threatens, she’ll tell Killian, Alyss is fooling around with another dude. Alyss only responds with eggplant and cat emotes. From this interaction, she can guess Alyss’s relationship with Killian appears to be more of a mutual trade rather than anything romantic or emotional so Lilith won’t be able to use shit as leverage. Alyss doesn’t care so she won’t cave.

It’s so frustrating she’s dropped her phone on her face. That hurts. Fuck it. If Alyss won’t relent over text, she’ll just have to go pester her directly. Stretching out her arm, she observes her wrist of the traces of Alyss’s Magia that’s been left there,

“I’ll be right back.” she says towards the two boys that aren’t making much progress with their own tasks either on the opposite corner of the room. Cyan is currently pacing back and forth before the circular window. Whereas Bob, chugging coffee, is completely defeated amidst a pile of papers spewed around him. Thinking pumpkin pie to herself three times, she leaves before they find the energy to ask where is she going.

The moment she does, it feels like lightning bolting straight up her veins. The next thing she’s aware of, is being face planted on the ground. Spitted out ungraciously from a blue Magia glyph that’s manifested above her.

Where is she? It smells absolutely putrid here. It looks like a basement, only the temperature’s been set to Eskimo. The floor’s completely concrete, whereas the walls are lined with cubby holes sealed shut by thick metal doors. But the most unsettling thing she only realizes as she’s getting up.

There’s a dead body on a steel table. She recognizes him. It’s that escapee prisoner they saw earlier today. Except he’s been cut open from throat to navel. Organs severed from veins. Eyeballs in a jar. Complexion lukewarm with life. Alyss is bent over him, holding onto the ledge. Her cheeks are flushed, hotter than blood. Breaths in staccato, slightly hyperventilating. Hitching her shoulders with each stuttering inhale, rising and dipping the lip shaded bruises, bleeding down her collar bones. The phone’s she’s been texting Lilith with, still in her bloodied rubber gloved fingers. Behind her, Cat boy has one hand on her exposed breasts, the other is securing her dress to her waist. Pulling her to him. He spots Lilith first. Abruptly halts. Probably slammed balls deep. She staggers forward, hisses, it screeches the table legs. The fluster drains from his face. He’s freezing colder than death.

Damn. So that’s what the emotes mean huh. Lilith immediately takes a picture. Flipping her phone around so Alyss is able to see it. She’s snapped her head up at this point. The glazed-out look in her eyes sharpens to a knife point. Broken from her trance. Lilith must be in luck today because she was just pondering what she should say to convince her,

“I think you have to give me the prisoner uniforms now. Felmane’s third Admiral and Division Captain fucking in a morgue has got to make headlines.” Or maybe not. Lilith didn’t think this through carefully. Because she instantly feels a presence behind her back. Cat boy disappeared from her sight. The next moment, there’s an arm around her neck, a needle against her throat,

“Who’s this sassy, feral child?” he asks, “should I knock her out?” She can’t move. He’s hostile. Is she actually in danger? Shit. That wasn’t smart. That wasn’t smart at all. But she’s still finding her snark to complain,

“Tuck yourself in first!” she didn’t need to feel that. Why is it barbed? She readies her elbow to strike him in the gut. His abs are metal. Cat boy doesn’t even flinch,

“Try that again and you’re getting tranquilized.” but at least he has the decency to pull his hips away upon her remark. Adjusting her attire, Alyss has composed herself when she approaches her,

“Let her go, Noire.” she sighs, "she's a child an old friend of mine has been looking after. Don't hurt her." to make him back away with a skeptical,

"If you say so."

Alyss lowers to her eye level, pinching both sides of her cheeks,

“Good children shouldn’t learn how to blackmail. Especially not people who are stronger than you.” pulling at Lilith’s face like she’s stretching an elastic,

“It’s not very nice to intrude on my privacy uninvited.” Is she... trying to lecture her? Lilith can’t take her seriously because she’s just looking at her with a glassy gaze,

“I didn’t give you a teleport sigil so you can abuse it for trivial matters. Do this again, and I’m taking my sigil away.” she can’t even tell what she’s feeling right now. Embarrassed? Angry? Irritated? Amused? At least she doesn’t seem inclined to do her harm. Lilith untenses her shoulders, silently heaving a sigh of relief before apologizing,

“I’m sorry. But I really need the uniforms.” and over justifies herself, “you didn’t want to help me over text, so I thought I should come see you directly. I didn’t know you were busy. I won’t do it again. So, can I have the uniforms? Please, please, please, please-” to get Alyss to defeatedly ask,

"And you'll keep your word afterwards?"

