Chapter 67: I-is there no other way?

Lucian looked at the sight before him.

For a few seconds, he simply stood there as his gaze swept across the living room.

His neat and clean house looked like a junkyard right now.

The living room that Seraphina had cleaned just this morning—every cushion perfectly placed, along with the rest of the furniture—now looked like a battlefield that had been ravaged by a storm.

Aside from the broken glass that had been shattered by the goblins, almost every broken thing in the room was his work.

‘Maybe I went too far,’ he thought, his lips twitching slightly as he looked at the aftermath of him abusing the goblins.

There wasn’t even much of a fight.

If someone else had walked into this room right now, they might have assumed that some brutal battle had taken place here.

But the truth was far simpler than that.

Lucian had completely outmatched them—to the point that he had to be careful not to kill them.

The fight itself had been short.

Almost disappointingly so.

Still—

Even if he was stronger, that didn’t mean he could get complacent.

Lucian’s gaze narrowed slightly.

After all, they were still monsters—creatures who could tear apart an unprepared human in seconds without any hesitation.

Their small bodies and small brains didn’t make them harmless.

One mistake, and he might be heavily injured, or worst of all, even dead.

Lucian quietly inhaled through his nose.

During the fight, he had kept that thought firmly in mind.

He did his best to immobilise them, but while he was doing that…

“One of them died.”

Lucian sighed softly, looking at the goblin whose skull had been stabbed by his bone knife.

Lucian stared at it for a few seconds.

He clicked his tongue softly.

Then he slowly lifted his gaze again and looked at each of them carefully.

Only after confirming that none of them could move properly did he straighten slightly.

Staring at the damaged room and the broken window, he sighed again.

After ensuring that the goblins wouldn’t move from their places, he finally turned away and went upstairs.

The banging and shouting had stopped by now.

He wondered what both of them had been doing upstairs.

For a second, the silence almost made him panic as his mind jumped to the worst possibilities.

Lucian hurried to the door and quickly unlocked it.

The handle clicked softly as he pushed the door open.

He exhaled in relief as he looked at both of the women sitting on the bed.

Seraphina and Lia were still there—perfectly fine.

The room was silent.

A thick, tense silence that seemed to have settled there while he was gone.

But as soon as they heard the door click—

Both of them flinched.

Their heads snapped toward the door almost instantly.

For a brief moment, there was fear in their eyes.

But after seeing Lucian—

Lia dashed at him and suddenly grabbed his collar tightly.

“Why did you lock the door?!” she shouted as she looked at him furiously.

The noises they had heard earlier—the strange screeching, shrieking sounds, the distant chaos from outside—had made it almost impossible to stay still.

But they didn’t go.

They couldn’t.

Because Lucian had told them not to.

And also because the door was locked.

Of course, that didn’t stop Lia.

Lucian calmly looked at her.

Her eyes were burning with frustration.

And worry.

He gently grabbed her wrists and slowly removed them from his collar.

He had washed his hands before coming upstairs, so he didn’t have to worry about the blood on his hands.

“So that no one can enter inside,” Lucian said calmly.

Then he added with a faint smile.

“And also because I knew you would try to come after me.”

Lia’s expression cracked for a brief moment.

Her grip loosened slightly, but her face quickly stiffened again.

Even though she knew he was correct, she didn’t want to admit it.

Her lips pressed together stubbornly.

Lucian simply flicked her forehead.

“Enough, let’s go,”

He then turned toward Seraphina.

Her long, loose hair had fallen slightly forward, a few strands partially hiding her face.

Lucian frowned slightly, seeing her slightly reddened eyes

It wasn’t very obvious, but he noticed it immediately.

She had probably been worried the entire time he was outside.

Lucian’s gaze lingered on her face for a moment longer than necessary.

He bit his lip lightly, but he didn’t say anything about it—he didn’t try to console her either.

There were many things he wanted to say.

Many things he wanted to explain.

But now wasn’t the time for that.

First—

They had to awaken.

“Mom?”

Lucian called out softly.

For a few seconds, she didn’t respond.

Her eyes quietly searched his face, as if she was trying to read something hidden behind his calm expression.

She even carefully studied his appearance, her eyes slowly scanning him from head to toe.

There wasn’t any wound on his body, no blood anywhere on him.

The faint redness in her eyes hadn’t faded yet, but the moment she saw that he was completely unharmed, something inside her seemed to relax just a little.

