After receiving the operative's report, Camille called for Morgan's presence to discuss the unusual development.

“This doesn't make sense at all,” Morgan said with a frown. “He of all people should know that negotiation is out of the picture the moment he detonated a building in the city. The only possibility I could think of is that Carmen intends to spring a trap on you the moment you enter the mansion, Lady Camille. Even if your operatives detected no traps, it does not mean there is none.”

“That is what I suspect as well, especially since his family is nowhere to be found,” Camille said. “But the question is, how do we spring that trap? We still need to reach Carmen, and though my operatives have seen the man, he is inside a protective barrier anchored on the mansion itself that would require powerful magic to breach, which is why they haven't killed him yet.”

“I have no idea how this barrier stuff works, but if it's anchored on the mansion, can't we just burn the entire thing down?” I asked. “Skips the problem entirely, doesn't it? Destroys the barrier and roasts the fuc— I mean, criminal to death.”

Camille gave me a sharp look. “There will be no burning houses, Bob. Even though I want the man dead more than you do, burning a building down with a man trapped inside is a step too far.”

I shrugged. I suppose it was a tad bit cruel. Doesn't mean the cunt didn't deserve it, though. “Alright, alright, no burning. I just suggested it since he's all alone in there. Where'd his family go, anyway?”

Camille's expression turned dark. “They were smuggled out of the city after that explosion in the red light district. One of the Guard Captains and several of his men went rogue and disappeared during the chaos. We caught one of them, and he admitted that they smuggled Carmen's family out of the city, but not Carmen himself. For some reason, my uncle stayed.”

“You know, you should really start cleaning up the City Guard,” I said. I still remember the time when the corrupt bastards tried to kill me in broad daylight. “Anyway, it doesn't seem like we have much choice here but to trigger the trap, whatever it is. I'm gonna save everyone the hassle and volunteer to be the one to trigger it. We all know I'm the one who's gonna have to go in there eventually.”

“Thank you, Bob.” Camille said that so earnestly I thought she was shitting me. “Don't worry, we won't send you there unprepared. But first, tell me truthfully, did you evolve your Class?”

“Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. Yeah, I just did so before we left the City Hall. I can now Suck everything that touches me into my stomach, including magical attacks. Pretty amazing, eh?”

Morgan looked curious. “Including magical attacks, you say?”

“Please refrain from testing that right now, Guildmaster,” Camille said, and the old man chuckled. “Bob, are you confident that you could face any trap inside there without dying?”

I shrugged. “I'm not exactly a hundred percent sure, but if he blows me up again, I can say with confidence that not even that won't even come close to killing me anymore.”

Camille nodded. “Good. Now this is what we're going to do.”

•••••

Now some might be thinking that my decision to volunteer in walking into a trap alone was stupid, and I would have agreed in the past. But the thing is, I've already decided to take this world a bit more seriously, and that entailed trying to make myself as strong as possible. Now, that explosion at the Siren's Call was a bitch I never wanted to experience again, but there was a difference between ‘want’ and ‘need.’ If I wanted to be strong enough that no bastard could threaten my life in the future, then I needed to experience events like that explosion again, because that single event had rocketed my Skills by so much it wasn't even funny.

And as I was starting to realize, the gains were higher the more risk I put myself in. This recent battle with the mercenaries, even though I killed a whole bunch of Elites, didn't net me much experience. Only enough to get me to level 26, and no Skill level-ups at all. I was already warned that Class Evolutions significantly reduced experience gains, but I didn't realize it was this bad.

I guess I'll just have to man up and get myself into a situation shitty enough to give me good experience, but not shitty enough to send me to an early grave.

However, saying all that was easy. Now that I was standing right in front of the mansion's entrance, I was starting to regret my decision to volunteer. What if the next bomb to blow up in my face was a fucking nuclear bomb that vaporized me all at once? That would be funny. Shitty, but funny.