"I'll definitely keep my word if you give me mon-" ouch. Alyss is starting to apply pressure for those remarks, now it actually hurts,

"If you can't pass the trials with your own abilities, then you don't deserve to be an adventurer." is she trying to rip her face off? She probably can. Lilith gets it, don't push her luck, so she quickly corrects,

"I'll be gone light speed after this small favor." to get her to her stop. Alyss stands up again, despite what she’s said, she's actually rather lenient. Gesturing to the heap of fabrics in the corner with a flick of her chin,

“Delete the picture and go grab it." resting a hand on her hip, she's hurrying her,

"Make yourself sparse after.”

“Yeah. Thanks! I’ll be quick.” she says, running towards it, "pretend I wasn't even here." and going through the bloodied clothes to search for ones that may fit best. Brisk walking for the door once she’s selected what she needs. Cat boy’s already there, leaning against it with the most obvious, quit cockblocking me, scowl on his face,

"I'd rather you actually not be here."

He’s very eager to shove her out the moment she’s in arm’s reach. Slamming it shut behind her as the door fades into papered walls.

She’s discarded in the basement of Alyss’s casino. With her thoughts finally catching up to her, what the heck did she just witness? Wandering down the corridor towards the elevator. She pats her bathrobe. It's empty. she’s left the map on her bed. Great, where are the guestrooms even? At least the buttons are labelled. It’s somewhere in the midsection of this building. So, she’s managed to narrow it down by the scenery she recalls seeing out of Bob’s window. Now, she’s just got to try every room. It takes her awakening five irritated VIPs to finally get the right one. She should’ve guessed, of course Bob will request for room 23.

Cyan greets her with an incredibly worried expression on his face,

“Where did you go, idiot!” but she’s taking the chance to shove the clothes in his arms, striding inside to look for where the washer and dryer is tucked as she describes,

“I think I just stumbled into one of Alyss’s messed up kinks.” finding it behind a closet opposite the bathroom. Two antique looking things stacked onto of each other. She turns to watch Cyan get grossed out by the sweat, grime and blood drenched uniforms as he quickly unloads them and starts the timer. Upon hearing the name, Bob, from the opposite side of the room curiously picks his head up from tinkering with his bullets,

“Alyss? Alyss Mildred, the richest adventurer in the west. You know her?”

“Yeah. She comes over to my place every Thursday.” now she's beginning to think she isn't just trolling them when she's told them about the messed-up things she makes Killian do. Adults are so gross. She already feels like she needs to take another shower. But Bob, oblivious as he is, says all sparkly eyed,

“What? Why didn’t you mention you knew such a big shot. She’s the host for this trial. Did you get the uniforms from her? Did you try asking for the map directly?”

“Yeah. But it isn’t me who knows her. It’s Killian.” at that, Cyan’s quickly filling Bob in as to who Killian is, she says after a shrug,

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“I tried. She won’t assist us anymore than this.”

Cyan pries instead, “so, what exactly did you see? Have you considered this magical thing called blackmailing?” yes. She did. She definitely did. And the only thing she’s got out of it is another imagery she wants to bleach from her memories, so she probably wouldn't attempt that again any time soon.

They’re joining him on the couch. There are even more paper notes scattered about, and the number of coffee mugs doubled from the short duration that she’s left. She’s just about to answer Cyan's question but she deliberates, Alyss was still nice enough to help her in the end. Reluctantly or otherwise. She probably shouldn’t snitch. Lilith instead changes the topic,

“How is progress on your ends.” it’s almost 3am and she’s getting awfully sleepy. At that, Cyan immediately rolls up his sleeves to show her the various round bruises all over his bicep where needle injections normally go,

“This shit head’s been using me as test subject for the past hour!” in fact, the moment he’s said that, a burst of gold spark goes off in his inner elbow. Jerking his joints back with it. Cyan snaps his gaze towards Bob, cursing,

“Fuck you! Tell me before you’re going to do I-” but Bob interrupts him with an insincere, “sorry, sorry.” telling her to,

“Watch this.” before prying,

“What’s your deepest darkest secret?”

“I sometimes-” immediately, Cyan slaps a hand over his lips to stop himself finishing that sentence. At that, Bob sighs again, emptying the magazine once more to take the bullets out, he’s pouting,

“It still isn’t working very well yet.” is he making a truth serum? Well, they certainly have bonded in the short while when she was gone.

