Cerberus HQ, Yeon’s Office: 936, August 12th, Sunday, 3:00 PM.

Quietly working in her office, packed to the roof with stacks of paper, folders and boxes carrying important reports and archives. Yeon carefully read the documents, resting her cheek on one fist while signing some of them—sliding the pages aside to move into the next.

In between the mess of documents, kept in a clear spot exclusively for the item, a small wooden frame safeguarded the photo of Yeon and her family. She was at the center—proudly showing her teeth through the wide smile in her face, an academic cap on top of her head. Next to her was Luna, a woman of silver hair dressed in a short-sleeved dress of a pleasant azure color. Loewe—a young boy fashioning the same hair color as his mother, stood on the other side of Yeon. He wore a black suit with a red dress shirt underneath, black pants and shoes—his attire just as small as he was.

Taking a quick break from work, Yeon leaned her back on the chair for a quick second—exhaling through her mouth. She looked at the hour in her phone—resting on the desk, and stood up from her chair not long after. Having installed a coffee machine on top of a table in the corner of her office—featuring a small cabinet underneath, Yeon helped herself to a quick drink during her break.

“I swear those two only pretend to work…” she whispered to herself—placing her cup under the machine as it dispensed the beverage. “When was the last time I saw Jacob without his disguise anyway?”

As she took a quick sip of her coffee, a knock on her door quickly caught Yeon’s attention, a sound that drew a sigh from between her lips. She gently placed her cup on the desk before strolling towards the entrance, avoiding stepping on the papers lying on the floor. Twisting the knob on the door, Yeon slowly pushed it open to find the empty hallway outside of her office—glancing indifferently from side to side before stepping back into the room.

“Lucy?” Yeon looked around, trying to spot anything out of place in her office. “Not this again…” she grunted while rubbing her forehead. “I’m busy at the moment, so if you are going to stay in my office, you’ll need to be quiet.”

Grabbing her mug from the table with the coffee machine, Yeon returned to her desk and sat back down, taking another sip of her drink. She placed the mug on top of the desk to continue her work, freezing for a moment as the figure of a woman suddenly popped in her field of view—garbed in a white dress stained with dirt. As she contemplated her options, Yeon’s phone suddenly rang with an urgent message, ‘Tori Endel’ showcased the screen—quickly followed by a second message, ‘Arwen Rhys.’

“You didn’t forget about me, did you?”

Lifting her head slowly, Yeon fixed her eyes on the blonde princess of Heildin—Euthemia. The girl bared her teeth with an eager grin, twirling a big folding knife between her fingers. The light of the sun—leaking through the window behind Yeon, reflecting in the princess’ sharp blade.

“How could I?” Yeon replied casually, offering no emotional reaction to the blonde girl. “You broke into private property once, and expected not to be met with consequences.” Unnoticeable by the princess, Yeon carefully slid her hand under the task towards a small button—failing to trigger any alarms once she pressed her fingers on it.

“Tsk!” Euthemia’s cocky smirk quickly shifted into an angry snarl. “You think I came here because I like this hellhole? All I wanted was to pay a visit to that stupid village girl, if you just left me alone nothing would’ve happened.”

“Is that it… would you like to schedule a meeting with her?” Despite being cornered—struggling to device a solution to her situation, Yeon kept a straight front as she opposed the princess—hiding the uncertainty in her gaze.

Her words drew a chuckle from the girl, gripping her folding knife firmly in hand. “Are you trying to make me laugh? Royalty like me takes what she wants,” her smile widened. “This world belongs to my father after all… and that includes the people living in it.”

A hard warning setting off in her brain prompted Yeon to abruptly open the drawer in her desk, alarming Euthemia in the process. With a taser gun—similar to Tori’s modified weapon, Yeon aimed true against the blonde girl—taking advantage of the desk in between them. She pulled the trigger without hesitation, shooting the princess at point blank range.

“…!” a shocked gasp escaped Yeon, her eyes widening as Euthemia suddenly disappeared from view—watching as the electrified dart flew past the princess. “Where—agh!"

Ambushing her target from behind, the princess hammered Yeon’s ribs with a powerful kick by using the bridge of her foot. The force of the impact hurled Yeon away into the wall alongside her chair, bouncing off of it into the floor near the table holding the coffee machine.

“I learned this trick from the brute,” Euthemia said. “Although this one only works in close distances, hmhm.” She giggled at the end of her sentence.