“Bob, can you hear me?” Camille's voice said. She was nowhere near me. Instead, her voice came from the pendant I was now wearing on my neck, which acted like a phone on loudspeaker. I also wore a pair of enchanted glasses on my head that transmitted the images it saw back to a mirror back at Camille's base camp.

I was basically live-streaming this shit.

“Loud and clear,” I responded. “Now what do I do? Do I knock on the doors?”

“This is a raid, Bob.”

“Right.”

I kicked the doors with as much force as I could muster, sending the things flying off their hinges and revealing the dark interior within. And when I said dark, I was talking ‘under the bed’ dark. I couldn't see shit in there.

“I forgot to bring a light.”

“By the gods, Bob.”

After a short intermission where one of Camille's shadow operatives delivered a mana-powered lantern to me, I entered the mansion with the confidence of a virgin about to pop his cherry.

The first room I entered was what I assumed to be the ‘welcoming hall’ or whatever rich fucks called it. It was a long hall lined with fancy knight statues to my left and right, with a bright red carpet in the middle that led to a massive staircase that led to the second floor. A huge crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, more expensive than all the money I've earned in this world, I bet.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The hall would have looked amazing in the daytime, but now, it just looked like a haunted movie set. The light from my lantern cast eerie shadows all over the walls, and the knight statues looked like they could come alive at any moment.

“Where do I go?” I asked the pendant.

“Take the hallway to the right. That should lead straight to the parlor.”

I followed Camille's directions and started walking, wary of any signs of a trap triggering. But it was as Camille's operatives said: there were no traps at all. The mansion was completely silent and empty save for my heavy footsteps.

I eventually arrived at the door that led to the parlor. Without preamble, I kicked that shit down and stomped into the room, axes already in hand as I took in my surroundings.

The first thing I noticed was the big, glowing dome in the center of the large room. It glowed a light blue and was clear as glass, allowing me to see the thin old man sitting primly on a cushioned chair in the center. He was dressed impeccably in a dark red suit that matched his hair, a small table set before him where tea and biscuits were laid out. Despite his old age, his back was straight and unbent as he drank from a teacup daintily. He looked relaxed and unconcerned, but his eyes were focused entirely on me as I stomped into the room.

“You did not have to kick the door down, Constable. It was unlocked,” the old man said as he sipped on his tea. “Was knocking not part of the lessons my dear niece has taught you?”

“Oh, I do know how to knock. I'm gonna knock your ass out once I crack open that shell you're hiding in, asshole.”

Carmen chuckled. “What a vulgar man you chose to become a Constable, Camille. For a perfectionist like you, I never would have thought that you were the one to willingly appoint him to the position. And what I didn't expect even more was how you didn't meet me yourself. Finally showing some cowardice?”

The situation was very weird. I'd have expected Carmen to be furious once we met him, what with his mansion being raided and his mercenary army wiped out. Instead, all I was seeing was a smiling old man happily sipping on his tea while speaking as if he had all the time in the world.

“Do not presume to know who I am, Carmen,” Camille said through the pendant, her voice extremely cold and expressionless. “Though I suppose you had a glimpse of who I really am earlier this morning. Did you like my gift? Your son did squeal like the pig he was when I sliced off his finger.”

“That was indeed an unfortunate turn of events,” Carmen said, betraying no emotion at all. “But I will admit, that was a good move, dear niece. You forced my hand which not many people could do. I should have expected nothing less from my brother's daughter. You were as ruthless as Conan back in the day.”

The pendant went briefly quiet before Camille's furious shout went through. “Don't you dare sully my father's image! He was the most merciful man this city has known!”

“That is what he would have wanted you to believe,” Carmen said. “But tell me, Camille. Have you ever wondered how I was able to maintain a criminal empire beneath Shieldhold's shadow all these years? Even while your father was alive? As a Governor, you of all people should know that it is not an easy feat without the support of those in power.”

I didn't like where this was going, and Camille seemed to agree. “Bob, destroy the barrier and kill him.”

“You got it.”

I first tried brute force by slamming an axe on the barrier with my entire strength. The axe head collided with tremendous force, but the first to yield was the damn axe handle.