Lilith watches him hover them between his hands in deep concentration, bombarding the thing with golden Magia swirls. That seems rather cool, so Lilith sticks an arm out and enthusiastically offers,

“Try it on me next!” despite Cyan hastily warns her,

“You’re going to regret it. He asks the most intrusive questions ever!” but Bob’s casually ignoring him to tell her with a bright smile,

“Oh! Perfect. I just adjusted the strength of this, this may be it.” he says reloading the bullets, cocking the gun. He pulls the trigger. She feels it on her upper arm. It stings a little. Nothing really seems to be happening until he asks,

“What’s the most embarrassing thing you recently did?” and a feeling of compulsion overwhelms her to blurt,

“I tried to piss my name on a tree.” shit. Shit! What just happened? Slapping both hands over her lips. Why the fuck did she admit to that? Cyan and Bob wordlessly stare at her for a moment, then Bob stealthily pulls the trigger again, he’s snickering a little,

“Why did you do it?” she doesn’t want to say it, but she can’t stop herself,

“I saw a wolf doing it to claim its territory. I wanted to claim my territory too.” click, the third shot’s fired,

“You do realize you can’t claim stuff by just peeing on it.” they’re just straight up laughing now.

“I know that. I was just curious why animals did it so I thought if I mimicked them, I’ll understand.” God dammit, she’s getting frantic, yelling above Cyan who’s wheezing at her stupidity at this point,

“Enough already! It works!”

“No. Keep going. I have a question too.” Cyan says as he reaches over to grab Bob’s gun before she’s able to stop him. Pushing her out of reach with a leg while he squeezes at the trigger,

“How did you aim? you don’t even have the right equipment.”

“Fuc-” the Magia interrupts her, “Same way the wolf did. I just got pee all over my legs. I felt stupid.” but she’s managed to crawl over him, wringing the gun out of his hand when he’s choking from laughter,

“That’s because you are stupid.” cocking it again. It’s time for revenge!

“Oh yeah? Let’s see who’s the stupid one.” But Cyan pushes her hand aside the moment she toggles,

“What is the most embarrassing thing you recently did.” deflecting her arm towards Bob who’s hit by the bullet instead. So, Bob’s the one that replies her,

“I pissed my name on a tree.” he muffles his mouth, trying to stop himself from talking, but it isn’t working so she still heard him. She retorts,

“So, you’re stupid too!” which immediately turns Bob red as his hair, he’s stuttering in embarrassment, frantically waving his arms about and trying to deny,

“I did no such thing! Let’s stop now. We fulfilled our third win condition. Let’s try and tackle our second problem toge-” No way. This is pretty fun when she isn’t on the receiving end. Relentlessly, she pulls the trigger again before he can even finish the sentence,

“Why did you do it?” after what they’ve did to her, as if she’ll let him off this easily.

“To claim my territory.” he’s leaning forward, trying to snatch the gun from her, retracting his words soon as he said it,

“I didn’t. I actually didn’t!” She won’t let him,

“Hypocrite! And you laughed at me for trying, you’re a dumbass too!”

“At least I didn’t get pee on my legs!” he’s trying to tackle her down. So, she’s randomly spamming the trigger. This time, the stray bullet hits Cyan, who she’s still pinning down by the shoulder with a knee beneath her. She lowers her head to make eye contact, smiling deviously,

“Did you also piss your name on a tree?”

“Of course not! Don’t lump me with dumbasses like the two of you.” She rapid fires a second bullet,

“Then what’s the most embarrassing thing you recently did?”

“I came on a tree.” Bob and Lilith sync up,

“You’re the biggest dumbass here!” Cyan’s really flustered now. Bright like a tomato. He’s struggling harder, drawing claws, scratching at her thigh, almost fighting for his life. They’re asking,

“Was it because you wanted to claim your territory too?”

“No. I just wanted to desecrate it.”

“Why? What did a tree ever do to you?” crap. She forgot to hit the trigger first. But he’s keen to defend himself even without the truth serum,

“My brother called me a fertilizer, so, I fertilized his favorite persimmon tree. Whenever he eats the fruits, he can be reminded that it was grown from my cum.” what the heck is his logic? In her moment of diversion, the gun’s gone. Cyan’s got it. He tucks it beneath her chin, point blank, redirecting the topic,

“What’s a secret you’re keeping that I don’t already know.” she snaps away, just in time to let the bullet hit Bob that was still latched onto her wrist she pulls forward with her motion. The Magia compels him to answer,

“I killed the person who created me, grinded her up into a paste and fed her body to the dogs.” it abruptly halts them. Blinking at the sentence and questioning if they’ve heard it right. Bob is gasping. The laughter on his lips pulling thin after the realization of what he’s just said and he freezes. Eyes wide with a blankness before fear takes them over. Dulling the red sparkless. He’s backing away in trembles, stuttering

