A few hours earlier. During the announcement of the heroes’ return to the kingdom. A chaotic scene was unfolding inside a familiar luxurious office.

"HE’S ALIVE ?!!!" A thunderous roar tore through the entire building.

Victor, appearing almost deranged, with his monstrous strength, flung his entire office table through the air and at the far end wall, only a couple of inches away from taking out Aeric’s head as he bent to the side.

"I’m sorry. My lord...." Areric apologised, kneeling and looking very repentant.

He had just informed Victor that the hero of item box was also among those who had made it back to the palace...

meaning the assassination attempt, which had cost Victor quite a huge sum, had actually failed spectacularly.

"My lord. I will contact the head of the branch syndicate and make sure to get an explanation for all this." Aeric mumbled in determination.

He had never seen his lord this angry before, and he was also lost on the cause of his new burning hatred for this insignificant hero.

Still, Aeric knows what kind of boss he has, and that is someone who appreciates results and not complaints. He needed to fix this immediately.

"You can do whatever you want, Aeric...." Victor began saying as he sat back down on his chair.

He was looking particularly haggard, worse than even a few days before. Compounded with the burning anger in his every expression and movement, Victor looked like he was one step away from losing his mind.

"Get out.... " he barked, waving his hand at dismissal to Aeric, not even looking at him. If he weren’t his right-hand man, Victor would have taken his head to sate his anger.

"I’ll handle it myself," Victor added with a lethal edge to his words as a murderous aura began emanating from him in waves.

Aeric was shocked beyond words.

For his lord, the grand vizier, to personally make a move on such a nobody, what sort of grievance does he actually hold against this hero of item box ?.

He is Victor’s right-hand man, but even he doesn’t know what’s caused his boss to be this way.

Who would even have the gall to offend such a person to such an extent?.

Aeric, though in shock, still bowed in respect and turned to leave towards the exit, but he heard Victor’s stern voice behind him again...

"I hope you at least have been keeping an eye on my daughter, and using the mana dampeners ?"

"Yes, my lord. I also have a lot of my men positioned all around her; she’s inside her room as we speak, safe and sound."

Aeric responded reassuringly as Victor nodded in dismissal.

He felt maybe there was an attack coming to the grand vizier’s estate, that’s why his boss called for such elaborate observance.

Still, he didn’t have the nerve to voice those thoughts and simply went out the door, with plans to seek an explanation from the assassination syndicate they had hired, who failed such a simple job.

Now alone in his office, Victor retrieved a bottle of hard and expensive-looking alcoholic wine from his storage bracelet before directly gulping down the entire bottle.

Cleaning his mouth with the back of his hand, he turned to look outside the window with burning rage in his eyes.

"Caleb..."

"You ruined my sweet baby girl...."

"I will destroy you even if it’s the last thing I do," Victor Malverin swore to the heavens.

Sometime later. Somewhere else, in a quaint little cabin. After the marathon session he had with Kaelara, Zorat decided it was best he got some shuteye since he had a lot to do the next day.

Myrra, who was pretending to be asleep, had actually fallen into a deep sleep and sank back into her favorite dream state, only this time, her dreams had been edited with minor details, which she was more than happy about.

The night drifted by like a breeze, and soon it was almost the crack of dawn.

As planned, Zorat was the first to wake up, and he proceeded to gently shake the peacefully sleeping Kaelara awake.

Zorat had planned for an alternative after being informed by Florielle that Kaelara wouldn’t be able to leave her home since the entire Gran Vizier mansion was on lockdown. But that was unnecessary as seh still found her way to him.

Kaelara groggily opened her eyes and was met with Zorat’s warm smile, which she returned even more brightly as she sat up."Good morning, master..."

Then, as if realising all that had happened the previous night, Kaelara flushed red and immediately avoided Zorat’s gaze.

She had the bed sheets that had been soaked in her juices the previous night, wrapped around herself, since she didn’t bother bringing any clothes apart from her overcoat when she ran over.

"Come here," Zorat remarked as he sat down on the bed next to her, tapping on his lap.

Kaelara stood with the sheets over her body and shyly went over to sit on Zorat’s lap.

"Tell me, dear..."Zorat began as he slid his hand underneath the lower area of the sheet, softly caressing her soft mid thigh.

"What happened while I was gone?" Zorat added.

Though Florielle had given him some details already, it was better to hear directly from the horse’s mouth, and maybe get some new information.

Kaelara, with euphoric warmth spreading through her at Zorat’s comforting touch, began happily retelling all that had transpired since he had been gone.

It was just as Zorat imagined.

He always wondered why Victor would all of a sudden behave so brashly and send those pitiful assassins; turns out he had found out that Zorat had been pegging his only child.

Kaelara was very remorseful and almost sobbing as she confessed to Zorat that she had kept a diary after he explicitly told her not to tell anyone about them.

Zorat brushed it off as inconsequential, and to be fair, writing in a diary was like having a conversation with oneself.

And most importantly, it did nothing much to derail his plans; it only pushed them forward a bit.

Kaelara explained that after her father found out about their secret, he had gone completely bonkers, locking up their entire estate and grounding both her and her mother from leaving their rooms. He had even put several guards to monitor Kaelara around the clock.

After Kaelara received news from one of her personal maidservants that the heroes were back in the palace, she was only able to escape using the same method she’s always made use of to sneak out and see Zorat.

She made use of an artifact for stealth that was literally implanted inside her skin when she had turned sixteen.

Its function is that for some time every day, the possessor could go completely undetected even to those in the paragon realm.

Her father had taken precautions with a different artifact of his own to negate hers, but Kaelara had her own people in the mansion, and that was more than easy to get around.

This further proved to Zorat how much Victor cares for his daughter, making the current pain Victor must be feeling all the more pleasurable to Zorat. He was literally grinning ear to ear as he heard Kaelara speak.

"That’s fine... now I want you to do something for me, Kaelara," Zorat whispered, consoling the sobbing Kaelara with a rub on her thigh as she perked up, eyes glistening with a determination to make up for her previous mistake.

"Anything at all, master."

"Go. Tell your friend, it’s time," Zorat added as he guided her off him.

"Yes, master."

Knowing exactly what had to be done, Kaelara smiled as she let the sheet covering her now even more flawlessly resplendent skin fall lazily over the bed...

She walked seductively naked to her overcoat on the side, pulled it on before proceeding to tie the knot around her slim waist; then she went out the wooden cabin door....

Disappearing into the still shadowy break of dawn like a woman on a mission.