“Gh… agh…” unlike Cerberus’ officers, Yeon does not possess the resilience to withstand physical harm—something her body warns her about through a sharp sensation. “This… is how you escaped the lieutenant then.”

“Hm? Ah…” Euthemia leered at the wounded woman with disgust—watching her struggle on the floor. “She just got lucky, that’s all… but I still don’t understand how that worm survived such a fire.” The thought fueled her mind with rage, causing her teeth to show as she growled.

Coughing roughly as blood surged from inside her mouth, Yeon forced herself to stand while holding her broken sides with one hand. “Good… to know.” She smirked, promptly pulling the cabinet under the table—startling the princess, as Yeon held a real firearm in her hands this time.

A banging sound echoed across the floor as Yeon pulled the trigger, slamming her back on the wall due to the pistol’s recoil—dropping the firearm. Forced to take a step back on impact, Euthemia’s eyes twitched in horror as she held her stomach with both hands—dropping to her knees as a red stain grew across her white dress.

“Gahg!”

Wasting no time in abandoning the office, Yeon limped towards the exit as fast as her legs would allow it. She pushed the door open with her shoulder, becoming petrified by a sudden and piercing pain in her back—forcing a cry from the depths of her chest.

“Aagh!”

“Hehe…” Euthemia chuckled with a satisfied smirk—standing behind Yeon with her knife plunged deep into the woman’s back. “You actually thought that would do anything to me?”

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“Agh!” Yeon released a second cry—feeling the cold steel of the princess’ blade bury itself deeper into her back.

“I won’t deny that I didn’t feel the pain… because it hurt… it hurt a lot.” Euthemia growled with an angry frown, plunging her knife event further into Yeon’s back—the crimson blood of the woman flowing down its steel into the princess’ hand.

Pulling Yeon back into the office—hurling her into the floor, Euthemia forcefully slammed the door closed before turning to face her target. Ki-Joon attempted to crawl away with twitchy moves, her face twisted in pain as a trail of red followed her.

“Oops!” Euthemia covered her mouth with one hand, smirking to herself right after. “What could’ve possibly caused my blade to worsen your blood loss? Was there something in it? Haha… I bet you are regretting the way you treated me before by now…”

Yeon moaned in pain, continuing to drag herself across the floor while trying to put distance between her and the princess. She gasped for air as it became harder to breath, blood pouring into her injured lung. The once confident and stoic expression she held turned into a mix of horror and anger, fighting herself to remain awake.

Euthemia laughed as she slowly approached the critically injured woman, swaying from side to side with her hands locked behind. “Where did that confidence go? You really thought he would be able to protect you, didn’t you? Specter.”

Her words forced Yeon’s eyes wide open, causing her beath to fasten even more. She couldn’t mutter even a single word however, her body becoming colder alongside the blood pouring into the floor through her open wound. Raising her arm to place it on top of the desk, Yeon desperately tried to grab her phone with a trembling hand—too far from reach to get a grip on the device, which prompted the princess to laugh once more.

“Hahahaha! Yes, we know.” Euthemia claimed. “Unfortunately, you won’t live long enough to find out how.” She chuckled loudly, mocking the dying woman on the floor. “Here, allow me to help you. I am a kind and merciful princess after all.”

A morbid and sadistic feeling overpowered the blonde princess’ mind, finding great pleasure with the situation. Euthemia walked closer to the desk, grabbing Yeon’s phone into her hand—already with a specific application in mind. She frowned at the sight of the screen, as it demanded a password to access its contents.

“Can you give me the password, please?”

“Go… to hell…” Yeon growled in between painful grunts.

“Fine,” with no regards for the object, Euthemia dropped it on the floor before quickly stomping the device under her foot—shattering the screen into tiny shard of glass. “Ow! I messed up… well, don’t worry.” She grinned while kneeling in front of Yeon—taking her own phone from the pocket in her dress, pointing the back camera at the woman. “And… snap! You look perfect!”

Hiding the phone in her pocket once again, Euthemia caressed the bullet wound in her stomach one last time before turning her back on Yeon. She walked towards the exit with little care, casually twisting the knob of the door as she turned to look behind from over her shoulder—a smirk of satisfaction plastered in her face.

“Well, that’s it for me. Goodbye!”

