After obtaining Noah’s precious promise, Levi could finally leave with a peace of mind. Though he was still very reluctant to part with his darling, he, Levi, had much work to do. And he could do none of it in the presence of his baby.

And so, Levi left the city lord’s mansion, followed by Trey, who had been tasked with ensuring Levi boarded the Maglev train safely.

The two men walked in silence until they had left the premises of the city lord’s mansion. Only when Noah could no longer see them or hear them, did the perfectly harmonious air between them turn chilly.

“Do you have a problem with me?” Trey turned towards Levi. Though unprovoked, this vice city lord of Astarea had been glaring at him intermittently for two days now.

“Yes.” Levi deadpanned, not forgetting to throw in a distinctive glare-sneer. This bodyguard was really irksome, even the questions he asked were stupid.

The two stared each other down, the tension in the air could almost be cut with a knife.

Trey was waiting for Levi to further elaborate, while Levi was waiting for Trey to start walking again.

Yet, neither could understand what the other wanted. It took a full minute of staring down at each other for Trey to realize this socially crippled Astar Levi had no intention to provide a further explanation!

With his mouth twitching, Trey tried again, “Am I doing something that I should not be doing? May I know what the problem is so I can correct it?”

For the first time, Levi looked at Trey seriously, without showing any distaste. He approved of this mentality of learning from one’s mistakes; thus, he obliged: “Don’t have thoughts you shouldn’t be having.”

A jolt traveled down Trey’s spine as he finally understood the problem. Trey didn’t do anything wrong, Levi just felt him offensive to the eyes because he noticed Trey was crushing on his little employer!

If anyone else had pointed his crush out, Trey might have felt that he was indeed in the wrong. But when it came from a man who himself was obsessing over the same person, the whole thing looked downright ridiculous!

‘Oi, oi, you are the last person I should be hearing this from!!!’

A vein on Trey’s forehead started to throb, yet he could do nothing to release the pent-up frustration other than to release a heavy sigh, “A man can control their actions, but how does one control their thoughts?”

Before Levi could respond with more hypocritical bullshit, Trey added, “Don’t expect others to be capable of something you yourself are incapable of.”

That indeed stopped Levi’s response. His eyes narrowed dangerously, turning even more piercing than usual.

“We are not the same,” Levi spat through gritted teeth.

“You are right,” Trey agreed, “I am single.”

Other than a spasm of his eyebrow, Levi showed no visible sign of being hit right where it hurt the most. His thick face didn’t even flush in shame as he proclaimed, “But your target of affection isn’t single.”

Trey doubled back in shock, “…what? Who is he together with??”

With his expression as deathly serious as possible, Levi puffed up his chest, and without batting an eye, shamelessly declared, “Me.”

Trey: (눈_눈) “…” ‘…Alright, you win, it was a terribly stupid idea to try to reason with a madman…’

Noticing the other was wholly unconvinced, Levi added, “Give it a few days. He doesn’t know it yet.”

For a moment, Trey felt truly ashamed, because just then he even felt a smidgen of respect for Levi. I mean, having a face that thick was truly worthy of admiration!

Feeling the onset of a migraine, Trey turned back and continued walking towards the Maglev train station. “…if that’s the case, you have nothing to worry about. I definitely won’t pursue someone who is already taken.”

Levi’s face scrunched up. He seemed to have gotten what he wanted from this bodyguard, but somehow, it also seemed that the other was treating him as if he had mental issues “Tsk!”

He can think what he wants! Cordia Aris will be his soon enough. And he, Astar Levi, will be having the last laugh.

***

In a dark room, with two light screens floating in the air, a dark figure swept the contents of their desk to the floor.

“Two times! We’ve now failed two times! And now, the peacekeepers have issued a warning, no Soother will be using reverse soothing any time soon!”

From one of the light screens, a second voice spat with cold fury, “How did they find out about the self-destruction?”

From the second screen, the third voice followed right after, yet, unlike the other two, it was eerily calm, “That’s not important right now. No reverse soothing? No matter. Just increase the dosage.”

“We’ve already increased the dosage!” The gloomy figure screeched.

“And yet, Cordia Aris ‘saved the day again’. Clearly, the increase wasn’t enough.” The second voice coldly sneered.

Before the dark figure could protest, the third voice placated, “That might have been the case the first two times, but now that we have some data to work with, it should be possible to estimate the power of an SS-ranked Soother, yes?”

Though unwilling, the shadowy figure could only squeeze out a “…Yes.”

“Then just increase the dosage so that the next time, not even an SS-ranked Soother will be able to save the day,” the third voice calmly concluded.

After letting out some of their fury on the objects around the room, the figure calmed down enough to speak without screeching, “It doesn’t work that way. There is no guarantee that the results will scale linearly with the increase of dosage. And you already know the risks involved. If it causes instant death, there won’t be any power rampage!”

“Just increase the dosage. If the next target dies immediately, that would be good too.” The declaration was followed by a chilling chuckle.

“Are you forgetting our purpose?!” The dark figure kicked one of the fallen items.

“Of course not. We are all perfectly aware of the current priorities. But you’ve had your pick of the targets, it’s about time for us to choose.” The third voice was still as calm as ever.

“And how do you intend to get the next target near–” the figure’s outrage got interrupted by the data that had just been sent over. After scanning it, they fell silent for a beat, “…I see.”

“It’s not ‘forgetting our priorities’, it’s merely hitting three birds with one stone,” the calm voice concluded. “Besides, if accomplishing our first goal isn’t possible, then we’ll just have to give it up for now and make appropriate changes to our plans.”

The dark figure jumped up in agitation, “There is no need for that! We will definitely accomplish it!”