Merry Christmas to all my readers! To celebrate, I’m treating you to extra chapter updates. Please enjoy this special release of four bonus chapters! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 4/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before Christmas: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

“Of course, I know. Unlike the knights, I’ve been aware of Guide Yerena’s absence since the moment she went missing.”

Duncan emphasized the words ‘unlike the knights’.

“Then shouldn’t you have informed us as well?”

“Ah. Since you always abandon Guide Yerena… I thought you wouldn’t care about her disappearance.”

He didn’t mean to, but his tone came out sharp.

He could see Evans, standing opposite, giving him a warning look. His eyes seemed to say, ‘Don’t be confrontational!’

Indeed, Benjamin seemed to have noticed Duncan’s sharpness too.

“We didn’t come here to fight.”

“I didn’t mean to argue either.”

Duncan met Benjamin’s gaze.

There was no enthusiasm in Benjamin’s eyes.

Indifferent eyes devoid of emotion, a face like a calm water surface. He looked just like an inorganic doll.

Duncan judged that Benjamin didn’t seem to be taking Yerena’s disappearance seriously.

The eye contact between the two ended when Lambert joined the conversation.

“So, did you find her?”

Duncan nodded slightly.

“Yes. We found her.”

“Where is she? I need to see her right now.”

Duncan replied firmly.

“You can’t meet her.”

“…What?”

Duncan, with an unchanged expression, coldly uttered the next words, just like Benjamin.

“Because Guide Yerena… is dead.”

Death. As soon as that ominous word was announced, ripples appeared on Benjamin’s face.

Disbelief was the common reaction of the three men.

“Director, if you’re going to lie, do it properly. That tough woman, dead? Nonsense.”

Baron scoffed at Duncan, clicking his tongue.

Duncan revealed the facts without even furrowing an eyebrow.

“Lady Rosie kidnapped Guide Yerena and pushed her off a cliff. The reason was that Guide Yerena had kissed Benjamin. Of course, it was a kiss due to guiding, but…”

“…What?”

“Sadly, I witnessed that terrible scene too late.”

“…”

“I hurried down the cliff, but what I found was…”

Duncan’s face, which had maintained its expressionlessness, finally crumbled.

He lowered his eyes, his face tinged with sadness.

“…Guide Yerena, who had breathed her last.”

Duncan exuded a gloomy atmosphere as if delivering bad news about an acquaintance.

“You… sh*t! Stop lying!”

Baron’s body lunged forward, grabbing Duncan’s nape in an instant.

In Baron’s eyes that met his, anger was swirling.

Anger about what?

Duncan was disgusted by his attitude, acting as if he had been close to Yerena.

“Director. I’m not in the mood for jokes right now.”

“I’m not joking either.”

“Yerena. Call her here right now.”

“Hah…”

Honestly, Duncan thought the three men would accept Yerena’s obituary as it was.

He thought they might be confused for a few minutes at most. After all, it was the death of someone they had faced almost daily.

But they showed quite unexpected reactions.

Baron was angry, Lambert was depressed, and Benjamin showed deep anxiety.

All three men were unable to accept Yerena’s death.

‘I don’t want this conversation with them to drag on.’

Whatever reaction came to Yerena’s death, Duncan just wanted to end this meeting quickly.

He had too many other things to do besides dealing with them.

He had to handle matters related to the transportation business, manage ‘that woman’ who resembled Diana, and check on how the palace was dealing with Rosie, whom he had informed on.

And he needed to confirm if Yerena, hidden in the log cabin, was doing well, if she was eating properly, and if she hadn’t secretly left without heeding his warnings.

When he thought that far, Duncan tilted his head slightly.

‘Am I worrying too much about Yerena right now?’

But Duncan couldn’t continue to wonder.

Because Benjamin’s piercing gaze, like a midwinter iceberg, touched his cheek.

“Please guide us to where her body is.”

It wasn’t difficult for Duncan, who had prepared a fake corpse. If they wanted to see, he had no choice but to show them.

Duncan stood up with his collar still grabbed. This naturally made Baron release him.

“Follow me.”

***

The morgue in the basement. It housed Espers and Guides who had died fighting monsters.

Duncan stopped in front of one of the corpses.

The body was lying on a small bed, covered entirely with a white cloth.

“Don’t be shocked. This is Guide Yerena.”

