Alexia

I tap my foot a few times before asking, “Alright, first answer me a few questions.” The man stiffens up even more, showcasing his obvious fear towards me. “First, why did you accept her request for contact?”

Despite his fear, he answers right away without a single ounce of hesitation, “I accepted so that I could act as a double agent for you.”

Sound about like what I expected. He’s too smart to betray me after what happened, and according to Aidan, the woman is only about level fifty. Meaning I can kill her as easily as snapping her neck.

William would have to be a complete imbecile to think he stood a chance even with help from someone.

“Next question,” I continue, no longer tapping my foot. “It should’ve been obvious that she wasn’t a threat to me, so why not just tell the others? Why play double agent?”

Once again, he answers without hesitation, “To keep her from attacking the base while you were gone so that you could deal with her the moment you got back.”

I purse my lips, raising a brow in intrigue.

Not a bad answer.

“Last question,” I state, crossing my arms slightly as I glance at Aidan then back at William. “Just how is that asshole so stupid as to believe she could actually stand a chance against me at level fifty?”

William blinks, his surprise at my question overriding his fear for a moment before he glances at Aidan and asks, “You didn’t tell her?”

A smirk stretches across my lips at the sight of Aidan’s shocked face as he shouts, “Wait, you knew I was watching you?!”

Now William looks scared again while he glances at me and answers, “Well, yeah.” Then he looks back at Aidan after seemingly confirming that I wasn’t gonna kill him or something. “Anyone with a high enough level in Mana Manipulation can sense a basic stealth skill like that.”

I hide my mouth behind my hand as I casually look the other way, acting like I’m not trying hard to keep a straight face right now. Not that it works considering the betrayed look I find on Aidan’s face when I look back at him.

“From what I can tell, that woman doesn’t remember your name,” William says before turning to look at me, making me frown, “apparently she got amnesia after running into the hellfrost dragon killed her before the Tutorial ended, and all she remembered after leaving stasis was you and your sisters’ names.” He shrugs. “She didn’t even remember the broadcast that showed you or even your name. And apparently she is so focused on killing you two, who are the only ones she still remembers, that she hasn’t bothered with anything else.”

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That sounds even more suspicious than William betraying us did.

“Any chance there’s a mental magic user mind controlling her or just manipulating her into this?” I ask, glancing between William and Aidan. And they both nod their heads with William answering, “Most likely. Even someone with amnesia wouldn’t be that narrowminded.”

Which means there’s either someone trying to kill me, someone offering her up to me on a silver platter, or someone trying to kill the asshole.

If I had to guess, it’s one of the latter two answers.

I look at Aidan as I ask, “Do you think someone’s trying to kill her, or someone’s trying to offer her up to me?”

Aidan frowns, and so does William. Then Aidan answers, “Considering that the hellfrost dragon was the one who killed her, I feel he might have something to do with this. But…”

“A hellfrost dragon shouldn’t have any mental magic available to them, so if it was him then he had to have been working with someone else,” William answers for Aidan, making me nod in agreement.

“Well, either way,” I state, a grin stretching across my face. “I can’t wait to visit her.”

I notice William shivering slightly at my words but ignore it as I step back into my house while waving for the two to come in.

“So you two should be meeting in a few hours? After sundown?” I ask while walking, and out of the corner of my eye I find William nodding, answering, “Yes. This was meant to be the last meeting before she launches her attack on the base. I wasn’t able to stall her any longer, but now it won’t be a problem.”

“Hmm,” I hum as I walk, considering how to deal with this situation. Then I pause to glance at my status, finding my soul almost half recovered by now. Meaning it’ll take about four hours to recover the rest.

I won’t have all of my soul by the time she arrives, but I shouldn’t need much at all to deal with a level fifty, so it’s not a problem.

And I can head off to find the dungeon after I finish dealing with the viscountess. Or rather, former viscountess.

It’s still a little surprising that she’s alive though. I thought Gramps dealt with her a while back.

Then again, she did have quite a bit of influence despite doing what she did, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she just had some sort of restraining order to not get anywhere near me, Astrid, Aidan, or his sister ever again. Gramps never did say what exactly happened.

Just that she was ‘dealt with’ and that we ‘didn’t need to worry about it anymore.’

“What was her class?” I ask after we reach the rather barren living room and I sit down on a plain, gray sofa.

“A rare class, Spectral Sorceress,” Aidan answers right away, making me purse my lips in thought.

It was still a breach of etiquette to identify someone before the Reset, so I don’t know what her class was back then. But I do know she had fire magic. So it looks like she’s changed areas to focus on since.

Well, guess it doesn’t really matter when she’s only level fifty. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t even be able to scratch me with a physical attack, and even a magical one would be very easy to block. And that’s assuming she could stop me from teleporting behind her and grabbing her by the neck.

Only thing I can do now is wait for her to show up.