“Do not be so hasty, Camille. Don't you want to learn more about who your father truly was?” Carmen asked, unconcerned that I was assaulting his barrier. “We were partners, did you know? Under our father's guidance, we built Shieldhold up to its prosperous state, and when the time finally came, we decided that your father would rule in the open as the benevolent Governor while I would watch over from the shadows.”

With my axes useless, I resorted to my fists. Using my Skill ‘You Are What You Eat,’ I replaced the material of my hands with the steel ingots I Sucked in during my preparations earlier. My flesh quickly morphed into shiny steel, and with the added weight of my metal hands, I began walloping on the barrier with abandon. Each hit shook the air with the force I was exerting, and the ground I was standing on was even cracking.

But the barrier did not budge even slightly.

“The thing with being a noble in power is that one could never survive on their own,” Carmen continued. “Arcadia is like the ocean. To be the biggest fish is to devour the competition, and the competition is fierce. Simply having money is never enough, because there will be those who will covet it, those who can smell riches like how sharks sense blood. So nobles must be ready to defend what is theirs through any means necessary, or if the situation demands, capitulate to the bigger fish.”

Carmen stared straight into my eyes. Or rather, at my glasses that transmitted everything to Camille. The old man's eyes were cold and empty, like that of a psychopathic killer. “Your father and I were willing to do anything to protect the city we have built with our own hands. Did you think the city became as prosperous as it is through peaceful means? Conan and I spilled a lot of blood to reach this point, only to have everything undone because of what you did, Camille.”

“That's a lot of bullshit to justify smuggling slave children,” I spat as I continued punching the barrier. “Cut the crap and just admit that you lost, you old fuck. Your smuggling ring is dead.”

Carmen suddenly started laughing uncontrollably, to the point that the old man was wheezing and coughing. “Oh, you foolish imbecile. That smuggling ring wasn't mine. It belonged to a bigger fish. I was only forced to let their merchandise pass through the city. But now that their merchandise was lost under my purview, they'll see House Grayshield as their enemy.” Carmen's expression turned flat. “Shieldhold is doomed all thanks to your actions, Camille. Decades of sacrifice gone just like that, all because Conan loved his naive daughter too much that he was willing to keep her in the dark about the dirtier part of ruling.”

Carmen stood up. “That is why my family and I are leaving the city. I sought out this last meeting to give you this last warning, my niece. House Hawke owned that smuggling ring, and they will stop at nothing to keep their hands clean of any association with this slavery business. They will twist the narrative and tell the Emperor that it was House Grayshield who owned that child smuggling ring, thus turning all attention to you. I already did my best to remove what evidence I could by blowing up the Siren's Call, but there will be other things that I missed. It's all up to you now to face the consequences of your actions, Camille.”

I expected Camille to answer back with a scathing response, but there was none at all. The pendant was completely quiet.

Carmen chuckled at the lack of response. “For all her outspoken ideals and visions, she could be easily overwhelmed.” Then his gaze sharpened as he focused on me. “As for you. You have proven to be quite an annoying thorn in my side. I look forward to seeing how you will survive the oncoming storm because the business between us is not done.”

“Damn right, you are. I'm gonna fucking kill you, and if you think you'll leave here alive, you're mistaken.”

I stopped walloping the barrier like an idiot and brought out my Sucking Skill. I saved this as a last resort since Morgan warned me that powerful barriers like these went volatile the moment their magical structure shenanigan was tampered with, something about the flow of power getting messed up and triggering a chain reaction or something. The most positive outcome was the barrier simply exploding. The worst outcome was all that volatile energy focusing on me and vaporizing my entire body on the spot.

So with the possibility of getting completely annihilated, I placed my hands on the barrier and started Sucking. A shit-ton of energy began channeling into me.

Carmen's eyes widened. “What are you doing, you buffoon? You'll kill us all!”

“Not so smug now, are you? I'm going to—”

Everything fucking exploded.