Duncan lifted the cloth to show the face of the corpse.

The face of the body was horribly disfigured. It was impossible to guess what features it originally had.

The only things discernible from the damaged face were that the hair color was black, the body was quite thin, and the clothes were the center uniform that Yerena used to wear.

As soon as the body was revealed, Baron and Lambert let out small gasps. Their faces contorted as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have.

“They say she hit her face on a rock when she fell from the cliff.”

Of course, everything was a lie.

Duncan had procured a body with a similar build and hair color to Yerena.

Fortunately, there was a body in the crematorium that resembled Yerena’s external features, so it could be processed quickly.

Duncan covered the corpse’s face with the white cloth again.

“I don’t want to say this when Guide Yerena has died so tragically, but.”

“…”

“A new guide will be assigned to the Alan Knights soon, so you don’t need to worry about guide-related matters.”

The new guide for the Alan Knights. She was the woman who resembled Diana.

She was scheduled to arrive in the capital in a week.

Benjamin was the first to leave the morgue. Since entering, he hadn’t said a word and only stared intently at the body.

The two men belatedly followed Benjamin. They exuded an atmosphere that suggested they might get into a fight with Benjamin at any moment.

‘It’s understandable that Baron and Lambert would be angry since this happened because of Rosie who likes Benjamin.’

In the morgue now empty of the living, Duncan, alone with the many corpses, let out a long sigh.

‘I hope this goes over well…’

But an inexplicable uneasiness persisted.

He felt he wouldn’t be at ease until she who resembled Diana appeared.

No, he felt uneasy even thinking about after her appearance.

He hoped his ominous premonition would remain just that – a premonition.

But at that moment, a thunderous sound that could completely overturn Duncan’s wishes was heard.

Boom! Crash!

It was a loud crashing sound as if the center’s wall had been blown away. Only then did Duncan hurriedly leave the morgue.

‘The center’s repair costs…! Damn it! The center is already operating at a loss…’

A habitual sigh was added for good measure.

***

The center was in utter chaos.

There was a huge hole in one wall, clearly showing the outside, and the ceiling had collapsed, erasing the boundary with the upper floor.

The culprits who damaged the center were the three men who had left the morgue first.

Baron and Lambert, who had followed Benjamin, almost simultaneously attacked him.

Baron used telekinesis to hurl nearby objects at Benjamin, while Lambert drew his sword and aimed for Benjamin’s nape.

But their attacks didn’t inflict even the slightest damage on Benjamin.

This was because Benjamin used one of his hidden abilities, ‘Nullification’, to block their attacks.

A purple barrier formed around him.

Despite seeing the barrier, Baron and Lambert’s attacks continued for a while.

Benjamin just stood there, blocking their attacks. Until their anger subsided.

Baron, who tired first, let out a rough breath.

“Huff, huff. You monster bastard. None of the attacks are working!”

“Baron, don’t you think you’re just too weak?”

“Ha. Good for you, being strong and having many women following you. So much that you even got an innocent guide killed… You’re really something, huh?”

Baron spoke words meant to irritate Benjamin.

Lambert, who had been silent until now, also spoke heavily.

“Benjamin. I’ve never thought badly of your actions. But I can’t forgive… that Yerena died because of a woman related to you.”

The reason Baron and Lambert attacked Benjamin.

They thought Yerena died because of Benjamin.

Lambert leaped forward with lightning speed and made a big jump. He struck Benjamin’s barrier with his sword imbued with the ‘Enhancement’ ability.

Clang!

Finally, a crack appeared in Benjamin’s barrier that had been impenetrable.

Benjamin walked out of the barrier and grabbed Lambert’s sword with his bare hand.

“Stop this commotion. Have you no shame?”

“But…!”

“Do you… really believe that corpse is the real Yerena?”

Baron and Lambert answered simultaneously.

“What?”

The two men hadn’t doubted the corpse at all.

“Because the hair color is the same? Because the clothes are the same?”

“…”

“How ridiculous.”

“…”

“Anyone could fake that much.”

“Are you saying the Center Director lied to us?”

Baron’s questioning voice held a thin thread of hope.

Benjamin smiled coldly.

“At least I won’t believe anything until I’ve confirmed it myself.”

At that moment, a voice was heard from afar.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to destroy the entire center?”

It was Duncan.