"wha- no." he tries to deny, then he requests,

“C-can you please pretend you didn’t hear that?” the mood suddenly dampens like a drenched blanket. It’s heavy. It doesn’t seem so fun and cheeky anymore. They’re straightening themselves. But neither of them is asking for elaboration because Bob doesn’t seem willing to talk about it. There’s a looming silence for a few moments, before she skeptically asks,

“Yeah. It’s okay. But are you okay...?” there’s a lot of anger behind those actions that he’s just described. Although now, reflected on his face, is neither that of hatred, satisfaction nor regret. It’s an expression far grimmer for a teenager to adorn. She’s seen this look, it’s that of which Nana, Killian and even Cyan, wear when they recounted something unpleasant. Pain and trauma. What was it? Was it retaliation? Was it self preservation, obligation? Or was it revenge? She can't ask because he’s trying to conceal it when he mumbles,

“I’m fine.” and puts on a warm,

“Thanks.” following up with an awkward reassurance as if he’s just registered how those words made him sound and is now anxious that they’ll judge him differently,

“B-but you don’t have to worry. I have no ill intentions toward you guys. I won’t attack or backstab you. I promise! I promise, promise with all my heart. If you don’t believe me, you can hit me with the truth bullet. I’ll swallow a thousand needles if I’m lying!” he’s never struck her as the malicious, cold-blooded type so it’s never crossed her mind that he might. Especially not when he looks so frightened when he desperately pleads,

“So, please don’t dislike me.” lacing his fingers together as if he’s praying, very softly, “please don’t be scared of me...” Like an abandoned puppy, crushing his eyes shut as he is. He’s afraid of the disgust and rejection they’ll show him. She knows how that feels. But Cyan’s shot him again just for good measures,

“Are you thinking of betraying us?”

“No!” he wasn’t lying. With that, Cyan clears his throat to make the quietude go away. Putting the gun aside. Perhaps he’s trying to lighten the mood when he commentates,

“I never liked you to begin with.” picking up a cup of coffee that has long gone cold, and adds before Bob actually tears up,

“Everyone has a dark secret or two they don’t want others to know about. It’s whatever. As long as you’re not planning to hurt us, it won’t change the fact that we’ve made a deal to be teammates. We didn’t hear shit.” then he suggests, as Bob slowly lifts his head up to look at him. Cyan clicks his tongue in irritation,

“Let’s just go back to solving problem number two.” brushing the tense vibes away with a hand,

“And, if we can, let's get some sleep before returning to the hall tomorrow. We’ve already got a pretty good shot at winning as of this moment.”

“Yeah... Thank you.”

With that, they settle down again, finding their respective seats. And it takes a few more moments of consolidation before they start suggesting ideas. The atmosphere still feels awkward at the beginning. But after an hour or so of realizing nothing is hitting. The awkwardness soon turns to frustration, because none of them can develop covert AOE read abilities on demand. They don’t know how that spell even works.

Then they thought of the idea of pulsing their Aura and see who reacts. But that’s immediately trashed because it’s the same as declaring that they’re examinees to the other players. Beats the whole concept of blending with the crowd.

It’s five in the morning by now and they’re still drawing blanks. So, instead, they decided to take a breather and distribute their roles after teaching Bob their morse code communication. Cyan will be the scout. He doesn’t trust Lilith’s sense of judgement so he volunteers to be in charge of finding opponents that he thinks they can beat. Lilith will be the player. She’s handling the actual games. Whereas Bob, Bob will do his truth serum shenanigans from afar. He’ll conceal the gun in his pocket, and pull the trigger on Lilith’s signal. The bullets will be teleported by his portals so it won’t be seen by the Felmane adventurer.

By six in the morning in her sleep induced mania. Lilith finally has an epiphany! She’s figured out a way they can differentiate the prisoners! Excitedly exclaiming her solution to them. Bone density. Having little Vita to protect themselves, commoners usually feel very brittle to the touch. But that also means Cyan needs to go around groping prisoners to test it out. It takes a bit of persuading, but Cyan eventually agrees. The way he puts it reluctantly, a stupid idea is better than none at all. With that, they wrap up the discussion and finally collapse in bed whilst Bob takes a well-deserved shower.

With the sun rising in the horizon. Cyan sets the alarm for ten in the morning. One hour earlier than what Lilith argues for because he points out she needs an hour to get up regardless. Pulling the blankets over herself, she falls asleep even before Bob’s gotten out of the bathroom. The last thoughts in her mind, may the games go smoothly as planned.