440: [Bonus chapter] 8.40 Breaking The Rules

[Bonus chapter] 8.40 Breaking The Rules

He did not know whether doing this would have any repercussions. But then he recalled that Baines had stressed to them — "Whatever you hear or see in this house stays here forever. Remember, we will be watching you." Well, that's for certain now. By carrying out something like this, he had successfully broken one of the house rules and also the most important one.  2

Well, he would cross the bridge when he got to it. The simulator should have known better than throwing Lu Yizhou, this one hell of a risk taker, into this kind of world. Seriously, had they not learned from prior experience?

If it could bring him one step closer to the goal, he wouldn't care what kind of rule he would be breaking. The consequences be damned.

The two women only hesitated for a split second, their faces contorted as if fighting against something within, but under Lu Yizhou's unrelenting stare, their faces gradually turned serene and words spilled out of their mouth, just like every other person who was affected by 'Devil's Whisper' before. 

"We were excited because we have finally been granted to see Madam in person. Together with Baines, we went to the third floor. The master bedroom was very dark and also very cold. There were no candles around so we almost tripped on our feet…"

Lu Yizhou cut them off impatiently. "How was Luca Knox? Was there anything out of normal?"

"No…" A tinge of confusion appeared in their dazed eyes. "Master Luca was reclining on the divan as he welcomed us. He had shed his formal attire and was only wearing a sleeping robe. As for anything out of normal… he sounded a little– yes, a little hoarse."

"Anything else?"

*It's too dark… we couldn't really notice anything other than that."

Lu Yizhou resisted a sigh. "Let's move on. Did you see the Madam? Describe how she is to me."

"There's a partition curtain to separate us from the Madam. She was really sweet, asking about our well being and whether we were comfortable living in the house or not. She also apologized that she couldn't welcome us in person."

Lu Yizhou was a little surprised. That was too normal. And judging from their description, Madam Knox sounded just like the woman in Ella's diary. A lady whose heart was a bit weak but still kind, gentle, affectionate nonetheless. "Continue," he urged.

"We could only see her silhouette through the thin curtain but she seemed a little… too thin. Her frame was very delicate and small. Maybe it was due to her illness. We didn't manage to find out anything about disease even after staying in the mansion for seven days so we thought we would be able to examine her closely but…"

"But?"

"But Master Luca stopped us. He told us to just stand there. At first we were confused and then Madam suddenly stretched one of her arms out of the curtain. We were really confused. Our method of examination is to see the symptoms directly before we discuss the exact cause with each other. But Master and Madam really expected us to only inspect Madam's condition through her hands."

"So what did you do? Also, describe the hand to me." The carriage rattled and started to move. Inside his mind, 666 cried out for being unable to hold the coachman back any longer. Lu Yizhou cursed under his breath and his voice gained a tinge of urgency to it. He had to return as soon as possible before the carriage got too far. "Hurry!"

"Y–Yes! Madam's hand was really pale. Even though the room was dark, her hand seemed to glow and oh, it's very cold too! So cold and hard it reminded us of a corpse. Fortunately, Madam's vital signs were normal so far. We really couldn't detect any illness just based on her vital signs so in the end, we could only offer our sincerest regret to Master and Madam."

Lu Yizhou frowned. Like a corpse? "Was there any discoloration?"

"Oh, now that you mention it, there's a few dark purple bruises on her pale skin but Master Luca brushed it off when we asked, saying that it was due to the medicine Madam drank. Baines had informed us that Madam's physique is not the same anymore so we didn't think too much of it."

"Anything else?" Lu Yizhou scooted toward the door and peered outside. The carriage was not so fast, he could still jump down and make a run back to the mansion. "What time did you get back to your room? Did you see Baines carrying out a sack?"

At this question, the two women's bodies suddenly froze. Not receiving any answer, Lu Yizhou turned around and his heart jumped when he found their eyes bore heavily down on him, an identical strange smile spreading on their lips. Their eyes were no longer dazed but razor sharp. When they spoke, it was as if a bunch of people were speaking at the same time, slightly high and hysterical with laughter. "You were there? You were there watching us, weren't you?"

