Haimo stepped through the gate with Lili.
Lili kept her head lowered the entire time, wishing she could bury her presence underground. Fortunately, the guards' attention was entirely drawn to the overbearing Loki up front, and they never noticed Lili following behind.
Once the three of them entered the Soma Familia's compound,
the inside proved even more chaotic than it had looked from outside. Empty wine bottles lay piled in every corner of the corridors.
The air was thick with the cloying sweetness of evaporated Divine Wine, so strong that merely smelling it felt a little intoxicating and dizzying.
Here and there in the shadows along the corridor, Soma Familia members lay dead drunk, their clothes covered in vomit.
However,
Loki, who was walking in front, only grew more excited...
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. How does Soma stand living in this dump?"
"But, that said, his wine really does smell amazing." Loki took a deep breath, and an intoxicated, reminiscing expression immediately spread across her face.
"Normally, no matter how much money I spend, I can barely buy a few bottles of Soma's wine. Those guys guard it like their lives depend on it."
"I never imagined you'd actually bring me here today, Haimo!"
"With you here, I've got to drink my fill today! And walk off with at least two barrels!"
"But, speaking of which..."
"Lili will do it!"
Lili still remembered what Haimo had taught her last night.
-Trying meant leaving yourself a way out for failure... And so, Lili took half a step back and closed her eyes.
"Your mark belongs to me, and my mark still belongs to me."
-"Ashen Woman." With that brief chant, a gray flash of magic flickered through the dim corridor.
When the light faded,
the chestnut-haired Pallum girl Lili no longer stood