Finally, she hummed faintly, slowly standing up from the bed, brushing a few strands of her long hair behind her ear as she did.

“Let’s go.”

Lucian said simply.

Without waiting for a response, he reached out and gently grabbed the sulking Lia’s hand, leading both of them downstairs.

“What happened?” Lia asked, her voice carrying both curiosity and unease, as he seemed far too calm as he led them toward the hallway.

“Was it not a monster? Or did something just fall on our window?” she asked hopefully, glancing at his almost unbothered expression.

“Hm?”

Lucian briefly glanced at her.

His dark eyes met hers for a moment before he spoke.

“No. It was a goblin. And not just one.”

His answer made both of their eyes widen instantly.

Seraphina’s steps slowed slightly behind him.

Lia’s fingers tightened unconsciously around his hand.

“T-Then? What about them? D-did they go out?” Lia asked quickly, her voice trembling slightly.

“And why are we going downstairs?”

Lucian didn’t answer.

He simply kept walking ahead, and as they soon entered the living room, both Lia and Seraphina’s breaths hitched slightly.

The smell hit them instantly—sharp, metallic… and slightly rotten.

Their eyes widened.

The sight before them froze both of them in place.

The room looked completely different from how it had just an hour ago.

The furniture seemed to have been pushed and moved around roughly.

Many of the items lay broken across the floor, scattered in disarray.

But the most shocking thing was not the broken furniture.

Not the shattered window.

Not the messy room.

It was—

The goblins.

Both of them had clearly seen earlier how those creatures had attacked people outside.

How they had leapt onto humans like wild animals.

How easily they had killed them.

And right now—

Five of the goblins were sprawled across the floor, shrieking silently and twitching weakly, aside from the one that had already died.

That one lay completely still, unmoving.

All of their limbs were bent at unnatural angles, some twisted slightly, while small puncture holes covered their bodies, thin streams of blood slowly seeping out.

Four of them were alive.

Barely.

“W-What happened to them?” Seraphina asked, her voice trembling slightly despite her efforts to keep it steady.

Even she, who usually remained calm and composed—as if nothing in the world could truly shake her—couldn’t understand how something like this had happened.

The goblins, who had easily killed humans as if they were nothing more than fragile toys, were now lying in such a miserable state.

Almost unconsciously, both of them slowly glanced at Lucian.

His eyes were still calm and unbothered, his posture slightly relaxed, as if this cruelty hadn’t affected him in the slightest.

They looked at his condition, yet they simply couldn’t understand how…

How was he so completely fine?

There wasn’t a single wound on his body, not even the faintest scratch on his skin.

Heck, even his clothes still looked perfectly intact, without a single tear on them.

If not for the faint green blood splattered across his shirt, they wouldn’t have believed any of this was his doing.

“I immobilised them.”

Lucian said calmly.

His voice broke the heavy silence inside the room.

He glanced to the side, toward the table where he had placed the knife he had taken from the kitchen earlier.

The knife was still clean, since he had only brought it out a moment ago.

He slowly twirled the knife between his fingers as he looked at both of them.

For a brief second, both of them felt a faint chill run down their spines as they met his dark, black eyes that had turned emotionless.

“I’m sorry, but you have to do this,” he said quietly, pointing the knife toward one of the trembling goblins.

“You have to kill one of them.”

His words alone were enough to shake both of them.

Again, that word.

Kill.

For both of them, it had always been just a word they heard before—something spoken in movies or seen on television and mobile screens, something distant and unreal. But never… never in their lives had they imagined that this word would become intertwined with their own reality.

Lia’s body trembled slightly.

Her eyes slowly moved from Lucian… to the goblins… and then back to Lucian again.

“I-is there no other way?” Lia asked, finally mustering enough courage to voice the question.

For a moment, she had almost forgotten the fact that Lucian had somehow beaten five goblins by himself.

They didn’t know how he had done it.

They couldn’t even begin to imagine how something like that was possible.

But right now—

Right now, that wasn’t their main concern.

“Is there no other way for us to awaken?”

Her hands clenched tightly at her sides.

“And how do you even know if what you are telling is one hundred percent true?”

Even as she spoke, she knew it sounded like she was making excuses.

But she couldn’t help it.

Even if they were monsters…

Even if they weren’t human…

The thought of killing something with her own hands made her stomach twist.

“There’s no other—”

“I’ll do it.” Before Lucian could even complete his words, Seraphina interrupted.

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