Lu Yizhou blinked in surprise. What the fuck? Had his skill worn off? No, that couldn't be. It hadn't been ten minutes yet! An ominous premonition coursed through him as he asserted heavily, "I only need you to answer my question. You don't have any right to ask me anything, ladies." 

For a few seconds, both of them stared at each other, none was willing to back down. Having that creepy smile and unblinking stare being directed toward him was a marvellous experience he did not want to repeat for a second time. Damn it! Lu Yizhou cursed again. Exactly what had gone wrong? Was there something in his previous question? Was this their way to evade his skill?! "So, what time did you get back to your room? Did you see Baines or not?"

This time, they seemed to snap back to their senses and their eyes turned dazed again. The smile also slipped from their faces. "We… We really don't remember anything about that."

Impossible, Lu Yizhou denied inwardly. That left only one possibility: something was indeed going on here. His skill 'Devil's Whisper' had never failed to extort information from anyone before. "Alright. Thank you very much for your assistance. When you wake up later, you won't remember ever seeing me here." Lu Yizhou held onto the door handle. "Is there anything you want to add? Anything strange or unusual?"

When the two women stayed silent, Lu Yizhou heaved out a sigh. In the end, he couldn't get any valuable information other than the strange bruises and texture of Madam Knox's hand. He was ready to jump out when one of the women suddenly exclaimed, "I–I suddenly remembered something!"

"What is it?" Lu Yizhou demanded urgently.

"When… When my companion here was examining the Madam, I was looking around the curtain. At that moment, a faint moonlight shone in through the window and I seemed to see… the shadow of another person! It's quite far and obscure so I was not really sure but it really looks like another person was there with Madam!"

Albeit surprised, Lu Yizhou saved the information for later because he was really running out of time. "Alright, thank you very much." After that, he swung the door open and jumped down without any hesitation, landing on the ground with a few rolls to cover the momentum. As a result, his dress became dirty and his long hair messy by the time he stood up, but Lu Yizhou couldn't care less. He started to run back toward the mansion, bumping against another person once in a while. The pedestrians did not seem to care about someone running in the middle of the street like a madwoman and went on their own business like nothing was unusual. This must be how the real NPC was, he thought.

[666: H–H–Host, up! Up!]

'Daddy, oh my God, there are so many ravens meow!' Ozzie hissed sharply. 'This is so creepy!'

Lu Yizhou looked up and his heart sank heavily in his chest. On the rooftops, tens — hundreds of black ravens were perched along the top of the buildings, their beady dark eyes trained on Lu Yizhou as he ran down the street. Since when did they get here?! Lu Yizhou was sure that he had not seen them when he came and he did not hear their flapping wings either!

The black ravens' bodies were unmoved, only their pupils that trailed after Lu Yizhou's movement like a machine detector. Under the dreary morning sky, they were a bizarre sight to uphold. There were so many of them lining up right until Lu Yizhou arrived at the Knox Residence.

Lu Yizhou cursed vehemently as he propped his palms on his knees, out of breath. When Baines said 'they' would be watching, had he meant this? His birdy friends?! 

A black raven flew overhead and let out a piercing cry before it landed on the arm of the person who stepped down to welcome Lu Yizhou. 

It was Luca Knox. 

He clicked his tongue and shook his head in pity, yet the eyes staring down at Lu Yizhou were filled with manic glee. "You have really disappointed me, Lady Irene."

.

.

.

A/N: Goals are really effective to motivate delana so let's do it again this month, okay? ^^ Goals are similar to last month but I increased the stake a liiiitle higher so let's do our best!

450 GT = 3 bonus chapters / 700 GT = 5 chapters / If we stay at the top 15 golden original ranking (the one in the front page) until the last day then I will release more ;)

2000 privi unlocks = 3 bonus chapters / 5000 unlocks = 5 chapters

Special! Every supergift will get 3-8 chapters and you will get a chance to name a character (not LYZ or Zeke) in the next arc so please lavish your love for LYZ onee-sama and the Zekes in this world *laugh*

(PS: bonus chapter will be given on the first day of Oct, except bonus chapters for supergift which I will directly publish in the next few days)

Thank you very much for reading VSS! I love you <33

pqdm.com