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Soren stood in the night wind, looking back at the distant estate where police lights still flashed. His gaze darkened.
His plan had been simple: since he was going to investigate these people anyway, Richard was the perfect entry point.
Besides, the man had shown him unprovoked hostility during their talk.
Against someone like that, Soren wouldn't feel the slightest guilt using rougher interrogation methods.
What he never expected was that an ordinary businessman like Richard had signed a demonic contract.
The moment certain trigger words were spoken, it would cause an explosion—and even his blood carried a deadly cursed toxin.
Soren summoned the system panel in his mind.
[Main Quest: The Darkness Is Coming]
[Quest Description: Forces lurking in the shadows are paving the way for the abyss to descend.]
[Objective: Completely eliminate the mysterious organization behind it all.]
[Reward: Calculated based on final completion and exploration rate.]
Staring at those lines, Soren rubbed his temples.
Richard's self-destruction, the stiff-moving guests at the dinner, the high-tech monitoring devices he had found earlier…
Every clue pointed straight at this group of elite politicians and tycoons.
Even if they weren't the masterminds behind "The Darkness Is Coming," they were almost certainly working for one.
And they had probably all signed demonic contracts, which meant torture and interrogation were useless.
He needed a new angle for the investigation.
With that thought, Soren scrolled further down the system panel.
[Darkness Is Coming Node Quest: The Demon Prince's Ambition]
[Quest Description: Mammon, herald of the coming darkness, seeks to cross the boundary and turn the human world into his private hunting ground.]
[Objective: Stop Mammon's descent ritual.]
[Reward: 10,000 points, Bloodline Awakening +5%, Mammon's Original Sin Soul ×1]
The real question was—who exactly was standing behind these people?
A demon? Some cult?
Even Satan's own son Mammon was just a precursor to "The Darkness Is Coming."
If he wanted to kill Mammon and claim those massive rewards, he had to figure out exactly who these people were and clear the mines in advance.
If they really were the ones pushing Mammon's descent, who knew what other cards they still held?
...
By the time he got back to the office, the sky was already turning pale.
The door that had been blown to splinters by his demonic-energy arrow had, after two days of his hard work, been replaced with a brand-new one.
Right now, a young man was pacing anxiously back and forth on the street outside.
He wore a sharp suit, his short brown hair slightly messy.
His expression was tense. Every few seconds he glanced around the empty street, as if afraid something might spot him.
Hearing footsteps, the man jerked his head up.
When he saw Soren approaching in his dark-red coat, he froze for a second, then his face lit up with joy and he hurried over.
"Excuse me—are you Mr. Soren?"
The man spoke urgently and introduced himself. "My name is Alex. Alex Le Domas."
"My family runs the largest board-game and card-game company…"
Soren gave him a once-over. The faint incense scent on the man matched what he had smelled at last night's dinner.
He must have left the estate and come straight here to wait.
Soren nodded slightly and pulled out his keys. "If you have something to say, come inside."
Once they were seated on the somewhat shabby office sofa, Alex kept rubbing his hands together nervously, eyes darting everywhere.
"So? Standing at my door at the crack of dawn—what's the matter?"
Soren poured two cups of freshly boiled water and pushed one over.
Alex gripped the warm cup with both hands. The heat seemed to calm him a little. "Last night I attended a private dinner party at Mr. Braddock's estate with my father."
"There, I heard some rumors about you… that you possess certain… abilities ordinary people don't have."
"So I have a job I'd like to commission you for."
Soren leaned back on the sofa and nodded for him to continue.
"I want you to stay with my wife the entire time during tomorrow's wedding."
Alex gritted his teeth and stated his request.
Soren: "?"
Realizing how that sounded, Alex waved his hands in panic and quickly added,
"No, more precisely—after the wedding ceremony, at midnight, I want you to stay right beside my wife and make sure she survives her wedding night safely."
Soren's expression turned strangely complicated.
A newlywed couple hiring a private detective to guard the wife on their wedding night instead of… you know?
What kind of weird fetish was this in high society?
Was he supposed to become part of their play?
"That's it?"
Soren looked at him.
"That's it," Alex nodded.
Soren's face returned to its usual calm.
In a world full of monsters and demons, the simpler a request sounded, the deadlier the hidden danger usually was.
"Mr. Le Domas, if you don't explain the full story behind this bizarre request—why, how, everything—I can't take the job."
Soren's tone was even. "I don't do shady business."
Alex's face showed clear distress. After struggling for a long moment, he tried the classic rich-person tactic:
"Can't I just pay? Two million… no, five million dollars! As long as you guarantee Grace's safety tomorrow night, name your price!"
"It's not about the money." Soren refused outright.
He was broke, yes. Because of that meteor he still hadn't even dared open the system panel to check the updated balance on the "Debt-Ridden Sparda" side quest.
But even with his toes he could guess the debt had reached a new historical high.
Money mattered, but staying alive mattered more.
After the Richard incident, Soren now viewed these upper-class tycoons with extreme caution.
If this weird "guard the wife on her wedding night" request was just some rich person's prank, fine.
But if it dragged him into the demon-and-angel mess…
Getting out safely wouldn't be so simple.
Unless the payment could wipe out his entire debt and the man explained everything clearly, he wasn't stepping into this swamp.
"If you plan to keep hiding the truth, you can leave now."
Soren pointed at the door.
Alex sat there, face cycling through shades of green and white.
As the young master of a prestigious family, he had never been given such a blunt eviction order before.
He only knew Soren's abilities through hearsay and didn't fully trust him.
But thirty years ago, he had personally witnessed that nightmare.
The desperate screams and blood still haunted his dreams.
Now the woman he loved—Grace—was about to walk through that same door. He could not watch the tragedy repeat.
Soren sat quietly across from him, sipping his water and watching Alex's changing expression.
After a long moment, Alex took a deep breath and spoke slowly:
"Thirty years ago, I watched my family hunt my aunt's new husband like an animal through the estate."