Magic Manor 16

They reached their destination: a square block made of cement.

He had been here many times before. When he touched it, its surface felt hard and cold, seemingly giving him no reason for suspicion.

But now... Lu Mi pressed his lips together and cast the fire in his hand at it.

A sizzling sound rose, and the supposed cement began releasing trickles of melted ice water.

He also caught a whiff of rotting flesh mingled with blood.

Lu Mi did not stop.

Noel had kept telling them: what their eyes saw was not necessarily real.

Before long, a body folded into an inhuman shape slowly unfolded in a puddle of ice water. His chest had been torn open, exposing the organs within. One of his left ribs had been forcibly snapped off.

The man seemed unable to move on his own. His blood-red eyes shifted around before finally settling on Lu Mi, who crouched in front of him.

A faint smile appeared on the boy's firelit face.

"Hello, Butler."

Meanwhile, Roman silently carried He Shengguang around the hall, lap after lap, stunning the two players watching from the sidelines.

"Um, where's Jin Bi?" Jiang Chunyan asked.

"She probably ran off ages ago," Mo Yu replied, stuffing a potato chip into her mouth. "I made a maid fry these. Want some?"

Jiang Chunyan declined. "Shouldn't we run too?"

"No need, right?" Mo Yu said. "Look how strong Roman is. And after following Lu Mi around for so long, he knows the castle as well as his own home. He can keep the Butler running in circles for at least another few hours. Munch, munch, munch. These taste pretty good. You really don't want any?"

Her words seemed to enrage the Butler. His face twisted hideously, powder cascading off it. Raising his dagger, he changed the direction of his attack.

"Oh my god, Mo Yu, run! He's coming for you!" Jiang Chunyan panicked, only to see Roman reach Mo Yu before the Butler did and ask, "Are you Lu Mi's friend?"

Mo Yu's mouth was still stuffed with potato chips, making her words indistinct. "Definitely his friend."

Roman gave a grunt of acknowledgment, hoisted Mo Yu onto his shoulder without another word, and kept running.

Jiang Chunyan did not understand, but she was thoroughly stunned.

Once the Butler finally realized he could not so much as touch a hair on Roman or the people he carried, he stopped and asked coldly, "Who exactly are you?"

No ordinary human could possess enough speed and strength to match an NPC.

Roman now stood at the hall's side entrance. "Move farther away, and I'll tell you."

The Butler panted heavily, a smile appearing on his gloomy face. "All right."

Idiot. You want me to move away so you can escape through the door? So you're no superhuman after all. Running out of strength, aren't you?

He slowly backed away. Seeing Roman turn to leave, he suddenly leaped forward and plunged his dagger into someone with a wet squelch!

"Hahaha, hahaha..." The Butler laughed wildly, but what he saw was not Roman's agonized expression. Instead, it was a sallow face filled with venomous hatred. His gaze dropped to a chest missing one rib.

"It's you-!?"

The real Butler roared and lunged at him, biting.

"Are you all right?" Lu Mi came in through the doorway, grabbed Roman, and turned him around to check him over. Finding no wounds, he sighed in relief. "Good thing you kept him occupied. That gave me time to break the seal on the real Butler."

The real and fake Butlers grappled in the hall. Before long, the Butler snapped off one of Michel's left ribs, drawing a horrifying howl.

Mo Yu asked, "What now? Do we wait for one of them to win?"

Lu Mi watched them fight for a while, then said, "Hard to say. I think Noel is still the real key."

They split up. Mo Yu and the others went to find Noel, while Lu Mi opened the hall's main doors. With nothing left to hold it back, the snow piled outside surged in.

He stood quietly for a moment, letting the blade-sharp wind cut across his face.

Then he took a deep breath and turned his palm upward, conjuring a flame that steadily grew, its color gradually shifting to blue-white.

He flipped his palm over and formed a broad wall of fire. The heat it released instantly vaporized the snowflakes and rapidly pierced through the snow.

With a sharp thrust of his palm, the wall of fire swept forward, exposing vast stretches of ground.

When Mo Yu and the others brought Noel over and saw that all the snow outside the castle's main entrance had melted, they either stood speechless in shock or pressed him to tell them what item he had used-something so powerful, yet affordable even to Lu Mi, who had only entered two instances.

Roman nodded. "You've made great progress. All that practice paid off. You really did fulfill your wish and grow stronger."

"Yeah. I can summon fire on my own now, but not water yet. I'll try killing an NPC in the next instance."

Lu Mi took Noel's hand and walked toward one side of the lawn, stopping before the weeping angel statue.

"Noel, when your mother was dying, she must have been thinking that her precious daughter should live happily, even without them."

Lu Mi bent down to meet her eyes. "Say goodbye to the past, whether it was the dark, painful war or the beautiful, prosperous manor. Are you ready?"

Noel gently stroked the wings of the butterflies over her eyes and nodded solemnly.

Lu Mi nodded too, then told Roman to reach beneath the statue and look for something.

Roman: "?"

Lu Mi said, "It's easier for you since you're wearing gloves."

Roman crouched down and felt around in the gaps beneath the statue's base, retrieving two round objects. He handed them to Noel.

These were Noel's eyeballs, which Lu Mi had seen Michel gouge out in the dream.

"Use your own eyes to see the real world," Lu Mi said.

Both butterflies took flight, and the wind and snow gradually subsided.

At the sight, Mo Yu backed away a few steps. "Damn, this is giving me PTSD."

But this time, Noel did not go mad. After putting her eyes back in, the little girl opened them wide and slowly looked around the entire ruined manor. Then she smiled.

"It turns out it isn't as bad as I imagined."

Just then, the Butler emerged from the castle, dragging a mangled body and leaving a long trail of blood across the ground.

"Miss," the Butler said. The missing rib in his chest had been replaced, while both of Michel's eyes were gone. "Please allow me to remain by your side and care for you in your father and mother's place."

Noel nodded and looked at Lu Mi. "The Butler and I will go to the capital to stay with my relatives. When I grow up, I'll restore the manor."

"Good. Remember not to keep eating when you're stressed."

The two butterflies were still fluttering around Noel. The eye patterns on their wings vanished, and they entwined, transforming into a key patterned with butterfly wings.

Lu Mi took the key and unlocked the manor's great iron gates. White light streamed in from outside.

Cheerfully, Mo Yu led Jiang Chunyan with one hand and tugged He Shengguang along with the other. After saying goodbye to Lu Mi, she walked out.

But as she passed Roman, she quickened her pace considerably.

Jin Bi had been watching from some unknown hiding place. Once the gates opened, she immediately dashed into the light too.

"Let's go too," Lu Mi said to Roman, then heard Noel's voice behind him.

"Thank you."

Lu Mi did not look back. He said just one sentence before stepping into the light.

"Noel will grow up happy."