Help, I'm in Another World and All the Men Are So Hot! [BL]-Chapter 111: A Test of Deception

They stepped out into the hallway, where Sebas had sent the others away.

Although they were now far from the office, Damien could still see the figure of one of the attendants near the stairs. However, neither Lucian nor the two servants who had been by the bedroom door were visible.

Under Sebas’s guidance, Damien entered the bedroom, only to find that all the doctors who had been there earlier were now gone.

"Please wait here for now, Sir Damien. You too Whitlock," Sebas instructed as he motioned for them to stay near the entrance.

It seemed like the message was clear: don’t get too close.

"...Teacher, is there something suspicious?" Sebas noticed the elf was looking around the room curiously, his eyes darting about.

"No... but as soon as we entered this room, the mana concentration increased," the elf murmured, inspecting the room. "It seems that the boy’s story might not have been just nonsense after all."

Saying this, the elf moved toward Theo’s bed without any caution, his steps unceremonious. Damien felt a pang of worry, wondering if the elf might do something reckless.

Still, Sebas was there, so Damien felt somewhat reassured.

The elf stood beside Theo’s bed, inspecting the magic device surrounding him, touching it, and checking it closely.

"Sebas, where’s the magic device that broke during use?" the elf asked.

"It’s here," Sebas replied, presenting the damaged item.

Damien recognized it immediately—it was the magic device that had broken the first time he came to this room.

"Hmph, the absorption rate was too high, and the released time couldn’t keep up, causing it to break. No, rather than absorbing, it’s more accurate to say it was absorbed forcefully," the elf said, tossing the magic device aside after inspecting it thoroughly.

"Hey, boy, come here slowly," the elf called out to Leonide.

"Sir Damien, Whitlock, please come over slowly," Sebas added, though the elf had only called for Leonide. But Leonide, looking visibly scared, clung tightly to Damien’s arm and wouldn’t let go, so Damien decided to follow along.

Though the previous incident made him uneasy, Damien trusted that Sebas had called him for a reason, so he felt it was probably okay.

"Alright, stop right there," the elf ordered after they had taken a few steps forward.

The elf knelt down next to a magic device with a string-like component hanging from it. He examined it carefully, not taking his eyes off it.

"Alright, boy, you come closer, but only you," the elf ordered, not breaking his gaze from the string.

Leonide hesitated for a moment, still holding onto Damien’s arm, but after a moment, he released it and took a trembling step forward.

"I’m saying it again: ’Only you, boy,’" the elf repeated. "If you can’t follow the instructions, then we’re done with this charade. I’ll leave after making you pay for this pointless farce."

"...Ah..." Leonide let out a voice filled with despair, releasing Damien’s arm as his legs shook. He took a step forward, then another, slowly inching his way closer to the elf, until he was standing directly beside Theo’s bed.

"Good. Now, it’s your turn, the boy from another world," the elf said, turning his attention to Damien. "Come over slowly, and I mean really slowly. When I say stop, you must stop immediately."

Unlike Leonide, who had been given more leeway, the elf seemed to have a lot of specific instructions for Damien.

Following the elf’s orders, Damien approached, taking slow, careful steps, almost as if he were creeping forward.

"Stop, right there," the elf commanded.

After taking three steps forward, Damien stopped at the elf’s command.

Something seemed off. The light emanating from the string the elf was holding appeared to getting stronger.

Had he misjudged it? It could have been, but it felt like something was changing.

"Take one more step forward."

Following the elf’s instructions, Damien stepped forward, and as he did, the string blinked once before the light disappeared entirely.

"It’s settled now."

The elf stood up, and beside him, Leonide collapsed into a sitting position, as if his legs had given out.

The elf looked down at Leonide with a smug grin and spoke.

"Did you really think you could deceive me?"

There was no anger in the elf’s words. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Damien didn’t feel threatened at all. The elf hadn’t done anything impressive, and his body was smaller and more fragile than Damien’s. His thin neck looked so delicate that Damien could probably snap it with little effort.

It was strange to feel fear toward someone like this, and Damien wasn’t afraid at all.

He only felt a grim sense of certainty that Leonide was going to die.

"...I wasn’t deceiving you."

Leonide stubbornly clung to his lie, even now. Damien couldn’t help but think how foolish Leonide was being.

Leonide hadn’t done anything impressive or dangerous, despite saying he wouldn’t.

"Teacher..."

Sebas spoke up, his voice filled with regret.

"I knew of his plan, yet I did nothing to stop him. It is my fault. If there is any punishment, let it fall on me."

Sebas was trying to take the blame, but Damien couldn’t see any way this situation would end with two people alive.

At this point, there was nothing more to do.

Damien wanted to step forward to where Leonide was sitting on the floor, his face buried in his hands, and where Sebas was kneeling in a formal pose beside the elf, but he knew that approaching wouldn’t help. Instead, Damien lowered himself to one knee right where he stood.

He could only hope that Leonide would live long enough to finish speaking.

Damien knelt in front of the elf, positioning himself on the floor in a formal way, pressing his hands to the ground and bowing so deeply that his forehead touched the floor.

It was the closest thing to a full apology that he could offer in this world.

"This boy, Leonide, is my servant," Damien said. "The sins of my servant are my sins. If there is punishment, let it fall upon me."