Unable to fight her own mind any further, Yeon’s breaths began to fade as darkness engulfed her vision. Her arm dropped from the desk into the floor, lying motionless next to her. She glanced to her side, where her cellphone laid broken with a black screen. No emotions showed in her face as her mind went blank, losing what little consciousness she had—a voice from outside of her office almost snapping her back to her senses.

“Yeon…! Yeon…!” Jacob’s voice cried out in the distance.

Cerberus HQ, Special Sickroom: 936, August 12th, Sunday, 3:00 PM.

Sleeping on a hospital bed, connected into a machine by a set of cables incrusted into his arms and bare chest. Sovereign slept peacefully through the day as a monitor recorded his vitals with slow and constant beeps—kept safe inside a room specifically made to monitor his health. On a desk beside his bed, his black vest and red shirt were laid on top—kept underneath his phone.

Next to his bed, while taking notes in her tablet device. Was a woman of black loose hair—just below her shoulders. She wore the same uniform as Yeon, and had chestnut-colored eyes.

“Hmm…” she hummed with a pensive expression. “You look stable enough, maybe there was nothing to worry about?”

Curiosity brewing in her mind, the woman fixed her gaze on the man’s left hand—concealed under a black glove. She glanced around the room, focusing on the door behind her while pressing her lips together. No one to be seen or heard nearby, she turned back towards Sovereign and led her quivering hand to his, nervously pulling the glove down from wrist.

“Aah!” she screamed, startled by a repeating banging noise coming from the door—making sure Sovereign remained asleep, she abandoned her original plan and rushed towards the door—pushing it slightly open. “Y-yes?”

She peeked outside, finding no one standing in the empty hall. She looked around for a few seconds in confusion, closing the door behind her as she returned to her duties. The woman walked next to Sovereign once again, curiously staring at his glove. She simply shook her head rapidly to eliminate the thought from her mind however, sighing while dropping her shoulders.

“It’s not worth getting fired over… I think. Ah!” She was suddenly startled a second time—spotting a glass bottle plummeting from one of the drawers in the room, bursting into pieces at contact with the floor.

The strange activity in the room did not stop at the room however, as the cabinets in the drawers began to open and close—creating noise around the room—causing the woman to retreat close to Sovereign, drops of sweat rolling down her forehead. Scared, but determined to get to the bottom of such supernatural events, she approached the drawers to open and close their cabinets while glancing around the room—finding nothing.

“Ah!” she squeaked, redirecting her attention towards Sovereign, who was now seated at the edge of his bed—a small girl of light brown hair tightly holding to him. “W-w-w-what just happened? Who is that? And why are you awake?”

“Lucy?” Sovereign whispered, only half awake with an exhausted mind. He turned to look at the woman—sitting on the floor with a shocked expression. “Ivanna, you are still here?”

“Y-yes, sir.” The woman picked herself from the floor, clearing her throat. “Miss Yeon told me to keep a close eye on your health. Y-you are totally healthy though, so there was no need to worry after all.”

“Healthy?” the news came as a surprise to the silver-haired man. “But—”

Interrupted by the small girl trembling in his arms, Sovereign lowered his head to look at the startled Lucy—burying herself deeper into his arms in an attempt to make herself as small as possible.

“Who is this girl by the way?” Ivanna asked. “I’ve never seen—”

Bursting open with a sudden and violent noise, the door was flung into the room towards Sovereign’s bed—causing Ivanna to scream as she crouched down on the floor, covering her head with her arms.

Reacting quickly to protect Lucy, the young CEO pulled her in close before rolling away on the bed—avoiding collision with the fast-approaching object by dropping down into the floor, landing on his arm. The door continued its course as it missed its target, slamming itself into the concrete wall—which shattered its wooden structure in half on impact.

“Umph!” Sovereign grunted as he hit the floor, sitting himself to check on the girl. “Lucy, are you hurt?”

“…” the girl had no words to offer however, quivering while hiding her face on his arms.

Ivanna’s scream brought the man back to his senses, peeking carefully from above the bed—spotting the intimidating presence that has made its way into HQ. Trembling in fear, Ivanna crawled into a corner while keeping her eyes on the tall man that has entered the room—confidently striding his way towards the center.

“How did you…” Sovereign muttered, gently placing Lucy on the floor—to which the girl protested by grabbing his arm, rejected immediately by the young CEO as he pushed himself on his feet—confronting Paradise’s chosen champion face to face, an angry frown plastered on his face.

“Not a good look for someone like you,” the knight claimed with a smirk. “Specter.”

END OF CHAPTER